by Dizzy Hooper
Nothing lasts forever, though. The mattress rocks as Grady comes to kneel by my head. I flutter my eyelids open to gaze at him, naked and open. He cups my face and murmurs, "Come."
I keep my gaze connected with his as I tense all over. A second orgasm flows through me, ecstasy rippling along my every nerve as Colt pushes in deep and then shoots his seed inside me, too.
Colt clutches me tight for a moment, then pulls out, and I roll onto my back, boneless and exhausted.
But I'm never too tired for my alpha.
Grady covers my body with his. I welcome him home, opening my legs for him. Settling between them, he kisses me deeply, tongue sweeping past my lips. His huge alpha cock brushes the inside of my thigh, while he rubs his hand over the big curve of my belly, reverence in his touch.
I shudder with another aftershock, Colt and Landen's come leaking out of me. With weak and trembling arms, I reach for Grady, longing to add his release to the mix, only he has another idea.
"Come on," he rumbles against my lips.
Ever so gently, he rolls us. My body wants to protest as he pulls me on top of him, but there's never been a challenge my alpha has set for me that I couldn't meet. I end up straddling his hips, my pussy wet and open and leaking as I drag that swollen flesh along his cock.
With one hand on my belly and the other on my hip, he rocks me over him.
"That's right, baby. Take what you need."
A lick of flame heats my core. I squeeze my eyes shut at the sharp stab of desire.
How did he know?
I needed connection. I needed comfort and my mates' tender care, but I needed to take action, too.
I needed this.
Sliding my hips forward, I let my pussy coat his cock. His thick head catches on my opening, and I lean back. Over and over, I grind against him like that, my fat, pregnant belly rubbing up against his ripped abs, my slick cunt growing wetter and more swollen, until even I can't take this teasing.
It's an effort, but I lift myself a couple of inches. Grady takes the cue, slotting his hand between our bodies to grasp his cock by the base. He angles himself up. I roll my hips, gliding my clit over his crown a couple of times before finally aligning his thick length with my opening.
Slowly—so slowly, I sink down.
Jesus, yeah, that's perfect.
It's so difficult to get my mates really deep in my current state, but this position always does the trick. A low burn starts up in my thighs as I work his cock inside. When he's finally in to the hilt, I let my head drop back, just savoring the feeling of him.
"Just like that, Jess—gorgeous—"
Grady slides a hand along my body, over my swollen stomach and through the valley between my full breasts to rest against my throat. Can he feel my pulse hammering? Feel the life and pleasure flowing through me?
I can. In every cell it hums.
As I rock myself over him, my clit grinding against his pubic bone, the sheer animal joy of mating ripples through my veins. The connection with my mates makes me glow. They take such good care of me; they'll take such good care of our pups.
I feel so safe.
Here, in this home I lost, I feel found.
As I give myself over to the pleasure, heat spreads its way across my spine. I twist my neck to the side, taking in Colt behind me. His broad chest shores me up. Embracing me, helping me to ride my alpha, he cups my breasts with his hands. Tingles shoot from my nipples to my clit. Fluid beads up at the tips of my breasts, but I can't even bring myself to be ashamed.
For a second, I swear I leave my body.
From above, I watch myself move. My swollen belly and breasts all but bounce as I work myself to completion atop my alpha's prefect cock. Far from the cow I feel like some days, I'm a female goddess, a symbol of fertility and womanhood, great with child and worshipped by these men.
And it only gets better. Coming to kneel beside me, Landen takes my face in both his hands. He tilts my head up and around until he can cover my mouth with his.
I might not be in a position to pleasure all of my mates at the same time right now, but for once, I have no self-consciousness about allowing all three to pleasure me. I use Grady's cock. I squeeze Colt's hand, compelling him to caress my tits more roughly as I scrape my teeth over Landen's full bottom lip.
"Jessica," Grady grits out. "Mate…"
He sounds overcome, and maybe that's the thing that does it. I tip over into an orgasm so shattering it breaks me clear in two. My womb ripples, and pleasure blinds me, erupting the world into fractured white.
The vision of myself as a goddess being worshipped persists, though.
These males brought me here to satisfy some sense of loss inside me. It took returning to my childhood home to make me realize I never lost anything. I only left it behind for a while.
Together with my mates, I'm here to reclaim it.
Held up by them, loved by them, I'm strong.
Because that's what love does. It makes you strong.
Strong enough to put a broken family back together.
Strong enough to stand up to hate.
Chapter 9
The banging on the door is hard enough to rattle the walls. I groan, snuggling deeper into the pillows. Without even thinking about it, I reach out with my senses. My mates' scents all surround me, cloaking me in safety. Alertness prickles through the map of their auras, though. The warm body behind mine shifts, moving to rise. The rustling of fabric signals another of my mates coming awake.
Inside my belly, my pups give a few, slightly stronger than normal kicks. Something feels funny between my legs, but it's probably just my mates' seed dripping out of me. That thought fills me with a low wave of satisfaction. Ignoring the constant pressure of my pregnant bladder, I will myself to stay asleep. Whoever it is will go away, or if not, my mates will handle it.
