Chapter 45
BOONE
Her skin glowed in the honeyed light filtering through the barn's weathered roof, and it took my breath away.
How many sunsets had I watched alone in the hills and valleys of this land?
How many sunrises had I ridden Behaichi through, cutting through the morning mist, heading back to the ranch?
Each of those endings and beginnings had been glorious in their own way.
But none were so glorious as the sight of Nelly’s body.
I watched as Cooper's fingers lingered at the button of her jeans, hesitating just long enough to ask permission without words.
Nelly nodded, her copper hair becoming that living flame that first took my breath away on the airport tarmac.
Her pupils dilated, stealing all but a thin gold-flecked ring of hazel.
Cooper deftly unfastened the button and slowly unzipped the pants, revealing the lack of panties beneath.
The scent of her heat had transformed the air, so thick and sweet that it was like breathing in maple syrup.
My hands trembled as I fought to maintain the barest morsel of control.
Every Alpha instinct inside me screamed to claim, to take, to possess.
Cooper folded down the sides of her jeans away from the zipper, creating a teasing ‘v’. But he was going too slowly. He was driving me insane.
For a man who lived for impulse buying, bad surprises, and jokes, he was suddenly too calm and cautious.
"Let me," I said, my voice more an animal growl than human. Cooper's eyes met mine. He must have seen the war inside me, because he stepped back slightly, giving me space beside Nelly. He’d always been good like that—recognizing the wound in me and applying salve.
My eyes locked on Nelly. What I felt for her in this moment wasn’t something I could explain. It was like sleeping under the stars. It was like foraging for food. It was like communing with wild, wonderful creatures.
As I knelt before her, her wide eyes watched my every movement. When my knees pressed into the rough blankets and I gazed up her body, my large frame suddenly felt too brutish, too graceless. She was so delicate. So angelic.
But she didn’t think so.
I could see that in her expression. I could smell that in her Omega perfume.
She saw me, the uncivilized boy from the reservation who grew up on bison, berries, and the wisdom of my elders, and she wanted me.
My fingers found the laces of her right boot.
I hated that I had to look away from her face, but I forced my eyes down.
I untied the first boot, then the second.
This simple act of service steadied me, gave me purpose beyond the primal urge pulsing through my veins.
When I lifted her left leg gently, she shuffled her right slightly to keep balance.
"Lean on me," Levi instructed her from behind, his normally regulated voice now gravel-rough with the aching need we all felt.
I glanced up and watched Nelly press her upper body back against him.
The curve of her back brought her rounded breasts forward.
I slowly slipped away the boot, then peeled away the woolen sock, revealing long, lean feet that had been abused by ballet.
Scars and calluses and misaligned toes mapped out everything she’d endured.
My gaze drifted back up, finding Nelly staring down at me, her brow furrowed.
She looked worried, like I’d find something wrong with her amazing body.
All I saw was her sacrifice.
Her discipline.
The fighter that she’d shown us since the moment she arrived.
I traced one finger along the arch of her foot, sending a shiver through her.
“You’re perfect,” I murmured, lifting her leg higher, lowering my head further, and pressing my lips to her ankle. “Every fucking inch of you.”
She said nothing, allowing me to lower that leg and pick up her other to repeat the earlier motions. Boot off. Shoe off. Stare in awe at the exquisiteness of her.
Reaching up, I pushed my thumbs into the sides of her jeans. They slipped down easily, zipper already undone. Jesus, they were absolutely drenched between her legs. Levi shifted his hold, making sure his body didn’t inhibit the progress as he stood behind her.
Inch by inch, her lower body greeted us. The gradual curve of her hips leading down to her thighs. The slight rounding to her lovely stomach. The first peek of pelvis above her waiting womanhood. The fabric slipped away.
Lower.
Lower.
My breath caught as the pants pooled around her ankles.
Nothing in the damn world could rival our Omega.
When Nelly raised her feet, one after the other, to step out of the jeans, rays of sunlight shone on her inner thighs.
They made the generous slick coating them glisten.
I found myself reaching towards it, my hand trembling.
When my fingertips brushed the promise land there, I glanced up at her again.
She bit her lower lip. She didn’t say no.
I pushed my hand between her soft legs, just below her folds. I coated my fingers with the sweet goodness, and then I pulled away, lifting the hand towards my mouth.
Nelly watched me intensely as I pushed my sticky fingers between my lips and groaned.
The taste of her was fucking transcendent.
The wildest honey. The ripest blackberries.
The sweetest mountain water. It awakened ancient things inside me, things that were better suited for centuries ago when the world wasn’t choking on pollution and populace.
My lashes fluttered as her flavor coated my tongue, my throat, my soul.
"Boone," she whispered, her voice cracking with need.
I pulled my fingers from my mouth slowly, savoring every molecule of her essence. The barn seemed to shrink around us, the five of us and our Omega creating our own universe where nothing else mattered.
“More,” was all I could say.
Yet again, which seemed impossible, her Omega perfume amplified. She groaned, clamping a hand around her supple stomach.
“More,” she repeated my own single word.
