"Always." Reid's voice was rough with emotion, his dark eyes shimmering in the dim light, his thumb still stroking gentlepatterns across my skin. "We're yours, Aster. Whatever you need. However long it takes. We're not going anywhere."
The tears came then, finally, breaking through the walls I'd built around myself in that gilded prison. I sobbed into Reid's chest, into Sawyer's shoulder, into the hands that held me and the arms that surrounded me and the scents that wrapped around me like a promise. I cried for the girl I'd been, feral and alone, convinced she didn't deserve gentleness. I cried for the woman I was becoming, surrounded by love she'd never expected to find. I cried for the future that Easton had tried to steal from me, and the pack that had burned down his kingdom to get me back.
They held me through all of it. Four pairs of hands, four hearts beating in rhythm with mine, four scents mingling together until I couldn't tell where I ended and they began. When the tears finally stopped, I was exhausted in a way that went deeper than physical tiredness. The exhaustion, underneath the lingering fear and the ache of my injuries, something else was growing. Something that felt dangerously like peace.
"I want to go outside." The words surprised me, but the moment I said them, I knew they were true. "I want to see the sky. I want to breathe air that doesn't smell like that place, that room, that cage."
"It's the middle of the night." Nolan's voice was cautious, his healer's instincts warring with his need to give me whatever I asked for, his brow furrowing with concern. "You should rest. Your ankle can't take any weight yet, and the cold night air?—"
"I'll carry her." Sawyer was already moving, shifting off the bed with that fluid grace that always surprised me from such a large man, his scarred hands reaching for me with a gentleness that belied their violence. "I'll carry her anywhere she wants to go. To the edge of the earth if that's what she needs."
No one argued. Sawyer lifted me like I weighed nothing, cradling me against his chest with my injured ankle carefully supported, and the others fell into step around us — Reid opening doors, Nolan carrying a blanket and his medical bag just in case, Kol hovering close with that anxious energy that said he needed to be near me, needed to touch me, needed constant reassurance that I was real and present and alive.
The night air hit my face like a blessing. I breathed deep, filling my lungs with the smell of grass and cattle and the distant sweetness of wildflowers blooming somewhere in the dark. The sky above was scattered with stars, a glittering blanket of light that made Easton's gilded cage seem small and pathetic and powerless in comparison
"The porch swing." I pointed with a trembling hand, and Sawyer carried me there without a word, settling onto the worn wooden seat with me still in his lap, the chains creaking softly as we swayed in the gentle night breeze.
The others arranged themselves around us — Reid leaning against the porch railing, his arms crossed over his broad chest, his dark eyes fixed on my face like he was memorizing me, like he was afraid to look away. Nolan sitting at my feet, his hand resting on my uninjured ankle, his thumb tracing absent patterns on my skin that I was beginning to recognize as his way of checking my pulse. Kol pressed against my side, his head on my shoulder, his arm wrapped around my waist, his sunshine scent slowly brightening back to its normal warmth like clouds parting after a storm.
"I was so scared." The admission slipped out before I could stop it, small and vulnerable in the darkness, carried away on the night wind. "Not just of what he would do to me. Not just of the pain or the... the cage." I swallowed hard, my hands fisting in Sawyer's shirt. "I was scared he would hurt you. That you would come for me and walk into his trap and I would have to watchhim destroy everything I love. He said he would burn Longhorn down with all of you inside. He said he would make me watch while you screamed."
"He underestimated us." Reid's voice was steady, certain, a rock in the storm of my fear. "He thought his money and his security team and his political connections would be enough to protect him. He was wrong. He didn't understand what he was dealing with."
"He underestimated you too." Sawyer's voice rumbled through his chest, vibrating against my cheek where I was pressed against him. "You fought him. Bit him hard enough to scar. Made him bleed every chance you got." There was fierce pride in his voice, a savage approval that made something warm unfurl in my chest. "You didn't break. You didn't give up. You held on until we could get to you."
