“When you’re ready, come home,” John told us. “We’ll look after the town until you get back, but—”
“No,” Ryan said, blinking as he did so. He paused, as if to make sure that was right, then nodded to himself. “If you’d fucking worked with us, let us do what we needed to in claiming Riley, worked with us to find a solution, we would have stepped up, become the ruling pack of the community, and kept the Vanguard legacy going.”
“You killed that with your controlling bullshit,” Fen said. “We’re not Vanguards anymore. Fuck, we’ll become the Taylor pack if that’s what it takes, but you forced Riley to build a life here, and we won’t be making her give that up for anything. This is our territory, she is our mate, and you need to go now, with no more asides. We’re done playing. It’s time to claim our mate the way we should have seven years ago.”
It was then that the dads seemed to finally realise what they’d done. Belated moments of self-reflection aside, we were finished with them, and I let out a little growl to let them know that, right up until I saw them get in their car and drive away.
When the quiet returned,when my heart stopped pumping blood frantically around my whole body, when I took a breath in and then let it out, let all the breaths out I’d been holding for so long, I found I was forced to wipe the back of my hand across my forehead. The sun was beating down on me and I’d run halfway across town to fight another wolf, but… I wiped away the sweat, but more formed and more again, and that drew the others closer. Their eyes shone perfectly silver as they approached, as their eyes slid slowly over every inch of my naked body.
“Welcome home, Riley girl. My mate,” Fen said, catching me when I stumbled into him. He stroked a hand down my face, my hair sticking to my skull.
“Fuck, her scent…” Haze rumbled, drawing closer, some of his wolf in his jerky movements, in the way he sucked in breaths.
“Heat,” Blake ground out.
“That’s right,” Fen said with a grin, like I’d managed to achieve the most perfect thing. “Our mate returned to us, fought a dominance battle to claim us, and now it’s our turn to claim you.”
He moved slowly, so slowly, until I was whining anxiously, needing his mouth on mine, and when he kissed me? Fireworks went off inside my head, exploding within. I’d been waiting for this kiss for so fucking long, I could barely feel it at first, and then it was all I could feel. My mouth took over, plundering his, sucking his bottom lip in, scoring it with my teeth, then tangling his tongue with mine.
“You ready for that?” he asked, pulling free of me. “You ready to take everything we’ve got to give you?”
“We’ll need to be careful,” Colt said with a growl. “We didn’t get to prep her as much as we should’ve.”
“It’ll be perfect,” Haze insisted. “We’ve been waiting for this forever. My body knows hers, just like my heart does. We’ll fit together exactly the way we’re supposed to, you’ll see.”
“What do you think, Riley?” Ryan asked, fighting for calm, and I liked seeing him lose that battle. “Are you ready for us?”
“I’ve been ready for as long as I can remember,” I replied, grinning then as I felt a lightness I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt. “Take me. I’m yours.”
Chapter 44
Strange instincts hit me as soon as we got into that big bedroom at the back of the house. I squinted at the bright light pouring in through the windows, sniffing at the stale scent in the air. Windows were open, fresh air let in, and then the blinds were pulled down, Blake and Colt just staring at me as they did that, smiling in satisfaction as I relaxed.
“I…”
I had things to say, didn’t I? Things to discuss, ground rules to establish, but right now, I was so bloody hot. My fingers raked at my skin, trying to dislodge clothes that were boiling me alive, but I didn’t have any on, only skin that throbbed with a palpable heat, even at my own touch.
“I need…”
“You need a shower, Riley. That’s what you need.”
Colt’s voice was confident and sure, so when he offered me his hand, I took it, feeling something intense shoot through me at the contact. He waited for me to recover, my eyelids fluttering, my whole body trembling in response.
Delayed reaction to all that adrenalin?I thought, but the part of my brain that analysed and gave me answers was quickly sidelined. Colt led me into the bathroom, the cool tiles helping to soothe my hot skin, and then my Colt, he pulled away from me, just briefly, to start to strip down. That there, I knew what to do as soon as his hands went to the hem of his shirt. I knocked his hands away to the sound of his amused snorts, my own replacing his.
He was mine, that was what I felt as I stared up at him, and I knew then, as I watched his smile falter and something else rose to replace it, that he knew that too.
“Riley?”
He grabbed great handfuls of my hair, balling it in his fists, making the strands pull against my scalp, and I leaned into that pain. That was what we’d always had—so much fucking hurt, over and over, aching and needing and…
“Not anymore,” he promised. “Never again. We fought for this. You fought for us.” The last bit was said in almost a hushed whisper. “It’s you and me, Riley. It’s always been you and me.”
And that seemed to unlock the floodgates I’d spent my life living under the shadow of. What Eloise never seemed to understand was that while she was trying to help us, she’d done the exact opposite.
Tears pricked my eyes as I shoved Colt’s shirt up and over his head, his arms getting tangled in it until Haze stepped forward, tall enough to pull it free and then toss it to one side. My hands went to what was revealed, my brows locked down in a terrible frown. It was the only way I could bear looking at him, looking at them. I glanced over Colt’s shoulder to where Haze hovered, to where the guys stood within the doorway, but I could only do this one at a time, my brain struggling to cope with even that.
When I touched the boys before, it had been a whole other thing—heat, desperation, need. I’d kept things about the physical as much as I could, knowing this was coming, because when our eyes locked, when his shone silver into mine, all my carefully constructed barriers fell to dust.