Ridge adds, with a rough edge to his tone, "Actually, your sister is a bit of a pain to rescue."
"Yeah?" Ted's tone sparkles with amusement.
"She's not very good at waiting in the tower like a princess normally would."
"Patience—not her strong suit," my brother concurs, nodding.
I smack his ribs, grateful that they've lightened the tone because—for a second—I thought I might cry.
"But…" Ridge pauses, and those sky-blue eyes of his dig right through my chest into the center of my soul. "She's worth it."
A massive weight builds inside, heavy as iron and dense with disbelief. I try to wrench my gaze away from the intensity of Ridge's stare, but I can't. I'm captive to the gravity of his eyes and those words, which seem to grow more profound every moment, like a planet taking shape. My lungs stop working, stuck. Coated in this intense truth.
I burst apart in a million fluttering pieces.
A sob wrenches up my throat, and my hand flies up to cover my mouth, but I can't swallow it down. Blindingly intense emotion fills me from head to toe, and my vision ripples with tears that spill out onto my cheeks.
I don't know what's wrong with me.
But suddenly I'm crying, and I can't stop.
And then they're there, surrounding me. Strong arms and warm, masculine scents—my men wrap tightly around me, and I find myself scooped, bridal-style, into Kylian's arms.
"Where's her room?" he asks.
"She's got her own wing now," Teddie replies. "I'll show you. It’s in a section of the castle reserved for adult omegas."
Racked by sobs, I can't see where we go, what twists and turns we take through the castle, but soon we're at a set of white double doors, and they're thrown open.
My mates pull me in beneath the glow of a crystal chandelier, and Teddie says, "I'll distract my mother so she has some time."
Then my brother retreats, the doorthunksshut, and Kylian carries me across the massive foyer.
"Let's find a couch and get her water or something," he murmurs as he softly strokes my arm.
Sniffling, I nuzzle against him, trying to take slow breaths and calm my racing heart. But my head is still hazy from crying, and his scent doesn't help as it coils around me, luring me in, while his massive arms cradle me firmly. I wrap my arms tighter, clinging. Needing him.
A door creaks.
"Well, that's not a living room.” Luka's wry observation is the only reason I wrench my nose up from Kylian's collarbone.
I glance past him and the door he's pushed open. Behind him, white as a sheet, with a mattress that stretches from one wall to the other…is a brand-new, untouched, unadorned nesting room.
The air in the foyer heats as every member of Alpha Team X lays eyes on that mattress.
Their scents change, intensify.
And my breathless gratitude flickers into something else in my lower belly. Thick, warm heat builds. It starts to roll through me like an incoming tide. Up my stomach. Down my thighs. Along my spine. Up my breasts. Until my entire face burns and I'm panting, perfuming, clenching onto Kylian's arm.
My nipples pucker and pinch as I meet Colter's gaze.
That heat grows molten.
Wilder.
It's a starburst deep inside, more intense than anything I've ever felt before. A massive explosion that sends all my nerve endings dancing.
And then…then…my panties are drenched in slick.
