One heartbeat, and then pain.
Nathan’s teeth sank into the skin of my neck, and ithurt, but only for the space of another heartbeat. Then I was shuddering as another orgasm gripped me. My arms finally gave out, but Nathan held me, lapping at the mark he’d made on my neck.
At first, all I felt was the relief of an overwhelming desire being sated. I sobbed again, and Nathan was holding me, whispering comfort in my ear.
But then, inside my chest, something unfurled, strange and almost uncomfortable. I felt a moment of fear as my soul adjusted to the addition. It felt solid, an immovable force of will, and it was so clearlyNathanthat my fear immediately turned to joy.
Joy reflected back at me, a mirror of my own but different enough to identify as Nathan’s. He was as blissfully happy as I was, as struck with wonder.
He eased us onto the bed. We were still locked together. The scientist in me clamored for an explanation, even as I tested the new boundaries of our bond. It felt like a tether. There were no words. Just impressions.
And god, did he love me. The depth of it, like a vast ocean, waited to fill me to the brim.
I wanted to stay awake and explore more of this new, uncharted territory, but my body was spent. “Love you,” I mumbled before slipping away.
The time passed in hazy images: Gabriel bathing me again when my skin felt like fire, Andrew coaxing me to drink water and eat something, and Nathan, always Nathan, there even when I couldn’t see him, sending reassurance that they would care for me.
“Will it always be like this?” I croaked during what Gabriel said was the second day. He perched on the edge of the tub as I sat in waist-deep cool water, a cold pack on the back of my neck. Andrew and Nathan were sleeping. I was achy rather than crampy, and more lucid than I had been in a while, but it felt like a reprieve rather than an end. Tears stung my eyes. “I can’t do this every three months,” I said. My weariness was bone deep.
“No, carissima,” he said, stroking my back. I tilted my head to look into his warm, brown eyes. His smile made my heart lift. “This is like the first heat, I think. Your body is catching up for lost time.”
“I really hope so,” I said, and let my eyes drift shut.
Gabriel must have carried me to the nest. When I woke up next, I was draped across his chest. He played with my hair, running his fingers through the damp strands.
“Don’t you need sleep?” I asked. Another cramp was building in my stomach.
“Do not worry about me, tesoro,” he murmured. “You are getting hot again.”
I choked back a whine. My skin was almost painfully sensitive, but as the fever built, I stopped caring.
“Vieni qui,” Gabriel whispered, and rolled us so I lay beneath him. Andrew was next to us, sleeping on his stomachwith a sheet pulled halfway up his back. Nathan was curled on the other end of the mattress. I reached out tentatively in the bond, not wanting to wake him. I could feel his presence and a confused sense of the emotions of his dreams.
“I will be gentle, mia cara,” Gabriel said. He brushed his lips against mine. They were so tender now that anything more was painful. He traveled slowly down my body, leaving kisses on the slight bruises and marks I’d collected over the past days. As he worked his way lower, I felt slick gathering between my thighs.
“I have been wanting to taste you,” Gabriel said. His eyes were molten. “May I?”
I could only nod.
He spread me gently with his thumbs and dipped his head until I felt the tickle of his breath against my clit. I watched, rapt, as he studied me. I was holding my breath until his tongue finally lapped at me, a long slow lick.
Gabriel groaned in apparent appreciation, and the vibration added another layer of pleasure. True to his word, he was gentle, with supple strokes of his tongue that made me forget my exhaustion. I tangled my hands in his thick hair to press him against me, urging him with my hips for more.
I’d been trying to stay quiet, but when he thrust his tongue fully inside me, I gasped.
Andrew stirred, then turned on his side to watch. His green eyes on us stoked my blood even hotter.
His lips curled into a lazy smile. “You enjoy being watched, don’t you, baby?”
“Yes,” I breathed as Gabriel lapped at my clit again. My embarrassment had burned away long ago. “But I think I enjoy watching more.”
“Is that right?” Andrew murmured. He moved until he was kneeling behind Gabriel. His cock was already hardening,thanks to my perfume or maybe just watching his Beta between my legs. He gripped Gabriel’s hips and brushed the head of his cock against his ass.
Gabriel groaned again, his eyes falling closed. “Amore, please, I am trying to focus,” he said between strokes of his tongue. I pushed his head back until our eyes met.
“Let me watch,” I whispered. “Please.”
I’d been wanting to watch them since that night I’d listened outside their door, trying to imagine it. Here, in the dim light of the nest where everything felt like a half-remembered dream, seemed like the perfect place to finish what I’d started.
