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“We all worked on it,” Angel hastily explains. “We each need different things in our ruts. Remember that we sat together earlier in the week and went through our contract, as well as negotiated our consensual limits, kinks, and safe words?”

I nod.

We sat together at the kitchen table, while Rhett led the conversation, explaining anything that I had been unsure about.

I filled in more forms than I even had at the clinic because Rhett wanted to be thorough.

My cheeks flushed at how many kinks he had ticked, and how many it had made me curious about trying.

Angel gives a sunny smile. “We all have different ideas about how we want to take care of our Omega’s needs during her heat. And after those negotiations, beautiful, you know that we have different needs too.”

“I get overloaded,” Luca blurts, his cheeks flaming with shame. “Sometimes I become…” He appears to be struggling to get the word out. “…feral. I can’t talk.”

I stare at Luca.

His hands ball at his sides like he’s preparing for me to reject him.

I twist to him, where he is still pressed against the wall.

I don’t like the way he is trying to make himself look as small as possible.

“Tell me what to do when that happens,” I say, simply. “Do you have a nonverbal safe word?”

Luca blinks at me, opens his mouth and then shuts it.

Rhett rests his hand on my shoulder. “Didn’t I tell you that this good Omega would understand, sugar? Luca taps three times. Also, don’t worry, I know how to tame a feral Alpha. Manhandling them, tying them up, putting a muzzle on them…” His smile turns wicked. “Hell, that’s damn near as much fun as taming a bratty Omega.”

“Bratty Omega? Don’t know where you’d find one of those…”

“Keep playing innocent. It’s a cute look on you.”

A blush creeps up the back of my neck.

Angel strides to the door next to Luca, rapping on it. “The bratty Alpha is trying to explain why we’ve been secretly building you three nests in your inn the last few days. Hope you’re not too pissed at us for redecorating three of your bedrooms as nests. If you wondered where we kept disappearing to, well…”

My eyes widen. “I reckoned that you were doing medical shit with Rhett.”

“I was,” Angel admits. “He’s a bad patient.”

Rhett crosses his arms. “I’m the angel. You’re the damn devil. You’re a stern nurse.”

Angel quirks his brow. “Would you like that as a role play?”

“I prefer the one where you wear the uniform and then I put you over my knee.”

“I bet you would, handsome. But I deserve danger pay for trying to force you to rest. Still, Luca was the one who put in most of the hard work to build the three nests to our specifications.”

Luca glances down, unsure.

I am more certain now of how much touch he is ready to accept. I have been taken into his small circle of trusted people, and I treasure that.

It’s precious.

I hold out my hand, offering it to him.

Luca grabs it, raising his head. His beautiful gray eyes meet mine again.

“You built three different nests for me?” I ask, softly. “Thanks, Alpha.”