Chapter 18

Something had changed.

Devin caught scent of it the moment she woke, a spiciness to Rey’s usual decadence as he rolled her beneath him. He moved against her, rubbing that difference into her skin. Marking her with it as he rumbled a pleasured growl and buried his face against her neck.

“Rey,” Devin whispered. She sucked in a sharp gasp when he nibbled at his claiming mark. It felt strange, more intense than before. As if something connected it straight down the line of her body to the cradle of her hips. She clenched over empty air and squirmed against the sensation.

Rey paused in his tender assault on her senses, thumb stroking her cheek as he kept his expression hidden against her shoulder. His voice was rough from sleep, thick with other things Devin could never hope to unravel from the tangled knots of the bond. “I like it when you say my name.”

He didn’t mean his surname. Devin caught her lower lip between her teeth as she worked her fingers through the dark waves of his hair. She almost never used his first name, some small way of keeping her distance. A paltry defense against everything he’d done to her. Cradling the back of his head, she leaned into him, rubbing the scratchy perfection of his cheek with hers.

“Are you going to fuck me now, Daniel?”

“No.”

Devin’s brows snapped together, the growling demand falling to ash on her tongue as Rey gave a quiet call against her chest. Breath leaving her on a stuttering sigh, she arched into the glorious sound. Her legs found their way to his hips, fingers tugging at his hair. Aiming him for her lips. An act she’d done a hundred times before now so very different as his tongue teased over hers.

Golden warmth rushed through her, sparkling beneath her skin like expensive champagne. Giggling at the sensation, she crushed her smile against him. Breathed her moan into him as Rey’s palm followed the path from her hip to thigh as he settled his weight onto her.

“Good, you’ve gotten started,” Beau announced as he fell into the bed with a groan. Stretching out beside Devin, he mock growled at the pinch of her eyebrows.

This… wasn’t right. Devin’s narrowed gaze slid to Rey, the frown completing its slow journey the longer she stared into his eyes. Guilt shadowed the deep brown, uncertainty unfurling as he tried to capture her in a kiss.

“Get off,” she hissed, wriggling her way up the bed. Using Beau as a lifeline, she dragged herself from beneath the oppressive bulk of Rey.

“Am I interrupting something…?” Beau looked between them, his palm smoothing over the puffy mass of Devin’s curls.

“Nothing.” Terse and cold, Rey rolled away, tugging at the sheet to cover himself.

“Don’t be like that, Danny boy,” Beau teased, tugging at the soft cotton to bare the thick slab of Rey’s thigh.

“I’m taking a shower.” Though his back was stiff, hands fisted at his sides, his voice tipped up at the end. A request cast out into the vicious tempest of Devin’s anger. When she didn’t respond, he stalked to the bathroom, the door slamming hard enough to make the walls shudder.

“What the fuck did I walk into?” Beau toppled Devin to her back, caging her in with his arms and the weight of his chest to scowl down at her. “Answer me, baby. I’m too tired for bullshit.”

“Nothing.” Devin groaned and threw her head back into the pillow, an uneasy wave settling in to rip away her conviction.

“Fuck, woman. You are a trying bitch.”

“Hey!”

“If you were mine, I’d just beat some sense into that head of yours. Do something about that stubborn streak, too.”

“Right.” Devin snorted and rolled her eyes. Pushing at Beau’s shoulders got her nowhere, so she heaved a beleaguered sigh and sunk into the bed.

“Get your head out of your ass and come join us,” Beau said, his lips firming into a hard slash as he climbed from the bed. Slapping Devin on the side of her thigh, he added, “There’s more than just you in this, Devin.”

With that parting shot, he disappeared into the plumes of steam billowing from the bathroom.

Devin growled at the closed door, baring her teeth until even she felt ridiculous. Neither were there to see it, no reaction to be gleaned from a panel of wood. Muttering under her breath about egos and the sheer fucked-up-ed-ness of everything, she clambered down from the mattress and padded after Beau.

Coming to a hard stop, Devin’s lips parted on a shaky inhale.

