His knot expands fully, locking us together as Kade’s cock throbs inside of me, his release following seconds later. The sensation of him pouring into me triggers the hardest, most satisfying orgasm I've ever felt in my life. Nothing else exists except this moment, this feeling of being completely filled and claimed and satisfied.
A scream tears from my throat as pleasure whites out everything else. Kade pulses inside me, each spurt of his release extending my own pleasure until I think I might die from how good it feels.
Kade steals my lips in a fierce kiss, his mouth claiming mine. When he pulls back, he murmurs praise against my lips. "So beautiful. You're so fucking beautiful like this, sunshine. Perfect. Absolutely perfect."
The pain from the knot stretching me vanishes completely, replaced entirely by bliss. I rest my head against his chest, my whole body going limp as the last tremors fade into bone-deep satisfaction.
"They keep so many things from you–I mean, us, the Omegas," I murmur, my words slurred from exhaustion and satisfaction. "If I had known it felt good..."
I trail off, unable to finish the thought. If I had known heats could be like this, that knotting felt like heaven instead of hell, would I have fought harder to escape Harmony House? I sag completely against Kade, my body suddenly so heavy I can barely keep my eyes open. "I'm so tired now. Why..." I try to shift closer to Kade but can't move much, locked in place by his knot still firmly inside me.
A soft but deep vibration runs through me, followed by a rumbling noise. It takes me a few moments to realize it’s Kade’s purr, the sound soothing my anxieties and making my Omega instincts sing. I try to get impossibly closer to him, pressing every inch of my body against his despite already being as close as two people can physically be.
"Your Omega is accepting your Alpha," Dustin's voice comes from somewhere beside us in the nest. I'd almost forgotten he was there. "Allowing you to rest while he protects you."
The words make sense on some instinctual level, even if my rational mind is too foggy to fully process them. "How long does this stay?" I mumble against Kade's chest, my words barely coherent as sleep pulls at me.
"For as long as your body needs it," Kade answers, his hand stroking up and down my back. "Could be twenty minutes, could be an hour. Your body will decide when it's ready to let go."
All I know is that I'm comfortable, satisfied, and safe. My eyes drift closed despite my best efforts to keep them open. I want to stay present for this, to savor every second of feeling this good. But my body has other ideas, exhaustion winning out in the end.
"Sleep, sunshine," Kade murmurs, his lips pressing against the top of my head. "We've got you. You're safe."
I believe him. For the first time in longer than I can remember, I actually believe that I'm safe. That I can let go and rest without fear of what will happen when I wake up.
The last thing I'm aware of before sleep claims me is Dustin's hand joining Kade's on my back, both of them touching me with such tenderness. Then darkness pulls me under, dragging me down into sleep that's deeper and more restful than anything I've experienced in years.
Chapter twenty-three
Dustin
It's been an hour and Kade is still knotting Solana, her body locked on his knot while she sleeps peacefully in his arms. She looks so content like this, her face relaxed in a way I've never seen before. No tension in her jaw, no worry lines creasing her forehead, just pure peaceful sleep.
Sitting at the edge of the nest, I watch them while trying to give them space. My cock has finally calmed down after watching Kade knot her, the intense arousal from earlier fading into a manageable awareness. It was beautiful watching them together, seeing Solana finally understand what a heat could be with the right Alphas. The way she fell apart on his knot, the sounds she made, the absolute trust she showed in letting herself be vulnerable like that... it’s everything I didn’t know I needed.
My phone buzzes for what has to be the third time in the last twenty minutes. I glance at the screen and see Stefan's name flashing across the screen again. The first two times I ignored it, not wanting to leave the nest or disturb the peaceful atmosphere. But three calls in less than half an hour from my stepbrother usually means something is actually wrong.
Kade opens his eyes, having been dozing lightly while holding Solana. "Go take it," he says quietly, his voice barely above a whisper, so he doesn't wake her. "It might actually be important if he's calling this many times."
I don't want to leave. Every instinct I have is screaming at me to stay in the nest with my Alpha and my Omega, to be present when Solana wakes up so she knows we're both here for her. But Kade is right. Stefan doesn't call repeatedly unless something is genuinely urgent. He knows better than to interrupt for trivial matters.
Leaning forward, I place a soft kiss on Solana's forehead. Kade gives me a small nod of acknowledgment as I carefully extract myself from the nest, trying not to jostle anything.
I slip out into the hallway, pulling the bedroom door mostly closed behind me but leaving it cracked so I can hear if Solana wakes and needs me.
"Hey, what's—" I start, ready to make some joke about his terrible timing.
"You have to fucking get here." Stefan's voice cuts me out, an urgency in his tone that has my heart suddenly in my throat. There's no humor in his tone, no casual greeting. Just raw urgency that I've only heard a handful of times in our lives, usually right before something goes catastrophically wrong.
My entire demeanor shifts immediately, playfulness evaporating as I go into crisis mode. "Where are you? What happened?"
"I'm at the old trail access point between our properties," Stefan says quickly. "You need to do it stealthily. You can't come to the house and I need your kit."
"My medical kit?" I frown, already moving toward the guest bedroom to grab a change of clothes. Thank fuck, I thought to leave a few pairs of... well,everythingin there when Solana took over our room.
"Yeah, no questions asked, right?" Stefan's voice carries an edge of desperation. "For life?"
The phrase makes me pause. We haven't said that to each other since we were teenagers, back when we made a pact that we'd always have each other's backs no matter what. No questions, no judgment, just unconditional support. If Stefan is invoking that now, things must be really bad.
