Chapter 3

THREE

Tara

My room's different. I pause in the doorway and take it all in. Two beds are now side by side, taking up most of one side of the large room. The beds have been made, sitting there neatly, as if they'd always been there. Which is weird.

What's more, all four men are in the room, in various stages of undress. Like this is their daily routine, getting ready for bed in my room together. Has everyone lost their minds?

"What's going on?" I ask, my gaze running over them. Garrick's shirtless, and my eyes stay on his chest for a little too long before I look away at something–anything else. They land on Prince Drogo's bare back, muscles rippling as he moves. Beside him, Prince Rinan is in nothing but his boxers, beaming back at me like the gorgeous man he is.

Finally, Prince Alrys takes a step closer to me, wearing pants that are riding dangerously low. "Are you alright? We heard you'd gone to the tower, but we wanted to give you a little time to yourself."

For some reason, I think I would have preferred it if they checked on me. "I'm fine."

His green eyes seem to be searching for meaning in my face. "Are you?"

I fold my arms over my chest.

He sighs, running his hands through his long, black hair. "We all owe you a massive apology. We shouldn't have spoken about you like you were a prize instead of a person."

All of the men, even Prince Drogo, have the decency to look ashamed. Which is new for them. But still doesn't make what they did okay.

I stare at them, and apologies are murmured all around. There's an uncomfortable tension in the air that I don't like, and I realize that I have no idea what they can say to make me forgive them. It's all just so fresh and so painful.

Prince Arlys clears his throat. "We also had a discussion about what to do moving forward. A discussion I hope you'll approve of." When I don't respond, he continues. "We came to an agreement that it's not right for any of us to stake a claim to have sex with you until you're ready. And we know you aren't ready for that right now, not after how we have acted. But ," he looks around at the three other men, "none of us trust the others alone with you, so we're all sleeping together from this point forward."

I see Prince's Rinan's expression shift. "Unless–"

"Not unless," Drogo grumbles. "We came to an agreement. A better agreement than what we thought we were forced to agree to. This gives everyone exactly what they want, while sticking to the original plan."

Garrick looks annoyed. "I would've preferred–"

"We know what you would've preferred," Prince Rinan says grumpily, then shoots Drogo an angry look. "But we came to another cock-blocking agreement." And his last words sound frustrated as hell.

Prince Arlys sighs, running his hand through his long, dark hair. "So, that's the plan. We're all sleeping together from now on. Without sex."

I scan the room again, looking at each man. They're giants, crowding my large room and making it seem smaller. What's more, they're giants with some serious hatred between them.

I look back at the double bed set-up, and unexpectedly, I burst into laughter. "All five of us are sleeping together?"

Like a pile of puppies.

Garrick's nose wrinkles. "It's the only way to be sure all of us stick to our word."

So, their only solution was… this… this mess?

"You don't trust each other that much?" I grin at the notion of these enemies sharing two beds together. "How will you know you're safe? Can you really even sleep like this? I bet you'll end up fighting in your sleep."

An image of Drogo and Garrick sleep-fighting under the covers pops into my head with the blankets and sheets swishing all over the place, and I'm laughing again. Maybe it's exhaustion, maybe it's that I'm tired of feeling stressed and alone, but I can't seem to stop laughing.

Garrick cracks a smile before joining in on the laughter with me. Prince Rinan chuckles too. Prince Arlys simply rolls his eyes, a smile teasing the corners of his mouth, and places his folded shirt on the vanity.

"It's not funny." Drogo scowls. "We have to sleep with a fucking bear."

Buzz kill. The laughter dies down shortly after that. Then, we're all just staring at each other.

"So, Tara, does all of this sound okay with you?" Garrick asks, those big hazel eyes filled with hope. "Everything is your choice."

All eyes are on me, even though I'm not sure how much the wolves even care. Still, this is what I wanted. A say in things.

Slowly, I nod.

He smiles.

But I'm not done. I swallow, hard, speaking without thinking. "I never want to be talked about like I'm an object with no say in anything ever again. Like… I'm a piece of food you all get a piece of to fuck."

Garrick comes closer to me, his huge body towering over mine. "I'm sorry. That was insensitive of me. I prioritized fighting with the wolves over my wife. You deserve better than that."

"You're a smooth talker," I tell him, my back rigid. "I'm going to remember that."

Hurt flashes in his eyes. "I meant everything I said to you."

I rub my hands on my arms, even though I'm not cold. "At least they've never pretended to care about me or like me. What you did is somehow worse."

Prince Rinan makes a sound of surprise. "Princess Tara…"

I give him a look. "Don't start now."

His mouth closes, but he looks upset.

"We all just need to focus on fixing the curse," Prince Arlys says.

I flash him a smile that's all teeth. "You've made it perfectly clear that that's your only concern."

His shoulders bend. "We never said we didn't care about you."

"You didn't have to." I turn away from them, trying to regain my composure. "So, what do we do from here, Prince Arlys?"

There's silence before Prince Arlys responds. "You can drop the ‘prince' from our names. We're married. We should start acting more like it."

I nod. "Okay. Right. I'll get better at acting."

Arlys flinches.

Rinan stands up a little taller. "That's not what he meant."

"It's fine," I say, regretting even drawing attention to the word.

Rinan looks like he wants to say something, but he doesn't.

After a minute, Arlys clears his throat. "Tomorrow we're going to have an early morning, so I think the best thing would be to get ready for bed."

"Got it," I say, still feeling strange. Upset, maybe.

