Dreaming
Lyra
Adrian's tongue drags slowly over my clit, teasing me, and my hips lift off the blankets, trying to chase it.
"Such a responsive little thing." He chuckles, caressing my skin.
His hands are the gentlest things I've ever felt, spread wide and warm over the tops of my thighs, holding me open without any force behind it.
He hums against me as he licks again, and the sound rolls all the way up through my belly. Pine and crisp winter air fill my lungs with every breath I take.
I've got both hands fisted in his hair, steering him, grinding up into his mouth. And God, it's good. It’s like some part of me that has been waiting my whole life just clicked into place. My body knows this alpha. It wants him with a pull that consumes every inch of me.
Adrian works me like I'm the finest thing he's ever put his mouth on.
"That's it," someone murmurs at my side.
I turn my head and Owen's there, close, watching me with his glasses pushed up into his hair. His hazel eyes have gone dark and soft as he touches his cock, watching, drinking me in while Adrian works me over. There's so much love in his face that my throat goes tight around a moan.
He looks just like he did in those pictures.
On my other side, Mack sprawls back on one elbow, that easy grin tugging at his mouth, his blond hair loose around his shoulders. His hazelnut scent curls toward me and does the thing it always does, pulling my own mouth into a smile, even like this.
"Do you feel that, Adrian?" Mack drawls, delighted. "She's going to come. Goddamn, it’s a beautiful sight."
The coil in my belly winds tighter with every pass of Adrian's tongue, and my head falls back on a whimper.
Then warm breath ghosts over my ear.
"There's my good girl." Nico’s voice pours into me, dark and certain, and everything in me clenches at the sound of it.
He's suddenly at my back, lifting me. His big frame curves around mine while Adrian keeps licking.
"Look at you," Nico growls softly in my ear. "Riding Adrian's face so sweet. Being so good for us." His lips brush the shell of my ear, then down to my fresh mating bite. "That's what you are, Lyra. Our good omega."
I moan for him, high and needy, as the praise pulls the coil in me taut.. I want it. I want to be good for them more than I've ever wanted anything.
Theirs, kept, wanted, and touched like this until I forget I ever belonged to anyone else.
Adrian pushes a deep growl into my pussy and the heat crests. I'm right there, teetering, my body drawn bowstring-tight.
Then everything changes.
A sharp pain hits without warning. It’s a harsh, brutal stretch that tears straight up through the pleasure.
"What?" I try to lift my head, but I struggle to focus. Everything is a blur.
Suddenly, Adrian's gentle hands are gone. The pine is gone. And I force my eyes to focus on the alpha crawling over me. Then I see his face.
Crispin is between my legs.
Clove and whiskey flood my nose, thick enough to gag on, and I look down the length of my own body to where he's forcing himself into me.
As his huge, obscene shaft breaches me, I watch in horror as a rush of blood flows out of me, staining my skin and soaking the sheets beneath.
But Crispin doesn't care. He keeps driving into me, inch by inch, tearing me apart while I scream and fight.
"No!" The word rips out of me. "No, stop! I don't want this."
I twist my hips, thrashing, trying to throw the alpha off, but he's so heavy, pinning me down the way he did on my father's couch.
"I don't want you." I sob, wild, searching the dark past his shoulder. "I want Nico. Owen! I want my pack. Please, I want them, not you."
Then Nico’s face appears.
He stands just past my feet, Owen, Mack, and Adrian gathered behind him, and every one of them watches me with grief carved into their faces.
"Nico." I strain toward him, reaching for my alpha, while Crispin's weight crushes the breath out of me. "Please. Help me."
But Nico only shakes his head like he’s sorry.
"I wish we could keep you," he says, and his voice is so gentle, and it's somehow worse than anything Crispin is doing to me. "God, I wish we could. But you were never ours to keep, sweetheart."
"I am," I gasp. "I am yours. You mated me. You—"
"But you gave yourself away, before I claimed you."
Nico lifts his hand, and there it is. The contract. He holds it up in front of my face, page after page of dense black print, and at the bottom of the last page, in my own shaking handwriting, is my full name.
Artemis Lyra Van Houten.
"You belong to him," Nico says softly. "You gave him your name, and there's nothing we can do."
No!
No! No! No!
I scream, the sound ripping across my throat, as Crispin’s face fills the room.
He smiles as he drives into me, the pain becoming sharper with every moment.
Then his white canines flash in the dark.
"You. Are. Mine!"
