“Caine,” she sobbed. Her small hands framed my face, trying to pull it down so she could press our lips together.

My control snapped. My panic dissipated. My fingers twisted themselves into her hair as I dove into the kiss, letting her rich and tantalizing scent drench me like a rising tide.

Taryn pressed her entire body against mine, like she was trying to mold herself to me.

Skin. Have to feel her.

My hands wandered, sliding down golden-kissed skin. Satiny, a sheen of sweat letting my palms glide down her shoulders and arms until they found the dips of her waist and the round halves of her ass so I could pull her harder against me.

Feel. Her.

One hand stayed behind her, holding her steady, while my other continued its path toward her stomach, caressing downward until I met the tufts of dark hair I’d spotted when I walked into the room.

“No touching,” Brea commanded from behind. I snarled, pressing my forehead against Taryn’s temple and biting my lip to hold myself back from baring my teeth.

Brea, unperturbed, continued, “Undress. Sit on the bed. Back against the headboard.”

I obeyed slowly, eyes glued to the fevered and panting omega still kneeling at the edge of the bed as I pulled off my t-shirt,my jeans, my boxers. My heart hammered behind my ribcage, my alpha roaring to have Taryn’s body back beneath my hands. My cock jumped, aching as I sat onto the bed—my old bed—and scooted back to the headboard. Past the end of the bed, Brooks and Lin were half undressed, mouths fused together, Brooks’s fingers clenched in Lin’s hair. Their scents, their sounds became more prominent, adding to the haze.

Taryn looked to her alpha, a question—a plea—in her eyes. Brea nodded, and Taryn crawled toward me, quickly straddling my hips. My breaths came fast and sharp as she settled that sweet-smelling, slippery pussy over my rock hard cock. I tore my gaze away from Taryn to look to Brea. To beg her with my eyes.

How the fuck did Brea look at me with eyes that saw me, that understood everything I was and had ever been, without losing an ounce of that sharp command that brought other alphas to heel? That gleam shone at me. She gave one nod. “Soothe our omega.”

All restraint disappeared. I pulled Taryn in for another kiss, the blood beneath my skin thick and boiling in my need. My cock twitched beneath her, stretching, yearning to slide home inside her.

My lips trailed over the skin of her jaw, her neck, her breast, her nipple. She sighed beneath me, arching into my hands and my lips, seeking pressure. I gripped her hips, savoring the way my fingers sank into the fleshy parts of her. I’d knit myself into her very essence if I could. Hers and Brea’s. All of us strands woven together into the blanket I could wrap around myself, hold to my chest and know that I was safe, and wanted, and worthy.

“Please, Alpha,” she whispered against my neck, her own lips and tongue working over my skin with relish. “Need you.”

Breathe, Caine.

I wasn’t far from rut. It would cloud the memories. But Iwantedthese memories. Needed them. I needed to memorize the feel and sound and sight and smell of her as I took her. This was a core memory in the making.

One deep breath in. A slow release.

I grasped myself, teasing her entrance with the tip of my cock.

Inhale, exhale.

My tip slipped just inside her, my entire body jolting at the welcoming heat of her.

Inhale.

She sank, taking more of me in.

“Caine,” she breathed.

Oh, god, there was hardly any resistance. No starting and stopping. There was no exhaling. Only short, sharp gasps as she sat her hips against mine. Only the beautiful squeeze of her walls around me.

There was no restraint left, no patience. I grasped her hips and let the rut take me.

Taryn

Thenestsmelledright.Finally.

My alphas came back.

Knew they would. Hoped. And they did.