Dubhlainn sat on the edge of the bed, Raine cradled on his lap as he rocked her. Turbulent blue eyes lifted to Quinn’s, and the Alpha’s lips moved into a silent shush. Their mate trembled viciously, hunched into Dubh’s arms. Though he heard no sobs, he knew she was crying by the way her shoulders shook.
Quinn cocked his head in question.
“Feeling a bit overwhelmed, aren’t you, precious?” Dubh murmured, arching a brow at his brother. A you-were-right arch, if Quinn read it right. “Precious girl puts her trust in the big, bad wolf and he scares her. Bad, bad wolf.”
Raine murmured something against Dubh’s chest and he chuckled. “That’s right, baby. Bad, bad wolf.”
Hmmm. Big brother was falling for, if not already gone over, the redhead on his knee. Quinn had already taken that leap so he knew the signs intimately. Whether Raine recognized it or not, she had two O’Callaghan brothers in love with her, ready to die for her, kill for her. Whatever she desired, it was their duty to provide.
It made him feel quite smug.
“Do you want me to slip out for a while?” Quinn asked in a low voice.
“No. Raine’s care falls to three of us now.”
“I’m not exactly her favorite, Dubh.”
“You’re still her mate and entitled to care for her. Come, take my place while I take a leak.” Without hesitation, Dubh rose smoothly with Raine in his arms and dumped her carefully into Quinn’s. “You were her first, Quinn. That in itself creates a bond, circumstances and execution aside. You are my second; if anything happens to me, you become her primary mate, the one she will look to for comfort and guidance. So, comfort and guide.”
Quinn looked down at the naked bundle in his arms, certain he wore a stricken look, and wondered what he was supposed to do now. Sure, he’d held her while Finn tied with her, but this...this seemed more intimate than even that. “Ah...”
“Sit down with her,” Dubh prompted, giving him a push. “Cuddle her.”
As though she were a bomb with the timer on countdown, Quinn sat gingerly. Her shuddering breaths fanned over his chest, and she curled more into herself than him. Maybe she sensed his unease or maybe she just couldn’t bring herself to forge the same link to him as she had with Dubhlainn.
Dubh rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Hold her, Quinn. Don’t let her shut you out. Talk to her, reassure her.” He reached out and grabbed Quinn’s wrist, guiding his hand to the soft, sensitive skin between her shoulder blades. She shivered, hard. “She likes it there. Stroke lightly.”
Quinn tried it reluctantly and Raine lost the tenseness through her shoulders. Pleased, he stroked again, and again, marveling how she quickly she responded. He looked up to Dubh, but his brother was disappearing into the bathroom with a cocky swagger.
So...good conversation starters to help a woman relax before something foreign invaded her rear...Quinn cursed and muttered under his breath. Commenting on the weather outside wasn’t an ideal topic, seeing as she hadn’t been outside for days—aside from her escape attempt—and didn’t even have a window to look out of. Idiot.
“He’s not lying to you, sweetheart.” The words popped from his mouth before he formed them completely in his mind. It was becoming a problem around her. “If Dubh promised you something, he’ll come through with it. That’s who he is, down to the bones. He’ll make you come, Raine. You want to come again, don’t you?”
She sighed disdainfully. “There’s no part of me you don’t want to violate, is there, wolf? You’ll leave me with nothing, none of you.”
He didn’t like how she referred to him as wolf. He was more than that, more than the beast. “It might seem that way—”
“That’s how it is.”
“It might seem that way,” he replied with an annoyed edge to his voice, “but it’s just how we were raised, sweetheart. Claiming a mate means claiming all of her.”
“And I get what in return? A lifetime of painful fucking, bred every time this goddamn estrus comes to light, and a belly full of things that aren’t even human? Tell you what, Quinn,” she said, her voice rising in fury, “I’ll make you a goddamn deal. Dubhlainn can fuck my ass when you let him fuck yours—no, no, that’s clarify that. When you let him knot yours. When you have some comprehension of what I go through.”
“What happened to reassuring her?” Dubhlainn demanded from the doorway, assessing the situation with unreadable eyes. He leaned casually against the jamb, legs crossed at the ankles, and lifted an eyebrow. “Did you intend to rile her up, Quinn, or is this just something you’re exceptional at without trying?”
