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He grunted at me, reaching up to cup my face, a fierce expression on his own. “You are, Lexie. You’re going to have a later. If I have to make sure it happens personally, I will. We will figure out what’s coming for you and we will face it head on.”
I could feel the other guys’ agreement as a wave of emotion through the bond, but they stayed silent.
“We need you with us, Dave. Not racing around the edges, watching over us and protecting us from a distance. I’m sorry for what happened to Lainey. I would love to have met her. But it’s time to drop those walls you’ve built. We need you here, in the center of us, holding us together.”
I was guilty of the same thing Dave was. Yet I was done holding people at a distance and letting them do the same to me. I’d told myself for so long that I wasn’t anyone else’s problem. But all I got myself with that attitude was loneliness.
I had Sam’s dominance swirling through my veins, three bright beautiful bonds thrumming in my chest and a pack that felt more like home than anything I’d ever felt before.
I wasn’t letting Dave fuck around on the edges of our lives anymore. It was time he became pack.
thirty-eight
IshiftedslightlyuntilI could grind down on Dave’s cock. It had softened while we were talking, but I could feel it hardening beneath me again now.
Dave groaned and threw his head back as he dropped his hand from my face as if I was burning him, only there was nowhere to go. Hard bodies surrounded us both. I ground down on him again, needing him inside me, filling me, claiming me.
“I love you, Dave.” The words forced themselves out, unable to be contained anymore. I felt ripped open, exposed and vulnerable in a way I’d never experienced before. All the parts of me that I’d kept hidden, the loneliness, fear and need to be touched, were out and laid bare.
Dave had felt important from the very first moment I met him. As if he could make me feel whole with a touch, but also destroy me with a single word. Now that he was here, in front of me and we were stripping each other apart, it was exhilarating and terrifying. Dave whipped his head back up to face me, his eyes wide and shocked.
Did he really not know how I felt about him?I needed to fix that.
“I’m not asking you to be our center because you’re convenient or a good guy. I’m asking because, despite how we’ve kept each other at arm’s length for years, I fell in love with you anyway, and I need you.” It was the most raw and honest I had ever been with another person.
“Lex,” he whispered, as his eyes roved all over my face. I reached up and traced the light frown lines on his forehead and the laugh lines around his eyes, loving the map of his life on his body. Learning it, along with him.
“It’s okay if you don’t love me back just yet. I can wait for that, but I can’t wait for you anymore.” I trembled, hearing the vulnerability in my voice, and the other guys all responded, surrounding us closer, pressing into us.
“I already fucking love you, Lex,” Dave growled, reaching for me again, but this time, his free hand gripped the back of my neck. “Now that you know everything, my secrets, my pain, my fears. I’m done staying away. If you want me, you have all of me. I’ll be anything you need.”
The words, in his distinctive rasp, filled me with a wild soaring need I could hardly contain in my body. I ground against him again, his cock now hard and throbbing as I rubbed my pussy along its length and ground my clit into the hard tip.
Sam, Dio and Pala had all drawn in so close, but were hanging back from touching me, trying to be respectful to Dave. But at this moment, I needed them all.
I was so hot and needy, the water suddenly felt boiling, and my body was too empty. I needed more. A whimper broke free as a sudden cramp hit me, forcing me to curl into Dave.
“Baby girl,” Dave ground out, concern making his voice even deeper. “Tell us what you need.”
“I’m so hot, I’m burning, and it hurts,” I whimpered. Tears of frustration burned behind my eyes. I was so close to everything I wanted, yet Dave still felt too far away. They all did. I needed them inside me.
The mineral odor that had been fine before suddenly felt overwhelming and blocked the scent of my guys, making me feel anxious as another cramp hit me.
“What hurts?” Dave asked, but I couldn’t talk through the cramp wracking me.
Sam’s arms wrapped around Dave and I. “Shit, she is hot, and her scent, it’s changing. I-”
Sam snarled as my scent seemed to detonate around the room and his arms tightened around me possessively, to the point of pain.
“Fuck. She’s in heat,” Dio ground out, sounding like he was in pain as well.
“How?” Sam demanded. “Maia got at least a few hours’ warning.”
“Yeah, but Lexie suppressed her omega for years and she built her pack within a few days. A sudden heat could be a side effect. Her pheromones have been in overdrive since we arrived.” Pala was being far too logical for me right now. I whimpered again, needing less talk and more action.
“Why didn’t we read Maia’s damn book as soon as Lexie brought it back to the treehouse?” Sam asked, frustration lacing his voice.
“There’s been too much happening,” Dio said, sounding just as frustrated. “We’ve barely had time to breathe since the attack the other day. Trying to get on top of the threats we’re facing, and build this pack quickly to protect her. Nobody has had a chance.”
