But beneath the hunger is something else. Something deeper.
“I trust you,” I whisper. “All of you.”
“You shouldn’t,” Dax says roughly. “We’re in rut and you’re in heat and we want—fuck, Sierra, you have no idea what we want.”
“Tell me.”
The request comes out breathless, but I mean it. I want to know. Need to know.
“You,” Cole says simply, his eyes darkening to the color of a stormy sea. “We want you. In every way there is to want someone.”
“We want to ease your heat,” Jalen says against my neck, his lips brushing my skin with each word. “Want to make the pain stop. Want to give you everything you need.”
“We want to scent you until there’s no question who you belong to,” Malik adds, his voice lower than I’ve ever heard it. His vanilla ice-cream has gone dark and possessive. “Want to mark you. Keep you. Build a nest with you and never let you leave it.”
“We want it all,” Dax finishes, and the raw honesty in his voice makes my eyes sting. “Even knowing we shouldn’t. We want it anyway.”
I should be terrified. Should be running from this intensity, this claiming, this complete and utter certainty from four alphas who’ve been my rivals from the start.
But I’m not terrified.
I’m relieved.
Because my omega wants it too. Wants them. Wants this pack that’s been building around me since the moment they walked into this house.
And maybe—just maybe—it’s not just my omega who wants it.
“I’m scared,” I admit quietly. “And I don’t know if I’m thinking clearly through the heat or if?—”
“Then we’ll wait,” Malik interrupts gently. His thumb is stroking small circles on my calf, soothing. “We’ll help you through your heat and then when it’s over, when you can think clearly, we’ll talk about this.”
“But right now,” Jalen says, pulling back to look at me properly, “right now we just want to take care of you. Make you feel safe. Ease your pain. Everything else can wait.”
“Everything else can wait,” Dax echoes, his hand still cupping my face. “You’re what matters right now, Sierra. Just you.”
Cole shifts closer, his hand sliding up to my shoulder. “So let us take care of you. Please. Let us do what our ruts are screaming at us to do and make our omega feel better.”
Ouromega?
The words send a shiver through me and, for some reason, I don’t correct him.
My lip trembles and I bite down on it, overwhelmed by gratitude and need and something deeper I’m not ready to put into words.
“Sierra?” Malik’s voice is soft, but there’s an edge to it. “One more time. Are you sure about this? About us?”
I take a shaking breath. Let it out slowly. Meet his dark eyes and see the question there, the desperate hope, the promise of safety.
“Yes,” I whisper. My voice is steady despite the trembling in my hands. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“Say it,” Dax requests roughly, his hand tightening slightly against my jaw. “Tell us what you want.”
I know what he needs to hear. What they all need to hear. The explicit permission, the clear consent, the words that will let them finally give in to what their ruts are demanding.
“Please,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper but utterly certain. “Please take care of me.”
Malik’s eyes flash, and a slow smile curves his lips.
“Then let us take care of you, omega.”
