Chapter Twenty-Three

Sam traced his fingers over the developing bruise on Karen’s cheek. It was swelling, would turn all sorts of colors during the healing process, and he hated them all.

She was already asleep, had been since they’d gotten her home and she’d passed out on the couch waiting for her mother. She’d woken long enough to hug Tracy before exhaustion dragged her back under.

Mason had carried her into her room and tucked her into the bed. She’d rolled to her side, her small arm thrown around the pillow, and gone straight back to sleep.

Tracy stood with them, as though all of them needed to take a deep breath and accept everyone was safe. Everyone had lived. They’d faced down Mario and his plans and come out the other side together. And Tracy? She’d stood her ground when others would have crumbled. She’d drawn on all that strength she’d doubted she had to do what no one else could have.

Sam left the room first, with the others filing out behind him. Once back in the kitchen, far enough away no one would wake the sleeping kid, Sam said what he couldn’t help. “What do you want, Tracy? I get that you’re scared, that you’re nervous, but after tonight? After almost losing everything? I want to be clear—no, I need to be clear. I want this, now more than ever. I want you here, in this house. I want to put Karen to bed at night and have her know without a doubt she’s got a home and a family here. I wanted this before, but now? Now I need it. I’m not pretending anymore, not trying to go slow, and I need you to decide if that’s what you want.”

Tracy didn’t respond at first, the same hesitation on her face she always wore.

Mason chimed in, setting his large hand on Tracy’s cheek, rewarded by her turning toward him to nuzzle his palm. “Kitten, come on. You faced down someone who, honestly, scares the shit out me, all on your own. You’ve got nothing to be afraid of with us. Pretty sure you know what you want. You just gotta take it. And, in case I ain’t being clear here, what I want is you naked and against me every fucking night.”

Dylan didn’t bother with the pretty words. Instead, he stepped up to her and leaned down, taking her lips in a kiss that had Sam’s cock growing interested. He pressed her until her back hit the counter, then ravished her mouth.

Not that Tracy appeared bothered by it, since she returned his fervor with her own, clutching at his shoulders for purchase.

Dylan broke the kiss, both of them panting hard. “Give us everything, Red, and we’ll give you the same.”

That seemed to do it. All that fear of the known, of fully trusting someone else, of trusting herself to know what she wanted, all burned away. It was scoured clean by their declarations, and only a stark need in her eyes remained.

She wanted them. All of them.

Dylan must have seen it too, because he wrapped her legs around his waist and headed for Sam’s room, the one farthest from Karen’s.

They were taking their omega to bed, and after such a hard night, after almost losing everything, he planned to worship every last inch of her body until none of them could move.

And Sam had never wanted anything more.

Dylan loved carrying his mate, the way she clung to him, the way she trusted him. Even calling her his mate didn’t cause him to stumble.

She was his. Body, mind, soul, all that shit. Maybe he wasn’t someone with fancy words and pretty declarations, but none of that mattered. She was his, he was hers. The girl owned every fucking bit of him.

He dropped her onto the bed, warmed by her gasp, then her sweet smile as she bounced twice. Of course, it was the lust that won out as he stripped his shirt off.

He was naked in no time, needing to feel her warm body against his. She didn’t just own him, no. He hadn’t been worth owning before. Too angry and bitter and stuck in the past to be worth having.

She’d done more than that. She’d changed him, showed him he could want more, that he deserved more, that she could give him more. She’d mended him in ways he didn’t know were possible.

Instead of the useless, angry male he’d been, he cared. He cared about her, about the child who felt like a part of him and about the friends he’d lost for far too long. She’d pulled them back together, made a family out of them and, as he blanketed her body with his, he tried to tell her how much that meant to him.

Her kisses were desperate, and she scratched her nails along his skin. He grasped her shirt, yanking it up until it slipped over her head. She’d stopped wearing those baggy things, stopped hiding, and it meant he got to see each beautiful inch of her willing body.

Dylan broke away from her lips as he moved back, wanting another, more intimate taste of her, and when she let her thighs fall open for him? When he got to look up her body, to find those trusting eyes of hers locked on him?

For the first time ever, he felt like maybe he deserved this, and even if he didn’t? He’d go through hell to keep it anyway.

Mason chuckled at the way their flighty omega bumped Dylan’s shoulder with her knee when she tried to close her legs. She might trust them, a whole hell of a lot, now, but that didn’t fix good old-fashioned nerves.

And, always the selfless helper, Mason stepped in. He slid behind Tracy, pulling her body to his, her back to his broad chest. She melted against him, the glue that had put his life back together.

