22. Chapter 17
Sleep evades me tonight. My mind fills with thoughts of Delilah’s pretty mouth as Reaper fed her. Thoughts of maybe now she’ll regain some weight that we’re making her sit and eat. With thoughts of Cora’s sad eyes and pretty taunting smile. But then the sweetness of their faces gets slashed out, cut sharply from my mind’s eye and another face flashes before me.
I know it’s my mother.
Some primal instinct that remembers her now. Warm brown eyes like mine. Bronzed skin. Long deep umber hair that curled around her cheeks. Then it’s blackness. The stink of piss and feces. Phantom pangs of hunger, clawing in my belly like ghosts.
Watching our Princess eat floods my entire chest with delight. I think it does for all of us. We were all so hungry all the time. It’s easy to control boys when you withhold food. That’s one thing Reaper didn’t want them to feel. That stark, painful gnawing like we felt in the cold room. In solitary. Like I felt for who knows how many days in the darkness where my mother left me.
It may be because of Cora and how open she was with me that my mind now flashes on the woman whose face has evaded me my entire life. Whose addiction drove her to an early death and left a little boy half alive only to be handed over to a man whose own addiction to cruelty and control would rip him apart so he could form a new person.
Sometimes I wonder if that’s what Reaper intends to do with Delilah. Rip her to shreds until he can mold her into something new. Someone capable of accepting the truth.
Her father is an evil man. Far worse than our otets.
Although we all agreed to take Delilah, and ultimately Cora, I don’t think we ever discussed exactly how we’d get their cooperation. We just blindly followed Reaper, as we tend to do. He knows us. Knows what’s best. He’s taken care of us, protected us, most of our lives. I can’t even count the number of times he accepted a punishment for Breaker. Viper. Telling Fallon it was he who broke a rule, or didn’t follow a command.
Fallon’s techniques to train us were harsh, too harsh to be humane, but effective. We learned quickly that if we did as he asked, we were rewarded. If we didn’t, we were disciplined. Fallon always used food, along with another form of punishment. Starving a young boy is a quick way to get them to behave. Reaper was always hungry growing up. Hell, we all were. I think that’s why he insists on feeding her. As much as he says she’s Rune’s blood, deserving of his punishment, he can’t stand the thought of anyone being hungry.
I think that’s why he can’t bring himself to be as cruel as Fallon. Reaper remembers what it’s like in the cold room. To be scared. Confused. To be given snippets of praise, then words that cut so deep, you’re bleeding with shame.
Reward and praise
Humiliate and degrade.
Those, along with consistency, are effective tools when you need someone to follow your orders. When you need someone to fear you enough to follow your every command. But we don’t want them to fear us. Which is why we”re finding it harder and harder to train Delilah as we were.
We need her trust in order for her to want to follow us into the war we’re about to wage.
The thought of our Princess learning about her father sends a sick shiver of excitement through me, but it twists up grossly with the dread that pools in my gut. When she finds out…
It may very well destroy her.
Cora’s already learned hard lessons. She’s been torn apart and cracked open, and if what we suspect is true, it’s been many times. She already knows it’s in her best interest to follow along with us. Her trust on the other hand? That’s something we have to earn, not demand.
My stomach lurches, remembering her blank expression as she talked about her mother. Yeah. Our little flower has already been crushed by her parents. The only things she needs now are safety and security.
Delilah as well. She may have lived a carefully protected life, but Rune still trapped her.
My chest squeezes and I rub at the ache, wondering if the entire world is filled with such darkness or if we were just the unlucky ones, born into it.
Glancing toward the far end of the room, the moonlight washes across the floor, and I can make out the small figurine on the dresser. I rub absently at my chest again. Fuck. Sometimes when I remember, I feel the black, empty cavity in my chest just as acutely as the day it formed.
Rune Gavin has to pay for his sins. All of them.
Scooting back on the bed, I lean my head against the worn wood. A low groan from the room next door makes me still. Another gravelly sound makes my cock grow thick, picturing Breaker bent over Viper’s back, slamming into him. I tap my head to the headboard again and again in frustration, envious they have an outlet.
They don’t talk about the nights they spend together. I”ve only witnessed Viper dropping to his knees, accepting Breaker into his mouth during and sometimes after we’ve shared a woman. Reaper and I have never brought up the sounds of them together later on, because if they were doing it in secret, then they didn’t want us to know. Hearing the two together now is surprising. But maybe it shouldn’t be. The women have been torturing us for days.
Their proximity is making us do crazy things. We all crave them again. We’ve spent too many hours watching them on the cameras. I know that same gnawing hunger to taste them, claws at Reaper, Viper, Breaker just as brutally as it does me. That the same desperate feeling to own every minute of their day, absorb their every thought, smell them, touch them drives my brothers to madness like me.
They’ve quickly turned from a mission into an obsession and we all feel the danger lurking in that.
As soon as I hear the loud bang and the door slamming shut, I quickly jump out of bed. Reaching for my pants, I slip them on as I make my way to the door. Reaper is on duty tonight, watching over the girls, and he’s not alerted us, so I know it’s not about them. As I open the door, Viper’s muffled growl carries down the hall.
