Page 63 of Bonds of Fate

The young alpha nods and gives his new glass to Grayson, who has no qualms about shooting it back.

“Ya! That’s a three-hundred-dollar bottle of wine, you heathens.” He shakes his head and tries to catch Nix’s eye. He’s so shy, and everyone is waiting for him to make the first move, afraid to startle their fae beauty.

But he should know Luca has this.

Drawing him forward, he pushes him a bit toward Jay, who is sitting at his usual place at the table. Their alpha is completely still, plush lips open a bit, with eyes flashing from hazel to red.

“Daddy, Nixie is shy.”

“Jay,” Gideon growls. “Get it together.”

Between one breath and the next, Jay has his hand out for Nix, and Gideon relaxes upon seeing the angel straddle his lap so he can hide his hot red cheeks in his alpha’s neck.

Jay whispers something so low he can’t hear, but Nix giggles and wiggles his butt.

Luca climbs into Finn’s lap on Jay’s other side, much to their mutual delight. Finn is careful not to touch below his waist, and Gideon appreciates his family’s dedication to his boundaries. They haven’t started playing yet, and he needs to check in with his babies before they do.

His carbonara is still surprisingly steaming when a damp-ish Leo slips into his seat, cinnamon scent sweetly satisfied.

“What kept you, Leo? Hmm?”

“What do you want me to say? If you saw what I saw, you’d have needed three minutes to yourself, too. At least now, I might last long enough to see one of them come.” He’s reaching for the salad and dishing some onto Finn’s plate so he can feed Luca a little while Jay is twirling his pasta, makingchoo-choo-chootrain sounds to get Nix to eat, while their omega rolls his eyes in protest.

Gideon is hardly hungry, but he made the damn thing, and the faster they eat, the faster they can get to the after-dinner entertainment.

He quickly texts the massager’s code to the two currently occupied Alphas before he forgets, then picks up his fork with anticipation—for something other than food is burning through his veins.

He’s barely taken a single bite before Rowan is already on his feet, eager to clear the table—his own plate empty. He must have inhaled his meal, unable to contain his excitement. Gideon can’t help but laugh when Rowan takes a horrified Leo’s still full plate right out from under his nose.

Guess they can always eat later—it’s time to get this show on the road.

Chapter Fifteen: Nix

Nix

Nix would be the first to admit to himself—not to anyone else because no one but him ever needs to have the details—that his sex life hasn’t been anything but horrific.

Just because he hadn’t known love or passion until he woke up smack dab in the epicenter of the hottest group of men, already more than halfway in love with every single one, doesn’t mean he can’t recognize it. That doesn’t mean he can’t describe it, can’t feel it.

Can’t need it.

And he does. Need it, that is.

What he’s already felt with Rowan and Grayson has taken him far beyond anything he ever could have imagined—if he’d ever let himself imagine it at all. The intimacy, the love, the burning desire not just to experience pleasure but to give it, to share it, to claim it for himself…it’s overwhelming.

If he had to guess, maybe it’s even more intense because of the horrors—no, maybe not because of them, butdespitethem.

Because even though the traumas still lurk—shadows at the edges of his mind—his wolf is pushing for this.

And for the first time, Nix doesn’t want to fight it.

He wants this night—and all the ones that follow.

To bind himself to each of them in the most primal way possible.

Nix stops to gather himself just outside the closed door to Gideon’s space, to let the awe of these feelings—excitement and anticipation—overthrow the demons from his sexual past and force them into their box. A box he won’t think about tonight or maybe ever again if he can help it.

Thisbox is one his wolf is entirely happy to leave firmly closed.

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