He reached around her small body to grasp her knees, then spread her thighs wide.

Her breath caught, but she didn’t do more than give an experimental tug at his grip.

Mason nuzzled her soft cheek. “Come on, kitten, why don’t you just lie back?”

She shivered, as though his voice were a chill that stroked over her naked body. It made him want to keep her on this edge forever, because he doubted that he’d ever grow tired of how she warred between shyness and lust. Her past would sneak up, whispering to her that she couldn’t trust him. It would try to work its claws into her, to drag her backward, and that battle would flicker in her wary eyes.

Then Tracy would take a deep breath and choose to move forward, to lean against him, to not just offer but take the kiss she wanted, and Mason would lose himself again. Lost to her quiet strength, to her willingness and ability to build a life out of nothing.

She’d wasted the talent trying to give that prick she’d been mated to a life, but she’d done the same for Mason. She’d mended the family he’d lost, creating something out of the mess they’d made it, so he had more than just an omega. He had a foundation, a future and a real home.

He pressed a kiss to her shoulder, a smirk spreading across his lips at the first hard jerk of her body when Dylan found her clit with his tongue. Even with her moving, Mason held tight to keep her still and spread open for Dylan’s attention.

Mason teased her ear with his lips, toying with the lobe, using his teeth as his gaze remained locked on Dylan’s work. Her cunt glistened in the light that spilled in the from the open bathroom, damp from Dylan’s work and the resulting wetness of her own response.

It made the sort of image he’d never forget. Hell, he’d be happy to tattoo that shit on his brain.

Mason stroked Tracy’s inner thighs, drowning in her scent and those sexy little gasps she made while trying to stay quiet even as Dylan ate her out.

Let her try. It’ll be even more fun to drag those sounds out of her.

He left a trail of kisses along her shoulder, her collarbone, everything he could reach as he enjoyed her, the moment, the thing he’d wanted but never knew how to get.

This was the life he’d needed, the one he’d wanted forever, and it was the sexy, brave and sweet omega writhing against him who had given it all to him.

Tracy couldn’t smother the loud cry when Dylan latched his demanding lips around her swollen clit. He drove her hard with the greedy sucks he offered up, and Mason was no better, his grip solid.

A hand at her cheek turned her face, and lips pressed to hers. It only took a moment before she knew who kissed her, even without opening her eyes, without counting hands or trying to think through it. Each male was so different.

Sam was sweet, cautious, like some guard who was forever by her side. He kissed her with that same devotion, the sense of security, the steadiness she’d always craved. Tracy had spent so much of her life unsure, in the lurch and never knowing where her feet might land. Sam offered security she had needed. She lost herself in that same safety as she leaned toward him, into his kiss, into that masculine taste that was just him, and the fact she’d been smitten and lost to him even when she’d tried everything to resist it.

Mason’s strong hands on her thighs kept her pinned open, and she’d never confuse a kiss from him for either of the others. Mason was all ease, all fun, all comfort. He slid into any situation and made her feel like she fit, like no matter what happened, they had it handled, like she belonged. She’d spent so much time on the outskirts, afraid to be noticed, and Mason made her realize she didn’t need to hide. She didn’t have to be anyone else or worry what anyone else thought of her. She could just be herself, and she was never alone.

And Dylan? The alpha poised between her spread thighs who licked her as if starving for her taste? He was the most unexpected, the most frustrating. He’d nearly sent her running the first few times they’d met, and yet somehow, she’d fallen for him. He reminded her of a junkyard dog. He snarled to scare people off, but once she’d gotten past his defenses? She had no bigger supporter, no one who believed in her more, who would fight harder for her. And that was how he fit so well, because even though he could protect her from everything, he honestly believed he didn’t need to. He pushed her to do what he knew she could, even if she doubted it. He gave her a safe place to fight, for her to rage against, and to know that if she could stand against him, she could stand against anyone.

Tracy had run from everything, hidden from the world. She’d ducked her head, done what she could to keep her daughter safe and just tried to survive. She’d stopped believing that she could have anything else, that life was ever anything better. Then these three alphas had come into her life and turned it upside down. They’d dragged her from her self-imposed solitude, from her fear, from the place she’d buried herself, content to let life pass her by.

Pinned between their bodies, their heat and strength and touches surrounding her, she gave herself over to what they offered. She kissed Sam, pressed back against Mason’s solid body and lost herself in the stroke of Dylan’s tongue—all the things she couldn’t imagine losing.

She closed her eyes and basked in the affection, in her new life, the one she’d gotten when she’d been saved by her alphas.