49. Opuntia – Meaning I Burn
49
OPUNTIA
(PRICKLY PEAR, PADDLE CACTUS)
MEANING: I BURN
OCEAN
________
C ameron didn’t let go of me the entire ride home. But as soon as the door to the car opened, I didn’t let him carry me again. It wasn’t fast enough. “Nest,” I mumbled as I moved, hoping they heard me. It was still bright outside, but the nest was dark and warm and everything I needed right now.
My instincts were high and my Omega needed my nest. Darkness and softness and soothing comfort. My face hurt . Everything hurt, and it shouldn’t hurt, but I was sure with the adrenaline and fear, my body was overreacting.
The whiplash from being happy and confident to terrified and broken and back to safety had me reeling. I didn’t know what to do with it. But I knew I needed my nest, and more than that, I needed to feel it on my skin.
This dress was too hot.
I pulled it over my head and tossed it to the side, reaching for a blanket in the pile of blankets and arranging it on the side of the nest. Where it belonged.
“Here, princess.” A hand appeared in front of me with some pills, another with a glass of water. “Everett has an ice pack for your face.”
I swallowed the pills and handed the glass back, ignoring the ice pack. That could come later. The nest wasn’t finished, and I needed that more than I needed the relief. “After.”
Low murmurs reached me from the edge of the nest, but nothing penetrated. The only thing that existed were the blankets and pillows. I found a shirt in the pile that smelled like pistachios and almonds. Like Everett. I whined, adding that to the circle I built.
Another soft, purple blanket, and another shirt. This one smelled like Cameron. I smiled and added it. A whole pile of their clothes waited when I finished with my pillows. Perfect .
If Omegas could purr, I would be. I needed clothes from my Alphas for my nest. Because they were mine.
Sweat beaded on my skin, and I shed my bra and underwear. Why was it so fucking hot ? It was like they’d turned the heat in here up to eleven. And I could smell all three of them together. Like I had my nose buried in their necks instead of where they waited at the entrance to the nest, simply watching me.
Micah’s suit jacket was closest to me. I crawled and pulled it to my nose, inhaling the scent of him. Chocolate but more than chocolate. Layers of cocoa and darkness that went all the way to the sweetness of white chocolate, laced through with the warm, contrasting caramel. Sometimes salty, sometimes not. So fucking good.
The shirt I found of Everett’s was the same. I scented the delicate layers of his scent. Pistachio at every stage, from whole to crushed. Almond frosting and almond liqueur. It was so different and so good .
They were mine.
The words in my head echoed like a bell.
They were mine .
I whirled around to face them and found them all watching me with awe and so much love. I sat, unable to process. “What?”
Micah took a step, waiting until I nodded before coming in. He came straight to me and fell to his knees, but he was smiling as he placed the backs of his fingers against my forehead. “You’re going into heat, Princess. Your instincts were out of control because of that asshole, and your Omega is responding the only way it knows how.”
I just looked at him. “But… but… what? You?—”
He took my face in my hands and kissed me. Hard. “Yes, wife. You’re my Omega. You’re our Omega. We knew the second we met you, and we couldn’t even look at anyone else.”
Everett and Cameron joined us in the nest, surrounding me with heat and scent and fuck it was so good.
They were mine.
My Alphas.
My scent matches.
And my whole world shattered.
All these weeks of them telling me they wanted me and that I was perfect. Of me being convinced they were falling for me while I was completely falling for them. And it wasn’t real.
They hadn’t picked me for me, they’d picked me because they’d scented me and our biology picked us to be together. Nothing more than that.
If they hadn’t matched with me, would they have liked me? Would they have rather had someone small? I hated the fear that clawed up my throat, but there wasn’t a way to banish it now that the truth was out.
I thought?—
I swallowed and held back my sob. They didn’t need to see how my entire world was falling apart. All I’d wanted was for it to be real. And now everything was gone like it never existed.
And that hurt so much worse.
“Oh. I see.”
Everett growled, and then he was in front of me, tilting my face up to his. Pulling us closer. “If there’s one thing I do for the rest of my life, it will be to make those shadows disappear from your eyes. They don’t belong there . Understand me?”
Pain cracked through my chest. “Yes. I just…” I hated that tears came. I hated that this moment which was supposed to be joyful was nothing but sadness. I thought it had been true connection, and not a quirk of DNA. My heart cracked all over again. “I wanted it to be real.”
His arm came around my body, gathering me up while the other one buried itself in my hair. “I don’t think I ever told you when I first saw you. Did I?”
I was so still. Because if I moved I would want them, and I couldn’t. Not when it hurt like this. “When I was dancing with that asshole, yeah.”
“No,” he said, voice low and dark. “No, I’d already seen you by then. We were on the balcony at that gala, dreading being there. Then I looked down and saw you by the windows in the ballroom, a glass of champagne in your hand. Dressed in that blue that reminds me of your name. The first words out of my mouth were ‘ who the fuck is that?’ ”
It took me a few seconds through the raging heat and hormones in my brain to understand what he was telling me. That he’d seen me from all the way across the ballroom and noticed . Long before he could have scented me.
