Epilogue
Hailey
One year later...
I wake drenched in sweat, sheets tangled around my legs. My skin feels too hot, every nerve ending firing as the throbbing between my thighs gets stronger with each heartbeat.
My heat has arrived.
Last year this time, I was locked in a sterile room at Heath’s facility, my body forced into an artificial cycle. Now this heat is natural, arising from my own rhythm.
“Finn,” I murmur, reaching across the empty space beside me. The sheets are cool; he must have gotten up earlier. After months of living together, our heats have synchronized perfectly, and this one feels like the most intense yet.
I drag myself from the nest on shaky legs, my thin sleep shirt sticking to my sweaty skin. Each step sends friction between my thighs where I’m already embarrassingly wet. By the time I splash cool water on my face, I can feel slick running down my inner thighs.
My reflection shows blown pupils, flushed cheeks, and swollen lips. My scent has changed too, grown heavier to draw my alphas near.
Stone appears in the doorway, shirtless and hard. The sight of his muscled torso makes another wave of need pulse through me.
“You’re up,” he says, nostrils flaring as he breathes in my scent. “How bad?”
“Getting there,” I grip the sink to steady myself. “Finn?”
“Kitchen. Trying to force nutrients into himself before rational thought becomes impossible. Jax is bringing up supplies. Ren is…coping.”
“I should eat something too.” But food is the last thing on my mind.
Stone nods but doesn’t move. When I try to slide past him, he lifts me against his chest, causing me to slide over his hardness. The contact makes us both groan. His grip tightens before he takes a step, carrying me.
“Soon,” he promises, the word making my knees weak.
The house reeks of our mingled scents—my sweet heat pheromones mixing with Finn’s, underscored by the deeper, muskier response of three alphas in pre-rut.
Finn’s in the kitchen, leaning against the counter while mechanically eating protein bars. His condition matches mine—flushed skin, trembling hands, pupils dilated. When he sees me, he whimpers, and it resonates deep in my body.
“Morning, fellow disaster,” he says with strained humor. “Fancy meeting you at the ‘about to lose my mind’ convention.”
I laugh but it’s shaky. “How long have you been up?”
“Hours. Woke at four feeling like I was burning alive from the inside. Jax had to physically remove himself from the nest. Apparently I was…” he gestures vaguely, “projecting.”
Stone sets me down and pushes a sports drink toward me. “Have you seen Ren?” I ask, pressing my thighs together.
“Holed up in his room for sanity’s sake.” Finn’s smile is equal parts affection and heat-hazed desire. “Stone’s been checking on him hourly. It’s only a matter of time before?—”
A crash from upstairs interrupts him, followed by creative cursing that could only be Ren.
“—that happens,” Finn finishes.
Jax appears in the doorway, his body vibrating with barely contained energy.
“Supplies ready,” he announces, voice a low growl that makes my thighs press together. His gaze burns over us—Finn’s trembling hands around his glass, the way my nightgown sticks to my damp skin. “Finish those,” he commands, nodding at our drinks.
We obey instantly, the sweet liquid doing nothing to quench what really burns inside us. Jax watches with dark approval as Finn drains his glass, a drop of juice escaping down his chin. Before it can reach his throat, Jax is there—thumb swiping it away, then pressing that wet digit against Finn’s parted lips.
Finn’s tongue darts out to lick it clean, his eyes fluttering shut.
“Fuck,” Stone rumbles, his massive frame blocking the pendant light. “They’re dripping already.”
Jax’s nostrils flare. “Before we begin,” he rumbles, stepping closer until his shadow envelops us both, “you choose. Slow and sweet?” He drags a single finger down Finn’s flushed cheek. “Or,” his hand suddenly fists in my hair, tilting my head back sharply, “hard and rough until you can’t walk by the end of this?”
The whimper tears from my throat before I can stop it. “Rough,” I gasp. “Please, we need?—”
“Fuck slow,” Finn interrupts, his usual sass ruined by how his voice cracks. He’s already tearing at his own shirt. “Stuff us full, make us feel it for days.”
Jax’s grin is all teeth. He exchanges a look with Stone that makes Stone’s massive hands flex like he’s imagining all the ways to pin us down.
“Good answer,” Jax purrs. Then in one swift motion, he tosses Finn over his shoulder while Stone lifts me like I weigh nothing. Finn immediately starts mouthing at Jax’s back, teeth scraping the muscles there as he grinds shamelessly against his alpha’s shoulder.
“Needy thing,” Jax growls, swatting Finn’s ass hard enough that I’m sure it leaves a red handprint. Finn just moans louder.
The world tilts as we’re carried upstairs. “Gonna ruin you, sweetheart,” Stone pitches his voice low. “Make you scream so loud the neighbors call the cops.”
The nest room glows with candlelight, fresh linens scent-marked by all of us. Ren waits at the center, his usual composure shattered—shirt already discarded, his hardness straining against his boxers.
“They decided,” Jax says from ahead. “No soft and sweet. They want it hard.”
Ren’s gaze is like hot ice. “Good.”
