23

dmitri

AFTER I WALKED out, I expected someone to follow me.

No one did.

Not even Aurelie.

I mean, admittedly, I did say that I needed to be alone for a little bit, which would tend to discourage anyone from coming after me, but I still thought that someone would find me.

So, maybe I was a jackass, and maybe they all hated me.

It was kind of funny that I'd never considered it before. They obeyed me. They were aroused by me. But maybe, when it came down to it, I didn't give them a choice. They had to be with me, even her. Maybe none of it was real.

I stewed over that for a while, feeling real sorry for myself.

And then I decided that I could sit here and whine internally, like a big alpha baby, or I could take some responsibility and fix things. Okay, they didn't have a choice? Fine. I was their pack leader, and they were stuck with me, so I might as well be the best pack leader I could be.

I went to look for Nikolai, because I figured that he had the highest need at this point. He was hurting the most.

I figured, though, that he'd be with Johannes. And that would be good, because I could kill two birds with one stone. I didn't know what exactly I was going to do. Maybe I'd just bark at them and order them to realize I actually loved them both.

I did love them.

Johannes and I hadn't had a sexual relationship before, and maybe I'd always been envious of him. He was so easy to get along with and so popular. Everyone liked Johannes. I wished, sometimes, I could be like that, instead of gruff and bristly and frightening.

But even with that friction of envy, there was true regard there. I'd always been attracted to him, and I'd always seen his value. I think the foundation for love had been there all along.

I wasn't sure why it was that having him obey me in bed solidified my feelings for him, but it did.

It was the responsibility thing again. They were all mine, all four of them, and I wanted to protect them and care for them. And to take care of them sexually, to make them all very turned on and to make their scents go crazy in the air and to get them all to come for me. They were my pack. I couldn't help but feel a tenderness for them.

Maybe…

Maybe I could say something like that?

I was afraid the words would get stuck in my throat or that they'd come out wrong. I was afraid if I said it that they'd lose some respect for me. But maybe I needed to try to say it anyway.

I practiced it, over and over again, as I walked through the halls to Nikolai's room. "You are all mine, and I love you and want to make you happy. I feel tenderness for each of you." I licked my lips and whispered it aloud, again and again. "I love you," I said. "I love you."

There was only one man I'd ever said that to, and it was Nikolai.

I got to Nikolai's room, and it was empty.

Also, I scented traces of Aurelie there.

Huh.

I left the room and went downstairs. I asked one of the servants about Nikolai and Aurelie. Were they together somewhere on the grounds?

Part of me felt hurt that she'd gone to him and not to me, but part of me thought she'd done exactly the right thing. Nikolai had needed her more in that moment than I did. I wanted Nikolai to experience her, the way she could make a man feel . Nikolai deserved to feel that feeling. She had been exactly what he needed in that moment, and I knew it.

That made me feel a swelling feeling of happiness, thinking of her and him together. The tenderness rose as I pictured her comforting Nikolai. The images quickly turned to a swirling mixture of the two of them naked together. I'd been fantasizing about them together for a long time. My omega and my Nikolai. I loved thinking of her sucking him or taking his hard cock in her wet pussy—in my wet pussy.

I shook myself.

Fuck, the problem with everything was that they all made me incredibly turned on, and when I got turned on, the alpha part of me got prominent, and I couldn't stop myself from being a little bit demanding. Maybe a lot demanding?

Anyway, now I was in a conversation with the staff while my cock was straining inside my pants. It was uncomfortable and embarrassing, but embarrassment was weak, so I refused to feel that feeling. If they disapproved, I'd show them that they needed to respect me. If they wouldn't respect me, they'd fear me. End of story.

Luckily, the woman I was speaking to seemed oblivious to the bulge in my pants. "They left about an hour ago. They took a car, and they seemed to be in a real hurry."

"Left?" I furrowed my brow. "Where were they going?"

"They didn't share that information with me," she said.

I thanked the woman and went back up the stairs. I was going to talk to Johannes. As I walked there, I got out my phone and dialed Nikolai.

He didn't answer.

I called Aurelie.

She didn't answer either.

What the fuck? When they got back here, I was going to teach them that when their alpha called them, they answered the damned phone. I was going to smack both of their asses until they were red and sore and then knot their tight little assholes in succession until they got the message. They would both apologize to their alpha and swear never to do it again.

Maybe if they resisted, I'd consider keeping them tied up for a while. A few days locked in the nest, handcuffed hand and feet? I thought about stretching each of them up to the ceiling, hands above their heads, their beautiful bodies stretched out and nude for my viewing pleasure.

My cock pulsed.

Wait.

Was that… fucked up? Locking them up for disobeying me? Was that too far? Where was the line between what was sexy for all of us and what was abuse? If they were turned on, was it okay? On the other hand, I had power over them. I could sort of force them to be turned on. So… from a certain perspective, did that mean they couldn't consent at all?

I stopped walking in the middle of the hall, horrified.

Was I a rapist?

