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Rowen was last, his obsidian eyes never leaving mine as he tipped over the edge, adding to the mess decorating my skin, his release landing in warm pulses across my breasts where they spilled over the top of my bra.

The combined scent of them—musk and salt and something uniquely male—filled my senses as I worked myself furiously toward my second peak. Their spent expressions as they looked down at me, their release marking my skin in the most primal way, sent me careening over the edge once more. I cried out as pleasure crashed through me, my thighs trembling violently with the force of my climax.

For several heartbeats, the only sound in the bathroom was our collective heavy breathing. They stared down at me with identical expressions of awe and possessiveness, their eyes tracking the evidence of their release on my skin.

"Mine," Callum murmured, reaching down to trace a pattern through the wetness on my cheek. "Ours."

I nodded, too overwhelmed for words, my body still trembling with aftershocks. Their cum decorated my face, neck, and breasts—some of it mixing with the flour that still dusted my skin, creating a strange paste that should have been gross but somehow just felt right. Claimed. Marked.

I was a strange omega.

Rowen knelt before me, taking my face between his palms and pressing a surprisingly tender kiss to my forehead. "Perfect," he whispered against my skin.

Archer's hand settled on my shoulder, his thumb tracing small circles against my collarbone. The juxtaposition of thefilthy act we'd just completed and the gentleness in their touches now made my heart ache with fullness.

Callum moved first, stepping away toward the shower. I heard the splash of water as he adjusted the temperature, then the metallic click as he detached the showerhead from its mount. He returned with it in hand, water streaming in a gentle cascade.

"Much as I'd love to keep you decorated in us," he said, his voice soft with affection as he knelt beside me, "dinner will be ready soon, and we need to feed you."

The warm water felt heavenly against my sensitized skin as he carefully washed away the evidence of our passion. His tenderness as he cleaned my face and neck made my chest tight with emotion.

"Think the lasagna's about done," he continued, his fingers gentle as they worked through my tangled, flour-and-cum-streaked hair. "Can't have our mate going hungry after she's taken such good care of us."

34

Sierra

Islept deeply at first, the exhaustion of the day—both emotional and physical—pulling me under like a stone dropped in still water. The warmth of my mates surrounded me, their bodies like furnaces against my skin. Callum's arm draped possessively across my waist, his fingers splayed against my hip in that protective way that had become so familiar. Archer's breath tickled the back of my neck, stirring the fine hairs there with each steady exhale. Rowen's chest rose and fell steadily beneath my cheek, the ancient rhythm of his immortal heart a lullaby against my ear.

But as the night deepened, my peaceful slumber turned restless. I tossed and turned between them, their comforting warmth suddenly smothering—too intense, too confining. Something was wrong. Something was coming. The certainty of it settled into my bones even as unconsciousness still claimed me.

Darkness crept in at the edges of my consciousness. Not the natural darkness of sleep, not the velvet blackness behind closed eyelids, but something viscous and alive. A thick, black sludge that oozed through my dreamscape, consuming everything in its path like acid through paper. It pulled at me, weighting down mylimbs until I couldn't move, couldn't escape, couldn't even curl my fingers into a fist to fight back.

I tried to scream, but the sound caught in my throat, trapped behind a wall of terror. The blackness rose around me, climbing up my body like tar, sticking and burning where it touched, leaving phantom pain that felt more real than any waking injury. I thrashed against its hold, panic flooding my senses, drowning out rational thought.

"Help me!" I finally managed to cry out, but my voice seemed to be swallowed by the darkness itself, the words dissolving into nothing. "Callum! Archer! Rowen!"

No one answered. No one heard me. The connection to my mates—that silver thread that always seemed to bind us—was nowhere to be found in this nightmare landscape.

The sludge rose higher, past my waist, over my ribs, threatening to engulf me completely. Each inch it claimed felt violated, tainted. And then it began to whisper.

Sierra... Sierra... We're coming for you...

The voice wasn't quite the Shadow Beast's—not the same malevolent growl that had haunted me before. This was different, muted somehow. As though speaking through water or from a great distance. Weakened, but no less terrifying for it. It carried ancient malice in its syllables.

Your power... your blood... your body... they will be ours...

"No," I gasped, struggling harder against the clinging darkness, willing the silver energy that usually came so easily to me to manifest. Nothing happened. "Get away from me!"

We will devour you from the inside out. We will wear your skin and walk among them. We will feast on your mates while they think they're kissing you...

The words painted such vivid images of horror that I could almost see them playing out—my body a puppet, my matesunsuspecting victims. The violation of it all sparked something primal within me.

"Stay away!" I screamed, fury mixing with my fear, weaving together into something stronger. "You can't have me!"

The darkness laughed, a sound like glass breaking beneath ice—sharp and wrong and somehow wet. The sludge reached my neck now, cold and burning at once, threatening to fill my mouth, my nose, my lungs. I could feel it probing, seeking entrance, testing the barrier of my clenched teeth and pressed lips.

Desperate, I reached inside myself, searching for the well of power I knew lived there. Gran had taught me this—how to call light even in my darkest moments. I focused, imagining a small flame igniting in my center, growing brighter, stronger.