I knew I would struggle, and I knew they were right. Everything had done a number on me. But just like the beginning of the heat, I wanted to try. I said they didn’t know me. But they did now. They knew me inside and out, just like I knew them. I knew the taste of their skin and the quiet sounds of their pleasure.

But I didn’t think they’d ever really know how much I wanted to stay.

I was just afraid.

It would take patience, but for the first time in forever, I felt hope I might have found a pack willing to work through it. Who saw me for me.

Finally, I smiled up at him. “I’ll stay.”

Not one of them held back, burying me in hugs and kisses until I was drowning in pleasure and purrs.

Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

________

ESME

The shower was something I actually got to appreciate this time around. It was big enough to fit all of us, with heads coming from every direction, including straight down. I didn’t really want to wash all of them off me, but the hot water felt good on my exhausted muscles. And right now I was so covered in them the only way I was going to not have their scent on me would be to use scent cancellers.

Yeah. No fucking chance.

I washed my hair with one of my gifts. The basket was still on the counter in the bathroom. From Rylan, it was filled with everything from shampoo and body wash to bath bombs in a whole rainbow of colors. Lotions, too. It wasn’t lost on me that the scents he’d chosen resembled everyone in the pack.

The shampoo I chose smelled like strawberries enough to remind me of him, and I chose it for that reason.

The socks Avery bought me were in the laundry. They’d had to be after surviving a few rounds of the heat, but I wanted them back. They were soft and comfortable.

The others hadn’t quite given me their gifts yet, and my stomach flipped. I wanted to say I didn’t want them or didn’t deserve them, but I did want them. I wasn’t a person who needed things to be happy—it wasn’t about that—it was that they’d thought about me and what might make me happy.

I rinsed out my hair and wrapped it up in a towel before finally turning off the water. It felt like I’d pushed myself too hard on a run, but for five days straight, and in a way I had. My pseudo-heats weren’t nearly as exhausting even though they were way more painful.

There was a soft knock on the door from the hallway as I dried myself off. No sense in being modest with them now. “Come in?”