Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Amber
The first thing I register is warmth.
Not the heat. That fire is gone, reduced to a banked ember deep in my belly. This is a different kind of warmth.
It’s all-encompassing and smells like cedar, sex, and the scent of Alphas.
I pry my eyes open. The room is dim, sunlight filtering through the high windows in dusty beams.
I’m lying in the center of the bed, buried under a mountain of blankets. A heavy arm is banded around my waist, a leg thrown over mine.
Eli.
I shift slightly, and a dull ache radiates from my center. I wince, a sharp intake of breath that I try to stifle.
“Amber?”
Eli’s voice is a sleepy rasp against my ear. He tightens his arm instantly, pulling me back against his chest.
“You okay?”
“I think so,” I whisper. My voice is wrecked—hoarse and thin from three days of screaming. “I’m just... sore.”
“Let me see,” he murmurs.
He rolls me over gently, onto my back. The movement sends a fresh wave of aches through my hips and thighs. I gasp, my hands clutching at the sheets.
“I know,” he says softly, brushing the hair back from my face. His eyes are soft, filled with a tenderness that makes my chest ache. “Let me help.”
He slides a hand down my stomach, over the curve of my hip, until his fingers brush against the sensitive skin of my inner thigh. I whimper, my hips twitching away from the contact.
“Shh,” he soothes. “I’m just going to clean you up.”
He spreads my legs gently. The air is cold against my wet, heated skin.
I feel... used. Ruined. There is a sticky mess between my legs, a combination of days of slick and release.
I slide my own hand down, needing to feel the damage. My fingers brush against my entrance, and I gasp at the pinch.
I’m swollen so tight the flesh feels taut, like an overripe fruit.
And then I feel it.
A thick, wet slide of fluid leaks out of me, coating my fingers. Come.
I stare at my hand, transfixed. There’s so much of it.
“Hey,” Eli says gently, catching my wrist. He pulls my hand up to his mouth.
My heart stutters as I watch him. He parts his lips and sucks my fingers inside, one by one.
The sensation is strange and intimate. He licks the release from my skin, his tongue swirling around my knuckles, cleaning me with a reverence that makes tears prick my eyes. When he’s done, he presses a kiss to my palm.
“Still sore?” he asks.
“A little,” I breathe.
“Lie back,” he commands, his voice dropping into that soothing, Alpha register that makes my body obey before my mind can catch up.
I sink back into the pillows. He pushes my legs apart again and ducks his head between my thighs.
I expect it to hurt. I expect the frantic, desperate lashing of the heat.
But Eli doesn’t attack. He worships.
He presses a soft, open-mouthed kiss to my swollen folds. I gasp, my hips bucking slightly, but he holds me down, his hands splaying on my stomach.
“Easy,” he murmurs against my skin.
He licks me, long, slow stripes that gather the mess and soothe the burn. It feels incredible. The ache begins to dull, replaced by a slow, curling pleasure.
“Oh,” I breathe out, my head falling back. “Eli...”
He pulls back just enough to spit a glob of saliva onto my cunt, making me wetter, making the glide of his tongue easier. Then he seals his mouth over my clit and sucks.
My body reacts instantly, the memory of the last three days surging up to meet him. But this isn’t the frantic need of the heat. This is a slow tide.
“God,” I whimper, my hands tangling in his hair.
He works me with his mouth, his tongue flicking, his lips sucking, until I’m panting, my thighs trembling. The crest hits me, soft and rolling.
I moan, my back arching, but he doesn’t stop. He gentles me through the first one and sends me straight into a second orgasm.
By the time he lifts his head, his chin is shiny. I’m a boneless heap.
“Better?” he asks, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Better,” I whisper. “Where are the others?”
“Fallon is making breakfast,” Eli says, crawling up the bed to gather me in his arms. “And Knox is doing a perimeter check. He’s been up since dawn. He’s... restless.”
I burrow into Eli’s chest. “He’s always restless.”
“He’s protective,” Eli corrects, kissing the top of my head. “How about we get you cleaned up properly? And then we’ll go eat. I’m starving.”
“I think I need help walking,” I admit, my cheeks heating.
Eli smiles against my hair. “I’d say that’s an understatement.”
He helps me to the bathroom, supporting my weight while my legs wobble like a newborn foal’s. He washes me with a warm cloth, cleaning away the last of the evidence, leaving me feeling human again.
We go downstairs slowly.
The warehouse is quiet. The smell of bacon and coffee wafts from the kitchen. Fallon is at the stove, wearing sweatpants and nothing else, flipping eggs.
He looks up when we shuffle in. His face lights up, a boyish grin that erases the exhaustion lines around his eyes.
