Alison shivered from the orgasm that had rushed through her on the heels of waking. Something warm and sticky was between her thighs, and she was pretty sure it wasn’t all from her…
Her knuckles ached and her shoulder burned, and it took another moment to realize the reasons—she’d dug her nails into Trent’s back, and he’d bitten her shoulder.
A claiming bite. Hell, many bonded mates never did that, and yet now she had a wound on her shoulder from it. The mark would heal, but it would never go away entirely. There would always be a scar from it, as though her body knew to hold on to it, to cherish it.
Trent released her shoulder, the action drawing a whimper from her and another rolling wave of need that coursed through her. “Fuck,” he said, his rough voice deeper than usual. He drew back, and the action caused her to look down and realize the rest.
He’d worn boxers to bed, but at some point during the long hours, she and Trent had ended up tangled together. His cock, which was hot and softening, was tucked between her legs, and that warm stickiness?
His cum sat on her thighs, which filled in the rest of the story.
Her faceless lover from her dream? The mind-blowing orgasm she’d had while asleep? Trent had rutted against her until they’d both gotten off.
“You going to freak out?” he asked.
Alison ran her tongue along her bottom lip, and the soreness there told her she’d chewed on it in her sleep. “I don’t freak out.”
“I didn’t plan this.” He extracted himself from the bed with a wince, as though the wetness from his cum was unpleasant.
Try having it all over your thighs.
Alison rolled over and put her feet to the floor, his scent clouding her head. Worse, each movement made another shiver run through her sensitive body. She stared down at the white on her thighs, her chest uneasy. It was so much alpha around her, and worse, she’d already reacted to it.
The wound on her shoulder burned, and she refused to look at it. It felt like a chain, like a tighter binding than the collar or cuffs.
A towel hit her lap, startling her back to the moment.
Trent nodded, then turned to look at the bed, as if deciding if he needed to change the sheets. It drew her attention to the scratches on his back. Scratches Alison had put there, a need that had terrified her resulting in them.
She wiped her thighs, though she didn’t do a thorough job. Just enough to get the obvious streaks. As soon as she’d done it, she got to her feet, needing to get out of the room. It smelled like sex, and she hadn’t even had sex.
“You’re supposed to sleep here,” he said, though his words lacked firmness.
“I feel like we’ve sort of wrapped up the sleeping thing.”
He twisted his hand to peer at his watch. “It’s three-twenty. You aren’t ready to get up.”
“If it means I don’t have to get back in that bed? Sure, I’ll get up now.”
He offered a low growl, as though backed into a corner. “At least let me look at your shoulder.” When he reached for her, Alison jerked backward. He froze, his hand dangling in the air before lowering slowly. “Right.” The word was full of a lot, but Alison was too close to the edge to decipher any of it. “You’re not sleeping alone. Daniel or Kyle. Your choice.”
Alison wanted to argue, but more than that, she wanted to leave. The choice wasn’t a hard one, really. Daniel was sweet, but Kyle kept things nice and surface level.
“Kyle’s.”
Trent nodded back, but didn’t come closer, didn’t move, when he let Alison flee. She didn’t go to Kyle’s room right away, first going to the restroom. It gave her a moment to collect herself.
This was a stupid plan. Did I really think I could resist three alphas? This is why I’m never around them.
She went to Kyle’s door afterward, but as she lifted her hand to knock, it opened. Kyle stood there, his hair messy from sleep, the same smirk he always had on his lips. It tightened when his gaze landed on her shoulder, but didn’t slip away.
He probably thought she didn’t realize.
“Come on in.” He made space for her, and past him she spotted the bed, unmade and all together inviting.
On the nightstand sat an open first-aid kit, which meant Trent had already spoken to Kyle. At least she wouldn’t need to repeat the story.
Kyle set a hand on her lower back, leading her to the bed. When she sat, he picked up a packet from the kit. He tore it open, then pulled the small cloth out. A grip on her chin set off those old feelings, and she yanked back.
“Easy, sugar,” he whispered and released her. “Tilt your head for me, would you?”
