Page 68

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

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[Picture of the proposal]

[Close up of ring]

What ring is Vanessa Lennon wearing? After a proposal like that, we want all the juicy details. No one from the pack has been around to answer questions about the rings. If they decided to skip the ceremony, we don’t blame them. But we hope they come up for air soon! We need answers! Either way, we think black rings are about to get a boost in sales.

The master suite glowed.

It felt like every surface had a candle. Kind of like our first night together. It gave the room a warm softness that might otherwise be missing in a hotel. Roses were here and there, adding to the beauty.

This was clearly a bedroom designed for a pack, with a bed the size of an ocean and enough bedding to match. Gentle music floated in the background.

River stood to the side, a towel around his waist, staring at me. Elias was already shirtless and sprawled on the bed. Grayson leaned against the wall, candles all around him. They all stared at me in the lingerie I’d picked. With the rings, the black felt right.

“This is pretty,” I whispered.

“And you’re sure?” Grayson asked. “You don’t want any kind of ceremony.”

I shook my head. “The world has enough already. I want to keep this for us.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Beck said. He still held my hand, pulling me to stand in front of him. Then he lifted my hair off my neck, brushing it to the side and settling his hands around me. My whole body was pressed back against his, that same steady purr rumbling through me. “Any objections to me biting you, love?”

Nerves and excitement tumbled through my chest and down into my gut. “I don’t know how I’ll react,” I said. “But if it’s anything like the overwhelm of the scent match and the heat, I might get floaty on all of you.”

Beck nuzzled his head against mine. “We’ll catch you.”

My heart skipped a beat. He’d said that the first day we met, and they’d been catching me the whole time.

He released me just enough to grip my neck and brace me with one hand, still sealing me to his body with the other. His lips pressed to that spot just behind my ear that I’d come to think of as belonging to him. “Right here,” he murmured. “So when I’m talking you all the way into pleasure, I have another way to drive you wild.”

No more hesitation. Pain struck, and I gasped. It transformed in an instant with a sweeping, swooping sensation. A sense of awe that wasn’t mine filled the space in my chest. Beck .

I felt him smile at the recognition. I couldn’t explain why it felt like him, but it did. Deep, quiet, and rich. Like the intangible notes of a scent without the actual sensation. Dark and dominant notes along with that steady, calm, gentle Alpha.

“I don’t—” Spinning, I wrapped my arms around his neck, clinging to him. “It feels impossible.”

Beck kissed me, long and slow. How he felt kissing me rang between us, and all I could feel was searing, feral need, and I didn’t have a clue if it was his or mine. And above that, around it, all the way through it, was love.

“That’s right,” he whispered against my lips. “I love you so fucking much. Now I have to let you go or I’ll be the only one bonding you tonight.”

Already I didn’t feel steady on my feet. That delightful sensation of being carried away hovered on the edges. Having all four of their emotions inside me? I would be along for the ride. “I’m already floating.”

“I’ve got you,” Elias said, catching me around the waist and moving me back onto the bed. I giggled when he pulled me on top of him, savoring Beck’s amusement watching and his arousal seeing more of me in this lingerie. This was going to take some getting used to.

I drew a path along Elias’s collarbone with my finger. “Where do you want me to bite you?”

He sat up so I straddled him and kept me close. “I need to tell you this first.”

“Is there a secret I should know?”

My Beta smiled, but his eyes were serious. His voice was low, beneath the music, so the words were just for us. “I choose you, Vanessa. Scent match or not, I can’t imagine a world where you’re not mine.”

“Elias.” A tear spilled over before he brushed it away.

“You’re my family. You . You and our pack. No one else. You know exactly what that means.” I nodded. He did too, cupping my cheek. “So bite me somewhere they can see it.”

I leaned in and bit his throat beneath his jaw, instinct guiding me to the right spot. He was there instantly. A new place in my chest, distinct yet overlapping, that felt just like him. Lighter and sweeter and brighter with that strength and loyalty that infused who he was. “I feel you.” I hiccuped a laugh. “I feel you.”

