"Yeah." I took a careful sip—it was rich and savory and exactly what my body was craving—and hummed in appreciation. "This is amazing. Your grandmother taught you this?"
"Mémère," he confirmed, settling beside me on the bed, close enough that his thigh pressed against mine through the towel, his body relaxing now that I'd accepted his offering. "Said it could cure anything. Broken bones, broken hearts, bad grades." He paused, something vulnerable flickering across his face, his amber eyes going distant for a moment. "Bad heats."
I reached out with my free hand, finding his and squeezing, pulling him back to the present. "Well, she was right. This is definitely curing me."
I ate slowly, the three of them watching me with varying degrees of hovering concern. Harper sat at the head of the bed, letting me lean against him. Remy stayed pressed to my side, his hand on my thigh. Silas sat at the foot, his fingers tracing absent patterns on my ankle.
When the bowl was empty and the bread was gone, I felt more human than I had in days. Still exhausted, still sore, but no longer running on empty.
"Better?" Harper asked, his voice soft, his hand stroking through my still-damp hair.
"Better," I confirmed. Then, before I could lose my nerve: "I need to tell you something." All three of them went still. Theatmosphere in the room shifted, tension crackling through the air.
"What is it, chere?" Remy asked, his voice careful, his amber eyes searching my face, his hand tightening slightly on my thigh. I took a breath. Then another. The words had been building in my chest since somewhere around day two, maybe earlier, and they needed to come out before I lost my nerve.
"I want to bond," I said. "With all of you. All three of you. When I'm thinking clearly—and I am, right now, clearer than I've been in days—I want you to know that this is real. That I'm not saying this because of the heat or the hormones or whatever else. I'm saying it because I mean it. I want you. All of you. Forever."
Silence.
Three pairs of eyes stared at me—gray and amber and pale ice—and I watched emotions flicker across their faces. Hope. Longing. Caution. It was Harper who spoke first, his voice rough with barely contained emotion, his gray eyes glistening in a way I'd never seen outside of the heat. "Artemis?—"
"I know what I said before the heat," I interrupted, needing to get this out. "I know I said no bites, no bonding, wait until after. And you did. You all did, even when I was begging for it. Even when every instinct was screaming at you to claim me." I looked at each of them in turn, making sure they understood. "That's how I know this is real. Because you respected my boundaries even when I couldn't respect them myself. Because you put my wellbeing above your instincts. That's not something I take lightly."
"We wouldn't—" Silas started, then stopped, his jaw working, his pale eyes blazing with something fierce and protective.
"I know," I said softly. "I know you wouldn't. That's the point. That's why I want this. Because I trust you. All of you. More than I've ever trusted anyone."
Remy made a sound—half laugh, half sob—and pressed his face against my shoulder. I could feel the dampness of tears against my skin, could feel his body shaking with the force of his emotions.
"We need to wait," Harper said, and the words sounded like they were being dragged out of him by force, every syllable costing him something. His hand came up to cup my face, tilting it toward him, his gray eyes intense and full of emotion. "Not because we don't want this—god, Artemis, we want this more than you can possibly know. But you've just come out of a heat. Your hormones are still settling. We need to make sure?—"
"I'm sure," I said.
"Then you'll still be sure in a week," he countered gently, his thumb stroking my cheekbone with heartbreaking tenderness. "Or two weeks. Or a month. However long it takes for you to feel like yourself again. When you ask us again—because I know you will—we'll say yes. We'll say yes so fast your head will spin." His voice dropped to something raw and honest, cracking on the words. "But I need you to be certain. I couldn't live with myself if we bonded and you regretted it. If you felt like we took advantage?—"
"You could never?—"
"Let us do this right," he said, cutting me off gently, his forehead pressing against mine. "Please. Let us earn it."
I looked at Remy, who nodded against my shoulder, his eyes wet but determined when he lifted his head. At Silas, whose jaw was tight but whose hand on my ankle was trembling with barely suppressed emotion. They were right. I knew they were right. Even if every fiber of my being was screaming that I'd never been more sure of anything in my life, they deserved to hear me say it when there was no possible doubt.
"Okay," I whispered. "Okay. But I'm going to ask you again. Soon."
"We're counting on it," Remy said, his voice thick with tears and hope, his smile wobbly but genuine. "Might actually die if you don't, chere."
"Dramatic," Silas muttered, but his voice was rough too, betraying the emotion beneath his stoic exterior. I leaned forward, reaching for Harper first—the Head Alpha, the one who'd been there from the beginning. My lips brushed against his throat, right over his pulse point, right where a bonding bite would go. He shuddered, a low groan escaping him, his hands fisting in the sheets so hard his knuckles went white.
"Soon," I promised against his skin. Then I turned to Remy, pressing the same almost-kiss to his throat. He made a sound like a wounded animal, his hands flying to my hips, holding me steady even as his whole body trembled, his breath coming in sharp, uneven gasps.
"Soon, chere," he echoed, his voice breaking on the words. "Soon."
Finally, Silas. He held perfectly still as I leaned toward him, only his eyes moving, tracking my approach with an intensity that made my skin prickle. When my lips touched his throat, he inhaled sharply, his scarred fingers coming up to tangle in my hair, his whole body going rigid with restraint.
"Soon," I whispered against his pulse.
"Soon," he agreed, his voice barely audible, raw with want and promise. I pulled back, looking at my three Alphas, and felt a peace settle over me that had nothing to do with the fading heat hormones. This was real. This was right. This was where I was always supposed to end up.
A scrabbling sound from the doorway made all of us turn. Gumbo had apparently decided the coast was clear, because he was making his way into the bedroom, his massive body taking up most of the floor space as he approached the bed.
