Chapter 48
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Zoe
“Now you,” I whisper, tilting my head to expose my neck, the smooth skin where their claiming marks once resided. “It’s your turn.”
The air in the room shifts, growing dense, heavy with a potent mixture of cedarwood and ginger, peppermint and cardamom.
For a heartbeat, no one moves. The four alphas seem frozen, as if they can’t quite believe what I’m offering. What I’m asking for.
Then Rett’s control shatters.
A sound tears from his throat. Not a word, not even a growl, but something deeper. Like the sound of an alpha who has been denied his mate for too long.
He moves so fast I barely register it. One moment he’s across the room, the next he’s scooping me up as if I weigh nothing, throwing me over his shoulder in a single, fluid motion that knocks the breath from my lungs.
“Rett!” I yelp, my hands grabbing instinctively at the back of his shirt as he strides from the living room. “What are you doing?!”
He doesn’t answer. Doesn’t need to. His intentions are perfectly, crystal clear.
Behind us, I hear the others following. The hunt is on, and they already have their prey.
Me.
The thought sends a thrill of both fear and anticipation down my spine. These aren’t the careful, considerate men I’ve been living with for weeks. This is something else. Something possessive and utterly, terrifyingly alpha.
Rett doesn’t take me to my room. He carries me straight to the master suite, to the massive bedroom with its California king bed where all of this began. Their bed. The pack bed.
Rett lays me down in the center of the bed with a reverent, possessive care, his hands smoothing over my hips and thighs as he releases me. His eyes are a dark, stormy blue, burning with a raw hunger that makes my breath still in my chest.
He pulls back then, just a single step, giving me a fraction of an inch of space.
Before I can even push myself up, they are there. All four of them, surrounding the bed like sentinels. A four-man wall of hard muscle, hot skin, and overwhelming alpha scent. Their eyes are locked on me, burning with a shared, singular purpose.
Mine.
I should be terrified. Instead, I feel an answering hunger rise within me, a deep, burning need. I want this. I want them. All of them.
“Well?” I say, my voice breathy. “Are you just going to stand there and stare, or are you going to claim what’s yours?”
Something dangerous flashes in Rett’s eyes. “You have no idea what you’re asking for,” he says, his voice a low, rough growl.
“I think I do,” I counter, pushing myself up onto my knees in the center of the bed. I reach for the tie of my robe, letting it fall open to reveal the thin tank top and sleep shorts beneath. “I’m asking for you. All of you. My alphas. My pack.”
The words seem to break the last thread of their restraint.
Diego moves first, climbing onto the bed. His eyes fix on mine as he crawls toward me, and when he reaches me, his touch is gentle, reverent.
“Carino,” he breathes, one hand coming up to cup my cheek. “Are you sure? Once we start this, we won’t be able to stop.”
I turn my face into his palm, pressing a kiss to the center of it. “I don’t want you to stop,” I say. “I want everything. The bond. The claiming. All of it.”
His eyes darken further, and then his mouth is on mine.
This time, his kiss is desperate. I lose myself in it, in the taste of him, in the way his hands tangle in my hair, tilting my head to deepen the kiss.
I barely register the dip of the mattress as the others join us on the bed, not until I feel another pair of hands on my waist, sliding beneath my tank top to caress the bare skin beneath.
Tristan. I know his touch. He presses against my side, his lips finding the sensitive spot just below my ear.
“Fuck,” he hisses. “I’ve been waiting for this since that time in the bathroom at the gallery,” he growls. “We’re going to make you feel so good. Going to make you forget there was ever a world before us.”
Diego breaks the kiss, his breathing ragged, his eyes wild.
His hands move to the hem of my tank top, questioning.
I nod, and he pulls it up and over my head, leaving me bare from the waist up.
The cool air of the room makes my nipples tighten, but the chill is quickly chased away by the heat of their gazes.
“Beautiful,” Diego breathes, his hands skimming up my sides to cup my breasts. His thumbs brush over my nipples, and I arch into his touch, a small, needy sound escaping me.
The bed dips again as Dane joins us, his large frame settling beside me.
His pale eyes burn with a fire as he watches Diego’s hands on me, watches the way I respond to each touch.
Then, with a focus that makes my heart race, he leans in and captures my mouth in a kiss that is pure, concentrated need.
While Diego’s hands continue their exploration, Dane’s kiss consumes me. His tongue sweeps into my mouth, claiming it, tasting me deeply. His large hand cups the back of my neck, holding me exactly where he wants me.
