Page 88 of The Omega Switch: Part 2

They usually ended with me exhausted and shaky, surrounded by cooling packs, medicine, and whatever toys I had used for my heat. Years of suppressants had meant they didn't happen often, but when they did, I'd just endured them. I thought that was normal - apparently it wasn’t. This was what a heat could feel like.

I turned my head and looked at the men sleeping around me. Elias was lying with one arm curled around me. Memories came in flashes - his cool hands against my warm face, and his quiet voice asking me questions when I'd struggled to speak.

On my other side was Hunter, on his back with an arm thrown over his face, his dark hair all messy. I remembered the way he cared for me when I was feral, murmuring sweet nonsense and cuddling me. I remembered his forehead against mine and his rough voice saying the sweetest things.

Ronan was buried beneath the blankets with one foot sticking out from under the mountain of comforters. Memories of him were the most chaotic: Ronan growling at Hunter for taking one of my snacks, Ronan letting me play with his hair until I'd braided one tiny section beside his temple. Through all the memories, one feeling, one emotion, kept surfacing.

Elias shifted beside me. He pulled himself closer, wrapping around me from behind. "Morning," he mumbled into my hair. I breathed him in, loving how strong his scent was. I could smell this forever and never get tired of it.

"Good morning," I said as I curled to face him. His eyes drifted across my face.

"Your heat’s over?" he asked, raising a hand to touch my forehead.

"Yeah,"

Elias’s doctor side popped up pretty quickly, considering he'd been unconscious five seconds earlier. He studied my face. "How do you feel?"

I rolled toward him. "Honestly? I feel amazing. Is this normal?"

That woke Hunter. "What happened?" he said, going from asleep to awake in half a second.

Ronan woke next, his hair wild except for the tiny braid I’d made. He blinked as he assessed me. "You okay?"

"I'm better than okay," I said with a smile. All three of them visibly relaxed. "I was just asking Elias if this is normal." I stretched again, unable to believe how comfortable I felt. "I've never come out of a heat feeling like this. Usually I'm exhausted for days. My whole body normally feels like it's been through a war."

Elias brushed my hair away from my forehead. "Heats aren't really meant to be endured alone, Ivy. Your body is responding to having a pack with you. This time, you had people making sure you ate and drank, helping you rest, and responding when your instincts needed something. It's not surprising that this time feels different," he explained.

"I just didn’t know it would be this much better than going it alone,” I said, looking down.

Elias pulled me in closer. "You were used to handling something very demanding by yourself. Omegas aren’t meant to do everything alone. No one is." He said gently, rubbing his hands over my skin to calm me. I felt myself melt into him.

I should have been sad, but I wasn’t. If anything, there was relief in finally understanding that there hadn't been something wrong with me because I'd struggled so much. And I didn’t plan on struggling ever again. Hunter reached across Elias and found my hand, saying nothing but giving me his silent support. I squeezed his fingers.

Ronan suddenly threw his blankets aside, then remembered his current state and snatched one back, wrapping it around his waist before standing. I almost pouted at the way he covered his nudity. I loved the pattern of his tattoos, and I especially loved seeing his entire body naked.

"Time for breakfast," he announced. He headed for the door, holding his makeshift covering around his waist. "I'm going to the house. I’ll be back soon.”

When Ronan returned, he was carrying a massive platter from the main house piled with pancakes, waffles, eggs, potatoes, bacon, fruit, toast, and pastries, while balancing juice beneath one arm. Hunter immediately took half the load from him, and soon I was sitting in the middle of the destroyed nest with three men arranging breakfast around me. Then they started feeding me, which I liked a lot.

Halfway through another bite of pancakes, another memory surfaced - it was Ronan's face above mine, his voice rough and feral, telling me he loved me. My mind raced as other fragments came back - Hunter, and Elias, each telling me their feelings in the middle of my heat.

I even remember someone whispering it to me, their fingers stroking my hair as I drifted in and out of sleep. I stopped chewing as I processed. They'd said it when instinct had stripped away everything they normally used to guard themselves. My cheeks grew warm.

Elias noticed first, his eyes watching me as he paused with a fork in his hand as he waited to feed me another bite.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I remembered something," I said slowly. They all looked at me intensely, and I had a feeling they knew exactly what I'd remembered. "You all said something to me." I couldn't stop a smile on my face as I spoke.

“You all - you told me you loved me," I said, and glanced around. Maybe they’d pretend it didn’t happen, or blame the heat-induced rut. But instead, each of them looked like what I said was no surprise.

Hunter nodded. "Yes, I sure did."

Elias nodded. "So did I," he added as he used a fork to gather eggs.

Ronan also looked at me and shrugged. "Yeah. I remember it. I meant it, too.”

There was no taking it back in their expressions, no embarrassment about what they'd said. My heart started pounding. For months, I'd protected my feelings so fiercely - I'd needed to. I thought that falling for them would be dangerous and silly after everything that happened.