by Dia Cole
Fuck. I looked down at Havana’s limp body in my arms. I’d failed her. I pressed her against my fur-covered chest, vowing to do whatever was in my power to save her.
But I wasn’t the one with the power right now.
Tasha approached us looking like a goddess with her long blonde hair, burnish gold skin, and citrine eyes.
I shuddered, knowing all too well her stunning beauty disguised a monstrous soul. “Let us go!”
Tasha threw back her head and laughed. “And to think, you were the one I threw out.” She glanced at the tall gray-haired Enforcer striding over to us. “Look, Zayn. Our son isn’t a total disappointment after all.”
18
Havana
I woke on the marble floor of the playroom with a throbbing pain in the inside of my arm. Disoriented, I briefly wondered why I was staring through prison bars. Then it all came back to me.
Tasha!
Heart pounding, I surveyed the room. Except for Mason, Tyberius, and me, it was empty.
Both Mason and Tyberius were lying nude, side-by-side on the floor with their hands shackled to the bars.
Although my wrists and forehead were banded in silver again, at least I could move freely. A wave of dizziness hit me as I tried to stand. Deciding to crawl instead, I inched over to Ty.
His eyes were closed, but at least he was breathing. Thank God.
“Ty,” I whispered.
He didn’t respond, but Mason lifted his head and looked over at me. “He’s still unconscious. Given his quickening pulse, he should wake soon.”
“Mason!” I moved around Ty and wrapped my arms around my golden-haired mate. “What happened?”
He clenched his jaw. “Tasha happened. Or should I say my mother happened.”
I sat back in shock. “Tasha is your mother?”
“It seems so.” He gave me a grim smile. “All my life I dreamed that my biological parents would be kinder and more loving than my adoptive parents.” He rattled his shackles. “Little did I know, I was the product of monsters.”
Hating the pain in his voice, I rested my hand on his chest. “I’m so sorry, hon.” I inspected his restraints, looking for any weakness. There was none.
Mason scoffed. “And you know the worst part? Tasha confessed that when she realized I was an Omega she told her servant to use me as kindling. I’m only alive because someone named Agnes brought me to the humans instead.”
Ty opened his eyes. “Believe me, you were the lucky one. There have been countless times when I wished to trade places with my supposedly dead twin brother.”
“We’re twins?” Mason asked, studying Ty’s face.
For the first time, I noticed similarities in their bone structures and the set of their eyes. Those stunning features had come straight from their gorgeous, psychotic mother.
Ty smiled, his white teeth flashing against his dark skin. “As improbable as it sounds, yes. Mother has long told the story of how she negotiated a mating with Sebastian, one of the Original males to conceive me. She was caught by surprise when she went into heat a second time on the way back to Winterhaven. She was forced to mate with her Enforcers.”
Mason nodded. “She said Zayn is my father.”
“Is that so?” Ty chuckled. “Small world. Zayn is Nathan’s Uncle.”
I gasped. “So you and Mason are brothers, and Mason and Nathan are what? Cousins?”
Ty made a noise of agreement.
“So what does that make Mira to him?” I asked Ty.
“She’s both his sister and his first cousin once removed,” he said without blinking.
“Wow.” Mason closed his eyes and let his head drop to the floor.
“Are you okay, hon?”
Mason opened his golden Alpha eyes and for a moment, I mourned that I’d never see his flawless ocean blue gaze again. “It’s just that I’ve been searching for my biological family for decades. To find so many family members in a short while, is overwhelming.”
“Most of us aren’t homicidal killers,” Ty said, showing dimples that made my insides warm. “It’s good to meet you, brother.” His smile faded as he stared at Mason. “Mother said after our birth, we held each other so tightly, she had to pry us apart. Then later, when I was a child, I made up an imaginary twin brother I’d talk to. Mother grew so concerned she brought Nathan to play with me.”
“Nathan!” I exclaimed, scanning the playroom. “Where’s the radio?” We had to let him and the others know what happened to us.
