“Get out of my nest if you’re going to tease me!”
Simon jerks as though he’s been slapped, drops the comforter, turns and leaves. I watch him go as the first cramp throbs through my womb. He didn’treallyhave to leave. I just wanted him to stop teasing me.
I sit down heavily and pull the comforter around my shoulders, letting the combined scent of Cassian’s sea salt and sunshine and Simon’s soap wrap around me.
Sighing, I pout because he walked out on me, even though I’m the one who told him to go. Because Icommandedhim to. The same way Rad told me about Project Halcyon because I demanded it. Because my emotions were high and my affinity…
I toss the blanket off and scamper down the stairs, finding Simon in the kitchen.
I throw my arms around him from behind, pressing my fevered cheek against his back. His warmth and strength are immediate comforts, and I slump against him.
“New affinity trick?” he asks, turning to take me into his arms.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur, nuzzling against his chest and breathing in the clean, beta scent of him. “I didn’t know I could… I did it to Rad, too, back over the summer.”
“Clever kit-kat,” he says, and I glow at his praise. “I’m sorry I teased,” he continues. “I didn’t realize how close you were getting to your heat. You look downright edible in my clothes and Cassian’s. Like, I want you to keep those sweatpants on, but I also want to tear them off you.”
“Cassian and I kissed last Saturday night. After pack dinner and training. My affinity picked up on the terror he was feeling coming out of a nightmare, so I came downstairs, and one thing led to another…”
Simon drops a sweet kiss on my forehead. “I’d say it’s about time, but you take all the time you need. I want you to be sure about him. Just like I’m sure about you, beautiful.”
I tilt my head back and stand up on my tiptoes, tugging at his shirt until he presses his lips to mine. “Will you help me nest?”
The electric kettle chimes, and he nods to two mugs on the counter. “Just finishing making us some tea. I thought it’d help warm you up.”
That thought alone is enough to chase the chill away, and with Simon’s help and the comforter that smells so perfectly like him and Cassian, I finally get my nest in some semblance of order before dinner.
Though Cassian cooked up a delicious lemon chicken pasta, I barely have an appetite. Luca manages to get me to eat a few bites off his fork while I curl up tight on Ian’s lap, pain lashing through my womb.
Ian strokes my abdomen, trying to soothe me, but his hand is hot and his touch lingering, and it only drives my fever higher. The sensation combined with his cedar-and-bergamot scent in my nose makes me cramp harder, and Ian eventually excuses us, carrying me upstairs.
For once, I don’t protest.
* * *
My heatfully claims me in the middle of the night after a few hours of fitful sleep, surrounded by my men. It’s dark in my nest, but for the twinkle lights, when I stir and sit up.
Luca, who’s closest, wakes in an instant and pulls me into his arms, instinctually knowing what I need. I claim his mouth in a needy kiss as the haze pulls me under, everything but our scents and bodies falling away. My thoughts turn slow and sluggish, but they’re unimportant. The only thing that matters is having Luca’s hands and lips on my skin.
Then Ian’s behind me, sweeping my sweaty hair away from my neck so he can kiss the pulse point there.
“How are you feeling, my darling?” he asks, his lips brushing against the shell of my ear, and even though fever racks through me, I shiver against him.
“Need you,” I murmur. “Need you both. Need you all.”
Luca prods Simon with his elbow and the beta jerks awake, as though he were merely dozing. “What’d I miss?”
“Our girl needs us,” Luca tells him.
Simon is at my side in an instant, and my men strip me bare, drawing off layer after layer of the clothes I’d stolen from them.
Luca lays me down and spreads my thighs with his strong hands, and the sight of his tattooed fingers against my pale skin makes me perfume, slick flooding from my needy cunt.
My bad boy alpha presses an open-mouthed kiss to the inside of my thigh, nuzzling the sensitive skin there until I’m writhing beneath him, desperate for him to take his touch and his tongue higher.
He doesn’t deny, and he doesn’t tease. He sets his mouth to my sex, curls two tattooed fingers in my cunt and plies me until I’m sobbing out my first orgasm.
Ian claims my mouth in a searing kiss, hotter even than my fever, and pulls me into his lap. I shift until I can straddle him and run my glistening slit over his cock. At his hiss of pleasure, I sink down on his thick, hard length.