Rey had Beau pinned against the tiles of the shower with arms twisted behind his back. Keeping Beau still for the brutal slap of Rey’s hips as the force of the punishing strokes drove Beau up on tiptoe. Though his face twisted in pain, teeth bared in a grimace, Beau took it all with guttural moans.

If the savage scene wasn’t enough on its own, Rey’s low growls and snarls were positively feral. As if intent on punishing Beau with the powerful thrusts, he wrenched Beau’s hips back into him. Smashing Beau’s face against the tiles, grinding his cheek into the slick porcelain as Rey snarled and bit his back deep enough for rivulets of blood to swirl with the water pounding down on them.

They never did this without her.

Feeling adrift and alone, Devin swayed and hugged her stomach. Watching them with something between horror and need. She stared at the sinuous lines of their bodies moving, working against one another. Breath coming faster, her cheeks warmed at the tingling sensation rippling through her body as she inhaled their arousal.

Her back met the door as their combined attention slammed into her. Beau’s grunts mingled with the heady snarls Rey gave voice to. The slide of her thighs against each other a faint alarm in the back of her head as Rey’s call thundered through the tiled room. Crashing against her skull, pounding deep into the cradle of her hips until Devin doubled over the shock of sensation.

He didn’t come to her to ease the sudden ache between her legs. Didn’t rush to fill her empty depths. Rey gave Beau all of his violence. Far rougher with him than Rey had ever been with her. He used Beau’s body, a tool to sate the brutal need. Didn’t even touch the heavy shaft bobbing between Beau’s legs with the furious rhythm Rey set and denied Beau the ability to do it himself.

Gnawing at her lower lip as an odd fear skittered up her spine, Devin edged closer. It crackled through the delicate vertebrae as she drew near, head bowing under some unheard command as she reached for the tumescent length when Rey slammed into the hilt.

His warning was a vicious roar. One that sent Devin to her knees, cowering before all that rage. Shivering in the frigid wake of it, she whined low in her throat.

“Rey,” Beau rasped, trailing into a hoarse shout as Rey drove him up the wall. Impaling Beau in a single, swift thrust. Dropping him only to repeat it.

Beau was the larger of the two. He could have twisted free, made Rey hear him, but he took it with furrowed brow and ragged, panting breaths. His cock strained in the eddies of steam and heat, but he made no move to grasp it. Arching to ease the stretch of his shoulders as Rey shoved his twisted arms high, Beau grunted through the cruel pistoning of Rey’s hips.

So close she imagined she could taste them, Devin whined as he forced her to stand by and watch. Trembling fingers ghosted over Rey’s ankle. Brought his attention to her, though he still didn’t reach for her.

“Rey,” Beau cried out, eyes wide as he finally struggled against the implacable grip. Too much white around the perfect blue of his irises, Beau tried to get his feet under him, to push away from the violent thrusts.

The dark reverberation began low in Rey’s chest. Wrenching Beau into the slap of his hips, offering no mercy as the steady tempo began to falter.

“Rey, no, no, come on, I’m not ready,” Beau stammered in a rumbling mess of syllables as Rey knocked him off balance, face dragged against the tiles.

“Daniel, please,” Devin whispered as she stroked the side of his calf. Not quite daring to do anything more than that as Rey’s growl built into a roar.

Beau howled above her as Rey worked his knot in deep. Shoving against the writhing body fighting to get free, Rey crushed Beau to the shower wall and bellowed at Beau’s ear as he ground in as far as he could.

Devin sobbed, but she wasn’t certain what caused the wrenching sadness. It hurt that he only touched Beau, leaving her out of it entirely, but it wasn’t just that. Not even that Beau was still crying out in pain, though she knew that should bother her more than it did.

She wanted those moments back. That glittering sparkle that made everything seem so right.

Crawling back on her knees, she didn’t stagger to her feet until she had the door most of the way open. Started for the bed only to veer away, horror filling her lungs with bitter cold.

Unable to grasp why she kept fucking it all up, Devin tugged the nearest blanket free and curled up in the corner. Wrapped in the downy cover that suffocated her in espresso and cinnamon, she wept acrid tears into its folds.

