Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Briar

(Present Day)

The sun hits my face like a fist. It’s like I’ve been in complete darkness, and someone is flashing the brightest light on the planet directly into my eyes. My head hurts, too. The pounding is so strong that I swear a two-by-four is being slammed against my skull.

I squint, and a figure is in front of me. I close my eyes briefly, and when I open them again, I can make out Malachi. He’s holding a knife, and I expect something horrible to have happened when I spot the little wooden tiger in his hand. I turn my face and notice the nightstand filled with ten more of the same figure in different positions.

There’s a loud clang on the floor, and the bed shifts. “Welcome back to the living, Tiger.”

My body aches, and my pussy is sore. Almost like it’s been in use for days. “What’s wrong with my vagina?”

“Oh, sorry.” Malachi bends his head, and I hear a rip. He stands with a lop-sided, goofy grin on his face and dangles medical tape in front of me. “Didn’t mean to leave it there. That was from this morning.”

“What the fuck? Why was there medical tape on my vagina?”

Malachi cocks his head and gives me a dumbfounded look as if my question is moronic. “To keep the sperm in.”

“Excuse me?”

“Didn’t want any of the boys to fall out. Had to make sure the swimmers would reach your cervix and knock you up. That’s what we’ve been doing all week, trying to get you pregnant.” He grabs his dick lovingly. “Doc said it’s too early to take a test, but I figure with the number of loads we put in your cunt, one of the boys must have gotten the job done.” He points to the television mounted on the wall. “We taped it all if you want to watch? They’re kind of boring if you ask me. It’s all missionary shit. It would be way hotter if we could do anything we wanted while you were passed out. We gotta try this shit again when we can get really freaky.”

“What did you do to me?”

I wince as his hands move, and he picks up a yellow sponge. “Well, I just cleaned you. Don’t want any bed sores.”

Memories flash in my mind, and I think about the stage, the cum, and the prick of a needle in my neck before everything went pitch black. “You fucking drugged me?”

I must have screamed the words loudly because the bedroom door flies open, and Dariyus and Ezra rush in.

I scan the three men I love. Three men I assumed loved me. I stare Ezra directly in the eyes. “How the fuck could you drug me?”

The asshole has the gall to shrug as if it’s no big deal. “You want to know why we drugged you, Briar?”

“Yes, goddamn it! You had no right.”

“You’d leave us, Briar. So we started breeding you. You’ll never be rid of us, not even in dreams.”

“Fuck you, Ezra. You know how important my independence is to me. I didn’t do all this the last two years just to exchange one cage for another.”

He takes quick strides until he’s above my face. “Yeah, well, you know how fucking important you are to me. To us. You think we can let you walk away when you’re our only reason for living?”

I hate my treacherous heart because all I want to do is jump into Ezra’s arms. I look past him to Dariyus. “I knew these two would do whatever they could to win, but I expected more. You, more than anyone, should understand what it’s like to be held against your will.”

Dariyus has the decency to look sheepish. He casts his eyes down and mumbles something incoherent.

Ezra turns to him. “At least be clear.”

And that’s when I see it. The first time in two years that he’s not hidden his skin from me, and now I see why.

“When did you get that?” I ask, pointing to a large tattoo of a fawn on his back with the words “My forever” etched in black cursive above it.

He moves away, turning his back to me to hide what he’s just revealed. “The same night I took your virginity and realized I’d never have your heart.”

If a heart can break and reform in one second, my heart would be the blueprint because that’s what happens. At this moment, with his revelation, it all makes sense. My heart longs to stay, but my brain shouts at me, telling me I can never free myself from subjugation.

“I can’t be an object. Something you own with no proper control.”

Ezra says nothing. He storms out of the room, leaving me with Dariyus, Malachi, and my broken heart, just like it was on the forest floor five years ago.

“That motherfucker,” Malachi says, his hands forming fists. “I’m going to beat him until he’s black and blue. What’s wrong with him?”

“Here,” Ezra says, storming back into the room and shoving a folder in my face. “It’s all yours.”

“What’s all mine?”

“The business. The houses, the cars, even our bank accounts. It’s all in your name. Because the truth is nothing means shit to any of us without you. So take it, Briar, take everything we have because you already have the most valuable thing we’ve got to offer; our hearts. Since that isn’t good enough, we may as well give you everything else.”

My eyes sting with unshed tears as I watch Ezra fall to his knees. “I’m begging you not to leave us. We won’t survive it.”

There’s a moment in life when you must evaluate if what you’re fighting for is for you or something else. Do I want to leave the only safe harbor I’ve ever had? Should I tell the only people who have truly loved me that I never want to see them again? Will I break the hearts of the three men who have already suffered so much? Am I willing to give up the only mind-blowing sex I’ve experienced? Is being alone in the world worth more than having a home, a family, and three men who’d keep me safe at all costs?

Malachi clears his throat, and with a shaky voice, he utters words that are like daggers in my heart. “We’ll give you whatever you want, Tiger. Just fuckin’ stay.”

“You asked me once what Nafasam means,” Dariyus says as he walks toward the bed and gently grips my hand. “I never said that word to you lightly, Briar. I use it cause it’s the only way I can describe what you mean to me.”

“What does it mean?”

Dariyus smiles. “It means my breath. That’s what you are to me. The reason I breathe.”

My heart stutters, and a lump forms in my throat. “I want you to know what you did was fucked up. What if I don’t want kids?”

Ezra glares at me. “You want kids. It’s all you ever talked about.”

I point at him. “Still doesn’t make what you did okay.”

“Tell me how to fix it, Fawn. I’ll do anything.”

I smile. “Just promise to always love me.”

“Promise,” they all say in unison.

And I stay.