Ugh. It feels like a tree fell on my head.
Every part of me aches, but especially my insides.
I groan, trying to curl into a ball, only to come up against a hard wall of flesh. I freeze, my heart leaping into my throat.
Warmth washes over me, touching me all the way to my toes.
“Morning, gorgeous,” a deep voice rumbles, fingers combing through my hair. “Well, evening, technically. You’ve slept all day.”
I swallow. Where am I?
Everything feels so hazy.
So unclear.
So… so… unreal.
Because the fantasy unfolding in my mind can’t be accurate.
Tieran forcing me to shift. Followed by a chase. Volt catching me. Both of them… I shiver, the vivid memory of having them inside me making my thighs clench, which stirs another whine from deep within.
Because ow.
“Shhh,” the masculine wall hums.
Caius, I recognize, his peppermint scent surrounding me. But there are hints of pine and coppery ash, too.
I force my eyes open and take in all the smooth skin in front of me.
Caius’s chest is a work of art. All tapered lines and lean muscle. His shoulders are just as firm, as are his arms and his abdomen.
He’s not as big as Volt. He’s also missing the ink on his arms and chest.
Volt is all strength and intimidating muscle.
Caius is sleek, almost panther-like.
And Tieran is all power.
The three of them together is an intoxicatingly dangerous situation. They represent a dark drug I shouldn’t crave. Yet I find my gaze slowly sliding up the strong cords of Caius’s neck to take in the five o’clock shadow of dark hair dusting his chiseled jaw, all the way up to his grayish green eyes.
“Hi, beautiful,” he whispers, his full lips curling into a welcome grin. “How are you feeling?”
I swallow again, trying to dislodge the rocks that seem to have taken residence in my throat. “Sore,” I manage to choke out. “Confused.”
The latter is an admission I hate to make, but a necessary one. Because I really am confused. I’m not sure what’s real and what’s not, or how I ended up here.
Or why I feel this sudden urge to rub all over his body and bite his neck like he’s my male to claim.
But I really want to lick him.
No, my wolf wants to lick him.
Maybe we both do.
It’s hard to distinguish her needs from mine, something that makes me frown. I can’t suppress her anymore, I realize. That place I used to put her in my mind to block the temptation to shift is no longer there.
It’s… gone.
Like it never existed at all.
What does that mean?
“What’s happening to me?” I ask, shivering as a chill chases away my warmth.
Caius shifts to drag a blanket up over us both, then reaches around me for something. “Here,” he says, returning to his position alongside me. “Drink.” He presses a bottle of water to my lips, tipping the contents into my mouth.
I accept the refreshment gratefully, the cool liquid calming the ache in my throat. He helps me finish half the bottle before moving to set it on the nightstand behind him.
He lays down again, his gray-green irises searching my features as a lock of dark hair falls over his forehead. I reach up to brush it from his eyes, wanting to see his face, then freeze as he smiles. Because that was a decidedly intimate act on my part.
But we are laying in a bed.
Me naked.
Him—I glance down—in a pair of gray sweats.
He follows my gaze, his lips quirking up even more. “Hmm, you want my knot, gorgeous? Or are you just admiring the view?”
“Your knot?” I repeat on a whisper.
“My cock,” he rephrases, cupping my cheek to draw my gaze back up to his. “Omegas crave their Alpha’s knots. And as you’re on the edge of some sort of unique heat cycle, I would understand your need.”
“That’s the bulb…” I trail off, recalling how Tieran practically split me wide open before giving me the most amazing pleasure of my life.
Volt soon followed.
And then…
I flew.
My thighs tingle with the memory now, my insides heating at the remembered sensation of falling into oblivion.
“It was real. Not a dream.” The words come out soft, the statement meant for myself more than Caius. But he clearly hears it.
“Depends on the dream,” he replies, his thumb tracing my lower lip. “If you mean that spectacular display of sex and passion earlier between you, Tieran, and Volt, then yes, very real. But if you’re talking about my knot, then that part’s a dream. One I’ll happily assist in making come true.”
I meet his intense gaze, my heart beating a chaotic rhythm in my chest. “I don’t understand what’s happening to me.” I already said that once, but it’s worth repeating. “Nantahala Alphas don’t…” I’m not sure how to say this. “They’re not like this.”
They don’t share their women.
They don’t have knots.
And from what I know of the mating experience, it’s nothing like what I just went through.
Which makes me frown.
I press my hand to my neck and shoulder, noting the smooth skin.
“I wasn’t claimed,” I say, even more confused now. “Wasn’t that…? Didn’t Tieran…?” I’m not sure how to finish my sentence.
“Take a breath for me,” Caius says, his palm slipping to my nape as he guides me from my side to my back on the bed. “Inhale, Clove.”
The demand in his voice wraps around me, compelling me to obey. My wolf doesn’t want to defy him. She wants to submit. And my mind is too cluttered with questions to fight the urge.
“Keep breathing for me and I’ll try to help you understand,” he says. “I assume you don’t know much about Carnage Wolves other than we’re supposedly savage and cruel, yeah?”
I confirm with a slight nod. “Nantahala Wolves fear your kind,” I admit softly.
“Our kind,” he corrects with a hint of chastisement in his tone.
“Yes.” It’s just weird to consider as some of this still doesn’t feel real. And a week ago, I was a Nantahala Wolf who very much feared Carnage Wolves.
“We’ll come back to that,” he says. “I’ll give you a little dynamics lesson first.”