This isn’t all about me, I tell myself, wishing this was logical. Besides, this is just her pre-heat. She’s going to want us over and over again before this is over.
“Are you going to want to…” Jake starts to say, but I shake my head to silence him.
Willa’s still panting, still shaking in my arms. She’s not ready for a second round, and frankly, she’s probably not ready to handle a true knotting with a prime Alpha today. I don’t want to hurt her, and I don’t want to upset the balance we’re building between us, either.
“That was so good,” Willa says dreamily, her body relaxing slightly as her orgasm fades away. She smells like Jake, and sex, and her own slick, and I smile and press a kiss to her sweaty temple.
“Jake took good care of you,” I agree, shifting a little and releasing my grip on her body so that she can be more comfortable.
“It didn’t even hurt,” she says in that same sing-song tone. “I remember the knot hurting… the first time, anyhow.”
“You did amazing,” Jake praises her, his shaking easing slightly. His knot is starting to let go, and he slips out of Willa with a little sigh. “I’m going to go shower,” he tells us, carefully climbing off the bed.
I hear the shower turn on as I move Willa into a more comfortable position. Her head falls back against my shoulder, and her fingers glide in a sleepy way toward her clit. She shifts a little, like she’s already getting hungry for more, but then her breath evens out.
I smile to myself, holding her soft sweetness in my arms, content despite my raging cock and the restlessness jangling inside of my skin.
“Sleep a little,” I tell her. “You deserve it.”
“Hmm,” she agrees, before falling off to sleep.
I shift to get more comfortable against the headboard. I close my eyes, reliving the incredible, sexy noises Willa had made as Jake knotted her and the slickness of her clit beneath my fingers as she came apart in my arms.
I felt Jake’s knot inside of her, felt the pulsing of her pussy wrapping around him as surely as if it was me fucking her and knotting her. I’ve never experienced that kind of intimacy in the past. It was both shocking and… perfect.
This development will change everything. Charlie and Jake and I are incredibly close, but having a fourth person in the mix, having a woman’s spirit threaded through our bond… that’s going to change things in the best possible way. Willa is like the sun. It’s not hard to be happier, lighter, when she’s around. She’s good for us, for all of us.
I hear the front door squeak as it’s opened and then closed. I smile. Charlie’s home. The whole pack is together under one roof. There’s nothing better.
Willa mutters something in her sleep, and I hear the shower turn off as Jake gets out. We might not have it all sorted out yet, but everyone is together, under the same roof, safe and sound. For right now, that’s all I can ask for.
TWENTY
charlie
I can’t sleep.
It’s three in the morning, and I’m staring at the ceiling of my bedroom again, knowing that Willa is under my roof. Just down the hall. Nestled in Beau’s bed, sound asleep, soft and satisfied.
The knowledge is driving me insane.
I’ve been lying here for hours, listening to the house settle, trying not to think about her. Trying not to imagine what she looks like right now, her hair spread across Beau’s pillow, her body curled against him. Trying not to think about the fact that Jake and Beau have touched her, tasted her, claimed her in ways I haven’t yet.
The jealousy is irrational. We’re a pack. What’s mine is theirs, what’s theirs is mine. That’s how this works.
But fuck, I want her. Have wanted her for years. And now she’s here, so close I can almost feel her, and I’m lying in my bed alone like a coward.
I throw off the covers and pad out into the hallway, barefoot and shirtless, wearing only the sweatpants I pulled on before bed. The house is dark except for the soft glow of the nightlight in the bathroom.
I can smell her everywhere. Buttercups and vanilla, sweet and rich, layered underneath with Beau’s bergamot and leather and Jake’s chocolate and spice. The combination is intoxicating, proof that she’s been thoroughly loved by my pack brothers.
She’s ours now. Even if she doesn’t fully believe it yet.
I pause outside Beau’s door. It’s cracked open, and I can hear the soft sound of breathing from inside—two people, not three. Jake must have gone back to his own room.
I should go back to bed. Should give her space. Should wait until morning to?—
A sound from downstairs makes me freeze. The soft pad of footsteps, the quiet creak of the kitchen floor. No one in this house moves that quietly.
