Not a question. Not asking permission. Just... telling me. Giving me a moment to stop him if I wanted.
I didn't wait. I tilted my chin up, the smallest movement, but he saw it. His eyes flared with something hot and hungryand intensely satisfied—alpha satisfaction at omega submission. I felt it too, felt my omega preening at having pleased him.
"Good girl," he murmured, and then his mouth claimed mine.
The world disappeared. There was nothing but him—his lips on mine, firm and demanding, his hands cradling my face like I was something precious and breakable, his body solid and real against me. He kissed me like he was claiming my soul. Like he'd been waiting centuries for this moment and refused to waste a single second of it.
My omegakeened.
Not out loud, or maybe out loud, I couldn't tell anymore. But somewhere inside me, something that had been clenched and frightened for years finally let go. Finally surrendered. Finally found what it had been looking for.
Alpha. Our alpha. Pack alpha. OURS.
I made a sound against his mouth—something between a whimper and a moan—and he swallowed it. Devoured it. His tongue swept against my lower lip, and I opened for him without thought, without hesitation, without anything except the overwhelming need to becloser. His tongue slid against mine, and I forgot how to breathe. He tasted like the ocean. Like salt and depth and something darker underneath, something ancient and predatory and utterly, completelymine. One of his hands slid from my face to the back of my neck, gripping firmly. Possessively. Holding me in place while he explored my mouth, laid claim to every corner of it, branded himself onto my very soul.
I whimpered. Actually whimpered. And pressed closer, my hands fisting in his hair, my body arching against his like I could crawl inside him if I just got close enough. He growled against my mouth, a low, vibrating sound that I felt in my teeth and the hand on my neck tightened.
"Mine." The word was more growl than speech, pressed against my lips between kisses. "You'remine, Lily. Say it."
"Yours," the word came out broken. Desperate. "I'm yours."
"Good omega." Another kiss, deeper this time, more demanding. "Such a good omega. Taking my kiss so sweetly. Submitting so perfectly."
My whole body was trembling. I'd never felt anything like this. I'd spent my entire life being afraid of alphas, running from them, hiding from them—and now I was pressed against one, being kissed until I couldn't think, and I had never felt safer in my entire life.
He kissed me until I was dizzy. Until my hands were fisted in his hair hard enough to hurt. Until my body was arched against his, seeking more contact, more heat, more ofhim. When he finally pulled back, I was gasping. Wrecked. Destroyed and rebuilt in the space of a single kiss.
"Mine," he said against my lips, his voice rough with want. "Ours. Forever."
I couldn't speak. Could barely think. My lips were tingling, my whole body was humming, and my omega was practicallyvibratingwith satisfaction.
Pack alpha kissed us. Pack alpha claimed us. We belong now. We belong.
Then I became aware of the others. They were watching. Of course they were watching—they'd been right there the whole time. But now I could see their faces. Could see the HUNGER written across every feature.
Riven looked like he was about to come apart at the seams. His golden eyes were molten, his chest heaving, his claws flexing in and out of visibility. Vale's silver eyes had gone dark, predatory, fixed on my mouth like he was memorizing the shape of it. Thane's breath was coming fast, his gentle face transformed by raw want.
They were waiting.
Waiting for their turn.
"Not yet," Kaelan's voice was rough, but there was a note of possessive satisfaction in it. "She's had enough for today. There will be time."
Riven made a sound of protest, low, desperate, almost pained. He surged forward, and for a moment I thought he was going to ignore the command entirely. His golden eyes were fixed on my mouth, on my lips still swollen from Kaelan's kiss, and the hunger in his expression was almost violent.
"Riven." Kaelan's voice dropped into that register again—the one that resonated in bones and blood. "I saidnot yet."
Riven went still, though his whole body was trembling with the effort of restraint. A sound escaped him, something between a growl and a whine—and his claws dug into his own forearms hard enough to draw fresh blood.
"She'sright there." His voice was wrecked. "She just, she told us everything, she's crying and scared and I need to—I need?—"
"I know." Kaelan's voice softened slightly, though his arms around me didn't loosen. "I know what you need. But she needs gentleness right now. She needs time to process."
"I can be gentle." Riven's eyes found mine, and I saw the desperation underneath the hunger. "I would be so gentle with you, little human. I would worship you. I would?—"
"Tomorrow." Kaelan's word was final. "Tomorrow, you can have your kiss. Tonight, she rests." Riven made another wounded sound, but he nodded. His whole body was shaking as he backed away—not far, never far, but enough to give me space. Enough to obey his pack alpha even when every instinct was screaming at him to claim.
Vale and Thane were in similar states. Vale's silver hair drifted around his face, and his hands were clenched at his sides, his knuckles white. Thane's gentle eyes had gone dark with want,and tears were still tracking down his face, though I wasn't sure anymore if they were from the horror of my story or the need to touch me.
