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“Hoo-vah hoo-oh-men-tah.” Her lips were a sweet torture.

I fought the urge to pin her beneath me and reward her efforts. “Very good, kulta.”

She made a pleased sound. “Will you tell me what that means now?” she asked, trailing her fingers down the ridges of my abdomen. My breath caught when she found her target, wrapping those delicate fingers around me.

“Vittu. Kulta.” I took her wrist, stilling her movement, and it took all of my willpower to free myself from her perfect grip.

“I know that one’s a swear,” she pouted, trying to mask the sheen of vulnerability in her eyes. “Don’t you want⁠—”

“I do,” I told her quickly, my voice rough. “More than my next breath.” I lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to each fingertip. “I want to keep you here, with me, and feast on you for days. But the others need to see you. Hold you. They thought they lost you too.” Something itched at my skin like cheap wool, and I realized it was Cordelia’s anxiety. “What’s wrong?”

She pulled her plump lip between her teeth and curled in on herself a little more. “I’m worried.” The words were quiet. Scared. “About the others. I don’t know what to say to them. It was like they were hiding from me last night. Hiding their heartstrings. What if they’re mad or jealous?”

I carded my fingers through her dark, sleep-tangled hair. “My brothers and I have always known that we would share a Heart. Not all drifts are romantic. Many gryphons remain platonic with their Heart and find love elsewhere. But not us. Fate decreed that there would be one woman between us, one Heart binding us. We would not want it any other way.”

Cordelia propped herself on an elbow, the sheet slipping to reveal the creamy slope of her breast. “You sound pretty sure.”

“I am sure, temptress.” I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, denying myself the feeling of her tight nipple under my palm. “They will be open to you now. They tried to quiet their feelings because they feared overwhelming you. A Heart’s natural ability is to sense and balance their drift’s emotions. You were beginning to feel this with five completed heartstrings, but things become much…louder as the bonds deepen.” I brushed my thumb over her bottom lip. “Were you not such a tiny miracle, you would have begun learning to manage your gift before the heartstrings were even formed.”

She huffed a little laugh. “I guess I never was good at following the rules.”

“The rules were never meant for you.” Pulling her to me, I gave in and claimed her lips in a soft kiss. The soul-bond shivered, shared emotions rippling between us. A sweet bloom of happiness followed by a spicy burst of desire. Her features were colored with a hint of guilt when we parted.

“Are you sure we can’t just stay here for the rest of…I don’t know, forever?”

I chuckled. It was a very tempting idea, but the others would be anxious. “You can share my bed whenever you wish.”

She grumbled, but I could see the secret smile playing on her lips. I tucked my arms behind my head, happy to watch while she made a show of getting out of bed and stretching. My cock stiffened, less content with just watching, but it would have to wait.

“It means ‘precious’,” I told her right before she disappeared into the bathroom. She twisted in the doorframe to look back at me, her face lit up like the sun. My chest flooded with warmth, and the soul-bond throbbed with a single word.

Love. Love. Love.

Once we’d managed to dress while denying our driving impulses, we made our way upstairs. She was wearing a simple cropped t-shirt and tight leggings—one of the few outfits she had at the house. Watching the curve of her hips as she climbed the steps in front of me was a bittersweet torture. Maybe she would dance for me later since her career at the club had been robbed from her.

The kitchen was already full when we entered. Bellamy was at the stove flipping pancakes. Lucian was leaning against the counter next to him, cradling a steaming mug. Alaric was in his spot at the head of the oak table, tapping at his phone. Quinn sat on a stool at the island, lost in his thoughts.

They all stopped the moment they sensed Cordelia’s presence, four pairs of eyes homing in on her. She drew a soft breath, rubbing at her sternum with the heel of her hand.

“Hi,” she said in a breathy tone that made me wish we’d stayed in bed after all.

Alaric slowly rose, leaving his phone facedown on the table, and took a few steps toward us. His gaze flicked to me, questioning.

We all knew the effects of a newly forged soul-bond. Primal hunger and possessive claims have been known to create fleeting tension within a drift. This was why the bonds were created at the same time—to shift the dynamic from ‘me and my Heart’ to ‘us and our Heart’.

He was wise to consider the problems that a solitary bond could cause. Even now I fought the unreasonable desire to drag her right back into my bed. But our Heart was as much theirs as she was mine, with or without a soul-bond. At my nod, he opened his arms to her. The others watched her stumble into his embrace, and we all felt the overwhelming rush of relief from her. It was like the room itself took a breath and relaxed.

“Thank you,” Ric murmured into her hair. He kept her in his arms for a few moments more while food was moved to the table. Bacon and sausage. Eggs, scrambled and deviled. Pancakes, muffins, and waffles. Potato hash. Fresh fruit. Bellamy was stress-cooking. I doubted he’d slept at all last night.

“Jeez, Bel.” Cordelia’s laugh was awed. “Where’s the army?”

He set down the last platter and looked up at her like a deer facing down a car. I didn’t have to be connected to his emotions to know his insecurities were riding him. A single mistake changed him on the inside as much as it changed Quinn on the outside, and now Bellamy was worried for his place in Cordelia’s heart. Her hand went to her chest again, feeling this, and her face fell.

“Oh, baby.” She moved around the table to him. “Come here.”

While he collapsed into her open arms, I joined Alaric.

“The bond is settled?” He kept his voice low to avoid distracting the others. He knew the bond hunger had been riding me hard when we returned from the hospital. In a platonic drift, that hunger would have manifested simply as a desire to be close and protect. In our case, it urged me to consummate, and we all worried that would frighten Cordelia.