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I walk into the room, leading my bonded alphas behind me, and I climb onto the bed. “You guys look scrumptious and smell even better.”

Knight winks at me. “So do you guys.”

Striker catches me and kisses me. “Hey,” he says, looking into my eyes. “I fucked up.”

I swallow, holding his gaze. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Regardless,” he says, “I don’t want to hurt you, omega. I almost hurt you badly. And it’s not the first time.”

“Yeah, but come on, it’s all fixed now,” says Knight, patting the pillow next to him in the nest. “Lotus, sweet pretty thing, I got them both on a leash now, and he’ll bite you and then I’ll biteyou, and then we’ll all have crazy good sex for, like, days, and it’s going to be great.”

I giggle, settling in next to him.

Arrow settles too, still tending.

Calix is standing over all of us, arms crossed over his chest.

“I’m not on a leash,” says Striker, rotating his hips, thrusting his knot into Knight.

Knight groans, shutting his eyes, his scent going bright. He liked that. “Fuck you, yes, youare.”

Striker looks at me. “But, yeah, I think it’ll help.”

“But we can’t do it tonight,” says Knight, beckoning with one hand to Striker, who moves in and gives him access to the mark on his neck. Knight licks him lazily. “We’re distracted.”

“Fuck yes, we are,” says Arrow.

One bite at a time seems like a good pace. They’re very intense, the bites. With Calix, I felt like we merged into one being, and with Arrow I feel like he filled in all these missing spots within me, made me whole in ways I hadn’t even quite realized I was empty. Arrow is steadying and sweet and devoted to me. I’m devoted to him, too, but it’s different than with Calix.

I shut my eyes and bask in the feeling as Arrow licks his mark.

“I’m not sure I should leave you guys alone with her,” says Calix.

I open my eyes. “Wait, what?”

Calix sighs. “This almost went really bad, Lotus. I don’t know if you have any idea how bad it almost went. He needed to just move his hand and he would have snapped your neck.”

I seem to remember someone saying that, but whatever it was that Striker was doing to me in that moment didn’t even really hurt that much. It was just firm. I couldn’t move. He had me pinned. I actually kind of liked it, because I like it when my alphas hold me down and take me over.

Striker moves so that he’s looking at Calix but Knight still has access to lick his neck. “Yeah, but it won’t happen like that again, because Knight and me—”

“Yeah, Knight said he could stop Arrow, and then you all went off the chain when Acker got free,” says Calix. “I’m not going to Cedar Falls tomorrow. I’m calling off work. I may have to quit.”

“Wait,” I say. “Arrow and I have a bond now. He’s not going to hurt me.”

“We don’t know that,” says Calix. “The bond with Knight and Arrow did jack. Trying to bite you tonight made Striker go ballistic—”

“Yeah, but Arrow was fine this time,” I say. “And it’s because of the bond with Knight.” I have a sense of it through Arrow. I’m not exactly connected to Knight, but I feel Arrow connected to Knight. “Anyway, I thought we were going to try to figure out how to save all the omegas and alphas in Cedar Falls.”

“Yes,” says Knight as he tends. “Because we are the cobra-men superhero scent-match pack who is going to save the damned world.”

“The goddess-damned world,” I say in agreement. “We’re going to fix everything.”

Calix scrubs his face with one hand and groans.

I reach for him. “Calix, sweetheart, you’re exhausted. Come lie down. You want to knot me? You want me to suck you? You might need that, huh?”

Calix climbs over me. He kisses my mouth and turns to Knight. “Since when did you want to save the world?”