6. Noelle

noelle

. . .

“Um, well, I can’t agree to stay here with all of you forever.…”

I swallowed hard, forcing myself to raise my eyes to meet Cody’s.

“But I also can’t imagine going to Vancouver and doing something like this with anyone else. For some reason, I only want you—only you three. At least until this estrus business is done. Does that make me crazy?”

I shook my head, mostly at myself. Then I glanced over my shoulder to ask Ash, “Could this be a concussion or something like that?”

“It might be,” Ash admitted. “Our bears usually heal things like broken bones and external wounds outside of bond marks in a matter of hours. But brain stuff is still the last frontier of the body. Even for full humans.”

Which I wasn’t anymore.

I raised my hand to brush over the jagged ridges now etched into my once-smooth skin—a reminder that, beneath the surface, nothing about my body was the same anymore. Could it be that his bite...?

“Yeah,” Cody answered aloud, his voice tinged with guilt. “My bite’s probably influencing your decision, too.”

His apologetic grimace made him look impossibly sweet, even in this chaotic moment—while I was sitting on his erection, trying to make a life-altering decision that might end with me pregnant. By a bear shifter. A bear shifter I’d met what couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes ago.

Oh god.

My mind faltered, flailing to keep up as the strange lust simmered under my skin, hotter and hotter, like a tea kettle ready to whistle.

“In that case…” Struggling to access my nurse’s logic beneath the overwhelming heat, I nodded slowly. “I think the wisest thing to do would be to take you up on your offer—with no long-term strings attached. If we do this, it can’t be forever, and I don’t want any of you biting me again.”

Cody’s face fell, and his amber eyes dimmed, letting me know that wasn’t the answer he’d been hoping for.

Ash’s expression, however, remained neutral. “Deal,” he said with a measured nod. “You’ll let us attend to you during your estrus cycle, and we promise not to bite?—”

“This is bullshit!” Mak cursed, cutting Ash off mid-sentence. His voice exploded like a thunderclap, echoing through the den.

I flinched as he stormed toward the set of stone steps that led to a large wooden door.

There was no goodbye. Mak just stomped up the stairs and slammed the door behind him with such force the entire cave seemed to shudder. If this had been any other house—not one carved from solid stone—I had no doubt the frame would have splintered.

His anger made the presence—the bear—roil inside me, whimpering with the sense that I’d done something terrible and wrong by not agreeing to forever mate with three guys I’d just met after waking up in their crazy cave den.

(Real talk: I still couldn't be completely convinced this wasn’t some weird sex dream I was having while recovering from hypothermia in a hospital bed after my car crash.)

Guilt clawed at me in the wake of the biggest bear’s departure. What if I’d ruined something? What if Mak was right, and I’d destroy what he, Cody, and Ash had here by not agreeing to forever?

“Don’t think about him. Look at me, cocoa bean.”

Cody’s voice cut through my tumultuous thoughts. One large hand cupped my cheek, turning me back to face him. His amber eyes were no longer disappointed but steady and resolute, burning with quiet intensity. “I’ll take your yes any way I can get it.”

With that, he lowered his mouth to mine.

His kiss was tentative at first, careful and sweet, like he couldn’t believe this was actually happening. As hard as he was against me—his fabric-covered erection pushing insistently between my drenched folds—he held back, taking his time. He tasted my lips before teasing them open with his tongue, each movement deliberate, like he was savoring every second.

But then his hands slid down my back, pulling me closer, and I felt the strength behind his gentle kiss. My body responded instantly, warmth and need flooding through every nerve like a tidal wave.

His tongue pushed into my mouth, tangling with mine—wide, stronger, and longer than I expected. The texture was rough—unexpectedly so—but not in a bad way. It sent a jolt of heat straight to my core, and for a dark, lustful moment, I wondered what it would feel like to have a tongue like that between my legs. Licking me there. Pushing into me...

Cody groaned into my mouth, and the bond mark on my shoulder tingled as his bear voice rumbled through my head. "This won’t last long if you keep thinking thoughts like that, cocoa bean. And neither of us is going to be happy if you make me come in my boxers before I even get inside you."

My heart fluttered. The thought of going down on me turned him on that much?

"Course it does," he answered, his lips and tongue devouring mine. "If your mouth tastes this sweet, I can only imagine getting my head between your legs, cocoa bean. I might pass out from how delicious you are."

His words were ridiculous—almost silly—but they lit me up anyway, heating my skin and other, much wetter places.

I gasped as his kisses grew more insistent, his tongue twisting deeper, matching the rising storm inside me. I whimpered, my body pressing into his, needing more—of him, of this, of us.

That was when Cody began kissing me like I was his air, his lips soft but urgent, trembling slightly as his huge hand cupped my face. His tongue delved and explored. This wasn’t just a kiss—it was a discovery. Tender and all-consuming at once, like he was trying to memorize me with every brush of his mouth.

Suddenly, I was on my back, his big body pressing hard between my legs, forcing them to curl around his waist—or at least try to. He was so wide that my knees had to slide lower down his massive torso, draping over his tree-trunk thighs.

Making a coarse, grunting sound into my mouth, he dragged his hands to my hips, holding me in place. He mauled me with his kiss, his hips moving in clumsy, eager thrusts against the soft nest of bedding beneath us. The pressure was overwhelming, almost too much, but it felt so good that I couldn’t summon the reason to care.

One huge hand rose to my chest, covering the entire globe as he trailed ravenous kisses down the left side of my neck. Something sharp grazed my collar bone, making me shiver,

Then, suddenly, he stopped, pulling away abruptly.

