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He collapses on top of me, both of us panting and I wrap my legs around him tighter, keeping him here with me as I try to catch my breath.

Sands below, I missed them. Eventually I can breathe properly, but my body is like jelly after being fucked by two men, and I just recline back against Maxen’s chest. He pulls me farther up and Thorn joins us on the bed.

Maxen doesn’t seem to want to stop touching me either, running gentle, loving strokes all over my body.

He draws circles in the palm of my hand, strokes my thigh, and cups my belly, all without even noticing as his hands move over me again and again.

He’s reassuring himself I am really here , I think, but I don’t say anything.

I love his rough touch, so I lean back and close my eyes, just listening to their breathing.

“So, what happened?” he rumbles from behind me. “Is Ivar…”

“Dead,” I admit, and he sighs behind me.

“That mustn’t have been easy, I’m sorry, Mi Alma , sorry we weren’t there.

” He wraps his arms around me, dropping his chin on my head.

A touch on my ankle has me opening my eyes to see Drax flip over onto his front and circle my ankle with his hand, just holding me as Thorn moves closer and presses his head to my thigh.

“Vasilisy is dead,” I tell them, my voice empty, and I see Drax wince. I look away then. “Oh, and I’m a queen.”

Drax laughs and Thorn smiles, and I feel Maxen grinning against my skin. “You always were,” he whispers.

I sigh and lean into them, and tell them everything that has happened, getting them up to date.

They listen, asking questions, and wincing when I explain Paradise.

When I’m done, I’m exhausted, so I lapse into silence as Drax picks up my hand and starts playing with my fingers, only to freeze at Dray’s ring there.

Shit, I didn’t tell them that. He looks up at me with questions in his eyes, and I swallow. How will they react?

“Tazanna,” he warns, narrowing his eyes on me, as Maxen and Thorn still at his tone. “Why the fuck are you wearing a ring?”

Licking my lips, I try to look away, only to meet Thorn’s shocked gaze, so I let out a groan. “Dray gave it to me, the crazy bastard married us without asking.”

The room is silent for a moment and my heart flips, but then they erupt in laughter and my mouth drops open. “It’s not funny!” I mutter, and they only laugh harder, but then Drax stops and looks at Thorn.

“Hey, we need to get her a ring, if this was all it took, I would have done it before now,” he whines, and Thorn nods.

“Do I not get a say in this?” I snap, and they both look at me guiltily, so I grin and hold up my other hand.

“I guess I’m as crazy as him, ‘cause I got this ring for me from you guys. I didn’t do the ceremony like Dray, but I figured that means we are married now too,” I offer.

“Is that your way of asking us to be your husbands, Mi Alma ?” Maxen rumbles behind me.

“If you’ll have me?” I ask, suddenly nervous.

“Like you could get away from us,” Drax replies with a snort.

“You have me forever,” Thorn adds, and I wait for Maxen’s reaction.

“We were yours the moment you told us to fuck off, I’ve told you that before,” is what he says, but it wasn’t exactly an agreement and he must know that, because he kisses my shoulder.

“I’m yours, Mi Alma , never doubt that. I don’t need a ring to tell me that, my heart has been married to yours for a long time. ”

Tears fill my eyes as a radiant smile splits my lips.

“Awww, I change my answer to that, let me change my answer!” Drax whines, making me laugh.

“Looks like you are stuck with me,” I quip, wishing Jax was here. They seem to know that as well, because they share a look and Drax turns serious for a moment.

“He will be okay, and when we find him, you can ask him to marry you all sweet like you just did us,” he teases, and I kick my leg out, making him laugh.

“Asshole,” I murmur, although it did settle my nerves.

I relax back, letting their teasing soothe me.

I must close my eyes because when the bed moves, they snap open.

Thorn is still curled up around me and Drax is snoring at my feet.

I catch Maxen’s retreating back as he heads into the bathroom and shuts the door.

I’m disappointed and a little hurt. Drax and Thorn ravished me the moment I saw them, they missed me that much…

but Maxen didn’t. Maybe he’s holding back.

He seemed to be even when he was holding me—afraid to hurt me, possibly?

But I want my Maxen, the rough man, I don’t want his protection, I want his body.

I want him to show me how much he’s missed me, so I leave the others asleep and pad after him, intending to confront him.

The door is closed, so I push it open and step inside, closing it softly behind me, and then look around.

Steam is billowing through the room already, what the fuck?

My eyes widen when Maxen emerges from within it, his face hard, his fists clenched, and his eyes wild.

I barely get my mouth open before he is on me.

