by Becca Van
Now she thought she should have dug deep and found some of that steel in her spine she felt when she’d stood up to Wally. Maybe if she hadn’t had a taste of how they could make her feel, she wouldn’t be feeling so devastated.
What the hell am I supposed to do now? Should I find a way out and go home? And if I manage to escape, will Wally and whoever else was with him be waiting for me? What will they do with me if I do manage to get away?
The tears finally began to fall and she wiped at her face angrily. She wasn’t one of those women who usually cried. Normally she tried to look on the optimistic side of things, but right now it felt like her heart had broken in two. What would it feel like if I’d mated with them and they walked away?
Should she seek them out and try to explain why she felt the way she did? No. They needed time to cool down and she needed to try and get her chaotic thoughts into some semblance of order. Time out could be a good thing. Then why did she feel like she’d just ruined something that could have been very special? With a sigh, she stood up and headed toward the bathroom. After using the facilities, she washed her hands and face and peered at herself in the mirror. Her eyes still had dark marks beneath them because of the lack of sleep she’d been dealing with over the last six months. Her face was so pale, she looked like she was about to pass out, but other than being heart-sore and dealing with a tumultuous mind, she felt fine. In fact she had more energy than she’d ever had. Was that also because of the bond forming with Ed, Eli, and Erwin?
Another thing she needed to get her head around was living a much longer life. If she mated with them and they eventually pushed her aside, would she still live as long as they’d said? Would she be able to have a relationship with another man?
No! Just the thought of someone else touching her made her feel sick.
Was this it then? Did she even have a choice? Or would it be better to spend the rest of her life alone?
* * * *
Erwin had never felt so much pain in his life. What Belinda had asked had cut his heart in two. How could she think they only wanted her because of their genes?
He wanted to punch something and rail in anger, but that wouldn’t achieve anything except for ending up hurting himself. He strode into the kitchen after his brothers and took the proffered bottle of beer from Ed before slugging half of it down in one go.
Lance was just finishing up with washing the dishes and Aiden, Andre, and Alex were putting the dishes back in the cupboards.
“What’s wrong?” Lance asked as he dried his hands.
“I don’t think she’s going to accept us to be her mate.” Eli drew on his beer, sighed, and scrubbed a hand down his face.
“Why do you say that?” Andre asked.
“Because she thinks we’re only attracted to her because of our dragons.”
“So?” Alex chimed in.
“So? How can you ask that so calmly? If she doesn’t mate with us, we can’t be with any other woman. How are we going to spend the next seven hundred or so years dealing with each day when we have nothing to look forward to?” Erwin spat out. “We all yearn and look forward to meeting our mates. It’s what keeps us going.”
“None of us have met our mate and we’re doing fine,” Aiden said.
“I think we should all sit down.” Lance gestured toward the table.
Erwin snagged another three bottles from the fridge before stomping across the room and threw himself down into a chair. If he didn’t have his dragon inside and fast reflexes, he probably would have ended up on his back because the chair had tilted backward.
The others all took a seat and Erwin wondered what Lance had to say, although he didn’t think whatever it was would change the way he felt right now. He didn’t think he’d ever be free of the pain grabbing hold of his heart and squeezing so hard, it felt like the organ was being crushed.
“How much information have you told your mate?” Lance asked.
“We’ve told her nearly everything.” Eli scowled.
“How long have you all known about our kind and dealing with the implications of that?”
“Why would you ask that?” Erwin snarled. “You know the answer to that as well as we do.”
“Erwin!” Ed frowned at him. “Let Lance continue and don’t take your anger out on him?”
Lance held up a hand and smiled. “It’s quite all right. Let him vent. If he can’t do that with his brothers, who can he do it with?”
“Sorry.” Erwin apologized even though he wasn’t feeling very apologetic.
“Is someone going to answer the question?” Lance asked again.
“All of our lives,” Aiden answered with a gleam in his eye.
“Yes. You were brought up knowing about dragon shifters and everything else that entails. The only omission was the hunters, but you didn’t need to know that until one of the trio had met their mate.”
“But maybe if we’d known, we could have searched them out and taken care of them before they became a problem,” Eli suggested.
“It wouldn’t have helped. There are, or were, hundreds of hunters living throughout the world. Even if you’d been able to find some in this area, others would replace them. Hunters are also able to speak telepathically because they are all connected by blood. It doesn’t matter how close or far away they are the can communicate with each other just the way we can.
“But we digress. How long has your mate known about us?” Lance asked.
“Fuck!” Ed growled.
“Shit!” Eli slammed his beer bottle back onto the table.
“Damn it to hell!” The pain in Erwin’s chest began to dissipate only to be replaced by guilt. He and his flight brothers had no right to be angry, upset, and hurt with their mate. They’d grown up knowing all of this. They’d dumped load after load of shit onto Bid’s shoulders and then expected her to accept them with open arms.
