"That's mine," Atlas murmurs against the mark. His tongue soothes the bite. Then his mouth moves to the next one—Zero's mark, higher on my neck—and he kisses it, open and wet, and Zero groans behind me like he can feel Atlas's mouth through the bond.
"And that one's mine," Zero says. His hips press against my ass, grinding me down onto Bane's cock while Atlas's mouth works the mark on my throat. "Kiss it again."
Atlas does. Slow. Teeth grazing the scar tissue. Zero's hands drag my hips faster in response, harder, the rhythm brutal now, and Bane is moaning underneath me—continuous, helpless, his composure shattered, his cock throbbing inside me on every stroke.
Atlas's mouth moves to the other side of the bed, to the third mark. Bane's. Low on my neck, near the collarbone. He presses his lips there—gentle, reverent—and Bane makes a sound like something inside him just cracked open.
"Atlas—"
"I know." Atlas's mouth stays on Bane's mark. His hand in my hair, holding me steady while Zero fucks me onto his brother's cock. "You feel that huh, little brother?"
Bane groans deep and his cock jerks inside me.
I am the center of all of them. Bane inside me, his hand on my neck, his forehead against my chest now because he can't hold his head up anymore. Zero behind me, setting the pace, his hands on my hips, his mouth on my shoulder. Atlas at my throat, his lips moving between the three marks like a man saying a prayer he memorized in a language he doesn't speak.
Four. All four. The bond between us so wide and so bright that I lose the walls of the room.
"Maxie." Bane. Against my chest. Broken.
"Yeah."
"Look at me."
I look down at him. His face is right there. Tipped up toward mine. Close enough to count the eyelashes. Close enough to see the wet at the corners of his eyes that he isn't hiding.
"I love you."
He says it in front of Atlas. In front of Zero. In the room with all of us—his cock buried inside me, his hand on the back of my neck, his brothers' hands on my body. Not whispered. Not private. Not in a library at midnight where I could run.
Said. Out loud. In the open. Like my voice was in the open tonight. Like a door that doesn't close again.
I don't run.
I don't flinch.
My hands come up and frame his face and I hold him there and I say, with my whole chest, with the bond roaring between us, with Zero's hands on my hips and Atlas's mouth on my throat and every thread in my body going bright at once:
"I know. Iknowyou do."
His chin trembles. One second. Then Zero's hands drag my hips down hard and Bane thrusts up to meet me and the collision of it cracks his composure wide open. He buries his face in my chest and fucks up into me with the rhythm of a man who has held this inside him for months and is finally letting it out. I wrap my arms around his head and hold him against me and Zero keeps the pace—relentless, guiding, his hands bruising my hips, his mouth against my ear telling meI'm perfect, I'm everything, I'm so good for his brother.
"I love you," Bane says again. Into my skin. On every thrust. "I love you. I love you. Maxie—"
"I know. Don't stop. Bane—don't stop—"
Atlas's hand finds my cock between my body and Bane's—hard again, impossibly, aching—and he strokes me with the rhythm Zero is setting, his grip firm and sure, the eldest brother finishing what the three of them started.
I come for the third time with all of them touching me. Bane inside me, Zero's hands on my hips, Atlas's fist on my cock, Atlas's mouth on my throat. It's barely an orgasm—it's a surrender. A full-body release that starts in my chest and rolls outward and takes everything with it. My cock pulses weakly in Atlas's hand. My body clenches around Bane. And I hold his face and watch his eyes as he comes inside me—his knot swelling, stretching me wide, locking us together with a gentleness that makes my eyes burn.
He buries his face in my neck and breathes and his whole body shakes and I hold him the way he held me the morning after the beach house, when I woke up marked and claimed andhis. Zero's forehead drops against my shoulder blade. Atlas's hand slides from my cock to Bane's shoulder, and for a long moment the four of us are a single shape, breathing together, knotted together, held together by hands and mouths and the bond humming between us like a chord that won't stop ringing.
"I know," I say again. Into his hair. "I know, Bane. I know."
Zero presses a kiss to my spine. Doesn't say anything. Doesn't need to.
Atlas's hand squeezes Bane's shoulder. Once.
The four of us. Tangled together. Bane still inside me. The bond wide open and humming.
