Chapter 14

Devin lifted her lip in a snarl as Rey edged closer. Sucked beneath the heavy golden tide of the bond, she let her head crash into her crossed arms upon the table.

So long without the constant struggle, she’d lost control of it. If she’d ever had a handle on it. Weak in body and mind, she couldn’t even give a breath of refusal as Rey purred and tugged her closer. Propping her up against the relentless strength of his chest as he fed her small sips of the soup Beau had brought.

“I can feed my—”

“You are going to accept your Alpha’s care,” Rey said, the razored edge of his tone flaying her senses, demanding compliance though his touch remained tender and gentle.

Nothing had changed at all, and why she ever thought it had was beyond Devin. A single moment of honesty and she’d taken it at face value. Stupid.

She didn’t remember any of what he told her happened. No memory of becoming a desperate, weeping thing that begged for him to fix it. To make her whole. There were glimmers of something playing at the edges of her mind, a not-there mirage wavering in the distance, always out of reach. It refused to become clear. Devin didn’t want to believe him, but with nothing to tell her differently, she had no reason not to. Even Beau’s shuttered gaze refused to give an answer to her silent questions.

He reveled in her sparse attention, though.

The yellow tulips sat in a graceful vase in front of her, and he damn near purred as she fingered the delicate petals. Beau heated up her soup himself, standing over the stove with a wooden spoon as he tried to get her to engage. Too wrung out and distraught, Devin gave little more than half murmured responses.

Then Rey made his displeasure known. Pawing at her, gripping bruised flesh until Devin whimpered and hissed. Even then he crowded her, her chair stuttering across the smooth tile until she sat between his spread thighs.

Now he fed her like a child.

The bond writhed in a discordant, angry clamor. It was the aggressive buzz of a thousand wasps lodged deep in her skull. Devin’s hands came to her ears, gripping soft cartilage and tugging hard.

Beau snapped his fingers hard in front her of her face, shocking Devin into opening her eyes to see his lips move. The vicious sound dimmed as he continued to speak, though she didn’t hear a word of it. His palms enfolded her thighs, rubbing the length of them beneath the loose shirt Rey had dressed her in. Nails scraping over bruised skin, giving her a physical sensation to hold on to before the rattling inside her head ceased all together.

“What do you think?”

“I… I didn’t…”

“You and me, we’ll go for a drive later.”

“I told you no, Beau.” Rey’s hard breaths scalded her nape, burning the right side of her face as his arms circled around her.

“Just a drive,” Beau murmured, never taking his eyes from Devin’s. “And only if she eats every last bite, hm?”

“I said—”

“I heard you the first dozen times, Rey,” Beau snarled, fingertips raking down Devin’s legs before he caught himself. Putting his hands on the sturdy legs of the chair, he took a slow breath before continuing. “If you’re going to repeat this whole drama between the two of you, I’m done. I’ve seen this shit show already. I’m not coming back to help you. You can both waste away in this fancy little house on your own.”

“You’re not going anywhere.” Rey sounded so certain. He didn’t even bother to take his head away from Devin’s neck where he breathed in the acrid scent of her fear.

“Like hell I won’t.”

“Please?” Devin’s hands shook so hard she almost sent the bowl flying, but she managed to firm her grip enough to bring it up to her mouth. Rey’s arms kept them at an awkward angle, but she hunched forward to sip at the cooling broth. So much like before, she didn’t taste a single thing. Just the greasy film of fat, the slip of wide noodles. Forced to chew on a piece of chicken, she thought she might gag, but Devin soldiered on.

It wasn’t Beau’s purring approval or the scent of scorched ash emanating from Rey that urged her on. The idea of fresh air, of seeing the sky, breathing it all in.

Devin hummed and swallowed the soup down with an eagerness that surprised them all.

Ceramic met wood with a deafening clatter as Devin set the bowl down. Breathing hard from having gulped the dredges of the soup, she turned her head enough to catch a glimpse of Rey’s profile. He shook his head, rising from the chair with Devin still caught in the steel cage of his embrace.

“No!”

