Alaric was still holding Thea when she woke up. 

"You ready for early morning training?" Alaric's voice, rough with sleep, rumbled through her body, waking her up in the sweetest way. She wished she could wake up like this every morning. Then his words registered.

"I don't want to go today. I can't." She needed a day off. Maybe a week. A year. However long it took to figure out what was going on with her. 

"Thea, you can, and there's no reason not to."

"Please don't make me—"

"Thea, you're coming. I'll see you outside in fifteen, okay?"

She knew she had to obey him.

"Yes, Alpha."

"Hey, that's not—I don't mean it like that," Alaric said. "You know you can say no to us, right? Thea, please. I don't want you to feel like you have to do anything you don't want to."

"Then why are you making me go train?"

"Because you love training. I'm not going to let you throw it away over a misunderstanding. Come on. This isn't like you. Where's my fearless Thea?"

"Back on the training field where she died of mortification?"

Alaric squeezed her into his chest and kissed the top of her head. "Let's go find her corpse and revive her then."

"Fine," she grumbled.

He got out of bed and left her room. She got ready and went to the training grounds where the triplets waited for her. She hoped her body behaved today. She didn't have time to make the tea to mask her scent.

They ran a lap around the field, and before they finished, Kai grabbed Thea from behind. Instincts kicked in. Thea sidestepped and threw him over her hip. Kai landed on the grass with a thud, rolled out of it to his feet, and faced her. Conri and Alaric caught up to them, and each grabbed one of Thea’s arms.

“Again?” she said. “Because this went so well yesterday.”

Kai walked toward her.

“Today is different,” Kai said. He put his hands on her waist. “Today, we’re not sparring.”

“What?” 

Conri’s and Alaric’s grips shifted, and the three of them surrounded her, caging her in.

“Today, we’re seeing if we can turn you on,” Kai said. 

He leaned in and ran his nose up and down her neck. His hands roamed over her body. She tried to ignore the sensual feelings he invoked. The more she tried to think of other things, the harder it was. 

“Why are you doing this to me?” Thea said. “You already know you can. Please, don’t. Please. Please stop.”

“Why would we stop?” Kai said.

“You already proved your point. I get turned on by you guys. I’m sorry! I don’t know what’s wrong with me!”

“Nothing is wrong with you. You should get turned on by us,” Conri said. 

She groaned. “I’ve never been so humiliated in my life,” she said, eyes closed and head down.

“Why are you embarrassed?” Alaric said.

“You guys have always been like my brothers. Sisters aren’t supposed to moan uncontrollably when their brothers tickle them.” 

“We haven’t thought of you as a sister for a long time. Not since you grew those boobs you say are useless,” Kai said. “Should we see how useless they are?” 

He watched her face as his hands traveled under her shirt and cupped her breasts. She gasped. He squeezed, and her mouth dropped open. He pulled her bra down, releasing her breasts, then found the peaks and rolled them between his fingers. She moaned and arched her back, leaning into his touch.

“Please,” she begged, not sure if she was begging him to stop or keep going. She wanted this so badly. “This isn’t fair.”

“But you like it?” Alaric said. She didn’t answer. Her breathing was getting shallow and fast. “What about this?” 

Alaric pulled her chestnut hair out of the way and kissed her neck from behind. Her eyes closed, she whimpered, her head fell back against his shoulder.

“I think she likes it,” Conri said. He pressed his face into the other side of her neck and breathed in deeply. His lips trailed down, kissing her, paying extra attention to her sensitive marking spot where she couldn’t hold in her moans. Alaric found the same spot on her other side, and she moaned louder. 

“No. No. Stop. Please. I’ll figure out a way to stop.”

“You’ll figure out a way to stop what?” Kai said, confused. Thea always fought until she won. Why was she giving up so easily? Begging. It wasn’t like her.

“Being turned on,” Thea said.

“Why would we want that?” Kai said.

