Chapter 19
Nineteen
LIANA
Afew days later, I wake up without pain for once.
Every muscle in my body aches in a deep, satisfied way I have never felt before. My hips, my thighs, my pussy, and my ass are all tender. But the fever is gone. The burning under my skin that has driven me for five days has vanished like someone turned off a stove.
I lie very still with my eyes closed. Taking inventory. Breathing calmly after my heat has passed. For the first time in days, my thoughts are my own and not driven by lust.
I open my eyes slowly.
The bedroom is dim. Curtains drawn, a single bedside lamp turned low, casting soft gold across the enormous bed. I am still not in my apartment. We’ve moved into the main bedroom. The bed is bigger. The sheets are softer.
Ezra is behind me. His arm slung heavy across my waist, his bare chest pressed warm against my back, his slow, steady breath warm against my hair. His cock is soft against the curve of my ass.
August is in front of me. Curled toward me on his side, his sandy blond hair sticking up in sleep, his glasses on the nightstand, one of his hands loosely tangled with mine between our chests. His breathing is deep and even.
Julian is at the foot of the bed. Sprawled diagonally, his face pressed against my calf, his dark hair falling in his eyes, one hand resting possessively on my ankle even in sleep. His mouth is slightly open.
Cole is the only one awake.
He is sitting up against the headboard at the far side, propped against the pillows, fully alert.
Reading something on his phone with the screen brightness turned almost all the way down.
The blue light catches the planes of his face, illuminating the scar along his jaw, the dark stubble, the quiet intensity of his eyes.
He notices me awake, and he smiles. I try to smile back at him, but suddenly, out of nowhere, my eyes fill with tears.
Cole sets the phone down immediately. He shifts up onto his elbow, reaches across August, and brushes a strand of hair off my forehead. His thumb traces the small crescent scar at my temple, gentle.
“Liana,” he whispers. His voice is soft and rough. “Why are you crying?”
The other brothers stir immediately, and I blush because it’s really not a big deal.
Ezra’s arm tightens around my waist. August lifts his head and blinks at me, his blue eyes foggy with sleep.
Julian, at the foot of the bed, lifts onto his elbows, hair wild, hazel eyes finding mine across the tangle of sheets.
Within seconds, all four of them are awake and looking at me with the kind of alarmed attention that makes me cry harder.
“I’m okay,” I whisper. “The heat is over. I’m okay.”
Ezra is sitting up now, gathering me against his chest. His hand cups the back of my head, his fingers threading through my hair, and I press my face into the warm, solid muscle of his chest and breathe.
I feel Ezra’s arms tighten around me. “Tell us about your old pack.”
“Why?” I ask quietly, going still.
“I don’t want to push you,” he says carefully. “But we want to know how Magnus and his pack treated you, so we can understand you better. So we can carry your pain with you now.”
I am silent for a long moment.
“Magnus and his men would come into my room whenever they wanted,” I whisper. “They locked my door at night so I couldn’t leave.”
Ezra’s hand tightens against the back of my head. He says nothing. Does not interrupt.
“Silus would do the same. Father and son. They would take turns.” My voice is getting thinner. “They would compete over who could mark me successfully. Every claiming bite was an attempt. They would compare the marks afterward, complaining about why none would take and which mark was deeper.”
I am shaking now.
August has stopped breathing. Julian has gone very still. Cole’s hand turns into a fist under the blanket. Then he opens it. Holds mine again. Squeezes.
“Whenever Magnus was in a particularly good mood with me,” I say, “Silus would find a reason to hurt me later. Whenever Silus tried to mark me and failed, Magnus would laugh at him and then come to my room himself to show his son how it should be done.”
“Oh fuck,” breathes Julian.
My voice is barely audible now. “I was a toy.”
Ezra’s chest is rising. I can feel the rage in him. He is fighting very hard to stay still. Cole is no longer trying to hide that his hand around mine is shaking. Julian, at the foot of the bed, has covered his face with one hand.
August is crying silently. Tears track down his cheeks, his hand still on my face, his thumb brushing my skin like he’s trying to wipe away something that happened years ago.
I take a breath.
“The worst part,” I whisper, “was not the marking attempts. The worst part was that for three years, I believed that this was just what love was. And that my grandmother lied to me about finding love with a pack.”
The words hang in the quiet room. None of them speak for a long time. The bedroom is silent except for the very low hum of the city through the window and my own ragged breathing.
