Chapter 24
Lucas
It’s a little after one in the morning when I scent her. Not on the breeze off the dunes, not down at the bakery, where cinnamon clings to my hair, but inside Cole’s house. The one in which I rent a room and now she’s here, too. After leaving us without explanation.
How’d she even get inside?
Zane. Obviously.
I’m on the couch with a bowl of cereal balanced on my knee while the TV mumbles something about Cornish surfing legends. But all of it is obliterated the second Helena steps inside.
She opens the door and stands with one foot over the threshold, suitcase dragging behind her, hair all windswept and wild, like she’d run the whole way from the city.
Or at least, Cole and I assume it was from the city.
Her face is tired, but there’s a pink bloom in her cheeks and her blue eyes are bright the moment she sees me.
She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Hey, sorry for the late arrival and missing-in-action behavior.”
I forget how to breathe. “Hey, yourself.”
Cole is in the kitchen rinsing out some dishes. Now he barrels into the living room when he hears Helena. He doesn’t even slow down—just lifts her clean off the ground, suitcase and all, spinning her around until she’s laughing and squealing.
Zane steps in and tries to shush him because it’s the middle of the night and we have neighbors. “Calm down. We’re here to stay.”
Cole puts Helena down and kisses her forehead. “You’re not leaving?” He turns to me and then looks back to her. “We thought maybe you had—”
Helena touches a hand to his cheek. “I should have called, yes. We went back to deal with my father. He’s grudgingly agreed to let me live the life I want.” She looks to me. “So no, I’m not leaving. I am yours—all of yours. I love you all.”
I love you all.
Shit. I’ve never had someone tell me they love me like this before. Is that what this warm, sort of light feeling is? Not just hope, but love, too? “Helena—”
She holds up a hand. “You don’t need to say it back. We’re already bonded in this together.”
“I think I speak for all of us when I say we all love you too,” Cole says. “Maybe we just felt it too soon to say it.”
She nods. “I thought the same, but why wait? Life is short.”
I nearly drowned not that long ago, so I fully understand that. So I close the distance between us and cup her face in my hands. “You’re ours, Helena. You can be whoever you want to be here in Seamuse Village with us.”
She closes her eyes and her body relaxes. “Good. Thank you for that.”
Cole swings her into his arms and kisses her. “I think that does also mean you’re moving in here with us since I’m assuming your father’s only mild approval comes with the rental lease being broken?”
Zane nods sheepishly. “Yes, that would be the case.”
Cole kisses her again. “Then welcome home.”
The tension in the room shifts. No longer a welcome home energy, but one of wanting to make this our home. To claim it for our pack.
Zane moves in closer until we’re all crowded around Helena. She leans into every touch. My hands are shaking, too, but I don’t let go. Neither does Cole, who presses his face against Helena’s neck and just breathes her in, the way he does with a new loaf out of the oven.
Zane nudges me with his chin. “We should take this somewhere more private. Unless you want to put on a show for the neighbors.”
I snort. The blinds are down, but the front door is still swinging open in the nighttime breeze. I go over to shut it, then Cole and I lead Helena and Zane upstairs to Cole’s much larger bedroom.
She collapses backward onto Cole’s bed, arms spread wide to welcome us all in to her new makeshift nest.
First task tomorrow is helping her make a new one that’s all hers.
We crowd in around her as Zane starts to work on her dress’s zipper.
Cole slides it down her shoulders while I kneel behind her.
I trace her neck and shoulders with soft kisses that leave little bumps rising on her skin.
I can’t help it—I bite, not enough to leave a mark, and she moans so loud, I feel it in my own gut.
Her scent goes stark. It’s like a shot of pure energy straight to my core. I run my hands over her ribs from behind and hold her to me. We make quick work of shucking off all of our clothes. Then all too soon, Zane’s hands are between her thighs, coaxing her open.
Cole kneels at her feet and presses kisses up the inside of her calf. I don’t know where to put my hands—they want to be everywhere at once—so I settle for cupping her jaw and kissing her until she’s boneless.
She reaches for me, pulls my head down to hers, and whispers, “Please. I want you all.”
Zane’s eyes are black now, and I see the alpha in him—the part that never takes no for an answer. He’s careful, always, but tonight, there’s an edge to him. He lifts Helena onto his lap and positions her so she’s straddling him.
Cole’s hands roam up her sides, slow and reverent, while I mouth at her collarbone, tongue tracing salt and honey. The air is thick with our scents, a tangle of need so dense, it’s almost suffocating.
Zane pulls Helena flush to his chest. “Ready?”
She nods, desperate, already riding the edge of her own nerves.
He pushes into her slow, filling her inch by inch. The curling moan she makes is so raw, I almost cum on the spot without any friction at all. Cole holds her steady from behind as he prepares her ass. I stroke her hair, murmuring every sweet, stupid thing that comes to mind.
She takes us all, every bit, like she’d been born for this. They fuck her in slow waves, Zane setting the rhythm, Cole matching it beat for beat. She moans, clawing at the sheets and begging for more. The more they give, the more she wants.
When Zane knots her first, she sobs, face pressed into the crook of his neck, and her whole body shakes.
Cole knots her next from behind. Her body goes bolt straight as his knot pops inside her, filling her impossibly.
Both Zane and Cole hold fast as they cum with Helena riding their releases with her own.
While their knots deflate, Helena pulls my cock into her mouth and gives me a blowjob straight from heaven itself.
And then it’s my turn to fill her with my knot.
Bliss. This is pure bliss, and there’s nothing more in this life than I want more than my pack and my omega just like this.
Afterward, we collapse in a tangled heap, too spent to move. My head ends up on Helena’s stomach and Zane’s hand has curled around her shoulder. Cole is spooned up behind Helena and humming a lullaby under his breath.
No one speaks for a long time. The only sound is our breathing and the slow tick of the clock on my nightstand.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy,” Helena admits.
Zane just grunts, but his thumb rubs lazy circles on her arm. “Good. You deserve it.”
We all do.