Let's Start All Over

I chuckled, leaning forward to press a kiss to her forehead. “We’ll cook all your favorite meals ourselves,” I promised. “Even if we burn the kitchen down doing it.”

For a moment, I thought she was leaving. A flash of panic surged through me–had I annoyed her?

It was love.

I froze.

For a long moment, we stayed like that, wrapped in each other, in silence. The warmth of her body against mine, her soft breaths tickling my neck, the steady beat of her heart grounding me.

Lennox’s POV

Her voice cracked. “I never stopped loving you, Lennox. Not for one second. Not when you rejected me. Not when you hurt me. Not even when I tried to forget.”

She just slowly slid off my lap.

“I caught that fever,” she continued, curling tighter into me. “And I wouldn’t stop shivering… everyone panicked. Even my father thought they’d have to send me to the hospital.”

So I just kept holding her, burying my face in her hair again, breathing her in like she was air and I’d been suffocating.

“I feel that way now,” she whispered. “Safe… right here.”

Because she was.

She gave a soft breath, almost a laugh. “Levi and Louis kept begging me to let them take a turn. They said you needed rest. That it wasn’t fair you had to hold me all day.” She laughed quietly, that beautiful sound I hadn’t heard in what felt like forever.

Then, without a word, she climbed onto my lap and curled into me–her head resting gently against my chest.

Let’s Start All Over

Then my arms moved on instinct, wrapping around her tightly. I cradled her like she was something breakable. Something I’d nearly lost.

And even though my mind was a mess of questions and pain… I held her like she was my world.

“I’d still eat it,” she whispered.

Tears burned at the back of my eyes.

Relief surged through me. “Tomorrow night?” I asked, brushing my knuckles along her cheek. “Is that okay?”

I closed my eyes, breathing her in again, letting my arms tighten around her like I could keep her there forever.

She was the last person I expected to see right now, wrapped in nothing but a blanket, her hair tousled, and cheeks still flushed from whatever had happened before she came here.

Soon, I felt the way her body sagged a little more against mine, the weight of exhaustion dragging at her limbs. She was tired. Drained. And she deserved rest more than anything.

I smiled faintly, the ache in my chest pulling tighter.

She was home.

I nodded. “You deserve that. You deserve effort, time, love. You deserve to be fought for. Even after everything.”

“We’ve hurt you,” I continued, my voice cracking. “Gods, we shattered you. And just saying we’re sorry–it’s not enough. It’ll never be enough.”

I leaned forward, cupping her face with trembling hands, and kissed her tears away. One. Then another. Then another–until I was kissing her cheeks like I could take all the pain away with just my lips.

I could still feel it–that moment. Her small, trembling body clinging from the heat and the chills, and my wolf refusing to put her down.

Let’s Start All Over

“Yes,” she said again, more firmly this time, and her soft smile nearly made my heart burst.

She closed her eyes briefly, like the weight of those words settled somewhere deep in her chest.

“But I refused,” she whispered, her fingers curling lightly against my shirt. “I wouldn’t leave your arms. Not for anything. Not even for them.”

She didn’t answer.

“Do you remember when I was thirteen?”

“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered, her eyes searching mine. “I need to hate you. I should hate you. Our families are enemies. Everything says I should stay away…”

And then, without a word, she let go of the blanket.

Her arms tightened around me.

She stared at me for a moment.

“Olivia… what are you doing here?” I asked, stunned.

“I didn’t care if you were tired… I just felt safe.”

“But maybe,” I whispered, “if we stop running from it, if we face it together… maybe we can rebuild.”

My heart stuttered, tears pricking my eyes… why did Olivia have to be this perfect? For a while, we just stayed there, quiet. Her breathing soft against my neck, my hand gently stroking her back beneath the blanket. Neither of us spoke. There was a lot to say. But not now. I’ll wait for tomorrow.

