She screamed hoarsely, her head rearing back as her entire ass caught fire. Pain. Wonderful, excruciating pleasure. Oh God, it hurt. She’d never felt anything more exquisite.
She panted and curled her fingers into her palms, tugging at the bindings around her wrist.
Ian didn’t give her any time to recover. He planted his hands on either side of her waist and pulled back before slamming his hips against her ass again.
Her vision blurred. The headboard swam in front of her and she squeezed her eyes shut to try and prolong the sensation, the burn. She grabbed it and held on, not wanting to let go, fearing the sharp edge would subside as her body stretched to accommodate Ian’s size.
He withdrew, easing out as her body clutched greedily at him. She released him with a small sigh. He paused just a moment before ruthlessly opening her again.
“Yes, oh God, yes,” she panted.
He hunched down over her and began riding her, his hips undulating and slapping against her ass over and over. Braden’s hand tangled in her hair, pulling her sharply back until her gaze found his.
His eyes glittered with lust as he watched her, as he forced her to watch him. He lowered his head to hers and kissed her, his teeth sinking into her lip. She bit him back, taking him every bit as hard as he took her. Their kiss was no loving meeting of mouths. It was a battle, fierce and ungiving.
“I’m next, Katie,” he breathed against her mouth. “I won’t be as gentle.”
She closed her eyes and moaned. Anticipation flickered like flame to dry wood. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she taunted in a hoarse voice.
He yanked her head back and stared at her with glittering eyes. “You’ll beg for mercy.”
“I don’t beg.”
And the challenge was laid.
He let go of her head, and she slumped forward as Ian slammed into her again. Her orgasm lurked, building, each burst of pain and raw pleasure sending her ever closer. But she wouldn’t go. Not without the right stimulation. And it was killing her. She couldn’t last like this, and they both damn well knew it.
Ian leaned down, his body covering hers, his weight blanketing her. His teeth sank into her shoulder as his body trembled with his release. She writhed, needing her own release, but Braden merely laughed softly as he left her side.
Just as she squirmed in protest of Ian’s weight pressing her wound into the bed, he propped himself up with his hands and eased out of her body.
She moaned and lay there limply, trying to collect herself, to steel herself for Braden’s assault. She was a fool to think she could. He was on her, fast and furious, his hands spreading her as his c**k found its target.
No, he wasn’t as gentle as Ian, and Ian hadn’t been a bit easy. Braden ripped into her and never gave her a moment to react. He knew what she needed, maybe even better than she did. He knew she wanted even more than she thought she could take.
His thumbs spread her cheeks impossibly wide and with each thrust, he pulled completely out only to ram inside again. It was torture. She dangled so precariously close to her orgasm, but something held her back. If they would only touch her. Her br**sts, her clit, anything.
Back and forth, he opened her, then pulled away. Opened her again. Retreated and held her open before tucking his c**k back and sliding inward.
She jerked at her bonds, needing to be free. If only she could touch herself.
And then suddenly her hands fell. Ian had untied her. Braden yanked out of her body and flipped her over. She spread her legs wide, arching upward, seeking what, she wasn’t sure.
“Please,” she whispered, and then she remembered saying she never begged and that she’d done just that minutes ago. Her lips clamped shut, refusing to let another word pass. But they’d heard her.
Ian leaned down and sucked a nipple into his mouth just as Braden parted her folds and thumbed her clit. She went crazy. Her release billowed up, and she screamed then screamed again.
Braden lifted her, bent her legs back and thrust into her ass again. The final edge of pain sent her spiraling into a black void. Shadows overwhelmed her vision. Freedom from the unbearable pressure that had built as the two men f**ked her mercilessly.
As Braden jerked and trembled against her in his release, she floated free. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she reached for sweet oblivion. She felt so good. Wrapped in tendrils of pleasure.
She barely registered Braden pulling free of her body or the two men carefully tending to her. Fingers brushed over her wound, light and seeking. Then lips kissed a line across her stitches.
