I watched the last of the guests drift out of the courtyard, and a weight settled in my gut.

It was just past midnight. The attendants were clearing the tables. The courtyard was quiet. No one was left except the shifters who lived on the estate.

And Aaron still hadn’t returned. Alice hadn’t either. She wouldn’t have known exactly where to look for him, so I guessed her absence shouldn’t be surprising. But he’d said he’d be back for the night. He couldn’t have denied that it was absolutely, one hundred percent nighttime now.

Nate came up behind me, touching the small of my back. “Let’s go inside,” he said. “If he turns up, we’ll hear about it.”

I nodded, but my feet dragged as we headed back to our section of the estate house. Marco and West caught up with us.

“Nightcap, anyone?” Marco said. “If we’re all going to fret about eagle boy, we might as well enjoy ourselves at the same time.”

We made our way down the narrow hall to our private common room. West stalked across to the far windows as Marco went to the liquor cabinet to mix the drinks. Nate sank down onto one of the couches. I paced from one end of the room to the other and back again as if I could outrun my anxiety. So far the motion was only making me feel more tense.

Marco handed me a shot glass. I tossed it back in one gulp. The alcohol burned down my throat and spread warmth through my chest. But it only took a slight edge off my worries. Several more might have done the trick, but I didn’t think drinking myself into a stupor was a wise idea.

“You should try to get some sleep, Ren,” Nate said. “We all should. If something has gone wrong, we’ll need all our strength.”

I rubbed my arms. “I don’t think I can sleep.” I was too wound up. Wondering about all the things that could have happened to Aaron that wouldn’t trigger our mate-bond. He could be captured by the rogues. Too injured to fly home but not quite badly enough for the pain to tug at me.

I wanted him here, plain and simple. Someday I was going to have to get used to being apart from my mates, but I didn’t think it was supposed to happen this soon after we’d consummated. It didn’t feel right. This was the first night any of them had been this far away, and the distance gnawed at me.

“Come here,” Nate said gently. He patted the couch cushion next to him.

I bit my lip, but I went to him. As I dropped down next to my bear shifter, he reached for my shoulders. His strong thumbs rubbed in steady circles over the tensed muscles there. They dug in, and the tension started to release.

“Okay, that’s good,” I said, my eyelids drooping. “Keep on doing that.”

I heard his smile in his inhale. He eased his hands farther down my mostly bare back, kneading the muscles along my shoulder blades and spine. With each press, the tightness melted a little more.

And as it melted, a different sensation started to tingle through my body. His hands against my bare skin sparked a heat I should have expected, considering those hands belonged to one of my mates.

The heat shot straight to my core. My panties dampened. Oh, there were a hell of a lot of other parts of me I’d like those hands on.

My rising desire must have scented the air. Nate paused with his hands just below the base of my neck. He leaned closer, his breath spilling hot over my skin. “Maybe there’s a little more I could do to distract you? Let out some of that tension?”

My body ached with longing. Fuck, yes. With all the turmoil since we’d arrived, I’d barely had time to feel anything good. But it seemed like far too long since I’d lost myself in the bond between me and my mate.

My mates. My eyelids fluttered open. I leaned back into Nate’s touch instinctively, encouragingly, but at the same time my gaze sought out the other alphas.

Marco set down his empty glass, his eyes intent on me and Nate. A gleam of lust danced in them. West had turned, his stance tensed, but I could feel the hunger radiating off him.

Nate slid his hands around to cup my breasts. A gasp slipped out of me as he teased his fingers over the peaks, my nipples pebbling. Marco licked his lips. He moved as if to step toward us and then seemed to catch himself.

Waiting for me to give him the go-ahead.

I wanted all of them. All of them there with me, being with me in every way, taking my mind off the one who wasn’t here for at least a little while. If even one more of them left my side—

The thought made my throat close up. I set my hands over Nate’s to still them. The hot flush of desire coursed beneath my skin. I stood, pulling him with me.

“I think we should take this to my bed,” I said, my fingers twined with Nate’s. My gaze locked with Marco’s and then West’s to make it clear that my “we” included all of us.

A brilliant smile spread across Marco’s face. “There’s nothing I’d like better than to serve you however it pleases you,” he said in a heated tone.

West wavered on his feet, looking torn. I held my other hand out to him. “I won’t ask for anything you can’t walk away from. I just want you all with me. How much is up to you.”

I heard him swallow. Then he stepped toward us. “All right,” he said, even more gruff than usual.

We slipped down the hall to my chambers. When we reached the end of my bed, I turned to face my mates. With a yank, I unzipped my dress. It crumpled into a heap at my feet, leaving me all but naked.

The heat in the room must have risen by ten degrees. I shivered with it, giddy—but suddenly uncertain. I’d been with Aaron and Nate at the same time before, but three guys... I needed them, but I wasn’t exactly sure how.

“Just tell us what you want, Ren,” Nate said, his voice slightly ragged. “We’re right here with you.”

I looked at each of them, my breath catching. “Shirts off. Pants too.” Might as well spread the nakedness around a little.

Marco smirked as his hands darted to unbutton his shirt. West stripped down more hesitantly. A faint glow emanated from around the bandage he wore just below his left shoulder. A fae magic wound, I was pretty sure, though he’d avoided talking with me about it. In the midst of my rising lust, I made a mental note to be careful of it. Mess with that and he might never touch me again.

Nate discarded his clothes with a few jerks and the snap of a button. He was ready to get started, clearly. He stepped closer to me, his chest brushing mine, and claimed my mouth.