“Tasha took it,” Mason said in a pained voice. “After she ordered me to tell Nathan, Gabriel, and Liam to come here.”
Ty tried to sit up. “You didn’t.”
Mason bowed his head. “I couldn’t fight her compulsion.”
Fear for the others gripped me. “They wouldn’t come here. They had to know it was a trap.”
“Tasha compelled me to tell them you were injured and near death. I told them I couldn’t risk moving you and if they came to your side, they could anchor you to life.”
“That’s a bunch of bullshit. No way Nathan would buy that,” Ty said, tension leaving his body.
I didn’t share his optimism. As I tried to rub away the blooming bruise on the inside of my elbow, I remembered how I’d saved Nathan from certain death by claiming him and ordering him to stay with me. Perhaps the others thought they could do the same for me.
“They said they were on their way.” Mason followed my actions with his gaze. “Is your arm hurting?”
“A little,” I admitted. Tasha’s Enforcers must’ve been rough when they moved me to the prison cell.
“Show me?”
When I lifted my arm to show him the large dark bruise, he cursed. “Those arseholes butchered your veins. You’ll be lucky if they didn’t nick a nerve with their needle.”
I clutched my arm to my chest. “They took my blood?”
“And too much of it, based on your pallor.” Mason let out a heavy sigh. “Tasha demanded I tell her why her blood was killing all the latents instead of turning them into Alphas like you. I had to explain it was because she was no longer pregnant—”
“But I am,” I said, folding my arms around myself. I didn’t know what was worse, being used as a broodmare or a blood bank.
Ty made a sound of surprise. “You’re pregnant?”
I gave him an apologetic look. “Yeah, I probably should have told you before I claimed you. I come with some baggage.”
He smiled. “I am honored to be your mate and help father your young.”
Relieved, I leaned down and gave him a kiss. Then I looked over at Mason. “So Tasha took my blood to make Alphas?”
Mason nodded. “I’m so sorry, love.”
“It’s not your fault.”
Mason’s eyes filled with regret. “I should have been better prepared for her compulsion—”
Ty interrupted him. “There is no preparing for Mother. She is like a deadly hurricane that blows in and destroys everything in her path.”
“Please don’t beat yourself up. I appreciate you trying to rescue me.” I leaned over intending to kiss Mason’s cheek.
He turned, and my lips touched his.
My skin sparked at the contact and the heat between my legs flared. I kissed him again and when he opened his mouth to say something, I deepened the kiss. He tasted so good.
He gasped as I ran my hands down the length of his smooth tanned chest. I loved all of his new muscles.
Needing to be closer, I straddled him and rocked against him. That feels so good.
Mason’s cock stiffened.
“How are you able to do this—” I stroked my hand down his hard shaft “—while wearing silver?” The silver cuffs Nathan had worn made him impotent.
Mason shuddered under my touch. “Tasha gave both Ty and I some kind of male potency drug.”
“Because this is what she wants,” Ty said, his gaze on the two of us.
“What does she want?” I said, trying to follow along. I
increased the rhythm of my strokes as burning lust sizzled through me.
Mason groaned and thrust against my hands.
“She wants us to impregnate you.”
Ty’s words splashed over me like freezing water. I snatched my hand away from Mason’s erection, jumped off him, and moved to the other side of the cell.
Immediately, a spasm wracked my body. “Oh, God.” My core clenched tight with need. I held my hands to my mouth to muffle my scream. Why does it hurt so bad?
“Let me ease your suffering, love,” Mason called out.
Unable to resist the need to mate, I crawled over to Mason, pulled up the shirt I was wearing, and positioned myself over his engorged cock. “Are you sure?” I managed to say, my voice raspy. “You said we shouldn’t have sex.”
“That was before we knew you were in heat.” Mason arched off the floor, his crown teasing my entrance.
Needing no more encouragement, I slid down his shaft, one incredible inch at a time. When I was fully seated, I let out a blissful sound, and then I rode him. I took him as hard and fast as I could, grinding down on his length, trying to chase the ache away.
