Page 50 of Ashley & the A-Listers (Sweetverse)

ASHLEY

When filming finally wrapped, Cameron surprised River with an arrangement of sunflowers.

She knew, because River walked in the door holding the bouquet and beaming like the sun himself, Cameron following sheepishly behind.

“These mean progress and growth and determination—which is different, if you remember, from the ones he got me in?—”

She smiled as they gushed about the last day and made plans for the wrap party, where River would be accompanying Cameron.

Lastly, Dylan followed in behind them, giving her a sarcastic salute before he came to greet her with a kiss.

She was still tired from her busy day of remodeling. She’d saved the worst for last: pulling carpet. The DIY videos certainly forgot to mention how much it would strain her back, and she melted into Dylan.

“I need yoga,” she whined into Dylan’s shoulder.

The next week, the boys surprised her with a spa day, complete with a full-body massage.

The month after that, Lyric contacted her, begging for her to return to the gym or, “I don’t know—train me privately!”

With Cameron feeding the press so many good bits of him and River, the paparazzi had eased up, and while it was safe to return to the gym, Ashley felt so different when she walked through the doors once more.

She let Nic keep her other clients, exclusively training Lyric until she went on her next tour, and then… went freelance.

In the meantime, her mom’s house came together, and with every room she completed, it was like she was healing a part of herself, reliving the memories and appreciating them for what they were: in the past.

She cried at the finishing touches.

Dylan was there, and he suggested they keep it, wiping the tears from Ashley’s cheeks.

“We can’t,” she whined. “In no world is it big enough, and I do not need two damned houses.”

“What if we added onto it?” he asked. “You’re so sad. Are you sure this is the right move?”

Ashley glanced up the stairs, which lead to the only two bedrooms and a bathroom. There’s no way the four of them would fit, and while the house was now updated—and, if Ashley said so herself, gorgeous —there wasn’t enough land to expand as much as they’d need. She’d already checked, and done the math. Multiple times.

On the upside, she’d found a downright magical listing with a nest she thought suited Cam perfectly.

“I love this place. What it symbolizes for us, the memories it held. It was our start,” she said, throat tightening. “But I’m looking forward to our future.”

She buried her face in Dylan’s chest as her tears fell, and it was cathartic. He cried with her, and then they said goodbye.

The pack house they moved into was… bigger than it had been in the pictures. A room for each of them and two offices, a dreamy nest, a finished basement that could easily be turned into a gym, and a dining room and kitchen that would fit all of them, even Kenzie and Jordan when they came to visit.

“Please be cool,” Ashley begged them, once her pack had moved in enough to warrant a visit.

“I’m so cool,” Kenzie lied.

“The coolest,” Jordan followed.

Except when Kenzie came face-to-face with Cameron, she promptly dropped Jordan’s hand, who looked so absolutely offended it made Ashley laugh, and she fanned her face, swallowing a squeal. “Oh my god, hi,” she greeted, with so much enthusiasm Jordan snorted jealously.

“Shut up, it’s not everyday I meet a celebrity, ” Kenzie hissed.

Ashley had a feeling the newly-established couple would be discussing that later.

“Oh, it’s you, ” Kenzie drawled when meeting Dylan for the first time. “Kidding!” she beamed, and Dylan visibly relaxed.

Ashley shook her head at the antics.

Eventually they broke in the nest, Cameron’s heat hitting harder than Ashley recalled the first time. River’s cologne was ingrained in every fiber of that nest by the time it was over.

In blissful exhaustion, Ashley lay flat on her back, Cameron half on top of her. River was behind him, and they were sharing a knowing smile, trying not to laugh as Cameron snored softly.

They should be sleeping, recovering, but Ashley wasn’t quite ready to fall asleep yet. She wiggled her fingers, tapping them across River’s right arm, which was curled around Cam’s waist.

“Do all these flowers have a story with them, like the one you told me about?” She’d gotten the tattoo tour before, of course, when he’d told her the names of the flowers. She’d Googled them, learning their meanings, but had never been brave enough to ask about the stories.

