Chapter 47
Kara
The silence after their confession is suffocating—not because they've stopped talking, but because the weight of their words is still settling into my bones. We thought you were ungrateful. We almost killed you. We knew what we were doing. The truth sits in the room like a fourth presence, malevolent and cold.
But I don't really want to forgive them now, so I chose to remain silent.
And yet.
My body betrays me. Again.
My wolf. That traitorous bitch inside me who doesn't give a shit that these three men tortured me for ten years. She only knows they smell like home.
"Kara." Cole's voice is soft, hesitant. "Your shoulders. They're... you're so tense. Let us—let us help you relax. Please."
I want to say no. Want to tell them to get the fuck away from me, that their words aren't enough, that I need space to think—
But Asher's hands are already on my shoulders, warm and impossibly gentle, pushing me forward until I'm lying face-down on Blake's bed. The black silk sheets smell like fire and violence and something darker, something that makes my core clench with need I don't want to acknowledge.
Fuck. My thighs press together involuntarily.
"What are you—" I start, but Blake's at my legs now, his massive hands wrapping around my left calf. His touch burns through my thin sleep pants like he's touching bare skin.
"Just a massage, Princess," Blake murmurs, his voice rough like gravel. "You're wound tighter than a fucking spring. Let us... let us do this one thing right."
Cole takes my hand—my right hand—and sits beside the bed, his thumb drawing slow circles in my palm. The mint scent intensifies, wrapping around my wrist like a cool bandage. "We won't hurt you," he whispers. "Not anymore. Never again."
Liar, I think. You've said that before. In a hundred different ways.
But I don't pull away. Because my body—my treacherous, desperate body—is already softening under their touch.
Asher's fingers press into the knots at the base of my neck, and I bite back a moan. My nipples tighten against the mattress. Shit. Blake's hands slide up my calf to my knee, kneading the tight muscles there with practiced precision, and heat pools low in my belly. Cole's thumb finds the pressure point in my palm, and suddenly I'm boneless, melting into the mattress despite every warning bell shrieking in my head.
This is dangerous. This intimacy—it's the kind of closeness I've never allowed myself. Never been allowed. In ten years, no one has touched me like this. With care. With intention. With—
"You're trembling," Asher murmurs above me. His weight shifts, and I feel him straddle my lower back, careful not to crush me. His thighs bracket my hips. The heat of him seeps through my clothes, through my skin, straight into my traitorous wolf's den.
My breathing goes shallow. My pulse is thundering in my ears, between my legs, everywhere.
"I'm cold," I lie, my voice muffled against the pillow.
"Liar." Blake's hands are on my thigh now—the inside of my thigh—and his gunpowder scent explodes in the air, sharp and demanding. "You're burning up, baby. We can smell it."
Heat floods my face. My neck. Lower. God, lower. My panties are damp. I know they can smell that too—the wet, needy scent of arousal mixing with my white musk. My body is responding to them in ways I can't control, ways that terrify me. The white musk scent thickens, sweetens, becomes something I barely recognize.
Fuck fuck fuck.
Arousal, my wolf supplies helpfully. We want them. Need them. They're ours—
Shut the hell up, I snarl back at her.
Blake's thumb strokes higher on my inner thigh, dangerously close to—
I make a sound. A small, involuntary moan that I can't swallow back in time.
The entire world stops.
Blake's hands freeze on my thigh. Asher's thumbs halt mid-circle at my spine, right where my shirt has ridden up to expose skin. Cole's breathing hitches audibly.
Three seconds of silence.
My heart is trying to claw its way out of my chest. The place between my legs is throbbing, aching, screaming for them to keep touching me.
Then—
"Kara." Cole's voice is hoarse, strangled. "Have you... have you ever been kissed? Really kissed? The way you deserve?"
I flip over so fast that Blake has to lunge backward to avoid my knee. My face is on fire. My nipples are clearly visible through my thin tank top—hard and peaked and obvious. I cross my arms over my chest. "What? Why would you—why are you asking that?"
All three of them are staring at me. Their eyes are glowing gold—wolf eyes—and the hunger in them is so raw, so visceral, that I shrink back against the headboard.
"Because we want to kiss you," Blake says bluntly, his voice scraped raw. His gaze drops to my mouth and lingers. "We want it so badly it's killing us."
"Want to know if your lips taste as sweet as your scent," Asher adds, his tone low and dangerous—the voice he uses when giving orders, when expecting obedience. His eyes are fixed on my throat, where my pulse is hammering visibly. "Want to know if you'll melt for us the way you're melting right now."
"Want to be your first real kiss," Cole finishes softly, his mint scent sharpening with something like desperation. "Want to erase every bad memory and replace it with—with us. With good."
My mouth is dry. My heart is a war drum. Without thinking, I lick my lips—
All three of them inhale sharply, a synchronized gasp that would be funny if I weren't so terrified. Blake's hands curl into fists. Asher's jaw clenches. Cole's eyes flash gold.
The pheromones in the room spike—black ebony, gunpowder, and mint crashing together in a wave that makes my head spin. My thighs press together hard, trying to ease the ache.
Damn it.
"I'm not ready," I blurt out, the words tumbling over themselves. "I—I can't tell if this is what I want or if it's just the mate bond manipulating me. And you—" My voice cracks. "You were just touching me. Your hands were everywhere. And I felt... God, I felt good. That scares the shit out of me. What if I can't trust my own body anymore? What if—"
"Stop." Asher's command cuts through my spiral. He moves closer, his black ebony scent wrapping around me like a shield. "We understand. We'll wait. As long as you need."