He nods, leaving me alone for a minute as he gathers things that have their scents on them. Cash and Lincoln come back with blankets from the couch and their beds, and those help immediately. They smell warm and like the men, and together we rebuild my nest.
Their combined scents are soaked into the fabrics, and I’ve been here for long enough that my Omega instincts associate those scents with safety. Their shirts and jackets line the edges of the nest, the softer blankets and pillows taking up the middle, and it’s like a balm has been soothed over my ragged nerves.
Some of that frantic energy eases up, but the burning need just roars in to take its place. It was being held at bay by thepanic, but now it demands my full attention, the heat in my core climbing higher and higher.
Being surrounded by the scents of the three Alphas just makes it worse, and I barely manage to choke back a moan of need.
I know the three of them can smell my arousal. The scent of my heat is calling to every Alpha instinct they have, but they’re maintaining a careful distance now.
“Do you have anything that can… help?” Lincoln asks. His eyes dart around the room, and I realize he’s searching out if I have a hidden stash of toys.
“Or we could run out and get you something,” Cash offers. “Anything that will get you through this. Some privacy, at least if you want to uh. Take care of yourself.”
His fingers are curled into tight fists, and there’s a tension coiled in his body as he looks at me. The other two are holding themselves the same way, like they’re physically and mentally keeping themselves in check.
It hits me that they’re fighting their own desires, trying to be respectful when my body is screaming for their touch.
I’ve been holding myself back from them for a while now too, but with my heat bearing down on me, I can’t resist the pull toward them anymore. I don’t want to.
“Don’t leave me,” I gasp out. “Please. I want—I need you to help me.”
“Just tell us what we can do,” Everett says. “If there’s anything you already have or if we can?—”
“No.” It sounds desperate even to my own ears. “Ineedyou. Please. I want it to be you who fucks me through my heat and no one else. I don’t want toys or my fingers. I want you. All of you.”
The three of them exchange a look at that, full of unspoken communication. If I was more in my right mind, maybe I would try to figure out what they’re saying to each other, but right now,I can’t make my brain focus on anything other than the need pitching to a boil under my skin.
“Harper,” Cash begins, his voice soft. “You don’t want?—”
“I do!” I say forcefully, cutting him off. “I want it. I need you. Please.”
Lincoln takes a stab at reasoning with me, stepping closer before seeming to think better of it. “You’re vulnerable right now. And not thinking clearly. But you don’t trust Alphas, remember? Because of your old pack.”
Everett nods. “We don’t want to do anything you don’t want us to do. We don’t want to hurt you the way they did.”
On any other day, this might have made sense. This might have been enough to get me to think clearly and realize that they’re just trying to respect my boundaries and keep me from regretting this and possibly hating them in the morning. I would understand on any other day. I might have even been grateful for them looking out for me like this.
But right now, all I can hear is the rejection in it. All I know is they’re telling me they’re not going to do this, not going to help with the ache that’s building inside me, threatening to burn me up if I don’t get someone to help me soon.
And that feels like despair. I feel my desperation climbing, reaching a level that makes it even harder to think or feel anything else.
“No,” I moan, shaking my head hard. “No, no, please. Please. I’ll do anything you want, I just need you so bad.Please. I need you to fill me up right now. I’m so empty. Don’t you understand?” I look at each of them in turn. “I’m so, so empty, and I need your cocks inside me. I need it so bad ithurts.”
Tears spring into my eyes, and it’s not really being dramatic at this point. The emptiness gnaws at me with no way for me to ignore it. If the three of them say no, if they walk away and leave me to suffer through this alone, I don’t know what I’ll do.
There’s no way I can handle this on my own. No way I can scratch the itch and soothe the fire with just my hands and a couple of toys. I’m going to lose my mind here, and there’s no telling how that will end.
The silence seems to stretch on for much longer than it probably does, but the fear that they’re going to say no and not help me makes it each second last ten times as long.
Then finally Everett steps forward.
Chapter 27
Harper
Everett tips my chin up, his fingers rough, but gentle at the same time. His demanding eyes are on me, and I couldn’t look away from him if I wanted to. Right now, that’s the last thing I want.
My instincts are in overdrive, and the need to do as this Alpha wants is strong. He doesn’t even have to tell me to look at him for it to happen, the command is written in every line of his body language, and I’m caught.