Chapter Thirty
Rhea
I sway where I sit, holding on to my sanity with both hands and an upholstered cushion.
Which, for the record, is not an ideal coping strategy when your heat is flaring back up like some demonic hormonal lava lamp. My knees press together, my fists twist in the couch like I’m trying to wring emotional support out of expensive linen, and still - slick . More of it. Because of course.
Every inch of me feels overcooked. My brain’s melted down to one singular command on loop:
Alpha. Alpha. Alpha. Now.
Like an unhinged inner voice is DJing my sex drive and it only knows one track.
A wave hits hard - tight behind my ribs, down low in my spine - and I gasp, loud. Embarrassingly loud. Sexy-exorcism levels of loud.
My hips jerk, and I immediately want to die.
I clutch the edge of the couch like it can save me from myself.
Submit , my instincts scream. Let them take you.
Somewhere nearby, I hear Kai’s voice - smug and totally unhelpful.
“She’s gonna burn through the fucking upholstery if we don’t touch her soon.”
“Oh, helpful ,” Theo snaps, sounding like a man one inhale away from a prayer circle. “Maybe if you didn’t reek of six unresolved fantasies and that smug grin -”
“Oh please ,” Kai drawls. “You’re just mad she looks at me like that and lets you hold her hand after.”
There’s a silence so thick it practically makes a sound.
Then Theo, deceptively calm:
“Don’t start something you’re not ready to finish.”
And Kai - Kai lets out the kind of low, dangerous laugh that absolutely does not help the situation.
My slick immediately agrees.
I whimper again - this time into the couch.
“Rhea,” Theo crouches in front of me, all glowing reverence and overdeveloped forearms. “Look at me. Tell me what you need.”
What I need?
Oh, I don’t know. A cold shower. A new nervous system. A reset button.
But instead, I say the truth.
“I need all of you.”
Kai’s the first to react, obviously.
“Shit, Bambi,” he says, running a hand through his hair. “You sure know how to cause a scene. That your signature move? Get everyone arguing and then drop a bomb like that?”
Theo straightens like someone just hit the moral override switch in his chest. Ash exhales like he's trying not to breathe fire. Or maybe just rage.
It's hard to say - he’s always got that whole unmoved mountain with a secret look on his face.
“Do you know what you’re saying?” Ash asks, voice rough. “Do you know what you’re asking for ?”
“Yes,” I gasp. “I feel it. I need -”
“She needs us,” Theo says, voice steady like this is a courtroom and I’m the client he’s morally obligated to defend.
Kai shrugs. “And who are we to argue with a desperate omega on a very expensive designer couch in full-blown heat?”
Ash and Theo growl in tandem.
“Let me guess,” Kai sighs, “You want me to pull a Lucian and monologue from the hallway while she slicks up the furniture?”
“Don’t trivialize it,” Ash bites, stepping forward like he’s two seconds from dragging Kai out by the hoodie. “This isn’t a bar hookup. She’s in heat. And this -” he gestures between all of us, “- isn’t casual.”
Kai gives him a lazy salute. “Didn’t say it was, soldier.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“You wear the jawline,” Kai grins. “I call it like I see it.”
“Try respect, you goddamn wrecking ball,” Theo grits, sounding like the last functional nerve in his body just snapped.
And here’s where Theo, blessed golden retriever of a man, tries again to be the adult.
“Look,” he says, “yesterday, when Rhea reached out to me and Ash - she tried to bond.”
That gets their attention.
Kai shrugs one shoulder. “Yeah. And?”
“And we didn't take it,” Theo says, quieter now. “We felt it. Both of us. But this needs to be her choice. Not instinct. Not pressure. Her. ”
“She literally just said -” Kai starts, gesturing wildly at me like I’m exhibit A.
“And if this becomes a full pack bond,” Theo says, “this stops being hypothetical. There are consequences. Behavioral syncing. Cycles. Territory instincts. This isn't a joke.”
Kai blinks. “You want me to sign a contract? ‘ I, Kai Reed, consent to alpha madness and spontaneous scent-fueled attachment in perpetuity? ’ What font are we using?”
Ash groans into his palm. “This is going great. ”
“I feel like a teenager in rut all over again, Theo - if I have to bond with her, then I fucking -”
“It’s not your decision,” Theo says evenly. “It’s hers .”
I sway again, doing my best impression of a human candle.
I am not doing well. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m actively combusting, still trying not to hump the furniture, and think of how I need a cold drink, a lie-down, and maybe to never be horny again.
The pulse between my thighs says, Hi, yes, remember me? Still here. Still desperate. Could use a break. Or an orgasm. Either is fine.
