“That you were mine.” That came out in a more powerful rasp, the bruises helping to cast him as this dark, brutal figure. “My mate. My omega. Mine to care for and look after and to protect, and if asking permission will make you feel more comfortable, I’ll do so, in any situation you like. Right now would be a start.”
“Rhys…” Bren warned.
His thumb went to my lips, parting them to graze my teeth, then touch the tip of my tongue.
“I want to kiss you so very much. The need to do so hurts more than anything someone could do to me. I need your taste, Cyn. Can I kiss you?”
“This is what he wants,” I gasped out, pushing his hand away but feeling the frisson that came from finally touching skin you’d craved for so long. “He’s trying to force us together.”
“Fuck Marcus. Fuck his games. Fuck Benson and his bullshit. Fuck all of it. What do you want, Cyn?”
“
Wanting’s never been the problem. There wasn’t one moment when I didn’t want you,” I snapped back, straining against Bren’s arms.
“Fuck, sweetheart.” Rhys’ smile was warm, sweet, and somehow also deeply carnal. “You have no idea how much I needed to hear that. I thought you’d never want me again.”
“I wish.” My words were harsh, bitten off, and his smile faltered, but he had to know. “I have been haunted by the four of you. You’ve left great big footprints all over my life, and I’m only just discovering how extensively. You marked me that day in the forest, imprinted on me like an animal. All I could think of, feel, fantasise about, need, was you. All of you. Who might I have become if I’d stayed home that day? How would my life have gone? I’ll never fucking know, because all there has been is you, you, you, burned into me, marking me!”
My hand went to the scar on my neck as the tears came.
“I walked into this like a lamb to the slaughter, and the hungry wolves descended. They had the grace to make it good for me, but nonetheless, they tore me in two, then left me bleeding. I’m not an alpha. I can’t break your door down and demand what I want from you. All I can do is strengthen my body and my mind and then bury myself deep in my nest, wrapping the fabrics tight around me and pretending they’re your arms so I’ve got a chance at sleeping.”
Bren hugged me tight, giving me that bone-deep proprioceptive feedback I needed, his lips in my hair and on my neck as he tried to soothe me, mumbling a million little reassuring things. But he couldn’t, not with how things were playing out.
“You don’t want to be the victim anymore. You were always strong, now you’re discovering just how strong,” Rhys replied. His arms went wide, and I could see the shake in his limbs as he did so. “You’re marked by us? Well, the knife cuts both ways. You’re in me bone-deep in a way that no other omega will be. I am utterly, entirely yours, but you were never a passive participant in this. You chose. You can kick down my door anytime, if it means you come in here and take what you need. Take it, Cyn.”
A sob choked me as he sank down onto his knees, just as he had on my lawn that day.
“Take, Cyn, anything and everything you want. I’ll never hold back from you again. Everything I have, it’s yours.”
Bren seemed to know the moment I needed to move before I did, loosening his hold. I stepped free, but having him there, at my back, ready to step between me and his mate at any point made my heart sing. But I had something that was important for me to do now. Rhys’ head was down, so were his arms. He was in a position of pure surrender, something I couldn’t take back then. It made it worse, gave me no boundaries to work with when I was the most out of control, but I had mastered myself. I wiped away my tears, tilted up his head, and then bent over, Bren’s hand on my hip as I brushed my lips against Rhys’.
“Yes, Cyn…” he hissed, not moving, just letting me take.
But that could never last long. His hands rose, tentatively, painfully, trying to close the gap between us, and when I pulled away, his expression took on the familiar shuttered look. But I drew back, feeling Bren step into that, his arms going around me, my lips meeting his as I twisted to meet him. For a second, there was only that, only Bren, but there would never be just one of them, not for long, so I reached out to Rhys, seeing surprise wash over him, then pulled him to his feet.
So there I was, wedged between two alphas, their scents, minty, woody, and wild, filling my nose and turning my body to fire, but I was in control of this. I was in control of them. They hovered, close enough that their bodies brushed against mine, but not moving until I said. I knew if I slid my hands down, I’d find them hard and wanting, but until I did, they wouldn’t move. I looked up at the both of them, my voice not especially steady, and told them how it would be.
“We’re not having sex. I don’t think… I’m not sure anything more than kissing is a good idea.”
“Kissing you is more than I expected to get today. Ever, really,” Bren said. He reached out and brushed my lips with his thumb. “Any day I feel these on mine is a fucking amazing one.” And with a question in his eyes, his hand slid to my jaw as he leaned in closer.
I met him more than halfway, stepping into his arms and his kiss with a kind of openness I hadn’t thought possible days before. I still ached, because I felt it sharply when we did kiss, the need for him roaring to life along with the pain of knowing I hadn’t been able to, but those two things fused into now. Bren helped me, made me feel stronger, worked with me to prepare me for what was coming. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I had a partner, not an alpha or a lover or a mate at my side. When we finally came up for air, we just stood there, smiling, foreheads pressed together.
“If I’m the one doing the taking, I’m gonna need more of that,” I said.
“Yes, love.” He kissed me again, hard, nipping things, before pulling back. “Whenever you want, I’ll be running on my little bunny feet to give them to you.”
And just like that, he broke the tension, made me laugh. Funny was sexy as fuck, which I told him.
“Stop,” he said, punctuating that with another kiss. “You said no sex, and talk like that…” Then he turned me around, hugging me close, the warmth there making my muscles turn to goo. “Now what about our boy there? Do you want any more of that?”
Some of the wariness was back in Rhys’ expression, but he waited us out, a picture of quiet strength.
“Do you?” I asked Bren.
“Naughty girl.” He nipped my ear. “You asking me that because you care for the wellbeing of my relationship, or because it makes you hot to see me kiss him?”