Chapter Two
Lottie
I could barely see the man crouched before me through the violet haze that obliterated everything in the world, turning it all into fields of black and purple. Even the person in front of me resembled a twisted nightmare, though I learned not to trust my senses days ago.
“Looks like bait.”
The words didn’t make sense to me as I returned to my ruminations.
How long had I been in this place? Not that long.
A week? I had no idea. Focus was impossible.
Every time I tried to stand my stomach wanted to revolt.
Gravity meant nothing when my field of vision resembled a swirling galaxy painted on the inside of my eyeballs.
“Sweetness.” A different voice attacked me from the side.
I turned my blurred eyes toward this new form, finding a gaze of pale green that filtered through my haze like he could see me in the mess my head had become. Without my permission my hands raised to touch, and the man stilled. I encountered bristles, a defined jaw, a warm face.
He laughed softly. “Yeah, that’s me. You gonna let us take you somewhere so you can clean up? Eat, maybe put something on?” He kept his voice light, but I recognized the strain beneath it, what he wasn't saying.
You’re a mess. I don’t know if you’re a victim or the threat, but I need to find out .
The silence on the other side of me didn’t say anything else, though a hard, calloused hand found mine and gripped hard. I anchored to a firm grip, knowing instinctively this unyielding man wouldn’t let me fall, and the warm face I clutched, though I couldn't see either of theirs, and nodded.
The world jerked with me.
“All right,” I managed, before I retched bile and stomach acid on the alley floor because that was all I had left in my body to vomit.
****
W armth covered me in a deep sense of safety and protection. I snuggled in, resting my cheek against the hard/soft surface that beat a pleasant, steady thump beneath me. Something stroked along my spine in an idle rhythm, neither lazy nor slow, but safe . I let out a contented sigh.
“If you keep doing that, we might not give you back.”
Happy bubble popped.
“We?” I sat up too fast, and the room rocked.
White sheets, dark gray flooring, and heavy wooden exposed beams were all I saw before I covered my mouth with my hand, hoping to prevent a repeat of my last movement.
Then my stomach settled along with the room, the ability to see registered, and all-encompassing warmth hit me on both sides, at least from the waist down.
A chill cooled my skin where the covers dropped from my bare flesh.
I stared side to side, squishing first in one direction as I came face to nipple with an enormous pec—the one I slept on—and above that, unyielding gray eyes.
Black hair hung over a carved face in longer strands, and an evening shadow coated his chin.
This is the first man who spoke to me.
Even with my addled mind I knew that. But the way he watched me, cold and fiery all at once, left me scrambling for breathing room, my prior nausea forgotten.
When my scrambling butt hit something warm on that other side, I twisted and rediscovered the owner of the green eyes.
Much easier to look at in all the ways. His mouth curved in a grin he covered with his hand a second too late.
Tanned skin covered him in a never-ending expanse decorated with ridges of muscle.
High cheekbones and a playful gleam in those moss green eyes leant him a less terrifying edge than the first man.
It wasn’t until I stilled, staring at him, that an arm snaked around my waist to hold me to the hard chest of the unyielding black-haired man with the gray eyes who scared the shit out of me.
I lay between the two men who saved me and realized that not one of us wore a single stitch of clothing.
And that for the first time in days—weeks— months— I was clean.
Someone had showered me. I smelled like .
.. flowers. Just flowery soap. And maybe a strange sharp male tang.
Everything was so right it was all wrong.
“I shouldn’t be here,” I breathed, not actually sure where here was.
“You’re right where you should be, love.” Green Eyes caught a lock of my hair and twirled it around his fingers, lulling me closer to him inch by inch as his smile grew wider. “You shouldn’t be anywhere but with us ever again.”
I shivered at the underlying promise in his words, barely able to recall my own name as he tugged me closer. His breath brushed my lips before a growl and a sharp tug broke us apart.
“Stop it.” The arm around my waist tightened as harsh words were directed over my head to the green-eyed man. A second later I found myself on my back staring into eyes the color of an overcast day. No, not overcast—like a breaking summer storm. “How do you feel?”
“Uh...”
My singular sound was interpreted in different ways by the pair of men who peered down at me. Well, the green-eyed one peered. Gray just stared.
“You’re scaring the shit out of her,” Green Eyes stage-whispered behind his hand. “Why don’t we feed you, love? What do you like to eat?”
“Stop fucking flirting,” the black haired, gray-eyed man snapped. “We can feed you in a minute. I need to know if you’re all right first.” His gaze roamed over my body like he wanted to devour me, though the only place we touched were where his thighs pressed to mine, and—
That’s not a thigh.