Elias spun and flipped me down onto the bed, all smiles. “Incredible.”

“Is that place okay?”

“It’s perfect.”

I giggled again, their happiness lifting mine higher. “You haven’t even seen it yet.”

“Any place you chose would have been perfect. Hell, you could have bitten me on the nose and I would love it.”

“Tempting.” I rolled my eyes. “But maybe next time.”

Elias kissed me, winking before he disappeared. I was alone for less than a second before River was there.

“Sometimes I wonder if I knew,” he said. “Before everything. When I saw you and was drawn to you. Even if it isn’t true, that’s the way I think of it. That I knew you were mine before it was real. And the second it was…” He closed his eyes and dropped his forehead to mine. “I can only show you.”

In one movement, River dropped his mouth to where my neck met my shoulder, opposite Beck’s bite, and marked me. Emotion flooded me in a wave. The icy cold of mint and the sweetness of chocolate and so much devotion .

I felt it. The memory he was living. Finding out I was his scent match. Disbelief. Denial because it couldn’t be true. Fear that it wasn’t true. And finally, the moment when he scented me—held me for the first time. The feeling was raw and sharp. A turning point and a shifting. Where his world had realigned with mine, and I was all that mattered.

His love was so deep it ached.

All I could do was wrap myself around him and hold on. How could I say anything? I couldn’t. Only let him feel everything. I loved all of him, even the parts he didn’t like about himself. He was mine .

My grip on reality was quickly fading. All three bonds in my chest… fuck this was weird, but it felt so right that I wondered how I’d gone so long without it.

River circled my throat with his tattooed hand and kissed me. Deep, possessive satisfaction that we finally belonged to each other forever.

“Almost there.” He smirked. “Then the fun really starts.”

All their pleasure on top of mine. “I might not survive it.”

“That would be a shame,” Grayson said.

River kissed my forehead and helped me to sit up. Grayson stood at the end of the bed, hands in his pockets and those damned sleeves rolled to his elbows. His eyes twinkled as he nodded to the end of the bed, telling me to come to him. I did, scrambling to stand. But as soon as I was standing, Grayson was on his knees.

My Alpha was tall enough that I didn’t tower over him like this. He could reach all of me, and like he wanted to prove it, he leaned forward and kissed between my breasts.

“There are so many things that could have happened,” he said. “So many ways we might never have met. And we don’t know what would have changed it. I’m grateful for every single thing, good and bad, in all our lives, that led us to that moment. To this one. I love you, little one.”

My whole mind swirled with so much emotion that I couldn’t even ask him where he meant to bite. Couldn’t say it back. Couldn’t do anything but be here with them. In this moment.

Grayson’s hands skimmed the back of my legs and pulled them apart. A flash of pain on my inner thigh had me gasping and our bond snapped in hard enough to make me shake. His bond held the same power he did—it seemed infinite. The sweet and tangy feeling of his scent along with plunging depths it would take a lifetime to know.

But more than that, the five of us were now bonded. The electric undercurrent that hummed and soothed when we were in the same space now lived in me.

“Why there?” I managed. What were words? Who needed words? No words. Only them.

Grayson laughed softly. “I can think of a few uses. Not least among them using it to help wake you up.”

Arousal surged through me, amplified by all of theirs. Holy fuck it felt like being connected to a nuclear reactor of lust. I was instantly wet and perfuming, also knowing I could do absolutely nothing.

“It’s too much.” I fell back onto the bed. “I mean, it’s not. I love it. But oh—” A whole new wave of need flowed directly from River. “If you’re going to make me feel that then you better plan on fucking doing something about it.”

“Who says we’re not?”

Beck’s fingers found the edge of my underwear exactly where I’d shown him it was, and he stripped it away, leaving me in what was left of my gift wrap. That was what he’d said, right? That I was wrapped like a present?