Alison shuddered out a breath but did as he asked. She hissed at the first pass of the alcohol pad.
“Sorry, but we should clean this,” he explained. “The less of his saliva in the wound, the less it will scar.”
“Well then, scrub it raw,” she whispered.
He huffed a soft laugh, though there was still an edge to it. He covered the wound with gauze, then took a wipe from the packet beside the kit.
It was then she looked at her thighs and heat covered her cheeks. She hadn’t cleaned up that well, and it was obvious from the stickiness still there. Getting into a man’s bed with another man’s cum on her thighs wasn’t the sort of thing she’d done before, and certainly didn’t make her feel all that good.
She expected Kyle to hand her the wipe, but instead, he worked to clean her himself. He was thorough and careful, not showing a bit of disgust or discomfort. He slid the cold wipe along her skin, catching each tacky area, even spreading her legs and dropping to his knees to clean her inner thighs.
How the hell can this turn me on again? Wasn’t earlier enough?
Yet, there she was, as though she hadn’t learned her lesson from the last time.
Worse, Kyle inhaled once, released a low groan—one that sounded as though he wanted things and was disappointed to not get to have them—before he finished and took the kit and trash into the bathroom, leaving her alone.
Alison’s collar and cuffs seemed awfully heavy at that moment, the gauze made her shoulder itch and she had no idea how to recalibrate her body.
She could have been truly mad if Trent had pushed a boundary on purpose, if he’d forced her into something. Instead, as proven by her own orgasm, she’d been a willing participant in their little dream-session.
What the hell am I supposed to do with that?
“Stop thinking so much and lie down.” Kyle’s voice came a second before the light in the room clicked off. He left the bathroom one on, as though he knew she might need it. The bed dipped beneath his weight as he settled in, and Alison did the same, her back to him and the large distance between them evidence of just how little she trusted him.
Him? What a joke. Clearly, I can’t trust myself, either.
* * * *
Daniel let out a low growl as he stared at Trent. The man wouldn’t even look at him.
Alison was up in the shower, which meant Daniel hadn’t gotten to see her shoulder, but Kyle had explained it well enough.
“You marked her?”
Trent’s shoulders went rigid, as though the very words bothered him.
Good. He should feel guilty.
“Not on purpose.” Trent stirred his coffee, not facing Daniel.
“What the hell does that mean? You agreed to the rules! Hell, you made them.”
Trent finally turned, leaning his back against the kitchen counter. “To be fair, I didn’t kiss her.” His deadpan delivery only drove Daniel’s temper more.
“Don’t play that game with me. What the hell were you thinking?”
Finally, Trent sighed, his shoulders falling. “I wasn’t thinking, okay? I was fucking asleep. So was she. Neither of us made some big plan about this. As it turns out, when you’re horny and have an omega in your bed, sometimes shit happens.”
Daniel snorted, crossing his arms. “Shit didn’t happen. We aren’t talking about a wet dream here. You bit her. You have never done that before to any woman.”
“I know, and I don’t know what you’re expecting me to say. I didn’t plan it, I don’t know why it fucking happened, and I never wanted to bite her in the first place. Yell at me all you fucking want, I’ve already been kicking my own ass over it all morning.”
The misery on Trent’s face was the only reason Daniel managed to wrangle his frustration at all. Trent looked about as happy about it as Daniel felt. A claiming bite…something rare that only happened between mates, and often not even then. It was some holdover from a more primal side of alphas, something most alphas had even shed over the millennia of evolution they’d gone through.
Why did it surprise him that if any of them had that drive still, it would be Trent?
“This is exactly why you aren’t with the FBI anymore,” Daniel snapped.
Trent narrowed his eyes at that. “Are you really going there? Don’t try and turn this into some proof of shit.” Trent’s voice was low, a warning there that Daniel didn’t mind trampling over.
“Isn’t it? Alison has a claiming bite on her. Forget how fucked up that is for her, how complicated it makes any of us working together, but how the hell do we explain that to the person who is supposed to come and examine her? Lot harder to pass her off as merchandise when your claiming bite is on her, isn’t it?”
