Page 94 of The Gift
“I trust you,” I whisper, my voice barely audible, as I keep repeating those words over and over. And that’s not because I’m broken or lost, I’m not even angry or vulnerable as such. I’m tired of the shit life I led before I stumbled into their world.
He hears me. I know he does, the softest kiss on my shoulder tells me so before I fight one last time past his blast of power and demand that I submit, accept, and present.
Breaking me so I can be remade.
But the blast of alpha power wasn’t from Henley. I know that.
Henley
After what we did, I feel like I should be covered in blood and bruises. Every part of me feels like I’ve walked through a dark alley on the wrong side of town with a bad attitude and a stomach full of rum. But I don’t have a mark on my skin. Except from where her nails have embedded themselves into my biceps.
She hasn’t let go, and unsurprisingly I don’t mind one fucking bit.
Bailey’s been out for a few hours, and the rest of us are similarly ruined. We’ve barely said more than a few words to each other and I’m completely ignoring how they pointedly avoided my glares earlier.
On top of everything I have my own quandary now, understanding her refusal at talking about her past because there’s no way I’m sitting down for a pretty discussion talking about how I feel about what I did. Hypocritical? Damn straight.
Before tonight I was so ready to scream at her stubborn insistence that she ignore what happened to her in the labs, now, I’ll be asking her for a crash course in coping strategies including a lesson in denial.
The worse thing though, is that I don’t know if it worked. I want to say that I feel like she’s different, that his ghostly claim is no longer on her but that could be my wishful thinking. I fucking hope what I did worked, obviously. All of us are going to be wearing the scars of what happened for a long time to come irrespective of the outcome.
With the lights shut off, including her pretty fairy lights that she would have loved given half the chance, Ash, Reno, and Koda sleep next to us. Ashton’s arm draped over my hip, Koda of course on the other side of Bailey with Reno taking the spot behind him. And it’s not like we’ve never shared a bed; out on a job we’ve slept in some pretty unsavoury places, but it’s different; we’ve never had a woman between us.
With her steady breathing warming against my neck, my eyes drop and I dream of a place where at long last we get the missing piece of our pack.
Bailey
Icould have a blind fold on and I’d find them. I follow his potent, powerful scent, arching my body backwards until I find his lips. And then I kiss Koda, coaxing him out of his sleep like he did to me. But I’m torn, part of me wants him, but I have a need that is aching for the other alpha. Hooking my leg over Henley’s hip, Koda follows me as I move. His deep chuckles mix with his lazy kisses, his warm, naked body encasing me from behind as I climb on top of Henley.
“Bails, you taste amazing,” Koda murmurs into my ear, his breath making every part of me tingle.
The dark adds to everything; their combined scents are so rich and overlapped, the small noises I make are like an echo of the sweetest sounds and the hands that glide over my skin are pure silky indulgence, leaving me lightheaded and short of breath. I get lost in them, enjoying being blissfully unaware, missing when Henley wakes up; his hands gripping on my hips, helping remind me of my intention.
“Are you okay?” he asks, his voice low, barely audible over the whimpering noises I keep making, but I can’t help it.
I look down at the man I’m currently straddling. Even in the dark, I can see his concern.
“I will be.”
“You had us worried,” Ashton says softly, kneeling up. And I twist, leaning over to reach him for a kiss, stretching my arms so I can run my hand up his chest. All of them are running hotter than usual.
Ashton brushes the hair off my face before kissing me like he always does, pulling back after leaving me breathing heavier, a small smile on his face. “How about a shower?”
“Do I stink?”
“We could all smell better,” he admits with a small unapologetic shrug. I like that he doesn’t sugar coat anything for me.
“You don’t stink,” Koda says in my ear. “But we’ve all got anxiety coating our skin. And we’d all like to enjoy you without the reminder of how we got here.”
“There’s a bath, I’ll get it running. Tease your alphas,” Reno says, pushing Koda out of the way so he can drop a thousand butterfly kisses up my stomach as he makes his way to my aching lips. I tug him up higher, kissing him until I can’t see straight before he pulls away. Ashton follows, but I stay with Henley and Koda.
Henley goes to say something, Koda quickly cutting him off. “She’s good, Hen, let it go. She needs us, don’t you?”
“You know me so well,” I whisper, tracing my hand over the lines on his pecs, making him twitch under my hand.
Henley’s finger hooks in the pack necklace and he tugs me down slowly, his eyes nearly black. And honestly, the look in his eye does more to me than the thought of dropping into heat with them. It’s one of those collisions of dreams and realities, and I don’t buck the teasing thoughts in my mind, instead, I let them go because what I read on the alpha’s face is nothing short of the adoration in fairy tales. I might be in the minority, but an emotional connection with someone is such a turn on. It lets me be even more confident with my physical needs knowing he wants me in such a way.
“You smell good enough to eat, Bailey. Are you going to let Hen slide inside your tight pussy, so we can make you ours?”