She barely got the cry out before Beau was on them, crushing Devin between them as he slammed Rey’s back into the wall. Nudging Devin’s head aside, Beau leaned into Rey. His hand worked between her legs, pushing them out of his way. She knew what he was doing, understood why he twisted his wrist and what he cupped in his palm.

“She’s still too weak to take you, isn’t she,” Beau murmured, voice sandpaper rough as his tongue traced the line of Rey’s jaw. “You’re going to damage her if you keep trying. Maybe I give you something else, hm? Something that can take all that thick Alpha cock while you lavish your sweet love on her. You good with that, baby?”

Strange enough, she was. She didn’t even have to give the thought voice. Rey threw his head back into the wall with a low groan as Beau’s arm flexed, his hand moving in a firm massage.

“Just let me take her out for a few minutes, Danny boy,” Beau whispered, the grating rasp of his voice somehow desperate, needy.

Devin knew it wasn’t to take her outside. He wanted Rey.

“Thirty minutes.” Beau gave a playful nip to Rey’s throat and slid his arms around her hips to take most of Devin’s weight though Rey didn’t unwind his arms from her.

“Fifteen.”

Devin couldn’t believe her ears for a moment. Didn’t dare move or even breathe for a space of seconds until Rey’s grip began to loosen. Beau guided her hands to his neck.

“Twenty and you have yourself a deal.”

“No.” Rey began tugging Devin back, fingers like claws as they dug into Devin’s arms.

Beau didn’t relent, keeping his tight hold upon her. They were going to rip her apart if one didn’t give way.

“Come on, Daniel. She needs this. You promised her.”

Rey’s roar reverberated through her body. Devin had a trembling heartbeat to be truly afraid before Beau took her weight, pulling her into his chest before Rey could change his mind. Then he was moving, swift strides taking them to the door.

Outside. Crisp and clear with the frozen chill settled over the night dark sky. She’d missed the change of seasons, winter hard on the shoulders of the city as Beau navigated his way down the ice slick drive. He didn’t even bother opening the passenger door, but climbed behind the wheel and pushed Devin over the console. When Rey appeared at the door, back-lit by the vulgar cheer of the house, Beau strapped her in, turned on the ignition, and eased out onto the street in a matter of moments.

“Did he really…?”

“He promised you a lot of things. People do that when they think someone’s about to die.”

“Did you?”

“Fuck no.” Beau snorted a laugh, but his lips couldn’t quite find the cruel twist she’d become so accustomed to.

Devin adjusted the strap, looking sidelong at him. “Are you really going to…”

“What?”

“You know…”

“Say it.” Now that twisted, charming smile played across his mouth, the blue of his eyes sinister in the pale glow of the streetlights.

“Let him… while he…” Devin’s cheeks warmed, and she had no idea why she was being so shy. This was the man who had orchestrated some of the most cruel and depraved acts upon her body. Enjoyed her pain and humiliation.

“Let him fuck my ass while he tastes your sweet slit?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Maybe. Could be fun.”

“Have you been there the entire time,” Devin asked as something finally occurred to her.

“Most of it, yes.” Beau twitched his shoulders in a shrug, disquiet coming off of him in lazy waves.

“I mean there. In the room.” Devin hugged her middle as a shiver raced down her spine.

“Yes, baby.” He cranked the heat up higher, flipping switches so that the seat itself grew warm.

“While he…”

“What do you want to hear? That I held his cock so he wouldn’t knot you when he thought fucking you back to life was an option? Or that I carried you back and forth from the bathroom? Maybe that I fucking purred just to try to get you to swallow something so we didn’t have to stick you with another damn needle?”

“You liked sticking me with needles,” she hissed, curling up against the door to get away from the horrible surge of emotion that stung the back of her eyes.

She didn’t want to think about that. Never wanted to contemplate that he had taken care of her in any way, large or small.

“Yes, I did. You were fucking beautiful when you were high on the hormones. Did I ever tell you that? Damn near glowed while you rode my cock.” Beau glanced at her as he made a turn, his face cast in shadow. “But when you were fighting it, trying so hard not to like it when I was balls deep inside of you, that was when you were at your best, baby.”

“Stop it!”

“You’re the one that brought it up. Maybe you shouldn’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.”