Stone deposits me beside Finn, our bodies automatically moving toward each other as our alphas strip. Jax makes quick work of his shirt, buttons flying as it tears open. Stone’s jeans hit the floor with a thud, the heavy buckle clanking against hardwood.
“In the nest,” Jax directs, his voice resonating through my core. “Both of you.”
Neither Finn nor I think to disobey. We separate long enough to crawl into the massive nest. I collapse against the pillows, while Finn kneels beside me, both of us watching our alphas hungrily.
“They’re so beautiful like this,” Ren says.
My legs fall open at his praise and Finn’s hand immediately slides between them. A keening sound comes from my throat.
“Yes. Please. More…” I begin, but the words dissolve into a moan as a wave of heat rises within me. My back arches involuntarily. “I?—”
“What do you need, little omega?” Jax asks, moving closer. His cock jerks against his boxers. “Tell us.”
“Everything,” Finn answers, his voice breaking. “Everyone. Please.”
The desperate plea shatters their restraint. The first touch of alpha skin against my overheated body draws a cry from my throat.
Jax reaches me first, his large hands framing my face as he claims my mouth roughly. I surrender completely, opening for him as his tongue explores. Beside me, Finn makes a broken sound as Stone manhandles him into position, covering Finn’s smaller form.
Ren circles the nest before settling behind me, his hands sliding beneath my sleep shirt to my sweat-slicked skin. When his fingers find my nipples, I break away from Jax’s kiss with a desperate gasp.
“You’re wearing too much,” Jax growls, tugging at my damp shirt. “Off. Now.”
The alphas strip me and Finn quickly, leaving us naked and trembling in the center of the nest.
“On your knees,” Jax commands.
The command bypasses conscious thought. Finn and I move in tandem, getting on hands and knees, backs arched to display the slick trailing down our inner thighs.
A collective growl rises from the alphas. I feel my internal muscles clench in response, more slick escaping.
Jax catches some with his finger and licks it clean slowly.
“Mine first,” he says, his hand resting possessively on my back.
“Agreed,” Stone responds, his larger hands settling on Finn’s hips. “Ren?”
“I’ll start with our little troublemaker,” Ren decides, moving to kneel before Finn. “Since he’s been projecting omega need throughout the house, driving me crazy since dawn.”
Finn makes a sound that might be protest or agreement, words already beyond his capacity. I’m not doing much better, coherent thought dissolving beneath the overwhelming need to be filled.
The first touch between my thighs draws a broken cry from my lips—Jax’s fingers tracing through abundant slick before pushing into me with deliberate slowness. Even this penetration sends sparks of relief through my system, my body greedily clenching around his fingers.
“So wet,” he murmurs, adding a second finger alongside the first. “So ready for me.”
Beside me, Finn’s desperate sounds suggest similar treatment from Stone, while Ren kneels in front of him. I try to turn my head to see, but Jax’s free hand tangles in my hair, tilting my head backward.
“Eyes on me, omega,” he commands, curling his fingers inside me. The movement hits something exquisite, drawing a deep moan from me. “That’s it. Let me hear you.”
He establishes a rhythm with his fingers, fucking into me while his thumb finds my swollen clit. The dual stimulation builds pressure rapidly, my first orgasm already gathering force.
“Please,” I manage, barely recognizable through my ragged breathing. “Need…more.”
“What do you need?” Jax prompts, his fingers stilling inside me. “I want to hear you say it.”
“You,” I gasp, pushing back against his hand. “Your knot. Please, alpha.”
The plea satisfies something primal in him. “Soon,” he promises, voice a growl. “After you come for me like this.”
His fingers resume their relentless rhythm, joined now by more focused attention to my clit. The pressure builds again, faster this time. My vision blurs, muscles tensing as I approach my peak.
“Now, omega,” Jax commands, pressing deep and curling his fingers.
My orgasm crashes through me, muscles clamping around his fingers as pleasure radiates outward. I cry out, wordless and desperate. But rather than satisfaction, the climax only intensifies the emptiness, the need for a knot now screaming through my body.
“I think she’s ready for both of us,” Jax says, his voice thick with lust. “Ren.”
I barely register the words before Ren is positioning himself beneath me, lying on his back so I’m straddling his face. His hands grip my thighs, pulling me down onto his mouth. The first stroke of his tongue against my oversensitive flesh has me crying out, my arms nearly buckling.
Behind me, Jax presses the head of his cock against my entrance, beginning to push inside while Ren’s tongue works beneath me. The combination of penetration and the wet heat of Ren’s mouth is overwhelming.
“Fuck,” Jax groans, hands gripping my hips. “So slick.”
He enters me with measured discipline, allowing my body to adjust. By the time he’s fully seated, Ren has shifted his attention lower, his tongue tracing where Jax and I are joined.
“Move,” I beg, pushing back. “Please.”
Jax responds with a snap of his hips that drives the breath from my lungs. Each thrust pushes me forward onto Ren’s mouth, creating a rhythm that has me gasping. I look to the side and see Finn on his back, Stone’s cock in his mouth while Finn strokes himself frantically.