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“What the hell are you doing?” Ledger glared from his perch on the small table, his back pressed against the window overlooking the bustling city below. The twinkle of lights sparked behind him, but he ignored the view like he always did, more interested in interrogating Pavel. “Have you lost your mind?”

Pavel tossed his leather jacket over the back of the beige couch and undid his cufflinks to roll up his sleeves, collecting his thoughts in the process. His brother had unsurprisingly followed him home, but not to talk about this. “Shouldn’t you go check on him?”

Ledger shook his head and drained the contents of his glass before reaching to refill it from the open decanter at his hip. “Nah. He’ll come out once he’s ready. This is called patience, brother, a thing you could afford to learn.”

“I think I’ve been more than patient.” The penthouse at Concealed was large enough Pavel had given his brother a room to use whenever he pleased, but the two didn’t live together. “When are you going back to your place?”

“Kicking us out already?”

It wasn’t that he minded having them here, but now that his timing had moved up, there was no way to put a break on his plans. There were steps that needed to be taken, and an order in which they needed to happen, to guarantee this ended the way Pavel had always dreamed of it ending.

With Zane Solace on his knees before him, a look of pure adoration in his gaze. The same one he used to—

Ledger snapped his fingers, having clearly said something that Pavel had missed.

Pavel sighed. “I’m going to have company. The kind you can’t be here for. We wouldn’t want to traumatize your boyfriend, now would we?”

“You are vastly underestimating my Niki,” he disagreed, but he left it at that. The two of them shared practically everything. But their proclivities in the bedroom—or in the forest, as it were—weren’t one of them. Sometimes, it was better to have something solely yours, even kept from your best friend.

Zane’s earlier words about liking how they didn’t fight returned to him, and the corner of Pavel’s lips quirked. It hadn’t always been that way between him and Ledger. They’d hated each other in the beginning, when he’d been brought home and Ledger had been told he was no longer going to be an only child.

To put it frankly, Ledger had been a total menace, doing everything his ten-year-old brain could conjure to ruin any chance of Pavel feeling like he belonged in the family. But that hostility hadn’t lasted.

Pavel had been terrified when he’d undergone his first change, his body slipping into the ability without his permission, as was the way of his kind. He’d feared being kicked out by the Undergroves for real, that all of the threats about it Ledger had made would come to fruition once they discovered his secret.

Even in this day and age, people were apprehensive when it came to what they couldn’t control. Shapeshifters were often looked down upon and feared, forced to register their names and locations with the Intergalactic Conference so they could be monitored if a crime was committed in their area with no known culprit. Most of the planets housing species with those types of abilities had been invaded over the centuries, their kinds slowly but surely wiped out.

Lucky for him, his parents had apparently come from different lines with similar shifting qualities.

And by lucky, he meant the opposite.

It’d taken a long time for him to start appreciating his gifts, though there were still serious downsides attached. When he’d first started changing against his will, he’d vowed to hide it from everyone, especially his adoptive family. That hadn’t lasted long, however.

Ledger had been the one to catch him a few weeks in, during a random burst of his ability at the school gym. But instead of outing him or calling him a freak, Ledger had done the unthinkable.

He’d helped sneak Pavel off school grounds and back home. When Pavel had refused to tell their parents, Ledger had helped him sell the lie that he was sick, insisting on being the one to bring Pavel his medicine and meals. They’d carried on the act for a few days before Ledger finally convinced him to come clean.

Pavel had only ever been that frightened about anything one other time in his life, and that hadn’t gone his way. But he’d trusted Ledger for some reason, despite the bad blood that’d been between them. It hadn’t felt like a trick to get him to confess to their parents to finally get him removed from the family tree, or anything like that.

The Undergroves hadn’t been frightened by him, on the contrary. They’d helped him through his transition and had done thorough research into the subject in order to place exactly what he was, avoiding going to the I.P.F and getting a genetics test done so he wouldn’t have to be registered.

They’d been close ever since, all four of them.

A real family.

A family Pavel intended to make Zane a part of.

A family he wasn’t above dangling about his delectable doctor's head as an added incentive.

“He ended things with Kazimir,” he said.

“So they finally broke up, huh.”

Pavel scowled. “They were never officially together.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your panties twisted in a bunch.” Ledger eyed him, sobering some. “Is that why I had to hear from a bunch of dimwitted strangers that my brother had buried his teeth into the pretty doctor's neck? Ahead of schedule, might I remind you?”