Devin curled her lip, turning her attention out of the window fogged by her panting breaths. Now that she was there, stuck in the car with him, she didn’t want any of this. She jumped when the window rolled down, the cold air stealing the breath from her lungs until the forced air from the vents gave it back. Beau fussed with more dials, making it even warmer.

Fingers curled over the icy glass, Devin sucked down the icy air and angled her head to catch glimpses of the sky. It was difficult to see the stars, even away from the steady glow of downtown. Slate shaded clouds drifted across a crescent moon, hiding its pale light.

It had to be over the twenty minutes promised, but Beau kept on driving. Pointing the car towards some park where the lights weren’t so frequent, he slowed the sedan to a crawl as Devin drank her fill of the outside world.

Gods, she missed it. She even missed the simple pleasure of going to the club, surrounded by the backstage bedlam and the constant din of strangers. She’d spent her entire life afraid of being in the crowd but lingering at the edges of Wicked had been nice.

Until it wasn’t.

“Why did you bring the flowers and say those things? Were you just trying to make him angry?”

“I thought you liked them.”

“That’s not the point.” Devin angled her knees to lean against the door, watching Beau’s profile as the shadows crept forward and receded, revealing the neutral fa?ade with reluctance. “Why?”

“You know, Rey was courting an Omega when I first met him,” Beau said, so quiet Devin had to strain to hear him. “She really did a number on him, but I remember all the shit he did.”

“Real funny.” Devin snorted and gave a terse shake of her head as she turned back to the window. Giving Beau her back, she curled her hands over the glass again and banished any thought of Rey touching another woman with the reverence he showed her. “Just lie like he does. Or be quiet, I guess.”

“I haven’t lied to you.”

“Patently untrue. You lied when you took me up to the party room.”

“Not entirely.” Beau rolled his shoulders, easing into another turn that started them back towards the main road. “I did take you up there so there wouldn’t be an all-out brawl on my hands. You needed to clean up. And I did send the boys looking for that Alpha bitch friend of yours, but it was to send her on. If I’d known she was so enamored with you, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

“Ash doesn’t feel that way about me.” Devin raked a hand through her tangled hair, wishing for something to tie it back with as lifeless wisps stuck to her lashes. The entire conversation was making her head spin, too much information dumped into her lap. More than she knew what to do with. “She’s my friend.”

“Alphas aren’t friends with Omegas.”

“Ash is.” Devin shook her head again. “You wouldn’t understand. I’m just a piece of meat to you. She saw me as a person, liked that I could have actual conversations with her. Not once did she make a pass at me.”

“Mhm, and you think just friends offer to take another Alpha’s claim like that?” Beau patted Devin on the head with a low chuckle. “Gods, I just want to fuck you so hard when you’re being this na?ve.”

“She just didn’t want to see me tied to some asshole.”

“Right, and she was just the person to take it on.”

“She offered someone else, so there.”

“What?”

Devin stilled at the icy edge to the single word. As if the frozen wind from beyond the glass had invaded every molecule of air within the car, she shuddered as it wrapped around her with pricking barbs. Daring a scant breath, she drowned in the smoky ash of violence.

“I said no and came back, didn’t I,” Devin stammered out as she shifted closer to the hard comfort of the door. She knew escaping Beau if he decided to lash out was a slim chance in hell, but it helped calm the shaking of her hands to a fine tremble.

Tipping his head side to side, the crackling pop of tensed muscle sounded through the too close air. Beau flexed his fingers over the steering wheel, loosening the stranglehold on the fine leather before speeding the car up. Gone was the lingering crawl that gave Devin time to breathe. He hurried them back towards the house without another word.

“So, you’re trying to court a mated Omega,” Devin asked in a trembling whisper as he pulled onto their street. “Your friend and… and sometime lover’s Omega, at that. The one you told you wanted nothing to do—”

“Maybe I’m just trying to give you something he can’t.”

Devin didn’t get a chance to press him further. Rey was waiting, dragging Devin from the car amid vicious growls, hurting her as he manhandled her on the way back into the house. Assuring himself Beau hadn’t touched her, maybe.

