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Our nest. My body stays solid while the thought moves through me. I flex my fingers against the blanket. Fabric catches along my skin. Real. Warm. Mine for now.

Theo’s thumb moves once at my hip. “You’re awake.” His voice is rough from sleep and purring.

“I’m conducting a systems check.”

“And?”

“All limbs present. No dramatic transparency. Emotional stability is always questionable.”

His mouth curves against Pepper’s hair.

The sight pulls at me. It’s been weeks since Theo and I woke tangled without wondering which part of me might vanish first. Longer since intimacy felt easy. Most nights, his hands stop at my shoulders or waist, because anything lower risks finding empty air. Most mornings, I make a joke before either of us can mourn what my body won’t let us have.

Pepper shifts, and her scent thickens.

Theo’s purr deepens at once.

My cock hardens beneath the blanket, sudden enough to steal my breath. I can feel that too. Completely. The ache, the weight, the pulse.

Theo lifts his head and looks at me. Heat darkens his hazel eyes, but his hand stays steady on my hip. “Ezra.”

“Don’t sound that gentle. I will become embarrassing.” I smile because the alternative is letting my chest crack open.

Pepper stirs between us. Her lashes flutter. She noses into Theo’s shirt first, then turns toward me, eyes still half closed. “Did I snore?”

“Like an academic field mouse,” I say.

She frowns sleepily. “That feels like manipulated data.”

“You made a tiny sound, barely audible.”

Her eyes open all the way. I watch her memory returns in stages. The attic. The nest. The heat. Theo’s lap. My hands on her. Her face goes pink, but she doesn’t hide. “I said I liked being your omega.”

Theo’s arm tightens around her with careful restraint. “You did,” he says.

Pepper swallows. “I still mean it.”

The words move through the nest like flood water, quickly and overwhelming. My body reacts first. Theo’s scent deepens next, leather and bourbon warming around us.

Pepper inhales and shivers. “I also remember that I need to be responsible.” She pats around the blanket until she finds one of the small bags Honey brought. “Scarlet packed these. Well, Honey said Scarlet packed them because Honey was too busy adding snacks while Junie threatened wall climbing.”

She pulls out a sealed heat care packet, then a slim foil patch sleeve.

“Birth control patch,” Pepper says, cheeks bright. “Long-lasting, heat safe, already part of my medical plan, but this is my first time using it.”

Scarlet included the note from the pharmacy app because she is terrifyingly organized.

Theo takes the sleeve when she hands it over, reads the label, then gives it back. “You want it now?”

“Yes. Before my brain becomes mush.”

She peels the patch with careful fingers and presses it high on her outer thigh. Theo checks only where she points, and I hold the edge of the blanket to give her privacy while still staying close enough that her perfume wraps around my throat.

“There,” she says. “Responsible heat sex.”

My laugh comes out strained. “Professor Vines, your phrasing is going to ruin me.”

Her smile turns shy and pleased. “I was hoping it might.”