He grabs me under my ass, hoists me into the air, and slams my back into the door, notching his cock at my pussy entrance as he stares into my eyes.

His fingers dig into my ass and I gasp, rubbing against him, and he takes that as permission, burying himself inside of me in one stroke before stilling, his eyes never leaving my face. “Maxen,” I whisper, breathing heavily already.

His hair is tied back, so I reach up and undo it, letting it fall around his face in a mass of brown waves, his piercing eyes standing out.

He looks fucking brutal, like the savages they claim we are, and it has me clenching around his cock.

He flashes pearly white teeth in a predatory grin as he leans closer, his lips almost touching mine.

“I wanted you all for myself. I don’t mind sharing with my brothers, but sometimes I want to lock you and me away, and fuck you until you can barely walk. ”

“Is that your plan?”

His lips turn up against mine. “I wish, but I don’t think they would let you out of their sight for that long. They have missed you too much.”

I swallow hard at that. “And you? Did you miss me?”

He pecks at my lips before answering and I hold my breath.

“Every minute of every fucking day we were apart. Do you know how many that was? Fourteen days, three hundred and thirty-six hours. Too many. Too many without that devious smile, without you killing someone, without you stealing my heart without even meaning to. They asked us for information, Mi Alma , and all that came to mind when I thought of the North was you. Your fucking face, every time. I couldn’t have told them anything even if I wanted to, which I didn’t.

Jax never doubted you would come for us, he wanted to make sure it was safe when you did.

Drax was terrified of what was happening to you, Thorn was worried you would think we just left you, that we wanted to go,” he whispers.

“And you?” I repeat.

“Me? I knew you would be safe, no one kills you. I never doubted you, I was worried, worried I would never see you again because they would kill us when we proved useless to them. Worried I would never get to hold you like this, taste your lips, feel you in my arms, watch you close your eyes and curl into my chest. You never needed us to protect you, yet you let us…I was worried I would never get to again. Then you walked into this place like you owned it and demanded us back, and all I could think about was...” He rubs his lips against mine then. “How fucking lucky we are.”

He kisses me then before pulling back. “How lucky that in this fucked up, scorched world where people deal in death, we could find you. The other half of our soul, our lost family. It’s brutal, it’s hard, and each day is a fight out there, but you make it worthwhile, you fight alongside us and make me want to keep going.

Keep fighting, for you, always for you. Mi Alma , I called you that because I knew when I saw you for the first time, you would either love us or kill us.

Either way, I would do it for you. Don’t you ever doubt how I feel, because words aren’t enough to describe it.

It’s like trying to describe the intensity of the sun or the beauty of the night sky…

but I can show you. Every day for the rest of my life, however long that might be, I can show you. Starting here and now.”

Then he swallows my whisper by kissing me hard and starts to move between my legs, showing me with his body just like he said.

He stares deep into my eyes, loving me, not fucking me.

Each thrust is slow and gentle, cognizant of my aching pussy and body, each a deliberate movement ending with him hitting my clit.

“Maxen,” I gasp, pulling his head to me and kissing him.

He holds me there, keeping up those slow thrusts and swallowing my moans, his other hand playing with my breasts or stroking my thigh.

It’s so fucking sweet, and each time he buries himself in me, bumping my cervix, I feel my next release building up, stronger than ever before, teased out of me, pulled from my very soul.

“I love you,” he whispers against my lips, twisting his hips as he tweaks my nipples, and my release roars through me, seemingly pulled from my toes.

My throat clamps shut, my legs turning weak as he holds me against him, my pussy clamping around him, and I throw my head back, unable to take it as it seems to keep rolling through me.

He waits until I open my eyes again and meet his gaze before he stills, groaning as he comes, filling me so I know I will feel him there tomorrow.

He leans his head onto my shoulder, both of us panting.

What the fuck just happened? I swear he was controlling my body, making me feel things I’d never felt. ..soft things.

Shit, am I going soft?

When he lifts his head from mine, he kisses me so softly that my heart seems to explode in my chest, before turning with me still in his arms and hopping into the shower.

He lets me slide down his body and spins me to face the spray, then washes my body for me with gentle, insistent strokes of his hands, cleaning every inch of me.

He inspects me, noting any new scars and marks, and asks about them before kissing them better and moving on, and when we step out and he dries me, refusing to let me do it myself, I feel like he just won my heart all over again.

Sometimes, I want hard and rough in my men, but behind closed doors, I can admit that once in a while I need to be held and treasured.

A knock from the hallway door has us freezing, and I quickly grab my clothes and slip into them as Maxen does the same. Have they come to a decision? Or are they about to declare war? Either way, I’m doing it with pants on.