She didn’t know anything anymore and gave up trying as Rey pushed her into the bed with demands she nest. Shuffling blankets and sheets around with disinterest, she made the awful thing before collapsing into it.

* * *

“Tell me about her.” Curled up in the bed littered with crinkling paper wrappers and half empty boxes of chocolate, Devin perused the remaining selection. Wrinkling her nose, she tossed a cherry confection into the growing pile before Beau.

“Ask him,” Beau said, popping a white chocolate covered almond into his mouth.

“He’ll lie. If he deigns to talk to me.”

“Fine. She was fucking hot.” Beau rolled to his stomach, taking hold of Devin’s foot beneath the brushed cotton sheet to rub at her foot. “Huge tits. Long legs.”

“Come on, be serious!”

“Tall for an Omega. All this blonde hair, down to her ass. Lips like she was born to suck. She liked to flaunt it all. Not a humble bone in that body. Zero sense of humor, too.”

“And? Did he… did he court her long?”

“Like a year or something. He fell all over himself, buying her shit. Didn’t have the club back then, just started in with the big boss, so he spent every penny he could spare on that bitch. Ridiculous.”

At Devin’s furrowed brow and hard sigh, Beau sent his eyes skyward and worked her arch with painful pressure, waiting until she hissed her discomfort before continuing.

“She led him on for all that time, then went too far teasing someone she shouldn’t have behind his back. The other guy got tired of it, shot her up and claimed her. Last I heard, he married some Beta, had a whole damn harem of Omegas as breeders. Some claimed, most not.”

“Gods,” Devin breathed, recoiling from the words though Beau kept her from retreating too far with his grip on her foot.

“He wouldn’t do that to you.”

“Right, because no Alpha ever has changed their minds and left the Omega high and dry.”

“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll keep you good and wet.” Beau’s slow smile might have meant to tease, but everything about him held a sharp edge these days. A cutting blade lurking for any excuse to be used against those closest in his path.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Don’t like my company anymore, baby?”

“I just don’t understand. You don’t—”

“Out,” Rey barked as he stormed into the bedroom. Shedding his clothes as his long strides brought him towards the bed, he dropped them to the floor as he went. His shoulders twitched at Devin’s quiet snarl. The unforgiving depths of his rich brown eyes fixed on her, pinning her with the weight of his gaze as he stalked closer.

“Maybe I don’t want him to go,” Devin mumbled even as she cowered under Rey’s attention. Spine bowing, her shoulders hunched towards her ears as she awaited his assault.

This must have been their new plan against her. One coming as the other left, never leaving her alone. Rey had used her hard, letting Beau collect all the shattered pieces of her with the array of chocolates. Now that Rey had returned, he would replay this morning’s ritual.

“Don’t go asking for things you can’t handle, baby,” Beau said with a final twist of his thumbs against Devin’s arch before he climbed from the bed.

“Maybe I can,” she whispered, not daring to look at either of them. Beau was right. She couldn’t handle the attention of two males in her current state, but at least Beau looked at her. He’d hurt her, to be sure, but he’d see her while he did it.

Rey didn’t. He looked through her. Saw what he wanted. What he could take, regardless of her needs. Devin might not remember what all she said during that missing piece of time, but she doubted this had been part of it.

Sucking in a breath to expand her lungs to capacity, Devin curled over her legs, tucking them beneath her as she crawled towards Beau. Every limb stiff, head ducked low, she was the picture of submission. Waiting for the balled fists she glimpsed hanging at Rey’s side to strike.

Her nerve began to falter before she’d even reached the foot of the bed. Breathing fast and hard, her hand shook by the time she sent it towards Beau’s chest. The moment she pressed her palm against him, the bond roared.

It shredded her thoughts, stripping flesh from bone until there was nothing but mangled agony. Devin fell to the bed with a silent scream amid the bevy of candies, curled tight over bent knees with arms over her head. Attempting to defend against the pain tearing away her soul one vicious blow at a time.

“The fuck, Rey,” Beau shouted.