What had she expected? Of course, he’d grow tired of her denials and refusal. Beau took what Rey gave him without complaint. Even now, his ragged sounds of pain were fading. The bond lay flat and lifeless in her chest, leaving her cold.

She hadn’t trusted that newness, the strangeness of it overwhelming her. Unable to accept that things had, maybe, changed all for the better. It wasn’t what she’d become accustomed to, and so she’d balked. She’d believed Rey was in her head, mangling her thoughts, making her wants and needs align with his.

Maybe he had, but she’d wanted them to.

She saw it now. Understood it as the frigid tears tracked down her cheeks. Never thinking things through, she always acted on every stupid impulse, to hell with the consequences.

Beau burst out of the bathroom. The scorched taste of his scent burned the back of her throat as he stormed past her. Nostrils flaring, he glanced at Devin the once as he tugged jeans on over his damp body. Lip curling before he stalked out of the room, the front door slammed in his wake.

Did he blame her? Devin couldn’t fault him for it. She’d twisted up whatever it was between the two men, maiming what had once been pure and simple. Disfiguring it for her own needs, using Beau as a buffer against Rey long after it made sense.

“Up,” Rey snarled as he came out of the foggy depths of the other room.

Devin used the wall behind her to climb to her feet, sniffling back her tears as Rey went around the room dressing.

She would have taken his violence in that moment if he’d just stopped and looked at her. He didn’t though. Slamming drawers and ripping clothes from their hangers, he made ready to leave. Nothing came sailing through the air at her, no demands she get dressed. They were going to leave her alone for the first time in months, and she wanted no part of it.

“I’m sorry,” Devin whispered, pulling the blanket higher on her shoulders before she dropped it to pool at her feet. Baring her trembling body to him in a desperate attempt to gain his attention.

Rey ignored her, sitting on the long bench beside the closet to pull on his shoes.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes. Don’t leave this room,” he said as he stood and started out the door.

“Please, come back.” Devin stooped to grab the blanket, wrapping it around herself as she scurried down the hall after him. Hopeful to the last, she called after him. “I need you to talk to me, Daniel.”

“It’s always what you want it, isn’t it?” Rey scoffed and gave a slow shake of his head.

“I’m sorry! What more do you want from me?” Devin hiccupped and crumpled against the wall as Rey shoved keys and phone into his pockets.

He was quiet for so long she didn’t expect him to answer. She never thought he’d round on her, grabbing her shoulders to shake her hard enough her brain rattled around in the cage of her skull.

“You haven’t gone into heat again,” he roared as he slammed her back into the wall, his body following a moment behind. Rey crushed her against the heavy paneling to grind his hips against hers. “Two fucking Alphas answering your every whim and you can’t even give me that.”

Devin blinked hard. Shock sizzled down her spine, arcing through her limbs as Rey captured her lips. A violent invasion as he laid claim to her mouth, assaulting her with the slick glide of his tongue. He kissed her until they were both breathless, his every exhale underlined with a growl.

“I’m done waiting,” he husked, letting her slide down the length of his body. Flexing his fingers over the swell of her hips, he leaned close. “Don’t you dare try and run, Devin. I swear to the Gods, if you’re not here when I get back, I’m going to track you down and tie you to that fucking bed. I’ll live in that sweet pussy until I’ve given you my baby. Do you hear me?”

“And if I can’t give you that?”

Rey stilled. He had to have wondered about it. No suppressants, no birth control. Endless hours of him deep inside of her all this time, and nothing had come of it. She’d been on suppressants since her first heat. She didn’t even know if the lack of them was normal for her. There’d been no mention of doctors or tests, just this insane need.

“You can.”

“What if I can’t, Rey?”

“You can.” The utter conviction in his deep rumble shuddered through her, but it wasn’t enough.

“Are you going to throw me away?” A barely there whisper, she cringed from his heat and tried to meld into the wall to gain some distance. “Get someone else?”

“What part of I need you can you not understand, Devin,” he shouted as his fist went through the wall with a bone jarring crack and a cloud of plaster dust. Wrenching his hand free of the ragged hole, he took her arm. Hauling Devin up against his chest so he could bury his face against her neck and wrap himself in her.

