Page 160

Pepper’s scent floods the nest. I thrust again.

Pepper cries out. I break away from Ezra’s mouth and swallow her sweet sounds.

Ezra folds around her back. Pepper reaches for him. I bring them closer.

The three of us move together.

My knot swells. Pepper feels it and rolls her hips harder. The sounds escaping her are breathless and needy.

“Does my sweet omega want my knot?” I ask.

Her pussy squeezes at my words, and my dick aches with the need to release inside her and keep her on my knot.

“Yes,” she says.

“Tell me.”

“I want to be full of you, alpha.” She grinds her hips. “Give me your knot.”

“That’s my good girl.” I brace one hand beneath her and drive deeper. My knot catches. “Open for me. That's it.”

Pepper shudders.

Ezra’s fingers circle her clit while I press again.

The thickest part slips inside. Pepper comes apart. Her cry becomes my name. The knot locks us together as I come, filling her while her body grips me.

It’s so good my alpha trembles in my chest and my vision whites. Ezra holds us both through it. His mouth moves over Pepper’s shoulder while his hand stays wrapped around mine.

Pepper trembles in my arms. I lower us carefully into the nest, keeping Pepper against my chest while my knot holds. Ezra curls around her back.

Pepper’s purr fills the space between our bodies. Rain moves against the window and the nest glows with the warmth of twinkle lights while the three of us hold one another.

Pepper lifts her head. Her eyes find Ezra first. “You stayed.”

His smile carries too much. “It was too hot to miss.”

She touches his cheek. Then she looks at me. “You did too.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“That isn’t what I mean.”

Ezra studies me. “I don’t want tonight to become a goodbye.”

“I can’t make that kind of promise.” The admission costs me. “But I can promise tonight is ours.”

Pepper’s fingers close around his. “Right now counts.”

Ezra’s breath catches.

I see the truth in her words, even though I struggle with worrying about tomorrows. Right now is not the consolation prize for a future we may lose. It's part of the life we’re fighting for.

I cover their joined hands with mine. “Right now counts.”

Ezra looks at me.

The bond shifts. Pain remains, but something tender moves beside the fear.