I lift my head, panting, flushed, but still technically functioning - which feels like a win at this point. My thighs are glued together like I’m trying to hold back a tsunami with sheer stubbornness, and I’m 90% sure my face looks like I just ran a marathon through a sauna.
Like the sweetheart that he is, Theo ignores the rapidly unraveling alpha cage match behind him and focuses in on me like I’m the only person in the room.
“Rhea… this is real. It’s not simple or straightforward - because once it happens, it can’t be undone.”
“I know that,” I snap, even as my whole body is trying to climb him like a tree. “I’m not an idiot. I know what it means. And I’m not asking because I’m confused or overwhelmed or heat-dumb or whatever you’re all whispering behind my back -”
“You’re asking,” Ash cuts in gently, “because you feel us. All of us.”
My eyes swing to him. Then to Theo. Then to Kai - who’s somehow smirking and leaning against the wall like he’s posing for a thirst trap. Typical.
My heart hammers. My skin flushes - not just with heat but full-on rage, because Lucian didn’t come.
Because he stood there in the kitchen like a disappointed headmaster while I sat there dripping in omega shame, as though I’d done something wrong by wanting, by needing .
And I hate that it mattered. Hate that I waited.
Hate that part of me still wants to punch a wall just thinking about him.
And maybe this is spite. Maybe it’s a full-blown hormonal tantrum.
Or maybe it’s just clarity in the middle of a very sweaty, very confusing identity crisis.
“I’m not a prize,” I say, voice low but sharp. “I’m not a project. And I am definitely not a problem to be solved.”
That lands.
Even Kai stops chewing whatever snack he’s managed to sneak into his mouth.
“I didn’t ask for this,” I say, gesturing vaguely to the room, the tension, the throbbing heat coiling in my spine like a ticking bomb. “But it’s happening. My body’s already burned through every suppressant I’ve ever taken, and you three are here, and everything inside me is screaming that I need you.”
I cross my arms, which is mostly to keep from grabbing the closest alpha and doing something I can’t take back.
“If Lucian can’t handle the fact that I want more than just his emotionally repressed ass, that’s his problem. Not mine.”
Kai lets out a low whistle and steps forward, eyes gleaming.
“That’s all I needed to hear. And for the record, if bonding means I get to throw hands with Lucian every time he glares at me, I’m so in.”
Theo groans. “You’re incapable of taking anything seriously.”
“I take her seriously,” Kai says, jerking his thumb at me. “Everything else is optional.”
Ash steps in then, blocking Kai with an arm like he’s done this before. “You’re not touching her first.”
“Oh?” Kai’s brow arches. “Didn’t realize we were calling dibs now.”
“We’re not,” Theo cuts in, already bracing for impact. “She said all. Not one. Not first. All. ”
And that’s when the heat hits me again.
No warning. No grace. Just WHAM - full-body chaos like someone shoved me into a furnace.
I double over, clutching my stomach.
It’s like being mugged by my own hormones. Everything tilts: sound, air, my sense of dignity; and suddenly I’m leaking again, because apparently, my body has no sense of timing or boundaries.
A strangled sound rips out of me.
Sexy? Absolutely not.
Effective? Apparently, yes, because Theo is on me in a blink, catching me before I faceplant.
“Rhea -”
“I can’t, ” I gasp. “It’s too much. You’re all too much.”
Kai’s voice wavers. “Someone should probably do something. Like… now.”
Ash growls. “Besides you running your mouth?”
“I’d run something else if you’d stop babysitting,” Kai fires back, smug and sparkly-eyed.
Theo presses his hands to my knees, grounding. Solid. Way too calm. “You’re okay. It’s not weakness. It’s your body reacting to us. To all of us.”
I try to stand -
Mistake.
Legs? Useless. Dignity? Gone .
I slump into Theo like I’m made of overcooked noodles, panting and writhing in a way that’s either deeply embarrassing or alarmingly sexy, depending on the angle.
Every alpha in the room is pulling at some piece of me.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
No bond is even fully formed yet, and yet everything inside me is calling out in sheer need. It’s bone-deep now, marrow-hot, sharp enough to feel like pain.
“It hurts, Theo,” I manage to say through clenched teeth. “Please. Do something.”
He lays me back like I’m a sacred offering - or an overheating toaster that might explode at any moment. Probably both.
His jaw is tight, his pupils blown so wide it’s borderline illegal. Kai’s hands flex at his sides. Ash is still glaring at the wall like he’s trying not to destroy it with sheer willpower.
