The thought made Rhen howl so violently that Sebastian actually gasped.

"Then we suffer," Sebastian said quietly. "For however long it takes. Until she understands. Until she’s ready."

Lucian stood there for a moment, visibly wrestling with Zev. The wolf wanted out. Wanted to run. Wanted to find her and drag her back to the estate and force the bond into completion.

But Lucian held the line.

"How long?" he asked finally.

"I don’t know," Sebastian said. "Days. Weeks. Months. Years."

The thought of years without her made Rhen whimper inside his chest.

Lucian turned and left the garden, his movements jerky and uncontrolled. Heading back toward the training grounds, probably. To run off some of Zev’s desperate energy.

Sebastian remained on the bench.

The sun was higher now, warming the air slightly. The garden smelled like winter, cold soil, evergreen plants, the faint scent of frost. Nothing like Lilith. Nothing that could comfort Rhen.

He closed his eyes and felt the weight of the incomplete bond.

Three pieces of a four-piece puzzle. Broken. Waiting. Suffering.

The bond had formed during her time at the estate....a slow, insidious thing that had caught all of them by surprise. The first time he’d held her while she was panicking, the first time Nicholas had comforted her, the first time Lucian’s wolf had recognized her as theirs. Small moments that had accumulated into something neither of them could deny.

But she didn’t know. She’d left thinking it was just a contract. Sixteen days of being at their disposal. She didn’t understand that they’d bonded with her, that she was woven into their very DNA now, that every moment without her felt like drowning.

Rhen surged against his skin, desperate and furious.

Sebastian made him sit still.

This was what it meant to be bonded to someone who was completely unaware of the bond. To wait in agony for them to figure it out.

And the worst part was that there was no guarantee she ever would.

She might spend the rest of her life thinking the Blackwood brothers had simply used her and discarded her. She might move on to someone else. She might live and die without ever understanding that she was the missing piece of their souls.

Sebastian opened his eyes and looked at the empty garden.

The thought made him want to scream.

But screaming wouldn’t bring her back. Suffering wouldn’t change anything. The only thing they could do was wait.

Wait and endure the slow agony of the incomplete bond.

Wait and hope that eventually, somehow, she would understand.

Wait and survive one day at a time until she came back to them.

If she ever came back at all.

***

Lilith’s eyes closed and the dream took her immediately.

She was back in the Blackwood estate, not in any room she recognized, but in a space that existed only in dreams. Shadows and darkness and the faint scent of them. All three of them. She could feel their presence before she felt their touch.

The first sensation was hands.

Large hands on her shoulders. Warm. Possessive. She didn’t have to open her eyes to know it was Nicholas. She could feel the controlled intensity of him, the way his fingers pressed into her skin like he was branding her. His hands moved down her back, tracing the curve of her spine, mapping her like he owned every inch of her.

"Mine," he said, his voice low and commanding.

But he wasn’t alone.

Sebastian appeared behind her, she felt him before she saw him. His hands were different than Nicholas’s. More deliberate. More precise. He grabbed her hips and pulled her back against his body. His arousal was evident, hard and thick against her ass, and instead of fear, Lilith felt her body respond. Her breathing quickened. Her skin flushed.

"She’s ours," Sebastian said, his voice darker than she’d ever heard it.

Then Lucian was in front of her.

He materialized like a ghost, his gold eyes glowing in the darkness. His wolf was close to the surface, she could see it in the intensity of his gaze, in the way his body radiated raw, feral energy. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him.

"You’re ours," he said. Not a question. A statement of fact.

And then they were touching her everywhere at once.

Hands on her breasts. Mouths on her neck. Lucian kissed her like he was trying to devour her, his tongue aggressive and claiming, his teeth grazing her skin. The sensation was overwhelming, too much, too intense, too everything. Lilith gasped against his mouth, and he growled in response.

Nicholas’s hands moved to her breasts, his palms covering them, his thumbs brushing across her nipples until they hardened. He bent down and bit her shoulder...not gently, not tentatively, but with enough force that she felt the sting of it. The pain and pleasure mixed together, making her whimper.

Sebastian’s hands were still on her hips, but he was moving her, positioning her. His arousal was pressing insistently against her, and she could feel the heavy weight of him, the promise of what was coming.

"Please," she heard herself say, though she wasn’t sure what she was asking for.

"Greedy little omega," Lucian growled against her mouth. "You want all of us?"

Yes. God, yes.

She nodded, and the dream shifted.

Suddenly she was on her back, on a bed that didn’t exist, in a space that defied logic. Nicholas was between her legs, and the first thrust of his dick inside her knocked the breath from her lungs. He was huge. Overwhelming. The stretch made her gasp, made her back arch off the mattress.

"Fuck, you’re tight," Nicholas groaned, his controlled facade completely gone. He pulled back and thrust into her again, harder this time, and she felt the impact all the way through her body.

Sebastian was beside her, and he pulled her head toward him. His cock was hard and demanding, and he didn’t ask permission before pushing into her mouth. The sensation was intense, the weight of him on her tongue, the taste of him, the way he controlled the depth and rhythm of her movements. She gagged slightly, and instead of pulling back, he pushed deeper.

"That’s it," he said, his voice rough. "Take it."