Page 42 of Golden Desires

“Very bad,” he hisses, but I ignore him.

“Mate me,” I say, staring into my Alpha’s eyes. “Or reject me.” My words end on a whine, the thought alone sending pain shooting through my heart.

Kylan bends low, and lifts me into his arms, I wrap my legs around his waist, and my arms around his neck. When he heads toward the cottage, I shake my head.

“In there,” I whisper, nodding in the direction of the small cave opening. I know he knows what I mean, because I could scent them all over this area.

“Are you sure?” he asks, and I nod, and we both let out our purrs at the same time.

“Oh, wow…” I whisper when I see the inside of the cave. I’m still wrapped around Kylan, and I refuse to release him as I look around. “A nest,” I murmur, the feeling of rightness in my chest makes me purr louder.

“We have one for you in the cottage too. We can take you there instead”, Aldair offers, but I shake my head.

“No. This is perfect.” I scramble out of Ky’s hold and start grabbing some of the items laid out around the cave. Different articles of the guy's clothes, blankets, and pillows are waiting on the low rock shelves along the wall. Rubbing my face against one of the shirts in my hand, the freshness of the scent tells me they were recently brought here. I can’t help rushing over to the large stuffed mattress that makes up the floor and stacking my collection of items around the edges to build it up, repeating the process until it’s almost perfect.

All it’s missing now is…us.

“You look magnificent right now, Goldie,” Cillian growls, and I preen from his praise as I kneel in the center of the nest.

“I need you,” I say, making them all groan.

“We can’t shift back yet. The scent of your need makes our instinct to protect you too strong to push down,” Kylan says, looking ready to bolt again, but I shake my head.

“Like this. I want you just as you are now. Make love to me, Kylan. Claim me as your mate, and give me your mark,” I beg, worrying they’ll still change their minds, but thankfully, as one, the three of them move into the nest that's the perfect size for the four of us.

I’m surrounded by these three massive, monstrous Alphas, and all I feel is a sense of home and love.

These Alphas are everything I’ve been needing all my life.

“You were scared of us once,” Aldair says, as he settles, his long legs stretching in front of him. I frown. I think I would remember that… “You were only four. We found you in the forest, crying. My brothers got a little too excited, scared you off,” he clarifies, and I gasp. I slap my hand over my mouth and look between the three of them.

“I remember… Oh, that's just fucking brilliant!” I shake my head in exasperation at my stupidity, tears filling my eyes. The pain in my chest is so intense, that I curl into myself. Cillian is quick to scoop me up into his lap though, rocking me gently, as Ky scoots in close to his brother’s side, letting out his purr. Aldair remains where he is, but leans forward, letting out his pheromones to soothe me as well.

“What’s wrong, my golden girl, tell us. I’ll rip the person who’s making you cry apart with my teeth and gift you their still beating heart.” Cillian’s gruesome vow has me chuckling and shaking my head.

“You’re never going to beat the monster allegations, if you keep talking like that,” I say, and my playful Alpha shrugs, his sharp teeth on full display as he grins at me. The sight should be terrifying, but I know these three men.

None of them will ever harm me. I know that in my soul, just like I know they are mine, and I am theirs.

“I’m afraid the only person you’d be ripping apart is me.” I sniff, resting my head against his chest and running my fingers through the fur there. “When I was four, my mother died. I thought Alma had died with her. Three days later, a stranger was moving into my mother’s home. Ten days after that, they held a funeral for my mother. That was the first day my stepmother hit me. I ran into the forest, wanting to be near my mother. I was going to keep running, but I fell.” I look up at Cillian, the truth hitting me right in my heart. “As I sat there, sobbing, I heard a strange noise. Then I saw these monsters… They chased me all the way back to my village, and I thought I would die. I spent the next sixteen years terrified of the forest.” I let them absorb the words.

“We terrified you,” Kylan says, confirming the horrible truth.

“I was four, Ky. I didn’t know any better. And the stories of the monsters in the forest only made that fear worse, even if they were only meant to be an old wives’ tale to keep children in line,” I sound defensive, so I soften my tone. I’m not trying to upset them. “If I had known the truth, that the monsters in the forest were kinder, gentler, and not at all more dangerous than the people I was surrounded by in the village, I might have run sooner,” I scoff at my foolishness.

“You couldn’t have known, Goldie…” Aldair shakes his head, but I can’t stop the tears that fall anyway.

“Ignorance is no excuse.”

“In your defense, I was going to eat you,” Cillian says matter-of-factly. “You were the first human I’d seen besides Ma, since…well, since our parents were murdered.” Cillian holds me tighter to him, and when I shiver, he pulls a blanket over me, tucking me into it, still in his lap.

Maybe I should be embarrassed that I’ve been naked this entire time, but I’m not.

“I just believed what I’d been told and didn’t question it. I should have. I should have kept running that day. You might have been scared of me at first, but I don’t believe that you would have hurt me, Cill.” I shake my head, looking up at him. “Do you want to tell me what happened?” I ask. Now that they’re all so close, my fever has subsided, and I calm. Settled. I’m still desperate for a knot, but…this is important.

“Our home was attacked by humans that hunt monsters. Our people put up a good fight, and killed most of them, but my parents, like many of those who had young children, ran. They took the same form of the ones who were hunting us. We’d never seen them like that before. We made it far, but the hunters caught up. Killed our mother and then our father. Ma told us a few years ago that she found the bodies of several of the hunters. Our father killed them, and Ma found us, before he succumbed to his injuries,” Aldair says in a tone that suggests he’s removed himself from the pain of the memories over the years.

“Ma raised us after that, as you already know. There were some rough patches,” Cill says, and I nod.

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