I silence him with a kiss.
My lips press against his with all the pent-up desire, all the frustrated longing, all the certainty I’ve finally found.
He freezes for a split second, his body going rigid with surprise. Then, with a low, desperate growl, he responds, his arms wrapping around me, pulling me against the hard planes of his body. His mouth moves against mine, hungry, demanding, giving and taking.
His tongue sweeps into my mouth, claiming it as his territory. I match his intensity, my hands sliding up to tangle in his hair, tugging at the thick strands.
When we finally break apart, we’re both breathing hard, our chests heaving. His eyes are wild, the blue almost swallowed by the black of his dilated pupils.
But I’m not done.
I move my lips to his jaw, trailing a path of open-mouthed kisses along the sharp angle, up to the sensitive spot just below his ear. I feel him shudder against me, his hands tightening on my hips.
“Zoe,” he breathes, the word a mix of question and plea.
I don’t answer with words. Instead, I move to his shoulder, to the juncture where it meets his neck. The spot where an alpha would claim a mate. The spot where, in traditional pack dynamics, a beta would never dare to mark.
I bite down.
Firmly enough to leave a mark. My mark. On him.
Rett goes utterly still, a sharp intake of breath the only sound in the room. Beneath my lips, I can feel the thundering of his pulse, the heat of his skin.
When I pull back, there’s a perfect imprint of my teeth on his shoulder. A claiming mark. A beta claiming her alpha.
His eyes, when they meet mine, are filled with a wonder so profound it takes my breath away.
I turn then, to find the others watching with varying degrees of shock and desperate hope. Diego has managed to sit up straighter, his eyes wide. Tristan sits still, but his chest heaves as his gaze locks on to my lips. Dane is on his feet, his pale eyes intense, hungry.
I move to Diego next, drawn to him by the lingering pain in his expression. He needs this, needs me, more than the others right now.
I kneel on the couch beside him, my hands framing his face. “You’re mine,” I whisper, before capturing his lips with mine.
He responds immediately, a soft, broken sound escaping him as his mouth moves against mine. His kiss is different from Rett’s. Softer, more giving, but no less passionate. His hands come up to cradle my head, his fingers tangling in my hair with a gentleness that makes my heart ache.
When I break the kiss, his eyes are damp, a sheen of emotion making them bright in the dim light. “Zoe,” he whispers, my name a prayer on his lips.
I don’t hesitate. I move to his shoulder, to the same spot I marked on Rett, and bite down. Diego gasps, his body arching slightly beneath mine, his hands tightening in my hair.
Another mark. Another claiming.
Tristan is next, already moving toward me as I release Diego. His expression is a raw, desperate need that matches my own.
Our lips meet in a clash of heat and hunger. His kiss is pure Tristan. Creative, unpredictable, teasing one moment and deeply possessive the next. His hands roam my back, my waist, my hips, as if he can’t decide where to touch first, wanting all of me at once.
“You’re mine, too,” I murmur against his mouth before trailing my lips down to his shoulder.
“Zoe,” he breathes, his voice tight with anticipation. “Please.”
I bite down, marking him as mine. His response is immediate. A low moan that vibrates through his chest against mine.
Three down. One to go.
I turn to find Dane watching me, his pale eyes burning with an intensity that sends a shiver down my spine. He doesn’t move toward me, doesn’t reach for me. He waits for me to come to him.
And I do.
I cross the room slowly, my eyes never leaving his. When I reach him, I have to tilt my head back to meet his gaze. He’s so tall, so solid, a mountain of a man who could crush me without effort but instead looks at me like I’m the most precious thing he’s ever seen.
