Page 148 of Coco and the Misfits

Atticus smirks. He sprawls onto his back, folding muscular arms under his head. “We’ve had knots for days now. No idea how this happened, but from the moment we started spending time with you together, all four of us, our bodies decided we were ready for a marking.”

“If you are, too,” Ryder says, a crease between his brows. “For all and any of this. Just because we got our knots ready doesn’t mean that you are ready. For knotting. Or marking.”

“And not just scent marking.” Zach winks at me. “Though we can start slow and light.”

My heart is hammering. My eyes blur. “I…”

“She’s not ready,” Ryder says with a deepening frown. “I told you guys. We shouldn’t push her.”

“Ryder, let me finish. I was going to say…” I draw a bracing breath. “I want it. All of it. Please.”

“The knotting?” He looks dubious.

“Yes. I want to try.”

“And the marking?” Ryder clarifies.

“Yes, yes.”

“But are you sure, darling?” Atticus sits up again. “Ryder is right. We don’t need to rush this. We’re only just moving in together as a pack. What if you change your mind?”

I laugh, can’t help it. “I won’t. You know it when you’ve found your soulmates.”

“She’s right,” Zach says.

Their cocks forgotten for a second—again a lie, how can you forget those three missiles staring you in the face?—I embrace the warmth his words send through me.

“We’ll go with soft marking,” Ryder says, his frown easing. “Those that fade over time. And one day…”

“One day we’ll make them permanent,” I say, accepting this solution, this idea, liking the idea of layers in marking just like in habits, life, and love. “And we can do it every year.”

“A renewal of oaths,” Atticus breathes. “I like it. Now, enough talking. Don’t you see the state you’ve put us into? Come here, girl. Those clothes have to go. Come and put us out of our misery.”

55

ZACH

I won’t lie. I’m two seconds away from grabbing her for myself, locking both of us in one of the rooms and burying myself inside of her.

All my doubts—can she take my knot, will she want it, will it hurt her, will she enjoy it?—are starting to blur together, turning into a distant buzz as my body demands relief.

During all this time I’ve been taking care of myself, taking myself in hand quite literally, every night after returning to my apartment, but the more time I spend with her, the more my knot swells and the harder it is to tell my body to calm down.

And now we’re here, naked, and she’s willing.

She’s talking of marking and annual rituals as if we’re already a pack, and it should send me running away but instead it makes me smile.

This girl… Only she could convince me to drop anchor and think of the future with this smile on my face. I never realized how much I used to dread tomorrow, settling down, having a family. How I dreaded to fail.

She makes life seem easy. Effortless.

Worthwhile.

“Come here.” I grab her hand as she climbs onto the bed. “Fuck, you’re so pretty.”

“Zach,” she breathes, her cheeks reddening. She glances down, at my cock, my knot. I like her breathless when taking in my bared need for her. I like the way her arousal smells, so sweet. I like the way she responds to my every slight touch, leaning into my hand when I cup her cheek and touch her lips with my thumb.

“The pup wants to go first, I see,” I hear Atticus muttering, but I don’t care as I lean toward her.

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