Chapter 27 Violet
VIOLET
Iwake up drowning in alpha.
That's the first conscious thought my brain manages to string together.
Not a complaint, just an observation. I'm sandwiched between warm bodies, surrounded by scents so thick I can taste them.
Coffee and cedar and burnt sugar, all tangled up with my vanilla until I can't tell where I end and they begin.
My second thought: everything hurts.
Not bad hurt. More like I-just-ran-a-marathon-while-someone-used-my-body-as-a-trampoline hurt. Which, considering the past three days, isn't far from accurate.
I try to move and immediately regret it. My thighs protest. My hips scream. Parts of me I didn't know could be sore are filing formal complaints with my nervous system.
"Don't move yet." Liam's voice, soft against my ear. His arm tightens around my waist from behind, holding me still. "Give yourself a minute."
"I'm fine," I mumble, though my body's calling me a liar.
"You're not fine." Xaden, from my other side. His hand finds my face, thumb brushing my cheekbone. "You've been in heat for three days. Your body needs time to recover."
Three days. Has it really been three days? Time's a blur, fractured into moments of desperate need and overwhelming satisfaction. I remember pieces. Xaden's knot locking inside me. Garrick's hands on my hips. Liam's gentle voice coaching me through waves of sensation. The bite marks.
My hand flies to my throat, fingers finding raised skin. One on the left. One on the right. Still tender, slightly swollen. Then my shoulder where Liam's mark sits, different placement but just as permanent.
Three bites. Three bonds. Three alphas who claimed me.
"Just thinking," I say, which is true. My brain is trying to process everything that happened over the last three days.
"About?" Xaden shifts, propping himself up on one elbow so he can look at me properly. His dark eyes are warm, searching my face.
I swallow hard. "About how different everything is now. Good different. Just... a lot to process."
"That's fair," Liam says, moving to kneel beside the couch. His chamomile scent wraps around me, soothing. "You just went through your first heat and bonded to three alphas. That's a lot for anyone."
"Understatement," I murmur, but I'm smiling.
Garrick's hand finds my ankle, thumb stroking the bone there. "You okay though? Really?"
"Yeah." And I mean it. Through the bonds, I can feel their certainty, their contentment, their love. It's overwhelming but in the best way. "I'm really okay."
My stomach chooses that moment to growl. Loudly. Like a bear waking up from hibernation and demanding tribute.
The mood shifts immediately. Liam's already moving, reaching for his medical bag. "When's the last time you ate?"
"I don't... yesterday?" Time's blurred together. "Maybe the day before?"
"Jesus." Garrick's on his feet, heading for the door. "Stay here. I'll make breakfast."
"I can make my own..."
"You can barely sit up," he says over his shoulder. "Let me feed you. It's literally what I do best."
He disappears, and his footsteps thunder down the stairs into the bakery.
"He's going to make enough food to feed an army," Xaden observes, settling back down beside me. "Stress baking is his love language."
"I noticed." I lean into him, resting my head on his shoulder. The bond hums between us, warm and steady. I can feel his contentment, his satisfaction at having me close. "This is real, right? I'm not going to wake up and find out this was all some elaborate fever dream?"
"It's real." His arm comes around me, holding me against his side. "And you're stuck with us now. All three of us. Forever."
Forever. The word should terrify me. Mark used to throw it around like a threat. "You're mine forever. You'll never leave me. Forever and always."
But when Xaden says it, it sounds like a promise.
Liam's doing his thing, checking my pulse, my temperature, looking at the bite marks. "These are healing well. No signs of infection. Though you'll want to be careful with them for a few days."
"Careful how?"
He traces Xaden's bite with gentle fingers. "No turtlenecks. Nothing tight against your throat. The marks need air. They're permanent now. Everyone will know you're claimed."
The thought should make me panic. Being marked, owned, claimed. But all I feel is satisfaction. These aren't Mark's marks, forced on me through fear and control. These are mine. My choice. My alphas.
My pack.
"Can I see?" I ask quietly.
Liam disappears into the bathroom and returns with a hand mirror. "Ready?"
I nod, and he holds it up.
The woman staring back at me is almost unrecognizable. Hair wild and tangled. Lips swollen. Eyes tired but bright. And my throat...
Three bite marks. Vivid red against pale skin, already starting to purple at the edges. Xaden's on the left, perfectly placed over my pulse point. Garrick's mirrors it on the right. And Liam's on my shoulder, different but equally claiming.