“Don’t call him pretty. Nikita’s pretty. Zane is…”

“Hey!” Ledger set the glass down on the table with a sharp clank. “Don’t insult—”

“What’s going on?” the man of topic paused at the entrance to the hallway, rubbing at one eye tiredly. He was wearing nothing other than an old white dress shirt of Ledger’s, the material going to midthigh. When he blinked and saw that Pavel was there as well, he didn’t seem even remotely embarrassed by his state of dress. Or lack thereof. “Hello.”

“Nothing, Tiger.” Ledger jumped down from the table and made his way toward the slightly smaller man. “Sleep well?”

Nikita hummed, leaning into Ledger’s touch when he lifted a hand to cup the side of his face tenderly.

That.

That was what Pavel wanted. He wanted Zane to welcome everything about him. His presence, his touch, his—

“Stop clenching your fists,” Ledger scolded, cutting into his thoughts. “And get a hold of yourself already. If you can’t be trusted to keep your shit under control—”

“Going to tell on me?” Pavel slipped his hands into his front pockets and rocked on his heels. “Do you really think Mom or Dad could stop me from going after what’s already mine?”

Ledger blew out a breath. “I’m telling you to be careful, that’s all. You’ve done a great job of appearing normal all this time. Don’t go and blow it in one dumbass move you won’t be able to come back from.”

“Is this about what he supposedly did to the Prince of Medicine?” Nikita interrupted them, shrugging when they both sent him questioning looks. “What? Everyone on campus is talking about it.”

“You see!” Ledger glared as though his boyfriend had helped prove his point. “What were you thinking, Pavel?! Attacking another member of the Retinue is already bad enough, but in front of an entire classroom?!”

“I needed witnesses,” Pavel replied.

“You say that like I’m the dumbass here for not getting that already.”

Well, if the shoe fits.

When all he did was silently stare, Ledger ran a hand through his hair in mild frustration. “I still think—”

“No,” there was no room for argument in his firm tone. “The only doctor I’ll be seeing from here on out is my own.”

“Yeah, that’s just the thing, brother. Zane doesn’t even remember you. What if he never does?”

“He will.”

“But what if he doesn’t?” Ledger insisted.

He considered that possibility, but it didn’t make him feel any differently about the situation. “Then he doesn’t. It won’t change anything for me.” It wouldn’t change the way his body physically yearned for the other man.

How intensely he longed to trap Zane beneath him, his cock tearing through his tight hole, joining the two of them the way they were always meant to be joined. Breeding his man the way he was always meant to be bred. Pavel would fuck him until his voice turned hoarse and Zane could no longer operate his legs. Fuck him in a locked room, where there was no chance of escape and he could soothe the part of himself that feared the doctor trying to run.

He’d own him then, well and truly. Own him and breed him and prove to everyone around that he’d chosen correctly when he’d imprinted on Zane—

Someone made a sound of alarm, snapping his attention to Nikita who was now unashamedly clinging to Ledger’s side.

“Cut it out,” Ledger snapped. “Your eyes are doing that freaky glowing thing.”

Had they been?

That…was a problem.

“Perhaps your concerns are mildly called for,” Pavel admitted. He was losing more control by the day. Soon it would be more than just his teeth sinking into Zane in front of an audience. If he didn’t get what he craved, he might really take things too far and do irreversible damage like his brother warned.

That was one of the major downsides to his lineage, it left him mentally unstable sometimes. There were certain hormonal influxes that were meant to lead one direction for one species they’d identified him as, but go in a completely different direction for another. Interspecies relationships happened all the time throughout the universe, but not all were genetically compatible, and many couldn’t interbreed.

The fact that Pavel had two known links to species that shouldn’t have been able to reproduce with each other made him a test subject of sorts. Only he and his family were the ones running the tests, and they were doing it to help ensure he didn’t lose his mind and go feral.

A part of him was so desperate to make Zane his mate, it was like he couldn’t think straight, only obsess over all the ways to make that happen. The more distracted by the fantasy he became, the more likely his actions would be erratic and troublesome.

But certain things couldn’t be rushed, no matter how inevitable they were. There was a reason Pavel had forced himself to walk away from Zane, not once but twice, despite his very soul screaming at him not to.

