It was an incredibly tight fit. Steve, Ryker and August surrounded Dylan, trapping him in a prison of alpha muscle, Steve’s back pressing uncomfortably against the tiled wall behind him.
Being in the center, most of the water raining down from the ceiling was hitting the top of Dylan’s head.
“We need a bigger shower,” Ryker said, stepping back to make room. “I’ll have the contractors fix it when they come in to do the new closet.”
Steve grabbed a fresh washcloth and lathered it up, washing under his arms and moving down to clean his cock.
“I don’t know,” August said, moving forward and pressing Dylan into Ryker’s pecs. “This is kind of nice.”
Steve reached behind him and washed his back, looking at Dylan being bullied by his other two alphas. He could just see the top of his head, his face completely smothered by Ryker’s chest.
“Nice, but impractical,” Steve said.
Steve rinsed out his washcloth, soaping it up again and washing his chest and abs. As he rubbed the cotton cloth over his skin, he looked at his mates. Ryker and August were playfully bouncing Dylan between them, squeezing him between their bodies, making him laugh and protest that he was too tired for the manhandling. Watching them, Steve felt happier than he could remember feeling in a long time.
These were his people, he thought with a sense of wonder.Hismates. It felt too big and wonderful to wrap his mind around.
“What?” August said, taking a step back and letting Dylan breathe as he shot Steve a small grin. “Why are you looking at us like that?”
“I’m just happy,” Steve said, making August and Ryker’s eyes crinkle. Dylan turned to him with a dopey grin.
“I’m happy, too.”
Steve’s chest swelled. He felt like it was going to overflow from the sheer amount of love that welled up inside of him.
“Come on,” Ryker said, grabbing the showerhead. “Let’s rinse and get dried off. I want to go to bed and cuddle you guys.”
“Let’s do it,” Dylan agreed, August nodding along. They all looked at Steve, who grinned.
“Sounds like a plan.”
He would never say no to a plan that involved cuddling his mates.
EPILOGUE
August leaned back against the elevator wall, exhausted and looking forward to being back home with his mates.
He was coming home from his second full moon since joining Steve’s pack, but rather than having spent it up in Alaska with Ryker and Steve like he’d originally planned, he’d had to go back to Arizona to deal with his panicked parents.
August’s little brother, Spencer, had decided that if August was switching packs, he wanted to switch packs, too. He’d come back for Christmas break and announced to their parents that he wanted to apply to join the Northwestern pack, and their parents were freaking out.
August had spent four days calming them down and convincing them that the Northwestern pack was not run by the actual devil.
Marcus had helped, issuing formal invitations for August and Ryker’s families to visit Fort Plainslac whenever they wanted, and even told Ryker that Spencer’s joining was up to him as the district alpha of the territory where Spencer wanted to relocate.
Ryker, the fucking troll, was leaving the decision up to August. That would be fine, except that he’d told August’s parents that it was up to August, and now they were demanding that he deny his brother’s request.
He’d finally been able to convince them that Spencer should be allowed to make his own decision.
Since Spencer was set on joining, their parents had then done a full one-eighty and decided that they wanted to switch packs, too. They didn’t have a place to live in Fort Plainslac, but they had cheerfully told him that they could stay in the penthouse until they found a new place of their own.
To say that August was not pleased at the idea was an understatement. He loved his parents, but he didn’t want to live with them or spend every full moon running with them. It was too much.
In the end, August had pointed out that they would miss the Arizona climate, their friends, and the lives they’d built for themselves in Phoenix. After some thought, they had agreed and retracted their decision to switch packs.
The end result now was that Spence was coming up with them to Fairbanks on the next full moon to officially pledge himself to Marcus, while their parents had booked four week-long visits over the next year to make sure that they didn’t ‘lose contact.’
It was a decent outcome, but August was exhausted.
