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I fought past it, focusing on what needed to be done, and then I went to get to it, shifting in bed to get up—only to find resistance.

Frowning, I looked to see that it wasn’t just Ariana’s body pressed against me and wrapped around me, it was her wings.

What the—

One of them was draped around me, folded over my side and waist, the golden edges brushing my ribs and thigh with each slow and easy breath she drew.

They were denser and heavier than feathers were expected to be, like velvet, really. They emanated warmth and I could feel them tinged with her power.

I looked closer, seeing the gilded primaries flush against me, one hooked slightly over my hip like they were trying to prevent me from moving, from leaving.

Her other wing arched outward, half-flared behind her back where it rested against V’s chest.

Ariana looked so peaceful in sleep, so utterly relaxed. Or maybe it was the impact of our foursome that was enabling that. V was pressed against her back, his face buried in her hair, while Nyx was curled around him over on the other edge of the bed, his arm draped all over V’s chest, his leg hooked around Ari’s.

The two of them were in just their boxers like me, while Ariana was clad in a sexy silver negligee that did amazing justice to her breasts, and rose up sexily on her thighs as she slept surrounded by the three of us.

After we’d agreed to take a beat last night, we’d come to her dorm room and just crashed right away, no sex, not even any fooling around. All of us had been too mentally and emotionally drained for that. And that was really saying something.

Looking out at them all, the warmth and comfort that infused through being here wrapped up in them, the last thing I wanted to do was to have to leave that. Even for a little while.

We had class together soon, all four of us. Yet, even knowing that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to be fucking immersed in them, in what we’d built together.

It was the only time when the outside world went away, the weight of it all, the tribulations, the expectations, knowing I had less than a year to go before my freedom would be forever compromised, before I was slated to engage in rigorous training to become Coven Head for my parents.

Before the real me, who I felt like I’d only just properly started to get to know since V and Ari had drawn close, had to dissipate and make way for the version my parents wanted, that our Coven needed.

With our foursome was the only time I could stop the voices urging me to keep pushing and fucking pushing on my quest to obtain ultimate knowledge—another, more viable route to power for me. Power that would prevent anything from being out of my control again. It was the only time I even came close to feeling peace.

Withthem. With them all over me. With them bringing out in me what I’d always thought of as a weakness before. With them cutting through the darkness that lurked within me.

I cursed inwardly. Because as much as I didn’t want to leave, I really should get to my lab and continue my research.

I grasped Ariana’s wing carefully and moved to lift it off me so I could quietly slide out of bed.

I didn’t get more than two seconds into it, before the hold tightened around me, and then she dragged me more tightly against her.

“Not yet,” her sleepy voice sounded.

“Not yet?”

“You’re so cozy, do you know that?” she murmured, nuzzling against my back. “You’re all so cozy.”

Fuck me,she was killing me. Ari having her guard down like this, all relaxed and adorable, did things to me. Because I knew what it meant, how much she was trusting us to reveal this side of her, to sink into the three of us like this without any of those walls up anymore.

“Is that right, sweetheart?” I said, turning in her hold to face her. “Tell me more.”

A little smile spread over her face and she opened her eyes, those enchanting blues sparkling at me with a mixture of mirth and flirtation.

She stroked her wings over my bare back, sending sparks of need through me.

“Not just cozy,” she breathed, brushing her fingers over my pecs and trailing down to my abs, making me groan at her deliciously arousing touch. Just from that, and she almost had me completely. “So incredibly sexy. I’m so lucky to wake up to the three of you surrounding me, warming me.” Her eyes flamed. “Being mine.”

She slid her hand beneath the waistband of my boxers, but I caught it, stilling her.

“Any further, any more, and I won’t be able to hold off.”

“I don’t want you to.”