My eyes fly open and my body jerks hard, but I can’t move. There’s an arm banded across my waist, and it tightens, pulling me closer.
For a second, I don't know where I am.
Then I inhale.
Leather and sage swirl all around me as I realize there’s warm skin under my cheek and a heartbeat thudding slow and steady against my ear.
Nico.
The fear drains out of me all at once as I realize I'm sprawled across the alpha’s chest, my palm resting on the cross tattoo over his heart. Owen is a warm line down my back, and the arm banded across my waist is his, holding me close even in his sleep.
I’m safe.
All at once, my heart settles, and the knot in my stomach loosens and gives.
And that's when I feel Nico.
The alpha is carefully tucked into the back of my mind. He's asleep, so it isn't a strong presence, but he’s peaceful and warm, and I can feel it from the inside out.
I press my palm flatter over his heart and let our bond thrum between us. I'm so happy I could cry, and I want to lay here forever, soaking it up.
But unfortunately, I have to go to the bathroom.
Moving very slowly, I ease Owen's arm off my waist, then slide out from between them one inch at a time.
Nico's hand twitches once, reaching for me, but then goes still. Owen mumbles into the pillow and rolls into the warm dip I leave behind.
Tip toeing across the room, I grab the first shirt I find off the floor and pull it over my head. It's Nico’s, swallowing me to mid-thigh and smelling so intensely like him.
My mate.
Mine.
This gorgeous, growly, careful man is actually mine, and there's a mark on my neck to prove it.
I glance back at the bed, taking in Nico’s big, impressive body, with Owen tucked up at his side.
Last night, Owen didn’t claim my body the way Nico did.
He touched every inch of me with that skillful mouth and strong hands, but I never got him inside me. The thought heats my face even here in the morning light as I picture it. I bet he’ll claim me slow and passionate, taking his time the way he takes his time with everything. I can't wait.
I only wish Adrian and Mack had been here too.
I want my whole pack in this bed. I want to belong to every last one of them at once, but I’m sure there’s some kind of unspoken order within packs. Which means Nico had to be first.
At least, I hope that’s what it was, and Adrian and Mack didn’t leave because Nico mated me. That can’t be it.
I hope.
Moving quietly, I turn the knob and slip into the hall, going straight to the bathroom. Once inside, I ease the door shut behind me. Every muscle in my body groans as I sit down and relieve myself. There’s even a dull ache inside me, and my entrance is beyond sore when I clean myself up.
I kind of like it.
Once I’m done, I wash my hands, then check myself out in the mirror.
My hair is a mess, but my cheeks are flushed pink and my eyes look bright. And, right there, beneath my left ear, is Nico’s mating bite. It sits high on the throat where no collar could ever cover it. The skin is broken and raw, ringed deep purple and red in the shape of Nico's teeth.
It's perfect.
I'm still smiling like an idiot when I step back into the hall and hear two voices coming from the living room.
Adrian and Mack.
Adrian is home. Thank goodness. I just wish I knew where he went last night or why he didn’t come into the bedroom.
Maybe I went about this mating thing all wrong, and he’s pissed. Maybe Mack is pissed too that I didn’t talk to them beforehand and instead offered myself up to Nico without a second thought.
Hell, I didn’t even have much of a first thought.
I simply went with the only thing that popped into my head, stripped down, and waited on the alpha’s bed.
I hear Mack’s deep tones and I creep to the mouth of the hallway and peek out at them. The two alphas are on the couch, side by side in the soft morning light.
Mack has one arm slung along the back of the cushions, his blond hair falling into his face, and he's leaned in close, murmuring something into the side of Adrian's face that I can't hear. Whatever it is, that teasing grin is all over his mouth.
Then Mack turns Adrian’s head and presses his mouth to the alpha’s.
Adrian huffs a laugh against Mack's lips at whatever he said, then kisses him back, one hand coming up to rest on Mack's jaw.
Heat pours through me at the sight of them, followed by deep worry. I definitely should have talked to them.
I don't move, just watching them.
Their scents drift down the hall and wrap around me, pine and clean rain tangled up with warm hazelnut, and my whole body goes soft and greedy at once.
Slick gathers between my thighs before I can think to stop it, and I press my knees together, watching the two of them love on each other in the quiet.
I want to be a part of it so badly that my chest aches.
Inching forward, I take half a step, and the floorboard groans under my foot.
Both their heads turn to me.
Mack sees me first, and that handsome grin widens. "Mornin', sunshine." He shifts, putting some space between him and Adrian. Then he pats the spot. "Come and sit."