Ian gathered her in his arms, laying her head against his shoulder. His hands stroked and caressed her body as she snuggled deeper into his embrace.
“That was incredible,” she murmured.
“I take it we didn’t go too far,” Ian said into her hair.
She shook her head. “Perfect. You were perfect.”
His hand smoothed over her tingling ass, and she moaned all over again.
“Where’s Braden?” she said, her voice muffled by Ian’s chest.
Ian kissed the top of her head. “He’s coming. Getting cleaned up.”
“Going to sleep for a while,” she said groggily.
The heat from Ian’s body enveloped her. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and dove into the comforting veil of sleep.
Chapter Thirty
Damiano stared out at the rugged outline of the snow-capped mountains. There was no glass to block the chill. Just a simple cut-out with a crude flap that could be drawn down to prevent a draft. This place that Marcus had brought him to was stark and beautiful, but the accommodations were lean.
The floors were made up of packed dirt, made smooth by repeated footsteps. Just a makeshift hut erected on the ground. Sturdier than a tent but nothing that would withstand a strong storm.
Surely they had them at this elevation. The snows would come in but a few weeks.
Fatigued from the journey, from the weight of his worry, he pulled clumsily at the flap and turned away to the pallet on the floor. Remnants of the sedative still traveled sluggishly through his veins and tugged at him, calling him to rest.
He might need more. What if he woke on the fringe of a shift? Marcus hadn’t seemed worried. He said they waited for Nali. Whoever that was.
Damiano lay down on his back and stared at the poorly constructed roof. How had this place lasted as long as it had? It wouldn’t surprise him if the ceiling fell in on him during the night. Or was it day? It was a testament to his state of mind that he had no idea if it was morning or evening. He only knew he wanted to close his eyes for a while and forget all that he’d become.
He drifted tiredly toward sleep. But in the shadows he saw the tiger. He saw Ty and himself as children on the streets of Prague as they looked in sympathy at the caged predator.
“We should free him,” Damiano said fiercely.
Ty looked at him with big, worried eyes. She twisted thin fingers nervously in front of her. “It’s dangerous.”
He hugged her to his side in an effort to reassure her. “He is like us, Ty. He wants to be free. The orphanage was our cage.”
The rich gold and amber eyes stared at them from behind the bars of the too-small cage. They called to Damiano in a way he didn’t quite understand. He only knew that somehow he and the tiger were connected.
He walked forward, and the tiger’s keeper immediately issued a sharp reprimand to stay away.
“He eats children like you!” the man jeered.
Damiano scowled. “I wish he would eat you,” he muttered.
“Let’s go, D,” Tyana whispered urgently. “We don’t want to be caught. I don’t want to go back to the orphanage.”
Reluctantly, Damiano turned away and took Ty’s hand in his. But to the tiger, he silently promised that he would return.
He turned restlessly on the pallet, the fingers of sleep pulling him deeper into the twisted myriad of his dreams. He saw himself standing on the street in the black of night, only he was alone. Where was Tyana? The streets were completely deserted, and when he looked again at the cage, the tiger was gone.
This wasn’t how it happened. He’d freed the tiger. With Tyana’s help. He turned, his bare feet scraping against the jagged cobblestone, and there it was.
Standing a few feet away, the tiger stared thoughtfully at him. Damiano froze, afraid to move, afraid to breathe. And then they were no longer standing on the streets of Prague. Damiano was on the island, in the game room, watching helplessly as Tyana fought for her life against the tiger. Why had he attacked her?
He tried to lunge forward as the tiger ripped the crutch from Tyana’s hands, but he was frozen, paralyzed. Never before had he felt so utterly helpless.
And then it was just him and the tiger, face to face in the rugged Nepalese mountains. Damiano stood naked before him, his hands at his sides, his palms facing forward. An eagle swooped down behind the tiger and landed on a tree branch a short distance away. From behind rock outcroppings, more animals appeared. He knew them. They were all the animals he fought so desperately when the shift came over him.
