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I’m set on something and then my mask is ripped from my face. Ferris is there, pulling me into his chest, and I wrap my arms around him tightly as I silently cry. “You’re alright,” he murmurs into my hair. “We’re okay.”

“Anyone hurt?” Dair asks from somewhere close by. I hear him unzip his backpack and start digging around.

“I’m alright,” Ferris says. “Raine, are you hurt?”

“My arm,” I croak. Dair is there in a second, unwinding the rope from my arm. I lean back away from Ferris when Dair starts slipping his flannel from my shoulder, and we all hiss when we see the rope burn and bruises forming where the rope tugged me when I stopped running.

Dair sighs. “Shit, baby. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” I tell him.

He kisses the red skin and whispers, “Even so.”

I watch as Dair cleans my skin and applies a goopy, clear jelly to the irritated skin. “Aloe,” he informs me. “Should help with the burn.” He also rubs some around his eyes, where the skin is red and irritated from the dust, and hands the small jar to Ferris so he can do the same.

Afterward, we look around the dim, cluttered industrial building we’ve found ourselves hiding in. The storm rages outside, pulling at the metal roof and abrading the outside in sandy dirt. After a few minutes, we hear the distinct scratching and distorted growls of the Biters trying to get inside. Ferris leaves us to double-check the door we came through and then goes to make sure there are no other entrances that they can get in. After he comes back, we undress, shake out our clothes, and change into new ones.

I tip my boots upside down to dump out the pounds of sand and ask, “How long will the storm last?”

Dair scrubs a hand through his hair, longer now than when I first met him. “It’s hard to say. This one was moving pretty fast, so hopefully it’ll blow through soon. Either way, I think we’re stuck here for today at least. The visibility was shit when we got here, but I’m hopeful we’re near a city.”

He crouches down to pull out the roll of blankets we sleep on and a tarp from his pack. I watch as he spreads the tarp, then arranges the blankets on top. Then, he scoops me up and carries me to the makeshift bed where he places me in the middle. Shirtless, he climbs in on one side of me and Ferris scoots in on the other. We lie mashed together while we listen to the battling howls of the Biters and the storm.

As my alphas’ scents surround me, a sense of calm washes through my body, and I decide that a nap sounds pretty good.

Iwake up starving. I reach over my head to grab a water container from my backpack and quickly chug it down. Probably an irresponsible decision, given our intensifying water shortage, but it seems my ability to rationalize has escaped me.

The hunger remains, but the longer I sit with it, the clearer it becomes that it’s not food I’m starved for. I look at the alphas napping on either side of me and sigh. Yeah, that’s what I want.

Based on the continued noise, the storm still rages outside. I really should wake them up so we can start planning for if the storm traps us here. That’s probably what Dair would want us to do, but that’s not even a little bit what my omega wants to do.

She has other things on her mind, like sneaking my hand down Ferris’s chest to play with the trail of hair that leads down to his cock. Gods, I love my alphas’ body hair. It’s so soft and tickly, but also so masculine, and it does such a wonderful job of holding their scents. Actually, I should definitely nestle into Ferris’s tantalizing hair—that’s a much better idea than simply playing with it.

I scoot down the blankets and press my face into Ferris’s lower stomach so that I can run my nose down that happy little trail. Fuck, he smells so godsdamned virile and dominant. My tongue slips out to lick and suck at his hips, and I watch with primal greed as his dick hardens.

One of his large hands cups the back of my head and pets my hair soothingly. “Good omega,” he rasps, voice still growly from sleep. I look up, scanning the muscular breadth of his body, and connect with eyes of amber flame. “Take what you need, baby.”

I whine, mindless, and rip at his fly until his perfect dick springs from its confines. Immediately, I rub my cheeks along his smooth shaft, covering him in my scent. Yeah, that’s good, I think, but we can do better.

A little bead of cum glistens on his darkened tip like a little treat, so I lick it up, humming my pleasure at his taste. Needing more, my mouth surrounds the head of his cock, and I suckle lightly, milking it with my tongue for more cum.

“Fuck, you’re perfect,” he groans, tangling his fingers into my wind-knotted hair.

In response to his praise, my pussy weeps slick in a continuous flow that’s beginning to coat my thighs. I feel so empty, which is actually a little frustrating when I have two alphas to fill me.

Releasing his dick from my mouth, I kick out of my pants and straddle his sexy hips. He looks up at me like I’m the answer to every question he’s ever had. “Tell me what you want, and I’ll give it to you.”

“Need you,” I breathe. “Feel so empty.”

“I’m yours, omega. You don’t need to ask to sit on my dick. Whenever you want it, it’s yours.” I take his erection in my hand and pump it a few times, gushing over his thighs when his knot begins to swell.

His warm hands remove my shirt and then gently scoop my breasts and play with my nipples until I can’t take it anymore. I lift myself on my knees and sit down on my throne like the queen I am. It feels like coming home as his length sinks into me while I slowly lower myself until only his knot sits outside of my body. Just having him resting inside of me calms my frantic instincts, clearing my head a little of the hormonal fog.

Ferris grips my hips tenderly, his fingers spanning around to squeeze my ass. The devastated devotion in his eyes nearly brings tears to mine. This feels so much different than the first time we had sex. This isn’t an explosive detonation of self-control and fate—it’s an emotional reconciliation of souls, born from a second chance I didn’t think we’d get. I can feel his bewildered happiness pulsing through our bond, and I know my own emotions are echoing it back.

One of Ferris’s hands trails up my chest to cup the side of my neck, right over where he bit me. “I wish I’d done things differently,” he rasps. “I should have claimed you the moment you emerged, but I had convinced myself that you needed Grand Prairie more than you needed me. It would have been hard as hell to deal with the backlash of the truth, but as I’m finding out, I’d walk through the end of the world for you. Raine, I love you, and I have for a really long time. I love who I am for you, because of you, and I’m so fucking sorry.”

Tears fall down my face now, dripping onto my chest where they run down my body, painting my happiness and pain across my skin for Ferris to see. I’ve known that Ferris is sorry ever since he showed up, claiming to have denounced my brother and the compound, but this is the first time I allow his words to penetrate my heart.