Devin became lost to what happened next. Intent on destroying her, the bond raged on. Her lungs ached as the furious tempo of her heart battered her ribs. Trying to break free, to maim… to kill. Vision graying, she fisted the sheets and rolled her eyes towards the ceiling and the Gods beyond. Wanting nothing but for it to end.

It stopped as suddenly as it started.

A trembling leaf in a frozen wind, Devin clung to the mere scraps of reality around her. Ragged breaths burning her throat, the rough weave of cotton torn and frayed against her cheek. The tangible things that kept her anchored in the moment as the darkness faded, the utter stillness within as terrifying as the opposite had been.

Rey might have spoken. She couldn’t tell if the thundering rockslide were actual words. Not as his touch seared its way over her back, clawing at her spine as he climbed onto the bed to mount her. Drowning her in his heat, gagging her with the hot ash of his anger, the burnt offerings of his rage. It left her cowering beneath the crushing weight of it all.

“She chooses. That’s what you said,” Beau snarled, though he kept his distance from the bed.

His voice a wet confusion, Devin searched for the source. Found the bloody wreck of his lips, crimson dripping from split flesh where Rey’s blows had landed. More bruises decorated his neck, shoulders, even his chest and stomach.

Lacking the courage to even unfold her legs as Rey pushed her deeper into the mattress, Devin closed her eyes. She hid away from the vicious sight as she withdrew deeper within herself. She’d done that, though she never raised her hand against him. A single moment of bravery, a careless need let free.

She didn’t matter here. What she wanted was not to be tolerated. Devin understood that in a way she hadn’t before, the proof of it still rattling around her chest on the low resonance of Rey’s growl. This was so much more than him ignoring her, never listening. Rey had punished her in a way she could never withstand, using the bond against her.

Was that what it felt like for him all those times she’d done the same?

“I don’t give a fuck what I said,” Rey said through a subterranean reverberation. “She’s mine.”

It made an audible click in her mind. Loud and jarring, it caused her shoulders to jerk against Rey’s hands as he positioned himself behind her. Readying to mount her, to rut her like the beast she was starting to believe he was. All the warmth and comfort had been lies, the security he offered a deceiving act.

Devin couldn’t believe she’d ever trusted him.

“A choice,” she croaked.

Rey reacted as if she tried to escape. Pulling, gripping, the sharp edge of his nails scraping over her skin. His body devoured her as his mouth came to her shoulder, lips searching for the raw flesh of his mark.

“He offered to give me to you?”

“No. It wasn’t like—”

“What else,” Devin demanded, though she remained pliant under Rey’s hands. Didn’t even flinch as he notched his swollen crown against her entrance. “What else did he promise?”

“Stop, baby,” Beau murmured with a slow shake of his head. Though he stood, it was to retreat. Leaning against the wall, his muddied gaze as bruised as his body.

“You were killing yourself,” Rey rasped against her neck, arms winding around Devin. Locking her in the steely cage of them, though he stopped trying to force his way inside of her. “I said a lot of shit.”

“Did you mean any of it or was it just more lies,” Devin muttered against the twisted sheets.

“I’ve never lied to you.”

She scoffed, and if it were possible, she went even more limp. Melting into the bed until Rey either held himself aloft or crushed her beneath him. She remembered broken snippets. Him making promises, that he’d fucked it all up. That he would fix it, if she’d just give him the chance. According to him, she’d pleaded for him to do just that. Came apart and remolded herself around him, inside of him. Despite the overbearing concern he’d shown a handful of hours ago, it seemed none of it would hold up to scrutiny in the glaring light of day. It only existed as dreamy memories whispered in the empty nothingness.

“You want to fuck him,” Rey shouted, punching his fists into the mattress hard enough to make Devin bounce. “Is that what would make you happy? Get used to being miserable then, because it’s not happening. You. Are. Mine.”

“No.”

Rey went still above her, so tensed he vibrated as the thick muscles of his arms bunched beside her head. So tired of having to explain herself, trying to make him understand, Devin gave a terse shake of her head and closed her eyes.

Not to be deterred, Rey pressed his lips against her neck and called. The overwhelming reverberation ripped through her as the bond twisted within her chest.

There was no denying him. Instincts prevailed, the snarled knots of the bond opening her to him.