Chapter 11

Devin took a slow breath as she let Ashley help her from the SUV. No amount of determination would stop the world from spinning out of control, and Ash’s firm arm was the only thing keeping it from tipping up to smack Devin in the face. Every thump of her heart felt thick, too slow to pump the numbing sludge through her veins. She felt empty, hollowed out. A husk that moved and breathed.

“Hey, man, back off,” Ash shouted, pivoting to put her body between Devin and the black figure rushing towards them. Seeking to protect her friend from the cloud of rage barreling down the walk.

“Shut the fuck up,” Beau snarled, grabbing Devin’s other arm and wrenching her away from the protective circle of Ashley’s body.

“You get the hell off of her, you worthless fuck,” Ashley roared as she tugged Devin back.

To Devin’s surprise, Beau went stumbling backwards from Ashley’s hard shove. From the glimpse she had of the twisted mask settling over the firm lines of his features, so was Beau. Long strides carrying him forward, Devin tried to focus on the curling fists coming up from his sides.

Ash was going to get hurt if Devin let this continue. Bad. This hadn’t been any part of her plan, though Devin didn’t know why she thought getting a bunch of Alphas together in an impossible situation would end differently.

Devin sidestepped with her hand held out to stop Beau. Unable to track the giant fist rushing through the freezing night, it seemed to jump from Beau’s shoulder to her solar plexus within a single blink of her eyes. Devin grunted with the impact, feet clearing the crunchy grass before she flew back through the cold. She marveled at the thick fluidity of the motion, arms pinwheeling in slow motion before the ground sped its way towards her.

Landing hard on the lawn, her breath exploded from slack lips in a white plume towards the stars. The pinpricks of light swirled and danced, a show just for her as her heart stuttered and threatened to stop.

“Stupid bitch! Why did you do that? Fuck, baby.” Voice gravel coarse, Beau leaned over her to clutch her hand. He pet at her shoulder with jittery fingers, the wild blue of his eyes raking down her body and back to her face. Reassuring himself he hadn’t killed her.

Ashley appeared at Devin’s other side. Their shouting crammed inside of Devin’s skull, stabbing deep into her brain in a mangled chaos as her ears began to throb, deafened by a shrill whine. Ash shoved at Beau, making him tug at Devin’s limp hand, jerking her across the cold grass. Ashley dragged her back, bowing over Devin to force Beau away. Someone’s hands came to her back, helping her to sit up, though her lungs still refused to work, and it seemed her heart had given up the fight as well.

Blinding light swerved over the surreal scene.

Even painted in broad strokes of shadows and pitch, she knew it was Rey. Knew every straining hill and valley of him back-lit from the open car door. He didn’t bother with decorum, didn’t care who saw him as he ran up the short patch of lawn to her. She held a wavering hand out, collapsing backwards despite the supporting grip from the others.

Air rushed into her lungs, frozen and painful, the moment he scooped her up into his arms. Heat invading every molecule of her being, it wiped away every physical hurt. His purr loud and rich, it doused her in cushiony softness, dragging her limbs down in comfort.

None of it was real.

The bond bucked in her chest. Demanding more, incensed when she failed to respond as intended. The scream that had abated while at Ashley’s trickled back in. A shrill cry that grew louder by the second. Rey’s dark gaze shone black in the dim light from the windows behind them, a seed of uncertainty planting itself deep. Devin watched it unfurl, beginning to bloom before he dragged his eyes away.

“I’ll deal with you later,” he growled at Ashley, climbing to his feet with Devin safe in his arms before cutting his attention to Beau. “And you.”

“Don’t you dare,” Devin choked out as Rey entered the house and hurried towards the bedroom that had been her prison for too long. The agonized cry battered her ribs from within, hammering against the delicate cage of bone to be free.

“It’s going to be okay.”

He wasn’t listening to her at all. Rey placed her on the bed as if she was fragile china, working her borrowed clothes free with swift movements. Laying her bare so that he could show his teeth and bellow his rage at the fist sized crimson stain that was fast approaching purple.

“It’s going to be okay, sweetheart,” Rey swore to the blotchy imprint, fingers ghosting over the painful swell of her stomach. “I’ll get someone here. They’ll look you over.”