“Most of them, yeah. Or just general meaning to me.”

“What about the river?” she asked suspiciously, tapping the fountain pen, which drew the shape of an actual river on his arm.

“I think we all know why I have that one,” he said, proud of his little joke.

Ashley rolled her eyes—affectionately.

“Amaryllis is pride,” he said, tapping one flower near the top of his shoulder. “For obvious reasons.”

Ashley smiled, moved her finger toward a purplish flower. “Hollyhock,” she guessed, and he nodded.

“Means ambition. I got it when I graduated college, because I was getting discouraged. I wanted to remind myself what I was there for.”

Her finger drifted over a clapboard and some text that read the end . in capital courier letters, over the ferns—which meant many different things to many cultures, including magic and fascination, even secret bonds of love.

“This last one is a gardenia. I got it about a year into my and Cam’s relationship,” he murmured. “Means secret love, surprise.”

Ashley hummed a soft, understanding noise, wishing he was close enough to kiss. Instead she squeezed his arm and nudged her foot into him.

“I think I want to get a new one,” River said.

“Oh yeah? Right here?” she asked, circling her finger around a blank space at the crook on the inside of his elbow. “Do you know what you want?”

“I know exactly what I want,” he said.

“What flower?” she asked, oblivious, stroking the skin.

“Ashley,” he said, and she turned her head at the sound of his voice, the knowing tone of it.

His gaze was green and bright and half-lidded and pointed.

It took Ashley a moment, her brain working slowly as River’s eyes bounced from omega to alpha and back again.

She jolted when the answer struck her, jostling Cameron.

“Really?” she asked, excitement threading through her, heart beginning to race. They hadn’t bonded yet because after the mess she made of things last time, she’d been hesitant. She wanted to do it right, conspiring with Cameron to make River feel special and as integral to the pack as he truly was. Date nights and shopping and painting and shameless PDA, which the media ate up like a meal.

“River,” she said, touching the blank spot where he wanted her bite to go. “I would love to bond you.”

Cameron would be able to feel him, too, and the thought of them all linked made her chest go tight and her throat ache as her sinuses burned. She’d come to rely on the bond when it came to reading her pack mates, and she was sorely aware of the absence of River. When they’d broached the subject, River had declared he wanted to wait, to make sure they weren’t rushing it. There would be no more mistakes. Ashley had relented, of course, but her hindbrain always had something to say about it.

Cameron stirred, mumbling against her skin before picking his head up and squinting at them.

“Why does it feel like something monumental is happening?”

“Because it is,” Ashley said, and reached to pull River in now that they wouldn't disturb Cam’s rest.

They sandwiched the omega as Ashley pulled him in for a kiss. “I’d love to leave my mark on you,” she said against his mouth. Cameron wiggled between them.

“Oh my god, are we talking about bonding? River? Are you?—”

Cameron rolled over, taking River’s face in his hands until his lips were squished. “Is this happening?”

River nodded, smiling despite his smushed face.

“River,” Cameron whined, and then kissed him, pushing him into the nest and crawling atop him. “Please bond with me. With Ashley, so we can feel each other.”

“I’ve got the perfect spot picked out,” River said. “If you’ll have me.”

“If we’ll—” Cameron scoffed, then leaned down and tilted him up for a kiss. “I love you,” he said, pecking him on the lips between each word. “I’d be honored to be your omega.”

River looked shiny in the eyes and emotion swelled in her and Cam like a wave pool, back and forth.

“I didn’t want to ask during the heat, because I wanted us all to have clear heads. But I just—I love you, and I love being part of this pack.”

“I’ve been waiting, being so patient. I’m so glad that—finally,” Cameron said, and closed the distance again.

Ashley could feel the love between them even without a bond. She propped her head on her hand and watched them.

“I thought your heat was over,” she teased as they began grinding together.

