Sebastian stood in the doorway, taking in the scene. Taking in the sight of his youngest brother holding their oga. Taking in the way she clung to Lucian like he was the only thing keeping her anchored to reality.
Sebastian tilted his head to the side and the mindlink opened instantly.
"Is she okay now?"
Lucian nodded through the connection.
Sebastian held the link for a mont longer, then released it.
Lilith felt the mont Lucian relaxed slightly. She raised her head from his chest, looking up at him with confusion. But Lucian’s arms didn’t loosen. Instead, his hand moved from her hair to the back of her neck, gentle but firm. He held her there against his chest.
She turned her head and saw Sebastian.
Fear flickered across her features.
But Sebastian didn’t move toward them. He simply stood there, looking at them with an expression that was impossible to read. His dark eyes tracked the sight of her in his brother’s arms. Tracked the way Lucian was protecting her. Protecting the mont.
"Are you okay?" Sebastian asked softly.
Lilith nodded, her voice too small to speak.
Sebastian’s expression shifted slightly. So of the tension left his shoulders.
"Then I’ll leave you two alone," he said quietly.
He turned and walked back out of the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click.
Lilith’s body tensed slightly at his departure, but Lucian’s arms tightened around her.
"He’s not angry," Lucian whispered. "He understands. They both understand."
Lilith relaxed back against his chest and allowed herself, for the first ti since she’d woken up broken, to believe that maybe she wasn’t going to be punished. Maybe she wasn’t going to be abandoned. Maybe, just maybe, she was going to survive this.
Lucian held her and let his wolf settle into sothing that felt almost like contentnt.
In the hallway, Sebastian walked toward Nicholas’s office with a new understanding of what was happening between them and the oga. The rule was broken, yes. But not in the way he’d feared. Not in the brutal, uncontrollable way he’d imagined.
Lucian had broken it with gentleness.
And sohow, that was more dangerous than anything they could have done to her.
Because now, they weren’t just her captors. Now, they were the only thing standing between her and the darkness. Now, she needed them in ways that went far beyond a thirty-day contract.
***
Sebastian found Nicholas exactly where he’d left him....behind his desk, nursing a drink in the darkness of the office. The morning light coming through the windows was the only thing illuminating the space, casting long shadows across the polished wood.
Nicholas looked up as Sebastian entered.
"She’s okay," Sebastian said without preamble. He closed the door behind him. "Lucian is with her. She was dissociated, panicking, convinced we were going to punish her for sothing she couldn’t rember. But now she’s calm. Lucian is holding her."
Nicholas set his glass down slowly.
"Did he...." he started.
"No," Sebastian cut him off. "He didn’t. He just held her. Comforted her."
He moved to the window and looked out at the grounds, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
"That was enough, Nicholas," he repeated quietly. "That simple act of holding her while she broke....that cald her more than anything else could have. And that’s the problem. Because holding her shouldn’t be enough. Sex should be what we need. Possession should be what satisfies our wolves. But it’s not. It’s her. Just... her."
The door to the office opened without a knock.
Lucian entered, and his presence shifted the entire dynamic of the room. His golden eyes were bright but not feral. Calm but not complacent. He looked like a man who’d found sothing he didn’t know he’d been searching for.
He closed the door and leaned against it, his arms crossed over his chest.
"She’s sleeping now," he said. "She cried herself to exhaustion, and I stayed with her until she drifted off. Her breathing is steady. Her heartbeat is calm. She’s peaceful."
Nicholas and Sebastian exchanged a look.
"That shouldn’t be possible," Nicholas said quietly. "After what we did to her, after the trauma she experienced....she shouldn’t find peace with us. She should find us terrifying."
"But she doesn’t," Lucian said. And there was sothing in his voice that made both his brothers look at him fully. "She finds us... necessary. Like she can’t survive without us near her."
He pushed off from the door and moved to the center of the office.
"We need to stop lying to ourselves," Lucian said. His voice was sharp. Raw. "We need to stop pretending this is about a contract or paynt or a thirty-day agreent. We need to acknowledge what’s actually happening here."
"Which is?" Nicholas asked, though his tone suggested he already knew the answer.
"She’s our mate," Lucian said. The words hung in the air like a confession. "She’s our true mate. We need to stop pretending otherwise."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Sebastian’s head turned to look at Lucian. Nicholas’s entire body went rigid. The muscles in his jaw clenched so tightly it looked like they might snap.
"That’s not possible," Nicholas said flatly. His voice was controlled, but there was an edge underneath it....an edge that suggested he was holding onto logic by his fingernails. "She’s wolfless. True mates require a connection through the wolf bond. It’s a fundantal law of our nature. A wolfless oga cannot be our true mate."
"Tell that to your dick," Sebastian said.
The words ca out sharp. Cutting. Nicholas’s head snapped toward him.
"What?" Nicholas asked coldly.
"Tell that to your dick," Sebastian repeated. He turned from the window to face his brothers fully. "And tell that to Kael. Because I watched you yesterday, brother. I watched you lose control completely. I felt your need through the fraternal bond, it was so intense it made my teeth ache. You didn’t want her because she was available. You didn’t use her because she was property. You wanted her because she’s OURS."
User Comments
0 comments from readers