“I don’t need anyone to look at me.” Recoiling from his attention as Rey sidled closer, she covered her body with splayed fingers. Ineffectual at best, it still gave her a moment to drag her thoughts from the blood-soaked mire. “I need you to listen.”

Rey didn’t hear her. He shrugged out of his jacket, and it was then she saw the smudges of dirt and darker things. Not from her, and not his, only the crusting scabs her nails left on his skin visible as he shuffled free of his shirt. Clothing cast aside, he started climbing onto the bed. Careful of her but unwilling to leave her be. His intentions made clear as Rey wedged his knee between hers, spreading her thighs. He meant to mark her with his scent, reassure himself that no other had touched her in her absence.

“Get off of me!” Devin gave a warbling cry, shoving at Rey’s shoulders. Failing to do more than cause his body to rock, she gave voice to the hollow scream. Opening her mouth wide, she let the agonized wail free.

Rey stumbled back from the bed with eyes wide, hands held palm out in a weak display of surrender. Too little, too late. The scream wouldn’t stop, the shrill howl tearing at her throat until the very sound of it was bloody. Devin curled over her stomach and pulled up her knees as she fisted her hair. Ripping at the thick locks as the fraying strands of her sanity snapped with a vicious thunder.

Only it wasn’t her mind. Rey’s roar wasn’t even directed at her. Beau stood between him and the bed, Beau’s hands raised to push at the air. Telling Rey to stop, to back away.

Devin fell onto her side to choke on the wretched cry as it finally began to fade. A thin keen at the last as she wrapped her arms tight around the sensation of being hollowed out with a rusted spoon. She couldn’t feel the bond anymore at all. Not the slimy chill of it, not the liquid heat she’d come to associate with Rey. There was no comfort, no security to be found in the bleak depths of her soul.

“I just wanted to talk,” Devin mumbled against the sheets stained with her cold sweat.

“Rey, take it easy.” Though his voice was strained, Beau still tried for peace. A strange act for him, all things considered. Sidestepping to keep Devin hidden from Rey’s view, he attempted to calm the enraged Alpha.

“Get out of my way,” Rey shouted, trying to rush past Beau, only to be shoved back.

“Then calm down!”

“She is my mate and—”

“And you’re breaking her, man.”

“She is mine,” Rey said through a subterranean growl.

“No one’s arguing that point.” Beau swayed with an uneasy shift of his weight. “Now, whatever happened made her run, but she’s come back. Just calm down.”

“Who are you to tell me what to do? You tried to kill her, sell her.” Rey grabbed Beau, whirling their bodies through the room to slam Beau against the nearest wall with a jarring crunch. “You wanted to break her!”

Beau grunted from the impact, hands gripping the strength of Rey’s arms, though he made no move to rip free. “And she didn’t, did she? All that, and the worst she did was a half assed attempt with a letter opener. You treat her like some fucking princess, locking her up in the castle, and she’s withering away. Think about that.”

“Why do you even care,” Devin asked, voice cracked and swollen under the weight of unshed tears as she crawled up the bed, tugging the blanket behind her to cover herself.

“I don’t fucking know anymore,” Beau bit out before turning to Rey. “I told you she’d be more trouble than she’s worth, but you had to go and do all of this, so now I’ve got to help her in order to keep you from destroying yourself, all right?”

“You’re lying.” Rey’s lip lifted to bare his teeth, the wall shuddering beneath the impact of Beau’s body as Rey shoved him into it again.

The perfect blue of Beau’s eyes went wild, showing them glazed with something too close to fear before he turned his head to hide it away. The impressive bulk of his body went slack under Rey’s grip, showing as much submission as the Alpha could stomach.

“You fucking answer me,” Rey yelled, and there was no mistaking the heavy, sucking blanket of his will rippling through the room.

“Rey, don’t do—”

“Answer me now!”

“Because I liked that she wouldn’t,” Beau murmured into the crackling tension.

“Wouldn’t what,” Rey demanded, but his hold slackened, letting Beau gain his feet. Understanding dawning deep in the blackness of his eyes, confusion etched its way across the hard lines of Rey’s features.

