Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
KEIRA
The heat hit like a wave crashing over me.
One moment I was lying in the nest, surrounded by their scents, waiting.
The next, my entire body was on fire — not pain, but need.
Desperate, consuming, overwhelming need that clawed at my insides and shattered every rational thought into fragments I couldn't piece back together.
My skin burned from the inside out, every nerve ending screaming for something I couldn't name.
The silk of the pillowcase felt like sandpaper against my cheek.
The soft cotton of my tank top scraped against my nipples like rough fabric.
Everything was too much, too intense, too everything.
Alpha, my omega keened, clawing to the surface with a ferocity I'd never experienced. Need alpha. Need knot. Now. Now. NOW.
My skin felt too tight, too hot, sweat beading along my hairline and sliding down my temples in thin rivulets.
More gathered in the hollow of my throat, pooling in the dip between my collarbones.
I writhed against the blankets, whimpering — the sound high and needy and foreign to my own ears — my body moving without my permission as slick pooled between my thighs.
The wetness was hot and slippery, soaking through my underwear, the fabric clinging uncomfortably to my oversensitized skin.
In any other context it would have been shameful, but here, now, it was exactly what my body was supposed to do.
The scents of five alphas surrounded me like a symphony — cedar and citrus and vanilla and ocean and woodsmoke — and my omega wanted all of them, needed all of them, couldn't think past the desperate ache that throbbed between my legs with every frantic beat of my heart.
"Keira." A voice cut through the haze — warm, familiar, safe.
I turned toward it blindly, my grey eyes unfocused and glazed, the fairy lights above blurring into smears of golden light.
Platinum blonde hair materialized in my vision, catching the soft glow like a halo, and warm brown eyes swam into focus — dark with concern and something else, something primal that made my omega purr with recognition.
Hwan knelt at the edge of the nest, the mattress dipping slightly under his weight, his famous smile nowhere to be seen, replaced by an intensity that made my core clench with desperate want. "Talk to me. What do you need?"
Alpha, my omega answered before I could form words.
"Alpha." The word came out broken, barely human, more whine than speech, my voice cracking on the single syllable as I reached for him with trembling hands.
My fingers shook so badly I could barely control them, grasping at air, at nothing, needing to touch him so desperately it hurt. "Need— please— Hwan—"
He was there in an instant, closing the distance between us so fast I barely registered the movement — just a blur of golden skin and platinum hair and then his body was covering mine.
The contact was electric. I cried out at the first brush of skin against skin, my back arching off the nest so sharply my spine cracked, as his sunshine-and-citrus scent flooded my senses until I couldn't smell anything else, couldn't think of anything else.
The weight of him pressed me into the mattress, solid and warm and grounding.
Everything disappeared — the room, the others watching from the edges of the nest, my own name.
There was only him, only this, only the desperate need burning through my veins like liquid fire, scorching me from the inside out.
"I've got you. Alpha's got you." Hwan murmured against my throat, his lips hot and slightly chapped against my racing pulse, his voice rough in a way I'd never heard from the group's happy virus — deeper, rawer, almost a growl.
His hands slid beneath my tank top, palms flat against my stomach, and every touch felt magnified a hundredfold.
The calluses on his fingertips from years of practice caught against my skin, leaving trails of fire across my flesh, making me gasp and arch into each point of contact.
"I'm here. I'm going to take care of you. "
"Please." I didn't recognize my own voice — high and desperate and broken, nothing like the woman I'd been an hour ago.
My fingers tangled in his platinum hair, my body moving against his on pure instinct, hips rolling, seeking friction.
The hard length of him pressed against my thigh through his clothes and I whimpered at the contact, grinding against it shamelessly. "Need you. Need— alpha, please—"
"I know, sweetheart. I know." Hwan's hands found the hem of my shirt, and he pulled it over my head with careful reverence — the fabric dragging against my nipples and making me cry out at even that brief stimulation.
His warm eyes roamed over my exposed skin with naked hunger, darkening as they traced the curve of my breasts, the dip of my waist, the flare of my hips.