I gasped and made the hellish mistake of glancing down.
Laughter met my ears and I turned tomato red or some other pink hue as my body basically self-combusted on the spot.
“I’m fine,” I said hurriedly, scrambling backward up the bed but the man with three logs for legs and, um, other things, came with me.
“That’s not an answer,” he growled.
The sound froze me mid-scramble. “Sorry,” I whispered in a voice so small I could barely hear it.
“You scared her,” said the other man reprovingly.
“Fine,” growled my gray-eyed giant. “Let’s start again. What’s your name, pet?”
I blinked at him, trying to find it. My memory blanked on me, and I frowned.
“It’s easy, okay?” said the green-eyed, tanned man. “I’m Blake. This behemoth is Gray. You knee him any time you want, all right?” he added helpfully.
I smiled for what felt like the first time in an age. “Cute,” I muttered. “I figured you’d be called something like that. I’m L...” My brain froze again.
Gray’s eyes narrowed. At least his name makes sense. “What did you take last night, pet?” he asked in a softer voice. Smoother.
My body reacted to him like it had to the green-eyed Blake when he tugged on my hair earlier. Prickles rioted along my arms as Gray loomed over me, a deep sound originating in his chest that set every particle in the room on edge.
Every piece of me reacted to him.
“Taken? Like—I wasn’t drunk, just homeless,” I whispered.
Memory slammed into me with the confession.
“I was homeless. My ex kicked me out, ended my career months ago. Stripped my bank account. His name was the one on the lease and he refused to give me a reference, so no one would look at me.” I shrugged.
“He was an asshole. Cut me off from friends.
Family doesn't want to know me. Toxic, and I get that now. Control freak. I lived on the streets for a few weeks. A month, maybe. Did what I had to survive. So now you know what I am, you can go right ahead and kick me out of your nice warm bed—”
“I’m not kicking you out of anywhere,” Gray snapped, bracing his forearms either side of my head while his legs wedged their way between mine, spreading my thighs wide. Warmth on one side told me Blake hadn’t moved, though his hand slid along my arm to entangle our fingers.
“Subtle, Gray,” he muttered.
“Your name,” Gray repeated. “I’m glad the ex is gone. I’m glad ”—he shot a look at Blake that should have turned him to ash on the spot—“that you’re safe. But this would be better if I had your name, pet.”
“Why?”
Blake huffed. “Humor him.” His fingers squeezed mine.
“Lottie,” I whispered, glad my two remaining brain cells functioned for a brief moment. “Just Lottie.”
Gray’s pupils blew out as he took my name and tried it out on his tongue, Blake whispering reverently along with him. “Lottie,” he murmured. “Thank you.”
Then he lowered his mouth, grazing the corner of my lips with his, licked along the slope of my neck before I could exhale a startled breath, and bit me. Hard .
I screamed before a hand clamped over my mouth. Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes and overflowed as Blake stared down at me, his face not without compassion.
“I’m sorry, sweetness. It’s sort of necessary,” he murmured.
“Arrroooiteeeooo?” I mumbled around his hand when breath resumed, along with my heartbeat. I winced as Gray retracted his teeth, and warmth heated the area. My hands dug into his shoulder but he didn’t seem to care I marked him the way he had me.
Blake stroked my jaw as his fingers relaxed gently when he realized I wasn’t going to keep screaming. “I might,” he murmured ruefully. “But I’ll give you more warning than he did.”
Gray groaned into my throat, pushing my thighs further apart as he licked and sucked at the throbbing site of the bite mark. I inhaled sharply, a shuddering breath left me a second later as a rush of heady pleasure spun my world on its axis. I clutched Blake’s hand in case I fell off the bed.
“That hurt,” I accused Gray, flexing the fingers that dug into his shoulders.
He didn’t stop his ministrations, just kept going in a rhythm that wasn’t comfortable but felt like .
.. an apology. Each lick soothed the pain, took me into a sleepy, dozy state.
“Why did you do that?” I asked, trying not to yawn.
There was something I should be asking. Something so very important that I couldn’t let slip my mind right now...
Gray lifted his head, his lips garnet and glossed with my blood. “Because you’re my mate,” he muttered. “And if I didn’t claim you then I could have fucking well killed you.”
“That’s nice,” I murmured as my eyes shut.
I tumbled into a world where the two men fought over my head from a distance and I didn’t care anymore. Where my memories floated away, just beyond my ability to grasp them, but then they didn’t matter either. All I wanted was to sink and drift and never wake up again.
Even when Blake called my name urgently, his hands cupping my face, moss green eyes staring deep into mine. I tried to reach him too but just like everything else, I couldn’t.
And so, I drifted.