“Break.” Beau’s scoff was bitter, a bemused breath that sounded as if he would choke on it. His shoulders rolled in an abbreviated shrug, the resignation in his eyes almost enough to make Devin want to go to him as he turned his gaze to her. He’d accepted his death at Rey’s hands. “No matter what, you wouldn’t, and it made me want you more. I was fucking obsessed with you, how far I could push you. That’s why I tried to sell you. I knew he loved you, and I knew I didn’t want to give you up. Happy, bitch?”

“Don’t you call her that.” Rey growled deep in his chest, shoving a careless hand through his mussed waves as he stomped away. “What am I even supposed to do with that, Beau?”

“I told you not to do it. One day, maybe you’ll listen to me.” Beau stayed against the wall, head lowered, though his gaze darted from Rey to Devin and back. “I wanted my cake, and to eat it, too. And when that didn’t work, I didn’t want either of us to have her. Can you blame me?”

“You said—”

“I know what I told you, Rey, but I fucking lied. Now can I get the hell out of here or are you going to rip my head off?”

“Don’t go,” Devin whispered as she watched Rey pace back and forth at the foot of the bed. It took an act of will to drag her gaze from the obvious threat to the more subtle one standing stiff against the wall. “Please?”

“Don’t you dare beg him—”

“Daniel!”

Their bodies collided over the corner of the bed. Devin’s scream of pain as they rolled on top of her became lost in the chaos of flesh meeting and their vicious growls. Rey’s knuckles smeared with bright red, Beau’s nose sat at an odd angle on his face, blood seeming to pour from it.

“Stop,” Devin shouted when she managed to drag herself over the edge of the mattress as their bodies shifted once more. Stumbling across the cool floor, she put space between their violence and her far more fragile body.

The scream was waiting. Knocking at the back of her teeth and clawing at her ribs. She didn’t want that, didn’t want to feel hollow and alone anymore. Between one thought and the next, the bond flared to life. A switch flipped, it went from death’s door to a live wire, searing through her, wrapping her spine with jagged fingers of electricity.

Rey collapsed to the ground with a shuddering groan. His arm caught at odd angles to his body, Devin thought at first Beau had managed to really hurt him. Beau didn’t spare her a glance as he fell to his knees beside Rey, tugging the awkward limb out from beneath Rey’s weight to settle it along Rey’s heaving chest.

“Whatever you’re doing, you need to stop.” Beau snapped his fingers at Devin, trying to gain her attention when she swayed and just stared. “Devin! Stop it.”

“I don’t know how…”

He was on her in an instant. Lifting her by the cruel grip he had upon her shoulders, shaking Devin hard enough for her brain to rattle around her skull, but still Devin couldn’t make it end. Not while it clawed her open, twisting her insides with vicious hands. She wanted the numbness back as the scream returned tenfold, but it was the wrong pitch. A dark, smoky baritone that she couldn’t make sense of until her gaze landed on Rey again. Though blurred through a tide of tears, she saw him twitch, convulsing as the inhuman shriek grew louder still.

Her head whipped to the side, shock hammering down her spine with a sickening crunch. Devin crumpled as the world faded into shades of blotchy gray and red.

Beau’s face appeared, eyes tight and lips thinned to a bitter slash.

He was afraid.

* * *

Devin dragged in a shaky breath through her nose, fingers ghosting over the violent purple pain of her face and stomach that paced the slow thump of her heart. Before she could register anything but that, a mountain of heat came to her back, crushing her between it and… another. Ripping at the sticky fog invading her mind, she tried to understand, but drifted off into a hazy place that wouldn’t let fear take hold as she drowned in espresso spiced with cinnamon.

Fingers scrubbed at the base of her skull, tugging at the strands of her hair just the way she liked. Soothing away every last vestige of tension, leaving Devin in a puddle of calm basking in the heat surrounding her. A broken hum rattled free from her throat.

Rich spice became the stronger of the two for a moment, the smooth glide of skin tickling her hip before it became firm pressure. An arm, the thick muscles bunching as the hand reached and caught hold of something beyond her.

This time, her eyes managed to open. An expanse of deep golden amber spread out as far as she could see, rising and falling with even breaths. Devin smiled against the slow expansion of his ribs, pressing her lips to him. She was still humming as she snuggled deeper into the lush heat, her wriggling causing her to rub against something other than the male sleeping in front of her. Craning her neck brought a sharp tug of her hair from the hand still at her nape. A heavy, tawny beige arm draped over her hip. His hand bunched into the covers low over Rey’s abdomen.