"I wanted to give up." The confession felt like betrayal, like weakness, but I forced myself to say it anyway because they deserved the truth. "At the end, when he came back, when he was... whispering to me about what he was going to do, about how he was going to make me forget all of you... I almost gave in. I almost told him I'd do whatever he wanted, be whatever he needed, just to make it stop."
"But you didn't." Nolan's voice was soft but firm, his hazel eyes meeting mine in the moonlight. "You held on. You kept fighting. That's not weakness, Aster — that's the very definition of strength."
"The strongest person I've ever known." Kol pressed a kiss to my shoulder, his voice thick with emotion, his arm tightening around my waist. "You came to us half-starved and terrified, ready to bolt at the first sign of danger, convinced that no one could ever really love you. And you stayed. You chose us. You let us love you, even when it scared you, even when everything in your history told you to run." His golden eyes found mine, brightwith tears and wonder. "That takes more courage than anything Sawyer did crashing through those gates."
"Hey." Sawyer's protest was half-hearted, a ghost of his usual dry humor, his chest shaking with what might have been a laugh or a sob.
"He's right." Reid pushed off from the railing, crossing to kneel in front of the swing, his large hands finding my face, cupping my cheeks with infinite gentleness, his dark eyes boring into mine with an intensity that made my breath catch. "You're the bravest person I know, Aster. Not because you're not afraid — because you are afraid, and you do it anyway. You love anyway. You trust anyway. You stay anyway." He leaned in, pressing his forehead to mine, his cedar scent wrapping around me like coming home. "And we're going to spend the rest of our lives being worthy of that trust. I swear it."
"The bonding." The words came out before I could think better of them, my heart suddenly racing for an entirely different reason, hope and want and need tangling together in my chest. "We were going to wait. Until Easton was dealt with. Until it was safe."
Reid pulled back, his dark eyes searching mine, something hopeful and hungry flickering in their depths like a banked fire suddenly catching. "Are you saying...?"
"I'm saying I'm done waiting." I looked around at all of them — my pack, my family, the four Alphas who had torn apart a kingdom to bring me home. "I don't want to wait anymore. I want to belong to you. All of you. Officially. Permanently. In a way no one can ever take away or question or deny." My voice cracked, but I pushed through. "I want the bonding marks. I want to be yours in every way that matters. I want the whole world to know."
The silence that followed was charged with something electric, something that made the air feel thick and heavy with possibility and promise.
"You're still healing." Nolan's voice was cautious, but I could hear the want beneath the worry, could see the way his hands trembled against my ankle, could smell his pine scent sharpening with desire he was trying to control. "The stress of a bonding bite, the hormone surge, the emotional intensity — it could affect your recovery."
"I don't care." I reached out, finding his hand, pulling it to my chest so he could feel my heart pounding beneath my ribs, racing with want and certainty and love. "I need this, Nolan. I need to know that I'm yours, that you're mine, that nothing can ever take that away from us. I need it like I need air. Please."
"One week." Reid's voice was rough, his jaw tight with the effort of holding himself back, his dark eyes blazing with hunger and love in equal measure, his whole body straining toward me like it took physical effort to maintain the distance. "One week to heal. To make sure you're strong enough. To prepare everything properly, the way you deserve." His voice dropped, becoming something low and primal and promising. "And then we'll bond you. All four of us. One after another, until there's no question in anyone's mind — including yours — who you belong to and who belongs to you."
A shiver ran through me — not fear this time, but anticipation. Want. Need.
"One week." I agreed, my voice steady despite the trembling in my limbs. "And then I'm yours. Forever."
The word hung in the air between us, heavy with promise, bright with hope.
Forever.
Sawyer's arms tightened around me, his face pressing into my hair, his breath warm against my scalp. Nolan's handsqueezed mine, his hazel eyes bright with unshed tears. Kol burrowed closer, his sunshine scent blazing back to full warmth, his body practically vibrating with happiness. And Reid — Reid leaned in and kissed me, soft and sweet and full of all the words he couldn't say, all the promises he was making with his lips instead of his voice.