Not once had she looked horrified or run from them screaming that they were crazy. She’d been skeptical of course, who wouldn’t, but she’d sat and listened to them with an open mind, without judgement—and what had they done? Jumped on her the first chance they’d got.
What they should have been doing was sitting down talking to her, asking her what she thought, what she wanted. It had all been about them, and not once had they put her needs first.
They were supposed to be easing her into their lives, not bombarding her with information and then demanding sex and that she mate with them.
“We’ve fucked up,” Erwin said.
“We have,” Ed agreed.
“We shouldn’t have touched her without explaining more.” Eli clenched his fists and ground his teeth.
“So what are you going to do to fix it?” Lance asked.
That was one question Erwin had no answer for. He glanced at his brothers to see them both shaking their heads.
“Communication is the key to any relationship,” Lance said. “That and time to process.”
“We went too hard and fast.” Ed sighed.
“Yes, you did.” Lance nodded in agreement.
Chapter Nine
Bid crept to the apartment door and eased it open enough for her to slip through. Her first intention was to leave but now that she was on the move, she didn’t really want to. She hurried down the long corridor toward the kitchen but turned right when she heard the rumble of low voices coming from there.
She stopped with her mouth gaping open when she saw the monstrous living room with every modern gadget anyone could want. There was a big entertainment unit below the massive flat-screen TV hanging on the wall. From what she could see, there was the latest Xbox, PlayStation, and row upon row of games in the racks hanging on the wall, on either side of the entertainment unit, for each game console. There was a Blu-Ray DVD player and thousands of movies.
There were three sectional sofas placed strategically for ease of viewing the TV and across the massive hall-like room on the far side was a full-size pool table in front of the bigge
st glass wall she’d ever seen.
Bid walked around the furniture until she got to the sliding glass door and her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw an Olympic-size swimming pool, a large spa, and a diving board.
How the hell were they able to do all this in a cave? Did they have magic? Were they able to speak a spell and conjure anything they wanted? If that was so, why hadn’t they just put a spell on the hunters and been done with it?
She wasn’t sure she wanted anymore answers to her questions, because she just might end up losing the plot. Bid glanced over her shoulder, and when she saw no one was about she opened the glass door and stepped into the pool room. After closing the door behind her, she walked around the edge of the pool until she got to the bubbling spa. There was steam rising from the surface of the water and after the day she’d had there would be nothing better than to strip off and sink down into it. She sat down on the side of an outdoor lounger, removed her socks, rolled up her jeans, and the walked to the edge of the spa. She sat down and lowered the bottom half of her legs into the warm water with a sigh.
If she sought out Ed, Eli, and Erwin, would they put aside the pain she’d dealt them and listen to her concerns? She really wanted to talk to them but she knew it was best if she let them calm down for a while.
The humid heat in the pool room would have wonderful if she’d been wearing bathers or shorts, but she didn’t have any of those on hand. Or did she? Hadn’t one of the men packed her a bag? If so, where had they put it?
She gasped and lifted her left foot from the water. The swelling and bruising in her broken toe was almost gone. She hadn’t felt any pain in it after Ed, Eli, and Erwin had brought her to climax. How was that even possible? Could this bond be stronger than even they believed?
She lowered her foot back into the water.
But right now what worried her was giving up her career. Not that she had a job since Wally had sacked her. However, that was beside the point. She’d been independent for so long she couldn’t sit around on her ass like a spoilt little priss. She needed to feel as if she was contributing by earning a wage and pulling her weight. And then there was her house. There was no way in hell she was giving that up. It held so many happy memories from her childhood and her parents. She couldn’t sell it, but maybe if she had to, she could rent it out. She would need to find a reputable estate agent because she wasn’t about to let just anyone live in her house and destroy it.
God, why couldn’t she just decide on what she wanted to do and do it? She’d never had problems making decisions before.
The warm bubbling spa watered beckoned, and since she had a bra and panties on under her clothes, she decided they were decent enough to strip down to. So after standing and removing her clothes, she sank down in the water with a sigh.
It was wonderful. The tension began to ease from her muscles and even though she was still in turmoil, she decided to push that aside and just enjoy one of the simple wonders of life. She shifted until a water outlet was behind her and let it pummel on one side of her lower back. When she felt that muscle loosen she moved so the other side got the same treatment. Her eyes grew heavy and she closed them as she savored the hot water easing away her aches and relaxing her to the point of near sleep.
Her head fell forward as she drifted and she didn’t realize how close to sleep she was until it was too late.
* * * *
Ed, Eli, and Erwin knew as soon as they entered their apartment that Bid wasn’t there. A knot of fear formed in Ed’s chest as he rushed back out of the room. He allowed his dragon to the surface and followed her scent down the hallway and into the entertainment room, but again there was no Belinda.
Her scent was strong in here so she couldn’t have left the room that long ago. His inner beast drew him across to the glass wall and doors leading to the pool room and he was just in time to see his sleeping mate slip beneath the surface of the water in the spa.
