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Aodhan bit his bottom lip to keep from moaning as he watched the video clip Mercy just sent him.

In it, Calix was wildly thrusting, rocking back onto the anal hook, slapping his dick against his own stomach from the force of his movements. Desperate to get off. Just how they liked him.

It was tempting to drop everything, get into his hovercar, and speed home, but that wasn’t part of the plan, and Aodhan had already been warned not to lose his cool.

As though reading his mind even from this distance, another text from Mercy came in, momentarily blocking out part of the video on the small multi-slate screen.

Mercy: Behave.

Aodhan rolled his eyes, sneering when the clip ended. Before he could allow himself to replay it, he tossed the device aside, barely paying attention to it clattering on his desk. He was in his office in the hospital, hours from an important consultation.

With fucking blue balls.

He gripped his hard-on in his slacks and adjusted himself in his chair, widening his thighs for more comfort. This morning, he really should have pushed the issue, forced Calix to milk his cock like he was supposed to.

But that also would be breaking the rules, and he had agreed with Mercy at the start he’d follow them.

They both would, and if Aodhan broke them, that gave Mercy grounds to break them as well and…

He pursed his lips, brow furrowing.

He knew Mercy wanted Calix just as much as he did—he could literally feel as much through their mating bond—but that didn’t mean the cumbersome director wouldn’t change his mind. Until they locked Cal down as their Third, anything could happen, and Aodhan didn’t want to risk that.

He’d meant every word he’d spoken to both Cal and Mercy. He wanted the detective. He wanted him tied to them permanently, with nowhere left to run, and no hope of ever escaping, even if he somehow managed to find a way out of their sight. It was almost unexplainable, this urge to defile and own.

The only other time he’d felt anything even remotely like it had been when he’d fallen into Mercy’s trap.

Aodhan would get his way. He always did.

Which meant sticking to the rules and trusting his man’s plan would get the job done.

His multi-slate chimed, pulling him from his thoughts, but his excitement thinking it was Mercy died the second he saw his brother’s name flash across the screen.

“To what do I owe this rare honor?” he answered, making sure to fill his tone with a teasing he wasn’t actually up to giving.

Still, it was only a little bit fake. There were few emotions he felt, and even fewer people he could feel them with or for, but his little brother happened to fall into that category.

That was why Aodhan had pushed him into the swimming pool when they were kids. He hadn’t really been pushing Zane at all. He’d been pushing himself. Seeing how far these emotions truly went. How far his limits were.

Since their dad had fished Zane out early, Aodhan hadn’t gotten a clear answer that day.

But there was always tomorrow.

Maybe this time Calix could help him.

“I can’t make it this weekend,” Zane Solace’s clipped tone came through the speaker on the device. Aodhan might have taken his icy demeanor personally, if not for the fact Zane was like that with most people, aside from the Retinue.

The Retinue were a group of college students tasked with protecting the Prince of Vitality—as though their prince needed any kind of protecting. Hell, the way Aodhan saw it, it’d be a better use of their time to protect Vitality from that entire Imperial family, but what did he know.

Or care.

“Breaking your promises already,” he clicked his tongue, even though he wasn’t particularly saddened by this news. He’d actually forgotten about his brother’s scheduled visit amidst all the excitement with Cal. “Is that how this is going to be?”

“I took care of your annoying coworker problem,” Zane reminded. “My visits are even more for show now than they were before. Neither of us will lose sleep if I skip one.”

“Big plans with my brother-in-law?”

“ My husband and I are going somewhere, yes.”

Aodhan laughed, happy he’d struck a nerve as intended. “Always so possessive, little brother. You need to learn to chill.”

“No.”

Zane and his husband had only been married for a couple of months now, but the blowback from his wedding still lingered. One of the leads Calix had for his case happened at the wedding. Only, the detective had no clue that both killings that night had been done by the brothers.

“We both know you used my coworker to help solve your own problem,” Aodhan pointed out. “He made a perfect fall guy for you, didn’t he? Everyone believed it.”

“Of course they did,” Zane scoffed, as arrogant as ever.

