“Yes, Malric. I want to be yours,” she said, the words a plea. “Please. Both of you. I want this?—”
The spot was there, beneath my mouth, and she tilted her head to the side to expose it. I bared my teeth and the canine that had been aching for a few days, though I hadn’t realized why, throbbed and demanded that I complete the bond.
I bit her, the coppery taste of blood filling my mouth, and we both orgasmed, the force of it and the bond seeming to come from somewhere deep inside, hollowing me out.
Her cry fractured through the nest, and the bond surged into being with a force that moved through every layer of me—not the careful thread I’d been managing from a distance but the real thing, immediate and complete and nothing like what I’d spent ten years being afraid of. She was everywhere inside me, her presence suddenly occupying a space I hadn’t known was empty, her fear and her want and her amazing self-landing in my chest like something clicking into place.
I licked the wound, our biology already sealing it shut. My knot swelled, locking me inside of her, her orgasm rolling through her endlessly, the little quakes milking my cock constantly. I settled on my side, pulling her to me, soothing her as she sobbed through the aftermath. Her trembling was subsiding into aftershocks. Thane’s hand was in her hair and his eyes were on me, dark and certain.
I don’t know how long we lay there, but finally my knot loosened and I pulled out, a river of cum and her slick following me. She opened her eyes and turned to me, her eyes wide with wonder.
“I feel you. In here.” She rubbed her chest, her face still in a daze.
After a few moments, she reached for Thane. “It’s not complete. I need you, too.”
He cupped her cheek tenderly, but I could see the strain in the tight jaw, the lines around his eyes. I could feel his need through our bond, though he was restraining himself.
I pulled back from Aveline and she reached for him.
They kissed, a mating of tongues and heat, seemingly content to spend time reacquainting themselves with each other. I contented myself with watching, letting them have this moment together. After a few minutes, Aveline turned restless, and Thane settled over her. He notched himself at her entrance and pushed inside, slowly, keeping his eyes on her the entire time. As he advanced, her cries shifted, and I experienced Thane’s feelings—love, awe, and being overcome—via our existing connection. This bond now seemed to be expanding, encompassing all of us.
He met my eyes. He leaned forward, and his hand found her shoulder. He turned his head and pressed his mouth to the other side. The sound she made around me was unintelligible and complete.
Then he bit and the bond snapped into place for all three of us, simultaneously, the full impact of it settling like a key turning in a lock. I felt Thane, Aveline, and myself refracted through both of them, and the sensation was so enormous and so intense that I gripped the furs to absorb the sensation.
She pulled back from me and turned her head. She looked at Thane and then at me, her eyes bright and entirely clear despite everything, and said nothing.
She didn’t need to. I was able to sense her feelings completely.
Thane looked at me and I sensed what he needed. I moved behind him and reached between him and Aveline, gathering her slick to cover my cock. I covered my fingers then reached between his thighs, circling his entrance.
“Relax. You know how this goes.”
His head dropped to Aveline’s forehead and a low moan escaped as I worked him open, added a second, then a third finger, stretching him to take me. I withdrew my fingers andpositioned myself at his entrance. The head of my cock pressed against him, and I paused, giving him a moment to adjust, to breathe.
“Ready?” I asked, my voice low and strained.
I didn’t wait for a response. I pushed inside in one steady thrust, sending him forward into Aveline. Both of them cried out at the motion. I pulled back and thrust in again, harder this time, fucking both him and Aveline, setting the bond between the three of us in place. We all came with loud cries and collapsed into the nest together. Thane and I shifted to the sides with her between us. Thane settled at her back and I was at her front, the heavy fur pulled up against the cooled air of the tower room.
The heat had broken.
Not in a wave, not in the way the earlier cycles had broken. Simply resolved. Her body had what it needed and had stopped demanding it. The nest was quiet.
I kissed her temple, sensing her warmth, exhaustion, and presence through our connection, while Thane replicated the gesture at the nape of her neck.
“That was something. I feel you both now,” she said, after a while.
“Yes,” I said.
“I told you I was sure.”
“You did.”
A pause.
“You could have mentioned the bite days ago,” she said.
Thane, behind her, made the sound he made when he was laughing and trying not to.
