“He was your half-brother?” Lucian asked, astonished.
I nodded. “They all are. Pierre sired an empire that he didn’t even know existed.” A pained laugh broke from my throat. “Sorry, dark humor is one of my coping mechanisms.”
“I want to kill him,” Dimitri whispered, now barely audible after his vicious rant. “I want to destroy him for hurting you.” He raised eyes the color of onyx, darkened by anger and grief, for me.
For me.
“He’s already dead,” I said softly, reaching out to stroke his stubble roughened cheek. “Katherine killed him. But you saved me from Randall. You saved me,” I repeated, and stared deep into his eyes, then turned to smile at each of my beautiful men. “You all saved me.”
“Looks like you were doing a pretty good job of saving yourself,” Chase murmured, shooting me a devastatingly sexy grin. My heart swelled with emotion for him.
I fought to keep my face straight. Was that love I was feeling, I wondered? The mate bond was elemental, primal. We had no control over who the fates chose for us. But love… I swallowed butterflies that set to flight in my stomach. I barely knew them. How was it possible to feel so much for someone you barely knew?
It was a question for another day, I decided. We’d dealt with enough for my first day back, and now I was exhausted.
“Okay,” I said with a sigh, knowing I was opening floodgates that probably wouldn’t close for a while. “Hit me with your questions.” I squeezed the pillow on my lap and settled in.
They bombarded me with endless questions about my life as a child, the horrors I’d seen, and the torture I’d endured. I held nothing back, seeing this as a rip the Band-Aid off type of conversation. We’d get it done quickly, then leave the wound to heal.
My throat grew scratchy and my eyelids heavy as the hours slipped by. Their emotions ebbed and rose like waves, cresting in moments of desperate fury at what had been done to me and my sisters, and crashing in moments of silence and ragged breaths. Through it all, we touched, so casually I sometimes forgot the wonder of it all. Then, one of them would just look at me a certain way, and my heart would flutter.
“You’re exhausted,” Lucian murmured, pressing his lips against my forehead before pushing me down onto my bed. “Sleep and we’ll figure out the rest tomorrow. We’ve got the rest of our lives, after all.”
One by one, they kissed me, murmured promises for tomorrow, then moved towards the door. I watched them through a fog that verged on unconsciousness.
“I don’t like leaving her,” Dimitri grunted, stopping them as they opened the door.
Chase shut the door and locked it. “Then, let’s stay.”
I smiled sleepily and rolled to the middle of the bed to make room. Dimitri climbed in behind me, pressing his back against the wall, while Chase and Lucian lay facing me, each comfortable with the intimacy of touching the other.
Sleep claimed me, but it wasn’t peaceful and calm. Nightmares plagued me, as they had most of my life, but now the darkness spread to include not just me and my sisters, but my mates. I whimpered and fought against the inky tar of the shadows that crept closer and closer while we slept, curled in on one another. And when the icy claws of the monster that lived in my mind raked terrible gashes in the men who’d claimed me, and who I’d claimed, I screamed.
Chapter 3
I bolted up, covered in sweat, and screaming, as shadowy fingers tightened their grip around my neck.
“Shhh, it’s just a dream.” Dimitri grabbed my hand and tugged me towards him, pulling my head down onto his chest.
The bed shifted as Lucian and Chase sat up and reached out to touch me, gently stroking my back and hip as I slowly regained my equilibrium.
“It got you,” I whispered hoarsely, lifting my head from Dimitri’s chest to look at them. “The monster killed you and I was all alone.” The horror of it lingered like a thick fog beneath the morning sun, gradually burning off and leaving my mind clear and embarrassed.
I sat up, pulling away from Dimitri to press against my headboard. I lowered my face into my shaking hands and mumbled, “I’m okay now. I have nightmares sometimes. I didn’t think to warn you. I kind of figured…” I trailed off, feeling even stupider.
“What?” Chase asked, reaching out to touch my leg again. I’d changed into shorts at some point during our marathon question period, and the feel of his hand on my skin warmed me.
A blush heated my cheeks. Old Ones, I thought, get a grip, Lexi. It was the middle of the night and I’d just freaked us all out with a nightmare. The last thing that should be on my mind was the flutter of awareness across my skin, of how exquisite Chase’s fingers would be just a little higher.
I swallowed and, thankfully, found the ability to speak. “I figured they wouldn’t come with you guys here.” I shrugged. “I just feel so safe when we’re all together.”
Chase’s fingers tightened on my thigh. He brushed his thumb lightly over my now blazing skin as he murmured, “You are safe with us. We’ll always be there for you.”
My chest swelled with gratitude and an emotion that made my heart feel as if it would burst if I didn’t ease the pressure somehow. The pulsing need between my thighs hinted at how that could be accomplished.
I brushed my hand over Chase’s and leaned forward to press my lips against his. His lips parted under mine and a quiet huff of air escaped his mouth.
It felt so perfect, like coming home, like snuggling under warm blankets on a cold winter night, like finally being safe with my sisters. I had nothing else to compare it to, nothing that even came close to this fullness, this… perfection. So, I stopped looking to my past and shifted forward to climb into Chase’s arms.
His eyes went wide as I opened my legs to straddle him. I knew the moment he smelled my desire, the moment they all did. Sharp inhalations, followed by a spike in hormones that filled the room with the sweet scent of sex, set my heart racing.
This was it. We were all together, and I was done pretending I didn’t want all of them. No, we hadn’t had a chance to figure it all out, but none of us knew how this would go. We had no expectations, no limitations. I pushed all thought of rules and boundaries out of my mind and gave into my wolf, who was practically howling.
I crushed my mouth to Chase’s and took.
His hands came around me like vices, fitting to the curves of my waist and sliding, instantly, beneath my tank top to find skin. I gasped into his mouth as his clever fingers climbed higher, brushing the curve of my breasts. Flashes of color exploded behind my eyes when the thumb that had started this whole business grazed my nipple.
I arched back, trusting his hands to hold me up, and offer my breasts for his mouth, exposing my neck in absolute trust.
The mattress shifted as bodies moved closer and hands reached out to touch. My eyelids fluttered open as Lucian cupped my flushed cheek in his palm and moved in for a kiss so sweet it made tears flood my eyes. His breath was hot as he deepened the kiss, brushing his tongue against mine then murmuring heady words of French that spilled from his soul. I moaned into his mouth as Chase’s teeth closed around my nipple and tugged.
The sensations were too much. They were everything. My body moved because it had no choice. There was something primal and wild inside me, my wolf, I supposed, who was in control now. I let her free and held nothing back.