Rhain looked up at me, still kneeling. “Tell us.”
I took one breath.
Then another.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, every omegaverse book I had ever read rose as one deeply unhelpful committee.
Werewolves never had this problem. Dragons,apparently, had ancient whispered protocols, catastrophic privacy issues, and no one telling the human anything.
I covered my face with one hand.
“Catalina,” Dominic said, carefully.
“I’m fine.”
“You are covering your face.”
“Yes, because I’m about to say something that makes eye contact hard.”
“The bond runs through me,” I said.
Rhain’s hands stayed at my knees.
“I’m the center channel. We know this.” My heart rate spiked hard enough that I felt it in my throat.
Rhain’s eyes sharpened. Dominic’s hand lifted from the bed, then stopped, as if touching me might make the sentence harder to finish.
I looked at the wall over Rhain’s shoulder.
“The reason I’m not sleeping is not stress. Or not only stress. It’s because both marks are open and the channel can’t settle unless…”
I stopped.
My face was now hot enough to heat the eastern wing without assistance from the antique stove system.
Rhain’s voice went careful. “Unless?”
“Unless all three of us are together.”
Dominic’s brow tightened. “We are together.”
“No.” I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes. “Together together.”
Catastrophic silence. I lowered my hands to find Rhain and Dominic staring at each other in horror.
Two stiff, private dragon men silently processing whether the phraseall three of us togethermeant what they very much hoped it did not mean.
“Oh my God,” I said. “Not like that.”
Rhain’s shoulders came down.
Dominic exhaled through his nose. “That was not clear,” he said.
“No,” Rhain said. “It briefly became extremely alarming.”
My face went hotter. “I mean both of you with me. In me. Both bites at once. Not you two…” I made the mistake of gesturing between them and wanted immediately to leave my body. “Not that.”
“Understood,” Dominic said.
