Every cushion which had been white was now colored. All the ones I’d picked. Lighter on the ceiling, fading through the colors and all the way down to black. The lights were cool-toned too, just like I’d picked, and all across the space were the pillows and blankets they’d helped me with. Even the twinkle lights flickered on the ceiling like stars, and I blinked away tears. “They did it so fast.”

“We want it to be perfect.”

“It is.”

He set me down on the floor of the nest, and it was all softness. I reached for a blanket, not caring that there was still some water on my skin. I needed that blanket, and it needed to be over there.

They were all here with me. I saw them in the corners of my vision, carefully taking off their clothes and pilling them at the edge of the nest, but I couldn’t stop. This was my nest, and I was making it even more perfect. Because for the first time in my life, I was truly in heat.

Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

________

ESME

I shoved the pillow into place and gasped, desire grabbing me like a vise and not letting go. The nest was perfect and they were all here and I still didn’t know what to do. I’d always been alone.

That thought made me sadder than it usually did during my heats.

This was entirely different. I couldn’t even really look at them and their bodies because my mind was moving too quickly, instincts reaching for things I couldn’t explain.

“Please,” I pulled one of the blankets closer to me. “Help me.”

Ben was the first one to reach me, guiding me back onto the cushions and taking my mouth with his. His skin on mine was perfect, soothing the need and the craving I couldn’t control. They just weren’t allowed to stop.

It was the first time I got a true look at his tattoos—stars and galaxies drifting across his arms. A nebula. Words formed of stars I couldn’t focus enough to read. I caught a glimpse of a wave on the curve of his shoulder and trees around his wrist, and that was all I could focus on, my mind drenched in need.

“I don’t know how to do this,” I managed to say. “But you’re helping me. We’ve talked about it. I don’t want to ask anymore.”

“You don’t have to do anything,” Ben told me. “We’re going to take care of you.”

The sound which came out of me was half whine and half sob as he kissed me again. He tasted like sugar and that incredible vanilla I’d been overwhelmed by at the party. “Going to show you exactly what I wanted to do the night I met you,” he murmured against my lips before sinking lower, tracing kisses across my skin.