Kaiden
She’s been locked with Sylvan for almost an hour. Part of me thinks he’s somehow doing it on purpose, making himself hard every time he feels himself slipping away.
I’m not sure we’ll be doing that any time soon. Although watching a naked Revea squirm, beg, and plead for us is a memory I’ll never let fade. That edging punishment worked both ways. The urge to comply with her whines, to give her what she needed, was nearly unbearable to deny.
Countless times, we had to stop one another.
I held back, watched, made sure we didn’t fall into a rut. Touching myself to the sight of Revea being played with. And when she barked at us… fuck.
The pure terror in Luc’s eyes when he realised, hand stilling over his cock in a rigid grip, only for us all to climax at the sound of her scream: together.
She is deadly. Dangerous. And we are obsessed.
Possessively so.
The thought of another pack even expressing interest had our alphas surging, jaws gnashing. Mine stirs again in remembrance, desperate to have her closer.
I make my way over to the bed. They’re both asleep, meaning… I slip my arm around Revea’s waist, finally pulling her off Sylvan and against my chest.
“Hey,” she murmurs sleepily, head lolling onto my shoulder. “Where are we going?”
“For a bath.”
She hums, sinking into me as I walk us to it. I’d already run the bath; it was meant to be only for her, but now we’re touching… I lower her into the bubbles and pull off my clothes.
Her eyes are still shut as I sink in at the other end, then find her foot beneath the hot water and bring it up into my lap.
Her hazy gaze flutters open. “You… you just edged me to exhaustion,” she says, voice a rasp.
“I’m aware. I was there.” I smile, running my fingers over her heel.
“And now you’re… giving me a bubble bath and massaging my feet?”
“Would you rather I were edging you again?” I kiss her ankle bone while looking at her.
Her cheeks are beautifully flushed, her bright eyes glassy, struggling to stay open. I leave my lips against her skin as I wait.
Her response is to sink lower into the water, shaking her head.
I smile against her ankle, pushing my thumbs in circular motions into the ball of her foot. She groans.
“We’ve never done that before,” I murmur as I work, watching her eyes fall shut. “Not together, at least.”
“Well, you’re very good at it,” she whispers.
“You took it well.” I lower her foot, kissing her knee as it peeks up through the bubbles.
“Well?” She arches a brow. She’s exhausted, yet still full of attitude. “I took it like… like an expert.”
I try to hide my smirk. “Did you learn your lesson?”
She swallows, swollen lips parting as she gently shakes her head.
“Fuck,” I hiss against her knee, inhaling her sweet scent. “I was worried we went too far, but... clearly not far enough.”
She shakes her head again. “No, I’ve learnt, it’s just...” She wets her lips. “I… I really enjoyed it, alpha.”
“Jesus, Revea.” I reach down for her other foot, needing the distraction. “You’re turning us into feral alphas, you know that, right? I let Sylvan knot you because he seemed the most restrained. Then you… I’ve never seen him like that.”
Her scent strengthens, tongue darting out to wet her lips.
“Imagine what we’ll be like during your heat,” I murmur, then bite her calf to stop my thoughts.
She gasps, muscle tensing in my hand before I slowly pull away, admiring the indents of my teeth. I run my thumb over them as my alpha rumbles his approval.
“All my thoughts are consumed by you.” My eyes stay locked on that bite mark, watching the water lap against it. “It’s never been like this.”
There’s a quiet moment.
“Me neither,” she whispers, eyes drawn to the same mark. “It’s... it’s a little terrifying.”
I frown, not liking that at all.
I lower her foot, tilting my head. “Come.”
Not a bark, but she moves without hesitation. I reach out, drawing her closer quicker, placing her back against my chest.
My nose falls to her throat, breathing her in. Her scent’s been mixing with ours over the last few days, remnants of us clinging to her skin.
She’s never smelled better.
“When my dad died,” she says quietly, suddenly, her fingers curling over my arm, “I was fourteen. I don’t really remember the funeral, but I remember after.
I remember my mum crying at night. I remember needing to sleep in my brothers’ room.
I remember my funny dad not being around anymore and my mum laughing less.
