Page 104 of Bonded By Tea and Tarot

“Siobhan,” he says. “Moonbeam. You’re the light of my life.”

Her lips part and I think she stops breathing for a moment. I crack open my side of the bond, needing to know what she’s feeling. If she’s going to say no, I need a heads up. Instead of disbelief or apprehension or uncertainty, that tiny crack I opened gets flooded with resounding yes.

Desire and want and need and belonging, yearning so fierce it takes my breath away. I stare at her, this perfect creature, and wonder if this is true. If it could really be happening. That after all of my mistakes, grunting at her like a beast, after taking away her autonomy, she’d truly feel this way about the possibility of being with us forever. Because she certainly knows by now what this is.

“…I knew the moment I first saw you years ago that I was meant to be yours,” Aury is saying, and I pull out of Siobhan’s overwhelming emotions to listen. I can’t take my eyes from her, though. “You’re brave and strong, so creative and resilient. Not to mention the hottest woman I’ve ever laid eyes on,” Aury says with a grin.

Siobhan laughs, but it sounds suspiciously close to a sob, and I lurch forward. I barely stop myself at the last moment from scooping her up and depositing her in my lap. I freeze with both arms outstretches, hands inches from her waist. I fist my hands, swallow hard, then let my eyes slowly travel up to her face.

She’s looking at me with wide eyes. Eyes that are pleading. Hopeful?

“Pretty omega,” I whisper, my voice so hoarse I don’t know if she can understand me. “I need—” I cut myself off. This isn’t about me, but I do need her. “Can I hold you? Please?”

Her smile is quick and bright, and leans forward the last few inches to close the distance between my hands and her waist. “Yes, Jayce.”

I snatch her up and deposit her between my legs, and Aury heaves a world-ending sigh. He rolls his eyes, then shuffles closer so he can take her hand again. Siobhan giggles at his dramatics, and Hayden rests one hand back on my neck, and the other on Siobhan’s thigh so their arm is resting on my leg as well. Only when she’s tucked into me do I realize how much of the anxiety swirling through me was my alpha instincts on edge. Cutting myself off from what is still a relatively new bond was probably not my best idea, and I don’t plan on ever doing that again. Everything settles into a low hum with her tucked against me.

“As I was saying,” Aury says, shooting me a pointed look. “Siobhan Marie Clark, would you make us the happiest pack in the world by allowing the three of us to be yours? And if you want, we’d love for you to be ours as well.”

The wind sighs through the sweeping yellow willow fronds that surround us, then it falls silent as we all wait with baited breath for her answer.

Chapter Fifty-Six

Siobhan

They want to be mine? That’s what he said. He didn’t ask me to be theirs, he asked if I’d allow them to be mine.

My omega fucking loves that. She decided long ago that they were ours, and it’s about time we made it official. I blink to clear the blurry tears from my vision, ignoring the emotion. Lunging forward, I snag Aury’s face between my palms, then lean back into Jayce’s warmth, pulling Aury with me.

He squeaks in surprise but follows, and I kiss him soundly.

Jayce sucks in a surprised breath, and I can finally feel him again in the bond as the emotion breaks through whatever wall he put up between us. Hayden’s fingers clench on my thigh, not hard enough to hurt, but certainly enough that I notice. They’re holding themself back. To let me maintain control.

I grin into Aury’s kiss, no longer able to contain my joy.

“Aury,” I whisper into his mouth. “Yes.”

Aury pulls back to stare at me, breathing hard. “Yes?” His gaze swivels behind me to Jayce, then over to Hayden. “She said yes, right? You both heard that.”

Hayden chuckles that deep, resonant laugh that always sends tingles down my spine. I huff and tug Aury’s face back to mine.

“Yes,” I say, pretending exasperation while love pours out of me. “Of course I said yes, you ridiculous man. I love you, and you’ve been mine since the day we met.” I turn to the others. “All of you have. I know I wasn’t sure at first, that I have some control issues⁠—”

Hayden cuts me off with a low growl. “Don’t talk about yourself that way, little witch. No one gets to talk down to my omega, not even herself.”

I stare at them for a moment, then shake my head with a laugh. “I haven’t agreed to be yours yet, you big annoying alpha,” I tease, poking them in the chest.

Hayden’s eyes flare, and Jayce sucks in a quick breath, like he knows what that look means. I suspect I just landed myself in a whole heap of trouble.

“Oh, you haven’t yet?” Hayden leans into my space, but I refuse to shrink away from their intensity. “And what will it take for you to agree to be ours?” they whisper barely an inch from my parted lips. Their heady Palo Santo scent engulfs me and my lower belly clenches in anticipation. Their last words sink straight through my skin into my heart. “To be mine?”

I breathe them in while the world waits, and I blink once, shifting my gaze from their firm lips up to their intense brown eyes. Every molecule of their being is focused on me, and it has my omega preening, wanting to flip over and present for our alpha.

“Everything,” I whisper. “Nothing.”

Hayden’s eyes flare with heat right as I surge forward, closing the minuscule gap they left between us. I throw my entire body at them, and they tumble backwards with an ‘oomph’ as they land on their back on the blanket. Aury gasps, Jayce grunts—probably in displeasure that I’m no longer plastered to his front—but Hayden growls. A deep, approving growl that sends my omega into a frenzy.

The wind picks up, throwing my hair into disarray around us as I nip and bite at Hayden’s lips. The yellow and gold leaves from the weeping willow rain down around us, but I ignore it all. I tear at Hayden’s t-shirt beneath their worn leather jacket, letting out a growl of my own when it doesn’t immediately bare their skin to me. Hayden snarls into my mouth, then grips the collar of his shirt and rips it straight down the middle.