Chapter 4

When Rey flung her onto the bed, Devin twisted to her belly. Scrambling on hands and knees to the far side before he caught her ankle in his sure grip, she shrieked and kicked as he dragged her down the center of the mattress and flipped her over. The sheets and blankets torn free of their immaculate position by her clawing hands, she stared at him with chest heaving under the paralyzing hold of her terror when he covered her with his shadow.

“You need to understand your place now, girl,” he said on a low growl, wrenching his shirt from his slacks.

“Stop, please. Don’t do this,” Devin stammered out, an ineffectual hand held palm out to the man looming over her. “I didn’t mean—”

“You never mean it, do you,” Rey demanded in a hushed roar. “How are you so damned na?ve?”

“I’ve been asking myself that for a while now,” Devin said in a broken whisper, dropping her hand to slap against her thigh. She couldn’t stop him. There’d never been a moment when she could fight off either of them. At least Rey didn’t hurt her before. Perhaps if she didn’t fight him…

“In case you’ve forgotten, let me remind you that I’ve paid a good deal of money for you. That makes you mine, hear me?”

Devin gave a slow nod, squirming upright. If she gave in, just let this happen, it would be over soon. She wouldn’t have to consider those hopeless faces in the container, their sounds of misery haunting her. It was her own hands that pulled her shirt over her head, thumbing the button of her jeans open. She didn’t realize he’d stopped his lecture of her purpose in life until she lay back, shivering as she kicked the leg of the jeans free of her foot.

The rich brown of his eyes couldn’t hide his wariness at her sudden change. Something dark and feral lingered beyond it, the blazing heat of it a brand against her skin as it traveled over her every curve. His hands took the same paths, tracing the hills and valleys of her body as he climbed on top of her. Spreading her wide to accommodate him before guiding her legs around his hips.

“P-please… please could you c-call,” Devin begged as he settled against her, the thick length of his cock rubbing against her folds. Grinding against delicate flesh, desert dry from fear of what punishment he might dole out under the pretense of sex.

“No,” Rey ground out as he moved her arms out to the side where she couldn’t cover herself.

At least now she knew what he intended. Devin grit her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut as she waited for him to begin. She’d survived this when Beau did it. She could survive Rey as well.

“Not yet,” he snarled against her chest before his mouth closed over her breast. Mounding the flesh, he moaned against the softness and opened wider. Taking more of it in to suck hard before drawing back with scraping teeth to her nipple.

Devin choked on her gasp, sputtering as her eyes flew open to stare in wonder at the ceiling. A helpless sound tumbled from her lips as his rough hand went to work on the other side, fingers mimicking the pinch of his teeth and the roll of his tongue. His guttural moan vibrated through her, a prickling tingle skating over her entire body as she shivered in response. Through it all, he ground his throbbing length against her. The potent fluid of his arousal gave ample lubrication as he nudged her clit with every slow thrust.

Pulling back, he forced Devin’s spine into a blissful arch to follow the delicious torture of his sucking mouth. Releasing her nipple with a loud smack of his lips, he bent to replay the assault on the other. His fingers toyed with the slick peak as soon as he abandoned it, the stiff bud drawing painfully tight under his unwavering attention.

He switched from one side to the other, devouring her flesh with a ravenous hunger. Callused fingers caressed whatever they could reach, giving her no chance to breathe, to hold on to her reeling thoughts. On the first of her ragged moans, a rush of slick answered the roll of his hips. Bathing him in the slippery liquid, easing his way as he rutted against her. The wet slide against pleasure swollen folds excited her all the more. Devin strained to open her legs wider, inviting him closer with fingers threading through his dark waves.

“Tell me you want it, sweetheart,” Rey said in a quiet growl at her ear. He added delicious friction against her nipples, rubbing his chest hard against hers.

Devin whined low in her throat, thrashing her head against the bed. Clenching her small fists in his hair to drag him down to her lips, she silenced him with a savage kiss the Alpha met with an intensity Devin didn’t expect. His low rumbles and snarls breathed into her, filling her lungs as he attacked her with teeth and tongue. Sucking at her, his playful nips descended fast to near painful bites.

Wrenching away, Rey fisted her curls, holding her to the bed as he gave her a feral smile. On a call as loud as a challenging roar, he entered her. Spreading her wide, stretching her to the very limits in one sure thrust. Seated to the hilt with a victorious howl, he fell upon her and crushed Devin beneath him as he drove that savage rumble deep into her bones.

Devin’s airy scream crumpled beneath the next powerful thrust. Arching beneath the agonizing bliss ricocheting through her body, she dug her nails deep into his back. Clinging to him as he sent the world spinning away on another savage call. Rey’s hands slipped beneath her arms, holding tight to her shoulders as he dragged her into the brutal slap of his hips.

