Chapter 52
The cell door closed and something deep within me rattled the cage of my shock, demanding to be let out.
A breath.
I think… I could take a breath.
As if it was the first I’d ever taken.
And finally, something soared free in my chest as I stepped back into my pack’s living room. My home. Ace was chained up in my home.
And of course, with that, like a monster waiting to pounce, the dam broke, the meds failed, and my heat crashed in.
That sense of freedom I’d just felt dissolved instantly for terror. It was hard to explain why, exactly. This was the heat I’d been waiting for, for years. It was more than that.
All I knew was that I was going to lose my mind, and I was terrified.
“Oasis.”
I shook my head, realising too late that I couldn’t have heat without my scars. Until now, they’d been so gentle with them, avoiding them, and never making me feel pressure to reveal my back.
But... I couldn’t breathe. The world was going dim, as sharp pains speared my stomach.
A pain I’d felt a thousand times before.
“Shhh, Princess, I’ve got you.” Pear grove felt like a cool breeze, and strong arms were lifting me. I looked up into beautiful midnight eyes, knowing he could feel me trembling.
My voice shook. “I d-don’t know how to do this.”
My scars hurt almost as much as the heat spikes. Each line upon my back was open again, and tears were tracking my face as he guided me down to the huge pack bed, hands still at my sides. Not enough, and yet, I didn’t know how to ask for more.
“However you need us, remember,” Knight whispered. I nodded, though I didn’t know if I believed it. But he made Kyan feel safe.
“Can I touch you?” he asked.
Touch me...?
He was.
But, I think he meant, like... for heat. During heat...
Ace’s hands closed around my throat as he held me still.
“Ask, Omega.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, pain rising like an ocean tide, and I knew it would drown me.
It would drown me, and so would he.
My breaths were short and sharp. Pear grove was tangled with roses. But my mind tripped over that, trying to figure it out.
Which was a nightmare? Which was a dream? They were never both there at the same time.
Only... right now, they were.
I nodded, a hiccup caught between sobs.
I don’t remember what I was saying yes to. Not until his touch brushed my skin like ice melting against a furnace, and I shuddered, leaning into it, needing more. His purr rumbled through me as I leaned against his chest, his skin cooling mine.
He was here.
“Knight.”
How many times had I whispered his name? How many times had the pain that sliced across my back still been nothing to the heat I was fighting?
But this time, when I said his name, he answered.
“I’ve got you, Princess.”
The breath I took was long and shuddering, like it had been trapped for an eternity, and then I was clutching him, low, desperate whines in my chest and I forced my eyes open.
“You’re h-here.” My voice was choked as he blurred in tears. Sharp jaw, dark eyes, long locs that brushed my skin, pear grove, as real as the roses that lingered in the distance, finally marking this reality as the real one.
“I’m here.”
I shifted over him, a low moan of pain slipping out. Now the nightmare was behind me—now, reality was crashing in. I… I needed him.
My nails dug against his skin.
“I’m here, Glade,” he said again, easily shifting me. “I’m here and I’m never going anywhere ever again.”
Our bodies connected, and I reacted on nothing but instinct, taking his hand and dragging it backwards as I tilted my head.
“I love you,” I whispered, freeing words that had been caught in my soul for far too long.
He let out a low, rumbling growl, following my guidance without hesitation. I sank lower. He completed me as I took his knot and soothed my heat for the first time in my life. His hand circled my waist, trailing up my back until he found his name among my scars, his other tangled in my hair, holding me still as his teeth found my neck.
“I love you, too.”
I soaked that in and realised how safe I felt.
More safe than I’d ever felt in my life. And then my eyes fluttered open, sticking on tears that had finally stopped.
The others...
As if they could feel it through the bond, Zed and Kyan were at my side. I was crying again as their scents tangled with Knights.
“I love you.” I was sobbing like a baby, reaching for them.
“I love you too, Little Devil,” Zed breathed, his lips finding mine.
