Page 54 of Coco and the Misfits (The Candyverse #4)

COCO

H ow did I get so lucky?

How is this my life now?

I feel like Alice in Wonderland, but I don’t want to find the way back. I like it here, with my lost and wild, tormented and sweet men.

I’ve been walking on clouds for the past few days. I know I need to eventually tell my parents about this new development, this new direction my life has taken, but not yet. It’s my secret, my joy, and I want to keep it to myself for a while longer.

If that means putting off the arguments about why this is a bad idea, my mom saying that this is me hiding from myself yet again, well… She will come around.

Once I introduce her to my pack, I’m sure she’ll understand.

Who wouldn’t?

My pack of alpha hunks.

Just call me Alice, okay?

We have been texting each other and meeting every evening in one apartment for dinner, cuddles and some pleasure.

No actual sex has happened yet, I have to report, and that might be my fault.

I’ve been… holding back a little. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that these amazing alphas accept me as I am, take me as an omega because I feel I am one, but that doesn’t mean…

Ahem.

That doesn’t mean I’m ready to be knotted.

I’ve talked to Gigi and surfed the internet, and I now know that it’s possible. Uncomfortable, painful, but some non-omegas like getting knotted.

Would I?

What if I hate it? What if I ruin this? What if they hate it? What if they change their minds again?

I’m just about run myself into the ground with overthinking.

Just do it, girl! Do it and you’ll know.

Pep talk doesn’t really work on me, by the way. Maybe some chocolate ice cream will do the trick… Atticus said he bought some for me and that’s where I’m heading now. It puts an extra spring in my step. The ice cream. But above all, the three alphas I’m heading toward.

About that… There has been some back and forth on where we could live together, but we all quickly agreed that Atticus’ apartment is the only one that’s large enough for all of us.

He said he’s already ordered an extra-extra-large pack bed for us. It’s supposed to arrive today and tonight we’re moving in with him. With each other.

Our first night as a pack. It’s getting serious.

Is that why I’m getting cold feet about the sex? I mean, I’m dying to bed them. Ha. Climb them. Ride them. Have actual sex with all three of them.

Intimidating as a thought.

Fucking hot as an image.

Panty-drenching as a real possibility.

I can’t wait, and yet it’s with trepidation that I walk up to the building where Atticus lives.

Because… what if nothing happens? They have been comfortable enough with one another to go down on me and touch me at the same time, but they have always been dressed, not touching between them.

They don’t seem to mind casual touching. But what about sex? Will we continue like this? Will we have set nights to be one-on-one? Is it going to be weird? I know they are doing this pack thing for me, and I’m so touched I can’t think about it without tearing up.

Whatever they want to give me, however they want to do this, I’m game.

Oh, I’m so game.

Anything for them. Anything to have them, be with them.

Grinning widely, I enter the lobby and walk past the concierge desk, nodding at Bridget.

“Hi, Coco,” she says with a smile. “Mr. Ford is expecting you.”

“I know,” I quip and enter the elevator with a softer smile on my face. Bridget turned out okay. She’s protective of Atticus, maybe a bit too much, but since our pack got together, she never got in our way.

I’m just glad Atticus never slept with her. It would have made things weird.

Stepping out of the elevator, I use the key card Atticus gave me to open the door. It swings inward and I step inside, hanging my small backpack with some bare necessities for the night—haven’t had the time to properly pack my stuff yet—on the rack together with my light jacket.

“Guys!” I step into the living area, my breath catching as usual at the sight of the city phosphorescing outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

But then I notice the scent of flowers and wrench my gaze away to take in the space I used to clean and dance around in back when I worked for Atticus.

My breath catches. The apartment is filled with flowers and lit candles. Pink flowers. White candles.

I smile, walking to the kitchen island that’s covered in roses. “Where are you guys? Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

“In here!” a male voice calls from the depths of the apartment. Intrigued, running my fingertips over the soft petals of the roses, I trudge out of the living room in search of my wayward alphas.

“Guys! What are you playing at? Where are you?”

“In here! Second door to the right!”

Following the deep voice—Atticus, I think—I push the specified door open and stop in my tracks.

It’s the master bedroom. I recognize it now, although it’s changed. I mean, the three of them are sitting on a gigantic bed and my first thought is, oh, the extra-large bed arrived sooner than I thought!

That’s a lie, obviously. My first thought is, Whoa, look at them! They are so hot I’m burning.

Gloriously naked.

Obviously waiting for me.

On a bed filled with little cushions. Like a nest.

Okay, so my attention is a little divided. Between the small cushions and the thought of a nest and those large, hard cocks pointing at me like loaded guns, how am I supposed to think?

I lift my hands. “I surrender. Don’t shoot.”

Zach cracks up, and that wide, dimpled grin is melting my insides. He grabs his cock and pretends to, well, cock his gun. “Come here, then, if you want to live.”

Letting my hands drop, I walk to the bed and make a show of taking them in. Okay, maybe it’s not really a show. I mean, look at them!

Zach, with the phoenix tattoo Ryder gave him inked over his hard pecs. He’s still holding the long rod of his cock, his knot swollen and purple, making me wonder if he found any relief in this past week when pleasuring me had been their only goal, foregoing their own releases.

Ryder covered in inked memories and attitude, kneeling, the many piercings in his cock glinting.

Atticus, one brow lifted, his powerful muscles relaxed, his smile soft.

But then I realize… that all three of them sport knots tonight.

“What…?” I gulp. “Are you going to knot me? How did this happen?”

Atticus smirks. He sprawls onto his back, folding muscular arms under his head. “We’ve had knots for days now. No idea how this happened, but from the moment we started spending time with you together, all four of us, our bodies decided we were ready for a marking.”

“If you are, too,” Ryder says, a crease between his brows. “For all and any of this. Just because we got our knots ready doesn’t mean that you are ready. For knotting. Or marking.”

“And not just scent marking.” Zach winks at me. “Though we can start slow and light.”

My heart is hammering. My eyes blur. “I…”

“She’s not ready,” Ryder says with a deepening frown. “I told you guys. We shouldn’t push her.”

“Ryder, let me finish. I was going to say…” I draw a bracing breath. “I want it. All of it. Please.”

“The knotting?” He looks dubious.

“Yes. I want to try.”

“And the marking?” Ryder clarifies.

“Yes, yes.”

“But are you sure, darling?” Atticus sits up again. “Ryder is right. We don’t need to rush this. We’re only just moving in together as a pack. What if you change your mind?”

I laugh, can’t help it. “I won’t. You know it when you’ve found your soulmates.”

“She’s right,” Zach says.

Their cocks forgotten for a second—again a lie, how can you forget those three missiles staring you in the face?—I embrace the warmth his words send through me.

“We’ll go with soft marking,” Ryder says, his frown easing. “Those that fade over time. And one day…”

“One day we’ll make them permanent,” I say, accepting this solution, this idea, liking the idea of layers in marking just like in habits, life, and love. “And we can do it every year.”

“A renewal of oaths,” Atticus breathes. “I like it. Now, enough talking. Don’t you see the state you’ve put us into? Come here, girl. Those clothes have to go. Come and put us out of our misery.”