Pleasure ripped through her veins. Shredding any thought except the glorious ache centered within the cradle of her hips. The decadence of the Alpha who wrought such incredible sensation from the simple act of rubbing his bristled cheeks between the swollen mounds of her breasts.

“Say it,” he rasped at her ear, hunched over her far smaller body. The wide breadth of his hands curled around her hips, pulling Devin onto his thick shaft. Grinding deep to hear her keening moans.

Confusion tripped through the liquid heat, trying to douse the flames licking over her body. Devin writhed, hips tipping up to the Alpha. Silencing him with the tight clench of slick muscle as she lapped at the light sheen of salty sweat covering his chest.

“Say it,” Rey said through a bone shattering growl. Wrapping the length of Devin’s hair around his fist, he pulled her mouth away before she could reach the destination of his shoulder. “Say you want it!”

Shaking her head as much as his tight grip allowed, Devin whined low in her throat. She didn’t understand, didn’t want to understand the husky syllables fighting their way through the sultry ecstasy threading through her body. Offering a strangled hum, she worked her legs higher. Forcing him deeper before she rocked her hips. Impaling herself on the long length of him when he would not give her what she wanted.

No matter how she tried, though, it wasn’t the perfection she sought. She couldn’t move fast enough, hard enough. The delicious ache snatched away as Rey held himself aloft. Taking the heat of his body, the decadence of his scent with him.

Devin snarled, baring her teeth to the large male. Voicing her displeasure on a ragged growl, she shoved at his chest and shoulders. Trying to turn them so that she could grab onto the diminishing threads of her pleasure.

Clarity seeped into her thoughts, a shiver working its way down her back. Rey’s predatory gaze caught and held the moment she became aware. His smile was a vicious thing, feral and cruel as he took hold of the trembling length of Devin’s thigh. Wrenching the stiffening limb to his shoulder, he muffled her nervous shriek with hardened lips. Tongue invading as he did the same to the other leg, folding her body beneath him.

Unable to even wriggle beneath the weight of him, Devin squeezed her eyes shut. Avoiding the dark gleam in his gaze as he wrapped her in his body. Imprisoning her in the solid cage of his arms. She tried in vain not to hear the demanding growl vibrating through his words, the command to open her eyes resisted for a smattering of gasping breaths before she pried her lashes apart. Confronted with the endless abyss of emotions she couldn’t begin to understand, Devin shivered.

“You are mine.” Touch strange in its gentleness, he cupped her cheek to keep her rapidly clearing gaze centered upon him. Not letting Devin turn away from the intensity of his dark eyes or the intent of his words. “Say it.”

Devin didn’t dare to answer. Not when the denial coated her tongue in sticky sourness, choking her with equal measures of fear and anger. She didn’t want this. He withheld the haze of instinct, forcing her to keep his gaze as he moved with a level of control that stole her breath. The slow rocking of his hips, dragging his cock from her clutching depths only to return on an agonizing glide, driving her insane as she teetered between want and dissent.

“Say it,” he murmured, grinding against her cervix. Adding a touch of pain that she didn’t know she could withstand outside of the heady fog of instinct.

That she never could admit she enjoyed, though he wrenched the stuttering gasp from her. Driving a weakened moan from her as he pulled back.

Each slow glide of his shaft breathed new life into the banked flames of her desire. Coursing through her body as he growled and snarled at her ear, demanding her response. The very moment she lost herself in the pleasure thundering through her brought him to stillness.

“Say it.”

Devin whined and thrashed. She fought the hold that refused to bruise, to hurt, to make her hate him for more than the denial of spiraling out of control. Rey’s smile was a baring of teeth, a savage expression that spoke of his intent before he uttered any words.

“Say it and it stops.”

Devin answered with a desperate shriek, her sad attempt at rebellion silenced before she could even begin. With ease, he held her still, pinned to the mattress.

Hours passed. Rey playing her body against her, using a knowledge she didn’t know he had. He knew just where to touch her to ratchet her desire to heights that terrified her, when to slow. When to stop before she drowned in the overwhelming sensations. Taunting her with the power he held over her as Devin screamed her denial and begged with wordless desperation. He broke her down, inch by glorious inch. Wearing away her resolve with every caress.

Dripping with sweat, the bed and their bodies soaked with the copious amount of slick and his arousal, Devin could only whimper as his mouth closed over the raw peak of her breast. The rasp of his tongue too much as she trembled at the very edge. Threatening to tumble over into an endless abyss of pleasure before he took the rough suction of his lips away.

“Please,” Devin whined, trembling fingers raking through the damp strands of his hair, cradling the back of his head as she arched to offer him the reddened peak. She sought to cajole, giving a broken purr.