Meanwhile, I’m vibrating like a cursed tuning fork with a bad attitude.
And god help me - despite it all, I love it.
I press my hands between my legs, grinding down like I’m trying to summon god, but surprise - no salvation. Just more heat. More slick.
More absolutely zero relief.
“I can’t -”
And then Theo kisses me.
Not a test-the-waters, "may I? " kind of kiss. Oh no - it's a full-body, full-soul, tongue-down-my-throat situation. His hands are on my thighs, parting them with reverent urgency, like he’s about to propose to my vagina, and Kai groans behind him.
“Oh, fuck me -”
“ Later, ” Theo grits, not missing a beat.
Smooth.
He drops to his knees like some kind of six-foot devotional candle and glances up at me, checking. Always checking. Of course he’s asking for consent with his eyes while I’m half-feral and soaking the couch.
God, I love him.
“Can I?”
“Yes,” I gasp, sounding like someone just asked if I wanted fries with that. “ Please .”
His hands trail up my calves, thumbs circling like he's warming up for a sacred ceremony. A kiss to the knee. Then higher. Then higher.
I start praying to anyone listening.
“Rhea - shit. ”
Then Ash moves. One hand lands beside my head, the other grips my hip like he’s anchoring me to the earth. His whole body presses over mine, not heavy - just there .
His gaze isn’t on me - it’s on Theo. Watching, guarding, evaluating - as if his performance is a mission-critical operation.
He growls. Just once.
“Don’t hold back.”
Honestly, it's hot. And also kind of terrifying.
My brain short-circuits for a full second.
Kai’s next. The man moves like a jungle cat with a punchline as he slides in behind the couch, then leans over me like he’s narrating a very dirty nature documentary.
“ Finally, ” he murmurs, brushing his lips over the exposed skin of my shoulder. “I’ve been starving for you.”
He says it like we’re at brunch and I’m the goddamn buffet.
His hands slide into my hair, thumbs rubbing slow circles at the base of my skull. It feels so good I could cry.
Hands. Mouths. Alpha energy.
Everywhere.
I’m not in heat - I’m in a HR violation.
Theo’s big hands guide my thighs further open, spreading me like a gift he’s been dying to unwrap. His breath ghosts over the soaked spot between my legs.
“ Fuck , look at her," Kai croons. "Dripping already, and we haven’t even started.”
Ash strokes my hip with slow, possessive fingers. “She’s ready for us, alright.”
“Such a good omega,” Kai croons. “I can smell her,” he adds, voice dropping. “You smell that, Theo? That’s slick. That’s want .”
Theo moans like he’s drunk on it. “I’ve got you,” he murmurs, breath hitching. “ We’ve got you, Omega.”
I feel him breathe me in, drinking in my scent -
And then his mouth is on me.
I cry out in pleasure as his tongue drags over my soaked cunt, licking, tasting, feasting . His hands grip my thighs, holding me open, keeping me still while I writhe and grind myself down against his mouth.
His tongue is broad and hot, lapping through my slick like he’s mapping every nerve ending with perfect, torturous precision. He moans low in his throat, and it vibrates through my cunt, drawing a sharp gasp from my lips. Ash growls above me, and then he’s kissing me, swallowing my noises of pleasure as Theo feasts on me below.
It’s chaos. Sensory overload.
And the feel of Kai’s cock pressed against the back of my head as he strokes himself slow through his pants.
Theo's tongue flicks harder, faster, lapping at my clit now, making my hips jerk. My hips buck roughly against his mouth, and Ash finally pulls back from the kiss before his eyes - black and wild - pin mine.
Still present. Still dominant.
But the mask of control is splintering.
Theo’s tongue circles my clit again, faster this time, moving in tight little circles, and I swear to god I see heaven -
And it has mood lighting.
“Look at them,” Ash commands, voice like gravel and sin. “See what you do to them.”
I blink hard, drag my eyes down.Theo is a vision - on his knees, shoulders wide between my thighs, his mouth slick with me, eyes half-lidded in reverence as he drinks me in. His hands are shaking, but his focus is absolute.
His looks like he’s in worship. Like he’s praying at the altar of my heat.
And Kai -
Kai’s still perched behind me like an amused, horny gargoyle. His eyes are molten. His smirk’s feral. His hands twitching like he wants to paint a masterpiece with my thighs as the canvas.
“You look so fucking good like this, Bambi,” he rasps. “Laid out. Wrecked . Omega down - letting us see what you really are.”
Theo groans again - louder this time, messier.
“She’s soaking ,” he gasps, pulling back just enough to speak, breath hot against my dripping cunt. “Tastes like heat. Like fucking lightning .”