Fucking idiots. They know we have to be quiet. We may be two floors above Delilah, but it’s still possible to hear sounds in this old empty mansion.
I stalk down the hall but stop mid-stride when I see a very naked Breaker pinning a naked Viper to the wall, his forearm at his throat. He’s leaning over him, crowding his space, his hard cock pressed up against Viper’s stomach.
Crossing my arms, I lean against the door frame, waiting for Viper to snap, letting my gaze slide lower to Breaker”s bare ass. I”ve seen his ass planty of times, but I don”t know if I”ve ever noticed how tight and perfectly shaped it it. How…
Shit.
Blinking, I grip my biceps, refocusing back on Viper”s red face. He”s so angry that if Breaker pushes him any further, I”ll have to break them apart. I usually do when Breaker crosses a line.
Both men glance my way. I lift a brow.
Breaker lets his arm drop and as soon as it’s at his side, Viper shoves him backward, slamming him into the far wall, pinning him the way Breaker had him. Breaker”s hard dick slips over Viper”s stomach and my eyes drop.
I suck in a lungful. “Can you guys keep it down? I’m trying to sleep,” I say, already bored with them.
“This fucking asshole here doesn’t know how to listen,” Breaker spits out. He’s not fighting Viper’s iron grip, but he’s not backing down either.
“I thought you were a good boy, Vipe.” I don’t know why I say it. It just comes out. Maybe because I’m tired. Maybe because we’re all bored. Possibly because we’re all on edge and we all feel it. This slippery sensation that feels like we’re all teetering on the edge of a cliff and any small thing will send us over.
Viper’s attention snaps over to me, and he’s rushing forward, muscles tense, and slams his hand around my neck, shoving me back until I’m pressed against the door. I’m so shocked, Viper and I don’t clash often, that a sharp laugh slips free. Viper’s face contorts with rage. Pulling back a fist, he slams into the wood next to my head.
“Fucking asshole,” he grates. “You want to make fun of me? Maybe you should look in the mirror.”
“Maybe you should back the fuck off,” I snarl, trying to keep from reacting. I clench my teeth, sucking in a breath, but his arm at my throat presses harder. I fist my hands at my sides. “Now, Viper.”
When he doesn’t back down, Breaker places his hand on his shoulder, trying to pull him back.
Viper snarls. “You don’t think we don’t notice?” His voice drops, low and throaty. “We see how you watch. You’d love my mouth on your cock. Breaker fucking your face.” He punches his hips forward and his dick grinds into mine. “You’d love to taste me, wouldn’t you? Swallow all my cum as you fucked Breaker’s ass.”
“I said back off.”
“Viper,” Breaker says quietly, again trying to pull him away.
Viper leans in, his mouth next to my ear, and a shiver of awareness runs through me. Every sensation suddenly snaps into focus, and I feel everything all over. His hard cock digging into my thigh, rubbing against my thickness in my pants. His warm chest slipping over mine, the fine hair brushing my nipple. Taste his warm, minty breath.
We’ve fucked women at the same time, two in her cunt, but this… this feels more invasive, more demanding of my senses than any of those moments when our hands brushed or our dicks slipped inside a warm pussy. My cock grows hard, and he smiles.
“Just admit it already, Strike,” Viper says, pressing into me harder. His lips brush my ear and my pulse rushes, drowning out every sound other than his rough breaths. “You would love me to be your good boy. Or maybe you’d be mine.”
That red flash of anger returns and I fling him off, grabbing his face with one hand, then kick his feet from under him. He goes down, hard on his back. I move to straddle him, fist formed, arm already pulled back, but Breaker grabs my wrist and yanks me back, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, dragging me to my feet.
I glare down at Viper, as he stands, somehow with dignity and grace for a naked man that was just tossed to the ground. But he always gets up even when he should stay down. Like right now.
When I try to snap my head back, seeking to connect with Breaker’s face, he stops me by slamming his palm to the back of my head.
“Fucking stop,” Breaker snarls, shaking me until I stop fighting. “Just fucking stop.”
“I think I hit a nerve,” Viper says, eyes narrowing.
When I stop fighting, I instantly notice Breaker’s dick pressing into my lower back. Hard, slippery with pre-cum. My dick throbs and I suck in a breath, wishing I had enough control to stop my body from responding.
“Do I need to grab the lube so you guys can work this out?” Reaper”s voice from behind us makes us all freeze.
Breaker releases his grip and eyes me as he lets me go, waiting to see if I’m going to lunge at Viper again. I give him a nod and his shoulders relax.
Reaper stops next to me, and slowly takes in the scene, his eyes sliding up and down Viper, then Breaker, then slipping over to me. “Lover’s spat?”
“Fuck off,” the three of us say at once.
The corner of Reap’s mouth lifts. “If you three are done here, we have more important matters to attend to.” His eyes gleam, lit up with that dark light we all recognize. “I think Kitten wants to play.”