Chapter 32

Two nights ago, the first time I'd taken roseblood, I'd been filled with a rebellious urge to break all the rules my family had imposed upon me. That could've been dismissed as youthful indiscretion. The second time, though? I'd chosen to have this fire raging through my body, leaving me feeling hot, heavy with need, and they hadn't made a move to satisfy yet.

"Ready, Princess?" I loved the feel of Silas' breath on my skin, but I loved the hunger in his voice more. I tilted my head so I could stare into his eyes.

"So ready."

Hands, that's what I felt first, so many hands, each taking part of my weight from Silas, so that the burden was shared equally, but they did more than support me. Hands slid up my thighs, the skin so sensitive I started to writhe. They held me in place, forcing me to go still as they crept higher and higher. My grip on Silas' neck tightened as fingers slid through my folds, separating me, opening me to their collective gaze, the ache in me growing until I felt one of them trace the edges of the source of it.

"Yes, please, that…"

I wasn't too proud to beg as the roseblood forced all my blood to pump to my nether regions, making me so swollen and sensitive. The ache inside me was a cousin to the one that grows and grows in your belly when you go too long without food. If I'd been hungry, I'd eat and eat until the ache eased, but this was unknown territory.

"This?" My eyes flicked open to see Arik standing over me, his lips so close it took effort not to touch. "This what you need?"

I wanted to say yes. I wanted to beg as he dipped the tip of his finger inside me but didn't go any deeper. My frustration grew when I wasn't even able to force him in. Their grip on me tightened as I tried to flex and take what I wanted. His eyes blazed like blue fire, twice as hot, twice as baleful.

"Yes," I snapped, imperious as a queen. "Yes, Arik, I need—"

I didn't get to finish my admission. His free hand went to my neck, collaring its base as his mouth came down on mine. Softly at first, but when my lips parted, he let out a strangled groan, slamming his mouth down hard as his finger pushed inside.

I went rigid at the soft feel of his plush lips, at the viciousness of his kiss, his teeth grinding against mine to claim more of me. At the feel of a digit pushed inside me, into the place I was still discovering, the ache eased momentarily before flaring up twice as bright as his finger crooked up and raked along something so exquisitely sensitive.

"Oh…!" I couldn't kiss him anymore, not when I was riding that feeling, but he didn't need my participation. He sucked my bottom lip into his mouth and dragged it against his teeth as he pulsed his finger in and out. The ache inside me transmuted. He was the moon, tugging at the sea of fire inside me, forcing great swollen waves of pleasure to lap at my entire body until I was ready to scream.

"Give her a little more." My eyes flicked open to see Roan smiling at me with a devilish twinkle in his eyes. "But be careful of those fucking claws of yours. She won't thank you if she feels them." Creed stared at his hands, forcing the nails to become blunt and human again. "You like that, feeling something inside you?" I nodded rapidly. "Well, it'll hurt like hell if we give you anything bigger, so you need to be stretched first."

"She'll bleed anyway," Arik ground out, his teeth nipping at my shoulder.

"Only if you're a fucking brute about it," Roan chided. "She doesn't have much of a maidenhead, so if we go slowly and stretch it—"

"How the fuck do you know all about this?" Arik snapped.

"Seven sisters," he replied. "I didn't see the process, thankfully, but they seemed to think it hilarious to regale me with all the gory details of being a woman. Said I'd need the information one day." He blinked. "Didn't think it'd be like this though." Those amber eyes held mine. "You can take more, can't you, lass? That ache inside you…"

I nodded urgently but couldn't make out the rest of his words because my need forced a noise out of me that was part whine, part wail. Then I felt them move their hands upon me with more focused intent. Roan's thumb was on that pearl of nerves, making the ache grow so sweetly painful it set my teeth on edge. Arik's finger was curling upwards, faster and faster, but that wasn't enough, not until Creed probed my entrance and pushed inside.

Gods, that…

I went rigid in their hold, my hips bucking to drive them deeper, as Creed's finger pushed Arik's harder against the itch I needed to have scratched. Coupled with the rapid rub of Roan's thumb I was falling, falling, but Silas gripped me tighter.

"Are they giving you what you need?" he asked me in a low raspy voice. "Are you coming apart at the seams, my Jessalyn?"

He always called me lass or princess, never by my name. Not even in my homeland was my first name often used without my title attached. Only by the people that truly loved me. My eyes flicked open and locked with his. Silas watched my mouth fall open, and he noted every panting breath I took as wave upon wave of pleasure came crashing down upon me. His hands gripped me tighter as I jerked and twitched, unable to stop myself as my whole body was wracked. Then, when I finally went still, he pressed a kiss to my forehead and said the words I needed to hear.

"That's one."

"Well, I'm not sure about you pricks, but I need a taste of our mate." Creed growled as Roan sank down to his knees, catching the moment I flinched as they pulled their hands free. But he didn't stop the red-haired man from smoothing his hands across my thighs, then moving closer. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? My tongue on your clit."

I wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but the sly look on Roan's face had me nodding.

Gods, now I remembered. The feel of something softer, slicker than fingers. The delicacy of Roan's ministrations was exactly what my over-sensitive flesh needed. He teased me, tracing every inch of my anatomy, forcing me to follow the passage of the point of his tongue until I pulled a hand away from Silas' neck and used it to pull Roan closer.

"That's right, Princess," he moaned into me. "Make me give you whatever you need."

So I did. I used my grip on Roan's long hair to direct him up to that sensitive nub. At first, he barely nudged it with his tongue. Then when I didn't flinch away, he grew bolder. He circled it over and over as my fingers tightened in his hair, then flicked it with one long swipe. My whole body jolted with every pass of his tongue, but I leaned into each stroke.

