Page 195 of Beautifully Scarred Omega

Something that belonged only to me.

And then these three men spent the last months patiently, without ever demanding anything, making me want to give them everything.

They aren’t trying to own me. They never were. If anything—I press my lips together against the feeling that rises in my chest—if anything, they make me feel safe enough to be completely myself around them. More free. More accepting of my own edges and my own worth. They have looked at every scar and stayed. They have heard the worst of my history and moved closer.

And now they are giving me Equinox.

Even when the rut has them shaking.

My mother’s words echo in my mind. Live, my darling. Be brave.

“Sophie?” Ethan’s voice is strained but steady.

The tears come then and I don’t try to stop them.

“I choose you,” I say, and my voice breaks on the last word.

“I’ll always choose you.”

Max reaches for me before I finish speaking. He takes my face in his hands and they’re shaking, and his green eyes search mine.

“Are you sure?”

“I have never been more sure of anything in my life.” I hold his gaze. “You gave me the choice. That’s all I ever needed.”

Ethan closes his hand around the pill and sets it aside.

Their scents begin to change. Warm bourbon and dark chocolate, cedar and old paper, sunlight and honey begin to soften into one another at the edges, weaving through rain and crushed rose petals.

The beginning of a bond.

I breathe it in and feel it settle in the center of my chest like it was always supposed to be there.

“My alphas,” I whisper.

Max’s arms come around me. He pulls me against his chest and I curl into him. His skin is warm through his shirt and his heartbeat is loud under my ear and he’s solid and real and here.

Finn takes my hand and kisses my palm once, slowly, his blue eyes on mine, and then turns my wrist and presses his mouth to the pulse point there.

Ethan’s hand settles on my thigh, his thumb tracing slow circles.

“Sophie.” Max’s lips graze my neck, finding the place where my pulse jumps hardest. “We’re going to mark you.”

“Yes,” I breathe.

“You’ll belong to us.” He pulls back just enough to look at my face, and his green eyes are dark and certain, but there’s a softness in them too. “Just like we belong to you.”

“Yes,” I say again. Nothing in me hesitates.

He kisses my throat, his mouth warm and open against my skin, lingering just below the place he’ll eventually mark. The touch sends a shiver through me.

Finn captures my lips in a kiss that is thorough and edged with desperation, the kiss of a man who has waited long enough. His free hand comes up to cup my jaw, his thumb tracing my cheekbone with that familiar tenderness.

“We’re yours, sweetheart,” he says against my mouth.

Ethan turns my face toward him. His kiss is slower. One hand cradles the back of my head, and I feel him exhale against my lips like something finally released.

“Let us take care of you, sweet girl,” he says quietly.