My hands grip his shoulders, and his large palms instantly slide under my thighs, hoisting me off the floor with a single tug. I wrap my legs around his waist, burying my face into the crook of his neck.
The scent up close is overwhelming.
Alpha,my Omega purrs, her voice a thick, lazy fluid.Mine. Ours. Finally.
I drag my nose along the rough stubble of his jaw, breathing him in until my chest aches. He lets out a wrecked growl, his mouth pressing against the side of my neck, his hot breath branding my skin.
“Christ,” he groans.
Then a shadow shifts in my peripheral vision.
Ash.
He’s stepped off the stairs. Without letting go of Reed, I turn my head, my nose searching. Ash is right there, his chest rising and falling. I lean sideways, pressing my face into the warm junction of Ash’s shoulder and neck, breathing in the chocolate and cedar, filling my lungs with him.
He grunts, a low, primal sound of satisfaction. His hand hovers for a fraction of a second before his palm settles flat against the small of my back, pulling me tight against him.
Fuck, this is better than sex. Well, maybe not, but we better get to that part right n—
A cold spike of panic pierces the fog in my head.
Wait.
Stop. Get down.
I press my palms flat against Reed’s damp collarbones, pushing back. He lets me slide down slowly, his hands lingering on my hips until my feet hit the floor. My knees are like warm wax, barely holding my weight, but I manage to take two shaky steps sideways and turn toward the two alphas.
Reed stares at me, his eyes dark and hungry.
“Okay,” I say to the floor. To the oak pegs on the wall. To a green ceramic rooster on the windowsill. “Okay.Okay.What is this? Are we—”
“Fuck, baby,” Reed says, hoarse. “I don’t know what we are, all I know is your scent is—”
“Heavenly,” Ash says, low, from my side. I can feel he hasn’t stopped looking at me either. “So this is what I was starting to smell, back at the hotel...”
Reed’s head snaps to the side. “What.You smelled another goddess at a hotel?”
“No, dimwit,we—”
“Stop,” I say. “Stop. Stop. This istoo much.What thefuckis happen—”
Pssssht.A sharphisscuts through the room, a cold, mist hitting the back of my neck.
I gasp, spinning around. Bram is standing two feet away, a white bottle gripped in his hand, his thumb still pressed to the nozzle.
“What the hell?” Reed coughs, waving his hand in front of his face. “Bram, are you serious?”
Bram lowers the can, his jaw clamped. His eyes are still dark, but the black in his pupils is slowly receding.
“You said stop,” he says, looking at me. “So I obliged, I—my body granted your wish.”
“So you just Mace’d me?” I ask.
“It’s professional-grade scent-suppressing spray,” Bram says, his grip tightening on the bottle. He looks at me, then at his brothers, his eyes wide. “I couldn’t... my alpha compelled me to give you what you wanted because you demanded it. You really are it, aren’t you? Our scent match...”
I open my mouth, close it, and take a tentative sniff. Nothing. I can’t smell Reed, and I can’t smell Ash. Looking from them to Bram, I feel the fog in my brain finally begin to clear.
“Well,” I say eventually. “This actually helps. So... thanks, I guess. And for the record, I couldn’t smell you at all deputy. Thank god for that.”