“Say it,” Rey husked in a midnight growl against the side swell of her other breast. He shifted his weight, working his cock deeper into her slick heat.

It was too much.

“Yes,” Devin said on a ragged scream, the desperate sound spinning into a desolate wail as he pulled away. Recognition following a breathless second after, she caught his jaw between her hands. Bringing him closer with the delicate touch as she breathed the words against his kiss swollen lips. “I’m yours.”

Anything to make the endless torture stop. Whether he believed her or not, Rey wrapped his arms low on her waist. Dragged her into the punishing slap of his hips and roared.

The world tripped and tumbled. Spinning out of control until she kneeled above the panting Alpha. Unprepared, Devin’s hoarse cry echoed through the room as he slammed his thick shaft into her from below. Her head fell back, nails raking down the length of his forearms as he lifted her, only to bring her crashing down against his next brutal thrust. Fucking her from below with unrestrained power, as if she’d given them both permission with her whispered disgrace.

She didn’t care. Not as pleasure exploded along her synapses, a ragged ecstasy searing through her veins. There was no building up to it, no grueling climb. He’d kept her at a cruel edge for far too long for that. A wildfire set loose, it rocketed through her limbs as muscles trembled and tightened.

Devin’s lips parted on a silent scream as he moved her body. The world shattered in a glittering wash of brilliant white. Depending on the strength of him to keep her up long past the point her spine bowed, and she lost herself within the throes of her pleasure. The rippling contractions of her pussy worked his glistening shaft. Clinging to the slick skin as he pummeled her with a violent need of his own.

Eyes going wide, pupils swallowing the last of violet-blue, she fell forward to his chest. A battered shriek tumbling over her cracked lips, she dug her nails in deep. Raking them down his sides as Rey wrung more from her body. He didn’t tease the tangled thread of pleasure. Wrenching them with teeth and hands, he handled her with a violence and power she couldn’t resist. Devin’s teeth melted into the thick muscle of his chest to muffle her trembling wail as he dragged her up the rocky cliff before she could fall into the molten fire.

A roar that shook the panes of the windows had her eyes rolling back in her head. The sound alone enough to widen her legs, Devin ignored the painful creak of joints as Rey flipped them again. Arm behind her shoulders, he held her still for the grueling pace he set. Teeth close to her ear, he snarled filthy demands that she come on his knot, take his come and scream his name.

As the rippling contractions began again, twisting through her stomach in a painful rush, Devin screamed. Leaving wet trails of blood on his back, she bucked and writhed beneath him as he ground the swelling base of his cock inside the tight clench of her pussy. Somehow desperate for more, Devin pleaded with sobbing breaths, clawing at his back to pull him closer.

Rey lunged forward to set his teeth to the band of muscle where neck met shoulder. Biting hard enough she felt a sting, he didn’t give her the promised agony. Ducking his head further, he sunk his teeth deep into the top swell of her breast, moaning around the trickle of blood washing over his tongue.

Devin buried a ragged moan in his thick waves as the knot expanded. Locked deep inside of her, it threatened to split her open, yet she welcomed the painful fullness. Crushed beneath Rey as he smeared growling moans and her blood against her chest, Devin’s broken hum played through the inky strands of his hair as she cradled him closer.

Long before Devin caught her breath, Rey began again. A small shift, tugging and pushing the knot within the tight grip. Manipulating nerves Devin couldn’t name as he began the earth-shattering climb once more. With a hand shoved between them, he found the taut bundle of nerves and spread her slick over it before grinding it beneath his thumb.

“Say it again.”

* * *

Devin’s quiet hum scattered over the warm sheets beneath her cheek, the scent of espresso and sweetened strawberries rising to greet her. A smile spread across her chafed lips as she turned to press her mouth to her arm where the scent was strongest. Tongue darting out to taste the still warm fluid, her contented sounds grew, blooming into a throaty purr as she reached towards the source of heat much too far away for her liking.

“Rest, sweetheart,” Rey whispered in a voice gone husky, raw. He leaned over her, blanketing her in his heat and scent to brush a kiss against Devin’s brow. “I’ll be back as soon as my business is done.”

A line appeared between the dark sweep of Devin’s eyebrows as he took the overwhelming presence away. Eyes daring to open a crack, she saw the intense heat of late afternoon turning the bedroom cozy. Thick bands of light highlighted every hill and valley of her naked body as she lay sprawled over the bed. Taking up far more space than she had any right to, she voiced a questioning whine as the door clicked shut.

Sore in places she didn’t expect, Devin took her time dragging her body upright to lean against the plush headboard. Bleary gaze taking in the stained and well scented linens surrounding her, she ignored the corner of bare mattress where the sheets had ripped free.