I looked up at him, and all I saw in his gaze was love.
Cameron and Micah crowded me from both sides. “It’s true,” Micah said. “You were so beautiful. We would have come to you even if that sorry excuse of an Alpha hadn’t had his hands on you.”
“You are our Omega,” Everett murmured. “And I’m so fucking grateful that you are. But don’t you dare think, even for a second , that it’s the only reason we want you. I wanted you the second I laid eyes on you.” His mouth quirked into a smile then. “You pulled me out of thoughts that usually drown me, little nymph. You’ve been in my mind every second since then. And I wanted you before I ever scented how fucking perfect you are.”
My tears spilled over and I gave in, crying in relief. It felt silly for it to matter so much, but it did. It did . They wanted me for who I was and not what our bodies instructed us to do.
Everett kissed me softly, deepening his hold until he was devouring my mouth, consuming my lips and tongue. Everything glowed gold and fiery, the burn of heat returning in force now that my Omega understood that she was wanted. And loved.
“I’m sorry. I don’t—” my sob cut off the words. “I don’t know if I’ll always believe it.”
Cameron lined himself up with my back and eased me against him, taking the time to smooth his hands over every part of me he could reach. “Good thing we have the rest of our lives to convince you.”
“What about the year?”
Micah nipped at my shoulder. “We were never going to let you go, Ocean. This was always what we wanted. You. Just you and always you.” He laughed then. “Honestly, we pretty much invented the deal with your uncle so we could marry you. We were told we needed to marry, but we were going to fight it tooth and nail. Until you. We had no plans to do more business with Frank. Then we saw you and had to get closer. And when we scented you? We had to make you ours. It just happened to be perfect timing.”
Tilting my head to the side, Cameron kissed the place where my neck met my shoulder. Licking my skin and dragging his lips up to my ear. “It’s been delicious torture, knowing this and not being able to tell you.”
“Why didn’t you?” My voice had been reduced to nothing but breath.
Everett pulled me away from them and laid me out on the cushions, covering my body with his own. “We’d just rescued you from a man who’d fetishized you like an ass. Without a way to prove it to you, we didn’t want to look like we were the same. And then we got to know you better.” He drew his nose up the line of my cheek and nudged my head with his. “And we knew you weren’t ready. You couldn’t believe we would want someone like you, let alone wanting you for the rest of our fucking lives.”
It would have been unthinkable. I wouldn’t have believed them. Actually, I probably would have thought they were making fun of me on purpose.
Instead, they’d taken the time to show me how they felt. Backed up words with actions and proven over and over that I was who they wanted. I reached up so I was holding his face. “Please don’t hate me for being relieved that you saw me before you scented me.”
Everett grinned before he kissed me. “I could never hate you, little nymph. Not when I love you so fucking much.”
I sobbed into the kiss, overwhelmed by finally hearing those words I wanted for so long. His purr echoed twice over, the nest full of it.
“And I understand why. I hope you feel it and know how deep it goes. I hope your heart aches a little bit less.”
It did. So much. My breath hitched as I looked at him. Then Micah, and finally Cameron. “I love you.” My words still shook. “It was the fact that you would be there for me that helped me stand up to him. I admitted to myself I was falling for you, but I think I’ve been there for a while.”
Sudden heat took my breath away. And pain . Pain that wasn’t connected to my bruised face or my healing heart. Pain that demanded attention and burned like a supernova had been shoved down my throat.
Knot .
I gasped, whining. Writhing against the pain. “Alpha,” I begged. “Help.”
Everett flipped me over on the cushions and thrust into me in one movement. It wasn’t easy or gentle—it was exactly what I needed. Fiery heat flared through my bones. I’d never felt anything like this before.
Heats… I’d had a few now, but it was nothing in comparison. Those had been a gentle warm day compared to the inferno now crashing through me and consuming me from within.
I needed, needed, needed ? —
He settled himself with me, chest against my back, fingers entwined and locked against the cushions, legs pressed along mine.
My Alpha took me.
It was like a part of Everett had unlocked which hadn’t been there before. Part of me too. He wasn’t just my husband, he was my Alpha . Tied together by more than just need and want and love, but woven into each other in the deepest fabric of who we were.
Everett’s teeth grazed my ear, gentled compared to the way he was fucking me, driving me into the velvet cushions with his cock. “You’re mine , Ocean.” I felt the growl in every single part of me.
“Mine. My nymph. My goddess. And I plan on worshipping you every single fucking day until there’s not a doubt in your mind. I don’t care if my knot never leaves your cunt again. You’ll believe every good thing, every compliment.”
My voice was muffled by velvet and blankets and their clothes, but it felt like my entire body was lined in starfire. Silvered and beautiful and burning .