Scowling, he put more pressure on the spot between her shoulders, massaged firmly, deeply, with his teeth gritted. Damn her, he could feel her fighting him, resisting his efforts, yet her pussy wept on his thigh. “You’re the one who wanted her ass, brother.”
Dubh grinned. “And so I shall have it.”
Tears dripped onto Quinn’s chest, slowly to start, then faster. But Raine made no sound, and when he tried to make her look at him, she bit several of his fingers in quick succession before hiding her face into her shoulder, beneath her damp hair.
“Fantastic,” Dubh muttered, glaring at Quinn.
“Don’t put this on me,” he hissed.
“Give her here.”
Suddenly and fiercely protective, Quinn tightened his arms around the silently weeping female and shook his head. He risked inciting the wrath of his Alpha, but Dubhlainn was right when he said the care of Raine fell to the three of them—even if that meant keeping her safe from one or more of her other mates. “We don’t have to steal every part of her, Dubh. Maybe for once, for this, we could ask.”
Tension rose swiftly in the room, and Quinn swore he saw his brother’s skin ripple with a fine sheen of black fur. Instinctively, he angled Raine away from the fury of the Alpha, willing to accept the brunt of his brother’s temper and shield her as best he could from the fallout.
Dubhlainn bristled. Blue eyes darkened, narrowed into fiery slits as he went head to head with his wolf. His skin erupted with more fur, claws burst from his fingertips. With what looked like momentous effort, the Alpha snapped nearly fully-formed wolf fangs together in warning...and reverted the changes, leaving him breathless and sweaty. “Fucking Alphas wolves,” he mumbled to himself. “Throw away the goddam key if it isn’t careful.”
Raine stirred, scrubbing at her face with the heels of her hands. She looked terribly young in the instant she raised her eyes to Quinn’s—stormy eyes red-rimmed and puffy, tear tracks smudged over her cheeks, her skin pale and waxy. Young, he thought, and yet so miserably wise and knowledgeable.
When she lifted her hands to his face, he flinched and made her smile sadly. Everything about her now spoke of sadness. He wanted to bring happiness to her again, sunshine and fucking rainbows. His stomach dropped sharply when her bottom lip quivered. “Ask me, Quinn.”
“I...what?”
“Ask me. I’ll give it to you if you ask me.”
Fuck. She’d effectively just slammed her hand into his solar plexus. He felt the ramifications of it rip through him. This was forgiveness. A tentative offering of an olive branch after the flood of pain he’d brought down on her head.
He didn’t deserve it. Didn’t want to take that sweet, selfless offering and send her back into a hell not of her making. Maybe not a physical hell—Dubh would have her singing like an orgasmic canary if she let him—but who knew what they were doing to her head?
Frowning, he ran his fingertips over her forehead, down her temple and jaw until he balanced her chin on a single fingertip. He didn’t spare a glance for Dubhlainn; if his brother had an issue with how this worked out, they could take it outside and beat each other into the ground. “Is that what you really want, Raine? For me to ask, or for me to take?”
“We both know you won’t be the one taking, just as we know he’s too much of a top dog to break a vow. But it would be nice,” she whispered brokenly, “to be asked. To be a woma
n with a say in what happens to her rather than...this.”
Now Quinn looked at the Alpha. Now he met his brother’s eyes and showed his displeasure at how the last minutes had swiveled and twisted. He tilted his head in question and Dubh nodded slowly.
Quinn leaned in, kissed away the fresh tears glistening on the curves of her cheeks, then pressed his lips to hers. Her breath shuddered into his mouth, her tongue sliding over his when he asked. There was a sob, a horrible hitch that tore something inside him.
Running his fingers through the damp tangles of her hair, he eased away just enough to brace his forehead against hers and sighed softly. “I hate this, Raine. I wish I’d done things differently. I fucking hate asking you to do something you don’t want to do.”
She gave him a weak smile. “Hating and wishing won’t change what is, Quinn. Trust me, over the last few days, I’ve done plenty of both and it hasn’t made a difference.”