The last weight settles on the bed as Rett joins us, completing the circle. I feel him behind me, his hard chest against my back, his hands spanning my waist. He pulls me back against him, and I can feel the unmistakable evidence of his arousal pressing against my lower back.
“Mine,” he growls against the side of my neck, his hot breath making me shiver. “Ours.”
“Yours,” I agree, the word a breathless affirmation.
That’s when things truly become chaotic, a beautiful, overwhelming storm of sensation.
Dane’s mouth moves from mine to my neck, to the sensitive spot where my shoulder meets my throat.
His teeth graze the skin there, a promise of what’s to come.
Diego’s hands are still on my breasts, his touch growing bolder, more possessive.
Tristan has moved lower, his mouth trailing hot, open-mouthed kisses down my spine as he nudges me to lean forward, making me arch and squirm.
And Rett... Rett is everywhere. His hands guide, position, control. He turns me in his arms until I’m facing him, my back now to Diego, my side pressed against Dane’s chest. His eyes hold mine as he cups my face in his hands.
“You belong to us,” he says, his voice low and fierce. “Say it.”
“I belong to you,” I breathe, the words feeling right, natural, inevitable. “All of you.”
He kisses me then, a deep, possessive claim that leaves no room for doubt. His tongue sweeps into my mouth, tasting, exploring, demanding surrender. And I give it willingly, my body melting against his.
I feel Diego’s hands at the waistband of my sleep shorts, tugging them down my legs. Dane helps, his large hands lifting me slightly so the fabric can be removed completely. And then I’m naked, completely bare before them, vulnerable and exposed.
But I don’t feel vulnerable. I feel powerful. The center of their universe. The focus of all their desire, all their need.
Diego’s mouth replaces his hands on my breasts, his tongue circling a nipple before drawing it into the wet heat of his mouth.
The sensation makes me gasp, breaking the kiss with Rett.
Dane’s hand tangles in my hair, turning my head so he can claim my mouth again, swallowing the sounds of pleasure that Diego’s ministrations are drawing from me.
Tristan’s hands part my thighs, his fingers finding the slick heat between them. “Mmm,” he murmurs appreciatively. His thumb circles my clit, a light, teasing touch that makes my hips buck.
The pleasure is overwhelming, coming from all directions at once. Diego’s mouth on my breast, Dane’s kiss consuming me, Tristan’s fingers working between my thighs, and Rett’s hands everywhere.
I’m lost in it, drowning in sensation, when I feel Diego’s mouth begin to move lower, trailing kisses down my torso. He pauses at my navel, his tongue dipping in briefly, making me squirm. Then he continues lower, his destination clear.
He settles between my thighs, his shoulders nudging my thighs wider. I feel his breath, hot against my most intimate place, and then his tongue, tracing a slow path through my folds.
The sensation is electric. My back arches, a cry tearing from my throat. Dane swallows the sound, his kiss growing deeper, more demanding as Diego’s tongue works its magic.
Tristan moves to my breasts, his mouth replacing Diego’s, his teeth grazing my nipple in a way that sends sparks shooting down my spine. And through it all, Rett watches, his eyes burning with a possessive fire.
Diego’s tongue circles my clit, then dips lower, pressing into me in a shallow thrust that makes my hips buck. His hands grip my thighs, holding me open, keeping me in place as he devours me. I can feel the pressure building, the familiar tightening deep in my core.
“Sweet Zoe,” Tristan murmurs against my breast. “Let go for us, sweetheart. Show us how good we make you feel.”
Diego’s tongue returns to my clit, circling it in tight movements that have me gasping, writhing. Two fingers press into me, curling upward to find that perfect spot inside that makes me see stars.
The combination is too much. The pleasure crests, breaking over me in a wave that has me crying out, my body arching, tensing. Diego doesn’t stop, his tongue and fingers working me through the peak, drawing out every last tremor of pleasure.
As I come down, panting, trembling, I become aware of movement around me.
The alphas are shifting, repositioning. Diego moves up my body, his mouth claiming mine in a deep kiss that lets me taste myself on his tongue.
Tristan takes his place between my legs, his eyes dark with hunger as he looks up at me.
“My turn,” he says with a wicked grin before lowering his head.
His tongue flicks, swirls, teases, never staying in one place long enough for me to anticipate his next move. His hands hold my hips, thumbs pressing into the sensitive hollows beside my hip bones in a way that makes me shiver.