His voice dropped to a harsh whisper as we both grew closer to the edge. “Eventually you will watch me drop to my knees for you and you’ll welcome it because you understand your own fucking worth.”
I came.
Pleasure exploded outward and then inward and I couldn’t speak to tell him that even if that was ever true, it would also be true in reverse. That I would fall to my knees for him and them because they were my Alphas. They were the only ones that ever made me feel truly safe, and it was everything.
We would worship each other, and within that, we would find our own grace and peace and happiness.
He followed me into pleasure, knot swelling and adding another firework to the already burning flames of my heat and desire.
“Got it, little nymph?”
I laughed, breathlessly, melting into the cushions. “Got it. But?—”
“But?” He growled playfully. “Do I need to fuck the lesson into you again?”
A whine burst out of me. It wasn’t the lesson, it was him. Them. I moved on his knot, trying to make it press deeper. I understood, I just needed more. It was like I was thirsty and no amount of water would get rid of the sensation. “More.”
Everett purred in my ear. “I see. We can do that, little nymph.”
He pulled me up on all fours, stroking my body while he did so. But it was the cock suddenly in front of me that had me distracted. Cameron’s thickness, the rich lemon scent of him so much stronger now that I was in heat and now that I understood he was mine .
My Alpha smirked, full of that wicked confidence that told me he was prepared to ruin me, and he would have the best time of his life while he did it. “This what you need, sweetheart?”
Yes .
His cock between my lips made my eyes roll back in my head. He tasted so good. Citrus sharpness and candy sweetness. A lollipop I never wanted to stop licking. And I did lick him. From the crown of him, down the thickness of his shaft and lower. The more of him I tasted, the easier it was to breathe.
I took as much of him in my mouth as I could, but I didn’t get far. He was too thick and I had no idea what I was doing. Cameron didn’t care. He groaned and framed my face with his hands, not taking full control, but keeping me steady. His hips moved, pumping deeper like he couldn’t help it, and I loved that.
It was me. I was the one making him lose command of his body.
“Fucking hell, sweetheart. I would have taken your mouth before if I’d known it would feel like this.”
My Omega shivered with the praise.
“A miracle is what it is.” Micah’s voice was beside me. So close, and yet I couldn’t turn my head to see him while my mouth was full of Cameron. What was he?—
Everett’s knot released me, and he pressed a kiss to the center of my back before pulling free. I moaned, mourning the loss of him. The sudden emptiness was hungry . A void so rich and dark and reaching that it needed to be filled and never stop.
I lunged down onto Cameron’s cock, savoring him, nearly choking on him. Fingers grasped my hair at the same time I was moved. Micah slid under my body and guided me down onto his cock. The relief was palpable. They were giving me what I needed. More knots. More Alpha. More pleasure.
“Suck slowly,” Cameron said. I looked up at him and loved seeing him towering there, muscles flexing and tightening as he tried to keep a grip on his pleasure. “Take whatever you need from me while he fucks you, baby. And when Micah knots you, I’ll give you what we both need.”
The word both was a promise and a purr.
My eyes fluttered closed, and I sucked harder but slower, reveling in the texture of him on my tongue and the seeping sweetness that told me his cock was just as ready for me as I was for him.
“Put your hands on my shoulders, Ocean.” From somewhere outside myself, I heard Micah’s command and tried to obey. He was underneath me, holding me while he eased in.
We’d never done it like this, with me on top of him. In that place outside of my heat brain, I knew that this made me nervous. But it was impossible to be nervous when I was stuffed to the brim and out of my mind.
Micah’s curve felt different like this. Fingers gripped my ass, holding me in place, and he let himself go. Hard and fast, plunging into me with a pace that would break me.
Oh, how I wanted to be broken.
I couldn’t even use my mouth. Frozen. Taking what they gave me and slipping into the clouded place where there was nothing but heat and light. Time didn’t exist here. Only the interval between one brutal thrust and the next. The space between novas. The sweet, grinding friction that lifted me up and dropped me into free fall like a roller coaster.
I had no control. Pleasure seized my body and rendered me helpless. I bucked and writhed and rode Micah’s cock until I felt his knot—his glorious fucking knot—fill that aching place that always needed to be filled.
Sweet lemon sugar flowed over my tongue. It would be so easy to become addicted to them, and I wasn’t resisting it. I wanted to know them so deeply it would change me at a cellular level.
Cameron kissed my forehead and then my lips, my cheeks. “You’re doing so good, sweetheart.”
The burning had banked. I was full of a knot and had the flavor of Alpha on my tongue. For the moment, I could breathe. But I didn’t want to sleep yet.
Micah moved to lean against the edge of the nest, and I snuggled down on top of him, my head on his shoulder. “How do you feel, princess?” He stroked my spine slowly, and one of the others draped a silky blanket over the two of us.
How did I feel? Ravenous and needy. Sleepy and spent. But instead I went for the core of everything. The truth.
“Happy.”
I dozed off to the sound of his purr beneath my ear.