“For so long, we thought you didn’t like us that way,” Conri said. He started sucking on that spot on her neck.

“Or maybe you weren’t ready,” Alaric said. He nibbled the spot on his side.

“I can’t tell you how happy we were to smell your arousal yesterday. Hoping we were the cause of that sweet, delicious scent,” Kai said. 

They all looked at her, hopeful. She lifted her turquoise eyes and met theirs.

“You want me to be turned on by you?” she said.

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Kai said. 

“I don’t understand.”

“We realize it’s not fair that we can smell your arousal, and you can’t smell ours,” Alaric said. 

“But you can feel it,” Kai said. He started moving his hands down, pulling on the peaks until they popped from his fingers and back in place. “So let us make it clear how much you turn us on.” 

He slid his hands around and down to her backside, squeezed, and pulled her against his front. She very clearly felt his bulge against her stomach. 

“You have no idea how difficult it’s been to keep ourselves in check while training with you. How much we’ve wanted to do this.” 

He leaned in, eyes daring her to stop him, and pressed his lips against hers. Her body lit on fire. Kai’s hands kneaded her cheeks. One of Alaric’s hands slid up to her breast. One of Conri’s found her other breast. She whimpered in pleasure.

After a moment, Alaric’s hands went around her waist, gripped hard, and turned her to face him. He pulled her into his front so she could feel his erection. Then he moved his hands up and gently held her face. He looked deeply into her eyes.

“We want you,” Alaric said.  

He brought her into a kiss. His hands slid into her hair, and he tilted her head to deepen the kiss. Four other hands roamed her body.

“My turn,” Conri growled. 

He turned her to him, one hand at the small of her back. He pressed her into his hard length. His other hand kneaded her breast. She whimpered again, her mouth fell open, and he kissed her, exploring her mouth with his tongue. Alaric and Kai pressed against her side and back, kissing and nipping her neck and shoulders. After a moment, Conri pulled back.

“You don’t need to be embarrassed, baby,” Conri said. He nuzzled her nose with his, then leaned his forehead against hers. “We want to smell you. We want to turn you on. We want you to want us. We’ve been waiting forever for this. I can’t wait to taste your arousal.”

Kai and Alaric growled. “WE can’t wait to taste your arousal,” they said together. 

Breathing hard, she started to gain confidence. “You want me?”

“Yes. Do you want us?”

Thea nodded. She had been clenching her legs together to hide her smell. She relaxed and spread her legs to let the breeze bring her scent to their noses. She was soaked. The triplets groaned.

“Goddess, you smell so good,” Kai said. His hand slid under her shirt, his fingers brushing under the waistband of her pants. He paused, his mouth against her neck, under her ear. "Have you touched yourself thinking about us?" 

"Yes." She had never heard her voice sound like this before—breathy, weak, practically a whimper—all because of how turned on she was. It made all three future Alphas growl. "Have you touched yourselves thinking about me?"

"Always you, only you," they said in unison.

"Oh, goddess. That's hot." Thea leaned forward and kissed Conri. She grabbed the back of Alaric's neck and guided his lips to her neck. Then she reached behind her, threaded her fingers through Kai's hair, and pulled him to the other side of her neck.

"I can't believe you were punching us in the crotch just yesterday. This is better," Alaric said. He nibbled her shoulder, breathing deeply.

"Much better," Conri said.

Thea laughed. "This is nice."

"It's very nice, darling," Kai said.

They continued, trading places, pressing against her, hands and lips roaming, until it was time to get ready for school.

"I don't want to stop," Thea said against Conri's lips. "But we should go clean up."

"We could shower together?" Conri said.

Thea looked like a deer in the highlights.

"We have to move slow, Con," Alaric said. "Don't rush her. We only just got her. Don't scare her away."

Thea leaned into Alaric and gave him a quick kiss, then pulled away, blushing. He lifted her chin to look at him. 

"I like that look on you," Alaric said.