He surged underneath me, his eyes brimming with passion. “Ah fuck, you feel so hot, love.”
He wasn’t kidding. I felt as if I were burning up. I rolled my hips taking him deeper. Pleasure knotted inside me.
“So close. I’m so close,” Mason gasped.
“Give her what she needs,” Ty said, his smoldering eyes on the two of us.
The scent of my newest mate’s arousal kicked my excitement even higher.
I slammed down on Mason, faster and faster.
His chains rattled as he cried out my name. Then he was coming, filling me with his heat.
“Oh, God,” I cried, as my climax hit. Pleasure hurled me straight into an ocean of bliss. Shuddering with the aftershocks, I collapsed over Mason.
“Did that help?” he panted.
I started to say yes, but the relentless need rolled over me again. “More, I need more.” I rocked over him, but his cock had softened.
Ty lifted his head. “I’ve got what you need, Starfire.” His golden eyes blazed with desire.
I looked over at his throbbing dick. It was long, hard, and everything I needed. I gave Mason an apologetic look. “Hon, is it okay if—”
“Of course,” he said with a smile that squeezed my heart.
Nearly mindless with frenzied need, I dismounted Mason, straddled Ty, and took his shaft deep inside.
“Ah, fuck, you feel amazing.” Ty rocked underneath me. His cock was thicker than Mason’s and it hit all the right places.
“Yes!” I tightened my thighs around his hips and rode him even harder than I’d ridden Mason. “So good…” I leaned down, brushing my lips against his sweat dampened chest.
He strained against his restraints. “I want to suck on you.”
I raised my shirt and leaned forward so he could clamp his lips over my nipple. The wet, heat of his mouth on my sensitive peak was almost too much to bear. I quickened my pace, racing us both to the finish line.
Ty’s cock seemed to swell inside me, and then he exploded, bathing me with the heat of his release.
His climax triggered mine. Throwing back my head, I came so hard, my shouts of ecstasy echoed throughout the room. Collapsing down on his chest, I wrapped my arms around him.
“In the embrace where madness melts in bliss, and in the convulsive rapture of a kiss—thus doth love speak,” he panted against my hair.
“I love your pretty words, Sugar Bear.” I rested my head against his chest, thinking of all the memories he’d shared with me. Once we escaped the nightmare of his mother, we were going stargazing and poetry reading.
I’d hoped the raging fire inside me would ease, but five minutes later the burn was back. Thankfully, Mason was ready for action again.
For the next several hours, I went back and forth mating the brothers until I wore them completely out. Only then did the grinding need finally leave me.
As bone deep exhaustion settled in, I curled up between the brothers and closed my eyes.
“Damn the fates, what have you been doing in here?” a deep voice said near my ear.
“Nathan!” I lifted my head to see the silver-haired Alpha male crouched next to our prison.
Needing to be sure I wasn’t just imagining him, I reached through the bars and touched his arm. “Why are you here?”
He pulled my hand to his lips and kissed it. “To rescue you.”
“After how I treated you?” He should hate me after unclaiming him and trapping him at the resort.
“I deserve your anger. It would take an entire lifetime to atone for how I’ve treated you.”
I rubbed his soft warm lips. “You’ve walked right into Tasha’s trap.”
“I know,” he said in a too calm voice.
Ty opened his eyes and lifted his head. “Good to see you, brother.”
“Nathan, you shouldn’t be here,” Mason said, trying unsuccessfully to sit up.
“Clearly,” Nathan said, gently prying my hand from his.
“What’s your plan?” Ty asked.
Nathan stood and walked the length of our prison. “Release the three of you, and then take care of Tasha once and for all.”
That was much easier said than done. I looked up at the ceiling. I didn't see any cameras positioned between the hanging cages, but she had to be monitoring the room somehow. “She gassed us earlier. She could do it again.” Then Nathan would be trapped too.
“Don’t worry. Liam and Gabriel are keeping Tasha and her Enforcers plenty busy. They even brought some reanimated friends along to play.”
I sucked in a breath. “They led zombies to Sanctuary?”