To get back someone who’d wronged him, Zane had murdered a man and framed someone else for the deed.

That someone else had been a pesky coworker of Aodhan’s, who’d gone to the planet to celebrate the wedding along with other members of their hospital staff.

He’d tied it all back to the Imperial Heir of Vitality, killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. It’d been a flawless plan, really.

Except he’d forgotten to read Aodhan into it, and that very same night, Aodhan had ended up taking a life as well.

Zane had taken out a heart though. Aodhan had removed a head.

His killings had to fit a pattern in order to lead the I.P.F.

where he wanted them. They were just lucky their schemes didn’t get tangled up.

If Zane had ruined things for him, not even the fact that they were brothers would have saved him from Aodhan’s wrath.

He’d put too much into things, traveled away from Mercy in order to plant bread crumbs. Contacting the captain of Calix’s branch and demanding he put their Third on the case had been the final move.

“We might not share blood, but we’re definitely cut from the same cloth,” Aodhan chuckled, then, when he didn’t receive a reply, sighed and asked, “Well, aren’t you at least going to ask me about your brother-in-law?”

“Last I checked, you and Titus Mercer aren’t married.” There was a long pause and then, “Unless this is your way of hinting that you’ve finally found a suitable Third.”

Aodhan leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowing slightly. Despite the way he’d just chastised Zane, he found he didn’t like the thought of his brother talking about Calix in any fashion. Still… “And if I am?”

“Then I would congratulate you,” Zane replied. “ If that’s what you’re doing. Is it?”

“We’ve yet to secure him but…yes.”

Zane made a reproachful sound.

“Don’t look down on me, little brother.”

“Impossible, considering we’re the same height.” There was another thoughtful pause before Zane gave in to whatever he was thinking. He always did. He was easy like that. “Perhaps you should have remained on Vitality after all, you have everything it takes to be considered a Devil.”

Had he just thought his brother easy? Scratch that. He meant manipulative.

“I was a Devil, before I transferred off planet for med school elsewhere. Nice try,” Aodhan drawled, “but you’ll have to do better if you want to pull my strings.

” He moved to prop an elbow on the edge of his desk, curious why Zane would want him on the same planet.

“What? Mom and Dad still giving you a hard time for shirking their last name?”

Zane had waited until the day of the wedding to announce that he was dropping Solace and taking on his husband’s last name instead.

To say it wasn’t well received would be an understatement.

“You were always my replacement,” he said matter-of-factly. “The whole reason they took you in was to ensure the family line continued to run the businesses. You can’t blame them for their hostility now that you’ve shattered all their hard work.”

“Understood.” It was impossible to tell if he’d hit another nerve or not. Zane didn’t give things away unless it was regarding his husband. That was the only time he couldn’t seem to control himself in front of Aodhan.

“Love makes you stupid,” he grunted, only to be met with a similar sound from his brother.

“Says the man who’s about to willingly enter a three-way relationship.”

“Comes with the territory. I knew what I was signing up for when I bound myself to Mercy.”

“So, you’re doing this for him? Going to accept another body into your bed because he asked you to?”

“On the contrary,” Aodhan argued. “I was the one who asked him.”

Because they might need a third in order to survive, but Aodhan sure as hell wasn’t going to allow anyone to get near them that he hadn’t picked himself. That’s also why this thing with Cal was so enthralling.

“I always believed it would be as you said,” he admitted, not sure why he was bothering, aside from the fact that at least he was comfortable knowing Zane wouldn’t judge him any more than he already did.

“That one day, Mercy would come to me and order me to accept some stranger. That I would never be able to feel even a modicum of what I do for him for someone else. But that isn’t what happened. ”

A pod needed sex to dissipate and flow energy properly between them, so it wasn’t like Aodhan could have ordered Mercy not to sleep with whichever unlucky bastard got chosen.

But then he’d met Cal. Had felt the tight grip of his hole around his cock, heard the soft, mewling sounds he made when he came.

He liked Calix Valimir. Liked the way he begged and cried all pretty. Liked how he craved to be hurt.