“I can’t wait to experience this, love.” He moved my knees over his shoulders and settled in like he planned to be there a while. When Beck took charge of my pleasure there was no denying him. The last time he went down on me I’d been his favorite thing—a mess—before he’d finally fucked me.

Beck eased his mouth onto me, sucking my clit in slow pulls that summoned immediate pleasure and shining, unshakable need I hadn’t truly felt in weeks . On top of that, my chest drowned in Beck’s primal, feral satisfaction. I felt how much he enjoyed exactly where he was, doing what he wanted to me. Every fraction of sensation that went from me to him hit him in the gut, that pleasure echoing right back to me.

“Fuck me,” River said, voice rough. “Feeling you… I don’t think I’ve ever been harder in my life.”

Through the haze of my pack’s arousal infusing my every breath, I managed to push a hand across the bed to him. “What are you waiting for?”

“You’ll see.”

I couldn’t ask him what he meant. Beck stopped holding back. Every one of them had learned my body over the last few months. They almost knew it better than I did. Including the exact rhythm and place to tease my clit into mind-shattering bliss.

It took me in a wave, making me arch and writhe and fall back into the weak aftermath of pleasure. They’d blown away my expectation of only coming once when I met them. But it had never been like this with anyone but them. Because I was made for them in every way, just like they were made for me.

Beck lifted his head and looked at me, mouth and scruff shining with the slick I’d practically gushed. “Heat rules?”

Heat rules meaning do whatever they want, within reason. Now that they could feel exactly what I felt, they could tell where my head was. Fuck, that was nice. “Yeah.”

His eyes flicked to the others and back to mine without his expression changing. “Hold her down. Make sure she can’t move.” Then he shrugged my legs off his shoulders and pinned my thighs to the bed with his hands, not bothering to see if they’d followed his instructions before licking into me again.

The casual arrogance and dominance in that command turned the temperature up in the room a few degrees. That’s what it was, right? Not that my whole body and being flushed from the idea of his control.

His eyes locked on mine, the amusement in our bond telling me he felt that thought.

Grayson took one arm and Elias pinned down the other, keeping it in place with his knee as he kissed my skin. Sucked my nipple into his mouth and sent me reeling. Grayson did the same.

I wouldn’t survive it. The combination of the five of us and feeling everything was so far beyond overwhelming and everything I wanted and there was still a tiny part of me that rebelled. That wanted to test them. I tried to move, fighting their hold.

Nothing moved except my head. Powerlessness and the fear that came with it slid over me like silk, followed by the comfort that they were mine, and I didn’t need to fight. I was powerless, but I was also safe.

Someone purred, but I couldn’t tell who.

A hand slid around my throat and pinned me to the bed, immobilizing me completely. River’s head appeared next to mine and he squeezed lightly. “That’s right, baby. You’re not going anywhere . Right here with us until we make you melt.”

Pretty sure I was already fucking there.

Beck lifted his mouth away from me, causing me to whine. I needed his mouth. I needed his tongue. “Please.”

All four bonds in my chest exploded with pure, carnal need. The orgasm crushed me, slamming into me, mind and body. Every nerve glowed and surged faster than slamming on the gas pedal.

I was a vessel for the pleasure they gave me. I basked in it like a cat in the sun, my voice echoing off the walls of the room and drowning out the music. Dizzy, sweet pleasure that left me gasping.

They didn’t stop.

I lost track of who was where or how they held me. All I felt was the waves they guided over me with lips and hands and the bonds between us. When Beck finally sank into my ass and pulled me on top of him, I almost had no strength left.

Grayson eased into my pussy, creating that fullness I nearly always craved. He met my eyes, watching me carefully, listening, I could tell, to what I felt. There .

I felt the burst of pleasure from Elias as soon as I felt him. I remembered this. This I could do. This brought me to places nothing else could.