Kyan was there, wrapping his arms around me from behind, and the muscled ridges of his chest, a massive wall of Alpha skin soothing the warmth of my skin.
“You already know how much I love you,” Kyan breathed, teeth grazing my arm. “My Sweet Oasis.”
It was over. Ace was caught, and my heat was here, and I had the Alphas I loved.
Kyan had promised me I would never have to face Ace again, and he’d done it. Somehow, he’d managed it.
Once the sweetness was out of the way and Knight’s knot released me, full heat collided with me like a freight train.
Actually, a freight train might have been kinder.
I was in a daze.
Tears were a distant memory; surges of hormones that incinerated every rational thought left to man. Or Omega.
Or whatever.
All I knew was that I needed my Alphas like a fire needed oxygen.
Like a desert needed rain.
Like a… I didn’t know where I was going with that. All I really knew was that I was caught between Knight, who had a firm grip on my wrist and hip from behind, and Zed who was before me.
And I was still pissed because Kyan hadn’t figured out where to stick his dick yet.
I think I growled at him—over Zed’s length, which I had just taken down my throat with a whine. Zed dragged me back, fist in my hair as if trying to figure out what was wrong, and I stared up at him in utter, dazed shock.
What the fuck did he think he was doing?
“I think she wanted more, not less,” Kyan snorted, squeezing my breast.
I almost fought Knight’s grip on my hips to launch at him, but then I’d be down to zero dicks—and besides, if I killed them all, I was really fucked. I let out a snarl at Zed’s impish grin, but he did drag me back to his cock, which settled my temper.
Woah.
I mean.
I knew heats were wild, but… fuck.
After years of being touch-starved, Glade’s heat was off the charts. She was a fucking cyclone of hormones, which was either the hottest or the most frightening thing I’d ever seen.
Apparently, an Omega in heat could be managed by exactly how many knotted-peni in the room they believed were eligible for fucking. The problem was, Glade was so insanely gone, that she was on the edge of hallucinating. For a particularly worrying stretch, her temperature had soared. She’d been whimpering in distress no matter how many ways we’d fucked her, eyes fixed on one of the dusty windows.
Luckily, Knight clued in before we had to call an ambulance. He crossed the room, picked up one of my thrift shop plant holders on the windowsill (which, I realised, looked faintly phallic) and tossed it in the trash, where it shattered.
In hindsight, it was obvious he should have thrown a blanket over it instead, because at the destruction of what she’d clearly long considered a potential suitor, she lost it. With a shriek of rage, she tried to dive from the bed. Thankfully, Kyan pinned her down and knotted her before she could reach a gun, which dialled down the threat from furious mafia-Omega murder to possible pouty dismemberment.
For the next half an hour, Knight couldn’t come near us without her snarling at him. Problem was, despite the attempted kill, he was still an eligible peen, and thus, had to brave it when her temperature started soaring again.
When she had him pinned beneath her, hand closed around his neck with what might be a genuine (if mildly adorable) attempt at strangulation, it was to mount him with disconcerting aggression. I’d never seen an Omega murderously take a knot before, but now I could add it to the list of kinks I didn’t know I had.
Luckily, Knight agreed, because I don’t think I’d ever felt him so turned on down the bond.
I don’t know how long I’d been in heat when the faintest semblance of normal consciousness returned.
It had to be more than a day, at least.
There were significantly more open cans of energy drinks and snacks littering the room as I looked around.
I think we’d fucked, like, all over the place.
There were some really odd memories floating in…
I sat bolt upright in shock.
“What is it, Little Devil?” Zed, who was currently knotted in me, blinked drowsy eyes open.
“Was there another Alpha?” I tried not to sound so wounded.
“Oh…” Kyan chuckled, sitting up beside me and tucking my hair behind my ear, his expression telling me he was surprised I was talking. Well… actually, he probably was given how out of it I’d been. “There was until Knight killed him.”