But then the banging starts up again, more insistent than before. Through my haze, I dimly recognize Claire's voice. "Jessica! Jessica—get up! Hurry."
The chest I'm using as a pillow goes rigid. More sounds of movement around me further pierce my bubble. I make a quiet sound of confusion, even as sleep attempts to pull me right back under.
"Jessie, it's your dad. He's back."
I come awake all at once. "What?"
Light-headedness strikes me as I lurch to sit. I blink my eyes open to find it dark, barely enough moonlight spilling in from the window for me to see.
"Jessie—" Claire says again, louder, a thread of panic in her voice.
The door to my childhood bedroom flies open. A beam of golden light blinds me. Colt sits up by my side, pulling me in and wrapping a sheet around my naked body, shielding me. Squinting, I look to the open door. Grady stands in silhouette against the rectangle of light spilling in from the hallway. He's dressed in only his underwear. Landen, in a similar state of dress, moves to take his flank.
"What the hell is going on?" Grady all but growls.
I crane my neck, struggling to see my cousin past my alpha's bulk.
Her face is drawn, her skin pale. Her long, dark hair is piled in a messy bun on the top of her head, and she's wearing blue, sheep-covered pajamas.
Pulling the sheet with me, I scramble to get up. This must be serious; my shy, demur cousin would never let a male see her like this if it weren't.
My head swims again, and my belly protests. Another drip of fluid runs down my leg. My knees shake.
"I don't know who told him," Claire insists, wringing her hands. "Probably one of those mongrels they left behind. But they just pulled through the gate. Katarina is with them. You have to go."
"No." The force with which the word bursts out of my chest takes even me by surprise.
Claire's gaze snaps to mine. All three of my mates whip their heads around, and Jesus. I'm standing here, huge with child, dripping between my legs, naked except for a sheet, with all four of these people staring at me.
But I refuse to be ashamed. I refuse to back down or to be
driven out of this house that used to be my home.
Claire finds her voice first. "It's all of them. You'll be outnumbered."
"I'm not leaving without talking to my father."
Unceremoniously, I drop my sheet. Claire's eyes widen, but I don't care. I stalk toward my suitcase and drop to pull out a change of clothes.
"You know what he threatened to do to you."
How could I forget his promise to sick Katarina's thugs on me?
But I don't care.
"He can't hurt me." I'm nowhere near as confident about that as I sound, but I believe it. I have to.
As I fumble to get dressed, memories flash across my vision.
My father was the warmest, the most caring, the most protective. After my mother died, he lost his spark, but he stayed alive—he survived the loss of his mate for me.
The last time I was here, he cast me out, but that couldn't have been him. I didn't have the strength to take on the evil that had crept into his mind and poisoned him against me.
I do now.
"Jess," Colt rumbles from my side. "Are you sure?"
"100%."
"You seem awful worked up."
I pull on my shirt and turn to face him. "How could I not be?"
I want to be angry at him for questioning me, but I pause for a moment. I take in the creases between his brows and the tilt of his mouth.
He's not trying to stop me—not exactly.
He's concerned. And…I can't completely say his worry is unfounded.
We're risking an all out war here, and even if we weren't. Every bit of pregnancy advice is about taking care of yourself and your pups. Don't exert yourself too much, take it easy, put your feet up.
Well, that's not what I'm doing now. My pulse thunders in my ears. The babies feel my agitation. They kick and buck, my entire womb reverberating with their motion. I put my hand to the underside of my belly, seeking to soothe them, but I can't get distracted now.
We're here, inside the compound, occupying my father's home. We'll never have a chance like this again.
I'll never have a chance like this.
My father might have been able to stare at me with cold calculation in his eyes nine months ago. But here, with me weeks away from giving birth to his grandchildren, how can his heart stay hard?
How can he deny me and my children our family?
Closing my eyes for a second, I take a deep breath. When I look to Colt again, I'm calmer. My heart still thunders, and the pups continue to squirm, but I'm okay. I can keep myself under control.
"I have to confront him. I have to. Don't you understand?"
He stares at me for a long moment. Then he nods tightly.
Grady comes to stand beside me, dressed now. He puts his hand on my arm. When I look to him, he locks his gaze with mine. "Believe me," he says, voice tight. "If anyone understands, it's us."
Another pang rolls through me, devastating and painful. Of course. They lost their families to betrayal and grief.
They could never deny me my chance to try to sew mine back together.
"Thank you." My throat scrapes, fervency reverberating through my lungs.
"Come on," Landen says from behind me. "Let's get you downstairs."
Chapter 10
Never let it be said that my mates don't have a flair for drama.
After a treacherous trip down the stairs, they seat me in the nicest chair in what used to be my mother's living room but which is now Katarina's museum of overpriced interior design. I'm not wearing any make-up, and I'm dressed in comfortable traveling clothes. My feet feel like they're swollen to the size of my head, and my enormous belly keeps rippling. My nerves combine with the anxiety of my pups, and I can scarcely breathe, the pressure of my womb on my lungs is so intense.
It's not the way I would have liked to confront my father and his new mate, but it's what I have.