I moaned against his lips, reveling in the force of his kiss. He gripped my waist. A third hand grazed over my back to undo the clasp of my bra, a hot presence at my left side. Nate released my mouth to swipe his tongue across the crook of my jaw. I tipped my head to the side to give him full access to my neck, and Marco was right there to meet me.

As my bear shifter nibbled his way across all the sensitive spots on my throat, my jaguar shifter caught my mouth with his. He stroked his hand over my breast, tweaking the nipple until I whimpered.

Nate dipped his head to lave my other nipple into an even stiffer peak. Marco trailed his lips across my cheek to nip my earlobe. I shivered with pleasure, awash with sensation. Every part of my body was tingling.

But my mouth was being neglected again. I gasped as Nate’s hand dipped between my legs, and my gaze flew up to find West’s.

My wolf shifter was standing a few feet away, his hunger blatant on his face and coiled all through his stance. I met his dark green eyes. Nate’s thumb stroked over my clit. I let out a whimper and mumbled, almost a plea, “West.”

His jaw twitched. His eyes flashed. “Fuck,” he said, and then he was striding toward me. He gripped my head as Marco brought his mouth to my collarbone. My heart skipped, ready for West to devour me. But as his fingers curled into my hair, he first pressed the softest of kisses to my forehead. The bridge of my nose. My cheek. My lips parted, wanting, waiting. The path he was tracing was the sweetest torture.

He finally brought his mouth to mine just as Nate tugged my panties down and slipped his fingers between my folds. Marco swiped his tongue around my nipple. I moaned into West’s mouth, and the tender control he’d been keeping snapped.

His kiss ravished me, his tongue sweeping in to tangle with mine, his teeth grazing my lips. I kissed him back just as hard, wanting to plunder and be plundered. Marco was suckling my breast and Nate was kissing his way down my belly and oh, God, if I literally exploded from all this bliss, which seemed like a real possibility, I hoped the cleaning staff wouldn’t hate me too much.

Nate eased me back on the bed. He knelt between my legs. I sucked in a breath as he swirled his tongue over my clit. Then Marco was kissing me again, his spicy coffee smell filling my senses. West licked one breast and fondled the other. Every nerve in my body was humming with fulfilled desire.

But I had even more desires that needed fulfilling. Nate pumped his fingers in time with the movements of his mouth, and I cried out at the jolt of pleasure. My whole body felt like a harp string being plucked harder and faster to reach a crescendo. When I shattered with it, I wanted to bring my mates with me.

I eased my mouth away from Marco’s, panting. “Nate, inside me, please.”

He didn’t need more than my mumbled request to understand. His mouth left me for a few aching seconds before the hard length of his cock replaced it, tracing over my core from my clit to my opening.

I moaned hungrily and arched my hips. Nate gripped them, holding them off the bed and sliding into me with a groan of his own. The feel of him filling me sent an eager shudder through me.

“My Princess of Flames,” Marco murmured beside me. “You really are on fire.”

“Mmm,” was all I managed to answer. I wanted to set him on fire too. I ran my hand down his chest to the cock jutting from between his legs, slimmer than Nate’s and almost elegant. Marco practically purred as my fingers curled around it.

I tugged him gently forward. The heat in his eyes turned blazing as he caught on. He eased himself down on the bed so I could bring his cock to my mouth. It twitched as I licked the tip.

Nate thrust into me, sending a fresh wave of pleasure through me. I rode on it right down Marco’s shaft, curling my tongue around his silky hardness, tasting the salty musk of his arousal.

“Fuck, princess, I’m not going to last long like that,” Marco said around a groan. Good. Let him come apart right here with me.

My other hand had fisted in the duvet. As my body rocked with Nate’s thrusts and the pump of my mouth over Marco, my knuckles brushed smooth skin over lean muscle.

I hadn’t forgotten my other alpha. West was testing the edge of his teeth against my nipple now. With an instinct that must have come with being a dragon shifter, being meant for moments like this, I reached down and knew exactly where to close my hand around his cock.

West’s breath stuttered against my breast. “Ren,” he rasped. I stilled my fingers, sucking Marco down again, tipping my hips to meet Nate’s next plunge into me. Ecstasy flooded me from every direction, but I wasn’t going to take what West wasn’t ready to give.

The wolf shifter lay there rigid for a moment. Then with a groan he pushed himself closer to me, welcoming my touch.

I slid my hand up and down his shaft in time with my mouth on Marco’s, in time with Nate’s inside me. A sense of bliss continued swelling not just from between my legs but my lips and fingers as well. From all of us together in this circle of pleasure.

Marco broke first. “Princess,” he cried with a rough jerk of his hips. He moved as if to pull back from me, but I closed my lips around him tight.

His release spurted against the back of my mouth. I sucked it all in until he sagged beside me. He withdrew, kissed me on the lips for one long, aching moment, and then eased his hand down my body.

His lithe fingers found that bundle of nerves just above the spot where Nate and I were joined. They circled my clit, and the wave crested inside me. I gasped, squeezing West’s cock. With a grunt he muffled in my hair, he spilled over. I followed, stars sparking behind my eyes, my whole body shaking with the force of my orgasm. As I clenched around Nate, he made a strangled sound and joined us in release.

We were probably quite the sight, the four of us sprawled together on the bed, limp and sated. But as Nate gathered me up and nestled into the pillows with me, the other guys joining us on either side, being with all of them felt like the most natural thing in the world. The best thing in the world.

Aaron’s absence still gnawed at me, but it was a more distant pain now. Snuggling among my mates, I managed to drift off to sleep.