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“A risk that kept those five women safe. They’ll be with their guards, instead of religious nuts who think of women as no more than property. That was heroic.”

Tarak grunts, not responding to my praise, but his aura swells with pride.

I’m glad to have their emotions in my mind. They’ve trained for centuries to hide everything. To be stoic and cold, like the bleeding Aurelian who refused to show pain as he walked to the hospital.

I want them to show their true selves to me.

“And Damian…your restraint was masterful as well,” I say, running my hand up his thick forearm, stroking his powerful bicep. His chest bared on the left glows under the cockpit light, the white of the brand gleaming against the blackness of his tattoo.

I let my hand gently run down his shoulder towards the brand.

I shied from it before. I need to accept these men. All of them, every part, even the ones I still don’t understand. I let my fingers stroke the raised flesh, imagining the pain when it seared against his flesh. Then I trail my fingers down gently, grazing his nipple.

I never want the beast to feel pain again. I never want him to know the cut of an Orb-Blade, the sear of a brand, the terror of a battle.

He slowly turns his head towards me. Even sitting, he towers over me. Those dark purple eyes flash as the thread of lust in his being grows. “Masterful…” he says. Tasting the word.

I bite my lip, aching for his kiss. “Oh? You like when I call you master?”

“I do. From you, it’s an honor,” he says, and his hand darts upwards, moving so fast it’s a blur and grabbing the chain. He pulls me into his kiss, claiming me, his lips pressing hard against mine. When he breaks it off, I’m gasping, staring up at the wounded alpha.

He’s filled with so much anger, but in the moments it counts, he can hold onto himself. He can put me above his pride. I’ve never been so in awe of someone’s restraint, how he can experience such pure rage yet stop himself from cutting down his enemies.

“Iwantyou to take me in the arena, Damian. I want you to show everyone that youownyour Mate,” I whisper, the leash taut in his hand. I pull against it, and he lets it have give, so that I can kiss his broad chest and run my tongue over the raised flesh of his brand. The lust in his aura boils up, consuming him, the black robe tenting upwards as his thick cock surges straight up.

I look up at his hot purple eyes, staring into the near-black orbs that glow with their own light. “And I want you to showmeyou own me in the pleasure room. You promised me a punishment,” I say, knowing what he needs…

And I crave.

Damian needs to take me so hard he forgets everything. All his pain, his rage, the entirety of his being intent onme.

He growls like the savage beast he is as the Reaver descends in the front of our home. He stands, lifting me and throwing me over his left shoulder, and charges down the hallway and out of the Reaver’s side door. He’s in a sprint, and I look up as I bounce on his shoulder. Tarak’s behind, his platinum-blue eyes staring straight at me as he runs, his own lust burning him up.

His boots slam against the stairs as he runs me up flights until we get to the second highest floor. I can’t see where we’re going, but I know.

Those two black doors I didn’t let myself think about. He sets me down in front of them. They are unadorned, speaking of a promise of something dark inside.

Something I need.

Oh Gods…

If I go through those doors, I might lose myself. I’ve never let go before. Not fully.

My triad demands complete submission. If I let them take me into the pleasure room, they’ll strip away all my resistance, and lay bare all my most shameful desires.

21

Athena

The doors open without a sound, splitting as each half slides into the walls. I’m at the threshold. I see a dark, gleaming room, and my legs shake as I walk forward. I kick off my sandals and step inside.

The room is slick, gleaming blackness. It’s hard to tell how big it is. The floor is cool under my feet, and I watch as it ripples under me, as if I am walking on water. It’s malleable under me, and I sink ever so slightly into it with each step. There’s no source of light, yet it is lit up by a black, ethereal glow.

The chain falls against my back as Damian unleashes me. I hear the thud of his boots kicked off behind me, but I’m frozen by the room, unable to turn to him, transfixed by the dark beauty of the famed pleasure room.

“Is it really controlled by your—ah!” I gasp as black vines dart from the wall. They circle my neck and waist, pulling me into the center of the room and spinning me to face Damian and Tarak. The two warriors stare at me with brutal lust. I gasp for air, and the vine tightens around my neck, then releases, the chain dangling down my body.

The vines pull back into the walls, and Damian charges forward, grabbing my wrist too tight. The Bondthrumsin my mind as I feel the true ownership of the savage beast.