"Christ," Levi whispered from behind her. His hands weren’t touching her now, instead hovering at her waist as if afraid to touch her and lose his last ounce of control.
I remained on my knees, mesmerized by the sight before me.
My hands found her calves, fingertips tracing upward over lean muscle shaped by years of dance.
Her skin was impossibly soft beneath my calloused palms. I wanted to memorize every inch, commit it to memory like the stars I'd learned to navigate by on lonely nights in the wilderness.
Cooper shifted above me. His lips found her shoulder, pressing gentle kisses along the curve where it met her neck.
Levi abandoned his worries, hands settling on her hips, thumbs tracing small circles against her skin.
I watched as Nelly's eyes fluttered closed, her head falling back against Levi's chest as she surrendered to our touch.
"You're ours," Cooper murmured against her skin between kisses. "Nelly, you can’t leave us. Not anymore."
My hands continued their reverent exploration, finding telltale scarring on her knee.
Her injury. I leaned into it, pressing deliberate kisses onto each button-sized incision.
Her body tensed slightly under my touch.
I looked up to find her watching me, vulnerability and defiance warring in her expression.
She gave me her full focus, despite the other two men worshipping her body.
"You're the strongest person I've ever met," I told her, meaning every word.
The tension in her body released, her fingers finding my hair, tangling in the long strands. I continued tracing my hands up her legs, checking over every inch, like I was blind, and she was braille, and I didn’t want to miss a single word in the story I read.
Levi's hands cupped her breasts from behind, thumbs gently circling her nipples as Cooper's mouth traced a path down her throat.
I rose higher on my knees, my hands spanning her waist as I pressed my face against her stomach, breathing in the intoxicating scent of her.
My lips traced patterns across her skin, following invisible trails from one freckle to the next.
As I worshipped her body with soft touches of hands and mouth, my mind filled with visions of what our tomorrows could look like.
I imagined being able to kiss her good morning.
Would I kiss her first? It had always been a toss-up between Cooper and Levi.
I tried to switch back and forth, making sure they both were equal in my eyes.
How would I manage those morning greetings now?
Nelly. Cooper. Levi.
Levi. Nelly. Levi.
Cooper. Levi. Nelly…
Right now, my mouth pressed into against her belly button, I didn’t think I could kiss her last. Not ever.
By how the men I loved were acting, they’d understand. Hell, we’d probably fight in the morning, trying to get to her lips first.
It was strange, to feel this Omega connection again after so damn long.
I’d thought, more than once, that Cooper and Levi should be enough.
It’s a curse, in the end, to be an Alpha with a biological need to find an Omega.
It meant my throuple, though we shared a true and abiding love, wasn’t enough.
That no longer pissed me off.
It no longer made me want to disappear for days on end.
I understood now. The ‘why’ behind how the great mystery created us. Also, I now knew that Danny was never truly the one.
It was always Her. Always Nelly.
I imagined taking her to all my secret places in the wilderness.
We’d walk through the clearing in the small, wooded area not far from here, where wildflowers bloomed in impossible abundance, some even persevering through our Wyoming fall and into the beginning of winter.
I’d take her to the cliff face, technically past our property line, where you could see the entirety of the ranch.
She’d see how the light touched every part of it, how it was truly a heaven on Earth.
I’d take her to each place I’d left a bit of my soul not his land, not just the lake.
I wanted to watch her by campfire light and see her copper hair spilled across my bare chest as we watched the sunrise over Sagebrush.
In my mind’s eye, I saw the near future. I saw our Nelly.
She was wild and free, laughing as she confidently rode Ghost. They raced across the pasture, flashes of snow and ribbons of fire. I rode behind her on Behaichi, marveling at them both.
Her pale, freckled skin had become lightly tanned under the Wyoming sun.
The highlights in her hair would multiply.
Then I imagined five or ten years from now.
Nelly was exactly as she was, yet different.
Altered by happiness, by her time here. Smile lines.
A few silver strands added to her copper hair.
Did we have children? I imagined a precocious little boy like Cooper.
Maybe a smart as hell little girl like Levi; she’d be a whiz at math, always beating dad to the solution.
Would we have twins? What would we name them?
Would there be a kid that looked like me too? Would Nelly want that?
Whatever she wanted, I’d make it happen.
Whenever she needed me, I’d be there in an instant.
Whoever hurt her, I’d destroy them.
My reverie broke as Nelly reached down, cupped my face, and tilted it up so our eyes collided.
"More," she whispered that one word again, and it contained the universe.
I rose to my feet, towering over her small frame once more.
Cooper and Levi stepped back slightly, making room as I cupped her face in my hands.
For a moment, I simply looked at her—this fierce, beautiful creature who had come into our lives like a fallen star.
She’d chased away hurt I thought I’d healed already.
She made me not want to disappear for days on end, though if I did, I’d take her with me.
I leaned down, pressing my forehead against hers, feeling the heat radiating from her skin. In that moment, I knew with absolute certainty that nothing would ever be the same again.
She was like Larkspur.
She’d taken root in our hearts with such tenacity that we couldn’t drive her out.