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He’d probably apologize for how hot the fire was, too.
Ash - who up until now has been perfectly still and perfectly terrifying - finally speaks.
“Lucian. This isn’t helping.”
Lucian looks at me again, and it’s like a damn seismic shift. The wordmineisn’t said aloud, but it might as well be tattooed across my chest in bold, flashing ink.
I shift in place - because of course my body responds to that.
My thighs press together. My skin flushes like a liar.
“Shit,” Ash mutters. “She’s peaking again.”
“No kidding,” Kai says. “We’re one eyebrow twitch away from a full meltdown. Someone get her a fan. Or a fire extinguisher.”
Theo, ever the gentleman, moves to stand slightly in front of me, grounding hand at my lower back. I’d thank him if I weren’t busy vibrating with what I can only describe as alpha-induced horny outrage.
Lucian sees it. His nostrils flare, jaw like stone, his eyes locked on mine.
“You wanted all of us?Fine.Congratulations. You havethem.”
The way he says it… it's like he’s congratulating me for stepping in something.
“But don’t expect me to be soft about it.”
He turns on his heel and walks out of the kitchen like a melodramatic Victorian ghost.
No door slam. No shouting. Just maximum emotional damage and one emotionally repressed exit stage left.
The silence is so loud I can hear my ovaries hissing.
I grip the counter, knuckles white. Not just because of the heat - because of him. Because of the nerve. Theaudacity.
This is the same alpha who whispered to me through the door like I was a poem. Who talked me down from the worst of it with nothing but his voice. Who made me feel wanted when I was a mess of slick and panic and instincts.
And now he acts like I’ve personally betrayed him by not remaining celibate until he graced me with his approval?
What is hisproblem?
He’s acting like I blindsided him. Like he didn’tknow- but hedid. He’s known since the car. Since my heat hit like a goddamn bomb and I begged for all of them. He felt it - same as the others.
The bonds starting to form. The need unraveling me in four different directions.
He knew what I wanted, and he still stayed on the other side of the door. Hechosethat.
So what now? He’s pissed because I didn’t wait forever? Because I didn’t hold off for his royal approval while I burned?
I wrap my arms around myself, jaw tight, heat blooming like shame, as though I’ve done something wrong just by existing too loudly, by reaching for more than one.
For wanting all of them.
If he’s hurt that I let Ash and Theo touch me - if it guts him that he wasn’t first - thenfine. Let it hurt. I didn’t exactly schedule a guest list for my heat, I didn’t print RSVP cards -
I burned. I begged.
And he stayed away.
So yeah. That’s on him.