Devin dragged in a shaky breath, locking her limbs around him. Her skin tingled where she touched him, but the rush of golden warmth wasn’t there. Concentrating on the bond proved it was still quiet. Rey kept everything locked down tight as he nuzzled her.

Mouthing her skin, he growled low in his throat. “I damn well love you, girl. I have tried to fix this between us. Do you have any idea what it cost me to let Beau into our nest? But he made you smile, so I swallowed my fucking pride and let him fucking taste you.”

She flinched at the revelation. Brows pinched tight, she tried to get him to meet her searching gaze. The first show of jealousy was all she remembered, really. Considering the way he’d treated her, the cold silence while Beau plied her with flowers and chocolates, showering her with attention, it made far more sense. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“He made you smile.” Rey’s laugh was a bitter, twisted thing that he muffled against her shoulder. He continued in a raw whisper, “You screamed when I came anywhere near you, and he made you smile.”

“But you just… with him… You wanted nothing to do with me!” She shoved at his shoulder, her other arm pulling him closer until she felt the hammering of his heart.

“I didn’t want to hurt him.” Rey pulled back, narrowed eyes searching hers. “That’s what was bothering you?”

“I was upset about a lot of things.”

Rey’s lip lifted, a glimpse of even white teeth as he gave Devin a rough shake. Demanding more as he held her aloft with the press of his hips.

“I thought you didn’t want me anymore,” Devin mumbled into the stiff silence, refusing to meet Rey’s eyes as she admitted everything. “That I pushed you too far, and Beau was always so willing, and I… I never know what’s real with you! This damn bond screws everything up, makes it so hard to tell what’s you and what’s me.”

“And last night? Tell me, what changed between then and this morning that you pushed me away just when it seemed everything was good between us.”

“I thought it was you…”

“When have I tried to control you,” Rey demanded in a hushed roar, slamming his body into hers. Crushing his chest against hers, the space where she envisioned the bond connected them aligned. “Since you came back to me, when have I done it?”

“I can never—”

“Don’t you lie to me!”

“It scared me,” Devin whispered and dropped her head to his shoulder. Sucking her lips between her teeth, she bit down hard.

Rey shrugged, forcing her from her hiding spot, waiting until she met the fierce intensity of his deep brown gaze. “Tell me you love me.”

“What?” Devin tried to laugh, the sound escaping as a strangled sob. She gave a jerky shake of her head, tears welling to spill down her cheeks.

“You tell me you love me, Devin, or so help me.”

“I… Don’t ask me that, Rey.”

“You don’t call me that,” he snarled, pushing the breath from her lungs with the weight of his demand.

“Daniel, please—”

“Say it.”

“I don’t know!”

Rey grunted, pulling back so fast Devin almost crashed all the way down before he controlled her descent. Bruising her arms, he held her steady until Devin found her balance.

“Then I’ll be back in twenty minutes. I expect that bed to be stripped and a new nest in its place by the time I return.”

“Rey—Daniel, please, just—”

“I mean it.” He didn’t shove her away. Disentangling her fingers from where they grabbed hold of his sleeve, Rey nudged Devin back. He moved her down the hall with gentle hands before reaching for the door. He looked back over his shoulder with brows pulled down over the bridge of his nose. “Be ready for me.”

Flinging the door open, Rey’s back stiffened.

Devin’s world shattered in a cascade of vicious thunder. The tinkle of broken glass underscoring the rapid-fire explosions that punched through wood and plaster. She screamed and dropped to her knees, but it didn’t stop her from crawling towards the chaos. Towards the safety of her bellowing Alpha.

Rey fell on top of her, curling his far larger body around Devin. Tucking her against him, a living shield. His body jerked and swayed, but he clamped his arms tighter around her. Protecting her from another spray of bullets as they punched through the walls and ricocheted through the foyer.

Devin couldn’t stop screaming. The spatter of hot liquid decorating her arms, her legs, she felt it trailing down her back. None of it was hers, but she felt each thundering crack as if it ripped through her body.

“Stay down,” Rey snarled at her temple when the gunfire tapered off. Shoving her through the nearby doorway, he rose to his full height. Thumping his chest with a bloody fist, he turned to face the waiting danger.

