Chapter 62 Raven
RAVEN
As soon as I hear the door, I jump up off the couch and run into Foster’s arms. He’s been gone most of the day. “Where were you?”
“Just dealing with something.” He kisses my temple sweetly, and my insides melt.
“I missed you,” I whisper, just for him.
“Didn’t our pack take care of you, principessa?” He looks over my shoulder at the rest of the guys. “Do I need to punish them?”
I giggle, a girlish sound I’m not used to making. “I think some of them might like that.”
“Hell yeah,” Vann says, hopping off the couch and shaking his backside. “Spank me, big guy. Spank me real hard.”
Everyone laughs except Tanner, who’s staring at his phone screen with wide eyes. He looks up at Foster and holds up the device. “Did you have something to do with this?”
I take the phone from him and stare at the screen as a video plays. It’s a newscast, but what I’m seeing doesn’t make any sense. The sound is off, so I fumble with the phone to turn up the volume.
“You don’t want to see that, cucciola.” Foster tries to take the phone from me, but I jerk it away.
My shaking fingers figure out the sound, and the news anchor’s voice fills the air.
“In breaking news, Harriett Davis, publicist for Olympic figure skater Raven Novak, has been taken into custody today on allegations of suppressant tampering. Woman’s Olympic Figure Skating coach Ana Dubinsky has also been taken in for questioning.”
“Harriett did it?” My voice squeaks, throat tightening.
“Let me see that,” Orion says.
Foster plucks the phone from my hand and tosses it to Orion before wrapping me in a warm hug. His hold is like a balm for my nervous system. My racing breaths slow. The tears that threatened my eyes don’t fall.
“Shit,” Orion says, watching the screen with the volume turned so low it’s barely a murmur.
Vann and Rhodes crowd close to Orion, looking over his shoulder.
“Woah,” Rhodes says at the same time as Vann says, “Fuck.”
I stay in Foster’s arms. How could I ever have trusted either of them?
“You took care of it?” Tanner asks.
“Yeah. The authorities took them both in for questioning.”
“Good.” Tanner holds the other man’s gaze, sizing him up, shoulder’s back, expression serious. “Thanks for taking care of our omega, Pack Alpha.”
The room goes suddenly still. No one breathes as the two men stare at each other.
Foster gives Tanner a curt, masculine nod.
And that’s that. Nothing else needs to be said, because we all agree.
Foster’s the obvious choice for pack lead, and I don’t think any of us will have any trouble submitting to the strong, protective alpha.
I kiss the side of his jaw, but he’s still looking at Tanner. He crooks his finger at the other alpha, then points to the floor. I can see Tanner’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallows. He lowers to his knees.
Foster turns me to face Tanner, then, in one swift movement, tugs down my leggings and underwear together. I gasp. The rest of my men groan. Tanner’s gaze zeros in between my legs.
“You know,” Foster says, standing so close behind me that his chest brushes my back, “I don’t think you boys have groveled enough yet.” He taps his pointer finger on my clit, once, twice. “Right here, alpha. Show our omega how sorry you are and how good you’ll be to her and our pack.”
Curses echo from around the room.
Supporting my weight from behind, Foster hooks his forearm under my right thigh and lifts my leg up and out, opening me for Tanner, who wets his lips and grins.
“I will never stop apologizing with my tongue, my cock, and my whole heart. You deserve the world, Raven. And I’m gonna give it to you.”
Vann drops to his knees beside Tanner. “Can we please, pretty please, bite you now, birdie? I need you so bad.”
We’re already connected, but I understand what he needs. The link between us is weak, distanced, not direct.
“Yes,” I say, clear as day. “Bite me.”
I expect them to do it right away, instead Vann wedges his shoulder behind my left leg and bends it, taking all my weight off the floor so I’m suspended with one leg lifted and spread by Foster’s grip, and the other by Vann’s shoulder.
Wide open for Tanner. He dives in like he’s starving for me even though it’s only been a few hours since he last had a taste.
Orion brushes my hair off my neck and kisses Foster’s bond mark, licking and sucking, while Foster does the same to Orion’s mark on the back of my neck. The sensation ripples right down to my throbbing clit.
A rasping groan comes from the other side of the room, and my gaze flies up to land on Rhodes leaning against the wall, watching with a heated gaze. There’s something just a little unsure in his posture, something self-protective in the curl of his shoulders.
“Can I bite you?” I ask when his eyes meet mine.
“Me?” Rhodes points to his chest.
His surprise is so endearing, I smile. “Yes, you.”
I reach for him, and he steps forward behind Tanner, taking my hand just as Vann slips his fingers inside me. A moan spills out before I clamp my teeth down on my beta’s forearm.
Before, his presence in the bond was quiet and weak.
I didn’t know if it was because he’s a beta, or if he was closing me out.
But now, I understand it’s part of him. His nature is hesitant and gentle in the most beautiful way.
He unfurls in the bond like a slow blossoming flower, the kind that breaks through in early spring when the ground is still covered in snow.
He’s beautiful. It almost brings tears to my eyes.
Then Vann sinks his teeth into the fleshy muscle of my inner thigh that’s lifted over his shoulder at the same time as Tanner bites my pussy, putting his claim on the most intimate part of me. A gasp tunnels up my throat as my heart flips and tumbles, and an orgasm crashes through me.
They don’t need to say it because I feel it, all of their love and certainty. Whatever doubts I had vanish, and I know we’re gonna be alright.
Hours later, sweaty and satiated, we lie in my makeshift nest and talk about the future.
All the logistics we’d avoided before. Where we’ll live.
What we want from our lives. Kids. Work.
Resources. There’s still a long way to go until we’re settled down, but just knowing we’re all on the same page and planning for our future together satisfies me in a way I didn’t know I was missing.
We share secrets in the dark. And they support every tentative, whispered dream. I never could have imagined being here, with my high school bullies and an older man who was only supposed to be my bodyguard. But I’m surprised to find there’s nowhere I’d rather be.