Chapter 28

Icould smell her on Death. My teeth ground together as I threw myself into the chair by the fireplace, across from him. My mouth set in a hard line, my whole body bristling. I hadn't slept a single fucking minute last night, and it was all her fault for stealing him from me.

"I told you to join us," Death said gently, watching me and seeing far too much.

I bared my teeth. Dragged in a breath and smelled peaches and cream instead of the logs in the fire. I couldn't even smell the burned sugar or the amber and sandalwood of Death and Tor's scents. She'd invaded my life, and now here she was, clinging to my home. I hated her more than I'd ever hated anyone.

No. Not more than Nightmare, but almost.

"Why would I join you?" I demanded eventually, casting Tor a dirty look when he sank onto the chair arm beside me and slung an arm over my shoulders. It had the usual calming effect, but I didn't want to be calm. I was tired and furious and jealous. I met Death's worried eyes and said, "I don't know why you're drawn to her. I don't feel it at all."

"Nothing?" Tor asked, frowning as he wrapped a strand of my pale hair around his finger.

"Nothing," I confirmed, my skin crawling even as my heart beat faster.

I felt nothing. Yesterday was an experiment. Clinical. Necessary. And now it was over, and would never happen again.

Tor shrugged, leaning closer to me. "Maybe it'll take a while for your bond to develop. She's amazing, Miz, you're gonna love her."

"She's pathetic," I sneered. "Mortal and dull and placid."

"Misery," Death said in the note of warning that told me I'd gone too far. Well, so had he. He stayed with her for two nights in a row when he should have been here with us.

He'd never been away overnight before. I loathed to discover I couldn't sleep without him. Just another misery to add to a long list of them.

"She's not dull," Tor argued, although without fire or sharpness. He tugged the strand of my hair. "She's sweet and perceptive and so fucking sexy when she comes." He groaned, as if remembering, and I sucked on a tooth so I didn't snap at him. So they'd both been with her. No wonder our home smelled of peaches and cream. Too sweet. Sickly. Taunting.

"Miz," Death said, watching me. "Cat might change things, but she doesn't change how much we want you. You know that, don't you?"

I laughed, a little strangled, and shoved out of the too-hot chair by the fire. I was burning, incinerating. I wanted to tear her hands off my men, wanted to make her pay, wanted to watch fear fill her pretty grey eyes again. I wanted to scare her so badly she ran away and never went near Death and Tor again.

"Don't be an idiot," Tor huffed. "You're ours, like we're yours. That shit won't ever change."

"Fuck you," I snarled, stalking away and getting a sick satisfaction from crusting mud from my boots into the rug. "Fuck both of you. Go back to your fucking girlfriend."

"Misery," Death said, his voice too close for him to still be sitting by the fire. "Don't walk away from us."

His voice cut under my skin and raked claws through my heart. How long would it be until he decided he didn't need me? Who would need misery incarnate when you had someone sweet and perceptive and sexy?

I made a rough sound in my throat, storming through the foyer to the front door, the domain of death feeling colder than usual, forcing goosebumps on my arms.

I didn't make it to the door. Death snapped warm arms around me from behind and held me captive, his chin resting on my shoulder, beloved lips pressing a kiss to the side of my throat. My eyes burned. I clenched my jaw.

"You said she's our wife," I muttered, "but you're the only one she's bound to. Nightmare's magic links you, and if you don't think the real curse is to take you away from me, you haven't been paying attention all these years."

"Impossible," Death replied, so soft, so loving. "No force in any domain can take me from you, Misery."

I flexed my hands in and out of fists. "I've already lost Tor to her. Nightmare has won."

"Like fuckyou have," Tor snapped, and I jumped at the proximity of his voice. "And like fuck she has. Her plan is obviously to use Cat against Death, but Cat would never do anything to hurt him. Or us. She isn't like that."

"Nightmare won't give her a choice," I laughed, my chest tightening when Tor walked around me and stopped with inches between us.

"We're already winning, because she's our girl, and she's on our side. She's scared of Nightmare but not of us. That bitch isn't going to win this time, Miz."

She would. She always did. I stiffened, harsh words on the tip of my tongue, but they eddied into nothing, my mind emptying when Tor grabbed my cock through my loose black pants.

"And you are not fucking losing me," Tor said with enough gravel in his voice that my stomach twisted.

I swallowed. "I'm sorry."

Death expelled a hard breath against my neck, then brushed another kiss to my pulse. "Our bond is unbreakable. Fuck whatever Nightmare has planned."