Trent’s jaw popped, and for a minute, Daniel thought the other alpha might sail across the kitchen.
It wouldn’t be the first time he and Trent had gone head-to-head. Neither of them were hotheads, yet they seemed to be the only ones to end up fighting. Maybe they were too different—or too alike—but it was always them.
“Always worried only about the job, aren’t you? Somethings never do change.” Trent shook his head and left the kitchen, coffee in hand, steps angry and loud.
“Look at that, we’re back to normal.” Kyle’s voice was breezy as he came in, letting Daniel know the bastard had listened to everything.
Which wasn’t shocking, because Kyle was nosy.
“You can’t tell me you’re okay with what happened. You were the one to bandage her.”
Kyle hopped onto the counter, his hair still damp from his own shower that morning. “Am I thrilled? No, but shit happens when you house alphas and omegas together. “
“None of that deals with the fact that Alison didn’t agree to that.”
Kyle waved off the concern. “Alison isn’t the fragile thing you think. Exhibit A?” Kyle waved at his face, at the bruising still there.
“Yeah, and all you were trying to do was help her when she did that. I’m pretty sure leaving a permanent claim on someone’s skin is a little different.”
“I took care of her afterward. The girl was freaked out, but it wasn’t by him. The second I started cleaning her, she was trembling and wet again. Her reaction shook her more than what Trent did.”
Daniel had no real argument back to that, though it did derail his thoughts as he considered how nicely Alison heated up, the way that scent of hers would fill the space around her like a lure—one he wanted to go for no matter the risks.
“Besides,” Kyle continued. “It’s easy to get high and mighty when you’re not sleeping next to her, when you aren’t the one breathing in that smell all night, when she isn’t that close to you. Trust me, your tune might change when you have to try and sleep while your cock keeps giving you much better ideas of what to do with the hours till morning.”
Creaking drew Daniel’s attention over to them to find the omega in question coming down the steps, her hair dark from the shower. She didn’t walk like a woman who was fearful, like one being pushed into anything she didn’t want.
Even with the gauze on her shoulder, she walked with her back straight, with her chin high, as though she wasn’t afraid of a damned thing.
And right then Daniel felt a spark of fear, because no matter how much he focused on the job, on what needed to be done, when she walked like that, he wasn’t sure he could follow through on keeping it all about the case.
* * * *
Alison smacked Kyle’s hand when he straightened her collar.
“You are the most unruly slave I’ve ever dealt with,” he muttered, though his lip remained curled into a half-smirk. “I feel like I’d have to give you an F when it came to slave training. “
“I’m pretty sure a bad slave means a bad master.”
He chuckled before checking her cuffs, running his finger beneath them to test the tightness. She’d found that the alphas did that a few times a day, always checking to see if they rubbed against her, if they had chafed, if they were too tight. The concern was something she never knew quite how to deal with.
“When is he supposed to get here?”
Kyle stilled as he checked the second cuff, as though the question weren’t a welcome one. “Tomorrow. The call said about nine, but I can’t say I expect these sorts of people to be very punctual.” He released her wrists but didn’t step backward. “You nervous?”
Alison snorted softly. “Me? I’m never nervous. Have you forgotten I was the one using myself as actual bait?”
Kyle tugged her down and into his lap as he sat on the couch.
Alison had thought, after the difficult night, they’d lighten up on her. She’d thought getting bitten would give her a get-out-of-jail-free card for at least a day where they backed off.
No such luck. They’d continued to press her boundaries, always careful, as if that hadn’t happened.
Well, everyone except Trent.
Trent didn’t even look her way.
Being pulled into Kyle’s lap made her uneasy, a closeness she wasn’t accustomed to, but she took a deep breath and tried to submit to it. While she wasn’t being watched, she needed to practice, to school herself into behaving as she should.
“Yeah, but you were still in control then.”
“In control while being held to be sold into slavery?” She cocked an eyebrow.
