Chapter 43
Lia
Idon’t remember when the fire finally stops. Only the quiet that comes after it.
It’s not sudden. It doesn’t just vanish. It fades out, like a storm rolling out of town that leaves everything drenched in its wake.
My body aches in places I don’t have names for. My limbs feel like they weigh twice as much as they should. Even my thoughts come slower, like they have to push through fog to reach me.
But the fever is gone. And in its place?
Peace.
Real peace. Not the frantic, clawing peace that comes from having everything under control.
This is different. Steadier, and more gentle than before.
A voice catches my attention through the fog.
“Hey,” Eli murmurs.
His voice is the first thing I truly latch onto. It wraps around me, low and soothing, and when I manage to crack my eyes open, his face is the first I see.
There’s a soft concern behind his glasses and tired edges at the corners of his wondrous blue eyes. The kindness in his eyes makes my chest tighten.
“There she is,” he whispers.
My smile is lopsided, and my voice is wrecked. “Hi.”
Eli smooths his thumb along my cheek. “How you feeling, Alley Cat?”
“I feel…” My voice throat is dry. My voice, weak. I swallow hard and try again. “I feel like I got hit by a truck.”
Knox huffs out a quiet laugh somewhere nearby. “Yeah, that tracks.”
I try and shift to see him, but Eli moves quicker than I do.
“Easy.” Eli’s hands slide beneath me, lifting me like I weigh nothing. He carries me as if I might break if he shifts me wrong. I curl against him. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
I don’t protest.
I don’t think I could if I tried.
I just let him gather me up. My head falls against his shoulder as he carries me, and I breathe him in without thinking.
There’s still that underlying Alpha edge, something that makes my instincts stir even now, but it’s softened. Calmer. His scent, woven with the rest of theirs in something that feels and smells like… home.
The bathroom fills with steam before I fully register what’s happening.
The sound of running water echoes softly, and when Eli lowers me into the tub, I hiss at the first touch of hot water against my skin.
Then I melt into it.
“Oh,” I breathe.
“Better?” he asks.
I nod, my eyes slipping shut as the heat seeps into my bones. My muscles loosen inch by inch, the tension unraveling in slow, careful threads.
Eli stays right there with me.
He doesn’t rush me. Doesn’t crowd. His hands move with quiet purpose, rinsing my hair and washing my skin with a soapy washcloth. His touch is steady and respectful in a way that makes something in my chest ache all over again.
This is what I didn’t have before, with my other pack.
Not once, not a single time, did any of them treat me like this. There was no help through the aftermath of my heat. No help through the exhaustion.
My prior pack fucked me, marked me, and then went on with their lives, expecting me to make a home inside of theirs without asking me once what I wanted with my own life.
But they’re not like that.
Eli, Knox, and Walker. They’re special.
They’re mine.
It makes me smile as Eli washes me down in the bath.
“I’ve got you,” he murmurs, like he can feel where my thoughts are going.
My eyes open, and I look at him. Really look at him.
“You stayed,” I whisper.
His brow furrows slightly. “Of course I did.”
He says it like it’s obvious. Like there was never another option.
My throat clenches and I have to swallow the knot that’s forming.
Before I can think too hard about it, I lean forward, pressing my face against his bare shoulder. My hands slide weakly along his chest, grounding myself in his strength and his presence.
My teeth graze his shoulder before I whisper the words out. “I want to mark you, too.”
Eli stills for half a second before that soothing voice of his stirs against my ear. “What are you waiting for, then?”
The pulsing in my teeth soars to a dull roar in my ears as I part my lips. I bite down against his shoulder, the sharp tang of his blood tainting my tongue.
He doesn’t move. Doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t complain or ask me to stop.
He leans into it, leans against my mouth. As if he wants me deeper.
“That’s it,” he murmurs, “now I’m yours, too.”
Something inside of me settles. A hole I didn’t even realize I had been carrying around in my chest fills a little more as my teeth pull away.
My tongue slides along the bleeding mark, my scent splashing into the air around us. It pulls a soft growl from the bottom of his throat and goosebumps travel along my body at the sound.
“I’ve got you,” I whisper against his mark.
By the time he helps me out of the bath, I feel like I’m walking through a dream. Eli wraps me in a towel and helps me dry off before guiding me back toward his room.
If this is a dream? I never want to wake up from it.
