Page 27

Lily

A week later, after the afternoon nap with Harlan, my heat was coming hard and fast. No longer could I convince myself that I was going to make it through this whole heat thing unscathed or unmated.

I was pacing through the house, talking to myself and more or less ready to hump anything that moved.

My nest was suddenly wrong. I needed it to be different and until it was, I could not rest. As I roamed, I found things that belonged in my nest and took them there.

The afghan from the couch, a pillow from Harlan’s room.

I pulled everything off my bed and remade it. Properly. It had to be right.

How could I have ever been satisfied with the way it was.

Sure, the guys made the room nice for me, but it wasn’t how I needed my nest to be.

When had I started thinking of it as a nest?

I had no idea. Maybe an hour ago or yesterday, but it was that now, and it was the place I would mate with my alphas.

I’d always scoffed at the things that made an omega different, but as heat crashed over me in waves, I kept adding and deleting things from my room, from my nest. Maybe the mattress belonged on the floor.

No, that was wrong. Unless maybe it belonged in the corner?

And that was good for location but not for height, so I pushed it away and worked the platform into that spot, wrestled the mattress back on top, and made up the bed. And it was the wrong corner.

When Roan showed up in the room, I was coated in sweat, hair sticking up all over my head, and panting in frustration. “Lily? Omega? What is going on?” In arranging my bed, I’d pushed the other furniture around as well, and the room was a total disaster.

I fell to my knees, sobbing. Feverish. Exhausted but enervated at the same time. “I can’t do it. I can’t get it right.”

“What can’t you get right?” He lifted me to my feet and turned me to face him. “How can I help?”

“I don’t know. But it’s so wrong.”

“We can do it together.” He brushed my tears away and took me into the bathroom. “Let’s get you cleaned up a little first, okay?”

I sniffled. “All right.”

Roan dampened a washcloth and wiped my face then held the cool cloth on the back of my neck. I didn’t see how that would do anything, but then it helped. My breathing came more under control, and the heat dissipated a little. “Better?”

I nodded, letting out a long sigh. “But I need the nest put back together. And right. It has to be right.”

“Then we’d better get to work. Because if I’m not completely wrong, you’re going to want to use it. You’re all the way in heat, mate.”

“My underwear is soaked.” It sounded awful even to me, but it was a fact. “And I feel awful. My hair hurts. If this is heat, it’s the least romantic thing in the world.”

“I think you’re right.” He pulled my sweaty hair back and braided it, fastening it with a hair tie at the bottom. “But we’re here for you. All of us.”

“I’m so tired. I don’t think I can move the mattress again. Or the dresser.”

“You don’t have to,” he said. “I’ve got this. And if we’re not done when Benji and Harlan get back, they will join in. What do you want me to do first?”

To my everlasting shame, I let him move every piece of furniture in that bedroom, in my nest, for over three hours. If I’d ever doubted this alpha’s dedication and devotion, I couldn’t now. Finally, he moved the bed into the exact spot it had been to start with and I yelled, “That’s it. Stop.”

“Like this?” The entire room was back as it had been, with the exception of the afghan and extra pillow. “You sure?”

“I’m more than sure. It’s perfect.” I threw my arms around his neck, wanting to thank him, but the moment my body came into contact with him, the fever was back in full. “Oh, I shouldn’t touch you.”

“Or maybe that’s exactly what you should be doing.” He kissed my forehead, my nose and cheeks, and finally my lips. I melted into him, our tongues tangling, his hands dropping to my bottom to lift me against him.

When we parted, panting, I cupped the back of his head and drew him down to my throat. He knew what I wanted, his fangs scraping my skin before sinking into my flesh. It hurt this time, since I wasn’t in mid-orgasm, but I didn’t care. All three had marked me. All that was left was knotting.

And I wanted it now.