"The bonding should happen after," Pine says, and his voice is careful, like he's worried I'm going to be disappointed. "Not during the heat. When you're fully recovered. The bonding is too important to do while you're not in your right mind."
"How long?" I ask.
"Tomorrow morning," Cassian says. "After your body has recovered from the physical intensity from your heat and our knots.”
Thank you, universe, for giving me more than I ever knew I could want.
23
SHARON
The morning after the heat finally breaks feels like waking up from a fever. My entire body is sore in a way that's both satisfying and slightly uncomfortable. I'm wrapped around Cassian like an octopus, my face pressed against his chest. His heartbeat is steady under my cheek, and I find myself just listening to it for a long moment. They're all real.
Pine is behind me, his arm across my waist, his chest warm against my back. Jett is in the armchair by the window, watching us sleep with an expression of such tenderness that my heart actually hurts looking at it. He's been taking shifts watching me sleep, I realize. Making sure I'm safe. Making sure nothing happens to me while I'm vulnerable.
"You're awake," Jett says softly, his voice careful not to wake the other two. "How are you feeling?"
I take inventory of my body. Sore. Exhausted. Happy. Completely satisfied in a way I've never experienced before. My scent is different now too. It's not just strawberry and honey anymore. It's strawberry and honey mixed with cedar and sandalwood and the particular alpha scent that belongs to all three of them.
"Like I've been through the most intense experience of my life," I say, my voice hoarse. "But like I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
Jett smiles, and it's the kind of smile that reaches his eyes. "Good. But first, you're going to rest and recover and eat real food."
I stretch carefully, and every muscle protests. It's the good kind of protest though. The kind that comes with satisfying memories.
"We should talk about the bonding before we do anything else," Pine says. He's awake now too, his dark eyes studying my face. "We want to make sure you're sure about this. That you're not just committing because of the intensity of what just happened."
Cassian stretches and sits up slightly. "The bonding is permanent. Once we do this, your scent becomes tied to ours forever. Any alpha in this town will know that you're ours just by smelling you. Legally, we become a pack. That means shared finances, shared property, shared responsibility for each other."
"That sounds perfect," I say simply. "That's exactly what I want."
"You say that now," Jett says gently, coming over to sit on the edge of the bed. "But you haven't eaten properly in three days. You haven't had time to process everything that's happened."
"I've been thinking about it. During the heat, between the waves, I thought about nothing else. I thought about what it means to be part of a pack. What it means to have three people who love me so completely that they'd spend three days doing nothing but taking care of me. I thought about how I never want to feel the way I felt before all this.”
They exchange looks, having one of those silent conversations that pack members seem to have without usingwords. Some kind of alpha communication that happens on a frequency I can't quite hear.
"Okay," Pine says finally. "We bond today. But first, you shower. You eat. You recover."
Getting out of bed is harder than I expect. Every muscle is sore, and I have to lean on Cassian to make it to the bathroom. He doesn't complain though. He just helps me, his arm around my waist, supporting my weight like it's no trouble at all.
The shower is the most luxurious thing I've experienced in my entire life. The water is warm, and Pine and Cassian take turns washing me with such care that I start crying without really understanding why.
"What's wrong?" Cassian asks immediately, concern flooding his features. His hands still on my shoulders, ready to help me out if I need to sit down.
"Nothing," I say, and I'm smiling even as tears stream down my face. "I'm just happy. I'm just finally exactly where I'm supposed to be."
They help me out of the shower and into clean clothes. Jett's shirt, because I've apparently claimed it as my uniform now. The shirt is soft and worn, and it smells like him in a way that's comforting. Like coming home.
Breakfast is waiting for us in the kitchen. Eggs. Toast. Bacon. Fresh fruit. Coffee. All the things that my body is demanding after three days of being too busy with other activities to properly eat.
"Savannah called," Pine says as I'm eating. He's sitting across from me, and he's watching me eat with the intensity of someone making sure I actually consume the food. "She wanted to check on you."
"What did you tell her?" I ask, suddenly worried about what they might have said about my heat.
"That you were in your heat and you're safe and you're being taken care of," Cassian says. He's leaning against the counter, a cup of coffee in his hand. "She said she was worried you were going to try to work through it like some kind of martyr."
"I almost did," I admit. "If you guys hadn't taken over, I probably would have tried to power through it and ended up making myself sick."
