Page 66 of Captivated By Alphas 1, Fated (The Blood Moon Chronicle #4)

“Too far?” I echoed, dazed and confused and desperately wanting more. “What’s too far? Are we talking like, second base? Third base? I never really understood the baseball metaphor anyway. Why is it baseball? Why not football? Or soccer?”

Adrian laughed, pressing a soft kiss to my temple. “You’re rambling, baby.”

Baby. He’d called me baby. That was… that was probably something I should analyze later when my brain was working again.

“We want to do this right,” Jace explained, his voice rough as he stepped back slightly, his hand still resting on my thigh. “Take our time with you. Properly.”

“And we want to be sure it’s what you want,” Adrian added, his usual playfulness tempered with something more serious. “All of us. This isn’t something you can take back.”

“All of you?” I repeated, trying to wrap my head around the concept while my brain was still offline from their assault on my senses.

“That’s… not exactly a normal dating arrangement.

I mean, most people date one person at a time.

That’s kind of how it works. There are probably rules about this sort of thing. ”

“When have the Carmichaels ever been normal?” Cole asked, a hint of his usual dryness returning as he helped me slide down from the hood on legs that felt like overcooked pasta.

“Fair point,” I conceded, my heart still racing as I tried to process what had just happened.

“But still. This is a lot to process. You’re basically telling me that all three of you want…

what, exactly? To share me? To take turns?

To… I don’t even know what this would look like.

Do you have like a schedule? Color-coded calendars? ”

“You,” Jace said simply, his arm sliding around my waist to steady me. “We want you. But at your pace. We won’t rush you.”

“Though we might occasionally lose control and kiss you senseless,” Adrian added, his smile returning, though his eyes remained dark with hunger. “For which we apologize in advance.”

“No, you don’t,” I said, unable to stop my own smile despite the confusion swirling through me. “You’re not sorry at all.”

“Not even a little bit,” he agreed cheerfully, which was probably the most honest thing anyone had said all evening.

“We should get you home,” Cole said, his thumb brushing across my cheek in a touch that was surprisingly tender given the intensity of moments before. “It’s getting late.”

Part of me wanted to protest, to pull them back and continue what we’d started.

But the rational part of my brain—what little remained functioning—knew he was right.

This was all happening too fast, too intensely.

I needed time to process, to think, to figure out what the hell was happening to me and whether I needed professional help.

“Okay.” I nodded, immediately missing their warmth as they stepped back. “Home sounds good. I need to… think. About all of this. Possibly with alcohol. Definitely with alcohol.”

The drive back was quiet but charged with an energy that crackled between us.

This time I ended up in the middle of the back seat again, but there was no pretense of personal space.

Jace’s arm was around my shoulders, his fingers playing with my hair in a way that sent shivers down my spine.

Adrian’s hand rested on my thigh, his thumb tracing small circles that made it impossible to think about anything else.

Cole’s eyes met mine in the rearview mirror frequently, each look so intense I felt it like a physical touch.

When we pulled up to the cottage, the lights were off, my parents presumably still at the mansion dealing with whatever chaos the evening had brought.

“Thank you for tonight,” I finally said, breaking the charged silence as we sat in the driveway. “It was… unexpected.”

“In a good way, I hope,” Adrian said, pressing a kiss to my knuckles that made my stomach flip in ways that should probably be studied by science.

“Definitely good,” I admitted, heat flooding my face at the memory of what we’d done. “Confusing, overwhelming, slightly terrifying, possibly life-changing… but good.”

“We’ll walk you to your door,” Jace said, his tone making it clear this wasn’t a suggestion.

I didn’t argue. The short walk to my front door felt both too long and too short, the three of them surrounding me like the world’s most attractive security detail.

“So,” I said as we reached the porch, turning to face them with what I hoped was casual confidence rather than the nervous energy currently trying to vibrate me into another dimension. “This was… not what I expected when I agreed to dinner with Jace.”

“Disappointed?” Adrian asked, a hint of vulnerability breaking through his usual confidence.

“No.” I shook my head firmly. “Just… trying to figure out what happens now. What this means. What you guys want from me. Whether I need to update my social media profile to include ‘polyamorous relationship coordinator’ or something.”

“Now,” Cole said, his voice low and intimate in the darkness, “we see where this goes. If you want.”

“I want,” I said, the words escaping before I could second-guess myself into a panic attack. “I mean, I think I want. This is all very confusing and probably going to require extensive googling, but… yes. I want to see where this goes.”

“Good.” Jace smiled, stepping closer. His hand came up to cup my face, his thumb brushing across my cheek. “We’re not done with you yet. Not by a long shot.”

The promise in those words made heat flood my body again, and I was pretty sure my face was now glowing like a neon sign. “Oh,” was all I could manage, my brain temporarily offline at the images those words conjured.

“But that’s for another time,” Cole said, stepping closer. “For now, this will have to do.”

His kiss was softer than before, but no less affecting.

Sweet and gentle and somehow more intimate than everything that had come before.

When he pulled back, Adrian was there, claiming his own goodnight kiss with a playfulness that made me smile against his lips.

Jace was last, his kiss deeper and more possessive, his tongue sweeping into my mouth one final time in a move that left me breathless and wanting.

By the time they finished, I was dizzy and swaying on my feet, my lips tender and my body humming with unfulfilled desire that was probably going to keep me awake for the next decade.

“Sweet dreams,” Adrian murmured, his smile promising all kinds of sin.

“Until tomorrow,” Cole added, his voice a caress in the darkness.

“Don’t forget who made you feel this way,” Jace whispered, his fingers tracing the marks he’d left on my neck, sending one last shiver down my spine.

I stepped inside, turning for one last look at them—three impossibly beautiful men watching me with identical expressions of hunger and possessiveness that should have scared me but instead made me feel like the most wanted person on the planet.

“Good night,” I whispered, closing the door before I could do something truly reckless like invite them all inside for coffee and whatever inevitably followed coffee with three alpha predators.

I leaned against the closed door, my heart pounding like a techno beat, my lips swollen from their kisses. Outside, I heard what sounded suspiciously like growls, then the sound of car doors and the engine starting.

“What. The. Actual. Fuck,” I whispered to my empty cottage, sliding down to sit on the floor as my legs finally gave out completely.

Three kisses had turned into a full makeout session on the hood of a car in a moonlit forest clearing. Three gorgeous men who’d just claimed me in ways I didn’t fully understand. One night that had completely shattered everything I thought I knew about myself and what I wanted.

I touched my fingers to my lips, still feeling the ghost of their kisses—Cole’s methodical devastation, Jace’s possessive claiming, Adrian’s playful seduction. My body hummed with a need I’d never felt before, an ache that went beyond physical desire into something deeper, more primal.

And the weirdest part? I wasn’t freaking out nearly as much as I should be.

I should be having a full-scale panic attack about the fact that I’d just made out with three men at once—three cousins, no less.

I should be questioning what kind of person that made me.

I should be googling “is polyamory legal in Washington state” and “how to explain unusual relationship dynamics to your parents.”

Instead, all I could think about was when I would see them again. When I would feel their hands on me, their lips against mine.

“You’re in so much trouble, Harper,” I told my reflection. “So. Much. Trouble.”

But as I traced my fingers over the marks they’d left on my skin, I couldn’t bring myself to care. Whatever this was, whatever they wanted from me, whatever was happening between us… I wanted more.

For the first time in my life, I felt wanted. Desired. Claimed.

And that feeling was worth whatever insanity came next.