The heat surges.
The final wave crashes through me with a violence that makes the past three days feel like a prelude, the bonding hormones and the heat hormones colliding in my system. My body goesrigid between them and a cry rips from my throat that has nothing to do with the orgasm still rolling through me.
"Get him to the nest." Amos pulls out first, his teeth releasing the bite on my neck. "Dom, get him to the bed. This is the breakthrough wave."
Dominic pulls out, my body convulsing, every muscle locked, tears and slick and come running down my thighs as he carries me down the hall. The bond marks on both sides of my neck are bleeding and the sensation of the open wounds mixing with the heat surge makes my head spin so badly I bury my face in Dominic's chest and hold on.
The nest receives me. Dominic lowers me into the center of the ruined fabrics and Amos is already there, positioning himself beside me, his hand pressing a clean cloth against the bite mark on the right side of my neck. Dominic mirrors him on the left, his palm warm against the wound, stemming the blood while my body thrashes through the wave.
"Stay with us, firefly." Dominic's voice reaches me through the haze. "The heat is breaking. This is the last one. Stay with us."
Through the bond I can feel them. Not just their hands on my neck and their bodies beside mine but their actual presence, twin currents of emotion flowing into me from opposite sides. Dominic's is fierce and sharp, a blade of protective fury wrapped around something terrified. Amos' is steady and deep, holding me to the surface while the wave tries to pull me under.
The wave crests. My body arches off the nest and every muscle fires at once and then the tension breaks, shattering outward from the bond marks in both directions, and the heat releases its grip on my body with a finality that feels like a bone resetting after a break.
I collapse into the nest.
The heat is gone. Not receding, not simmering, gone. The constant fire that's been burning in my gut for three daysextinguishes between one breath and the next and what replaces it is a clarity so sharp it almost hurts. My body is wrung out and trembling, my neck bleeding from both sides, my thighs wet, my muscles so spent that even breathing takes conscious effort.
But through the bond I can feel them. Both of them. The twin presences in my chest that pulse with every beat of their hearts.
"Niah." Amos' voice is careful. "Can you hear me?"
"MMMM." My voice comes out as a rasp, barely audible. "You’re really here, inside my chest."
"That's the bond, Niah." Amos presses the cloth gently against the bite on my neck. "It's permanent now."
"The marks hurt but the bond itself doesn't." Tears leak from the corners of my eyes but they're not pain tears. "It feels like the first deep breath I've taken in my entire life." I reach for both of their hands and find them, one on each side, and thread my fingers through theirs.
Through the bond I can feel something Dominic will never put into words.
"You're ours, firefly. Forever." He says it the way he says everything that matters, like it's already been decided.
"I know." I squeeze back. "I can feel it."
Amos presses his mouth against the edge of the bite mark on my neck, gentle enough not to disturb the wound, firm enough that I feel his lips through the new bond and the sensation makes my toes curl.
"I love you, too, Amos. I heard you. I didn't forget."
He smirks against my new mark. "I told you that you wouldn't."
Dominic
Mattaniahhasbeenasleepfor nine hours and I’ve spent most of them lying beside him with my hand on his chest, feeling the bond pulse beneath his skin. The marks on his neck are still raised and red, the tissue swollen around the bite impressions. Every time my thumb traces the edge of the one I left on the left side, his body shivers in his sleep and Amos makes a sound from the other side of the bed.
“Stop doing that.” Amos' voice is rough with sleep, his arm draped across the Omega’s waist. “Every time you touch his mark I feel it through the bond. It’s like someone running a finger down my spine.”
“I know.” I trace the mark again and Amos' breath catches. The feedback loop between the three of us is still new enough that every accidental brush against the bond marks sends sensation cascading through the circuit in ways none of us can predict.
This is different from what I have with Amos. The bond between us is six years old, worn smooth with use, a constant low hum I stopped noticing years ago. The bond through Mattaniah is raw and loud, every emotion amplified, every sensation shared. The possessiveness that used to feel like mine alone now runs through all three of us.
Mattaniah stirs beneath my hand. His eyes open, unfocused with sleep, and when they find my face above him the smile that spreads across his mouth is unguarded in a way I've never seen from him while conscious. His face carries no armor, no calculation. He just smiles at me because I’m the first thing he sees.
His contentment hits me through the bond, a warm pressure spreading through my chest.
It isn’t enough because I’m a liar.
The thought lands but I clamp down on it before the bond can transmit the guilt to Mattaniah. I’m still learning to guard my emotions through the new connection. It’s harder than I expected. Amos catches my eye over Mattaniah’s head and the look he gives me tells me he felt something even if the Omega didn’t.
