"God, you're beautiful," Cassian says, his hands on my hips, helping me move. His gray eyes are dark with desire, and there's something almost possessive in the way he's looking at me. "You're so beautiful, and you're ours. You're mine."
I ride him, setting the pace, and it's empowering and terrifying at the same time. My body is moving on instinct, seeking what it needs, and what it needs is him. Pine is beside me, and he's touching me everywhere. His hands on my breasts, my waist, my thighs. His lips on my neck, my shoulder, my collarbone. He's covering me in marks, in scent, in the physical evidence that I belong to them.
"Look at you," Pine says, his voice a low rumble. "Taking him so well. So fucking perfect for us."
When Cassian's knot forms, I sink down onto it fully, and the sensation is different from before. Deeper somehow. More intense. Like he's touching parts of me that have never been touched before. My body adjusts quickly, and then I'm coming again, my entire body convulsing around him. The pleasure is so intense that I'm sobbing, tears streaming down my face.
He comes inside me with a groan, his arms pulling me against him like he never wants to let go. "I've got you," he murmurs, his lips against my hair. "I've got you, and I'm not letting go. Not now. Not ever."
Hours pass like minutes. Or maybe it's the other way around. Time becomes meaningless in the face of pleasure and connection. Pine takes his turn, and he's different from the other two. He's gentler at first, entering slowly like he's afraid I might break. But my body wants more, and I'm pushing back against him, asking for everything he has.
"Tell me if it's too much," he says, but his movements are already becoming more intense, more demanding, more like he's finally letting go of all the restraint he's been holding onto.
"It's not enough," I gasp. "I need more. I need all of you."
He kneels between my legs, pulling me up to him, and he's holding me like I'm the most precious thing he's ever held. His knot forms, and I'm climaxing around him almost immediately. The pleasure is so intense that I'm sobbing, tears streaming down my face, and I don't even know why I'm crying except that this is too much good feeling all at once.
"I've got you," he's saying over and over. "I've got you. You're safe. You're loved. You're ours."
When his knot deflates enough for him to slide out, I collapse between them, completely exhausted and completely satisfied in a way I've never experienced before.
Over the next hours, they take care of me in ways I didn't know I needed. They bring cold washcloths and water. They help me to the bathroom when my body needs to expel waste. They wrap me in their bodies and their scents, creating a nest of safety and belonging that makes me feel like I've finally come home after a lifetime of being lost.
"Thank you," I whisper as the heat recedes slightly, giving me a moment of clarity where I can actually form complete thoughts. "For this. For taking care of me. For not leaving me alone."
"You don't need to thank us," Cassian says. His fingers are tracing lazy patterns on my arm. "We wanted this. We want you."
"The wedding," I say, the panic starting to creep back in even through the haze of satisfaction. "The Tangle Peak wedding. Jessica is going to lose her mind. Savannah is going to think I've abandoned them. The cake tasting is supposed to be tomorrow and I can't just disappear for four days."
"Already handled," Pine says. He's holding his phone up, showing me a text from Jessica. The message is short but clear: "I've got it under control. Savannah and I are handling everything. Focus on your heat. Your health comes first. We'll be fine."
"She said that?" I ask, shocked that Jessica is being so understanding about this.
"She said more than that," Pine says, scrolling through the messages. "She said she understands what it means to be bonded to pack because apparently she's bonded herself. She said to tell you to take the time you need, and she'll handle everything. She said you're in good hands and she trusts us."
Relief floods through me so intensely that I start crying again. But this time, they're tears of gratitude, not panic. Someone other than the three of them actually trusts me enough to believe that I'm capable of coming back from this and being a functional adult again.
"We're going to take care of you," Jett says, settling beside me again. "For the next three days, your only job is to let yourself feel good. To be with us. You don't have to worry about anything except resting and healing and letting us love you."
Another wave of heat hits, gentler than the others but still demanding. My body knows what it needs, and what it needs is them. But this time, as they're touching me, positioning me,preparing to knot me again, I'm not panicking. I'm accepting. I'm surrendering to something bigger than myself.
Hours blur together. The day transitions into night. Night transitions back into day. I lose count of how many times they knot me. My body aches in the most satisfying way. I'm covered in marks, in bites, in the physical evidence of three alphas who couldn't resist marking me as theirs.
They take care of me between the waves of heat. Cassian lifts a glass to my lips, making sure I drink. Jett brushes the hair from my face with the gentlest touch, like he’s afraid I’ll flinch. Pine’s hands move over my skin in slow, steady passes as he washes me, patient and careful, grounding me without a word.
Their voices stay with me through everything. Soft. Low. Close.
Cassian tells me I’m beautiful, like it’s a fact he’s known his whole life.
Jett murmurs that I’m perfect, that he’s not letting me go anywhere.
Pine leans in and tells me I’m safe, that I belong right here.
Then the stories begin. Cassian’s childhood mishaps. Jett’s half-formed dreams he’s never admitted out loud. Pine’s quiet reasons for his love for Pine Hollow and what he found when he stayed. Little pieces of them drifting over me in warm, quiet fragments that feel a lot like promises.
By the second day, the acute panic has faded. I'm not worrying about the wedding anymore nor anything else, but just enjoying being with them.
Then the heat is starting to ease. Not completely gone, but manageable. Instead of constant waves of need, I'm havingperiods of relative normalcy interspersed with moments of intense desire. My body is exhausted in a way that goes beyond physical tiredness. It's the exhaustion that comes from three days of intense bonding and connection and the kind of pleasure that rewires your brain's understanding of what's possible.
