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I expected our omega to immediately beg for another knot, but she’s content in the bond. She opens her eyes and gives us a relaxed smile, playing with Roman’s chest hair and tracing over his tattoos.

“Heat spike?” I ask our resident medic in a whisper.

“Yeah, I think so,” Bear replies, touching her forehead and giving a nod.

Jax gives me a tight squeeze before pulling out of me, then he hops over to his bag and digs around.

“Guess we won’t be needing this after all,” Jax says, holding up Lunara’s necklace as he spins to face us.

The relic almost doesn’t seem real, the gold and rubies just as flawless as I remember from the temple.

Cora gasps. “You stole it!”

We’ve been searching for the relic for months. Jax told us it was misplaced during Cora’s heat, and even though we all suspected it wasn’t as simple as that, none of us pushed it. I think Cora believed it was better if it was lost, like the goddess had taken it back for herself or something. She’s gotten a little spiritual after our ordeal. Nothing too extreme, and she’s never pushed anything on the rest of us, but I get it. We experienced things down there none of us can fully explain. Even just the fact that the five of us were trapped together and all scent matches is pretty miraculous.

“I can’t believe you lied to me!” Cora backhands Jax’s chest.

“Didn’t lie,” Jax holds up his hands in a pose of surrender. “I just twisted the truth a little. It was misplaced by everyone else.”

She glares at him, entirely unamused.

He lowers to his knees and hobbles over to her. “I’m sorry, love. Truly. But I had to make sure you could go into heat again if your body didn’t do it on its own. Couldn’t leave these guys out. Plus, I told you I’d do anything that may help get you what you want.” He waves the relic in our direction.

“It belongs in a museum.” Cora puts her hands on her hips, attempting a stern, chastising look toward the thieving alpha.

“I’m not sure it does,” I whisper. It’s not like me to condone stealing a priceless artifact that belongs to all humanity and the common knowledge, but this relic is different. “It’s dangerous. We’ve seen what it can do. I don’t think it should be anywhere public. No one should have access to that kind of power. Can you imagine if someone put it on in an airport or in a government building?”

The pull of the relic is stronger than ever before, tugging at me with an insistence that nearly has my knees buckling.

“I never thought I’d say this,” Roman glances at the necklace and runs his fingers through his hair, “but I think we need to destroy a priceless piece of history.”

“Let’s toss it in the ocean,” Jax suggests, he’s already back on his feet and on his way out to the patio. We all have to run to keep up. None of us bother to get dressed. Who’s going to see us out here on our own private island?

The back deck extends over the water almost like a pier. At the far end is a rotunda with wooden benches. A perfect spot to rest out of the sun, while still enjoying the enchanting scenery surrounding us. I’ve never seen water so blue or a sky so clear.

“Want to do the honors, omega?” Jax holds the necklace out to Cora.

She shakes her head with a shiver. “I don’t want to touch it.”

“I’ll do it.” I hold out my hand, and Jax drops the choker into my waiting palm. A steady pound thrums in my head, getting louder the longer I hold it. Is that my heart? Or is it the relic? Again, I’m tempted by the beautiful pull of the choker, the otherworldly call of it. What would happen if I put it on? There are stories about Lunara creating omegas. Could this be how she did it? Could it make me into what I’ve always wanted to be? Somehow, I know it could.

But when I look up from the relic and see my pack, my family, looking back at me, all I feel is peace. I don’t need anything more than what I already have right here. For the first time in my life, I’m content being a beta. There are people around me who love me just as I am. And I have so much to offer them. It might not be knots or heats or any of that, but they have my whole heart and soul. Always.

With a shuddering breath, I hurl the necklace as far out to sea as I can.

“Woah, beta’s got an arm on him,” Jax says. His hand is warm on my shoulder, and I tilt my head to nuzzle against it. Cora is standing in front of him, leaning back against his chest. She presses her shoulder against me, taking my hand in hers. Roman is on Cora’s other side, but his gaze meets mine over her head, and he smiles. Bear comes up behind me and wraps both arms around my waist from behind, pulling me into him, exactly where I belong. I’ve never felt so content in my whole life.

Emotion hits me because I can feel their joy and satisfaction through our newly formed bonds. The links to my packmates are so new, they still feel like a tangle of cords I have to work to unwind. I’m sure once we settle into this new normal, each tether will feel like the mate it connects me to. I can already determine which one is Cora, the brightest golden thread sending unending warmth and love straight into my soul. Bear is next, the solid foundation we can all rely on, but with a softness he reserves for me, like it’s our little secret. Jax’s bond is chaotic at best, but even he is calm, assured in our mating.

Finally, Roman, our pack alpha. My bond with him is weaker, coming through Cora rather than a direct bite. But I can still feel his protective love for all of us. The man standing with us today is nothing like the grumpy archeologist I met months ago .

“Alright, that’s enough of that,” Jax says. A slap rings out, and Cora yelps loudly, then falls into a fit of giggles as Jax smacks her backside again. “My dick’s cold.”

She jumps away from him, her round ass jiggling as she dashes toward the bedroom. “You’ve got to catch me first.”

Jax and Roman growl, chasing her into the house, but Bear and I stay outside. Bold swaths of pink and orange burn across the sky, reflected perfectly on the still water. Far out in the ocean, something breaks the surface, something that doesn’t seem natural. “Do you see that?”

“Is that… a head?”

As we watch, a man’s torso rises out of the ocean, the creature leaps, flicking a massive tail as he dives. Looking back over my shoulder, I see Bear blinking rapidly. “Did we just see…?”

Disbelieving, I shake my head. “No. We couldn’t have. It’s not possible, right?”

The ocean is completely still now, no sign of anything out of the ordinary.

“Must have been a trick of the light.” Bear squeezes me tight. Cora’s happy giggles spill through the open door of the house, inviting us to join their fun.

“Yeah,” I murmur. But after everything we’ve seen and experienced, it’s not hard to believe that there could be more mysteries out there, more than we’ll ever understand or uncover.

Those are puzzles for someone else to solve, though. Right now, all I want to focus on is my mates.