“Hey! Sleeping Beauty lives,” he says, abandoning the eggs to come over. He pulls me into a hug, lifting me off my feet. “How are you feeling?”
“Sore,” I say into his shoulder. “But I’m okay.”
“You’re more than okay,” he says, setting me down gently at the island. “You’re amazing.”
A moment later, the steel door rattles. Knox walks in. He’s fully dressed in jeans and a heavy sweater, his hair damp from the snow outside. He looks wild, his eyes scanning the room before they land on me.
The tension leaves his shoulders in a rush. He crosses the room in three strides, cupping my face in his cold, rough hands.
“You’re up,” he says, like he wasn’t expecting it. “How do you feel?”
“Alive,” I tell him, leaning into his touch. “Human.”
He leans down and kisses me, a slow, possessive press of lips. “Good.”
They sit me down and feed me. Fallon makes me scrambled eggs and toast, forcing me to eat bite after bite. Knox pours me a glass of orange juice and watches like a hawk as I drink it.
I watch them while I eat.
I watch Fallon wipe a counter I didn’t even know was dirty. I watch Knox check the lock on the door for the third time. I watch Eli refill my water glass before I even realize it’s empty.
For years, I was a ghost. I was moving through the world, trying not to be seen, trying not to be hurt.
I was surviving. Bending under the weight of Luke and the fear and the past.
But looking at them... the knot in my chest loosens. The fear is gone. The cage is open.
I’m not just surviving anymore. I’m living.
“Eli,” I say softly. “Knox. Fallon.”
They all look at me.
I set my fork down. My heart flutters nervously.
“I was scared,” I admit, staring at my hands on the table. “When I was with Luke. And after. I thought... I thought I was broken. That I couldn’t... that I wasn’t made for good things.”
“Don’t say that,” Knox says sharply.
“It’s true,” I insist. I look up, meeting their eyes. “But you healed me. You put me back together.”
I take a breath. This isn’t a rational thought. It’s a deep and primal ache in my chest that has nothing to do with logic.
“I want a baby,” I say.
The room goes so silent I can hear the fridge hum.
I rush on before they can speak. “Not just... not just a baby. Seeing Norah with Rosalie... it made me want that. But specifically with you. I want your child. I want to see Knox’s eyes on a little girl.
I want to see Fallon teach a boy to cook.
I want to see Eli read to a baby like he reads to me. ”
Fallon drops his spatula. Knox stares at me, his eyes wide, his lips slightly parted. Eli looks like he’s been struck by lightning.
“You...” Fallon clears his throat. “You want to get pregnant?”
“I want your baby,” I correct him. “I’m on the pill. Or I was. I haven’t taken it since... since before the heat. I’m ready. I’m healthy.”
“I...” Knox starts, his voice cracking. “The trust you give us... Amber.”
“I know it’s fast,” I say quickly. “I know it’s crazy. But I felt it. During the heat. When you were talking about... breeding me. It didn’t scare me. It felt right.”
“It’s not crazy,” Fallon says, a slow grin spreading across his face. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever heard. Sunshine, let’s start practicing right now. I mean, as soon as you can walk again.”
“Not now, you idiot,” Knox growls, but there is no heat in it. He looks at me with a wonder that makes my eyes sting. “To have a child with you... to protect you, and a child... it’s everything.”
“Actually,” Eli says, tapping his chin, “it’s a distinct possibility that we already started.”
I blink. “What?”
“The heat,” he explains gently. “Biologically, a suppressed heat is... intense. Fertility peaks. And we were...” He glances at Knox, then back to me. “Relentless.”
I press my hand to my stomach. The thought sends a shiver through me.
“It doesn’t matter if it happens now or later,” Knox says firmly. He reaches across the table, covering my hand with his. “We’re ready. Whenever you are. We’ll be there.”
“Good,” I whisper. “Because I want it all.”
I look around the table at them. My pack. My loves.
“Hey,” Fallon says, his voice turning playful again. “Since we’re making big life announcements... I made you something.”
He disappears into the living room and comes back with a small, wrapped box. “From all of us. For after.”
I open it. Inside is a set of keys.
“For the truck,” Knox says. “And the warehouse.”
“And this,” Fallon adds, pointing to a silver band on the keychain, “is your official key to B&B. So you can keep coming and going as you please. You run the kitchen now, Sunshine.”
We are grinning like fools. The bubble of happiness is so thick I feel like I could float in it.
Then, the ringtone shatters the moment.
Knox grabs his phone from the counter, his eyes snapping into soldier mode. He answers immediately. “Oui?”
I watch his face. The smile vanishes. The color drains from his cheeks.
“When?” he barks into the phone. “Is everyone out? Good.”
He lowers the phone slowly.
“Knox?” I ask, my stomach dropping.