He also doesn’t hesitate or second guess coming in fast for a kiss that sends my head spinning again.
“Fucking stop,” King growls, and Maverick does for a second before he shrugs briefly, taking his life into his own hands by the sounds for another equally toe-curling kiss.
“Mav, let her get some food in.” Tyson’s statement isn’t an option, it’s a demand and Maverick finally acknowledges the threats both my more dominant Alphas are making.
I look over to Tyson. He’s pulled on a pair of grey sweats and brushed his hair so it’s slicked back into his usual style. He sits next to King and hands them each a similar mug.
“There’s heaps of soup leftover. Eat up,” he bosses me.
I go to eat but suddenly remember something from when King bit me. “Ty, how’d you do it?”
“Do what? The soup?”
I shake my head, but before I can ask my question, everyone gives me this look that tells me I’ve got no chance of getting any answers until I’ve had something to eat. Using the spoon, I catch all the chunky vegetables from down the bottom. It only takes one mouthful and suddenly my question can wait. I become a bottomless pit with an insatiable appetite. To be fair, it is amazing soup. Of course, even the temperature is right which means I can chow it down fast.
My empty cup gets handed over to Tyson, King’s ends up in my hands, then Steel’s, finally and I make it halfway through Maverick’s before I push it away.
“You shouldn’t give me your food.” I look at each of them. And instantly their faces mirror each other. “God, settle down. Thank you but I am sure we’ve got enough food and I’ve got a perfectly good pair of legs.”
They look even more stunned at me, so I shut up. Until I remember what I was going to say before. But then you know, to make a point, I also fight my way out of King’s protective arms and make a super-fast dash into the kitchen before any of them can move, bringing the pot of soup back with me. Using a glare of my own, I hold my hand out, expectantly waiting for one of them to pass their cups over, when no one moves I use the big guns. “If feeding me is important to you, you have to know I feel the same nurturing need. I have to be able to care for you too.”
I nearly get whacked in the head by four cups as they’re thrust at me. I take my time filling their cups, delivering each one with a small kiss before I climb back into the space King made.
The way we are right now—so comfortable in each other’s presence—defies logic in the real world but it doesn’t detract from how good it feels or how right fate got us.
“Tyson!” I call, interrupting his eating. “I remember now. How did you cope?”
And like always, Tyson knows exactly what I’m talking about even though I only use a handful of words. He sobers up, his mood dipping, and shakes his head trying to end the discussion before it starts. But this bond we all share isn’t about hiding secrets.
“What are you talking about?” King growls.
“Okay, this sounds super dramatic but when you bit to claim me there was a handful of seconds where I hadn’t done it to you, but what I felt was nothing but panic. I felt so crazy with desperation, and I couldn’t focus past that, it was legitimately completely consuming like I was getting sucked in a whirlpool while being the scariest moment of my life.”
“And?” Steel asks slightly confused. His hand rubs my leg which is again confirmation of not just the bond we share, butalso the turmoil I know his brother must have been suffering through.
Tyson’s eyes close, and I feel wave after wave of his regret through our bond. “Ty?”
His eyes open, but he doesn’t look up, even when he starts talking, “I rejected you. What I felt was deserved.”
“Don’t say that,” I say, reaching for him. Holding his hand.
“There’s a good reason why I’d do it a hundred times over if needed.”
King loses his shit in an instant, “What the fuck?” He also picks me up by the waist and deposits me behind him before I can blink. My nest gets swamped by aggression so thick it’s like smoke in the air.
I wave my hand in front of my face before trying to crawl back through, but he blocks my way. The fight in me changes, because if King is reading this as a threat, then I need to trust him. This is after all what we all need to come to terms with. Trusting each other, I mean.
“Hold up!” Tyson snaps, moving back and rolling his shoulders. “I meant I’d walk through fucking fire for her. Jesus! What did you think I meant?”
“I thought you and I were gonna have to take a walk on a short pier over a cold fucking lake.” King’s mood dips down further even though Tyson explained himself perfectly.
“No one sacrifices themselves. We’re meant to be able to trust each other and rely on one another. Okay?” I demand and when none of them agree I huff louder.
Steel shuffles anxiously next to me, I get the sense he wants to leave again. And even though we’re not bonded, I’m pretty sure the heat we’ve all just gone through gives me a little bit of an insight into why he’s withdrawing.
“And you,” I swing around to face him because we might not have traded bites but I can feel him the same way I feel therest of them. “Unless you want out for a different reason, Steel, Rex is no reason why we shouldn’t pack. In case you need the reminder,” I jab my finger wildly around the room including at him, “you three survived him. And we will survive anything that comes our way.” I stop talking suddenly because I’m a big ass liar, there is one thing we may not survive, “Well actually…”
“Well actually what?” Maverick asks, his mood dipping as dangerously fast as the others.