“Don’t look at me like I’m stupid.” Kyle pressed a finger to her eyebrow until she lowered it. “You thought you’d be playing your own game, all on your own. It’s easy to fool someone else who doesn’t know what you’re playing at. You in that bar? You were playing your part by yourself. If you had to play that with someone else who knew, though?” He left it open.
And it hit home. There was some truth. Pretending on her own was one thing. Pretending with someone else was personal, and Alison did not like anything personal.
“So, sugar, are you nervous?”
She blew out a slow breath. Was she? Why didn’t she even know if she was nervous?
Kyle slid his arm around her to draw her closer to him, so she leaned against him. “You are a stubborn, difficult woman, you know that?”
The soft chiding made her wince. In her head, she heard her father’s voice. You are a difficult child. If you are an omega, you are going to have a very hard life learning to fit in.
“Look at me.” Kyle’s voice beckoned her back, and Alison followed it, away from her father’s flat and disappointed words, to find Kyle staring at her, his hand rubbing over her back.
Why the hell do I keep doing that?
“Where do you go when you zone out?”
She swallowed hard, wanting to make a joke, to insult him, to do something to bypass the conversation.
He shook his head before she could. “I’m serious, Alison. There is a huge tripwire here we keep getting caught on, and I don’t know what it is. I don’t need you to pour your heart out—I’m not going to try and force you to give anything you don’t have to—but I need to understand where that line is so I stop falling flat on my face over it.”
Alison said nothing at first. She let the stroking of his hand over her back take away some of the anxiety inside her.
Finally, she answered, choosing her words carefully. Tell him only as much as he needs to know.
“My father,” she said softly. “He wasn’t very approving of me.”
A soft rumble came from Kyle’s chest, one that eased her further. “Parents sure can fuck us up, can’t they? What was his problem? I can’t imagine being all that disappointed in a kick-ass daughter like you.”
That praise, small as it was, took up space inside her, space that had always been dark and heavy and full of all the ways she didn’t live up to expectations. It drew more of the story from her. “He thought women should be silent, meek, obedient. I tried to do what he wanted, I really did, but I never could follow the rules enough. I never was quiet enough.”
Kyle let out a low sound, something that implied that he was listening but didn’t want to interrupt.
“He always said I was difficult, that I was stubborn.”
“Is he still alive?”
She imagined his harsh features, the dark eyes, the way he stood straight and could unnerve anyone with a silent stare. “I have no idea.”
Kyle rubbed his forehead against hers, a sweet nuzzle she had to stop herself from leaning in to, from returning. “Is that why you don’t like when we touch your chin?”
That question hurt. Her stomach rolled and she closed her eyes, the answer slipping from her without her even having to think about it. “He never hit me—he believed if you had to hit a woman, you’d already failed as a man. He’d grab my chin, though, and stare down at me with this level of disgust, like I was the lowest thing he’d seen.” The words came from her like shards of glass, as if they sliced and tore at her on the way out.
Kyle did that low rumble again—a purr?—and wrapped his arm tighter around her. “That’s enough, sugar. I’m sorry he did that, and now that I understand, I’ll make sure we’re more cautious about that. Shh, just relax for a minute.”
Alison wanted to snap, to tell him she didn’t need to relax, that she was fine.
Except, she realized she was shivering. She wasn’t cold, yet her body trembled as though she were naked and wet and freezing. The warmth of Kyle’s body, the strength in his arms and that wonderfully relaxing vibration from his chest all called to her.
So Alison let herself have something she’d never allowed herself before.
She rested against Kyle and shut her eyes, surrendering for real, just for right then.
* * * *
Daniel chuckled at the way Alison fidgeted. For the first time, they’d bound her. With the meeting tomorrow, they needed to move forward with pressing her, and he had to admit—he enjoyed her reaction.
He wouldn’t have liked fear.
Real fear was sour, acidic and altogether unpleasant. Unease, though? That edge of worry? That he found irresistible, and it filled Alison.
She knelt on the floor, a pillow beneath her knees to take the strain off, her wrists cuffed behind her. It made her chest push forward, and it would have been impossible to not notice how lovely her figure was.
