When I stared too long at Ryder, I felt Mac's grip on me tighten protectively, his Alpha upset that my focus had shifted, or maybe that our intimate exchange was going to be cut short. I turned back to him, giving him my full attention.
“This is only the beginning, Mac. I promise.” I unthreaded my fingers at the back of his neck and used one free hand to stroke lovingly down his face.
He melted at my touch. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Hold me to it forever,” I gave him a tight squeeze, emphasizing my words. Our scents intensified and mingled, a heady cloud of jasmine and cedarwood dancing with island fruit and warm spices. I closed my eyes, inhaling. Beneath the artificial scent of the liquor he’d had, was Mac’s real cologne. Cognac. Tonka Bean. Burnt caramel. The euphoric perfume of our two bodies made me dizzy. A few moments later, notes of brown sugar and bourbon joined. I parted my lashes slowly, finding Dixon had wrapped his giant arms around both me and Mac. He leaned in, kissing my bare shoulder slowly. He looked up at me through damp lashes. The promise of what we’d started in the pack suite seemed to dance in his beautiful eyes.
Our trio almost immediately shifted into a quartet as Tray vaulted out of the pool and raced forward, splashing us with both water and his infectious laughter. He vaulted onto Dixon’s back and his glands spritzed nostalgic notes of pink bubblegum and fresh cotton candy into the mix. Dixon pulled his mouth away from my skin, pretending to be annoyed. Tray only clung more firmly to his pack brother. Mac, ever steady, held onto my body as if I was the only thing that mattered. Our personalperfumes were so very different, yet somehow, they meshed. Something was missing though.Someonewas missing.
Time seemed frozen for a few moments as we all waited with bated breath to see if Ryder would surrender to the overwhelming pull of our pack intertwining.
He did.
Slowly, but surely, Ryder moved out of the water. He took the long way, swimming to the shallow end and ascending the steps. He was either a man walking towards the gallows, or a man walking towards a mirage that might vanish at any moment. Both, maybe. Afraid to hope for a stay of execution, afraid to hope that paradise truly existed. Even after two weeks here, I kept waking up in the middle of the night wondering why I was resting on something soft instead of hard. Why there were four walls and a roof around me, instead of a cardboard box with a cut-out window and door. My Alphas probably had the same nightmares, in a different way.
When Ryder’s body wrapped around the other side of me and Mac, any polarizing of our five mingling scents vanished. My Omega and their Alphas came together seamlessly, as if the recipe of us had always been perfect, we only had to finish it. We had to trust the process. We couldn’t turn the oven off too soon and we couldn’t skip an ingredient.
“Does anyone oppose moving into the house?” I didn’t realize it was me speaking at first. I sounded like someone else, my voice gravelly and flush with desire.
Four voices rumbled their agreement in unison, a chorus of needfulness that vibrated through my chest. Mac's grip shifted and I automatically pulled my legs from his body, placing my feet parallel to the ground. I thought he was going to set me down so I could walk, but the moment my feet touched the ground he instead turned my body sideways, so my hip pressed into his body. Heat flooded my lower, intimate regions as my arm pressed against his large, all-too-ready cock. Mac leaned over, sliding one arm behind my knees as his other arm curved around my back. He lifted me again with a quick,graceful motion. I found myself cradled against his chest. I felt utterly weightless, suspended in his arms. The others—their hot desire heavy in the air—stayed closed to us as Mac began to leave the courtyard.
"Wait," Tray's voice cut through the haze, though he made no move to release his hold on Dixon and one of his hands was reaching out to stroke my cheek. "The drinks. Mac made those fancy tropical things." Even as he said it, it was easy to tell how unimportant the drinks actually were. We all only had one thing on our minds.
"Fuck the drinks," Dixon growled, his mouth grazing against my calf. He looked ridiculous with Tray still on his back, but I couldn’t focus on that for long, not while his stubble scraped deliciously against my sensitive skin.
