Piper pulls my mouth down to hers, her lips swollen and hungry against mine. Time stretches like honey as we stay locked together, her pulse fluttering against my chest until I feel the slow release of pressure. When I finally slip free, I reach for Kellen, my fingers circling his wrist. His breath comes in short gasps as I guide him forward. He trembles when I take him in hand, positioning him where I’ve just been.
The sound he makes when he pushes inside—half-growl, half-whimper—echoes off the walls. His head falls back, throat exposed, hips snapping forward to push his knot inside her with increasing desperation until his rhythm falters and he collapses against her, shuddering.
Kellen sinks to the bed and rolls Piper to her side. I fall in behind Kellen and Nolan takes up the place at her back. She’s safe here and satiated for the moment. My chest rises and falls in quick succession as it hits me:
This is my pack, and I’d do anything for them. To give them happiness and pleasure.
And safety.
I will stand between them and danger for the rest of our lives.
CHAPTER 20
Piper
I wakeup cocooned in my nest. The king-sized bed at Kellen’s manor has become some kind of pack sprawl in the night. Kellen’s hand is up my shirt and Nolan’s palm cradles my hip. If there was ever a more embarrassing way to wake up after a heat, it would be if I drooled on the pillow too. And, okay, that’s not outside the realm of possibility, either.
My heat is over. My body has stopped vibrating with the urge to grind myself on every surface, and the world’s finally faded out of that funhouse blur. My mind, however, is still full of all the ways I flung myself at my partners—begged, sobbed, and, at one point, tried to bite a chunk out of Kellen’s very royal shoulder.
God. I’m a menace.
But I am avery happymenace. Because I have a pack now. Officially.
I twist carefully so I don’t wake Nolan, only to meet Kellen’s eyes across the sheets. He’s awake, and even after what has to be less than four hours of sleep, somehow manages to look like he’s spent the morning at a spa. His pupils dilate when he sees I’m up.
“Good morning, angel,” he whispers.
“I have never once looked less like an angel.”
“You have, actually,” says Elliot, who’s materialized from nowhere and is propping himself up on his elbows at the edge of the bed. “Somewhere between three and four p.m. yesterday afternoon.”
My cheeks burn bright.
Nolan stirs then, rising to plant a soft kiss on one of those burning cheeks. “Don’t listen to him, angel.”
Kellen extricates his hand from my shirt and rakes it through his sleep-tousled hair. “I vote we call for pastries and then collapse for the rest of the day so we can all recover from Piper’s heat. Does anyone have urgent or popstarly obligations?”
“Your parents might have some feedback about your vanishing act,” Elliot says, but his tone is more amused than reprimanding.
“Let them stew. They’ll survive without my company.” Kellen makes a show of stretching, arms over his head and shirt riding up. I catch Elliot looking, too. There’s something deeply satisfying about knowing I’m not the only one in this room afflicted with terminal Kellen Brain.
“Anyone else think we should talk about it?” Nolan’s voice is a surprise, low and rumbling into my shoulder. “This. Us.”
I stiffen, ready for something heavy, but he just says, “It was good.”
I look at him over my shoulder. His beard is even more of a disaster than usual, and he’s wearing a contented daze I’ve only seen after he’s successfully terrorized the entire security detail for an arena show. He meets my gaze, expression soft.
My lips curl upward, the warmth spreading from my chest outward until I can feel it in my cheeks. “It was everything.”
No one argues. Not even Elliot, who seems to have made it his life’s mission to banter with me until I’m dead in the ground.
We’re all staring sappily at each other when Kellen clears his throat. “So, are we telling people?”
Elliot meets Kellen’s gaze. “You mean your parents.”
Kellen’s face goes stony for a moment. “I meant, in general.”
I’m about to say, “Why not?” when Nolan mutters, “Because the media will eat her alive.”