“You are one of us,” the tiger said, startling Damiano. “Why do you fight us so?”
“Our brother,” the eagle cried.
“No,” Damiano whispered. “I’m just a man.”
The tiger tossed his head. “You are flesh, but your spirit cannot be confined to your human form. Free yourself as you have freed me.”
Damiano shook his head. Sweat beaded his forehead as he struggled with invisible bonds.
“Damiano. Damiano! Wake up.”
He heard Marcus’s voice from a distance. He stared back at the assembled animals. One by one, they disappeared until only the eagle and the tiger remained. Then the eagle took flight, circled once overheard and disappeared into the clouds.
Embrace us.
Damiano’s eyes flew open as his body jerked to awareness. Marcus knelt over him, his brow creased with concern.
“Are you all right? Do you need another injection?”
“No,” he croaked.
Slowly he sat up with Marcus’s assistance.
“What happened, D?”
Damiano shook his head. The images so vivid before now blurred into a mass of confusion.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “God, I don’t know.”
Marcus put his hand on Damiano’s shoulder and squeezed. “You’re going to be okay. We’re going to beat this. You have to believe that.”
He looked up into Marcus’s eyes, and for the first time let all the doubts and fears flood him. Before he’d kept a positive attitude, more for Ty than for himself. But she wasn’t here. He was alone, and there was no reason to keep living a lie.
“I’m not okay, Marcus. I’ll never be okay. What are we trying to do here? How is any of this going to change what I’ve become? Am I looking at spending the rest of my life anticipating the next time someone sticks a needle in my arm? Will I have to forever separate myself from the people I love for fear that I might kill them?”
Marcus blew out his breath and let his hand fall from Damiano’s shoulder. “You can beat this, D. I believe that, and you have to believe it or you’re going to lose. That’s all I can offer you. Tyana believes in you and so do your brothers. Don’t let them down by giving up. Don’t let yourself down.”
Damiano reached for Marcus’s hand and grasped it tightly. “I don’t know that I’ve ever thanked you for everything you’ve done for me and Ty.”
“Falcon saved me,” he said simply. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to repay that debt.”
Damiano shook his head. “You’re family now. There are no debts among family.”
A sound outside the small room had Marcus turning his head. He got awkwardly to his feet and extended a hand down to Damiano. “That’ll be Nali. Come, and I’ll introduce you.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Her stomach growled, and she remembered breakfast had been forgotten. And now it was well past lunch as well. Katie got out of bed and hurriedly dressed. When she stuck her head into the living room, she found it empty.
Distant noise from the kitchen told her where they were, and she headed in that direction. She rounded the corner and found both men in the process of making lunch.
“Hey, there she is,” Braden said when he looked up. “We wondered if you’d slipped into a coma.”
She grinned and leaned against the cabinets close to the stove.
Ian walked over to her and pressed inward, crowding her with his big body. He bent to kiss her. “You okay?” he asked, his eyes bright with concern.
She reached up to touch his face, her fingers trailing down the slight stubble at his jaw. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been better.”
“I’m glad,” he said simply.
“Have a seat,” Braden called. “I’m about to dish it up.”
Ian kissed her quickly again before backing away so she could go to the table. Braden’s gaze followed her as she slid into her seat, and she smiled up at him, allowing the full force of her contentment to shine through. A dimpled grin was her reward as he ambled over, skillet in hand to scoop out her omelet onto her plate.
Not to be outdone by his older brother, evidently, he cupped her chin with his free hand and gave her a lingering kiss. She savored it, his taste and the heated feel of his lips over hers. It was a possessive kiss, one meant to remind her of his ownership of her body.
As much as she should have balked at such a notion, she couldn’t help but enjoy a delicious shiver.
“You’re ours, Katie,” he murmured as he released her mouth. “Whatever you’re thinking or feeling, you remember that fact.”