Chapter 23 Sharon
SHARON
The morning after the heat finally breaks feels like waking up from a fever.
My entire body is sore in a way that's both satisfying and slightly uncomfortable.
I'm wrapped around Cassian like an octopus, my face pressed against his chest. His heartbeat is steady under my cheek, and I find myself just listening to it for a long moment. They're all real.
Pine is behind me, his arm across my waist, his chest warm against my back.
Jett is in the armchair by the window, watching us sleep with an expression of such tenderness that my heart actually hurts looking at it.
He's been taking shifts watching me sleep, I realize.
Making sure I'm safe. Making sure nothing happens to me while I'm vulnerable.
"You're awake," Jett says softly, his voice careful not to wake the other two. "How are you feeling?"
I take inventory of my body. Sore. Exhausted.
Happy. Completely satisfied in a way I've never experienced before.
My scent is different now too. It's not just strawberry and honey anymore.
It's strawberry and honey mixed with cedar and sandalwood and the particular alpha scent that belongs to all three of them.
"Like I've been through the most intense experience of my life," I say, my voice hoarse. "But like I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
Jett smiles, and it's the kind of smile that reaches his eyes. "Good. But first, you're going to rest and recover and eat real food."
I stretch carefully, and every muscle protests. It's the good kind of protest though. The kind that comes with satisfying memories.
"We should talk about the bonding before we do anything else," Pine says. He's awake now too, his dark eyes studying my face. "We want to make sure you're sure about this. That you're not just committing because of the intensity of what just happened."
Cassian stretches and sits up slightly. "The bonding is permanent.
Once we do this, your scent becomes tied to ours forever.
Any alpha in this town will know that you're ours just by smelling you.
Legally, we become a pack. That means shared finances, shared property, shared responsibility for each other. "
"That sounds perfect," I say simply. "That's exactly what I want."
"You say that now," Jett says gently, coming over to sit on the edge of the bed. "But you haven't eaten properly in three days. You haven't had time to process everything that's happened."
"I've been thinking about it. During the heat, between the waves, I thought about nothing else.
I thought about what it means to be part of a pack.
What it means to have three people who love me so completely that they'd spend three days doing nothing but taking care of me. I thought about how I never want to feel the way I felt before all this.”
They exchange looks, having one of those silent conversations that pack members seem to have without using words. Some kind of alpha communication that happens on a frequency I can't quite hear.
"Okay," Pine says finally. "We bond today. But first, you shower. You eat. You recover."
Getting out of bed is harder than I expect. Every muscle is sore, and I have to lean on Cassian to make it to the bathroom. He doesn't complain though. He just helps me, his arm around my waist, supporting my weight like it's no trouble at all.
The shower is the most luxurious thing I've experienced in my entire life. The water is warm, and Pine and Cassian take turns washing me with such care that I start crying without really understanding why.
"What's wrong?" Cassian asks immediately, concern flooding his features. His hands still on my shoulders, ready to help me out if I need to sit down.
"Nothing," I say, and I'm smiling even as tears stream down my face. "I'm just happy. I'm just finally exactly where I'm supposed to be."
They help me out of the shower and into clean clothes. Jett's shirt, because I've apparently claimed it as my uniform now. The shirt is soft and worn, and it smells like him in a way that's comforting. Like coming home.
Breakfast is waiting for us in the kitchen. Eggs. Toast. Bacon. Fresh fruit. Coffee. All the things that my body is demanding after three days of being too busy with other activities to properly eat.
"Savannah called," Pine says as I'm eating. He's sitting across from me, and he's watching me eat with the intensity of someone making sure I actually consume the food. "She wanted to check on you."
"What did you tell her?" I ask, suddenly worried about what they might have said about my heat.
"That you were in your heat and you're safe and you're being taken care of," Cassian says. He's leaning against the counter, a cup of coffee in his hand. "She said she was worried you were going to try to work through it like some kind of martyr."
"I almost did," I admit. "If you guys hadn't taken over, I probably would have tried to power through it and ended up making myself sick."