His doctor was stubborn. Independent. The only weakness he had to pick at was his need to be wanted, which happened to be something Pavel could easily provide. He’d freaked him out with how strongly he’d come onto him. How he’d escalated things from zero to one hundred by presenting Samuel’s body in the woods. That’d been by design. In order to convince Zane he was telling the truth when he said he coveted him, he had to first show him how obsessed and unyielding he could be.

Zane had to grow accustomed to his presence and his touch. Had to grow used to the feel of his ass being played with by Pavel. Had to get used to the idea of being at Pavel’s whims. Was it controlling? Yes. But surely his attempts to keep his darker desires at bay would earn him some points once they came to light and the doctor knew about them?

Once he knew just how far Pavel was going to ensure they both came out of this happy at the end.

Because simply taking the doctor had crossed his mind on more than one occasion. It wouldn’t be easy, considering how well Zane could fight and how on high alert he always was. Then there was the issue of covering his trail well enough that neither Lyra or Kelevra would be able to discover their whereabouts…

But he could do it. Pavel could. He had faith in his own abilities, and if he really wanted to—okay, poor choice of words. He did really want to, but he knew better than to go through with it. Knew that Zane would never forgive him if he kidnapped him and legitimately locked him away from the rest of the world.

Good Light, didn’t that sound phenomenal though? His delectable doctor kept in a place where only Pavel could see and touch him. Where he was the only company Zane was able to keep, the only one he could talk to and play with.

He’d be so reliant on Pavel then. The training process would be halved for sure. They—

“Should I get your pills?” Ledger’s voice sounded very far away at first, and his brother had to repeat the question several times before the words were finally processed in Pavel’s brain.

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, allowing the scent of his brother and Nikita to fill his nostrils. It helped to drown out some of his twisted thoughts, bringing him back to the present and the importance of keeping himself from absolutely shattering and losing himself to the devil within.

The devil that demanded he leave the penthouse and track Zane down and finish what he started in the lab earlier.

“Niki,” Ledger kissed his boyfriend on the top of his head and urged him back toward the hallway, “isn’t it time for you to get ready for work?”

“You can just tell me you need to talk privately,” Nikita replied, but he turned on his heels and left without a fight, Ledger waiting until they heard the bedroom door shut before continuing, this time to Pavel.

“What triggered you this badly?” he asked, keeping his voice down so it wouldn’t carry. He and Nikita were fairly new, still trying to figure out where they fit together. Right now, he was working on convincing Niki that they were going to be together forever, and his kindness wasn’t merely a fleeting thing or charity.

Basically, he had his own problems to handle. He didn’t need Pavel worrying him on top of it all.

Which was why Pavel needed to get this sorted and under control. Even if it meant making everyone—mainly Zane—uncomfortable for a bit.

“I changed into Kazimir,” Pavel admitted, forcing himself to maintain eye contact while he confessed that.

“Okay?” At first, Ledger didn’t get it, but then the second it clicked for him his eyes went wide. He shoved at Pavel. “You don’t mean recently, do you? Are you actually insane?! If either of them finds out you impersonated—”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen,” he said. “I just…lost control.”

He’d managed to keep his cool for the past few months, but after this weekend, after getting another taste…His instincts were roaring and he was almost always in a constant state of arousal that was making it difficult to function properly. Didn’t matter that he’d done this to himself.

On Friday night, he shouldn’t have left the way that he had. He should have dragged Zane by the ankle back downstairs and chained him to the bed he’d painstakingly set up and decorated earlier that day.

He should have spread his legs wide and shoved—

“Were you drinking?” Ledger deadpanned, stopping his thoughts from spiraling yet again, and then shook his head before Pavel could answer. “You know what? It doesn’t even matter anymore. At this stage, you’re already too far gone to pull back, aren’t you?”

Pavel just stared, sensing that’d been a rhetorical question.

“Zane must have a magic ass to make you lose—”

“Don’t,” he warned.

Ledger rolled his eyes. “You’re the one who got a taste and now can’t keep it together. You should’ve realized that was a bad idea. Your obsession isn’t new, brother. You had a plan.”

Yes, one that involved waiting until they’d all graduated and Zane had taken up his position as the Royal Doctor. Pavel hadn’t wanted to interfere with the other man's personal goals, and he hadn’t been willing to share Zane with anyone—not even as a fuck buddy or a slave, which was how Kazimir and Lyra had always treated him.