"Language," Mac chided automatically, though his voice lacked any real reproach. His hazel eyes had darkened to something closer to amber, pupils blown wide with need. “But, agreed. Fuck the drinks.”
Ryder's laugh came out of nowhere. It sounded like he was expelling all the doubt and anxiety he’d still been keeping too close to his chest. It was a beautiful thing to hear. My eyes found him, and he looked like that guy at the concert so long ago. The lights glowing above. The music threading through us. Two souls lost in the heat of the moment. He leaned in, his mouth finding my upper arm. Warm. Fuzzy. Electric. Need.
Everywhere my Alphas touched sent shivers racing down my spine despite the heat radiating from their bodies. I felt a little twinge in my stomach, but I ignored it. When a second cramp hit, I shook it off. I’m sure it was just nerves. Sex with one Alpha would have been new to me. Sex with four Alphas was... intimidating.
Somehow, we all managed to move together into the house without tripping. We hadn’t all been in the pack suite together yet. They’d honored their word to let it be mine until I was ready.
Was I ready now?
So. Fucking. Ready.My inner Omega growled hungrily. My middle ached again, as if my body was already imagining what it might feel like to have one of their cocks sink into my inexperienced body.
The journey to the pack suite felt like both an eternity and a heartbeat. Mac's arms never wavered as he carried me, his steady breathing the only calm point in the storm of sensation swirling around us. Dixon's coarse stubble continued to rasp against my skin wherever he could reach, each scrape sending delicious sparks straight to my core. Tray—who’d slid off Dixon’s body somewhere after passing the sectional and before we’d turned into the bedroom hallway—used his fingers to trace lazy patterns over any part of me he could reach. Ryder's amber eyes burned with promises that made my stomach clench with anticipation, only offering a steady touch against my knee as we all moved.
Mac hesitated at the threshold. He exchanged glances with his pack brothers, making sure everyone was touching, before moving us into the room. The symbolic crossing made my pulse quicken and my heart feel too heavy in my chest. We’d made baby steps since I’d arrived, inching us towards becoming a real pack, but this was a leap into fate’s embrace. My Alphas would have waited longer, I knew that, but what would more time change? Eventually, we were going to mate. We were going to mark. They were going to explore every inch of my body, and I was going to do the same. One. By. One. I’d discover parts of them still unknown to me, hidden by clothing and emotional walls. I wanted them. Needed them. I loved… I loved…god, I loved them?
It wasn’t just the amalgamation of our scents making the world misty. Confusion flooded through me, warring with the drowning desire. My insides spasmed. Pain. Passion. Swirling together.
I was struck—as if lightning could be bottled and deployed at will—by bolts of insatiable need. I felt even stranger now. Walking through a fog. Brain clouded. I cramped again, my body tensing against the discomfort. I was so fucking aroused, every part of me alive with unquenchable fire. Was arousal supposed to be painful? I didn’t know. I’d only satisfied myself in the past, when my heat had become too much to handle. Orgasming took the edge off. It had always been mechanical, born of necessity. Here, now, I was surrounded by Alphas ready to fulfill my every request. It shouldn’t hurt. It should be effervescent.
I wasn’t on the streets.
I wasn’t suffering in a box, trying to warm myself with newspapers. I was safe.
Mac was still carrying me towards the bed, I knew that for certain, and I was caught in a writhing mass of bodies trying to touch and be touched. Everything else was muddled. My gaze, though lacking clarity, locked on the wall shelving. It really didn’t look like a tree. A furry ball of white and orange was curled against one of the hammocks. I was safe. Josie was safe. We were in Oblivion Haze’s mansion. We had been for two weeks.
Warmth flooded me.
My lower regions tightened and tingled.
One of the guys, ran a hand dangerously high on my inner thigh. I tilted my head back, lashes fluttering as I nearly drowned in yearning.
Yes, I wanted them. All of them. My body desperately needed to be filled. Every part of me was primed. Ready.Slick soaked down my legs, the dam breaking. Another cramp hit, the pain of it incongruous to the pleasure.
