Kev crouches in front of Espie and does the same for her, the flannel folded small so he can get the line of her jaw, the back of her neck, the crease of her elbows. She closes her eyes and tips her head back.
Lex takes Sera's good hand and cleans it, working around the bandaged one before picking up her ravaged hand. He kisses the back of the bandage. “Is it still numb?”
She nods her head. “Thankfully.”
Lex sets the flannel down and reaches for the top button of her jacket. “Let me help you out of these, Alpha.”
She goes still. Lex waits. He is very good at waiting.
“I've got you,” Lex says quietly. “This doesn't happen without your consent, but you need to get out of these clothes and I’d like to clean you. Would that be okay?”
After a moment she exhales and the tension in her shoulders goes with it. Her voice comes out soft. “Okay.”
He works the buttons, careful around her bandaged hand as he gets her out of her dirty shirt. He reaches behind her and unclasps her bra. She tips her face up to the sky for a moment,eyes closed, and the line of her throat is something I want to put my mouth on immediately.
Lex picks up a fresh flannel. He starts at her face, her temples, the back of her neck. She closes her eyes as he works down to her collarbones, her shoulders, careful around the bruising, and she makes a small sound when he gets close to it and he stops immediately.
“Too much?”
“No. Keep going.”
Lex is a tall man and Sera is nearly as tall and together they make a kind of geometry that works. He just is tender, the way he is with everything he cares about — unhurried, specific, paying full attention.
She opens her eyes and looks at him and something passes between. Old and stubborn and enormous. He loves her, and she him, even when they didn’t understand their feelings.
He folds the flannel and sets it aside. She reaches up and puts her good hand against his jaw and he turns into it, his eyes closing for just a second.
Our mates. Both of theirs and both mine and the heat rises. A whine slips past my lips no matter how I want to sit here and admire my mates loving each other.
Lex takes my hand and helps me rise. “Come on, Omega. You need your nest.” His gaze slides around all of us. “We all do.”
Lex slides the patio door open. The air hits me. Cool and green and alive, the scent of Espie's plants drifting through the dark, jasmine and rosemary and underneath all of it the cedar and chamomile of our nest. The fairy lights strung along the rafters throw soft gold across the space. The patio glass has gone opaque around us. No one can see in. No one knows we're here except us.
Lex leads me to the nest and I let go, the need to arrange the blankets, throws and clothing too much of an impulse to deny.
The cushions give under my hands. Our blankets are layered and full of the pack's scents from weeks of sleeping out here. It’s exactly what I need.
Espie dives into the nest, shifting blankets and articles of clothing, pulling one corner here, folding one edge there. I grab the far edge of the largest blanket and fold it back, and then start weaving the blankets and throws to build a wall around the perimeter of the chair.
She reaches for the blue throw and I'm already lifting the corner. She tucks the edge of the weighted blanket and I hold the fold in place. My hands know where she wants things before she does, and hers know the same about me, and the nest takes shape around us.
We sink together into the middle of the nest when everything is right. The blankets close around us, holding in the scents of cedar, chamomile, and gardenia until they become their own kind of atmosphere. Desire twists low and tight inside me, relentless now.
I lean into her hair and inhale shakily. She makes a faint sound in response, and I draw back just far enough to find her eyes. Her pupils are wide. Her cheeks are flushed. Her lips are parted and she's breathing through them in short pulls, and I put my forehead to hers. Hot. She’s as hot as I am.
We’re going into heat together.
Mine triggered hers.
“Are you okay, my sweet omega?” I ask her.
Her cheeks are already flushed dark and she ducks her chin, the way she does when she doesn't want me to see her smile. Too late. It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen — Espie Durant, going shy on me, when in twenty minutes we are both going to be out of our minds and climbing the walls of this nest for our alphas.
“I can’t wait. We’re going to wreck each other and them,” I whisper.
A smile tugs her lips. She gazes into my eyes and opens herself to me. Her want. Her need. Her absolute truth blooms through me. “Not unless I wreck you first.”
Her mouth opens under mine and she makes a sound that goes straight to my cock and I want nothing in the world except to sink into her and stay there forever. Wanting her is past managing. It has stopped being a feeling and started being a fact. We need our alphas.