But now…

“He’s vulnerable.” This was the time to strike. After Zane had been abandoned by his toy Kazimir, and while the Imperial Heir kept leaving the Little Palace until well into the night. Zane needed to feel desired to keep himself from spiraling. If Pavel hadn’t acted, he would have been forced to watch as the doctor took another to his bed. Again. He wasn’t willing to do that.

“This is limerence,” Ledger sighed. “You are aware, yeah?”

“Yes.”

“Normal people don’t beat down the person they claim to love,” he continued.

“I’m showing him I want him.”

His brother snorted derisively. “You’re showing him he needs to get a restraining order.”

Pavel’s eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms. “Remind me again, how did you and Niki end up together?”

“That’s different.”

“How so?”

“Because I wasn’t obsessed with him for six years first.”

Pavel had been obsessed with Zane for a lot longer than that, but he didn’t bother correcting him. He rounded the couch and dropped onto it, spreading his arms over the back. “He’ll see what I see. I know he will. Eventually.”

“And what’s that?” Ledger drawled.

“That we were made for each other.”

He grunted. “Sure, easy enough for the shapeshifter to say.” His gaze turned pointed. “Zane is dangerous, brother, every bit as much as the rest of us are. Maybe even more so, thanks to his training with those damn unbreakable knives of his. You can’t forget that. Don’t let this infatuation blind you.”

Though Zane had kept his relationship with Lyra so under wraps that it was hard to tell if even Kelevra knew of it, Ledger was privy thanks to Pavel. He’d needed someone to confide in over the years, so his brother had lent his ear.

Ledger didn’t just fear Zane hurting him. He feared the doctor involving the Imperial Heir.

“He doesn’t want her,” Pavel said.

“That’s what you want to believe,” he stated. “There’s no real proof. The two of them have been together for years. Besides, even setting his relation to the Imperial family aside, there’s something…empty about him.”

Pavel grunted but Ledger doubled down.

“I’m serious. He’s a wild card. The quiet, studious guy is all an act. There’s not a single one of us that is actually normal, brother. Zane Solace is no different.”

“You’re worried over nothing,” Pavel reassured. “There’s nothing and no one in this whole universe who understands him better than I do. Why do you think he put up with Kazimir and Lyra’s treatment all these years? By your own accounts, it’s not because he’s incapable of defending himself.”

Ledger hesitated, considering but clearly unable to come up with an answer.

“He likes to be used, Ledge.” Pavel felt a thrill race all the way through him just talking about it. “He likes to be treated like an object and manhandled, as long as he’s not being belittled too much in the process. It makes him feel valued .”

“That is…” he pursed his lips, “super fucked up.”

“I know.”

“You don’t know, because you’re grinning now. I mean, you should be getting him psychological help instead of—”

“Why would I do that?” Pavel frowned. “He doesn’t need help. He’s perfect.”

“When mom brought you home and sat me down and tried explaining that you’re not capable of loving people the same way she and I do, I totally don’t think she meant this level of disconnect, Pav.”

That was easy for someone like Ledger to say. Unlike most of the other Devils, Ledger didn’t have a personality disorder. Not unless being an asshole counted. He had violent tendencies and a foul mouth, but he didn’t suffer with comprehending or experiencing a full range of emotions or put up a fake persona in front of the rest of the world. With him, what you saw was what you got.

“You tie your boyfriend up to fuck him,” Pavel reminded, just as the sound of Nikita’s returning footsteps echoed toward them from the hall. “We all have our kinks.”

“What you’re doing isn’t a kink,” Ledger disagreed, but he smiled broadly at his boyfriend when he appeared and motioned toward the door, putting an end to the conversation. “Ready for work?”

Nikita glanced between the two of them. “I can go by myself if…?”

“Nah,” Ledger said, “we’re finished here. Let’s go.”

“Have a good shift, Nikita,” Pavel called after them, checking his multi-slate for the time. It was late, but there was a good chance his doctor was still awake, no doubt studying like the good little student he wanted everyone to believe he was.

It was so tempting to go find him, but Zane would need space after what Pavel had done to him in the lab, so instead, Pavel forced himself to stand and head to his room on the upper level.

Maybe if he gave himself a couple hand jobs, he’d be able to make it a few more days before the need to touch Zane again got the better of him.

Maybe.