Even if he wasn’t supposed to notice, the way her tank top hugged her curves was a thing of beauty. Her chest wasn’t that large, but it also meant that when she wore no bra—or something thin without much support—her breasts were still high on her chest and stunning. Her bare skin was flushed, and her shorts showed off the expanse of her toned legs.
Kyle had sat down with Trent and Daniel earlier, had explained what Alison had told him.
While Daniel was grateful for an understanding of the girl who was so tight-lipped that—despite how close he’d gotten to her—she still seemed like a stranger, he’d had to grapple with his own frustration about her family.
He wouldn’t deny he enjoyed some humiliation. He liked to force a woman to blush when he pointed out things that embarrassed her, things that shouldn’t embarrass her but did.
However, he only liked that when the woman did, and clearly that was off limits with Alison.
Daniel checked her cuffs behind her, catching a tremble that ran through her when he moved out of her line of sight. “Everything feeling okay?”
“Why do you ask such a stupid question? Who on earth finds being tied up comfortable?”
Daniel wrapped his fingers in her hair and tugged, a gentle pull to remind her not to mouth off. “A lot of people, if it’s done correctly. And a little discomfort isn’t necessarily bad, but we want to make sure nothing is too tight, that your left shoulder doesn’t hurt at this angle.”
She froze, as if he’d said something entirely unexpected.
Daniel lifted his gaze to Kyle. Did we misread her history? She said it was her left shoulder.
Kyle shrugged.
Alison’s gulp—a tell-tale giveaway that she was nervous—came before a surprisingly direct answer. “It doesn’t hurt.”
Sometimes dealing with her felt like wandering a minefield, like he was traipsing around and had no idea when the next step would blow him up.
But they were pushing her enough this afternoon. There was no need to make it more uncomfortable, so he let it go.
“Good. If that changes, let us know. Right now, you can just tell us. If it’s when we need to be entirely in character, use your safe word, and I’ll try to figure out the issue. Do you remember your safe word?”
“Master.” The word was whispered like a vile curse, and Daniel had to admit, he didn’t care for it, either.
He’d never been in for the twenty-four-seven thing. He loved a willing submissive, and yeah, he’d slip into that mode quite often, but he didn’t want a slave.
“Good girl,” Kyle said, seated on the couch in front of her. He reached out and dragged his fingers over her cheek. “Now, when they’re here, we’ll have you bound just like this. Blindfolded, headphones on. It’ll help reduce you having to play along too much. Don’t worry, we’ll turn the noise canceling off on the headphones so you can still hear us.”
Tension left her shoulders, as though that was what she’d needed to hear. “So how long do I have to be like this?”
Daniel huffed a chuckle at her annoyance. If it was only annoyance, it would have been easier to ignore. However, the moment she’d gone to her knees, when Kyle had pushed her shoulders to guide her down, that delectable scent had blossomed in the room.
She didn’t want to like this, but she did. It made Daniel want to press his lips to her exposed skin, to taste her.
She hasn’t asked for that, though.
“You’ve got to look like someone who has been bound and played with enough that it isn’t surprising anymore,” Trent said.
He’d stood back, still seemingly unnerved by the entire bite thing.
“Played with?” Alison furrowed her eyebrows and took that plump bottom lip between her teeth.
How could she be as dangerous as she was, as tough as she was, and still somehow look so innocent?
Daniel took his seat behind her, in a chair he’d pulled in from the kitchen. It meant she was kneeling surrounded by all three of them. “I’m sure you know exactly what we mean by that. You aren’t a virgin.”
“No, I’m not, but I’m also not someone stupid enough to let people tie me up.”
Of course not. Bondage required some real trust, and Alison didn’t trust herself, let alone anyone else. No way would the girl let someone tie her up and have fun, no matter how much her reaction showed she would love it.
She was close enough that Kyle cupped her cheek and rested her head against his thigh. It put her very close to him, but that was why they were doing this.
