"Yes." Breathless. Glazed. "God, yes. So full."
She is full. I can feel how tight she is around the knot, how deep I am inside her. My come has nowhere to go, trapped by the knot, flooding her womb with every throb.
Oakley and Corvus are still touching her. Gentle now. Soothing. Oakley's fingers trace patterns on her stomach where it's slightly distended from my knot. Corvus presses soft kisses to her shoulder.
"The knot will hold for at least twenty minutes," Corvus murmurs against her skin. "Longer, given how swollen it is."
"Good." She finds Oakley's hand with one of hers, Corvus's with the other. "Don't want to move. Want to feel this."
"Feel what, baby?" I ask, shifting slightly and making us both groan as the knot tugs.
"Full. Claimed. Yours." Her eyes flutter closed. "The heat's still there but it doesn't hurt anymore. This is what I needed."
Pride surges through me. I did this. Gave her what her body was screaming for. Made the pain stop.
"We'll do this as many times as you need," I promise, pressing a kiss to her temple. "Every wave. However long it takes."
"Even when your knot goes down and you have to pull out?" Her voice is small, almost vulnerable. "It's going to feel empty."
"Then we'll fill you again." Oakley's voice is rough with want. "Take turns keeping you full and satisfied until the heat breaks."
She shivers at his words, and I feel her inner walls ripple around my knot.
"You like that idea," I growl. "Like the thought of being passed between us. Always full of Alpha cock."
"Yes." No shame in the admission now. Just heat-drunk honesty. "Want all of you."
"You have us." I shift again, grinding the knot against sensitive places inside her that make her gasp. "For as long as you need us."
The knot keeps us locked together. Her slick mixed with my come coating where we're joined. The scent of sex and satisfaction and claiming thick in the air.
This is what it should have been like all along—taking care of her, meeting her needs, giving her body what it demanded instead of forcing it.
"Thank you," she murmurs, already drifting. "All of you. For doing this right."
We stay locked together as her breathing evens out. The knot won't release for a while yet. Plenty of time to hold her, stroke her skin, whisper promises against her hair.
Her second heat is still early, will last another day or two. But this time we're doing it right.
Finally giving her exactly what she needed, what she deserved.
Finally being the pack she should have had from the start.
And when my knot finally softens enough to slip free, when she whimpers at the emptiness, Oakley will be ready to fill her again.
The way it should be.
twenty-one
Vespera
Iwakeupwarm.
Not burning. Not desperate. Just warm. Satisfied. Safe.
The nest is a wreck around me—silk sheets twisted, cashmere blankets shoved to the edges, pillows scattered. The whole thing reeks of sex and slick and three different Alpha scents so thoroughly blended with mine that I can't tell where they end and I begin.
Dorian is behind me, his chest pressed to my back, one arm draped possessively over my waist. His knot softened hours ago but he stayed inside me until it slipped free, like he couldn't bear to separate.
