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For the first time in my life, I feel…home.

I nod, wiping at my face, and whisper, “It’s perfect. I…love it.”I love you,I almost say but that would be so ridiculous. I can’t just go falling for the first people to show me kindness.

“Almost perfect, love,” Blaise says with a grin. I blink up at him and frown.Almost perfect?How can it bealmostperfect? It’s more than anything I could ever have dreamed of. My omega snarls at him, judging him for having no taste and being so clueless.

He raises a brow and smirks at me.

“You need our scents in the nest, honeybee. It won’t feel like home until we’re all in here.”

Oh.Oh. Now my omega is praising him.Clever alpha! He knows exactly what we need.

A shiver runs through me, heat curling low in my belly at the thought. He’s right. The nest is beautiful, comforting, everything I never dared imagine for myself – but it’s missingthem.

Their warmth. Their scent. Their presence woven into the very fabric of it, making it something trulyours.

Dane watches me carefully, his dark eyes unreadable. Xar stands just behind him, arms folded, his gaze steady and patient. Blaise, the one who said it, grins at me like he already knows what I’m thinking, like he knew the suggestion would slip under my skin and root there.

“You want to do that now?” My voice is quieter than I expect, breathless with something I don’t quite understand.

“If you want us to.” Xar’s voice is deep and steady, grounding me. “Only if you’re ready.”

Am I? My heart is racing, my skin prickling with the first real waves of heat that I can’t ignore anymore. The temporary nest in the living room had been fine when I was in denial, when I could still pretend I had control. But here, in this space made just for me, with these alphas watching me so intently, I feel…different.

I swallow, then nod. “I want that. I want your scents in my nest. To complete it. And I need…I need my pink blanket. My first gift from you. Make it perfect…please.”

The moment the words are out, something shifts.

Dane nods once and goes to get the blanket and Blaise moves first, stepping into the nest like he belongs there, grabbing a pillow and pulling it against his chest, rubbing his scent into it. Then he tosses it to the centre of the nest with a smirk. “That’s a start…but this is better.” He finishes by ripping the shirt he’s wearing up over his head and throwing it right into my face. His bad boy scent smacks me in the face and I instinctively grab the shirt, pressing it closer as I inhale deeply, greedily breathing him in and getting high off the hit of crisp relief his apple scent provides.

Yes! More!My omega screams. Now that she’s had it pointed out to her, she’s rabid to add the missing scents to complete our nest.

I drop the shirt and click my fingers at Blaise. “Pants too.”

Before the words are even out of my mouth, my face is in flames, eyes wide with disbelief.

Oh my god, did I really just say that?

But Blaise just chuckles and obliges.

He hooks his thumbs into the waistband of his jeans and shucks them down without ceremony, stepping out of them like stripping in front of me is the most natural thing in the world. And maybe it is – for him. For an alpha.

But I wasn’t ready.

My brain shorts out for a second, eyes locked on the trail of bright red hair that disappears beneath the band of his black briefs. His brightly inked abs flex as he moves, sharp-cut and glinting in the firelight, and there’s this bold, confident line to his body that screamsalpha. Like he was built to be looked at.

Worshipped.

And there’s the tattoos. A riot of colourful ink that snakes across his chest and down his arms, wrapping around muscle and bone like the art was made to live on him. As he turns. I note that there’s a phoenix bursting from flames on one shoulder, bold strokes of fire and feather, and something floral trailing down his ribs – unexpected, delicate. I want to trace them.Learnthem. Like maybe if I follow the lines with my fingers, I’ll understand the pieces of him he doesn’t say out loud.

My mouth goes dry.

My thighs clench.

I canfeelmy omega press forward inside me, practically clawing at my insides with a desperate need I didn’t know I could feel just fromlooking.

He tosses the jeans into the nest like an afterthought, then catches me staring – and smirks.

Arrogant bastard.