Knife straight to the heart, complete with a nasty twist. Quinn absorbed the hit with dignity, unwilling to let it take him to his metaphorical knees. In his opinion, she was entitled to every blow she could squeeze in—verbal, physical, mental. If she wanted to use him as her punching bag, he would stand with arms open, defenseless, and take the blows in silence. “I couldn’t hate myself more, Raine, but I couldn’t wish for a better mate either. You’re fucking perfect. I hope one day you see how much you mean to us. To me,” he added in a murmur.
Those gray eyes closed, shutting her off from him. “You’re not asking, Quinn. The rest of it doesn’t interest me. Not what kind of life I’m going to lead with the three of you, not how much I mean to you. Not how my every wish and desire will be fulfilled.”
God, she was a minefield. Swinging from one foot to another around explosives might have been easier than holding a conversation with her when he didn’t know what had the potential to send her spinning into a temper or an abyss of depression.
He ran his thumb over her lower lip. “Will you trust us with this, Raine?”
Her pissy little shrug irritated him.
“Open your eyes and look at me, Raine. If I can do as you ask, you can return the favor. Open your eyes!” His jaw clenched when she obeyed mulishly, avoiding his gaze. “On me, sweetheart. On me.” He noted the way her sulky eyes flicked to Dubh, then back to him. “I asked you if you’ll trust us with your ass, Raine. I expect an answer—an honest, verbal reply.”
For a fleeting instant, he braced for an attack. She vibrated on his lap, a menacing bundle of lithe female. While he had an urge to comfort, he also had a desire to keep his limbs attached.
But rather than reaching up to tear his throat out, her shoulders sagged in defeat. She licked her lips nervously, bit the bottom one hard enough to leave indents in the plump flesh. “Dubhlainn made a promise. You need to make it too.”
That was fair enough. Quinn stared into her dull eyes and refused to blink. “Whatever I do with you, Raine, I will never do you lasting harm, nor hurt you in ways you can’t handle. I’ll never cause you intentional pain.”
Silently, she slipped off his lap, stood unsteadily. She swayed for a moment, then climbed onto the bed, crawled to the pillows and simply flopped lifelessly onto the mattress. “When you’re done, I’d like to be left alone.”
Dubhlainn came forward, stopping to scoop the small pot of lube off the carpet—funny, Quinn couldn’t remember dropping it but then, he couldn’t remember much for a few moments after Raine was placed in his arms. “That I can’t promise,” he told her gently, “and neither can Quinn.”
“Left alone after or left alone now,” she retorted. “Fuck what you want, Dubh, that’s what I want. A night, fuck, a day to myself without a goddamn wolf wanting to cuddle or pamper or interfere with my time off being serviced.”
Quinn winced; Dubh lifted his chin to meet her jab head-on.
“I’ll do what I feel best is for you.” The Alpha slipped onto the bed on one side of Raine, the lube in one hand while the other rested between her breasts. The heel of his palm pushed into her sternum, calming the rising panic radiating from her in sickly waves. “I always will, precious.”
“As long as it suits you in the long-term.”
Dubh jerked his head toward the other side of Raine, and Quinn took his time getting into position. He laid on his side, rolling and drawing her close enough they were pressed breasts to chest, thigh to thigh. Her teeth were grinding anxiously as he pulled her top leg over his hip.
Raine stiffened as the Alpha hemmed her in from the other side, rubbing his nose and lips over her shoulders, her nape. As unyielding as a stone statue, she refused to use Quinn for solace, which seriously irked him. She was meant to see him as a crutch, her person to lean on in unsettling times, but her independence was simply phenomenal.
And frustrating. Infuriating. Admirable.
Tipping her chin up, he tried smiling at her, brushing curved lips against her tight-pressed ones...until she jerked her face away and buried it awkwardly in the pillow. “You suit us for the long-term, Raine. You’re our forever.”
Chapter Fifteen
Cabhan
“You’re our forever.”
Standing outside the bedroom, the door cracked enough for him to see everything happening on the bed, Cabhan gripped the armful of clean bedding he’d brought up and yearned. His wolf sulked, pining for what they wanted and what was being denied to them.