They're beautiful. Brutal. Permanent.
Mine.
"I look like I got in a fight with a werewolf and lost," I say, but there's no heat in it.
"You look claimed," Xaden corrects. "You look like you belong to us."
"And you belong to us," Liam adds. "The bonds go both ways. We're just as marked, just as claimed."
I can feel it through the bonds. Their certainty. Their satisfaction. Their love, warm and steady.
Garrick returns with a tray loaded down with enough food to feed a small country. French toast. Scrambled eggs. Bacon. Fresh fruit. Orange juice. Coffee. And blueberry muffins that smell like heaven.
"You made all this in twenty minutes?" I stare at the spread.
"Had stuff ready." He sets the tray on the coffee table, then starts arranging plates. "Knew you'd be hungry when you woke up."
"You were stress baking at four in the morning, weren't you?"
"Productive baking," he corrects, but his ears go red. "Eat."
I reach for a piece of bacon and he immediately bats my hand away. "Sit back. Let me do this."
What follows is possibly the most embarrassing and wonderful thing that's ever happened to me. Garrick feeds me. Actually feeds me, holding pieces of French toast to my lips and watching to make sure I swallow before offering more.
"I can feed myself," I protest weakly.
"I know. Let me anyway."
So I do. I let him feed me while Xaden keeps me steady and Liam hovers nearby, making sure I'm staying hydrated. It should feel infantilizing. Instead, it feels like love.
This is how they show it. Not with grand gestures or flowery words. With food and careful hands and making sure I'm taken care of.
By the time I've finished eating, my eyes are drooping again. The combination of food and safety and bond-satisfaction is pulling me under.
"Sleep," Liam says softly. "We've got you."
"But we need to talk about..." I stifle a yawn. "There's so much to figure out. Living arrangements and my work and..."
Xaden's already rearranging pillows, making me comfortable. "Later. Right now you need rest. Everything else can wait."
"Really?"
"Promise."
I drift off surrounded by pack, feeling the bonds pulse with contentment. Safe. Claimed. Theirs.
The second time I wake up, it's to the sound of voices. Low and serious, coming from somewhere near the kitchen.
"Can't keep living in separate places." That's Liam. "She needs stability. We all do."
"The pack house makes sense." Xaden's voice. "But it's our space. We need to make sure she wants it too."
"She'll want it." Garrick sounds certain. "Question is when. Do we push now or give her time?"
I should announce I'm awake. Should let them know I can hear every word. Instead, I lie still, listening.
"She's been living in the apartment above the bakery, which was always meant to be temporary. She needs to know this is permanent."
"She knows." That's Xaden again. "The bonds prove it. But knowing and believing are different things."
Silence falls. Then Garrick speaks, voice rough. "What if she decides permanent is too much? What if she wants to keep the apartment? Have her own space?"
"Then we'll figure it out," Liam says firmly. "This isn't about us deciding what's best for her. It's about asking what she wants and supporting that choice."
More silence. I can picture them standing there, three alphas trying to navigate how to be pack without being controlling. Trying to give me agency while also wanting to take care of me.
My heart feels too big for my chest.
I clear my throat and open my eyes. "You know I can hear you, right?"
Three heads whip toward the couch. Garrick looks guilty. Liam looks caught. Xaden just looks amused.
"How long have you been awake?" Garrick asks.
"Long enough to hear you trying to decide my future without me." I sit up carefully, and this time the movement doesn't hurt quite as much. "Which is sweet but also very alpha of you."
"We weren't deciding anything," Liam protests. "We were discussing options."
"To present to you," Xaden adds. "For you to choose from."
"Right. Because that's so much better." But I'm smiling as I say it. "Come here. All of you."
They move as one, settling around the couch. Garrick on the floor near my feet. Liam on the arm of the couch. Xaden beside me, close enough to touch.
"Here's what I want," I say, looking at each of them in turn. "And I'm only saying this once, so pay attention."
Three pairs of eyes lock on me. Alert. Focused. Waiting.
"I want to move into the pack house even though I've only been there once when Xaden gave me that quick tour.
I want to wake up with all of you instead of alone in that apartment.
I want to make coffee in a kitchen that smells like all of us.
I want to fall asleep knowing you're not just downstairs or across town, but right there. "
Garrick's hand finds my ankle, gripping tight. "You sure?"