As the lingering lassitude left her, she took stock of her body with cold sterility. There were bites, but she’d be surprised if they marked her for more than a handful of days. The faint gray hue of a bruise here and there, likely to fade soon enough. He’d been careful in his torture. She’d give him that.

Ripping away every last shred of resistance with his hungry mouth, crushing her sense of self with callused hands, he’d cracked her open. Made her need it until she gave him what he wanted. How she’d begged in the end. Even now, she could hear the ragged pleas she’d made drifting in the dusty motes of light, the way she’d called out his name as if it tasted incredible on her tongue.

Sniffing hard to hold back a wave of tears she refused to shed, Devin crawled from the bed and went to the shower. Stiff as she scrubbed away their mingled scents from her body, she clenched her teeth hard against a scream as she felt warmth trickle down her thigh. She’d begged for that, too. Denying the need to cup the flat planes of her stomach, she scoured her skin to a blushing glow with shaking hands under the scalding water.

Emerging somewhat calmer, glad at least he continued to give her the products to mute her sweetness, Devin stumbled through the rest of her routine. Mind blank as she dammed up the all too vivid memories of it all, walling it off somewhere dark and cold.

There was no hanger full of clothes waiting this time. Letting out a heavy sigh, she dug through the drawers until she came across his sweaters. Covered to the knees, she padded into the living room. She stopped as soon as she saw the furious set of Rey’s features. The hard line of his jaw clenched so tight a muscle ticked in his cheek. Burnt coffee and smoky violence invaded her sinuses, freezing her lungs as she watched in wide-eyed stillness. The prey trying not to draw the predator’s attention.

“Don’t you fuck me on this, Beau. Just be down at the docks in time for the shipment. Kahler’s antsy about things running smoothly while he’s busy.” A pause brought a rush of dusky rose to Rey’s cheeks, nostrils flaring before he responded. “What I do, and who I do it with, is none of your business.”

Devin stayed tight to the doorframe, her feet unable to move as Rey hung up and clenched the cellphone in his hand, making the plastic and glass groan before he flexed his fingers open and dialed another number. She didn’t know if she made a sound, or if it was nothing more than an Alpha’s heightened senses that had him turning to her. The lushness of his lips thinned to a hard line, muting the richness of the amber rose, but he held out his arm in invitation. Snagging hold of her as Devin tried to skirt past, Rey dragged her onto his lap and smoothed his palm over the bare stretch of her legs as he waited for the call to connect.

He didn’t need to tell her to be quiet. Instead, he leaned back in the oversized chair that only just contained his massive frame, dipping his chin down once towards his chest. An indication of what he wanted. Devin stifled her sigh, but couldn’t hide pursed lips as she leaned into him. Cheek against his chest, she sat stiff as he spoke to whoever it was on the phone. She couldn’t listen to the details, didn’t want to know. Maybe it made her a horrible person, not even giving the image of the caged Omegas further thought and her pity, but if she did, she’d go crazy.

As if he sensed her agitation, Rey kneaded her calves. His hand moved higher to her thighs before skimming fingers went to her back and dug deep into the muscles. Prying apart every knot, each tensed line, he manipulated her into a sense of quietness. Relaxing her against his larger body until Devin felt buttery soft, melting into the incredible heat of him.

Through it all, he made more calls. Muted voices proclaiming violence, shipments, cargo. The only discernable thing the low rumble of Rey’s voice through his chest, somehow never making enough sense to pique her curiosity. Just the distant thunder of it soothing away any hint of fraught emotion.

“You should have slept more, sweetheart,” he murmured against her damp hair, fingers teasing away the last vestiges of soreness from her neck. “Let’s go back to bed.”

“Please, no,” Devin whimpered, a shudder ruining his efforts as she skittered away from the looming wall of darkness in her thoughts. All of it threatening to burst free as his nails scratched a playful tease behind her ear. Fingers fluttered over the tight seam of her thighs, protective and terrified.

“Shh, none of that now.” Rey gathered Devin to his chest, carrying her back to the bedroom without making his intents known.

He stood Devin on the bed, rumbling an appreciative murmur as he whisked the sweater over her head, tossing it away to free his hands to grip her ass. Bringing her flush amid a growling demand for her to remove his shirt.

Eyes downcast, she did as she was told. Just as he knew she would. Devin tugged the plain cotton free, dropping to her knees in the tangle of sheets and blankets to work his jeans down the length of his long legs. Not until he’d buried them beneath the sticky layers of fabric, Devin’s body wedged half beneath his, did she realize he meant sleep. Fingers working against her scalp, he purred long and loud for her. Easing her towards the quiet darkness as he pushed the sound deep into her side.

“You’re mine, sweetheart,” he murmured against the shell of her ear as Devin teetered at the edge of her dreams. “Soon, you’re going to realize that, too.”