Then Kai’s face splits into a grin that’s equal parts delighted and predatory. “Oh, doll,” he breathes. “You’re priming yourself for us. Someone’s finally got their heat.”
“It’s insane,” I manage, but the words come out wrong, tangled up with a purr that rumbles through my chest without permission. “I don’t… I can’t…”
My body moves on its own. One hand fisting in Seth’s shirt, the other tangling in Carter’s hair, pulling them both closer with a strength I didn’t know I possessed. I need them like I crave air.
“Do something,” I moan. “Please. Before I die.”
“You’re not going to die,” Carter explains calmly.
“It sure feels like it,” I blurt out.
“We knew it would come,” Seth adds, his hands finding my waist, steadying me when my knees threaten to buckle. “Just had to be patient.”
“Patience is overrated,” Kai declares. “And so is this towel.”
He tugs at the fabric, and it slips away before I can protest. Not that I want anything except their hands on my skin, their mouths on my body, their cocks inside me.
“Oh my God.” The words tear out of me as a fresh wave of need crashes through my system. “If you don’t stop talking and take me now, I’m going to explode. Why does my body feel like this?”
The three of them exchange glances as they stare at me up and down. There’s hunger there, raw and undeniable. They’re holding themselves back, I realize, waiting to ensure I’m okay.
“It’s your first heat,” Carter says gently. “Your body is adjusting. The intensity will even out, but right now?—”
“Right now I need you all to fuck me, or I’m going to lose my mind!” I’m reaching for them with shaky hands.
Kai scoops me up before I can say another word. His arms are strong around me, cradling me against his chest, and I bury my face in his neck and breathe him in.
“Let’s begin in the bedroom,” he instructs, already moving toward the stairs. “Then we can work our way through the rest of the house. Christen every room properly.”
Carter and Seth follow close behind, shedding clothes as they go. I catch glimpses of bare chests, defined muscles, cocks already hard and erect. Fuck, I need them now.
“Why would you say that?” I gasp, even as my mouth finds Kai’s pulse point and my teeth scrape against his skin.
“Darlin’,” Seth drawls from somewhere behind us, “heats can last anywhere from a day to a week. And the whole time, you’re going to want one of us inside you. Claiming you.”
“I know that,” I manage, but even as I say it, I realize I didn’t. Not really. I read the words in books and articles and forums, but nothing,nothing, prepared me for the agonizing emptiness. The need that borders on pain. The desperate, primal drive to be rutted by an Alpha or die trying.
“What if you hadn’t been home?” The thought strikes me suddenly, sharp with fear. “What if I’d been alone when this started?”
We’re in the bedroom now. Kai sets me down on the bed, and I immediately reach for him, for any of them, unwilling to lose contact for even a second.
“That won’t ever happen,” Carter says firmly, leaning down to press a kiss to my forehead. His lips are cool against my feverish skin, and I whimper at the relief. “Not with the three of us. One of us will always be here.”
“We’ll get you a panic button,” Kai suggests, stripping down, making me drool at all those muscles, the erection that glints with the jewelry piercings. “Something you can press that sends an alert to all of us simultaneously. We’ll come running.”
“Or we just never leave you alone,” Seth adds, his hands already working to clear the bed of blankets and pillows and all the nest materials I so carefully arranged. “That works too.”
I watch him sweep everything aside, and some small part of me protests. That’s my nest, but the larger part that’s consumed by heat and hunger doesn’t care about blankets and pillows. It only cares about the three men now surrounding me, their bodies bare, their eyes dark with desire, their cocks ready.
“I have no idea how we’re going to do this,” I admit, my voice trembling. “But I need you. All of you.”
Seth settles on one side of me. Carter on the other, all naked. Kai kneels at the foot of the bed, his gaze traveling up my body with an intensity that makes me shiver.
“Just breathe,” Carter says, his fingers tracing my arm even as his own breathing comes faster.
“And if it gets to be too much,” Kai says, staring at me with predatory grace, “just tell us. We’ll stop. We’ll slow down. Whatever you need.”
I gasp as another cramp seizes me. “I need you to never, ever stop.”
