Page 158 of Knot Happening Again

Leon's knot starts to swell, catching on my entrance with each thrust. "Ready?" he asks.

I nod, bracing myself. With one final push, his knot slips inside, locking us together. The stretch is intense, bordering on painful, but it feels right.

Complete.

"Now," I gasp.

They move in perfect unison. Leon's teeth sink into the half-mark on one side of my neck as Rhys bites down on the other. At the same moment, Rhys's knot pushes past the tight ring of muscle, locking him inside me as well.

Pain and pleasure explode through me, so intense I can't tell where one ends and the other begins. I feel the mating bond snap into place, first with Leon—completing what was started years ago—and then with Rhys, forming a new connection that's just as strong.

I always knew I carried the scars of rejection and abandonment within me, but it's only at that moment I realize that Iamthe wound. Only at that moment, caught between them both, that I finally begin to heal.

And for the first time in years, I get a taste of what it is to exist without this heavy weight on me. Even as their marks seal us together forever, that weight lifts off me.

No longer mine to carry.

At least, not all alone.

Not the way it has been.

And I realize something else.

I feel it.

The rush of Leon's emotions.

Of all the pain and regret and guilt.

Everythinghe'scarried all these years.

It rushes into me, alongside more adoration and desperate, obsessive longing than I thought possible. Than I wanted to believe. It comes from Rhys in equal measure, and I realize that everything they've both been saying all this time is true.

They want me.

Needme.

And that makes this all a little less terrifying to bear.

My vision whites out as another orgasm rips through me, more powerful than anything I've ever felt before. I'm vaguely aware of them coming too, filling me with their release.

As the intensity fades, I slump against Leon's chest, utterly spent. They lick at the fresh marks on my neck, soothing the sting.

My eyes meet Leon's once I can finally hold them open. For a moment, neither of us says a word. We just stare at each other, into each other's souls, and it's like all those years don't exist.

They will, outside this room.

I'm not going to give in that easily.

Not going to let down the walls that have protected me this long without a fight.

But I… do understand him a little more.

The fear that held him back. The guilt that's haunted him all these years, just like the pain that bound me. We were both suffering in different ways, in different places, living lives so parallel and yet… separate.

And for the first time, I wonder if maybe there's a possibility of something else beyond the pain.

"Are you okay?" Leon asks softly.

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