Ed nearly smashed the glass door he opened it that hard, but he didn’t care. He ran to Bid, reached down, and pulled her up out of the water. He was frantic with fear that she had stopped breathing, but he sagged with relief when he saw her chest rise, and then her eyes snapped open and she started coughing up water. He turned her onto her side, brushed the hair from her face, and rubbed her back. Eli and Erwin were squatting next to him and looking at their mate with worried faces.
When she’d stopped coughing and was breathing easy, Ed grew angry. Angry that he and his flight pod brothers had driven her to hurt herself. He was so ashamed and the pain in his heart was so bad it was unendurable. When Bid started shivering, he lifted her into his arms, rose to his feet, and hurried back to their apartment.
“Get the shower running,” he ordered Eli.
Ed didn’t bother to remove Bid’s underwear or his own clothes when Eli nodded to him to let him know the water temperature was okay. He stepped into the warm water, making sure it flowed over his mate to warm her cold body after she’d nearly drowned. It was impossible for him to take his eyes off of her even in her bedraggled state. She was so damn pale and her lips had lost their usual red tinge. Her hair was hanging around her face and down her shoulders in limp wet strands, but to him she was perfect. Now that the fear was dissipating the anger kicked in.
“What the hell were you thinking? Were you trying to fucking kill yourself?”
“Ed, calm down,” Eli said.
“Leave it, Eli,” Erwin interjected. “I want to hear the answers to those questions.”
“Let me down,” Bid said quietly but they all heard her.
“I don’t think so,” Ed bit out. “The minute I leave you, you get into trouble.”
“Put. Me. Down. Right. Now!” Bid demanded loudly through clenched teeth.
Ed didn’t want to let her out of his arms. He needed to hold her so bad. His dragon was still going nuts inside of him, clawing at his guts because he was pissed with the way he and his flight brothers had treated their woman. When she smacked her little hands against his cloth-covered chest, he wished he’d taken the time to at least take his shirt off. He wanted her hands on his naked skin, but knew that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. He slowly lowered her until her feet were on the base of the shower but kept his hands on her waist until she was steady, before releasing his hold on her.
Bid stepped back a little until her face was out of the water, and then she tilted her head back until she was looking into his eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest, drawing his gaze to her breasts. His cock, which had hardly been lower than half-mast since he’d first seen her, twitched uncomfortably in his wet jeans and filled to full attention. With her arms beneath her breasts, the soft milky-white flesh of her globes were spilling out the top of her bra and his mouth watered as he remembered how her nipples had looked hard and swollen as he and his friends had brought her to pleasure. When she cleared her throat, he snapped his eyes back up to meet hers and expected another dressing down, but she drew in a deep ragged breath and licked her lips. Her eyes were hazy with desire and it was really hard for him to keep himself in check. With his dragon running rampant inside of him, still angry at him, Eli, and Erwin, as well as urging him to claim her, he felt like he was going slowly insane.
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Bid said.
“What?” Ed asked, not sure what she was talking about.
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep in the spa.”
Ed sighed with relief and ran his fingers through his wet hair, before he reached up for the shampoo. “Turn around.”
“Did you hear me?”
“Of course I heard you.”
“So what? You’re just going to ignore the fact that you just accused me of trying to take my own life?”
“I’m sorry,” Ed said and nudged her around until her back was to him and began to wash her hair.
“That’s all you have to say? You’re sorry?”
“I’m sorry for the way we’ve treated you. I’m sorry f
or how we pushed you. I’m sorry for not being compassionate and thinking about how you would feel after having so much dumped on you. Especially when you had no idea about any of this. And I’m sorry for thinking you’d take your own life rather than be with me, Eli, and Erwin.”
“I’m sorry, too,” Erwin said.
“I am, too,” Eli stated sincerely.
Ed’s heart clenched when she didn’t respond. He hoped he and his pod brothers hadn’t ruined their chance with their mate, but he didn’t say anything more and rinsed the suds from her hair. He grabbed the body wash and was about to dump some of the gel into his hand but he couldn’t wash her properly since she still had her bra and panties on. So he put the bottle back on the shelf, unhooked the clasp of her bra, pushed the straps from her shoulders, and then bent down to remove her panties. When she remained still and quiet he glanced up and his heart broke when he saw how she stood with her head lowered and her shoulders slumped with dejection.
He smoothed his hands up the outside of her thighs and hips as he rose to his feet again and gently pulled her into his arms. She slumped against him and then he heard her sniffle. He nudged her face up and saw the tears shimmering in her eyes and spill over to mingle with the shower water.
“Oh, sweetheart, don’t cry,” Ed whispered in a hoarse voice. His words seemed to be a catalyst to the emotions she’d kept locked up inside and she started sobbing her heart out. He didn’t know what to say to ease her pain, so he just held her against him, caressing a hand up and down her back. After what seemed like forever, she hiccupped as her tears abated and drew back from his body.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded and lifted red-rimmed eyes to meet his gaze. “I’m sorry.”
