Page 121 of Stream Heat
DID HE JUST…
WHAT THE FUCK
ALPHA REID JUST WENT FULL FERAL PROTECTIVE ON CAMERA
I couldn’t help the gasp that escaped me. The claiming triggered a reaction in everyone else. Theo’s knuckles were white on the desk, watching with hunger and approval. Jace’s breathing sped up. Malik’s composure was gone, all Alpha energy and no filter. Ash was half out of his chair, eyes locked on the mark.
It was pheromones and instincts and everything I’d been conditioned to hide, all out in the open. The stream was chaos, viewers losing their minds.
“End it,” Reid ordered, voice gone rough and raw.
Ash cut the stream with a single keystroke. All the restraint in the room evaporated.
Reid wrapped both arms around me from behind, strong enough I couldn’t move unless I wanted to break free. “Mine,” he said, words tinged with thunder. “Ours.”
“Ours,” Theo echoed, hand sliding into mine, claiming his space.
Jace waited, looking for my signal. I tugged him closer, and that was all he needed.
Malik and Ash lingered, hesitant but wanting. I looked them both in the eye. “All of you,” I said. “If that’s what you want.”
Ash’s laugh was shaky, a rumble more than a sound. “As if there was ever any question.”
Malik’s restraint finally gave. “We’ve wanted you since you walked in the door like you were ready to fight the world,” he said, echoing Theo’s sentiment from the night before.
“Then take me.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Kara
My words hit like a bomb and suddenly each of them were staring at me like they couldn’t believe what I’d just said.
The streaming room felt way too cramped for this, like trying to bottle a thunderstorm with my bare hands. Every inch of the air was charged. Five Alphas, their gazes locked on me, their scents mixing into a cocktail that should've knocked me flat. Instead, it felt pretty damn close to coming home. Reid’s bite on my shoulder throbbed with a new pulse, the bond already singing, snapping between us like live wire.
“Not here,” Reid growled, and it came out rough, half victorious, half possessive. “The others deserve better than a streaming room floor for this.”
He wasn’t wrong. This had stopped being about heat or biology about ten heartbeats ago. Now it was about choice. About pack. About ties even the universe wouldn’t undo.
“The den,” Malik suggested, his composure fraying around the edges. “More space. Actually comfortable.”
I didn’t trust my voice, so I just nodded. My legs were boneless, but not from weakness, not exactly; more like the intensity crackling between all of us was too much for musclesto remember their job. Reid steadied me. Beneath the surface, through our new bond, I could feel his emotions: pride, possessive joy, and a deep satisfaction like he’d found the first piece of a lost puzzle.
The walk to the den felt both endless and way too short. Behind me, every step had five Alphas following in my shadow, their protective instincts dialed up to eleven after the stream. The den was all golden, afternoon sunlight, plush comfort, oversized sectional couch dominating the room. Nobody wasted time. Jace fiddled with the lighting until it was soft and moody. Ash locked the doors, double-checking, then triple-checking. Theo grabbed water bottles from the fridge. Everything moved with a kind of unspoken coordination that felt like pack.
“Kara.” Reid’s voice cut through the buzz in my head. His fingers brushed across his new mark on my shoulder, sending chills all the way down my spine. “We need to be clear. The others need to hear this is your choice.”
I was grateful for the pause, even while every cell in my body screamed for more of them. “I know what I want,” I said, and I made myself hold all their gazes, one by one. “I want the bonds. All of them. Not for heat or instinct. For me. Because I choose this. I choose you. All of you.”
“And we choose you,” Jace said, close now, voice stripped bare. “But claiming bites, Kara… there’s no taking them back.”
“I know.” My voice was steady, surer than I’d expected. “I’ve never been more certain of anything.”
Through the bond, I felt Reid’s satisfaction flare, hot and real. His mark pulsed, a physical echo.
Theo was nearly vibrating, unable to keep still. “So, uh… is there an order? Or does it matter?”
I paused, feeling that strange, bright pull toward each of them. Reid’s bond was there already, a steady heat in mychest. “Jace goes next,” I said, watching how his eyes widened fractionally. “Then Theo, then Ash, then Malik.”