"That's what we're here for," Jett says. He's at the table with me, his hand resting on my knee under the table. "To make sure you don't destroy yourself trying to do everything alone."
After breakfast, I take another shower. This one is for pleasure rather than necessity, and I take my time. The water is hot, and I stand under it for a long time, just thinking about what's about to happen. About the bonding. About becoming officially, legally, permanently part of their pack.
By the time I come out of the bathroom, they've set up the living room like a nest. There are pillows and blankets arranged carefully on the couch.
There's a movie queued up, which is funny because they're acting like we have time for a movie when we're supposed to be bonding today.
There're snacks and water and tea. There's every indication that they're planning to spend the day taking care of me.
"We have time," Pine says when he sees the question on my face. "The bonding can happen tonight. For now, we're going to let you rest and recover. We're going to make sure you're completely healed before we do something this important."
"You don't have to," I say. "I'm ready now."
"I know," Cassian says. He's pulling me onto the couch and settling me between him and Pine. "But this is too important to rush. We want you to be one hundred percent sure. We want you to be physically recovered. We want to do this right."
We spend the day watching movies. Romantic comedies, because Jett apparently has a secret love for them, and Pine doesn't even pretend to judge him for it. Cassian makes fun of every plot point, but he's also clearly invested in whether the main characters end up together.
During one of the movies, I fall asleep against Pine's shoulder, and I don't wake up until evening.
The heat is almost completely gone now, just a faint whisper of need in the back of my mind instead of the overwhelming demands it was before.
My body has settled. The frantic urgency has been replaced with something calmer. Something more like contentment.
"You should eat," Cassian says as soon as I'm awake. "And then we should probably have a serious conversation before we do the bonding."
We eat dinner together that they successfully cooked without burning down the house or creating any disasters. There're no rice explosions. No burnt chicken. Just normal food that tastes incredible because I'm eating it with people who love me.
"After the bonding," Pine says carefully, setting down his fork, "what do you want? Like, long term. Do you want to move in with us permanently? Do you want to keep your hotel room as a backup?"
The question feels significant. Like the answer matters in ways that go beyond just logistics.
"I want to be where you are," I say quietly. "Coming home to you, falling asleep with you, waking up tangled in all of you… that feels right to me. The calm, the chaos, the everyday life we’d build together. Being yours. Being pack. That’s what I choose.”
"We can make that happen," Jett says. "We have three bedrooms. One could be yours. Or we could convert the master into one big bedroom if you want to share. We could set it up however you want."
"I want to fall asleep surrounded by you and wake up the same way."
"Then that's what we'll do," Cassian says like it's the simplest thing in the world. Like of course we'll all sleep in one bed together. Like of course we'll build a life together.
We spend the evening on the couch, talking about practical things.
Money. Jobs. Whether I'm going to keep working with Savannah after the Tangle Peak wedding or do something else entirely.
They're supportive about everything, which is both wonderful and slightly terrifying because I'm not used to people actually supporting my choices instead of judging them or trying to change my mind.
"After the bonding, do we tell people? Do we have a ceremony?" I ask.
“If you want a ceremony, we can do that," Jett says quickly, shooting Pine a look. "We can have whatever you want. A small or big one, whatever makes you happy."
"I think I want something small," I say. "After the Tangle Peak wedding. Something intimate with just people who matter. Savannah, Jessica, maybe the Brownbox pack. Nothing big. Nothing requiring months of planning."
“Your wish is our command,” Cassian says.
By the time we head to bed, the sun is setting and the heat is completely gone.
My body feels like me again, just marked and loved and thoroughly appreciated.
The bonding marks on my skin are evidence of what's about to happen tomorrow, but they're also evidence of what already exists between us.
A connection that's real and present and permanent.
That night, we sleep in the master bedroom.
All four of us in one bed. Pine is on one side of me, Jett on the other, Cassian at the foot of the bed with his hand on my ankle.
We're all covered in each other's marks, all carrying each other's scents, all profoundly connected in ways that feel like they existed long before we actually met.
"I love you," I say to all of them.
"We love you too," they reply in unison.
Universe…you got it right.
Thank you for giving me a home.