We collapsed together in the nest, locked by his knot, our bodies trembling with aftershocks. He gathered me close, pressing kisses to my hair, rumbling soft sounds of contentment.
"Rest," he murmured, his knot pulsing inside me. "The heat will rise again soon. But for now, rest."
I curled into him, surrounded by the scents of my pack, the soft furs of my nest pressed against my skin. Through the bonds, I could feel the others—Riven's fierce presence, Vale's musical warmth, Thane's tender devotion. All of them there in my mind, a constant comfort.
As Kaelan held me, his knot slowly releasing, his seed filling me so completely I could feel it deep in my core, I felt something I'd never felt before in my entire life. I felt home. A deep, contented purr rumbled through my chest, and I let sleep claim me, safe in the arms of my mate.
Chapter Thirty-One
LILY
The heat woke me like a wave crashing over my head—sudden and overwhelming, dragging me from sleep into a burning, desperate need. I gasped, my body arching off the furs, a keen tearing from my throat before I could stop it.
"Easy." The voice was a low growl, rough with sleep and something darker. Not Kaelan's steady rumble—this was sharper, fiercer. Riven. "I've got you."
His scarred hands found my hips, pulling me back against his chest. Through the bond, I felt his desire surge to meet mine—not the controlled burn of Kaelan, but a wildfire, barely contained, threatening to consume us both.
"The heat," I gasped, pressing back against him, feeling the hard length of him already pressing against my tail. "It's?—"
"I know." His teeth grazed my shoulder, right over Kaelan's mark, and I shuddered at the sensation. "I've been feeling it build through the bond. Watching you sleep, smelling your need, waiting for you to wake." His voice dropped even lower. "It's been torture."
Through the bond, I could feel exactly what he meant—hours of lying beside me, hard and aching, his instincts screaming at him to take me while I slept. But he'd waited. He'd held himself back, letting me rest, even as every alpha instinct in his ancient body demanded he claim his omega.
The knowledge made something twist in my chest—something warm and tender beneath the desperate heat.
"You waited," I whispered, reaching back to touch his scarred face.
"I'll always wait for you." His lips brushed my palm, surprisingly gentle. Then his grip on my hips tightened, and his voice hardened. "But now you're awake. And I'm done waiting."
He lifted me in his arms, and I clung to him as he carried me not toward the pool, but toward a tunnel I hadn't explored before—a narrow passage that led away from the main cavern.
"Where—" I started, but he cut me off with a growl.
"My cave." His dark eyes burned into mine. "I want you surrounded by my scent when I take you. Want you to remember who you belong to." The possessiveness in his voice should have frightened me. Instead, it made the heat flare hotter, made my vent ache with desperate need.
The tunnel opened into a smaller cavern, and I gasped at what I saw. Weapons lined the walls—ancient blades, spears tipped with bone and obsidian, nets woven from what looked like silver thread. But in one corner, there was a nest—smaller than the one I'd built, rougher, but lined with soft furs and scattered with items that smelled of me. A ribbon from my hair. A scrap of fabric from my old dress. Things he'd collected, hoarded, treasured.
"You made a nest," I breathed, something squeezing in my chest. "For me."
"I've been preparing for you since the first night I scented you." He laid me down on the furs, his body covering mine, hisscarred face hovering inches above me. Through the bond, I felt a flash of vulnerability beneath his fierce exterior—the fear that I might find this too dark, too possessive, too much. "I knew you were mine. I just had to wait for you to know it too."
I pulled him down into a kiss, pouring everything I felt through the bond—acceptance, desire, love. He groaned against my mouth, his control slipping, his kiss turning fierce and claiming. His hands were rougher than Kaelan's, callused and scarred, but they moved over my body with devastating purpose. He knew exactly where to touch—the sensitive scales along my tail, the curve where my hip would have been, the tender flesh of my inner arms. Every touch sent sparks shooting through me, building the heat higher and higher.
"I can feel your need," he growled against my throat, his teeth scraping over my pulse point. "Through the bond. It's driving me wild." His hand slid down my stomach, toward my vent. "Let me feel how wet you are for me." His fingers found my vent already open, already dripping with slick. When he pressed two fingers inside without preamble, I cried out, my back arching off the furs.
"So ready," he rumbled, satisfaction thick in his voice. His fingers curled inside me, finding that spot that made stars explode behind my eyes. "So desperate to be filled. Have you been thinking about this? About my cock stretching you open?"
I couldn't answer—could only moan as his fingers pumped in and out, his thumb finding the spot in my vent and pressing hard. The pleasure built with brutal speed, climbing toward release.
"Come," he commanded, his voice a growl that vibrated through my bones. "Come on my fingers. Show me how much you need me."
I shattered, my inner walls clenching around his fingers, pleasure crashing through me in waves. But he didn't stop,didn't even slow. His fingers kept moving, kept stroking that spot inside me, driving me higher even as I was still coming down.
"Again," he demanded, adding a third finger, stretching me wider. "I want you dripping. Want you so sensitive that you feel every ridge when I finally push inside you."
"Riven—" I gasped, my body shaking with overstimulation. "Please—I need?—"
"I know what you need." He withdrew his fingers abruptly, making me sob at the emptiness. I heard his vent open, felt his length pressing against my tail—hot and hard and impossibly large. Through the bond, I felt his anticipation—the barely leashed violence of his desire. "You need to be claimed. Properly this time. Just us."