“You think I’m going to miss the opportunity to have him inside me when you bite him?” Cameron asked.

River chuckled. “Thought about this a lot, have you?”

Cameron paused, blushing. “Guilty.”

“Hmm. Maybe you should tell me a few of these fantasies. We can only make the one come true, you know.”

“Babe. I’m an actor. You think I can’t roleplay?”

River snorted, rolling his eyes, and Ashley giggled.

“What about if he’s inside me, ” Ashley suggested, stroking a palm down Cameron’s back, slowing his hips. “And you’re inside him? Hmm?”

Through the bond, she could feel Dylan’s curiosity at all the excitement, and she cleared her throat. “There’s one more person we should check in with,” she said. “Maybe he wants to watch.”

“Dylan!” Cameron leaned up to shout. Ashley winced, and River burst into laughter. “It’s cuck time, your favorite!”

Amusement, then affection, and finally interest. They waited—well, she waited. Cameron clearly had faith in the other alpha, because he made room for Ashley atop River and kissed him again, stoking the ever-present fire.

A moment later, the door cracked open, and Dylan’s head popped in. “Is it safe?”

“Not even a little bit,” Ashley drawled.

Arousal and groans and bursts of pleasure filled the nest, warmth without the desperation of a heat.

River first, they promised, and Cameron sank into him again and again. Ashley met River in a filthy kiss as she moved against him, trailing her lips along his jaw and neck, nipping and teasing. She dipped to his shoulder, his arm, kissing along all the flowers that represented the most important reminders in his life and the printed words that declared an end—but what kind of ending?

To the blank space, where her bite would go, where her claim would lay, where she’d bond River and Cam and herself together for as long as they all lived.

Dylan watched from the oddly-shaped sex chair Cameron had introduced them to, approval and titillation loud in the bond as he watched her take care of the pack. He’d join them—after River was irrevocably theirs.

Cameron moaned, and his pleasure flooded the bond as Ashley rocked her hips, feeling the beta swell inside her, knowing what a sight they made for the other alpha.

She glanced up at River.

In his eyes she saw bright adoration and half-lidded arousal, his lips parted as Cameron thrust into him and she canted her hips.

“You belong here,” she panted, and River’s gaze wavered. “With us,” she said. “With me.”

She waited, timing it, watching his jaw clench and his abs tense, listening to the pitch of their moans. She knew by now which tenor meant it was time.

She brushed her lips over the skin on his arm, anticipating.

They struck it together, reaching the peak with a cry, and Ashley sank her teeth in, her lock gripping him tightly.

River came with a shout.

It was a hard bite, deep, with blood on her tongue, and like curtains parting, there was River. In the bond like he’d always belonged, twining around her and Cameron like a braid.

Together, as one. Ashley’s heart filled up with the four of them, different flavors of the same love: adoration, admiration, obsession, dedication.

They all blended until Ashley could hardly tell them apart, and her hindbrain howled in satisfaction.

Her pack was one.

Ashley soothed the bite with lips and tongue, working it, healing it. Cameron had stopped moving, resting against River’s back and stroking his arm.

Their gazes met, and Ashley paused, lifting her head. “It feels right,” she said, glancing to River. “You’re right where you belong.”

He nodded, and she felt his swell of emotion before his attention drifted over her shoulder.

She knew what was coming before Dylan ever framed her hips with his hands, settling into the nest behind her.

“I have to soothe the bite,” she told him.

“Sounds like a task for an alpha,” he mused, and pressed against her. His warm skin met hers and heat licked at her, stomach tightening with it, cunt quivering where it was locked around River.

River’s jade eyes darkened, and everyone's pleasure fluttered through the bond. With a chuckle, she lowered her mouth, pausing before contact.

“Do your worst, then,” she challenged, and lowered her lips back to the fresh bite.

She braced herself, holding onto River’s arm. Her thumb covered the courier print declaring the end .

This wasn’t their end.

This was their beginning.

And it was going to be a damned good one.