Ezra finally pulls back just enough to lift my chin with his finger and look at me.
His pale gray eyes are wet.
I have never seen Ezra’s eyes wet.
“Your grandmother was not lying,” he says quietly. “You are going to be loved every day of the rest of your life. You are no one’s toy.”
After a long moment, I shift in Ezra’s arms. I wipe my face with the back of my wrist.
“I want you,” I say. Quietly. My voice is still trembling. “All of you. Right now. Not because I’m in heat. Because I’m choosing you.”
The bedroom goes very still in a different way.
“Are you sure?” Ezra asks.
I nod. “I want to feel what choosing feels like.”
Ezra kisses my forehead. His mouth is warm and soft. Then he shifts me gently onto my back in the center of the bed, and the four of them are looking down at me with dark, hungry eyes.
Ezra kneels between my thighs.
His hands are warm and large as he lifts my right leg gently up against his shoulder, exposing me fully to the four of them.
My pussy is on display, pink and swollen and wet.
I can feel it. Slick beading at my opening, warm and thick, and they haven’t even touched me yet.
“Fuck, she’s so wet for us,” groans Cole as he watches Ezra opening me up wider for them.
Julian comes up to my side. His hazel eyes are dark and fixed on my face. He runs the tip of his middle finger lightly through my folds, gathering my slick that’s starting to bead, and he pushes inside me slowly. “So fucking tight. She’s so wet, guys.”
I gasp as his finger works in deep and slow.
Cole moves to my other side.
His hand slides under the curve of my ass from behind, cupping me there. Then his middle finger finds the tight ring of my asshole and circles it slowly, gathering the slick that has run down from my pussy. He pushes the tip of his finger inside.
I gasp again, sharper. My asshole clenches around him, tight and resistant.
“Are you okay, baby?” Cole whispers softly.
“Yes, keep going,” I say as he presses deeper, working his finger in with patient circles.
August settles between my thighs, propped on his elbow, leaning his face close to my pussy. His bright blue eyes look up at me once, and then he lowers his mouth to my clit and sucks gently.
The combination of all three of them at once makes my whole body arch off the bed. Julian’s finger deep in my pussy, Cole’s finger working my ass, August’s mouth suctioning my clit. I am being opened from every angle, and they’re making me so horny I can hardly breathe.
Ezra kisses the inside of my knee. “Breathe, Lia.”
I try, but I’m panting. My hips are rocking, seeking more, my pussy clenching around Julian’s finger, my asshole yielding to Cole’s.
Julian adds a second finger to my pussy.
Stretching me wider, curling up to find my G-spot.
Cole adds a second finger to my ass. Working in slow, patient circles, stretching me there too.
I can feel both of their fingers through the thin wall between my holes. August keeps his mouth on my clit, his tongue flat and soft, providing steady pressure while his brothers fuck me with their hands.
Ezra is watching my face the entire time. His gray eyes are dark, pupils blown, his jaw tight. He keeps my leg pressed against his shoulder. Keeps me steady. His other hand finds my breast and squeezes, his thumb rolling my nipple.
“You’re being so good,” he says. His voice is rough. “You’re choosing to be knotted by us. Completely your choice, baby.”
I am moaning steadily now. Soft, helpless sounds that I cannot stop.
My hands are gripping the sheets on either side of my hips, knuckles white.
Julian thumbs my clit while his fingers are still inside me, and the added pressure makes me cry out.
August moves to suck on one of my nipples instead, his mouth hot and wet, tongue flicking over the hard peak.
I am dripping slick down both thighs. Soaking the sheets beneath me. I have never been this wet in my life.
“How about another finger in this tight butt, shall we?” says Cole as he slowly adds a third finger into my asshole, making me gasp from how stretched I feel. My asshole burns, yielding, stretching wider than it’s ever been.
“Relax your ass for him, Lia,” Julian whispers against my thigh, kissing my skin. “You’re going to take all of us in a few minutes. This is just getting you ready.”
The thought of what’s coming makes me clench around both their fingers immediately. Julian groans softly. Cole hums against my thigh, pleased.
“She’s excited,” says August happily as I am literally leaking around their fingers. Slick runs down in warm rivulets, pooling beneath me on the sheets. I’m making a mess, and I do not care.
They slowly remove their fingers from my privates, and I’m breathing hard, needing their knots so bad. My pussy clenches on nothing. My asshole pulses, empty and hungry.