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“And you were at our centre.” Shade let out a long sigh before crawling over me, covering me with the shadow of his body.

He moved slowly, but I could no more pull away from his kiss than I could any of the others.

“My Tirian, he showed me you, Shaun, all of the others. He showed us how we were, what it was like.”

When he kissed me finally, just a soft brushing of his lips, I found myself straining upwards to maximise the contact.

“We were yours, and you were ours.”

“Are ours,” Axel corrected with a growl, but it was a gentle one. “This probably seems all too fast?—”

“No. I mean, yes, logically, but no,” I replied, pulling back to look at the both of them, then lifted my head for Axel’s kiss. “This feels right, totally and completely right.”

So when Shade settled between my legs, when he gave his cock a few tugs, I spread my thighs wider, knowing what was going to happen. I watched his gasp as he brushed the head against my sodden folds, saw the look on his face when his dreams became reality.

Our dreams.

I knew nothing about these guys, Shade the least, and yet when he rocked his hips forward, piercing me sweetly, inch by inch, his mouth falling open, his brows knotting as we both felt the stretch, it felt like somehow I did. My hands slapped down onto his hips when he went to pull back.

“Just…stay,” I said. “Just for a sec. Let me…”

“Get used to him?” Axel said with a gentle smile, then leant down and kissed me. “That won’t happen, sweetheart. I might not have the memories Shade has, but I know this.” His expression grew slightly pained, then he slid down beside us. “The pull won’t lessen.”

He looked at Shade, who was almost shuddering with the intensity of what was going on. My hand went up, cupping Shade’s cheek, and he pressed his lips into my palm.

“So good…” he rasped out, moving his hips deeper, making me arch up into his thrust. I seemed to need more of Shade.

“And things won’t ever get less explosive, so let go.”

Axel’s words were a command for the both of us, his hand sliding between the two of us, finding my clit and teasing it lightly.

“Rut her, brother. Drive yourself deep and hard as I know you want to, because I want the same. Your nuts ache with it, don’t they?” Shade nodded frantically. “She needs that too, don’t you?”

I could only nod as Shade started to do exactly that, his thick cock spearing into me, spreading me open, creating that kind of brutal friction that had my head twisting slightly from the sensations.

“I’ll take care of her, make it good, so give her everything you’ve got.”

“Yeah?” Shade panted out the question to me, waiting for that last bit of approval, until finally, I nodded sharply.

“Please, Shade, more.”

So I got it, Axel’s hands roaming over my skin, approximating the way he and Shade had woken me up and so much more. Nipples were tugged, my clit worked between two of his fingers, until I was meeting Shade stroke for stroke, unable to bear it any longer.

There came a moment when our bodies didn’t matter, a strange hum building inside my head as Shade slammed in as far as he could go, and what followed was the strangest thing.

He stared down at me, his amber eyes taking on an unearthly light, but not yet shining green, and when he did, it was like he saw down to my very soul, which was perhaps why my Tirian shifted within me.

Sometimes I could feel her, her face, her form, fitting in and over mine, staring out at the world, waiting for the moment she would emerge.

That almost felt like now, but she held herself back.

As he did. His beast peered down at us with eyes filled with emotion I could scarce understand and probably never would.

What I got down the bond was a longing, a feeling, of being kept apart for aeons yet never forgetting the other, of our heart’s crying out for the other over time and space and different worlds, until now.

We didn’t move, didn’t thrust or jerk our hips, and yet I felt the moment when I tightened around him, when his cock swelled, in time with the sound within us, only to be released.

Tears filled my eyes as it came, swamping us, drowning us in them and us, now and then, all of it tumbling around in our hearts and minds, until my arms went around Shade and Axel’s went around us.

Kissing, so many kisses and tears and cries, until finally, we caught our breath and came back to earth.

“What the hell was that?” Axel croaked out. “And how can we get more?”

“Bloody hell.” We looked up to see Ethan standing in the doorway, looking shell-shocked. “That was…” He shook his head. “The matriarch, Flora, she’s here to see us, said we were taking too long to come to her, and…Ophelia sent me.”

“Come here,” Axel said, pulling back to open his arms and admit Ethan, and I realised I really liked that about Axel.

He was so open, ready to accept people as they were.

Ethan looked slightly more wary, as if worried he was trespassing, but Shade just rolled off me, taking my other side and wrapping himself around me, making space for the other two.

“We’ll be ready, soon.”

Axel kissed Ethan, a sweet little kiss, like one would a long-time lover, and I smiled to see it before Ethan turned to me. That faded as he drew close, brushing his lips against mine.

“No more of that,” Axel said as things got heated again. “The matriarchs, they’re not known for their patience. Save it for later.”

He looked smug, Ethan, and surprised, but we all groaned as we rolled out of bed.

“I guess it’s time to find out what the hell this thing is,” I said as my feet hit the floor.