“You don’t have to wait anymore.” She says it out loud, her voice thick. She wraps her arms around me, holds me close. “You have me. You have us. We’re pack.”
“Pack,” I echo. The word feels like sunlight. Like coming home. “Yeah. We’re pack.”
My knot is starting to soften, but I don’t pull out. Not yet. I want to stay inside her as long as possible—stay connected, stay close, stayhers.
Through the bonds, I feel Nate’s contentment. Lucas’s quiet joy. And Cara—Cara feels like home. Like everything I’ve been waiting for.
“The heat’s not over,” Lucas says quietly. “She’ll need us again in a few hours.”
“We’ll be here,” Nate says.
“Always,” I agree.
Cara’s eyes are already closing, exhaustion pulling her under. The heat has finally eased enough to let her rest—really rest, for the first time in hours.
“Sleep,” I murmur against her hair. “We’ve got you.”
“My alphas.” Her voice is barely a whisper. “My pack.”
“Yours,” I agree. “Always.”
She drifts off with my knot still softening inside her, my bond pulsing in her chest, surrounded by her pack.
I close my eyes and let myself drift too, more content than I’ve ever been in my life.
Finally, finally home.
Chapter 24
Cara
Iwake to hands and mouths and the aching throb of heat.
Not as sharp as before. Not the clawing, desperate agony of the first waves. This is softer—a deep, rolling need that pulses through my body like a heartbeat. Like the tide coming in.
“There she is.” Nate’s voice, rough and warm. His hand strokes down my side, leaving trails of fire on my skin. “You with us, sweetheart?”
I blink. The nest comes into focus around me—rumpled blankets, scattered pillows, the mingled scents of my alphas saturating the air. Cedar and bergamot and pine, layered with my own honey-sweet heat scent until I can’t tell where they end and I begin.
The smell alone makes my pussy clench. Makes slick pool between my thighs.
“Mmm.” Words are still hard. I stretch instead, feeling the pleasant ache in muscles I didn’t know I had. “How long was I out?”
“Few hours.” Lucas is on my other side, his fingers tracing idle patterns on my hip. His contentment hums against mine—steady, relieved. “Your temperature’s coming down. I think this might be the last wave.”
The last wave.
Thank god. I love my alphas—love what we’ve shared during this heat—but I’m exhausted. Ready to be myself again instead of this needy, desperate version of me who can’t think past the next orgasm.
But first...
The heat pulses through me, and I feel my body respond. More slick flooding out, soaking the blankets beneath me. Nipples tightening. The emptiness that never quite goes away during heat flaring back to life, demanding to be filled.
“Need you,” I whisper. “All of you. One more time.”
Theo appears at the foot of the nest, his eyes dark with want. Our bond is still new—bright and golden—and his eagerness pulses through it like sunshine. His joy at being included. At finally beingmine.
“We’re right here.” He crawls up the nest toward me, and his scent washes over me—pine and cedar and warmth. I breathe it in, let it fill my lungs, let it make me slicker. “Whatever you need.”