"My turn." Creed went to pull Roan away, but I wouldn't loosen my grip on his hair. He just stared up at me, hazy-eyed, as he went back for another lick. "I need to taste her," Creed growled. "She's my—"

"Ours," Arik corrected.

"Why fight when you could share?" Silas shifted his grip upon me, tilting my hips to open me up wider.

They both surged forward and, I wasn't entirely sure how, one set of lips wrapped around my pearl and sucked, while a tongue wriggled into me.

"Oh gods…"

That was all I managed to whimper before the twin stimulation made my whole spine contract so that my breasts arched upward. Arik took that as an invitation to cover one with his heavy hand, and his eyes held mine as he lowered his mouth to take the other.

I was coming apart, one harsh tug at a time. All three of them seemed able to coordinate their caresses with some unheard command having them work as one. I wriggled, writhed, and fought against their iron hold. My wild thrashing led to Silas murmuring in my ear.

"Those movements are very distracting." He had the mild tone of one of my tutors taking me to task for a minor infraction, but thankfully none of my teachers had acted as he now did. Silas untied his breeches with one hand, then let out a groan as he pulled his member free. I knew what he'd done because I felt it, too long, too hot, too hard, pressed into my hip. "Now you can wriggle all you like…" I did so involuntarily in response to Roan's tongue flicking so fast over my pearl. "Gods, yes, just like that…" Silas moved when I moved, and he continued rutting up against me as I made a mess of his comrades' faces.

"Are you close?" His cool exterior fractured, and his fingers bit deep as he yanked me back against him. "I think you are. I think you're fit to burst, Jessalyn."

I couldn't answer him. My self-control was completely shattered. I felt like a leaf that'd had the misfortune to float out to sea and was being tossed around by forces far greater than me. I was tugged here, towards Arik's demanding mouth, and I thrust both my hands in his hair to stroke him through each suck, then there to Roan's rapidly flickering tongue, and finally to the insistent press of Creed's tongue, every flex of his jaw felt as he struggled to slide his tongue deeper.

"Yes…" I panted. "Yes, I'm going to…"

"Me too, sweetness. Me too."

My eyes found Silas' and our expressions became perfect mirrors of each other as we hurtled towards our peaks, separately, yet utterly entwined. He couldn't get there without the feel of me in his arms and I couldn't without his selfless offer of me to his brothers. Our lips parted, both of us taking just short little breaths of air in and out, and then his mouth came crashing down on mine. I swallowed down his sounds of pleasure as I moaned out my own, and then it happened.

Fire burned all the way up my spine, singeing everything it passed, but I craved the burn. I pulled my lips away from Silas, and my smile went wide as I got lost in it. Pleasure, so much pleasure, was coming in waves that seemed they would never stop, and I was happy to drown in them. And as he held me close, his seed spilled all over my skin while he joined me in this downward spiral.

"That's how you mark her as yours without hurting her," Roan told Creed, getting to his feet and wiping his face clean before licking what remained of me from his fingers.

He looked like a greedy child, and I thought that I'd happily let him eat me all up. He jerked at the laces of his breeches, pulling out something long, hard and an angry red, then he surged forward against me. Creed's clawed hand slapped down on his shoulder, the beginnings of a snarl on his face, as we all looked down to where Roan's body met mine.

"Fuck, I see the temptation." Roan's hand was wrapped around the base of his cock, controlling the way it slid across my seam, not into me. I let out an apprehensive little whine as he moved it lower, as the feeling of something big—too big yet not big enough—notched itself against me. That set the ache throbbing again because somehow, I knew. They could kiss me, stroke me, slide fingers and tongues inside me, but something deep within wanted this. Hard, throbbing, and utterly male as it stabbed into me, making me utterly female. His eyes met mine and his slow smile made clear he knew exactly what I was thinking. "But I'm too thick for your first time. Better let one of the other two have the honour."

"Fuck you," Silas snapped. "I've got inches on you."

"But not the girth." Roan groaned the words out, too focused on sliding forward, his cock spreading my folds open, hitting that sensitive pearl, there and gone again before I could complain of being too sensitive, only to return. "You'll like me plenty when you're used to being penetrated. Might even come to crave it."

I pulled him toward me, our mouths performing a strange little dance before they crushed closer.

"Maybe I already do…"

I'd meant for that to come out way more confidently, but it became more of a moan. This was a very different kind of stimulation, but my hips still rocked as far as the men allowed them to move.

"You like that, huh?" Roan was usually so cocky, but he'd lost some of his edge and his tone turned ragged. "Gods, you're so fucking wet. All wet for me, aren't you, Jessalyn?"

How on earth could he need reassurance? He lopped off the heads of catamounts, sliced into bandits like they were corn dolls. He was so big and tall and proficient at everything he did that his request sat strangely with me.

"Tell me you are," he ground out. "Lie to me if you have to. Tell me this is just for me."

"All for you." I drew him close and pressed a kiss to his forehead as he started to move faster. The wave of pleasure was slower to swell, more mellow now. "Just for you, Roan. Roan… Roan…"

He shouted my name as well, when we finally fell to pieces, and the hot spurt of his seed all over me felt exactly right. They'd burned themselves into my skin from the moment I'd met them, and the claim wasn't something that could be washed away. It went all the way through the layers of my skin, marking me down to my bones. I was theirs, utterly theirs. As soon as Silas and the others lowered my feet back to the ground, I went to my knees before them, somehow knowing this was the place for me.