41. Wren
WREN
The hotel room door swings open before I have a chance to knock. Ronan is standing there, his hair a mess and shirt wrinkled. The look on his face stops me cold.
Relief. Pure, overwhelming relief.
“Jesus,” Lucian curses, shoving him aside. “Where the hell have you been?!”
The next second, I’m being pulled inside and wrapped up in Silas’s arms.
I barely get a chance to sink into his hug before Ronan is peeling me away and turning me to face him. His hands frame my face as he searches me from head to toe. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Fine?!” Lucian repeats. “You disappear in the middle of the night. You don’t answer your phone. After last night…” He shakes his head. “Do you have any idea how close we were to filing a missing person report?”
I wince. Shit.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I spent the night at Dylan’s.”
The tension in the room pops like a pin to a balloon.
“Next time, leave a note or text one of us, yeah?” Ronan asks, collapsing onto the bed and running a hand down his tired face.
I feel like shit for worrying them. Too lost in my own head, I didn’t think about how it would affect them to wake up and find me gone.
“I’m sorry,” I tell them again, pulling Silas in for a hug since he’s the closest. “I didn’t mean to worry you,” I say against his ear, holding on to him for as long as I can until Lucian practically rips me away.
“I—” Anything I was going to say is silenced as his mouth covers mine. His tongue invades my mouth, and I instantly melt against him. My hand slides through the fine hairs at the back of his neck as he deepens the kiss. My toes curl, and I could easily lose myself in him. Except…
Reluctantly breaking away, I move toward Ronan.
Sitting on the bed, he watches me approach.
Placing my hands on his shoulders, I place one knee on the bed beside his hips. Then the other. I straddle him, entwining my hands behind his neck.
Only then does he move, his hands coming to land on my waist. His eyes search mine.
“I promise, next time I’ll wake one of you or leave a note,” I swear to him.
That seems to be what finally undoes him. The air leaves his lungs in a rush, his hands moving to pull me flush against him as his lips descend on mine. I can taste the relief in his kiss.
All I want to do is get lost in these men. In my men. But there is one thing I need to do first.
Breaking away, I plant my hand on Ronan’s chest. I stare him in the eyes before pushing myself off him. I fall onto the bed beside him and look at the other two as I declare, “I know what I want to do.”
The room goes still.
Silas comes to sit on my left, while Lucian moves to stand in front of me. His arms are crossed over his chest like he needs the distance to protect himself from what I’m going to say.
Drawing in a breath, I hold Lucian’s gaze as I tell them, “I’ve given this a lot of consideration. I’ve made an appointment to speak to a police officer later today, but realistically, we all know there will be no justice. It was too long ago, and it is Isaac’s word against mine.”
“So he just gets away with it?” Lucian spits, pacing back and forth in front of the bed.
“No.” All three of them turn to look at me.
At the conviction in my voice. “Isaac will never play professional hockey. His NHL contract is being shredded as we speak, and my father is reaching out to every team owner he knows.” I look each of them in the eye.
“That, plus the accusation alone whenever I report him, is enough to ensure his career is dead in the water.”
“Holy shit, you got him blacklisted?” Lucian gapes at me, wide-eyed.
You spoke to your dad? Silas writes.
“I did. He has the power to achieve what I’m not yet able to, but one day I will, because men like Isaac don’t deserve to have their dreams become reality. They don’t deserve a pass because they have a unique skillset.”
Silas’s lips quirk upward, and pride glints from his blue depths.
Does this mean you’ve finally accepted your role to take over the Serpents?
I flash him a grin. “Accept is maybe a little too strong, but I’m ready to embrace my future with the Serpents. However, I want to start at the bottom and work my way up. Learn the ropes and have experience with every aspect of running a team before deciding whether or not I want to own it.”
“So, wait,” Lucian cuts across, sounding confused. “That’s it?” When I give him my attention, his nostrils flare. “He doesn’t even remember what he did to you!”
“Lucian—” Pushing to my feet, I close the distance between us. My hand presses against his abdomen.
“No!” he growls, running his hand through his hair and making it stick up on end. “He deserves more! He deserves pain! He deserves to suffer the way you have!”