My heart beat staccato in my chest and I felt, through the bond, the brush of Aurelie, reacting to my horror. Her emotions washed into me for a moment. She was excited and frightened and tense, but she used this connection to soothe me, to send a tendril of sweet, reassuring love through the bond to me.

No, I wasn't abusing her. We were in love.

I let out a breath.

Abruptly, the bond connection snapped closed, and I couldn't feel her anymore.

Fuck.

I rushed to Johannes's room.

"Nikolai and Aurelie left the castle," I said to him when he opened the door.

"Hello to you, too," said Johannes.

"Oh, is it more important for us to do greetings than to discuss this? Call them. They won't pick up for me."

Johannes sighed. "Look, I've been blowing up Nikolai's phone all day, sending tons of texts, and he won't answer a single one of them. So, I don't think I'm going to have much more luck than you."

"Try Aurelie, then," I said.

"Yes, alpha," he said in a mocking tone. He saluted me.

I glowered at him.

He got his phone out and dialed Aurelie. I waited. He lowered the phone. "Voicemail."

"Fuck," I said.

"Whatever," said Johannes. "Nikolai is annoyed with me for going off on my own with her, so he did the same thing. Let them have their time together. You don't own her, you know. You don't own any of us."

"I know that," I said. "But I am… I do… I have a responsibility to all of you. You're all mine, and it makes me feel…"

Johannes raised his eyebrows at me.

I licked my lips, feeling stupid and scared. "Things," I supplied lamely. "It makes me feel things for you, for all of you."

Johannes started to close the door in my face.

"Tender things," I said in an unsteady voice. "I want to take care of you all. Do good things for you and make you all happy. I…" My jaw worked. The words were not going to come out, were they? I looked down at the floor. "I love you, Johannes."

Nothing.

Slowly, I raised my gaze to his.

His lips were parted. He looked stunned.

"I'm sorry if I'm a jackass," I said in a rush. "I really am. You can't understand what it's like, how intense my alpha instincts are. And since the omega showed up, I'm practically in a rut all the time. She smells so fucking good, and I can't get enough of her. I'm fucking her nearly constantly, but it just makes me want more. And you, all of you, you all just intensify it. I'm in this haze all the time, that's how I feel. I want, fuck, I want…" My gaze dropped to his crotch.

He swallowed.

I rubbed a hand over my face, stepping back. "I didn't mean to suddenly make this sexual," I muttered.

"It's okay," he said. "You can come in if you want."

"But… Nikolai and Aurelie, they disappeared—"

"On a date, probably. He's just going to be knotting her good and hard for a few hours," said Johannes. "We don't need to worry about it. We can just distract ourselves, maybe?"

I sighed. "Yeah, maybe."

He stepped out of the doorway.

I stumbled inside.

He grabbed me, holding onto the back of my neck and looking directly into my eyes. "I think I could love you, Dmitri. You call to a part of me, an aching, needy part, and I know you know that."

"I do know that," I breathed. "I do. I want to soothe that ache for you."

"Yeah," he said, his gaze going cloudy. "Yeah, please, alpha." He kissed me.

I clutched him, and I felt like I'd been drifting out at sea, and he was the dry land. I wanted to anchor myself in him somewhere, knot right into him as hard as I could.

aurelie

NIKOLAI MADE ME drive.

Well, first, he drove, and he did a bunch of evasive maneuvers to lose the paparazzi. They'd been camped out on the outskirts of Heirastein Castle, and they tried to follow us, but Nikolai lost them, all of them.

Then, we switched, and I drove. He sat in the front seat, on a tablet that he had on his lap. He told me that Corentin's phone wasn't trackable, that it seemed to have disappeared off the planet but the last time it had been seen it was at a nearby airport in Valhn. "Might have been turned off. Might have been crushed or something. They took him from there, I guess."

I was worried about Corentin. "You think they're hurting him?"

"I wouldn't put it past them, but assuming they're serious about the ransom, I doubt they'd damage him too much. They'd want you to give them the money after all."

"Assuming they're serious? Why would they ask for a ransom they don't want?"

"I just can't make it make sense yet," said Nikolai.

"But you knew who it was right away," I said.

"Yeah," he said. "I'll figure it out. Anyway, we can't trace his phone, but that would have been too easy. I know of a place in Valhn, near that airport, where the Banninos might have taken him. They've held people captive there before. I think we should go and check it out."

"Okay," I said.

He put the address into the GPS on the car so that I would have the directions.

Then he started doing more digging on his tablet.

Our phones were beeping constantly. It was Dmitri and also Johannes, but Nikolai said to ignore them, and I wasn't in any mood to deal with them at this point. I was too worried about Corentin.

Also, I didn't know what might happen if I explained to Dmitri what was going on. I had a feeling he'd want to get in here and take charge, and I was trusting Nikolai with this. It seemed best to let Nikolai do what Nikolai did best.

So, I ignored all the texts. When they started calling, I ignored that, too.

"What are we going to do when we get there?" I said.

"I'm not much for making plans," he said. "Plans require everything to go right, and something always goes wrong. It's better to react in the moment, do what's best given the situation. The situation is volatile, usually, anyway. Everything can shift in one moment, depending. Sometimes, you think you've got the upper hand and someone comes up behind you with a gun. Planning doesn't work."