Alison had to look as if she’d done this, that they’d spent the last few weeks in such close contact. There was no way to fake that level of comfort, especially with a girl as guarded as Alison.
Tension ran through her muscles, and she seemed a moment from bolting—or at least trying to, since her bindings would hold her.
“Yes, playing,” Kyle said as he toyed with her hair. “Even though we aren’t planning on actually fucking you, you need to seem like we have been. If we’d spent the last few weeks actually training you, you sure as hell would be comfortable kneeling for us, or accepting our touch. So, that’s what we’re doing now.”
“Or you’re just trying to justify why you can touch me,” she pointed out. “What’s next, you’re going to say that to really sell the story, you need to actually have sex with me?”
“Well, if you’re offering…” Kyle had a full grin on his face.
She offered him a hell of a glare.
“Sex doesn’t need to happen,” Trent broke in, leaning back in his chair. “But you can’t act like a prude, either.”
“I am not a prude.”
Daniel snorted at that. She was a prude. It was impossible not to be one when she wouldn’t let her guard down, ever. How exactly was someone supposed to get into sex, to really enjoy it, if they were constantly on guard?
She moved off Kyle’s thigh and twisted to glare at Daniel. The look was so much less intimidating when she was bound like that. “I’m not. You act like I’m some naive, virginal teenager.”
“Never said that, but having sex doesn’t mean you’ve got much experience.”
“You don’t know anything.”
“Oh yeah?” Daniel fed off her attitude, desperate to see her ruffled. “Because I remember our little getting-to-know-one-another game. You answered those red cards, but you sure as hell didn’t have much in the way of wild stories to tell. You ever have sex outside of a bed?”
“Of course I have.” The red on her cheeks was all frustration at that moment, but damn, it was pretty. “Quickies in bar bathrooms are a thing, you know?”
And why didn’t that surprise him? Because her level of prudishness wasn’t about not having sex, it was about not actually giving herself in to it. “Not a shocker,” Kyle said, picking up the conversation. “Hell, I bet it’s been all backrooms and motel rooms with you. You ever have a guy back to your place?”
Silence.
Kyle kept going. “You ever let one hold you down?”
“Maybe I like holding them down.”
That got a bark of laughter from Daniel. He loved that she kept him on his toes. “Well, you did leave some marks on poor Trent. Man won’t be able to go to a pool for at least a couple weeks without people asking what wild animal got a hold of him.”
She shifted, and he knew it was because she’d grown wet from their conversation. “Just because I’m not into kinky sex doesn’t make me a prude.”
“Not into and never tried are two different things. You know, sweet, your problem is that you want shit you’re afraid to ask for. You’d rather pretend you don’t want it, that you aren’t interested, instead of risking anything. I bet you if we tied you up, for real, you’d enjoy it.”
“This feels pretty real to me.” She tugged at the cuffs to make her point, the metal jingling as she did.
Daniel slid his fingers over the edge of her shirt, then traced her spine up to her collar. “This isn’t real. Real would have you naked, and we’d be allowed to touch.”
“You are touching.”
“Not really, not the places we’d both like a lot better.”
The conversation had gone so far off the rails, but Daniel didn’t care to yank it back on track. The job, the case, all stopped being an issue.
Suddenly they were three interested, dominant alphas with a beautiful, drenched omega on her knees.
“Like where?” She asked the question in a whisper, the sort that said she probably hadn’t even meant to ask.
“Everywhere, pet.” Trent answered. “You’re already carrying some of my scent, but you’d have theirs by the end of the night.”
“So why haven’t you done that? Why keep trying to act like this is all professional?”
Daniel wrapped his fingers in her hair again, drawing his hand into a fist and forcing her to look up and back at him. Her pupils grew, telling him she damn well liked that sting in her scalp.
“Because this is professional. What we’re doing, it’s what the case needs. The rest? Those things aren’t needed, so we don’t act on them.”
“And if I wanted to?”
Daniel smiled and traced his finger over her lip. “You’d have to ask very nicely.”
When she darted her tongue out and the warm wetness of it touched his thumb, he groaned.
Please, let her ask…