The cool air hit my heated flesh and I gasped, goosebumps rising across my skin even as sweat continued to bead along my hairline.
My nipples hardened instantly, but his hands were there immediately — warm and grounding, cupping my breasts with a gentleness that made me whimper.
The heat of his palms seared into me, his touch almost too hot against my feverish skin. "So beautiful. My beautiful omega."
Yours, my omega purred, the word echoing through my haze-addled mind like a mantra. Yours. Alpha's omega. Please please please—
"Yours." I gasped the word out loud, not sure if I meant to, my eyes struggling to focus on his face hovering above mine. His features kept blurring, sharpening, blurring again as waves of heat rolled through me. "Alpha— yours—"
Something dangerous flickered across Hwan's features — the carefully constructed sunshine persona cracking completely to reveal the alpha beneath.
His jaw tightened, the muscle jumping beneath golden skin, his warm brown eyes darkening to nearly black, pupils blown so wide only a thin ring of brown remained.
Possessive. Primal. Hungry. The look made more slick form between my legs, my inner walls clenching around nothing, desperate to be filled.
"Say it again." He commanded, his voice dropping to a rough growl that vibrated through his chest and into mine where our bodies pressed together.
His hands kneaded my breasts, thumbs brushing across sensitive peaks in slow circles that had me arching into his touch with a broken moan.
The sound echoed off the walls of the nest room, loud and shameless.
"Yours." I repeated breathlessly, my head falling back against the pillows, the silk cool against my overheated scalp. Rational thought was completely gone, replaced by instinct and need and the desperate ache between my thighs. "Alpha's. Please— need—"
"I know what you need." Hwan lowered his head, his platinum hair brushing against my collarbone like feathers, tickling oversensitized skin. His breath was hot against my chest, each exhale making me shiver despite my fever. "But I'm going to take my time with you first."
His mouth found the hollow of my throat, tongue hot and wet as it traced a path down to my collarbone.
I could feel every ridge of his tongue, every swipe leaving a trail of fire in its wake.
He paused at the dip between my collarbones, lapping up the sweat that had pooled there — the wet sounds echoing in the quiet room — then moved lower, pressing hot, open-mouthed kisses along the swell of my breast. His lips were soft but demanding, each kiss leaving a faint mark of suction on my skin.
When his tongue circled one peaked nipple, I cried out, my hands flying to his hair and gripping hard enough to make him groan.
"So responsive." Hwan murmured against my skin, his warm brown eyes flicking up to watch my face as his lips closed around the sensitive peak.
He sucked gently at first, his cheeks hollowing, then harder, his tongue flicking against the trapped nipple in a rhythm that had me writhing beneath him.
The wet sounds of his mouth working my flesh mixed with my desperate pants and whimpers.
"I've imagined this so many times. What you'd taste like. What sounds you'd make."
"Hwan—" His name came out as a whine, high and needy, my hips rolling against nothing, desperate for friction. The sheets beneath me were already damp with sweat and slick, the fabric clinging to my lower back. "Please— need more—"
"Patience, sweetheart." He released my nipple with a wet pop that echoed through the room, then moved to the other, giving it the same treatment — slow, deliberate circles of his tongue that made my toes curl against the blankets before sucking hard enough to make me give a high keen.
The sound tore from my throat, raw and primal, bouncing off the walls.
"I'm going to learn every inch of you tonight.
Going to find every spot that makes you shake. "
His mouth continued its exploration, trailing kisses down the center of my chest — wet, open-mouthed kisses that left cooling trails of saliva on my burning skin.
He traced the line of my ribs, his teeth grazing bone, then moved across my stomach, his tongue dipping into my navel briefly.
Each press of his lips sent sparks shooting through me, the heat making everything impossibly sensitive.
When he reached the waistband of my shorts, he paused, breathing hot against the thin fabric.
"Alpha." I sobbed, my hands fisting in the blankets beneath me so hard my knuckles turned white. He kissed along the line of my hip, deliberately avoiding where I needed him most, and I could feel tears of frustration burning at the corners of my eyes. "Please— can't take it—"