“You’re right,” I tell him, my calm voice at odds with the tension rolling off him. “He deserves all of that.” I search his eyes for understanding. “But I don’t.”
Finally, his gaze softens.
“He deserves pain and suffering, and so much more,” I continue.
“But I deserve happiness and love.” Reaching down, I grab his hands in mine.
“And I already have that, right here in this room. But I can’t be happy while still stuck in the past. I need to let it go.
I don’t want any more of my life to be about that night.
” I scour his face. “Can you understand that?”
He studies every inch of my features before his eyes close. His hands move to cup my face, his forehead lowering to mine. “Of course I do, Little Moth.”
“And will this be enough for you?” Ronan asks. “Having him blacklisted?”
“‘Cause I’m more than happy to relieve him of a kidney if it’s not,” Lucian grumbles. He almost sounds as though he’s pouting, and it makes me smile.
“You and Dylan should talk sometime,” I tell him. “I think you’d really hit it off.”
He arches a brow, and I can’t help the giggle that escapes. Despite the harrowing past twenty-four hours, I feel surprisingly light and bubbly.
“Yes,” I finally answer Ronan’s question. “It’s enough for me. This past year…I’ve finally started to heal.” I turn so Lucian is at my back, Ronan and Silas in front of me. His arms immediately band around me. “You have helped me heal,” I tell them. “You’ve given me the strength I needed.”
“That was all you, baby,” Lucian murmurs, making me smile.
“Well, you all deserve a little credit,” I tease.
They deserve a hell of a lot more than a little credit. It’s because of them that I’ve come so far. It’s because of them that I finally figured out what I want in life. That I finally stood up to my parents. That I’m finally envisioning a future for myself—one in which I am truly happy.
One in which they are by my side.
These men who somehow found all the broken pieces of me and never once asked me to be less.
“I don’t think I ever said thank you.”
Three identical frowns.
For what?
“For not giving up on me.”
“Sweetheart,” Ronan begins, pushing to his feet and coming to stand in front of me so I’m sandwiched between him and Lucian. “We would have chased you to the ends of the earth.”
I grin up at him. “That’s a long way to run. Good thing I didn’t make you work that hard.”
Ronan huffs out a laugh. The sound is soft. Tired.
His hand comes up to cup the side of my face. I lean into his touch. His thumb brushes across my cheek before he lowers his head. His lips skim mine, the anticipation making me whimper, before he steals my breath with a kiss.
It’s diligent and dominant as always as he parts my lips and slides his tongue inside.
I can feel Lucian at my back, his hands running up and down my sides in a way that has my muscles tightening.
His hands slip beneath the hoodie I’m wearing, his fingers trailing over my skin.
I can feel his breath in my ear before his lips meet my skin.
At peace, I lean back into him, enjoying every second of being pressed between them.
Except one person is missing.
Reaching out a hand, I glance in Silas’s direction as I wave him over.
Getting to his feet, he slips his hand into mine. When he’s close enough, I break my kiss with Ronan. Fisting the front of Silas’s T-shirt, I drag his face down to mine.
Heat builds as hands roam. Someone inches my T-shirt and hoodie over my head. My bra, sweats, and panties quickly follow, along with the clothes the guys were wearing. In a press of hot bodies and tangled limbs, we make our way to the bed.
Falling onto my back, Ronan looms over me, powerful and drop-dead gorgeous, while the others climb up to lie on either side of me. He hovers there, and pressing my hand to the back of his neck, I encourage him lower. “Stop teasing me, Ronan.”
He smirks down at me. “Tell me what you want then, Little Serpent.”
“You,” I tell him earnestly. “Us. This for the rest of my days.”
My head falls back, and I arch my back as he pushes his thick girth inside me.
I moan while he groans at the feel of him stretching me.
So perfect. So tight. When he’s fully seated and I can feel his tip pressing against my cervix, he brushes a stray strand of hair out of my eyes.
Looking down at me, I see love reflected in his eyes.
“There’s nowhere else we’d rather be.”
As the morning sun rises beyond the hotel window, the three of them take turns making me scream until I’m hoarse. Sweaty and exhausted, we cuddle up in bed. My smile is bigger than it has ever been, surrounded by the men I love.
The men who chose me.
And the men I chose back.