Kai growls. “Then don’t waste a drop.”
Then - because he has zero respect for my sanity - he leans down and kisses my cheek. Soft. Sweet.
Then the corner of my mouth.
Then he kisses me for real - slow and deep, all tongue and sin and stupid, smug confidence.
“You’ve got this,” Kai breathes between kisses, his forehead brushing mine as Theo’s tongue continues to swirl over my clit. “Come for us, baby. Show us how pretty you break. ”
And that’s it.
That’s the moment my brain unplugs and leaves the building.
My thighs shake. My back arches. And I realize, very clearly, that I am going to absolutely lose my shit in front of three gorgeous, dangerous, scent-drenched alphas.
Theo
growls into me, as though he’s as equally affected by Kai's words. His grip tightens on my thighs, pulling them wider, locking me down to his mouth as he devours me harder, faster , tongue curling just right, sucking hard -
“My god, that looks good,” Kai says. “You seeing this too, Ash? Fuck me. ”
I can’t - I can’t - I can’t -
“Oh fuck -”
“That’s it, Bambi,” Kai says in encouragement. “Come all over Theo’s face.”
My orgasm slams into me - sudden, violent, and overwhelming.
I cry out, writhing between Ash’s grip and Theo’s mouth, my entire body shuddering with release as the heat explodes into white-hot pleasure. My slick gushes over Theo’s tongue, down his chin, soaking my thighs as Kai kisses me again and swallows the sounds of my pleasure.
Theo moans between my legs like I just fed him ambrosia, and my scent punches the room like a goddamn smoke bomb. My legs are trembling like a newborn deer, and Theo’s face is still slick with me, blinking up like he’s just had a religious experience.
Kai, somewhere behind him, makes a strangled noise.
“Can I taste her yet, or is this one of those take-a-number deli situations?”
Theo licks his lips. “She’s ready.”
“No,” Ash growls, and when I say growls, I mean it: full alpha bass, the kind that vibrates your molars. He stands up like a statue coming to life, stalking toward me with all the subtlety of a slow-moving avalanche.
I blink up at him, still panting. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes,” he says darkly, scooping me up like a romance novel cover come to life.
Except instead of a wind-swept cliffside, we have… the living room couch. Mood .
He lays me out like a ceremonial offering, except there’s nothing virginal about the way my thighs are shaking or the state of Theo’s jaw.
Ash settles between my legs and presses one hand to my belly.
“She’s not just ready,” he grits out, voice wrecked. “She’s mine .”
I mean, okay. Hot .
His hands are everywhere - smoothing up my ribs, cupping my breast beneath the fabric of Kai’s hoodie, sliding down again to grip the soft curve of my hips.
“She’s ours ,” he says again - not to me, but to the room, to them.
And then, he presses in.
Slow. Deep. Thick.
And I swear, I actually see heaven for a second before my brain short-circuits.
My body clamps around him, slick and desperate, and Ash drops his head between my neck and shoulder .
“Oh fuck - okay,” I whimper, gripping his shoulders like I’m trying to stay on the planet. “That’s a lot of alpha.”
Ash groans against my throat. “You’re too good. Too tight. I’m trying - shit - I’m trying to hold it together.”
I can tell. His whole body is tight, like he’s doing Olympic-level clenching. Soldier mode. Full restraint. Equal parts sexy and maddening.
“Don’t hold it together,” I gasp. “I’ve had enough polite dick. Ruin me a little.”
Ash makes a sound that’s somewhere between a curse and a prayer, and then he finally moves - harder, rougher, the pace of a man who’s finally said screw it to self-control.
It’s perfect.
Gone is the restraint, the hesitation. Ash’s rhythm shifts into something urgent, wild . His teeth bare, his eyes blaze, and I feel it - that bond we both denied - rising again, cresting.
Behind the rhythm, I hear the low, needy groan of another Alpha.
“Goddamn, Bambi. You’re gonna kill us.”
I glance past Ash’s shoulder and see Kai palming his cock like he’s trying to soothe an angry animal. Theo’s next to him, already halfway wrecked, flushed and reverent like he’s at a church service where the communion wine is me.
“She’s beautiful like this,” Theo murmurs.
Kai snorts. “ Beautiful? She’s art . Erotic sculpture. The Sistine Chapel of heat cycles.”
Ash slams forward, deep, sharp, and I yelp. “Oh my god.”
Kai strokes himself lazily, like this is a show he’s seen before.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. You look amazing. You also look like you might pass out, but like, in a hot way.”
