"Never," I swore, my voice breaking on a moan as he drove particularly deep. "Never again. I promise. I swear on everything I am." His pace increased, his thrusts becoming harder, faster, more desperate. The sound of our bodies coming together filled the room, mixing with our moans and gasps and desperatedeclarations. Each stroke hit that spot inside me that made my vision blur, building the pleasure higher and higher until I thought I might shatter from it.
"I love you," he groaned against my throat, his rhythm growing erratic. "God, Ava, I love you so much. I can't lose you. I can't?—"
"You won't," I promised, tears streaming down my face, my walls clenching around him with every thrust. "I'm here. I'm staying. I love you, Ethan. I love you." I could feel his knot beginning to swell at the base of his cock, catching on my entrance with each thrust, stretching me impossibly wide. The pressure was building, building, building, pleasure and fullness tangling together until I couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. Each time he pushed in, his growing knot pressed against my entrance, demanding entry. Each time he pulled out, the drag of it against my sensitive walls had me keening.
"Please," I begged, feeling my orgasm cresting after so much denial. "Please let me come — I need to come — please, Ethan?—"
"Come for me," he commanded, his voice rough with his own need. "Come on my cock, Ava. Let me feel you. Let me feel how much you want to stay." He drove into me one final time, his knot swelling to fullness, locking us together as he spilled himself inside me. The stretch was the final push I needed, and I shattered around him completely. The orgasm ripped through me like lightning, like fire, like nothing I'd ever felt before. After so much denial, the release was devastating, wave after wave of pleasure crashing over me until I was drowning in it. His name came out on a strangled scream, my body convulsing around his knot, my inner walls clenching rhythmically, milking him for everything he had.
I felt each hot spurt of his seed filling me, felt my body gripping and releasing around him, felt the bond between us flare bright and hot. The pleasure went on and on, each wavetriggered by the throb of his knot inside me, by the pulse of his release painting my inner walls, until I was sobbing with the overwhelming intensity of it. Then his teeth found my throat, reopening the mark he'd left weeks ago, and the pleasure crested impossibly higher.
I cried out, a sound somewhere between ecstasy and surrender, as the bite sent me spiraling into another orgasm. The bond blazed between us, strengthening with every moment, every heartbeat, every breath we shared.
"Mine," he growled against the wound, his tongue lapping at the blood that welled up, his knot still pulsing inside me, still filling me with his release. "You're mine, Ava. You've always been mine. And I'm never letting you go again."
"Yours," I whispered, my voice completely wrecked, my body boneless beneath him, still trembling with aftershocks. "Always yours, Ethan." We lay there for a long time, locked together by his knot, our hearts pounding in tandem before slowly settling into a synchronized rhythm. His knot throbbed inside me, each pulse sending little aftershocks of pleasure rippling through my body, keeping me floating in a haze of satisfaction. Then Ethan lifted his head, his green eyes meeting mine, and I saw something I'd never seen from him before, complete vulnerability.
"Now you," he said softly, his voice trembling. "You are going to mark me like you have the other two." He tilted his head, baring his throat to me, and the gesture of submission from someone so careful, so guarded, made my chest ache with love. I leaned up and pressed my lips to his throat, feeling his pulse race beneath my mouth. Then I bit down and when I let go I could see him watching me with such a soft expression.
He pulled me closer as his knot slowly deflated. "You're here. You're mine. I'm never going to let anything hurt you again." Hepressed a kiss to my forehead. "I forgive you, Ava. I love you. More than I know how to say."
"I love you too," I whispered against his chest. "Three down. One to go."
He smiled, a real smile, warm and unguarded, transforming his usually serious face. "Leo's been waiting. He's been patient, but I think he's running out of it." I nodded, letting my eyes drift closed, letting the bond hum with contentment. Three threads now, Mason, Caleb, and Ethan, woven together with my own, creating something stronger than I ever could have imagined.
One more. Just one more, and the bond would be complete.
I was ready.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
AVA
The morning after Ethan, I found myself standing outside the library door, my heart pounding against my ribs. Three bonds now hummed in my chest, Mason's steady presence, Caleb's warm devotion, Ethan's fierce love, but there was still one thread missing. One connection left to complete.
Leo.
Of all the brothers, Leo was the one I'd been most uncertain about. The charming one. The one with the silver tongue and the easy smile. The one who could make me laugh even when I wanted to cry, who could spin words into poetry and make the whole world feel lighter. I'd seen beneath that charm. I'd seen the darkness that lurked behind his easy grin, the pain he hid with jokes and flirtation. And I knew — I knew — that my running had cut him deeper than he'd ever admit. I raised my hand to knock, but before my knuckles could touch the wood, his voice came through the door.
"Come in, Red" His voice was muffled through the wood, lacking its usual teasing lilt. There was something heavy inthose words, something that made my stomach clench with anticipation and dread.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside. My eyes went immediately to Leo, who was sprawled in an armchair by the fire, a book open in his lap. He didn't look up when I entered. Just kept his eyes on the page, his golden hair catching the firelight, his jaw tight with something that looked nothing like his usual easy charm.
"Sit," he said, gesturing to the chair across from him without looking up from the page, his golden hair falling across his forehead, the firelight casting shadows across his sharp cheekbones. His voice was flat, stripped of all the playful warmth I'd grown accustomed to, and the absence of it felt like a physical ache in my chest. "We need to talk."
I sat, my hands folded in my lap, my heart racing. The silence stretched between us, heavy and uncomfortable, broken only by the crackle of the fire. Finally, Leo closed his book and looked at me. The expression in his blue eyes made my breath catch. He wasn't smiling. There was no hint of his usual mischief, no sparkle of charm. Just raw, unguarded pain that he wasn't even trying to hide.
"Do you know what I do when I'm hurting?" he asked, his voice quiet but carrying an intensity that made the hair on my arms stand up. His blue eyes held mine, unblinking, none of his usual sparkle present, just raw, unfiltered pain that made my heart clench. "When things get too hard and I don't know how to cope?"
I shook my head, not trusting my voice.
"I use words." He set the book aside with careful precision, as if he needed something to do with his hands, and leaned forward, his elbows braced on his knees, his long fingers laced together. The firelight danced across his features, illuminating the tension in his jaw, the tightness around his eyes. "I write.I read. I lose myself in stories and poetry and the beauty of language. Words have always been my escape, my comfort, my way of making sense of a world that doesn't always make sense."
He paused, his jaw tightening.
"But when you ran, Ava, when I thought I'd lost you, words failed me for the first time in my life." His voice cracked on the last word, splintering like thin ice, and he had to stop. His hands clenched into fists on his thighs, the knuckles going white, and I watched his throat work as he swallowed hard, fighting for control. "I sat in this library for hours, surrounded by thousands of books, and I couldn't read a single one. I couldn't write. I couldn't even think. All I could do was sit here and feel you slipping away through the bond, and there were no words, no words in any language, that could fix it."
Tears streamed down my face as I listened. I'd known my running had hurt them all, but hearing Leo, charming, laughing, never-serious Leo, talk about his pain with such raw honesty broke something in me.