Blinking, I felt like I’d been yanked out of a trance. Then I blinked again as Ash came into view, kneeling above us. Completely naked.

But his lack of clothes wasn’t what made my breath catch. His hand was fisted in Cody’s rust-brown hair, pulling back so hard that his leanly muscled arm flexed with the effort. It didn’t take long to see why.

Cody still looked like the same sweet guy—at least, in the face. But in the mouth...

His teeth were fully distended, sharp, and gleaming, dripping with saliva.

“Sorry,” Cody mumbled around his bear maw, his voice rough and deeper, like the one he used when speaking inside my head. “I kind of got carried away.”

“Sometimes, bears have the impulse to bond bite again,” Ash explained calmly, as if discussing the price of tea in Canada. “Especially when the first one was administered without a claim.”

Cody’s eyes dropped, his embarrassment clear even as his teeth retracted before my eyes, leaving a regular, human mouth behind.

“I’ve never done this before,” he admitted, his voice coming out much more human-sounding.

“Never?” I asked, jolting slightly. “You’ve never kissed anyone before?”

“Not like this,” he confessed, his amber gaze flickering with embarrassment. “I experimented when I was younger—when I thought I could settle for someone who wasn’t…”

He trailed off, clearing his throat awkwardly. “This is my first time, and I didn’t know you’d taste so good—or that it’d be this easy to lose control.”

My heart thrummed with fear, but my lower body ached with something else entirely. Estrus leaked out of me, my pussy weeping to have this bear lose control completely.

“Your bear can still have what she wants. It’s his first time, but he won’t hurt you,” Ash assured me, his calm, steady voice breaking through my haze of lust. He glanced down at Cody. “You’ll practice restraint, Kodiak. You’ll give her the first claim she deserves.”

“Yes, Second!” Cody said, his voice thick with emotion.

Ash’s gaze found mine. “She’s more than ready for you.” His tone was clinical but laced with heat.

My cheeks flushed because that was entirely true.

“You can take her now,” Ash added, still calm and measured. “But you’ll do so with her pleasure foremost in mind. And you’ll keep your bear teeth to yourself.”

“Yes, Second!” Cody answered again in a way that made me suspect he'd probably served in the Canadian version of the army.

Instead of letting him go, Ash guided Cody’s head back to mine, settling his lips against my mouth like a final instruction. Only then did he release him.

Cody kissed me deeply before pulling back to line himself up. His cock was bigger than I’d expected—bigger than anyone I’d ever…

The thick head stretched me impossibly wide, but I was so wet, so ready, that all I felt was relief as he pushed inside me, inch by careful inch.

When he was fully seated, I gasped, gripping his shoulders. “Oh!”

“It feels too good,” Cody panted, amber eyes locked on mine. “I could stay like this for a thousand years.”

"Don't do that." I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face against his shoulder. “Please… please…”

Ash’s voice broke through. “I believe she wants you to claim her, Kodiak.”

Cody didn’t need to be told twice. He started moving inside me with eager, frantic strokes.

“Too fast,” Ash warned from behind him. “Pay attention to her breathing. Her movements. She’ll tell you what she needs.”

And he did. Cody listened with his hands, his lips, his entire body, attuned to mine. My ex had always felt disconnected, more focused on himself than on me.

But Cody… he was present, completely and utterly. He learned me, adjusting until he found the exact right rhythm and angle to make me writhe underneath him, widening my legs to take him in even deeper as my words and tone turned desperate and nasty.

“Oh god, fuck this pussy. Please! Please,” I begged in his ear. “Fuck me! Fuck me! I’m so close.”

No more instructions were needed from Ash. Cody’s animal took over, responding to something feral in me that wanted to be pounded into the nest.

It was his first time. His first time! But soon, I was drowning in sensation, flailing in the ether. Until I finally came undone with a long scream.

"Oh, god!" Pleasure burst inside me like sunlight breaking through storm clouds. Cody followed soon after, his head buried in the crook of my neck as he let out low, bellowing groans that sounded more like a bear than a man.

His animalistic grunts sent shivers down my spine, and the powerful jet of his hot release inside me made me come a third time, my pussy strangling his cock as another wave of pleasure ripped through me.

We lay there, tangled together, our breathing ragged but synchronized.

“That was…” I started, but words failed me.

“The best,” he finished, his voice a little dazed.

“Yes, the very best.” I laughed softly, pressing a kiss to his bearded cheek. Maybe Cody’s sincerity was catching. I found myself admitting, “So good, you made me wish it was my first time, too.”

He chuffed proudly and heaved himself off me. The afterglow was so intense, I couldn’t even rally a mild embarrassment over the way my pussy queefed before spilling some of his release back onto the nest. Apparently, his load had been too much for me to carry.

Cody settled his head on his elbow and dropped his eyes to the mess I was leaking onto the pile of blankets and clothes. “Too bad my Kodiak won’t let me risk licking you clean. I’d have loved to make that dream come true for you.”

Oh. Wow. My face heated instantly. I’d forgotten I’d imagined that while he was kissing me.

“If you stay with us until Christmas, maybe that can be my present,” he added, his voice teasing but hopeful. “What do you say?”

The words landed like a stone in my chest, breaking the fragile bubble of bliss around us. I swallowed hard, my throat tightening as I realized he was seriously asking me to make another choice.

“Christmas,” I echoed weakly. “You want me to stay until Christmas?”