Page 36 of Glass Hearts

The first stroke into her tight pussy felt like sliding home. She may not have said she loved me back, but I can see it in her eyes. So, I try to convey how much I want to worship her forever with every stroke, every kiss.

She’s damn perfect. Especially as I feel her tighten around me, clenching me tight into her orgasm. It almost sets me off, like a damned teenage boy.

I know my brothers are there, but I don’t care. All I see is her.

“Sunshine, do you think you are ready to take all of us as Archer watches?” She nods as he bites her breast. “I am going to need a verbal confirmation, Arabella.”

“Yes, please,” she says breathlessly as I flip us around so she is on top of me, straddling me. I sit up to take one of her breasts into my mouth. She gasps as Grayer preps her tight hole. Koi consumes all her groans with kisses.

“Such a good girl, Arabella,” Grayer murmurs. “I think you’re ready for me. What do you say, Duchess? Want your princes to fill you completely?”

“Please,” she gasps, digging her claws gloriously into my chest as her body trembles between us, already stretched, already aching for more.

I feel it the moment Grayer pushes inside her ass, slow and careful, his breath catching with the effort to restrain himself.

“Fuck, Duchess,” he groans. “The way you squeeze me.”

Her face twists with a flicker of pain, but she breathes through it, her hand clutching mine as she adjusts. And then she lets out the softest moan, deep and surrendering, her body relaxing into us both. Open. Willing. Ours.

Once Grayer’s fully seated inside her and she gives the smallest, breathless nod, we move in tandem, thrusting together in a perfect rhythm.

Koi moves in front of her, fingers brushing her cheek before he guides her mouth to his face for a deep kiss, and then directing her to his cock. “Sunshine,” he growls, barely holding himself back. “You take all of us so perfectly. Like you were made to be worshiped.”

Arabella moans around him, the sound vibrating through Koi’s body and making mine clench with need. I reach between us, finding that little bundle of nerves that always sets her off, and she jolts with pleasure. Her body tightens around me like a vice, her orgasm crashing over her in waves.

She’s spectacular when she comes. Eyes wild and radiant, like the whole world is unraveling inside her.

I let go with her, growling into her skin as my own climax tears through me. Every instinct in me screams to keep her, claim her, never share her again. But I step back, breathless, letting Grayer stay inside her.

He adjusts, turning so she’s straddling him on the bed, their bodies still joined as he cradles her against his chest.

Koi doesn’t wait. He takes her pussy in one smooth, hungry thrust, and her moan echoes through the room. She clings to both of them, taking it all, her body a symphony of surrender and ecstasy.

“Fuck, I’m coming again!” she cries, voice hoarse and shaking. My brothers groan in sync, release filling the room like a storm breaking.

By the time I return from the bathroom, washcloth in hand, Arabella is curled atop Grayer, the blanket draped over her bare back. Koi lies beside her, stroking her hair with the kind of soft, reverent touch that makes my chest ache.

She looks wrecked. Beautiful. Completely ours.

“You did such a good job, Vixen,” I say as I remove the covers.

My stomach drops as I take in her back for the first time. She tenses up as she hears my angry growl.

“Who did this to you.”

This has all my brothers shooting up also to look at her scarred back. White lines cover her back, from what look to be many lashings. Some looked new, while others looked aged. A tapestry of what I imagine are painful memories lines her back, showing that it had gone on for many years.

“Arabella, what the fuck?!” Koi cries out as he touches the raised scars. She flinches away. Grayer and Archer look so murderous. But what takes me out of my anger is a crying Arabella.

“I know, it’s ugly. I am sorry. I should have told you I don’t have perfect skin.”

“Ella, that isn’t why we are upset.” Archer reaches to cup her cheeks. “We want to know who did this to you. We still find you the most ridiculously gorgeous creature to have crashed into our lives.” She closes her eyes as the tears continue to track down her face.

“Archer, can you hold her? I am going to clean her up from everything. Gray, Koi, you guys get her some water and check your anger. I think she thinks we are upset at her for not disclosing this.”

“Whoever did this will pay,” Grayer says as he goes to grab water. I set out to clean up our girl as Archer holds her. He subtly starts running his fingers down her scars.

“Fuck, Princess. You are so strong, you know that? I am so sorry I ever doubted you,” Archer says as she sobs into his chest. He squeezes her tighter, kissing the top of her head every minute. Koi reaches for a tissue as I finish running the warm cloth along her body.

I lie next to Archer, reaching for her. Archer lets me hold her, knowing I need to feel her safely on me.

“Duchess,” Grayer says from the side of the bed, sounding calmer. “What happened to you, darling?” I can feel him reaching for her calf. All of us are touching her to make sure she is still here and okay.

“Bernice. Technically, Victor. Bernice would order the lashes every time she felt like I misbehaved or didn’t complete a chore to her liking.

These scars—” She points to raised scars on her outer thigh and elbows, “—luckily aren’t too noticeable, but that came from the first time she pushed me down the stairs to the basement. ”

“Why the fuck was she pushing you down the stairs?!” Koi growls, a low rumble in his chest. I shot him an angry glare, hoping he’d notice my warning to control his brewing rage.

She sniffles into my chest and curls into me, as if she is looking to me for safety.