This wasn’t practical in the slightest, but it filled a need so deep and instinctual there were no words for it. This time Elias wasn’t sliding in with Gray. He slid in next to Beck. In my ass. And it was easy. Holy fuck.

“There’s a reason we warmed you up the way we did,” Beck said. “Getting you ready.”

“For?” My eyes fluttered shut, surrendering to nothing but sensation. The second the three of them moved, it would ruin me in all the right ways.

“We’ve been here before, little one. Do you remember what I said?”

I shook my head. My memories of the heat were foggy and shining. Words? Fuck no.

“I told you we’d try the first step.”

That I remembered. Kind of. I’d wondered what he’d meant but hadn’t asked. “Of?”

Gray took my face in his hands carefully. “For all of us.”

I blinked at him, not understanding. “I have all of you.”

He smiled down at me, and he was so fucking handsome. I couldn’t believe he was mine. They were all mine.

“All four of us inside you, little one.” My eyes went wide, and he stroked my cheeks with his thumbs. “Don’t worry. This isn’t something we’re hoping for regularly. Or even ever again. But tonight, right now, we want to try. All together.” Then he shrugged with half a smile. “And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”

Suddenly I realized I had no idea where River was, and he must be out of my sight, waiting to see what I would say. How I would react.

But from them, I felt it. The desire that drove the question. For all of us to be connected so deeply, even just once, and tonight was the perfect time. “We can try.”

Grayson kissed me hard. “You’re incredible.”

River didn’t waste time. I felt him pressing in, and for a brief moment panic welled up. I couldn’t take that. It would break me break me break me?—

But it didn’t. My body eased and softened and allowed him in because he was mine. And my body was made to take them. They weren’t all the way in—not even close—but we were all here together.

“Fuck,” Beck muttered. “I’ve never felt anything like that.”

That intangible thing that sang in the air whenever we were all in the same room pulsed. Synergy . Just like our first time had needed for us to be together, we’d all needed this. All the tension left me on a sigh, and they moved.

There was no way to tell if the pleasure I felt was from them in my body or through the bonds. They were one and the same.

It didn’t take long. Or maybe it did. I had no way to know. Nor did I know who came first. All I felt was them. Their pleasure and mine. The knots that made my body sing. Until those were gone too, and I was cradled by them. Sweet berries rose to meet my nose as Elias tucked me into his side.

Exhausted, but not sleepy. Just… content.

“I’m glad we did that,” I said. A little giggle escaped. Fuck, I was still loopy as hell. “But I don’t know about taking all four of you again.”

Laughter and purrs broke out.

“Yeah,” Elias said. “Once is enough for me.” He made sure I could see him when he winked. “Though I’ll take the three again.”

“Mmm. Can you feel each other? Like I can feel you?”

“A little.” Grayson said from behind me. “More of an impression or an echo in comparison to yours, but enough to get a sense of things.”

“Wow.”

“It’ll be weird for a few days.” Elias pulled the blanket up further over us, and I hummed into the warmth. I missed my nest.

A thought popped into my head. “River?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“We agree right now not to do that to the other while we’re racing. Not even in the paddock. Nothing. From the time we leave the hotel to the time we come back.”

He laughed. “Afraid?”

Slowly, I pushed myself up just enough to peek over Elias. I raised an eyebrow. “You want me to crash because you make me come uncontrollably while driving?”

He smirked, but he nodded. “Point taken. And I agree.”

“That goes for the rest of you too,” I said.

“No worries, love. We won’t. Because you’re Vanessa the driver then.”

“Yeah.”

I closed my eyes and just listened to their bonds. The subtle shifting of thoughts and emotions. A cacophony of comfort. Somehow, it didn’t feel out of place. Like the time before I met them, remembering them without this already felt strange.

They pushed all those things to me, and it went both ways. So I formed the words I love you in my head and pushed them at them. Hard.

One of them took a long, slow breath, all of us in the quiet, feeling all the echoes. Finally, Elias turned fully towards me and hugged me to his chest. “We love you too.”