Chapter 34 #2
Mason entered first, moving slowly, carefully, like I might spook if he came too fast. He approached the edge of my nest and stopped, waiting for another signal.
I shifted over, making room, and he climbed in beside me with a grace that seemed impossible for a man his size.
The others followed. Caleb next, his massive form somehow folding into the space without disturbing my carefully arranged walls.
Then Leo, sliding in behind me, his chest pressing against my back.
And finally Ethan, settling at the edge, one hand reaching out to rest on my ankle.
Four Alphas in my tiny nest. It should have felt claustrophobic. Instead it felt right.
Mason pulled me against his chest, and I let him. Leo's arms wrapped around my waist from behind, and I didn't flinch. Caleb's huge hand settled on my hip, warm and grounding, and I leaned into the touch. Ethan's fingers traced circles on my ankle, gentle and present, and I sighed.
Pack pile. That's what this was. An Omega surrounded by her Alphas, held and protected and claimed.
I was purring.
The sound vibrated through my chest without my permission, loud and constant and shamefully content. I tried to stop it, clenched my jaw, held my breath — but it just kept coming, pulled from somewhere deep inside me that knew what it wanted even when my conscious mind refused to admit it.
"There you go," Mason murmured against my hair, his own purr rumbling through his chest into my back. "Good girl. You needed this."
"I didn't—" I started, the automatic denial rising to my lips.
"You did," Mason interrupted gently, his arms tightening around me. "You need a nest. You need us. It's not weakness, Avalon. It's biology."
"I hate biology," I muttered, but there was no heat in it.
Leo laughed softly against my neck. "Biology gave us you, Red. I'm a fan."
Caleb's purr joined the chorus, so deep I felt it more than heard it. He didn't say anything — he rarely did — but his hand on my hip said everything. I'm here. I'm not leaving. You're safe.
"Your stress hormones are probably dropping already," Ethan said quietly, his thumb still tracing those soothing circles on my ankle. "Nesting behavior triggers oxytocin release. Combined with pack contact, you'll feel better than you have in days. Maybe weeks."
"Is that your way of saying I told you so?" I asked, exhaustion making me more vulnerable than I would normally allow.
"It's my way of saying I'm glad you stopped fighting it," Ethan replied, and there was warmth in his voice, something soft beneath his usual composure.
"Watching you suffer was... difficult." The admission surprised me.
I twisted slightly to look at him, and found his green eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made my breath catch.
"You were suffering," Ethan said quietly, holding my gaze. "And there was nothing I could do. You wouldn't let us help. Wouldn't let us give you what you needed. All we could do was leave offerings and hope you'd eventually give in."
"The blankets," I realized. "The pillow. That was you. All of you."
"Caleb's idea," Leo said, pressing a kiss to my shoulder. "Big guy noticed you hiding in the closet and decided to do something about it." I turned to look at Caleb, and found him watching me with those soft blue eyes, a faint flush on his scarred cheeks.
"You needed things that smelled like us," Caleb said simply, his deep voice rumbling through the nest. "Couldn't give you a nest. That's Omega territory.
But I could give you materials." I didn't know what to say.
These men had kidnapped me, claimed me against my will, refused to let me go.
Yet here they were, leaving me gifts because I was hurting, respecting my territory when they could have easily forced their way in, asking permission to enter my nest even though they were four Alphas and I was one small Omega.
They were trying. In their own fucked up, possessive, Alpha way, they were trying to make this work. Trying to give me space while still being present. Trying to love me without breaking me. I didn't know if that made it better or worse.
"Thank you," I whispered finally, the words feeling strange on my tongue, too soft, too vulnerable. "For the things. For... this."
Mason's arms tightened around me. "You don't have to thank us for taking care of you. That's our job. Our privilege."
"Our pleasure," Leo added, and there was a smile in his voice, but it wasn't mocking. Just warm.
"Just let us," Caleb rumbled. "Please." I closed my eyes. Let their warmth seep into me. Let their scents fill my lungs. Let their purrs vibrate through my body until I couldn't tell where I ended and they began.
"Okay," I breathed. "Okay." It wasn't a surrender. Not exactly. It was... a truce. A temporary laying down of arms. A willingness to let them love me, at least in this moment, at least in this space.
My nest. Our nest. Filled with their scents and their warmth and their unwavering presence.
I still wasn't ready to fully accept what I was becoming.
Still wasn't ready to admit that I needed them as much as they needed me.
Still wasn't ready to say the words that would make this real, permanent, undeniable.
For now, wrapped in their arms, surrounded by their scents, purring in my nest like the Omega I'd never wanted to be. ..
For now, this was enough. I fell asleep to the sound of our mingled purrs, my Alphas curled around me like a living wall, safe and warm and impossibly, terrifyingly content.