Chapter 23

TWENTY-THREE

Tara

I wrap myself in a blanket and walk past everyone to get to the little hot spring we'd found by the river. It's a quick walk, not nearly long enough for me to get my racing thoughts together, but I'm grateful my feet didn't have to traverse tough ground for too long. Because there will be more walking today.

The thing is, I want to know what the wolves are here for and what they want to talk about. Some gut feeling tells me this is going to complicate everything. How badly, I don't know yet. I just hope they'll just let me out of this marriage peacefully after I fix the water. That whatever plan they had for me they can adjust to allow me to ride off into the sunset with Garrick.

At the edge of the hot spring, I drop the blanket and step in, letting the cold water flow over me. It takes me a little time to inch out in the deepness of the cold hot spring, but I clench my chattering teeth together and do it. I want to get clean, but I also know the wolves won't want to smell Garrick on me.

I slip my head under the water, and when I pop back up and open my eyes, the wolves are at the edge of the hot spring, stripping.

"Wh-?" I whisper to myself.

But I can't seem to look away, even though my brain is having trouble comprehending what's happening right now. It's a parade of muscles, sleek bodies, and dicks. Large dicks. And after seeing what Garrick can do to me, my gaze lingers more than a little longer on their impressive cocks.

When they're all naked, they get into the water with me. They wade in slowly, yet seem unaffected by the chill of the water. We quietly stare at each other for a bit before I break the silence, unable to stop myself from asking one of the many questions that's been on my mind since they reappeared in the cave.

"What's going on? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Rinan says, and he smiles, but his smile is tired and filled with tension.

"How did you find us so quickly?"

"We walked from the moment we found you gone until now," Drogo says, and his dark eyes meet mine intently, without hesitation or anger. He's not even brooding, which is weird for him.

"Why?" I'm beyond confused. "Did you just want to make sure I fulfilled my word? I'm going to try to fix the curse – I told you I would. You didn't have to come after me."

"This isn't about the curse," Arlys says, very matter-of-factly.

My nose wrinkles. "Then what's it about?"

"You," Rinan says simply, like that should answer all my questions.

" Me ?" I ask, not understanding what they're talking about at all .

"Yes," Drogo says, and he's doing that strange thing again. Holding eye contact like he's trying to communicate something really important to me.

"Is it because you wanted my pack and supplies back? I can leave those for you if it's a big deal."

Rinan snorts. "No, we don't give a shit about your pack and supplies."

My mind keeps working. "If it's that you think the witches are going to work with the bears now, you're wrong. I intend to stay far away from the witches for the rest of my life."

"That's not it," Drogo says, and he sounds frustrated.

I toss my hands in the air. "Then what is it? Why are you here?"

Arlys moves forward in the water so that we're only a couple feet from each other. "We're sorry."

"Sorry?" My brain isn't making sense of any of this.

He nods. "For how we've been acting. For how we've treated you. For how we've spoken to you. For everything."

I don't know what to say. This wasn't even on my list of things to expect. "Okay, you're forgiven."

"Just like that?" Drogo asks, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

I shrug. "I mean, we're never going to see each other again, so why does it matter? I don't want to hold onto this kind of anger."

They flinch like I've struck them.

Arlys runs a hand through his long dark hair. "The thing is, we don't want that. We don't want to never see you again. We've realized since right after your wedding to Garrick how much we care about you for who you are. We don't care that you're a witch. You're ours. Our wife. And our mate."

Mate? I almost laugh. Mates are important to shifters. Garrick explained that to me. He would never treat me the way they have. How in the world can they now say I'm their mate?

"Why would you treat me so terribly if I'm your mate?"

Drogo looks ashamed. "We've been denying how we feel. The truth is, I've been pulled to you since we first met, but our hang-up with witches and the plan we made before meeting you always dominated my thoughts. I couldn't get past it."

"How is it you can do that now?" I ask him.

Drogo looks miserable. "Because when you left and we couldn't find you, I felt like I was going to die. I would have burned the whole world down to find you." He rubs his hands over his face, looking like he's being tortured.

"We all would have," Rinan adds, more miserable than I've ever seen him before. "We were heartbroken. The pain of losing you was physical. It was like nothing we'd felt before. We put the pieces together and realized the reason why is because you're our mate. You're the one woman we can love. The only person we can ever be with."

My chest aches. The truth is, I feel that way about them too, but they don't deserve it. They don't deserve me or my love. They've already thrown it away too many times to count.

Arlys takes my hand, his gaze intense. "We are so sorry. We will never make you feel the way we did before. We will never treat you like anything but our wife and our mate. We promise. This marriage will be real from here on. No more plans. Whether you fix the water or not, you're coming home with us as a part of our family."

They mean it. I can see it in their eyes. But I'm not sure it's enough.

