Instead, he kissed me—soft and desperate and trembling—pouring everything he couldn't say into the press of his lips against mine. His massive body shook where it covered me, where we were still tied together, his knot pulsing inside me with aftershocks of his release.
We were locked together, sealed as one, his knot keeping every drop of his release inside me. The heat had finally quieted—not gone, but sated for now, the screaming need reduced to a low, satisfied hum in my blood.
I purred.
The sound startled me—a low, rumbling vibration in my chest that I'd never made before, something purely omega, purely instinctual. Satisfaction and contentment and belonging, all wrapped up in one primal sound.
Harper laughed—a wet, overwhelmed sound, his face still pressed against my throat. His breath hitched on something that might have been a sob.
"You're purring," he managed, his voice cracked and raw, full of wonder. "Fuck, that's— You're really— I made you purr."
"Yours," I whispered, my hands coming up to cup his face, thumbs wiping away the tears he probably didn't know he'd shed. His stubble was rough against my palms, his skin flushed and damp with sweat, his eyes red-rimmed and full of more emotion than I'd ever seen from him. "Your omega. Purring for my Alpha."
Something broke in his expression—walls crumbling, armor falling away, the stoic mountain finally letting himself feel. He buried his face in my neck, breathing deep, inhaling our combined scent, and his whole body trembled with emotion he couldn't contain.
At the edges of the nest, I felt the others moving closer.
Remy's hand found my hair again, fingers threading through the tangled, sweat-damp strands and stroking gently. When Iturned my head, I found him watching us with dark amber eyes, his expression soft with something that looked like awe and want and patience all tangled together. He was hard—I could see the outline of him straining against his jeans—but he made no move to touch himself, content to wait his turn.
Silas pressed against my other side, his lips brushing my shoulder in a gentle kiss, his scarred fingers tracing patterns on my arm. His pale eyes were burning when they met mine, intense and wanting, but there was tenderness there too. A promise. Soon.
They were scent-marking me, I realized through the post-orgasm haze. Rubbing their wrists against my skin, trailing their fingers along my arms and shoulders, mixing their scents with Harper's and mine. Creating something new. Something that belonged to all of us.
Pack. Family. Ours.
Harper's knot pulsed inside me, still locking us together, still keeping me full. The sensation made me clench around him, made him groan against my throat, made both of us shudder with aftershocks.
"Rest," Harper mumbled against my skin, his voice rough and wrecked, barely audible. "Sleep if you can, sweetheart. The next wave will hit soon."
He was right. Even now, I could feel the heat stirring again—embers waiting to catch, need building slowly in my belly like a tide coming back in. But for now, in this moment, I was sated. Satisfied. Full in a way I'd never been before.
I closed my eyes and let my Alphas hold me—Harper still locked inside me, Remy's fingers in my hair, Silas's hand tracing my skin. Their combined scents wrapped around me like a blanket, like a promise, like home.
Safe. Loved. Claimed.
Mine.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Artemis
Time stopped making sense. The heat came in waves—cresting and crashing, building and breaking—and somewhere between Harper's knot releasing and the next desperate surge of need, I lost track of everything. Hours. Days. The difference between sleeping and waking. It all blurred together into a haze of sensation and scent and skin.
When the next wave hit, it was Remy who caught me.
I woke—if you could call it waking—to the feel of his hands on my hips, his mouth pressing kisses along my spine, his honey-and-whiskey scent wrapping around me like warm silk. The need crashed back in with brutal force, making me whimper and arch back against him.
"There she is," Remy murmured against my shoulder blade, his lips soft and warm, his accent thick as molasses even through the strain of his own want. I could feel the curve of his smile against my skin, could feel the hard length of him pressing against my lower back, could feel the way his chest expandedwith each breath. "Been waiting for you to come back to me, chere. Thought you might sleep through this wave."
"Remy." His name came out broken, desperate. I tried to turn toward him, but his hands held me in place, keeping my back pressed to his chest. I could feel him hard against my ass—thick and hot and ready—and my body clenched around nothing, empty and aching. "Please. Need?—"
"I know what you need," he said, his voice dropping lower, rougher, as he nipped at the curve of my neck. His teeth scraped just hard enough to make me gasp, his stubble rough against my sensitized skin. His hips rolled against me, letting me feel every inch of what was waiting—the thick ridge of his cock sliding through the slick that had gathered between my thighs. "But we're going to do this a little different, yeah? Harper had you on your back. I want to see you move."
Before I could process what he meant, he was rolling onto his back and pulling me with him, positioning me so I straddled his hips. The sudden shift made my head spin—I was above him now, looking down at his flushed face, his amber eyes dark with want, his charming grin somehow still in place despite the tension I could see in his jaw, the vein pulsing in his neck.
"There," he breathed, his hands sliding up my thighs to grip my hips, his calloused fingers digging into the soft flesh. His amber eyes roamed over me—hungry and awed and burning with want—drinking in the sight of me above him. His gaze traced over my breasts, my flushed chest, the curve of my waist, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. "Now I can see all of you. Every expression. Every reaction. Want to watch you fall apart on my cock, chere."
The filthy words should have made me blush. Instead, they made slick flood between my thighs, dripping down onto his stomach where I sat. I could feel the wet heat of it pooling against his skin, could see his nostrils flare as the scent hit him.