Claire and Nikki have been seated to either side of me. Neither of them looks much better, between Claire's silly pajamas and Nikki's too-revealing night-gown. Claire wrings her hands in her lap, while Nikki holds her head up high, defiance written on every inch of her.
To either side of us stand two strong males. Grady and Landen bristle with tension and barely contained rage to my right, while Tommy and Colt lend a quieter if no less dangerous menace to my left.
I'm protected. I'm safe. My family and my bondmates have my back.
So why the hell am I shaking?
One of my pups gives another vicious kick to my midsection, and it's all I can do not to cry out. I flinch, and Claire reaches for me, but I brush her off.
Because it's in that precise moment that the door to the house—my parents' house, my mother's house—flies open.
A half dozen young males come hurtling through the door, already in wolf form. They're snarling, practically foaming at the mouth. All the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end. My bones pop and stretch, my wolf itching to be released. The males around me twitch. Snarls go up from each of them. I can smell the wolf circling in each of my mates, ready to rise to the surface, but they're disciplined. Steady.
Unlike the feral mutts standing before us. They snap their jaws, and adrenaline pours into my veins. I rise to my feet, and Katarina's guard dogs howl.
"Enough," a rough voice barks.
My wolf all but throws herself at my ribs. I barely manage to keep her contained, my protectiveness for my pups the only thing holding her back.
I know that voice. It's haunted my dreams for the better part of a year now.
It told me to go away. It banished me from this place that is rightfully mine, and I let it.
But I'm not running away now. I'm not going to be chased off my own territory or intimidated. Not by the mutts growling and yipping at me from their place by the door.
Definitely not by the poisonous woman who is their master.
"Where is she?" the voice asks again, all barely contained fury.
I take a step forward.
Katarina sweeps through the door like she owns the place, but fuck her. She doesn't. Not anymore. My hands clench into fists, my canines itching with the instinct to bite and fight.
And a part of me can see how my father fell under her spell. She's beautiful, for a shifter of her age. Fine lines surround her piercing green eyes, and she certainly still has her figure. Her auburn hair is streaked with gray, but it only manages to make her look more handsome—and more dangerous.
There's something a little too sharp about her features, though. Something a little too mean to the tilt of her mouth.
Her hateful gaze searches the room, until after a moment it lands squarely on me. Cold fire burns in her eyes. "You bitch."
My mates all but lose it, but I can't bring myself to even hear her.
Because there—following right behind her…
Echoes of tears spring unbidden to my eyes. I want to laugh. I want to cry. Who would have imagined that the mere sight of my father could move to me such emotion?
When he cast me out, I wanted to hate him. I put all thoughts of him aside for months.
Right until my pups started wrestling inside my belly, making themselves known. The call for family cried out in my veins, blood seeking blood.
My mates are enough—they always have been and they always will be enough. But I loved my father. Even after everything that's happened between us, I love him still.
When my mother died, he was here for me. He was diminished, of course, his strength sapped by the loss of his mate. But he took care of me all the same. He was the light in my darkness when we each could have lost ourselves to grief.
And now there's even…less of him, somehow. A few months can't explain the degree to which he's aged. His proud, black mane of hair had gone salt and pepper after my mother's death, but it's a dingy gray, now. Bags hang under his eyes, and their bright blue has turned a clouded white. He looks as defeated as I felt when he turned me away, and regret burns through me.
&n
bsp; Why didn't I fight for him?
How could I have left him this way?
"Father," I call out. I extend my hand, and I swear I see light spark behind the dimness of his eyes.
But he's not the only one roused.
The three males who came in with them snap and snarl.
Katarina stalks forward, commanding attention. Her gaze locked on mine, she flings her hand back toward my father. "How dare you even speak to him?"
"Watch your tone." Grady steps directly into her path. His broad chest heaves, his wolf mere inches beneath his skin.
Katarina turns to him. "I'll speak however I please in my house."
"It's my house," I grit out.
Katarina whips around to face me again, her eyes glinting with malice. "Why you little whore."
I can almost taste the blood in the back of my mates' throats. Even Tommy growls. Claire whimpers, while Nikki silently seethes.
Katarina takes in the males surrounding me and my cousins. Then she looks to me, eyes narrowed, disdain in her voice. "What? You think because you waltz in here while we're away that you can take what's mine?"
"It certainly worked for you." My abdomen gives another pulsing throb, but I ignore it, forcing myself to stand tall.
Katarina waves a hand dismissively. "Call off your dogs."
I bristle anew. "These are my mates."
That makes her step back. "Mates?"
Her gaze flits among my three strong male protectors.
"That's right." Pride fills me.
But then her eyes go calculating. She draws in a breath, face twisting with spite. "You see, Raymond?" She addresses my father for the first time. "Just like I told you. She's even more of a slut than I imagined."
And it's one step too far across a line.
Landen is the first to shift. His clothes shred to tatters, his big blond wolf breaking free. Colt follows, and the room dissolves into angry barks and howls and spit.
"Jessie," my father says, and I look to him, even as the walls spin.
But I can't tell if it's Katarina's hate staring back at me through his eyes or if it's the father's love that I'm so desperate for.