I pull my hand away, shaking my head. "No. If I was your mate, you would have known earlier, and you wouldn't have treated me this way."

Arlys looks upset. "The truth is that we probably didn't know because we haven't had sex. Sex often reveals the bond."

"So, we need to have sex to solidify the bond?" I ask.

They nod.

My gaze runs over them. The truth is, I want to have sex with them. I want to be with them. The idea of leaving them behind has always been a painful thing. But something is stopping me.

"What would happen if I decided I didn't want you? That I was going to leave with Garrick and never see any of you again?"

It's like the air has been sucked away from us. The look on their faces is absolutely shattered. Rinan actually turns and staggers until he gets to a point in the hot spring where he can collapse to his knees. Their emotions – heartbroken, shattered to their core – wash over me, and it's like I can't breathe.

"We'd accept what you want," Arlys chokes out.

"We would let you go," Drogo says, but then continues, "And we would never love again. Never take a partner. Never have children. And we'd deserve it, because we were horrible to you, to our mate."

I stare, then wrap my arms around myself. Turning my back to them, I stare out at the forest, feeling as broken as they feel. I know they deserve my wrath, but I also know that to punish them would be to punish myself.

"Fuck," Rinan murmurs, and he's suddenly closer to me. "What happened to your back?"

I consider lying, but then just decide to be truthful. "It was my mother. But metal rods and whips never made me into the daughter she always wanted. No matter what, I wasn't a very good witch. No matter how isolated she made me, no matter how much the other witches hated me, I was always me." A little laugh explodes from my lips. "If you guys think you don't like me, you have nothing on my mother."

There's silence, and then they're around me, big, towering shifters. Their bodies form walls of muscle that surround me. I see it on their faces. Something else has changed. Something I don't understand.

Drogo reaches beneath my chin and tilts my head up, so I have to look into his dark eyes. "One day, we're going to kill your mother for hurting you."

I shiver.

Rinan's voice is softer, but full of fury. "I'm so angry. Angry at your people, and angry at myself for treating you the way we did. You've had a rough life. All you deserve is gentleness and kindness, and we only managed to be as cruel as the people that hurt you."

It's hard to see them like this. "You were nicer than my people."

Drogo swears. "I'm never going to forgive myself for what an asshole I was to you. Never. But I am going to spend the rest of our lives making it up to you."

His hand drops. I look between them. "You hurt me."

Their shoulders bow.

"I'm not ready to forgive you yet."

I think it would've been kinder to hit them.

"But…" I draw out the word, my own thoughts spinning. "I don't want a future without you either."

Arlys' brilliant green eyes meet mine. "Do you mean…?"

I nod. "I'll give you guys a chance to show me you deserve me."

Drogo makes a sound that's almost a squeal and grabs me and picks me up, spinning me in the water. Before I know it, I'm laughing, spreading my arms out, feeling like a bird whose broken wings have been finally fixed. Like I can fly for the first time.

He stops, and I slide down his body. My nipples harden. My body seems to curl against his, and his eyes widen and darken.

"Tara, you should get away from us. We've wanted you for so long. We might not be able to control ourselves," Drogo says, his words breathless, his hands tight on my hips.

I stay pressed against him, warring with my mind and body. He's not the only one who's been left wanting for a long time. When I picture myself with them, I don't see it like I once did, like a pretzel being twisted in different directions. I see it as something hot. Something soul-consuming. Something I know will happen eventually. So I'm struggling to see a reason to wait.

"You don't deserve me," I whisper.

He shakes his head. "We don't."

I lean up. Our lips are almost touching, his hot breath on my lips. "Maybe you can start working to deserve me now."

His grip on my hips tightened even harder. "Are you saying…?"

I nod.

And then his lips are on mine, all consuming. As hot as his anger and passion all rolled into one. And I'm left spinning in it, like a person caught in a current. Only, he's turning me on, making me burn.

Arlys and Rinan press closer. Their bodies are hard and hot against mine. Each of them grabs a breast, and then they're playing with my nipples, making their peaks harden until they're almost painful. The sensations are almost too much, almost more than I can bear. And then Arlys' hand slips between my thighs.

My lips part, intent on making some unnamed sound, and my legs spread wider. Drogo's tongue dives into my mouth, and our tongues tangle together, desperate and wanting. Then I feel Arlys' hand stroke my core, tease me without entering me, and my legs begin to shake.

Drogo's lips break from mine, and he begins to suck his way down my neck. Slowly. Unhurriedly. Like all he wants in this world is to taste my throat. And then Arlys' fingers part me and slip into my folds.

My body jerks. Arlys continues his dance, like an expert, drawing out my arousal. Making me burn for him. Making me burn for all of them.

Drogo lifts me, and my legs wrap around his back. Between us is still Arlys' hand, playing, teasing, making me wild. Rinan leans down and takes my nipple in his mouth and begins to suck. The pleasure makes me buck against Arlys' hand as my head spins.