His brothers were being too lenient with the female, in his opinion. Allowing her emotions to dictate how and when they used her. A good mate would take that fear out of her hands and wrestle her stubborn ass into the air so he could fuck it.
Cabh already knew he would never again feel that cunt around his cock. She might be the Alpha’s forever, Quinn’s, and shit, even the runt of the litter’s, but she would not be his. Dubhlainn would have his head if he knew the thoughts Cabhan harbored for Raine.
The sympathetic side of his brain agreed with the Alpha—Cabhan was not mate material for the likes of the redhead. He was as his father raised him; crude, brash, arrogant yet somehow he’d ended up with a sliver of the deep well of compassion Quinn, Dubh and Finn dipped into on a regular basis. But on the whole...he and Malachi were the closest matches to Fergus.
Malachi, the bastard.
His brother’s traitorous actions surprised Cabhan. That Mal would attack the Alpha...it seemed unfeasible and yet it had happened. He’d shown without a doubt his disdain for the Alpha’s authority and disrespect to both Dubhlainn’s mate and pack. There was no coming back from that, ever.
Dubhlainn held the right to execute Malachi on sight.
Which was one of the reasons Cabhan had chosen to stay and beg forgiveness. Redemption wasn’t on his cards—not enough to buy his way back into the mating circle, anyway—but he didn’t want to lose his brothers, his pack. If he had to play bitch for a time to remain included in the family unit, then bitch he would be.
Wolf and cock, however, were in agreement on being something else entirely. On being instrumental in the ménage taking place on the bed. Because, in the wolf’s opinion, both Quinn and Dubhlainn were doing things so, so wrong.
Quinn was in a position to mount the female from the front, her cunt rubbing against his cock with needy jerks of her hips. Dubhlainn was messing about with lube and fingers when he should be exerting his dominance and taking the bitch.
Pushing the door open just enough to squeeze into the room, his fingers gripping the pile of cloth in his hold as he wished he could grip those skinny hips, Cabhan stalked into the room and closer to the bed.
He did not get far.
Dubhlainn’s attention swung to him, scorching and acerbic in its intensity. The warning was silent, but it was just as threatening as any growl, especially when the Alpha’s gaze was black as the dead of a moonless night.
Cabhan’s wolf chortled with glee. Big Alpha wolf is gonna lose his shit before much longer. Gonna pound that virgin ass so hard the bitch can’t sit down for a
week. Motherfucking do-gooder, thinks he’s better than his wolf. Gonna show his bitch his true nature now, isn’t he?
Lowering to his knees in respect pissed the wolf off even more, but Cabhan was aware of the predicament he’d put himself in by entering the room unbidden. He was not part of the mating circle, he had no right to witness what transpired between his brothers and their mate, and his wolf’s determination to upset the balance could very well end with them having their throat torn out by an enraged Alpha.
Quinn’s head turned, chocolate eyes focusing on his prostrate brother, and he snarled softly. Yet his hands remained gentle, petting and soothing the unnerved female sprawled over him.
Jealousy bit deep, sending the wolf into a frenzy that nearly overpowered Cabhan and had him on the verge of rising to his feet. He should be part of that triangle, he should have the same rights as his brothers to plunder the fertile bitch.
A hand clamped around the back of his neck, sharp claws pricking the flesh with deadly intent. “Wondered where you’d gone to, brother. No, don’t move. This is not your place to be, is it?”
Fucking Finn actually sounded like he had a solid pair of balls on him, Cabhan thought wryly. Strong, assured, in control, and sneaky as a goddamn panther shifter. That his baby brother suddenly appeared to be worthy of the title of mate galled Cabhan. “I want it to be.”
The hand shook him, Finn’s voice low and hard. “Keep it down, Cabh. Unless you want Dubh to snap your neck for pulling Raine’s concentration away from what he’s doing?”
Cabh’s eyes locked on the Alpha. Now Finn was here, Dubhlainn’s focus was entirely on Raine. Quinn seemed torn between his mate and his brother’s presence in the room.
A fresh wave of scent permeated the room, smelling like roses and violets as Dubh stroked lube over his cock with his free hand, delved inside Raine with the other. Black eyes glowered at a point above Cabh’s head before the Alpha nodded once. “Raine, precious, are you with me?”
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