Before she could stiffen, to cry out in alarm, the deep purr made itself known. Louder, stronger, it licked along her spine and wrapped around her ribs. Forcing her breaths to slow, lungs taking up the easy rhythm of calm. The hand at her neck resumed its rough scrubbing of her scalp.

“Go back to sleep,” Beau murmured against her ear. “He’s still out cold.”

“What are you doing,” Devin asked on a sighing breath that struggled to be a whisper.

“Keeping you two from killing each other, seems like.”

“Ashley,” Devin gasped, fighting against the lull of Beau’s purr to shove upright at the reminder of her actions. She couldn’t remember anything after Rey fell, and they had forgotten her friend in the chaos of Devin’s return.

“She’s gone home. Hours ago. She’s fine, if pissed.”

Rey grumbled and twisted onto his side to fling one arm around Devin’s waist, dragging her into the warmth of his shadow. His leg slid over hers, the slab of his thigh covering her as he stretched and hooked his calf over the back of Beau’s knees.

“This is… so fucked up,” Beau muttered, though he pressed his lopsided grin against Devin’s temple.

“You’re enjoying it,” Devin hissed with a hard jerk of her shoulder to dislodge his fingers and the divine tug of her hair.

“Will you two be quiet,” Rey said through a lumbering growl, pushing his face into the pillow to burrow under Devin’s neck. “Some of us are trying to sleep.”

“You’re okay with this?” Devin couldn’t keep the shrill note from her tone or stop how she fisted the blankets to her chest. She was still naked, and Beau was melded against her back. Unable to discern if he had clothes on or not, Devin decided she didn’t want to find out. She wanted him to stay before, but he was once again a threat for her to defend against.

“Is he touching you?”

Devin gave a slow blink, pondering her answer. The chill dread spiraling through her at the quiet tide of violence lying in wait within Rey’s words decided for her. “No.”

“Then go back to sleep.” Gruff and impatient, Rey jerked Devin closer, maneuvering her body so she was tucked beneath him.

“No.” She wasn’t tired, and she’d come back with a purpose. If he wouldn’t hear her now, he never would.

“I’ve about had it—”

“That makes two of us.” Devin sniffed, the sharp point of her elbow finding Beau’s chest when he tried to dissuade her with a gentle tug at her hair. She strangled the dreamy sigh down to a hard exhale as Beau untangled his fingers, putting space between their bodies. The rustle of fabric hinted at clothing, and she would have cried out in relief if she hadn’t been so determined.

Beau wasn’t happy, but he complied. A plus in her book, and one she begrudgingly gave to the man she still hated on too many levels to ever trust.

Shoving at arms and bodies with little regard, Devin squirmed her way upright. Back against the smooth fabric of the headboard, she tucked the blankets tight over her chest and gave Beau a baleful glare when he leaned closer. Smacking Rey’s grasping hand brought him to his knees, the fullness of his lips twisted to bare his teeth as he loomed over Devin.

Devin met the glittering fire in Rey’s eyes head on. The spark of uncertainty seeped into the rich umber depths, his troubled gaze flickering towards Devin’s chest and back. He tried to ignore the set of her jaw, the stiffness of her shoulders, and tugged her back down the bed.

It was a mere thought that brought a strangling grip to the bond crackling and hissing between them that had Rey bellowing. A denial of Devin’s refusal, her seething aversion to him, his touch, and everything he was trying to do to her. Rey fell back to the bed, bruising Devin’s arms as he tried to drag her with him.

“Devin…”

“Shut up, Beau!” Climbing on top of the massive Alpha who was her mate no matter what happened at the end of all of this, Devin pinned him with the shimmering blue of her gaze as she relaxed the painful hold upon the bond. Refusing to give him the space to breathe, to collect his thoughts, much as he often did to her. Leaning over, she poked her fingernail deep into the hardness of his sternum. “You’re going to listen to me, or by the Gods, I will make you regret ever laying eyes on me.”

Beau rocked back, sliding further from the pair. Avoiding looking at either of them as if in preparation for an all-out war. He wasn’t wrong. Not as Rey bared his teeth again, the heavy thunder of his growl resonating through the thick air.

