Once I feel moderately more hydrated, I turn to Nate. He’s slumped in a bar stool at the counter, his hair sticking out everywhere as he buries his face in his arms.
There’s a light snore, and I jab him in the armpit as I walk past to flick on the coffee machine.
He bolts upright, his head swinging around. “I’m ready! I- oh.”
Fighting back my snicker, I lean back against the counter. Truthfully, I’m not in much better shape. Four days of non-stop sex has wrung us all well and truly dry.
But Gabrielle’s heat has finally broken, her sleep finally restful after days of snatched dozes quickly interrupted by spikes of need.
“Hud,” Nate mutters. “I’m a broken man.”
I pour him a coffee and slide it over, watching as his eyes light up and he dives on it.
“Make one for kitten,” he grunts. “She’ll need it.”
True. Gabby is even more exhausted than we are. Making up a selection and adding Gabrielle’s pink cup to the tray, I carefully balance it as I carry it to the nest. The post-heat scents smack me in the face as I nudge the doors open, and Axel groans as he sits up.
“Coffee,” he rasps. I hand out the goods, leaving Cade and Gabrielle’s for a moment, both of them still passed out from the final, frantic few hours before the heat finally simmered down.
Sliding down the wall next to Axel, I swig from my coffee as Nate stumbles back in, taking up a position next to me. “Tell me you feel as wrung out as I do, or I’m going to wonder about my stamina.”
Axel just grunts, and I dip my head in a lazy nod. Getting coffee is probably the extent of my capabilities at the moment. Although I’ll need to prepare some food for when Gabrielle wakes up. She’s barely eaten or drank anything, just a few sips of water here and there and a tiny bit of fruit Cade practically forced down her neck.
Cade stirs, and I hand him his coffee when he shuffles over. If anything he looks worse than we do, having taken on the brunt of Gabrielle’s needs in the last day when the rest of us were starting to flag. His dark hair sticks up everywhere, the suave lawyer nowhere to be seen as he glugs the coffee down.
He places the cup carefully on the wooden shelf before he flops back down, his breathing slowing as he falls back asleep. Axel’s head slides onto my shoulder, huffing noises sounding in my ear. When I glance over, Nate is passed out too, his mouth wide open as his head rests against the wall.
My lips twitch. Post-heat exhaustion is no joke, but I can’t help but feel amused at the sight of them all, brought to their knees by a tiny little omega.
A sleepy murmur floats over to me, and I put my cup aside, clambering past Cade to where Gabrielle is yawning. Her eyes slide to me and away, a blush stealing over her cheeks.
“Hey now,” I chastise lightly. “No embarrassment here, sweetheart. How are you feeling?”
She stretches. “I feel… good. A little ache, but nothing I can’t handle.”
She crawls into my lap without asking, and I take it as a positive sign as she nestles into me. When she catches sight of Ax and Nate against the wall, she blinks.
“Think you wore them out,” I tease lightly. “You want a coffee? It should still be warm.”
She makes grabby hands as I pass it to her, letting out a contented sigh as she drinks it. I stroke her hair, both of us lost in our own thoughts.
Although I wonder if they’re actually pretty similar.
“Hud?”
I kiss the top of her head. “Mm?”
“What do we do now?” she whispers. “Now my heat is over?”
I think it over. “You mean, about… us?”
A worried look steals over her face, her eyebrows scrunching. “It’s like… the whole world was locked out, and it was just us. But now everything is pushing to come back in.”
My hand smooths over her hair. “There’s plenty of time for that. Right this second, all you need to think about is recovering. Heats are exhausting, and you haven’t had much rest. Do you want me to run you a bath?”
She nods, but she’s still chewing on her lip, her own little tell that she’s stressing. I let it go as I leave her for a few minutes, running the tub until the mirror is steamed up and it’s full of bubbles. She tries to argue with me, but I scoop her up anyway, carrying her into the room and settling her gently in the tub. She reclines with a sigh, her eyes closing as I grab the cloth and start to wash her arms. She starts. “What are you doing?”
“Taking care of you.” I motion her forward and run the cloth over her back, noting the faint marks around the base from our hands. We weren’t gentle, giving her exactly what she needed, but it’s left a mark on her.