I've just barely experienced sex for the first time. I thought it was amazing. But now, with three men touching and tasting me, it's like I'm experiencing a different kind of sex… and I like it. A lot.

Drogo is carrying me. Moving me. The men are everywhere, working together, and then they shift places, and I'm laid back on a rock at the hot spring's edge. Drogo doesn't hesitate. He spreads my thighs and presses his mouth inside of me. I cry out, and Rinan and Arlys are there, sucking on my breasts. My head spins. My pleasure builds.

And builds.

It rises up higher and higher inside of me, making my toes curl, making my core throb until the feeling is overwhelming. More than I can handle.

Even so, I don't expect the orgasm that strikes me. It hits me with all the force of a runaway horse, until I'm completely under its control. My hands tangle in Rinan and Arlys' hair. My hips thrust against Drogo's face. I ride the waves as they crash over me over and over again until I lie back, spent.

Rinan and Arlys leave my breasts and move to my pussy. They begin to lick me together, both their tongues working in a way that has me losing my mind. Drogo's big hands find my breasts, and he plucks and pinches in a way that makes my hips jerk.

My men are going crazy, eating me out like this is all they've ever wanted. They touch my stomach, my hips, my thighs, owning my flesh in a way only they can.

When I feel another orgasm building, a desire to have them inside of me overtakes me. "Please," I whisper.

They freeze. Drogo's deep voice comes, an inch from my nipple. "You want us to stop?"

I shake my head. "I want you to… come. I want you… inside me."

Something changes between them. Something that makes me suspect that being inside me was never the plan. That maybe this time was meant for just my pleasure. But I don't think they need much to be convinced.

The men part from between my thighs. Drogo picks me up as if I weigh nothing at all. Then he lays down on the rock with me on top, scooting up to give the others room.

"You sure you can take all three of us?" he pants.

I nod, even though I'm not sure. I just want to be sure.

The tip of his big cock angles into my pussy, and my heartbeat races in my ears. He's gentle, slow, seeming to take a lifetime to reach his hilt. But once he does, he feels good. Really good. Hot and hard, throbbing inside of me in a way I'll never get sick of.

Rinan straddles Drogo's legs, and Arlys straddles my ass. I'm not sure exactly how they're going to make this work. Then the strangest thing happens: I feel Rinan start to press his cock into my pussy alongside Drogo's.

My eyes widen. My nails dig into Drogo's shoulders. Inch by inch Rinan pushes himself deeper, filling me with two cocks. Stretching my body to allow something that should be impossible. My toes curl. My body would rise up, if I could escape the men. And yet, it's not a bad feeling.

When Rinan reaches his hilt, I'm panting. We all are. We're held into place, waiting, but I don't know for what.

And then I hear Arlys spit into his hand. He strokes his cock a few times, and then I feel his tip pressing into my asshole. Maybe I'm naive. Maybe I'm a fool. But I never imagined that this was the next step.

I hold myself still, feeling like I'm being speared by giant dicks as he slowly eases inside of me. The fit is tight, too tight, like with my pussy, but the feeling isn't bad. Just strange.

I tense, but he waits. He waits until I relax, then eases in deeper, following my lead. Making it clear to me that even though I'm filled with three large men, I'm the one in charge.

When he finally buries himself balls deep inside of me, and I can feel his balls against me, Drogo kisses me. "Are you okay?"

I nod again, unsure about what to say.

He grabs ahold of my breasts and starts working my nipples as the men begin to move inside of me. I'm having a hard time drawing in a breath when they move me so that only their tips are inside me, and then they slam back in.

I cry out as waves of pleasure crash over me, but they're not done. Their thrusts are slow at first, making it hard to think, making it hard to feel anything except them inside of me. But their movements get faster and harder, sending sparks dancing in front of my eyes, making my body feel alive with pleasure. Faster and harder. Faster and harder. They pump inside of me until I explode, screaming over the edge, my vision going dark, my world changed forever.

They keep going. Their breathing is harsh. Their bodies are tense. And then I feel them explode inside of me, their seed hot, coating my insides. It turns me on, draws my orgasm out, building to another one, until I'm screaming again, coming again, riding them to ecstasy.

And then we collapse together, breathing hard.

I swear, I feel it. The same thing I felt with Garrick. A connection. A bond. It's like what I felt with the wolves before, only intensified like the light from a candle compared to the light from the sun.

"Tara," Drogo whispers into my hair. "I love you."

"I love you," Rinan and Arlys say together.

I sigh. "Don't think you're off the hook yet."

"Never," Drogo says, kissing my hair. "This is just the beginning of our lifetime of making things up to you."

I hope they're right. I hope I wasn't a fool to let them back in. There's no going back now.