Nathan confirmed with a nod. “And Liam was kind enough to open the front gates.”
“There are children here,” I said, thinking of Isaac and Lily. I hoped with all my heart they were still alive and in one piece.
Nathan waved his hand dismissively. “The Enforcers will make short work of the dead, but Gabriel and Liam won’t be so easy to defeat.” He inspected the keyhole on the cage door. “All we need is something long and pointed to pop this lock.”
“You can use my hairloom, Daddy,” a tiny voice said from across the room.
“Mira!” Nathan exclaimed.
My heart fell through the floor when I saw the child running over, her diamond hairpin in her hand. “Nathan, what are you thinking bringing her here?”
“I didn’t.” Nathan’s eyes glowed with anger and fear as he gazed down at his daughter. “I told you to stay at the lodge.”
Mira didn’t flinch from his glare. “I wanted to be with you—” she looked over at me “—and Vana. Hi, Vana.”
“Bug, go back the way you came. It’s not safe for you here.” Oh, God. If Tasha gets her hands on Mira…
Ignoring me, she walked over to Ty. “Hi, Uncle Ty. Where are your clothes?”
“Damn the fates! Mira you need to leave.” Nathan dragged Mira toward the back of the room.
There was a loud grinding noise.
“Watch out!” Ty yelled.
Nathan pushed Mira out of the way as several cages dropped from the ceiling in a thunderous crescendo.
“No!” I shouted when I realized Nathan had been trapped in one.
“Daddy!” Mira ran over to Nathan’s cage and rattled the bars.
“It’s okay, sunshine,” Nathan said, sounding very much not okay. “We still have Plan B.”
“I trust you’re not talking about these two here,” Tasha said, sweeping into the room in a gold, sequined ball gown.
Behind her long serpentine train were several of her Enforcers dragging Liam and Gabriel. Both my mates had been beaten nearly unrecognizable and both wore thick silver collars around their necks.
“Oh, no!” Their bodies looked so broken, it was a wonder they still drew breath. “What did you do to them?”
Tasha feigned a l
ook of surprise. “I didn’t lay a finger on them. But they were no match for my new army.”
The stomping sound of boots filled the air as dozens of huge, muscular males, dressed head to toe in black leather, marched single-file into the room. Every one of the males stood over six-foot-five, possessed the hugely sculpted muscles of a bodybuilder, and stared at us with Alpha yellow eyes.
Tasha clapped her hands and the Alpha males came to a stop. “Aren’t my Enforcers incredible?”
And frightening as hell. Every Enforcer held some kind of instrument of death. I ran my eyes over them cataloging all the guns, knives, swords, and maces.
“Mother, what have you done?” Ty shouted.
“I’ve made Winterhaven the strongest and most powerful faction in the world,” she said with a feral grin. “We only had enough of the whore’s blood to ascend forty of my Enforcers, but in time we will ascend them all.” Her heels clicked on the marble as she walked over to our prison. “I promise not to bleed you dry.”
I spat at her. “Screw you!”
Moving faster than a striking rattlesnake, she reached her hands through and grabbed a fistful of my hair. Then she rammed my skull against the bars so hard my vision blurred and my mouth filled with blood.
“Don’t hurt, Vana!” Mira yelled. Jabbing the pointed end of her hairpin in front of her, the little girl attacked Tasha.
Tasha spun around and kicked the little girl into the side of our prison.
“No!” shouted Nathan and Ty.
“Mira!” I scrambled over to where she lay, crumpled like a wilted flower. Before I could reach her, Tasha picked Mira up by the neck. “It’s time this abomination joins her sisters in death.”
19
Nathan
Seeing my daughter in the hands of her mother was my worst nightmare come to life.
For the last four years, every action and decision I’d made was to prevent this very moment from happening. Keeping a tight rein on the helpless rage and fear exploding inside me, I said, “Don’t hurt her, Tasha.”
Tasha’s gaze flickered to me. “You think to give me orders, Consort?” Her even tone betrayed her mood. She was fucking amused by the situation.
