Fear brushes against my chest, but only for a moment. My body is turned until I’m on my back, and I find myself gazing up at Walker. He hovers over me, his thumb sliding aimlessly along my cheek.
I don’t even realize there’s a tear until he scoops it up.
“Nothing happens unless you say it happens, you got that?” he asks.
Knox fluffs a soft blanket over me. “Just because we’ve taken time off doesn’t mean you need to have us around. We’ll do whatever you need.”
Eli picks up one of my feet and presses his thumbs into my aching arches. “And if what you need is to get back to your apartment and curl up, then so be it.”
“No, please,” I whimper out. “I hate that place. Don’t make me go back.”
“Shh,” Walker hushes as he cups my cheek. “If you don’t want to be there, then you’re not there. End of story.”
“Okay.” I sniffle.
“We should get her cooled down, at the very least,” Knox says.
“No,” I whine. “No cold shower. Please. Bath. I want a bath. Hot, and steamy, and soapy. My inside is so cold, don’t make me take a cold shower.”
“One hot bath, coming right up,” Walker says. “Eli.”
“Already on it,” he says as he sets my foot back down. “Knox, go make her something cool to drink, in case she needs it while she’s soaking.”
“I’ll be back,” Knox says.
It’s a blur, wrangling me into that tub. All I know is that when I sink beneath the hot, soapy bubbles, a groan leaves my lips.
There’s ice-cold water inside of the straw my mouth is offered, and I gulp greedily while I allow myself to sink into the patchy timescape that is an Omega’s heat. When instincts stir, time has a tendency to blur, or fade in and out altogether.
All I know is that the hot bath feels phenomenal.
Everything blurs until I’m lifted from the tub. Walker says something about the water getting cold when I whine, and then there’s a plush towel draped around me. My hair is squeezed out. Someone’s putting lotion on my skin.
There’s more cool water, and I gulp it down with a selfishness that belies how much my instincts are raging.
My Omega side is itching to be freed.
By the time they guide me back to bed, there’s a nest on top of it. There’s a mound of blanket I burrow myself into, with pillows that smell like Knox has rubbed himself all over them.
I press my nose into the fabric and inhale until my lungs can no longer expand, drowning myself on his rainfall and mocha scent.
“There we go,” Walker says as he settles where my head pokes out. “Nice and easy.”
“If you wanna give me those feet, I can keep going,” Eli says as he perches at the end of the bed.
Knox’s hand slips inside the mound of blankets, finding my fingers. “I’m right here. Let me know if you need anything.”
Through Walker stroking my hair, Knox holding my hand, and Eli massaging my feet, I can’t battle against my instincts any longer. They’re aching to be set free, and I know I have to give in to them.
As much as I don’t want to admit it, it’s time. My heat is here, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
But this heat is different. It isn’t scary, like my other ones. It isn’t overwhelming, or threatening to smother me in emotions I can’t reconcile. I feel safe. Protected. Surrounded. Like no one could get to me, even if they tried.
I like that.
A lot.
They didn’t have to do this for me. I didn’t ask them to. They just… did. They cleared their schedules, just in case. They’re here now, taking care of me, instead of mounting me and taking Alphas think they can take so freely.
