And then I feel it. Two more tethers snapping tight in my chest.
The door bursts open.
Beck storms in first, all muscle and authority, his cedar-smoke scent hitting me like a punch. My thighs clench helplessly around Hayes, body reacting before thought can catch up. Behind him, Ford follows, quiet and devastating, his golden eyescatching mine, the sharp tang of pine and leather wrapping around me until my whole body arches in answer.
The room is drenched in pheromones instantly. Mine, Hayes’s, theirs.
Heavy. Hot.
Alive.
“Christ,” Beck rasps, eyes dragging over me where I’m pinned beneath Hayes, flushed and slick and shaking. “You’re burning up.”
His nostrils flare, his jaw tight, and the hunger there makes my pulse trip over itself.
Ford says nothing at first, but the way he looks at me is unbearable. Steady, devouring. His scent rolls out, filling the room until my lungs ache with it. I whimper, the sound wrecked and needy, and his hands flex at his sides. He’s already fighting not to grab me.
“She can’t ride this out with just one of us,” Ford finally growls, low and certain. “She needs all of us. She needs her pack.”
The truth sears me from the inside out. My body aches, desperate and unsatisfied. Tears sting my eyes as I choke on the words that taste of surrender.
“Please. I can’t… I need you. I’m so empty. It… it hurts.”
Beck’s whole body goes rigid. My plea tears him apart. In two strides, he’s there, towering over me, one hand gripping my jaw, tilting my head to the side until I’m staring into the dark heat of his eyes. The cedar-vanilla burn of him fills my senses, makes me shake.
“Then take us,” he growls, rough and raw. “All of us.”
My hips jerk helplessly against Hayes, a sob escaping me as his hands clutch me tighter. He’s trembling, his restraint shredding, his mouth dragging down the column of my throat.
“She’s already unraveling,” he mutters, half to them, half to himself. “She won’t be coherent in an hour if this keeps up.”
“How long has she been like this?” I hear Ford ask.
“Only minutes,” Hayes says.
Beck’s fingertips tuck a strand of damp hair behind my ear. “You’re a quick heater, beautiful.”
A whine is all I can answer him with.
Ford crouches in front of me, so close I can feel the heat of his breath against my thighs. My heart stops. His eyes lock on mine, golden, and the muted bond between us flares so violently I nearly scream.
“You’ve been mine since the start,” he says. “I should’ve claimed you then. I won’t wait anymore.”
A strangled cry bursts from me. My hands shoot out, clutching at all of them. Hayes’s shirt, Beck’s wrist, Ford’s shoulder. Their scents crash together, flooding me, drowning me, filling every desperate corner of me.
The heat roars higher, and I can feel their restraint fraying, the sharp edge of rut in the way Beck growls, in the way Ford’s fingers dig into my knees, spreading me wider.
I’m only barely aware of Hayes moving off me. All I know is that I’m full, and then I’m empty. A cramp rolls through me, gushing slick and our intermingled arousal from in between my legs.
“Please,” I moan, “it hurts.”
I’m gasping, sobbing, begging with garbled words as instinct tears me apart. My body knows. They’re here to claim me, to break me open, to make this fire bearable.
My womb aches, my body begging for knots, for claim marks, for them to fuck me so full the ache finally, finally stops.
Beck growls low, shoving his mouth against mine, biting and devouring, until I’m gasping into him. Hayes mutters broken curses against my neck as his hand finds my pulsing clit, swirlingmy slick around the aching nub. Ford finally leans in, dragging his tongue up my slick, lapping at the mess me and Hayes created until I convulse with another sob.
“I need…” I sob, tears streaming, hips thrashing helplessly between all of them. “I need… please, Ford. The bond, it-it-it?—”