“I tried to hate you,” she breathed. “Goddess, I tried. I wanted to. I needed to. But my heart… it wouldn’t let me.”

Tears slipped down her cheeks, low, silent streaks of heartbreak–and I couldn’t take it anymore.

She lifted her gaze then, slowly, her eyes glassy with tears that clung to her lashes like fragile crystals. Her expression was so full of pain it almost broke me.

Let’s Start All Over

“We want to show you we’re sorry,” I said. “Not with apologies, but with our actions. We want to show you how much we love you, how precious you are to us.”

She still loved us.

She blinked. “Courting me?”

For a second, I didn’t breathe. I just held her there, stunned by the feel of her on me.

She looked up at me, silent.

“Let’s start over,” I murmured, my voice raw. “You, me… Levi, Louis! Let’s go back to the beginning.”

I pulled her closer, pressing my lips to the top of her head, letting her words soak through every wound I hadn’t voiced aloud.

Instead… she turned to face me.

“I’ll hold you to that,” I said, pulling her closer once again, wrapping her in my arms as if I could shield her from the weight of everything we’d done.

Her lips trembled, confusion flickering in her tear-filled eyes. “We can’t just erase everything that happened.”

My Olivia.

It slipped from her fingers, pooling silently at her feet.

Gods… how had I ever thought I could live without her?

Because no matter how much it tore me up, no matter how jealous or broken I felt–this was still Olivia.

Instead, she walked toward me in silence, her eyes unreadable in the low firelight. My heart hammered in my chest, confused and aching all at once.

Her heartbeat thudded softly against mine, steady and close.

My chest heaved with emotion. I pressed my forehead to hers, closing my eyes. “Then let’s start afresh, Olivia.”

I pulled back slightly, whispering against her hair, “You must be tired… Let me take you to bed.”

Let’s Start All Over

I lifted her gently into my arms, her weight featherlight, her scent already soothing my pain. I buried my face in her hair, letting the silence say what I couldn’t.

Olivia’s lips parted slightly, her breath catching.

Her words sank deep, each one like a blade sliding through my chest–but it wasn’t pain I felt.

Of course I remembered.

Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper, but I felt the words vibrate through my chest.

“I know,” I said softly, brushing a thumb along her cheek. “And we’re not trying to. But we can’t keep pretending the past didn’t break something in you–something in all of us.”

Her head remained pressed to my chest, but I could feel the tremble in her voice, the way her hands clutched at my shirt like she was trying to keep herself from falling apart completely.

I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “So… will you have dinner with us?”

“Just the four of us,” I said gently. “You, me, Levi, and Louis. No pressure. No expectations. Just… food and conversation. A start. A real one.”

But she didn’t respond.

My breath caught as she stood completely naked before me.

Then she gave the smallest nod. “Yes.”

I gave her a faint, hopeful smile. “Let us start by courting you properly… the way we should have.”

“L… I was supposed to hate you three,” she continued, her voice barely more than a whisper. “What you did to me… what you three did to me… I should’ve walked away and never looked back. But here I am. Wrapped in your arms.”

Then, softly… she spoke.

She blinked at me. “What?”

“Despite everything, Lennox… despite all that happened… my feelings for you… for your brothers never changed… they are still the same,” she whispered.

Let’s Start All Over

And still, I couldn’t speak.

“You were the only one I wanted near me,” she said, the ghost of a smile in her voice. “You picked me up and held me like this… right against your chest. You didn’t even let go when you started burning up too.”

I didn’t want to ruin this moment. I didn’t want to ask questions that might break whatever fragile peace this was.

Her brows lifted, and I hurried to clarify.

“I’ve been in love with you three since I turned thirteen,” she said, the words raw and honest. “Since the day I realized the way I looked at you… it wasn’t innocent anymore. It wasn’t just a crush. It was real. Undeserved, unwavering love.”

I remembered.

But she didn’t move toward the door or teleport away. She didn’t even look away.

I nodded slightly, not trusting myself to speak.