I happily oblige as I squeeze her into me.

“When Victor was away… which was often, she would have me locked up in the dark basement as an alternative punishment.”

“FUCK, and we threatened the dungeon to her?!”

Shame fills my gut. It now makes sense why my Vixen shrinks whenever Bernice is around. It’s not just the deplorable verbal and mental abuse. She has been made to cower to the awful woman.

Bernice is going to die.

At some point, Arabella falls asleep in my arms. Not to disturb her, we all converse mentally.

“Screw the council and what they want. Those bitches are out of here tomorrow,” Grayer growls.

“I agree. I think we should also confirm that this selection process is all over, too. They probably think we were just throwing a tantrum today. I am going to tell them she is mine. Ours. I want to marry her. For us to marry her. Break her curse so she can be free from that cruel woman.”

Agreement and the feeling of love flow through the bond with my statement. Finally, we are all on the same page; we will never let her go.

* * *

We carry Arabella, still passed out, back to her old room in the morning. The other girls are already awake as I set her down on the bed. The other ladies can feel the heaviness as we enter the room.

“What happened?” Elora whispers to me.

“We saw her scars,” I gravely whisper back. Elora nods as she lies back down next to Arabella, cuddling next to her friend. Understanding the need for comfort even in her sleep. I have great respect and love for her best friend. Bri and Winona gasp quietly at the mention of scars.

“Take care of her this morning; we are going to the council today to make all this right.” I tuck a loose strand of Arabella’s hair behind her ear. She looks so peaceful.

I can’t wait to get rid of her stepfamily, to show her what being loved really feels like.

Archer grabs my forearm, pulling me away. We have work to do.

* * *

We knock as we enter Councilman Hendrickson’s office.

“Ah! Come in, boys. You are up early! Great timing, I just finished making coffee,” he says as he pours us each a cup, adding what I assume is milk and sugar.

“I take it you have all come to your senses and are ready to get the final rounds of courting finished? It’s getting close to the time to pick a bride.

” He chuckles as he hands us each a cup of coffee.

“That’s why we came here to talk, Albert. We are no longer going along with this ruse,” I say, getting right down to business. I sip the coffee, and it tastes extra bitter. All my brothers seem to make the same face after their sip.

“Is that right? And why, might I ask, have you turned your back on all the guidance and support we have given you? Fallen in love with a whore? Let me guess. Arabella.” He growls out her name.

We all take a sharp breath. Menace and ire exude from the normally friendly Albert as he mutters a few incantation spells.

Before our eyes, the normally short, round man with ruddy cheeks changes into an older, taller, lean man with a braided beard and salt and pepper hair.

He slowly gets up from his chair, shaking out the transformation.

Disgust roils along his features until his mask of indifference rests upon his face.

“Finally, that wretched man’s body was awful.”

I go to attack him, but that’s when I notice—“I can’t move.”

“Sy, we can’t move either, what the fuck. Who is he?!” Koi growls down the bond.

“Ah, I can see from the angry eyes and voicelessness that my spell is taking effect. Haven’t your mothers ever taught you not to take drinks from strangers, boys?” He laughs. That’s when we notice the door opening, and Bernice swans in as if she owns the room.

“Victor, finally! I was growing tired of seeing that unsightly Hendrickson’s face. I take it the boys are fully subdued?” She looks at us menacingly with a smirk.

“That’s fucking Victor, I am going to fucking kill him.” Grayer’s voice is pure venom as we all realize that this was the same man that has repeatedly abused our woman. The same man who also apparently infiltrated the council.

“Don’t worry, boys, your precious councilman felt no pain as he was sacrificed for the cause.”

“Why?” Archer grounds out.

“Why do you think?” Bernice removes our glass heart pendants. She notices the orb on Gray’s necklace and shrugs. Thankfully, not realizing that it belongs to The Shadow, she puts our necklaces in a velvet pouch, handing it to Victor, who locks it in his desk’s top drawer.

“This is how it is going to go.” Bernice joins Victor on the other side of the desk, placing her hand on his shoulder as he sits back in his chair.

“You are now engaged to my daughters. Congratulations. You will forget about Arabella. You will be under our control with this spell with everything you say and do, up until your wedding night. You will appear in love and excited at the prospect of marrying my gorgeous daughters, who are frankly too good for the cheating lot of you. Inside, you may be warring, but frankly, I don’t care.

You all ruined everything by going after my whore of a stepdaughter.

Why am I not surprised she has been opening her legs for all of you?

Your spell will only be removed once you have accepted your fates and are faithful, loving husbands to my daughters. ”

“What. About. Arabella,” I struggle to get out. My body is progressively feeling so heavy. My mind gets fuzzy at the edges.

“Knowing her, this will devastate her. She will get more lashings for being such a whore and trying to steal what is owed to her stepsisters. Then she will be shipped off to a farmer who is willing to pay a pretty copper for her. Too bad he is a leech who killed his previous two wives. Hope for her sake he doesn’t hurt her pretty face too badly before he forces her to make babies. ”

“No!” Koi screams, almost getting up, but he crashes back down.

I have never felt scared in my whole life, yet right now… I am terrified as the edges of my vision begin to blur into darkness.