Ash growls again. “She’s mine right now.”
“Sure,” Kai grins. “But she’s still all of ours .”
My eyes squeeze tightly to a close as pleasure overwhelms me, and a new pair of hands tugs at the bottom of the hoodie before pulling it up and over my head. It's flung somewhere - I assume it lands in another dimension - and I’m bare. Again.
Glowing. A mess.
Still, I try for sass.
“You could’ve at least asked before yeeting my emotional support hoodie across the room.”
I open my eyes just in time to catch Kai grinning down at me.
“I’ll buy you five more. Custom embroidered. Team Bambi .”
But I can’t laugh. Not really.
Because Ash is still inside me, moving like he means it, and I can feel everything spiraling.
Every muscle wound tight. Every nerve on fire.
Every alpha in the room dialed in on me like I’m their whole goddamn world.
“Fucking hell, ” Kai breathes, voice full of wonder now. “Look at how your tits bounce while Ash fucks you.”
But I don’t look at them - I look at Ash, and I see him.
The tension in his jaw. The way his hands tremble, even as he steadies me.
And I don’t know why I do it. Maybe I’ve always known.
I bury my face in Ash’s neck, and I breathe him in - deep, greedy, full of instinct and need.
Not a polite sniff. This is primal. Carnal . Like I’m trying to eat his soul.
“No more running,” he grits out. “I can’t - fuck, I won’t fight it anymore.”
He turns his nose into my throat and inhales me back -
And t he bond slams into place.
Not a slow burn. Not a soft click.
It’s a bonafide, earth-shattering, brain-melting, full-soul detonation.
It snaps into place like a whip crack; loud, sharp, and totally unforgiving. My body seizes and then melts all in the same breath. I sob: messy, undignified, full-body crying that says this bond just rearranged my organs.
Because a ll at once, I can really feel him - his hunger, his need, his grief for the restraint he thought he had to keep. His overwhelming desire to claim, to protect, to own, to serve, to be mine and make me his .
His instincts collide with mine, crashing into the hollow place in me that’s been wide open since the moment I first reached for him, and now he’s reaching back.
At last.
I scream his name, and it’s not even cute. It’s feral. Ugly. Glorious.
Ash groans like it hurts , like it heals , and then his mouth crashes into mine - desperate, open, claiming - and whoop, there goes my last rational thought.
He thrusts harder, like he’s trying to jackhammer the bond into my spine, and it works. It so works.
Our scents explode together, thick and heady and definitely strong enough to knock out a small woodland animal. If anyone walks in right now, they’d either join or call animal control. Maybe both.
He’s inside me now - not just physically, but emotionally ; and I wasn’t prepared for that second one to hit so much harder than the first.
Ash lets out a broken sigh against my mouth.
“I felt you,” he murmurs. “I’ve felt you for days. I just didn’t know how much I needed it.”
Oh wow - feelings and dick? We’re thriving .
He thrusts again - deeper, hungrier - and my hips meet him automatically, like muscle memory’s taken over. I’m so full, so wrung-out, so completely wrecked that I’m basically a puddle in vaguely omega-shaped form. The scent of it floods the room - hot and sweet and permanent, the aftermath of sex and an emotional breakthrough at the same time.
I hear Kai’s breath hitch, while Theo makes a low, reverent sound.
And Lucian - wherever he is - probably just punched a hole in a wall without knowing why.
Ash cups the back of my head while my body convulses around him, and I sob into his chest as though I’ve just been emotionally knighted.
The bond burns. Not painful, just... undeniable. Like someone tattooed his name across my bones.
He’s mine, I’m his, and somehow, in spite of the fact that I’m dripping, shaking, half-naked, and clinging to this man like a backpack in heat -
It feels right.
Ash kisses my cheek, all tender and sweet.
Then his voice drops, low and dark.
“But you’re not just mine.”
Oh no. Here we go.
Of course we can’t have one soft moment without tossing it into the blender of alpha possessiveness.
And okay - yes, technically correct. But also, Ash, please read the room.
I’m still one orgasm away from levitating, and now I have to emotionally process plural dick again.
I blink up at him, dazed, sweaty, and deeply aware that my boobs are still bouncing somewhere between devotion and gravity.
“Thanks for the bond, babe,” I rasp. “But if you’re gonna pull the sharing is caring card now, I’m gonna need water, carbs, and maybe a ten-minute nap.”
Ash huffs a laugh - half growl, half affection - and presses his forehead to mine.
I think we both know this isn’t over, and god help me, as I blink over at Theo and Kai -
Well. I kind of hope it isn’t.