But I could still smell her—peaches and cream and smug satisfaction at stealing the men I loved.

Tor squeezed my cock, reading the thoughts on my face, and my stomach hollowed. "Do you need a reminder, Misery, of just who you belong to—and who belongs to you?"

A roaring silence started in my head, my walls obliterated. My fears tripped off my tongue before I could stop them. "Are you angry at me? Do you hate me now, because I don't want her?"

"Fuck no," Tor replied, slipping his hand under the waistband of my trousers to close his hot hand around my cock. I hissed a sharp breath at the grip. "We're worried as shit about you, but we're not mad at you."

A knot unwound in my chest. I swallowed. "Okay. Please—" But I didn't know what I needed or how to even ask for it. "Tor," I whispered, a broken gasp.

"I know this is new, and we've never all been interested in the same woman before," he said, stroking his hand up and down my cock. My mouth fell open on a groan. "But," he continued, "she's not about to come between us. Well, unless she literally comes between us."

He winked. I couldn't help but laugh even as hatred for her filled my chest. I was so angry, so tired, so… bitter.

Tor slammed his mouth into mine, his eyes especially dark as he forced my lips apart and claimed my tongue with rough strokes and violent sucks. My heart quickened when he ripped open the button of his jeans and pulled his own cock free, the veins wrapping his length fucking beautiful, the curve to it destructive when it was inside me.

Tor grasped my cock and thrust his own along my length, and all thoughts of the sweet, enticing scent wrapped around my men melted away. When he dragged his mouth from mine to haul down air, Death caught my chin and turned my face for a deep, plundering kiss that made me whine and buck, frantic for more of his aniseed taste, driving my cock faster against Tor's.

"Fuck, Miz," Tor grunted, stroking our cocks harder, his fat tip grazing a sensitive area that made me gasp into Death's mouth. He swallowed the sound with a deep, approving noise.

"Such a pretty fucking cock throbbing for me, dripping all over me." Tor groaned. "You're wound so tightly today, my Misery. Think you'll come so hard your knees give out?"

I nodded frantically, my hips bucking when Death kissed harder, trying to own every part of me as if I didn't already belong to him.

Please don't stop, I wanted to beg, but even when I was forced to haul down air, parting from Death, I couldn't string the words together. My body buzzed with pleasure, heat roiling through my cock, making my balls tighten.

"Tor," I managed to gasp, my head thrown back on Death's shoulder as Tor dragged his cock along mine, gripping us tighter so the pressure made me strain against him, frantic, needy.

Death's warm hands slid around my hips, one pausing there to grip me fiercely while another continued lower. A rough breath punched from my chest when he gripped my balls, squeezing, massaging.

"You belong to us, Misery," Tor said suddenly, gruffly. "You can never escape. No matter how far you run, we will hunt you down and drag you back. You're etched on my fucking soul, and I'd rather kill you than lose you."

My eyes slammed shut, breaths coming as fast pants. I was his. He'd rather kill me than lose me. He'd never let me go.

"Try to run," Death dared, the hand at my hip caressing a path up my body. I jerked when his hand closed around my throat. Hard. "Try to leave, Misery. See what happens. See how we react to losing what is ours."

I shuddered between them, struggling to catch a breath, my balls swelling, my cock full of impatient fire. They both claimed me. Owned me. It was all I needed to cry out and find release, my cock frantic in Tor's hand, throbbing against his hard length, covering us both in cum.

Death's hand tightened around my throat. A strangled, breathy whine crawled up my airway and broke free, another wave of pleasure hitting so hard my legs buckled.

Tor laughed as they both followed me to the floor in the foyer, but he didn't stop thrusting his cock along mine for a damn second.

"Tor," I begged, my eyes crossing, stomach hollowing as I sucked in a wild breath.

"No," he replied, husky and rough. "You doubted us, Miz, so you'll pay the price. You get to stop coming when I come." He leaned closer to kiss my cheek and breathed, "And I think I'll last a long, long time this morning."

"I can't." My voice strangled as a sharp sensation cut through my nerves. Oh god. I was too sensitive. I couldn't come again.

"You can, and you will," Death replied, steely as he kissed the side of my face. "Because you're ours."

I struggled for air. Oh god, I was gonna come again and it was already too much.

"Say it," Tor ordered, grabbing a fistful of my hair to wrench my face closer, lips moving over mine. "Fucking say it."

"I'm yours," I breathed.

"And don't ever forget it," he hissed and made me come again.