Chapter 22
My brain refused to function, and my body refused to move.
She lay against me, lifeless and stuck on my knot.
I sprawled on the lounger, attempting to catch my breath as I cradled her unconscious body thirty-six hours after her heat had started.
We were all spent. Each time I tried to hold on to a smidgen of clarity, it disappeared under the bliss of her claiming.
She was a ravenous little Omega. And she’d wrung us into exhaustion.
After her last release, she slumped against my chest, frame trembling. I cradled her to my chest, a foreign warmth blooming and growing in my chest.
My eyes kept drifting down to her even when I tried to stop. I couldn’t. She enveloped me in warmth I’d never experienced. A softness I wished to drown in. Emotion clogged my throat.
She touched me with care and—
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Every ounce of desire and affection I’d been trying to stifle couldn’t be contained any more. There was no room for it with the violence of my need for her.
“I don’t think I can move,” Cade mumbled where he was sprawled on the floor, arms akimbo with his chest rising and falling at a rapid pace. Gasping like he’d been run through the wringer . . . it was how we all probably looked.
Our Omega had been an Energizer bunny.
The base of my cock loosened, allowing a rush of slick and cum to rush free that wet my thighs. A shiver passed over her small frame, but she remained blissfully asleep.
“Start the shower,” I murmured to no one in particular.
Dorian, who leaned against the wall with his head lowered, pushed off the wall. Since Eva had lost consciousness, the wave of guilt echoing from his side of the bond was crippling. He’d been quick to mask it, but it was unmistakable, especially since guilt was attempting to swallow all of us.
“I’ll go,” Dorian said and limped to the door. Every ginger move he made screamed pain from the rutting and fucking.
I returned my focus to Eva and slid my other arm under her legs and braced her back, pressing her against me in a cradle. It took effort to stand, and as soon as I was on my feet, static pinches traveled up my legs and pulsed along my nerve endings.
Slowly, I made my way out of the spare room that we’d gutted after Susanna disappeared.
I peered down at the nestled woman in my arms. My Scent Match and the only woman that made me feel.
Again, that foreign warmth pulsed, and I would have hugged her even tighter if I had the energy.
As it was, I was lagging, my steps halting and my biceps burning.
Her potent caramel scent had slapped across my senses, rendering me useless.
The shock had overpowered the rutting urge to fuck her and fuck her. She’d commanded the scene, and we were powerless to do anything but follow her lead. But that careful control hadn’t lasted.
She nuzzled my sternum; I swear she reached inside my chest and squeezed my heart. It’d never pulsed like that.
Eva didn’t rouse on my walk through the house and down the hall hosting the rest of the bedrooms. Dorian had turned his shower on. The selfish dick wanted her in his room.
Dorian watched the spray of the shower, body so still he seemed like a statue. I crossed to his bathroom, and he startled at my arrival, but I paid him no attention and stepped over the lip of the tub.
Water fell over my head, plastering my hair to my forehead. I made sure to angle Eva so water wasn’t hitting her face. She groaned and rubbed her nose against my chest. I stood still, letting the water clean away sweat, slick, and cum. She’d wake up nice and clean.
“A warm bath will soothe her body,” Cade said.
I hadn’t heard him enter. He stepped under the water, and I switched places with him to allow him space to rinse off.
He did it with quick, efficient motions and turned on the spout of the bath.
I stepped out and onto the towel spread outside, still holding my tired bundle.
It didn’t take long for the bath to fill.
Cade took Eva from my arms. I stiffened my grip around her on instinct, and only when Cade raised an eyebrow did I let her go. He lowered her into the bath, nestling himself behind her so she could lean against him. The water reached to cover her to her neck.
It was fortunate we had the bathrooms remodeled to fit someone of our height; it served to cover most of her body.
I plucked the towel off the rack and swiped it over my hair, watching Cade nuzzle Eva’s cheek and caress her arms.
“I-I fucked up.” Cade closed his eyes, forehead dropping against her shoulder. He was curled into her like he wasn’t a six and a half foot Alpha. His shoulders shuddered. “Will she forgive me?” he whispered so low that I almost didn’t hear it.
How could I offer him comfort if I was struggling with the same fears? “I don’t know.”
He lifted his head, his glassy eyes clashing with mine.
His vulnerability blared out at me. I hadn’t seen this side of Cade since the day Dorian and I went to the orphanage to pick him up.
Dorian and I were older than Cade by three years.
When we turned eighteen, we were released from the orphanage’s custody .
. . not Cade. He’d had to remain there for a few months while we worked odd-end jobs in an effort to qualify for ‘adopting’ him.
He’d looked like this that day we arrived. Hopeless.
I feared his reaction in the face of her rejection. There was no doubt she would punish us. As was her right after what we’d done to her.
I crouched and tucked her hair behind her ear. Her face was slack and devoid of anger or hurt.
We were all fucked in the head. One of our primary reasons for never attending Scent Matching events. For never searching for the one that was meant for us. We’d been satisfied with Susanna, because she knew we could never be ‘fixed’.
This girl deserved perfection, not three emotionally stunted Alphas.
But with her here? It calmed the restlessness and agony inside me. The same peace radiated from my bonds to the other two. I struggled to swallow and slid my wet hand up to her damp cheek. I rubbed the soft swell. Her lips twitched, and she nestled deeper into Cade’s arms.
We had to make this right by any means possible. I was prepared to crawl over hot coals if that was what she ordered from me in order to gain her forgiveness.
Dorian hadn’t stopped pacing outside the bathroom door. His anxiety seeped through the bond, leaving a sour taste on my tongue.
We couldn’t let her go. It wasn’t even an option, and she would want to leave. We wouldn’t be able to give her the one thing she wanted: freedom. And she would hate us more than she already did.
I exhaled shakily.
We would have to take her choice away. Keep her sequestered. Hopefully we would survive under the guilt, because she wouldn’t need to work hard to destroy us.
We’d treated our Scent Match like a common whore.
I exhaled hard.
And it was the greatest regret of my life.
“What are you thinking about?” Cade whispered. He met my gaze, his eyebrows scrunched together.
“If she will forgive us.”
Cade’s eyes widened, and the red bloom on his face caused by the steaming water leached out of his skin. Dorian’s panic hit my stomach. The sensation was so abrupt and harsh. He must have walked back into the bathroom.
“She will,” Dorian gritted out.
I frowned, clasping her hand in mine. It was so tiny . . .