Walker’s scent pulls my attention back to the bed.
There he is, perched at the edge of the bed. Wait, no. Not the bed. Not a bed, anyway. Knox is behind him, rearranging our crusted blankets that smell like us and fluffing the pillows he keeps nuzzling his cheek and neck against.
Knox is rebuilding a nest.
Tears crest my eyes.
“There you are,” Walker says as he stands and makes his way toward me in nothing but a pair of boxers. His lean body is on display, and I can’t help but devour him with my eyes. “How’d your bath go with Eli?”
“Good,” I croak out.
“Come on, beautiful,” Walker says, his voice warm and soft in a way I haven’t heard it yet. “Let’s get you settled back into bed. I’ll fix you something easy for your stomach.”
As the sunlight pours through Eli’s bedroom window, it illuminates Walker’s body from behind. He looks almost angelic. Soft instead of distant. Like he’s more open.
Eli helps me settle back into the nest.
He tucks the blankets around me while Knox adjusts the pillows behind my back.
It’s a seamless dance the three of them do, with the pillar of the dance being me.
They move around me like they’ve done this their whole lives.
Like we’ve been together for years and this is just another hiccup in our week.
Walker dips down and kisses the top of my head before heading for the kitchen.
“Want a foot massage?” Eli asks as he perches at the foot of the bed.
Knox hops into bed with me, his arm pressed against mine. “You can lean on my shoulder, if you’d like.”
I do exactly that as I wiggle one of my feet free for Eli. I let my eyes close for a few minutes, but not for long.
Walker comes walking back in with purpose. I can hear his bare feet against the carpet, determined as ever. I smile as my eyes ease open again, watching as Walker perches on the edge of the bed at my other side.
He spears a piece of pineapple and holds it up to my lips.
“Eat,” he says gently, his brown gaze imploring. “It’ll help you regain some of your strength.”
I watch him as I part my mouth to take the bite off the fork.
The first chomp into the juicy fruit is everything. A groan slips from my lips as my eyes flutter closed, and I relish how delicious it tastes.
I’m not one for eating much during my heat. I drink more than anything else. So when my stomach growls for another bite, I don’t even have to open my eyes to find it.
I already feel Walker tapping something against my lips.
“A grape this time,” he says. “Thought you might enjoy the sweetness after all those protein hydration drinks.”
“Thank you so much,” I say, breathless and tired as I take the piece of fruit from him with my teeth.
Eventually, my eyes have the strength to open, and I watch Walker while he feeds me.
“What?” he asks.
I shake my head softly. “Just looking at you.”
“And why’s that?”
I don’t hesitate. “Because you’re amazing.”
Something shifts in his expression. It turns softer. Deeper, like he’s finally ready to show me that he contains multitudes that he’s been holding back.
I want to learn all of his multitudes.
“I want to mark you,” I say softly.
Eli chuckles as he switches to my other foot. I watch Walker closely, judging whether or not that’s something he might enjoy.
Omegas marking their Alphas back isn’t always a thing that is done. Some Alphas don’t want to be marked like that, and I’d respect that perspective if that’s the one Walker lives with.
But when he grins, I know I’m about to get my wish.
“Where do you want to mark me, beautiful?”
I shrug. “Wherever you’d like.”
Walker puts the plate of food down and shifts a bit closer to me. “What about… here?”
He points to the same scent gland he marked on me. His right one. Matching mating marks.
Tears crest my eyes as I nod and lean in. Knox’s arm bands around me, helping me to stay steady as Eli removes his hands from my foot so I can shift. Walker smooths my hair away from my face as my teeth begin pulsing again, like they know what’s coming.
I sink them into Walker’s scent gland as his scent of grapes aging in oak barrels spurts down the back of my throat.
“Mmmm,” I hum as the tang of his blood hits the tips of my teeth.
“Fuck, beautiful,” he says, his voice ragged with need. “Just like that.”
The bite turns to soft licks as I try to soothe the angry red spot I’ve just created. He rewards me with more of his scent, and I nuzzle my face against it once it’s done bleeding.
I know my bites aren’t as deep as theirs. They probably won’t scar as much, either.
But knowing they’re there is enough for me.
“Mine,” I whisper softly as I finally pull back from the crook of his neck.
He grips my chin and places a slice of apple against my lips. “Yours. Now, eat. If you can keep the fruit down, I’ll make you some scrambled eggs.”
