“We need to move fast,” I said, the words spilling out so quickly, my tongue tripped over them. “Whatever this is, it’s hitting me harder. I feel… I feel…”
“For fuck’s sake,” Candy hissed, but her focus was them, not me. “Take her into her office.” She tossed Ryan a set of keys, wisely not coming any closer, my body feeling like a reddish haze hung over me. “Tend to her or whatever it is that you do. I can’t see her like this.”
“No,” I said when arms went around me, when I was picked up again. “No!”
“Yes.” Fen’s order was short, sharp, and absolute, pushing my protests down and then obliterating them altogether. “You will experience this over and over until you accept us, so you can plan for it, mapping your responses more comprehensively than any omega before you.”
“I’m not an omega,” I whined in response.
“Yet.” His voice, those cool green eyes, they stilled me then as he waited for me to understand. “Now’s the time, Riley, for you to become what you were always supposed to be.”
“Our mate,” Blake said with a sharp nod. “C’mon, her needs are fucking clawing at me.”
“Shh…” That was Haze, and he carried me close to his chest, my eyes searching his as I heard the tremor there. He smiled though, a shaky, sharp thing, his thumb brushing over my cheekbone. “Look at your eyes, baby girl. They’re starting to silver.”
“I need to document—” I began to say.
“Gimme your phone,” Haze said, holding out a hand, but not specifying who should hand it over.
“Camera app is open,” Ryan said, slapping his in Haze’s hand.
My alpha took photos then, carefully making sure to record everything. This, this small act, helped my body uncoil.
“We’ve got you,” Haze said, sensing my unspoken realisation and addressing it head-on. “We’re honoured to be able to help you through it. This is everything we’ve fucking dreamed of, love. Everything.”
“Dream?” I barely breathed the word as I was swept into my office, all the stuff on my desk quickly dumped in one of the cupboards before I was laid down on the desktop. “You’ve dreamed of this?”
“Blake and I first,” Colt said, pushing forward and taking my hands. “Everyone else dismissed it as just fantasy, not a true mate dream, until—”
“Until they got their fucking heads out of their arses,” Blake rumbled, shooting a dark look at Fen and Ryan.
“We’re here now, and it’s time to tend to our mate,” Fen said in a voice that would brook no arguments, but when he looked down at me, everything softened. “Riley, we’re going to strip you down now.” My eyes went to the door, looking with alarm at the strips of frosted glass on either side of the door. Blake pulled away and wheeled my whiteboard over until it blocked the entrance off. “And then we will tend to you.”
“Tend?” My question hung in the air. “What is—?”
“We touch you, soothe you,” Colt said, dropping his head down near mine and stroking my hair back from my forehead. “We do whatever we can to make you feel good and acclimate you to us.”
He said the words gently, but there was a heat in his gaze as it slid down my body, one that conjured an answering one in me. My hands were shaking as I went to the buttons of my blouse, but they were quickly pushed aside, clasped by Colt and by Ryan as the others went to work.
“Let us, seriously,” Haze said, silver-eyed and desperate, all of his former humour gone. “We want the privilege.”
And so, in my office, at my bloody workplace, I was stripped bare for them.
I groaned, my brows knotting as Fen scooped me up in his arms and then sat down with me on his lap in one of my office chairs. I made an anxious little noise at that, as being naked in my office was a freaking weird experience, especially with all of them standing there, staring.
“I know, love,” Fen said, stroking my hair. “I wanted you sinking into our bed for the first time at this. Only the softest of mattresses for our Riley. But this is what you wanted, what you needed, so we’ll make this work.” His focus shifted to the pack. “Keep your cocks in your pants for this one. This is about her pleasure, not ours.”
“I can’t fucking wait to start rubbing my cum on your skin, babe,” Haze said, staring down at me with that familiar wicked smile, one that widened as I let out an involuntary whine. “But you’ll just have to wait like a good girl for that. Kisses first?”
I stiffened, like I could feel their lips on my skin already, but Fen tipped my head back.
“Listen to me, Riley.”
This was how an alpha command was supposed to be used. His low, gentle voice kept me pinned just as Mark had, but with such a different intent, a quiet settling inside my head in response.
“Just listen to your alphas, and we’ll see you through this.”
“First thingwe need to do is put you on display,” Fen said, turning me around in his arms so I faced the others. I resisted a little, feeling so damn exposed, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. His hands went around my wrists, stroking the sensitive skin there before pulling them wide.