“You’re killing me, Rey,” she whispered, relenting as she slapped his hand against the well-defined hills and valleys of her rib cage. Shoved his touch to the protruding shelf of her hip. “I’m literally wasting away in this hell you’re building all around me, and I can’t. I just can’t do it anymore. No amount of your purring and trying to destroy me under your will can change that.”

“I’m not like them. I never have been,” she continued in a voice gone wet and swollen with emotions far beyond mere sadness. “It doesn’t matter how many children you think you can rip from this withering body. It will never be enough. Do you understand me? It’s not going to fix a damned thing.”

“You’re wrong,” Rey rasped, though the deep brown of his eyes darkened to near black with the shadow of his troubled thoughts. “All Omegas want children. They need them.”

“Not me! I know they would be beautiful and wonderful with you, but they will never make me whole. I’m not like other Omegas. I need a purpose beyond that, to feel useful and… and that’s just not enough.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do, Daniel,” Devin sobbed, and leaned down to press her forehead against his chest, swearing she could see the bond crumbling to dust between her fingers. The sensation of being hollow was returning, scraping through her chest to be rid of every vestige of the glorious warmth and comfort he always gave to her, even when she didn’t want it. Even when she hated him for it.

“Get out, Beau.” Rey’s arms curled around her, pinning Devin to him so she couldn’t think of escape.

“Don’t you send him away,” Devin said, words a smeared wreck of syllables as she cried at the inevitable loss of Rey. All the anger and frustration melted away, leaving her with a profound emotion full of the sweet and tender moments too close to her heart. “He’s going to be the only thing to put you back together. Don’t make him go.”

Beau’s hand trembled as it slid over Devin’s back. When she turned her face to see him, his focus so tight on every twitch and shift of Rey’s body, he jumped when Devin took his hand and placed it on Rey’s shoulder. Surprising them both, enough that Rey’s hold loosened. Leaving her a path of escape that she took at once, scrambling down the length of the bed to huddle against the footboard.

“Get back here, Devin,” Rey shouted, curling his bulky frame up to make a grab for her.

“For fuck’s sake!” Beau snarled, one arm wrapping around Devin and hauling her towards him, the other shoving Rey flat.

Wedged between the two men, Devin roared. Giving voice to her rage as Beau pushed and shoved her into a subservient position with head bowed and pressed flush against Rey’s chest. Beau covered her back, crushing her between them.

“Both of you listen to me,” Beau snarled, fisting Rey’s hair to bring narrowed chestnut eyes to meet his. “You’re being an idiot. She’s asking for some space, that’s it. I don’t give a fuck what’s expected of a mated Alpha. You blew that to shit when you let her mark you.”

“And you,” he hissed, wrenching Devin’s head back on her neck, making her whine in pain. “Stop doing whatever it is you’re doing. You’re going to kill him with that shit and freaking him out isn’t getting you any closer to what you want. So be a good little bitch and stop using it against him.”

With that, Beau launched off the bed, pacing the length of the room and shoving both hands through his golden locks. After making it stand on end, he turned back to the bed, the icy blue of his eyes alight as he looked down his nose at them. “I’m not the Gods’ damned voice of reason here! Get your shit together, or I’m fucking you both senseless and keeping you that way.”

She couldn’t stop it. It shoved its way up through her sinuses, the loud snort deteriorating into a mad cackle she tried to muffle behind both hands. Shoulders quivering, she shook her head as tears seeped from the corner of her eyes, trickling down her cheeks. She must have gone completely insane for that to be her first response. It was just so ludicrous, all the tension imploded, leaving her laughing so hard she snorted more than once.

“You broke her,” Rey said with an uneasy scoff, tugging Devin against him. Not to manhandle and molest, but at his side, arm a loose cage around her as his fingers skimmed over her thigh.

“V-voice of reason!” Devin dissolved into a gasping fit of laughter at the very idea. Beau could never be the sensible one. He was violence and action, always reacting without thinking as it seemed to her. Especially when it came to her.

“So, it’s option two then?” Beau’s lips spread wide in a smile that showed too many teeth. He ripped away his rumpled shirt, sending buttons flying in every direction as he crawled up onto the foot of the bed.