I scanned the chaotic mess of blankets and pillows until I saw Knight, who was frozen mid-stride on his way back to the bed, mug of steaming tea halfway to his lips.
“You… killed him?” I asked.
He narrowed his eyes, something wary in his gaze. “So what if I did?”
I breathed a sigh of relief that made Knight relax.
He set the tea on the side table and dropped down at my back. “You decided you don’t want another Alpha?” he asked.
In response, I lowered myself against Zed’s chest, wriggling back against his knot, the sensation making my eyes roll.
“You’re more than enough,” I said, tilting my head and keeping one eye on Knight and his beautiful, beautiful bare torso of thick muscles.
“Glad you’ve come around,” he purred, his hand squeezing my ass hard enough to make me squeak.
“Come around?” I asked, as he pressed his tip and stretched me out. I didn’t need prep at this point.
“I think you tried to shoot him, Little Devil,” Zed chuckled, his hand in my hair as Knight’s beast of a cock pressed into me an inch.
“I did not—” I let out a groan as he filled me with one thrust, scrambling against Zed’s chest for a moment to adjust to the sensation, little moans of pleasure slipping out as I felt his knot rock against my hole.
Kyan cupped my neck, and I pushed myself from Zed’s chest on instinct as Knight gripped my hips and began pumping into me properly.
“It was cute and vicious,” Kyan told me with a grin, going for what I wanted and un-tucking his cock from his sweats.
My tongue was already out, eyes dazed as Knight sent me racing toward the millionth orgasm of the heat.
Right as Kyan gave me what I wanted, making me feel completely fucking full of Alpha, I did what I think I’d been doing for every other orgasm before it.
It took one last check of the air, finding a strange comfort in the distant, souring scent of roses.
The next wave of heat was a lot more conscious, and a lot more enjoyable.
I don’t think I’d slept yet, but I got the feeling my Alphas would need to soon. I was, at least, ready to start letting them tag out.
And eventually, after what might have been another day, my eyelids fluttered closed. I might have passed out—it was hard to tell, but Zed’s voice woke me.
“Do you think we should deal with…” His voice trailed off. “I can move him out of here—” His words cut off at my whine.
No…
I knew who they were talking about. They would go in and out of the cell occasionally—making sure he was alive, I thought—and the scent of roses and redwood would seep out.
“You… want him here, Baby?” Zed asked me, cupping my cheek and helping me focus on him. I nodded my head, a little panicked.
The scent was grounding. He didn’t understand; if Ace was gone, he could be anywhere. Redwood and roses would follow me into any heat I had. But this time, I didn’t have to be afraid. It wasn’t haunting me in nightmares, it was tangible; something I could cross the room and open the door and see for myself, chains and all.
“Okay,” Zed breathed. “If you don’t want him gone, he stays.”
Good.
Okay… I nodded, realising I was humming happily, as I sank back against Kyan’s chest and adjusted myself over his length, feeling him shift inside me to keep at bay the warmth that threatened from a distance. A pain I’d become too familiar with.
But I didn’t need to be afraid.
My Alphas were here.
This was their home, which meant it was now mine, but it still needed fixing up. There were pieces of this place tangled in my fears.
In their rejection of me.
I had forgiven them, but Ace… he was the root of every fear remaining. Every moment of pain I’d suffered, every lie I’d been forced to make them believe.
So he had to stay chained in the next room, mine—just as he’d once believed I was his.
When I let him go, I could let go of all of it. Let go of everything that was stopping this place from becoming my home.
But I could choose when that was. This game was mine to play, and there was one more reason I wasn’t done with him yet. Every time I caught his scent, it was more agonised than before.
A rut, I realised.
In response to a heat he could feel. Vicious and overwhelming from years of agony and drugs—a heat he had created.
I smiled, shifting again over Kyan’s length, letting out a little breath of satisfaction as he held my hips, drawing me closer.