Page 46

SKYE

When I returned to the others, my four alphas were all sitting on the blanket and picking at the contents of the leftover containers. I scooped up my dress and shook off the sand, then put it back on and settled between Halo and Rowan.

Halo pointed to the clear sky. “A shooting star.”

Among the twinkling stars, tiny comets streaked along the cosmos. We watched, anticipating each one with quiet excitement. Gradually I leaned into Rowan’s chest, his warmth.

I reached for the back of my neck, feeling the faint hints of the bites running down my nape. Severen’s shield, Crux’s arch, and Halo’s concise dash. How would Rowan bite me? Where? When?

Did he even want to?

Maybe he wasn’t ready yet.

Was I even ready?

I continued to ponder these things until Rowan broke the comfortable silence.

“This is the best time I’ve had in months,” he said. “Thank you.”

I nodded, drowsily. “It was the perfect day.”

Rowan was lazily playing with a strand of my hair, I was quietly purring. A perfect day.

Almost.

I sat up, then stood, with Rowan’s hand in mine, and gave a gentle tug. “Come on,” I whispered.

Rowan got to his feet, and trailed after me as I left the blanket and stepped into the moonlight. I turned to him, and placed his hand on my chest, over my heart.

“We don’t need rings,” I began with a quiet, lilting voice. “We have a deeper connection. I want to be your omega for the rest of our lives. I give myself to you, Rowan. My alphas accept you as pack.” I inhaled and fought to keep the shiver out of my voice. “Please, bite me, and claim me.”

Rowan said nothing but everything about him, from the emotion in his eyes, to the warmth and caress of his aura all around me told me so much more than words ever could.

With a burst of blueberries, I turned away from him and brushed my hair over my shoulder, exposing my bitten neck to him, and, more profoundly, invited him to add his own bite mark.

He slipped one arm around my waist, hugging me with affection. His other hand returned to the space over my heart, my skin still warm from his palm resting on it a moment ago.

Rowan kissed my bite marks, and that drew a purr out of me. I reached up to cradle his head, his short, dark hair mussing through my fingers. He ran his tongue up the back of my neck. For the moment, he was all I felt, all I noticed.

Behind me, under the rapt attention of my mates, Rowan tilted his head and bit a waxing crescent into the spot where my neck met my shoulders.

I gasped as my aura pulled onto his, and seemed to want to unravel it and tie me up in his cloves.

My heart was a drum, pounding with violent joy as Rowan’s bite took hold over me and splashed into my being.

He, like my other three alphas, was now a presence woven through my aura, his cloves zested up the Heller pack’s collective scent, bringing new life to blueberries and wine, coffee, plums, brown sugar and whisky barrels.

My skin rippled with ecstasy and delight.

Slick soaked my panties, and I just knew a few drops fell onto the sand.

Even after Rowan’s teeth released me, he still had a hold on me.

He placed a kiss on the bitemark he left behind, and kissed my other ones again while his arms still circled me.

With a purr thrumming in my throat I leaned back against his chest, with every nerve crying out to be touched and teased by him.

“Can you walk?” Rowan asked me once he caught his breath. His mouth was so achingly close to my ear that I swore his lips brushed my lobe.

“Barely,” I admitted, so Rowan picked me up and held me like the bride we both decided I wasn’t.

“All the way to the house?” I asked, incredulous.

He laughed. “You’re a feather.”

“Oh.” Bashfully, I giggled, feeling very silly.

“I think it’s time for us to head back,” Severen announced, rising from the blanket. Everyone stood and Crux whisked the blanket off the sand, shook it out and handed it to Halo to expertly fold.

As we walked, I cuddled up to my newly bonded alpha’s chest and purred all the way home.

Rowan and I were the first to reach the front door. I gripped the knob and turned but it didn’t open.

“Skye,” Severen said. “You forgot something.”

I peered over at Severen coming up the stairs and saw the house keys dangling from his fingers.

I smiled and reached out to take them. Severen dropped them in my hand with a satisfying, chilly jingle.

I closed my fingers around them and then grabbed the front of Severen’s shirt and pulled him into a kiss that tasted like love and comfort, leisure and grace.

When it broke, I said, “You mind getting the mattress from the car?”

“Crux is already on it,” Severen grinned and kissed my forehead. I released his shirt, my grip leaving behind a mess of creases and wrinkles he didn’t bother to smooth out, and he went to help unload Rowan’s car.