And it stuck with me that…” Her voice wavers.
“That’s what happens when someone you love dies. ”
Her grip tightens.
“I was terrified every day that it would happen again. To my other dads, my mum, my brothers. Terrified we’d have to go through it all again. The loss. The grief…”
I run my hand up her arm and over her shoulder, drawing her damp hair aside before pressing a kiss to her throat.
“I had therapy for a while,” she murmurs. “There’s a name for it—thanatophobia. But I don’t really care about me dying.” A small, self-aware huff leaves her. “Which is when I realised… if I didn’t have anyone like that in my life, then I wouldn’t experience what my mum and dads went through.”
She shifts slightly, the top of her head brushing my chin.
“I couldn’t stop caring about people, but I could stop something from becoming a relationship. Anything too real.” Her face turns, eyes flashing green as they meet mine. “Then I met these stubborn alphas.”
A faint laugh leaves me. Her lips twitch.
“And I think, a heat? Yeah. That’ll be fine,” she says, then slowly turns until she’s straddling me, fingers slipping behind the back of my neck.
“But it hasn’t even been my heat yet...” Her fingers drift lower, brushing over the hard lines of scar tissue between my shoulder blades.
“These scars that you all have… whenever I see them, it reminds me…” Her jaw tightens.
“I remember how close you came to not being here. All four of you. It reminds me that people don’t always come home. ”
For a second, I’m back there. Hissing heat and sound ripped from the air. Dirt and metal weighing down on me. The smell of burnt skin. Thinking, This is it.
And then I’m in a hospital bed. My packmates standing over me. My mother on the phone, sobbing that she couldn’t bury another child.
“I had a brother,” I say. “He was younger, shy.” My thumb traces slow circles over her hip. “He died in a car accident. Wrong place, wrong time. We all survived except him.” Her fingers never stop grazing my scars. “My parents drowned in that grief for a long time. And so did I.”
I drop my gaze to her shoulder, focusing on the steady rise and fall of her breathing.
“I enlisted as soon as I could. Mum begged me not to, but my dads encouraged it. I liked the structure and routine. All my older siblings had already joined. And anything was better than sitting with my feelings.”
She pulls back a little to study me. Even now, she has to tilt her head to meet my eyes.
I reach out, cupping her jaw in my hand.
“That’s where I met Sylvan.” I smile. “He didn’t quite fit.
Didn’t do small talk, missed cues, a stickler for the rules.
People avoided him because they didn’t understand him.
” I shake my head softly. “At first, I thought he was just shy. But I understood him. We worked well together, because he’d always say things exactly as they were. Everything was easy with him.”
I trace my thumb over her lower lip.
“I didn’t mean for him to matter, but he did. He does.”
She smiles.
“Then I met the twins. God, they were annoying.” I groan, making her laugh. “Always bickering, but good soldiers. Good men. I couldn’t remember ever laughing like I did with them. I almost hated them for it… Like I didn’t deserve it.”
I slide my hand down to her throat, feeling her pulse beneath my thumb.
“But we got to know each other, the four of us. We worked together, and the IED happened.” She swallows beneath my fingers. “When I woke up and saw the three of them, my first thought was how I’d underappreciated them. How grateful I was that they were still here. That I was.
“After that, I lost my love for the job. I wanted to enjoy my life with them, not risk dying every day.” I lean in closer. “If the four of us had never met, if our bond hadn’t formed… I don’t think I ever would’ve left. I’d have stayed in the army until it killed me.”
Her soft exhale brushes my mouth.
“So I get it, Revea. Letting people in is always a risk.” I graze my nose with hers. “But maybe take a page from your dad’s book. Listen to your instincts. Because mine are screaming that we’re yours.”
I wait, hoping she’ll respond, with words or by kissing me until we’re both breathless.
But she shifts instead.
Her gaze drops to my shoulder, where the scar tissue crests over the bone. My hand falls from her throat as she leans forward and presses her lips to the raised edge of it. Again and again. Until she lingers there, sinking against me completely.
We don’t say another word, but Revea has no idea what she’s just awakened in me.
There was a time I would’ve let her walk away. For her sake. For ours.
That time has passed.