Liked that his dark pieces matched so perfectly with Aodhan’s and Mercy’s.

But more than that, he liked the way the guy talked and how he presented himself. How he tried to come off as a badass and strong, when in reality, he was lonely and broken inside.

Weightless. Floating without a tether, with nowhere to go and nothing to bind him.

Aodhan used to be like that.

He knew what it was like.

He knew that kind of quiet torture.

The fact that Calix had endured it, all on his own, was admirable. But no matter how proud of him he was for it, that didn’t mean Aodhan was above using that weakness to his advantage.

“If I recall correctly,” Zane said, “Connects need their mates to give permission for a bond to be set. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re confident you can get that from this person?”

“I’m confident it doesn’t matter.”

Mercy said it did—constantly, like a damn broken record—but Aodhan felt otherwise.

“What’s consent really?” He stood and stalked to the other side of his office, glaring out the window at the bustling streets below. On Vitality, where his brother lived, it was no doubt raining, but here the sun was out and the weather was warm.

People were taking advantage, those dressed in office wear and kids from the nearby college traveling from one building to another, probably for lunch.

He should end this discussion and get to the cafeteria before all the good options ran out and he was forced to pretend like he didn’t mind eating vegetables as a whole meal again. Sometimes, he wished he could shed this whole tedious facade, do away with the nice guy act and just be.

Existence came with a price, though, one he paid in false smiles and smooth talking.

And what was the prize in all that? First, it’d been Mercy.

Now it was going to be Cal.

“Permission for something to happen or be done,” Zane smartly defined.

“Funny.”

“Whatever you do, make sure it doesn’t bleed into my affairs.”

“Just tell me not to piss off Mom and Dad.”

“I don’t care what they think,” Zane stated. “But don’t do anything to tarnish the Solace name. It’s already hard enough to deal with them after I ditched it. If something happens and they no longer have their golden boy to fall back on…”

Aodhan rolled his eyes. “I’ve literally never taken their wants into consideration.”

“Oh, I know. We all do.”

A couple crossed the street directly in front of the hospital, holding hands, and Aodhan’s gaze tracked them as they entered a small soup restaurant famous for its fried dumplings.

Cal liked fried dumplings.

Mercy preferred them boiled.

Aodhan didn’t care either way.

“Look, some brotherly advice—though I’m not sure why I’ll bother,” Zane said.

“This isn’t like everything else you’ve come across.

Connects are an ancient species, with all the rules and regulations that come with being as old as creation itself.

You can’t bulldoze your way through this one.

A bond can’t be forced. You know this. You’ve experienced it. ”

Yes, but by the time they’d gotten to that point, Aodhan had been more than willing to mate with Mercy. He’d even come to terms with what that would mean for their future, that they’d eventually have to add a third person to the mix.

Mercy had found him at a time when he’d been at his most vulnerable, and now, they’d discovered Calix at his lowest point. The formula was similar enough that it should work in their favor, and yet…

“I’m…nervous.” It took everything in him to admit that, even if just to his brother, but Aodhan clipped the words out. “He can’t refuse us. That can’t be an option.”

Because if Cal did, that meant Aodhan had put them at risk for nothing.

It would mean he’d have to remove the threat to everything they’d built…

“I won’t kill him,” he swore vehemently. “That means he only has one choice. Accept us, or—”

“If you won’t kill him,” Zane cut him off, “then he won’t die. Unless you’re planning on asking someone else to do the deed in your stead?”

“As if.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so. It’s not really your style. Speaking of. How have things been going since you’ve lost the support of Lyra?”

Lyra Diar, the Imperial Heir of the Vitality throne. At least, she had been, up until a month ago when her trial had concluded she was guilty of running an illegal organ harvesting ring. She’d been stripped of her title and banished off planet.

“I’ll never underestimate you again, little brother.”

“Is that your way of telling me to stay out of it?”

Aodhan gave one last look at the restaurant across the street and moved away from the window. “You can relax. I don’t need Lyra to clean up after me. I never did. Now, let’s say our goodbyes, shall we? I’m late for lunch.”