"Okay," I said softly. "So, we're just going to go track down some mafiosos and wing it."

"It'll be fine, omega," he said. "I know what I'm doing."

"And Corentin? He'll be fine?"

"Yes, fuck yes, I like him," said Nikolai.

I glanced at him. "You do?"

"Hey, I brought him in to your wedding night, didn't I?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

He sighed. "Of course, back then, I thought it was somehow all going to work out. And now, not so much."

"Right," I said, dejected.

"Look, I'm staying with you ," he said. "I'm sure about you. Dmitri and Johannes? I don't even know."

Well, that didn't make sense, because Nikolai had been with them for a really long time, and whatever was between us was very new and we hadn't had much chance to really be together. He was angry with them, but he wasn't really choosing me over them. I decided not to say this aloud, however. I didn't think he'd appreciate that perspective.

He was clearly in a lot of pain, deep pain. His entire life had been abuse and coercion. It made sense that he wouldn't quite know how to trust anyone, since all of his experiences of relationships involving trust had been tainted.

I didn't know how to help him, but I wanted to.

And I couldn't think about that—not right now. Corentin was in danger.

The GPS directed us down a long, winding road that dwindled to just gravel, tall trees growing on either side of the road, barely budding on their long limbs.

When a narrow side road appeared on the left hand side, Nikolai told me to take it, even though the GPS was telling me to go straight. I turned. The GPS began to squawk at me to "turn around when possible" and Nikolai switched it off. He directed me to park under a tree.

I pulled under the branches of the tree and turned the key in the ignition. Then I took the key out.

He got out of the car.

I got out too.

"Behind me, omega," said Nikolai.

"Yes, alpha," I whispered.

He turned around and shook his head at me. "Don't call me that right now. It's getting me all worked up."

"You just called me ‘omega,'" I said. "What do you think that does to me?"

His mouth quirked into a smile. "Sorry, Aurelie."

"Apology accepted."

"Stay behind me, and we'll be fine."

"Got it," I said.

We crept behind the trees, following the gravel road, until a wooden shack came into view. There were several cars parked outside of it, and as we got closer, we could hear the sounds of groans and muffled cries coming from within.

They were hurting Corentin!

It took everything inside me not to rush forward and burst into that place and go to him. But I knew it wouldn't help him. It would only put me in danger. I stayed behind Nikolai instead.

He surveyed the scene from our vantage point behind the tree line, thoughtful. "We need to move quickly and stay low," he said. "As long as they don't see movement through those windows, they won't know we're even here."

"I can do that," I assured him.

"You go first," he said, getting a gun out from a holster under his arm that was concealed inside his jacket. I hadn't even known he was wearing it. I let out a little squeak at the sight of it. He touched my face with his other hand, soothing. "Don't worry."

"You just have guns lying around?" I said.

"Pretty much," he said. "I used to need to carry one everywhere to feel safe, but I got better about that. You go, stay low, and I'll cover you."

Oh, wow, it was like one of those action-adventure movies. He was covering me. I drew in a breath, trying to calm myself. I could do this. Then I nodded. "Okay. Now?"

"Now," he confirmed.

I darted out from behind the trees, bent down, running while in a half-crouch. I scurried all the way to the shack and crouched down in the spot where Nikolai had told me to crouch.

He joined me in moments. "Good," he breathed. "Very good." Brandishing the gun, he carefully raised up and peered in one of the windows. Then he ducked back down. "It's not Corentin."

"What?" I said.

"There's someone in there, and fuck knows what they're doing to him, but it's not Corentin."

I raised up to look in the window.

"Careful, Aurelie," he breathed urgently.

Inside the shack, there was a man—totally naked—lying on a table. His penis was attached to something that descended from the ceiling, a strange contraption with an array of needles and glass jars, like some kind of medieval machine. It was made of wood and metal, but it looked ancient. There were three needles inside the man's dick, injecting liquid from little glass bulbs into the shaft of him.

He was groaning and writhing, his expression a mask of agony, and there were two other men sitting on metal chairs, both on their phones, as if they were bored.

I dropped back down. "What the hell?"

Nikolai shrugged. "Right?"

Suddenly, my phone rang.

Nikolai went stiff.

I scrambled to get it out and silence it.

He snatched it from me before I could. He answered it, moving away from the shack, still in a crouch.

I winced. Had the people inside heard? I needed to look. I raised up to look in the window again.

"Down," came Nikolai's voice.

And I got down, but not before I realized the men sitting on the chairs in there were not on their phones anymore.

"…ready for the rendezvous point, yes," Nikolai was saying into the phone. He listened, tucked his gun into its holster and then beckoned to me.

I hurried over to him and got behind him.

The door of the shack burst open and the men inside came out.

"I have to go," said Nikolai into the phone. "Something's come up." He tossed me the phone and drew his gun, bracing it with both hands.

The men who'd come out of the shack raised their guns.

Oh, fuck. This wasn't good.