They apologized. Why am I still mad? Why can't I let this go?

Hesitating, I think of my mother's message. Some part of me knows I should tell them, but everything feels so fragile between us right now. It might just be the thing to shatter this whole situation.

I'll tell them. At the right time.

I head through the room, select a nightgown from my wardrobe, and go behind my screen to get changed. It feels strange, being naked so close to four men. Four men who I have such complicated feelings for.

It's like something is changing inside of me. Something I don't understand. The witches have said and done far crueler things to me than that little insensitive conversation earlier tonight, yet I've never reacted like this before. It's like these men got through the shield around my heart just enough to be able to really hurt me, and I feel… sad about it.

I let the nightgown slip over my head, then adjust it to be sure they can't see the marks on my back and just stand for a minute, acknowledging the sadness I feel. I wish Baldemar were here to ask about this miserable feeling inside of me. Or even just Wisp.

But instead, I have no one to talk to except a room full of the people I want to talk about. The thought makes me feel even more alone than when I'm alone. I touch my cheeks, glad there are no tears. It feels like I should still be crying.

Drawing my shoulders back, I will myself not to let them hurt me like this again. I just hope my will is enough.

Coming out from behind the screen, I find the men all in nothing but their boxers, standing at the foot of the bed like a sexy fence I have to cross to get in, or maybe they're just waiting for me, I don't really know. Without a word, I squeeze through Drogo and Garrick and find a spot in the middle of the bed.

I glance back, and my gaze meets Garrick's. He gives a small smile, his eyes gentle, and climbs onto the bed, lying at my left. The whole bed sags as he does so, and I roll onto him a little before pushing myself back. Damn giant shifters.

To my surprise, jealousy flares in Drogo's gaze, and he huffs and lays down on my right, crowding around me. His body radiates heat at my back so strongly that I don't know how I'm going to be able to sleep tonight. Although I bet hot shifters make cold nights a hell of a lot better.

Rinan's gaze finds mine, and he rolls his eyes, smiling at me, before finding an empty spot behind Drogo. Finally, there's just Arlys, who has been left to lay near Garrick. He doesn't look happy about it, but he crawls onto the bed too.

Arlys draws the sheet over us. It's a big sheet that seems made for a setup like this, which is surprising. I wonder how often people in relationships with more than one shifter sleep like this. We're packed in here. Even though… I don't hate it. It's warm.

I break the tense silence. "Is this normal for your people? A bunch of people sleeping in one bed? Women having more than one husband? I heard it was, but I haven't seen another poor woman surrounded by growly shifters."

Garrick sits up on his elbow, studying me with his pretty hazel eyes, like he's still not quite sure how to handle me after hurting my feelings. Which, strangely, I appreciate. "Yeah, there are a lot fewer women than there are men, so it's pretty common for a woman to have more than one partner."

"And they all just have to squeeze into bed together? I bet that's not fun."

Amusement dances in his eyes. "Well, to be fair, they're not just sleeping."

A picture conjures itself in my mind. "All at once?" I whisper.

The air in the room heats up, and all four men become restless and seem to fidget, adjusting their positions. Garrick's husky voice breaks in. "Sometimes."

A low rumble comes from Drogo.

"Sometimes it's separate," Garrick continues. "Once the men form a good bond, they don't get jealous. Sharing a wife is an honor. When everyone's on the same page, it's a beautiful thing."

A beautiful thing? I try to picture the five of us all having sex. I picture myself twisted in different positions with giant dicks coming at me from every direction.

Ouch.

But he said it could be a good thing? A beautiful thing?

"Do you think it'll be like that with us?" It doesn't sound so bad… except for me being twisted like a piece of dough. And the tension's hard to deal with now. I don't want to spend my whole life breaking up fights between these men.

"Maybe," Garrick says, but there's doubt in his voice.

My thoughts keep working and other pictures form in my mind. "If we all have sex, will you have sex with each other? Like, dick to butthole? Or dick to mouth?"

"No!" they all say at once.

I feel myself grinning. "Are you sure? I've only got so many holes, but between all of you–"

Rinan sounds absolutely horrified as he says, "Tara, please, we don't want to fuck each other. We just want to fuck…"

"What?" I ask, confused.

"You," Garrick says easily, giving me a smile that almost makes me forget what a douchebag he is.

I nod. "So one day, your dicks are all going to be waving about, and I'm just going to have to deal with them? Interesting."

"Go to sleep," Drogo grumbles, but he's got a strange note to his voice I don't recognize.

I turn to face him, trying to figure out what he's thinking. He's got a scowl on his face, like usual, but his eyes are closed. So, assholes are still assholes when they're sleeping? Good to know.

My thoughts begin to wander back to my mother's message, and my body tenses. I should've told them. I'm not good at keeping secrets.

Garrick's strong arms wrap around my waist and pull me closer to him, making the tension in my body slip away. Some part of me wants to fight him just to show him I haven't forgiven him yet, but another part of me loves being pressed against him like this. And I feel like I deserve to feel good sometimes.

He leans his head into my hair and breathes in deeply, tightening his grip on me. Knowing how important scent is to shifters now, his action takes on a more… sexual energy, and I feel myself heating up.

My body fits into his like a glove.

Unfortunately for him, he was mean to me, and now I need a little time to decide if I even like him. I'll let him hold me, because I like it, but this doesn't mean I forgive him.

It does mean I'm comfortable though. My eyes flutter shut, and my breathing eases. A girl could get used to this.