Luke was no longer holding her. Rylan was now curled around the little Omega, and her head rested on his chest. She looked peaceful and content, the little lines of worry which seemed to always be there now completely gone.

I handed out the bottles, the last one to Luke. I set Rylan’s at the edge of the nest—the small strip of bare floor which allowed the door to open.

“It doesn’t seem real, does it?” Luke asked. “That she’s here? That she exists at all?”

Kade was leaning against one of the cushioned walls. “I get what you mean. Almost like a fever dream.”

I’d briefly told them her boundaries, few as they were, when I’d left her in the bath. But there was more to compatibility than simply being okay with the other’s boundaries. And the moment she begged Kade to pin her down, the air in the room changed.

Not because of what she liked, but rather the way she fit. Kade was rough around the edges. He loved to chase and the more feral aspects of his Alpha nature. I hated to even think about anyone else but her, but over the years, all of us had a girlfriend or two, and we’d seen evidence of that in Kade.

Esme submitted to Luke too, and I already knew she liked being cared for in the way I loved. It was like she really was made for us. There was something beautiful about the idea that one person was always meant for you. Like you were going to find each other no matter what, and it was inevitable.

She moved a little, and all of us looked, turning at once like she was the magnet all of us were drawn to. She settled again, curling up tighter beneath the blanket.

“When the heat is over,” I said, “I’d like to ask her to stay for the courtship.”

“Stay here?” Ben asked. It wasn’t a condemnation, but a clarification.

I nodded. “She’s terrified. The heat is setting the feeling aside, but it will come back. If she’s here with us, there’s the chance to show her we’re hers just as much as she’s ours. Not to smother her, but I never want her to have questions. I just—” Shaking my head, I stopped speaking. There wasn’t a way to articulate the feeling in my chest.

Luke finished drinking the water in his bottle. “I get what you’re saying, and I agree. When I went upstairs at her house she was in so much pain, and all she could think about was that she didn’t want us to see her like that.”