The wet slap of flesh filtered through the ringing in her ears. Roars and shouts. Sounds of violence, mayhem. It tried to hide the crunch of glass, footsteps drawing near.

Devin dove towards the couch, but she wasn’t fast enough. Ankle caught, someone dragged her through the vicious debris. Pinned beneath the weight of a huge male as he sat on her stomach. His leer was far more terrifying than the long blade he pressed to her neck.

“This is going to be a lot of fun for me,” the Alpha rasped as he replaced the knife with his hand. Leaning his weight on the delicate column, he worked his way backwards until he could shove Devin’s leg away to work his way between them.

“Hey, that’s not part of the plan,” a far smaller Beta hissed as he stumbled into the room, holding the deep wound on his arm that dripped blood onto the soft blue rug.

Recognition teased at the edge of her memory but refused to become clear in the chaos.

The bond came alive within her chest. A silent roar bursting through her, hammering against the back of her ribs. It surged through her veins, lighting her synapses on fire. It gave her a strength she wasn’t sure she had as she launched herself at her attacker. Devin’s throttled scream brought the Alpha’s attention back to her. Long enough for the sharp edge of her nails to rake down the side of his face. Scoring the flesh in long lines before she reached for the limpid brown of his eyes.

The back of his hand slammed into her cheek with a resounding crack. It tried to knock her senseless as her head whipped to the side. Devin squinted through the dizzying swirl of colors, kicking with all her might. Angling for his eyes once more. Digging her nails in deep as she dragged them down over the furious blaze.

Her teeth bit deep into the Beta’s arm as he came to help the struggling Alpha. Wrenching her head to the side, she tore a chunk of flesh free. Spat it out with a victorious cry as the Beta fell back with a ragged shout. Warm liquid spilled over her lips, scalding the frozen skin of her chest as it dripped from her chin.

More dark bodies flowed into the small space. None of them Rey’s. Devin’s scream wouldn’t end as she lashed out at anything that came close enough. Shoving her back into the corner, she hissed and growled at the wall of flesh pressing close. Baring her teeth at them, Devin grabbed the only weapon that came to hand. A thick shard of glass that cut deep into her palm as she wielded it, slashing the glittering piece through the air as the males tried to reach for her.

The savage roar stopped short. Not just the one echoing through the frigid air from outside, but the one within. Icy cold sluiced through her, the shock enough to send Devin reeling. She stumbled from her crouch, slamming into the wall as she clawed at the sudden stillness within her breast. Choking on a breath that didn’t want to be pulled into desperate lungs, agony pulsed through her chest. Ripping through her, flinging bits of her heart and soul away with wild abandon.

“No!” Devin’s wail was a broken, desolate thing as she launched herself at the busted windows. She had to get to him. Had to find Rey and stop the virulent pain. Bring him back before it could dig its claws deeper and destroy her.

She couldn’t survive without him. He was hers as much as she was his. Unable to withstand the ferocious torment, she tried to climb through the jagged pieces of glass to the too still body laid out on the frosty grass. Blood poured from the side of his head, staining the crisp blades of faded brown. A pool of dark crimson built beneath him before the cold ground sucked it in. Devin didn’t care about the deep lacerations that patterned her skin, their pain nothing compared to the echoing stillness inside of her.

Caught and held in too many brutal hands, Devin shrieked and sobbed. Skin slick with blood as she struggled, she wasn’t certain what was hers, what was theirs. Her sole need to get to Rey banishing the ache of the deep cuts, dismissing the bruises and punching fists. Small fingers gouged and tore, feet connecting with the soft parts of her assailants. Rey didn’t move. Too far away for her to see if he still breathed.

“Hold her still.” A new voice. Strong, commanding. It swept through the room and tried to punch through Devin’s hysterics. Instead, it made her more savage. A glimpse of a weathered face and sad brown eyes before the butt of a pistol came down on her temple.

“I had hoped you wouldn’t be here,” Anthony Caivano murmured as they shifted Devin’s limp body into his arms. “He’s not dead, little one, but if you don’t stay quiet, he will be.”

Devin gave a final sob before the gray haze clouding her vision faded to black.

* * *