I smile softly at him as I take the apple slice from his fingertips.
By the time the fruit plate is empty, exhaustion is already tugging at me again. It’s different, though. Heavy in a good way, not like I’m being dropped to the bottom of the ocean with cement attached to my feet. It feels quiet and safe.
But I have one more Alpha I want to mark as mine before sleep overcomes me again.
“All right,” Knox says as he readjusts my pillows so I can lean back a bit. “How’s that?”
I shift a little bit, sinking deeper into the softness. “Thank you, Knox. I really appreciate that.”
He takes my hand and links our fingers. “Anything for you, Lia. I hope you know that.”
I look over at him. The Alpha that’s wanted nothing but a family his entire life. The Alpha that took me to watch the sunset over Honeysuckle Grove and the Alpha who never once made my emotions feel as if they were invalid or wrong.
The Alpha who always has a smile for me. The Alpha who always has a plan brewing in that head of his, whether we execute said plan or not.
“Knox?” I ask.
“Yeah?”
“Will you let me mark you, too?”
He searches my face for a long time, and for a moment, I think he’s going to turn me down.
Until tears crest those ice-blue eyes of his.
“I’d love nothing more, my Lia,” he whispers.
Tears fill my own eyes. “Yeah?”
He brings my hand to his lips to kiss. “Yeah.”
“Then come here and how me where you want your Omega to mark you.”
When he leans his chiseled arm toward me, pointing at his bicep, heat pools in my gut. Flashes of me nuzzling my face against his bulging arms during my heat flicker through my mind. Images of Eli taking me from behind while I moan and groan into Knox’s muscles.
Guess my Omega side enjoys his bulky build more than I realized.
I smile as I kiss along his bicep. I watch a couple of veins kick and twitch beneath his skin. I lap at the warm crest of his muscle, where his bicep peaks. My teeth, pulsing with a need that rushes through me like wildfire.
“Mine forever,” I whisper before my blunted teeth sink against his skin.
He doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t pull back. He doesn’t even hiss. He sits there beside me, still as stone, while the metallic taste of his blood mixes with my saliva. I remove my teeth and replace it with my tongue, hoping the ministrations soothe the sting.
The connection that slams into place with all of us marked overwhelms me.
“Oh, Sunshine,” he murmurs, “you’re gonna ruin me.”
I draw in a broken breath. “Good, because you guys have ruined me, too.”
Knox scoops me into his arms, holding me tightly as he scoots down into the bed. I feel the mattress dipping on all sides before I’m surrounded by my Alphas. By my pack. By my home. They’ve ruined me for any future beyond them, because as far as I’m concerned, no one will treat me the way they do.
They’ve ruined me for anything less than the perfection they all bring to the table.
I’m so screwed in the best of ways.
I’m not sure how long we lay there. At some point, Walker comes in with a plate of cheesy eggs and feeds them to me, forkful by forkful. I slip off to sleep against Knox’s hairy chest, nuzzling into his softness until the darkness drags me under.
With my belly full and my Alphas surrounding me, I’m helpless to the exhaustion still rushing through the marrow of my bones.
That is, until a sharp knocking jerks me awake.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
“Yoo hoooo!” a sing-songy female voice sounds behind Eli’s front door. “A tired Omega needs her electrolytes!”
My eyes bounce open, trying to piece reality back together again.
“We have a fruit plate for the recovering Omega!” a male voice calls out.
Walker stirs. “Fucking hell, that’s Mom and Dad.”
Eli shifts from the foot of the bed. “I’ll go let them in.”
“Fruit?” I croak out.
Knox chuckles, bouncing my head up and down softly. “I’ll get you propped up.”
“I’ll come with you, Eli,” Walker says as he grunts while getting out of bed. “Mom has a penchant for asking way too many personal details about things she’s shouldn’t know.”
Eli chuckles. “Can’t be that bad if they’re bringing food. Takes a meal off your shoulders.”
“Come on,” Knox says as he props me up against some pillows again, “it’s good for you to be awake for a little bit.”
As I watch two of my Alphas disappear into the hallway, I look back over at my other one. Knox, whose smile is bright and whose eyes seem a little brighter than before. A little lighter, like he isn’t so weighed down by his past life.
In that moment, I know I’m exactly where I need to be.
And for once, things in my life finally feel right.