his arm and turned his head toward me. “You do what’s right on instinct. There was never another choice for you. You’d never take the Council’s shit lying down. In that way, you’re as fiery as your Phoenix, Nix. And I’d never want you any differently.” Kill reached across the small tent and took my hand. “No matter what happens tomorrow—” Killian swallowed hard, his voice gravel in this throat. “I’ll never regret following you into war. Picking you up that day at the airport was the best damned day of my life, even if I didn’t know just how much the feisty, sexy woman in the back of my Hummer was going to rock my world. I fucking love you, Nix. I don’t care that we didn’t get to say our vows, because I vow right now, before my brothers, to love you for the rest of my life and beyond.”
“Kill.” I shifted, and Ryder let me up so I could crawl closer to my big, burly Celt and plaster myself against his chest. “That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me. I love you too.” I lowered my mouth to his, tasting the fresh, sweet taste of him as the scent of clover and magic made me heady.
“You know,” Joshua mused, “I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, and I don’t see why we need to wait for some fancy ceremony to mate. In this tent are the six people I care about most in this world. I don’t know about all of you, but I don’t need anything else. I’m ready, Nix. I’m ready to bind myself to you in all ways, to take you as my mate, as my wife, if that’s what you want as well. I’m not ashamed to admit I’m scared. The thought of losing any of you…” He swallowed hard. “I need you tonight. Honestly” —he eyed each of us in turn— “I need all of you. Each one of you adds something to my life. You’re just as important to me as my mate, because you’re family now. I just want us to spend this night together as a unified, mated group.”
“Joshua’s right.” Theo scooted closer as we all settled onto the air mattresses on the ground. “I’ve been feeling the same way, I just hadn’t voiced it, too caught up in everything with Molly back at the lodge, and then getting ready for the battle, but none of that is important right now. You know how I feel about you, Nix. I just want to be yours, and I want you to be mine. I don’t care about the event itself. I’d like to complete our mating, just between the seven of us.”
Hiro and Ryder studied each other, and both turned to me with soft, encouraging smiles. “You already know how we feel. We’re already mated in my eyes, but I’d like that to be more official. I’m a yes,” Hiro proclaimed.
Ryder sighed dramatically. “I guess we can do without the big event, but you all owe me another try in the future. A reception. A party. Something I can plan,” he teased. “But in all seriousness, let’s do this. I want to call our girl ours once and for all, and I don’t need fancy tuxedos or doves or a seven-tier chocolate cake to seal myself to you, babe.”
“You love me more than cake?” I pressed my hand to my heart in mock shock.
“I love you more than cake.” Ryder grinned and winked. “Though cake comes as a close second.”
Hiro launched his pillow at the Ceraptor’s head, knocking his styled hair askew in the process, and Ryder smirked, holding up his hands in surrender. “Close third. Cake is a close third, baby,” he amended. “I was just fucking with you.”
Hiro held up two fingers, waggling them for Ryder to let him know he was counting, and Ryder shivered momentarily, his pleasure over that reminder radiating through our mental connection.
The other guys chuckled as Ryder ran his fingers through his deep purple locks, hiding his styling.
“How do you feel about all of this, Nix?” Damien looked to me, though he hadn’t answered the question for himself.
“I’m ready. I never needed a ceremony. I just need you all.” It was short and sweet, and one-hundred-percent true. I pushed the wealth of my emotions for my men into the mental bond and let them read and feel just how much I liked the idea of being theirs. Their eyes dilated,