He made a sound like something breaking. Something healing. Vale drifted closer, his silver eyes dark in a way I was starting to recognize. Want. Need. That barely leashed hunger that all four of them carried, held in check by nothing but their own will.
"I've been patient." His voice was like silk and danger, wrapping around me like a physical thing as he moved close enough for me to feel the cool brush of his scales against my legs. "Watching Kaelan claim your mouth. Watching Riven devour you. Do you know how much control it took not to steal you away? Not to take what I wanted while they were distracted?"
"Vale..." My heart was pounding, his name coming out breathless.
"Say my name again." His hand cupped my face, tilting it toward him, his silver eyes burning into mine. "Say it like you mean it."
"Vale." It came out breathless, wanting, and I watched his pupils dilate. His lips brushed mine. Light. Teasing. A question more than a kiss. I answered by pressing forward, trying to deepen it, but he pulled back. His smile was infuriating. Beautiful.
"Patience, little human." His thumb traced my lower lip, his voice dropping to a murmur. "I've waited this long. I want to savor?—"
Something in him snapped. I saw it happen, the moment his control shattered. One second he was teasing, playful, the next his mouth was on mine with a desperation that stole my breath. His hands tangled in my hair, careful of the gems but fierce in their grip. His body pressed against mine, cool scales and hardmuscle, and he kissed me like he was composing a symphony and I was every note.
This was nothing like Kaelan's controlled devastation or Riven's consuming hunger. This was music made flesh, rising and falling, building to crescendos, moments of softness followed by intensity that left me gasping. His tongue swept against the seam of my lips, and I opened for him without thought. He tasted like the deep ocean, like secrets, like songs that had never been sung. His hands cradled my head like I was something precious, something that might shatter if he wasn't careful, even as his mouth claimed me with an intensity that left no doubt who I belonged to.
I moaned against his lips, and he swallowed the sound like it was the sweetest note he'd ever heard. His chest was rumbling—that purr, that possessive siren purr—and I felt my omega respond, felt my own chest vibrating with an answering sound I couldn't control.
"Mine." He breathed the word against my lips between kisses, his silver eyes flashing open to catch mine. "Say it."
"Yours." No hesitation. No fear. Just truth.
"Good omega." The praise washed over me, and I felt myself going soft in his arms, pliant, his. "Such a good omega. Letting me taste you. Letting me claim you." He kissed me until I forgot my own name. Until the only thing that existed was his mouth and his hands and the music he was making of my sighs.
When he finally pulled back, his silver eyes were satisfied. Possessive. He pressed one more kiss to my lips, soft as a secret, and then he was drifting away, that knowing smile back on his face.
"Worth the wait." He murmured, running his tongue along his lower lip like he was savoring the taste of me. "Worth every second." I was still floating, still dazed, when I realized Thane had drifted to the edge of the garden. He was watching me withthose golden-brown eyes, and in them I saw longing so deep it made my chest ache.
I swam to him. The others let me go, watching, waiting.
"Thane." I reached for him, and he flinched. Actually flinched, like my touch might burn him.
"You don't have to." His voice was thick, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. "You've already—Kaelan, and Riven, and Vale—you don't have to?—"
"I want to." I caught his face in my hands, made him look at me, watched the tears spill over. "I've wanted to since the first time you cried for me. Since the first time you looked at me like I was something precious instead of something to be used."
"You are precious." The words broke out of him like a sob, his hands finally coming up to cover mine. "You're the most precious thing I've ever—I've wanted this for so long. Wanted you for so long. But I'm afraid I'll—" He squeezed his eyes shut, more tears escaping. "I'm afraid I'll break apart if I touch you."
"Then break apart." I pressed my forehead to his, felt his shuddering breath against my lips. "I'll put you back together."
His kiss was nothing like the others. Thane was reverence. Worship. He kissed me like I was sacred, like I was something holy he'd been searching for across centuries of loneliness and had finally, impossibly, found. His hands cupped my face so gently I wanted to weep. His lips moved against mine like prayers, like promises, like everything soft and tender that had been missing from my life. He kissed me slowly, thoroughly, like he wanted to memorize the shape of my mouth, the taste of my sighs, the way I trembled against him.
When his tongue brushed mine, it wasn't demanding. It was an offering. A question. May I? And my answer was yes, yes, always yes. He made a sound against my mouth and pulled me closer. His tail wrapped around my legs, not possessive likeRiven's grip but anchoring. Like he needed to feel me against him to believe this was real.
Then tears came. I felt them on my cheeks, and I wasn't sure if they were mine or his or both. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered except his mouth on mine and his hands in my hair and the way he held me like I might disappear if he let go.
"You're everything." He whispered the words against my lips, broken and beautiful, his tears falling onto my cheeks. "Everything I've ever wanted. Everything I never thought I'd have."
"You have me." I kissed him again, softer this time, a promise against his trembling mouth. "You all have me." He made that broken sound again, and then he was crying in earnest, his tears mixing with the salt water, his arms wrapped around me so tight I could barely breathe.
I held him. Let him fall apart. Knew that this was exactly what he needed—to feel, to release, to finally let himself want something and have it. The others drifted closer. Not interrupting. Just present. A pack surrounding their omega, surrounding their packmate who needed them. We floated there in the garden, five bodies tangled together, and I told them things I'd never told anyone.
"My mother used to sing." The words came out soft, hesitant, and I felt Thane's arms tighten around me. "Before I presented. Before everything changed. She had the most beautiful voice, and she would sing me to sleep every night. Lullabies about the sea, about stars, about a world where everything was soft and safe."
Vale's arms wrapped around me from behind, and I felt his rage simmering beneath the surface. Music meant something to him. The idea of someone using it for comfort, for love, and then taking it away.
"What happened?" His voice was gentle against my ear, his breath warm on my neck. He knew. They all knew. But they wanted me to say it.
"I presented as an omega." I closed my eyes, let myself drift in their arms. "I was fourteen. Young, for a presentation. And the moment it happened, everything changed. My father started looking at me differently. Like I was a thing to be sold instead of a daughter to be loved. And my mother..." I swallowed hard, feeling the old pain rise up. "She stopped singing. Stopped touching me. Stopped looking at me like I was her child."
