Chapter 3
Chapter Three
MAYA
L ogan actually has the nerve to act surprised when I wake up from my heat-induced exhaustion and immediately try to kill him.
His first mistake is cuddling up next to me in the bed, so I both woke up in an unfamiliar place and with the unexpected weight of an Alpha male pressing me down into the mattress. Those things alone would be enough to send me into fight-or-flight mode.
Then he compounds a night full of terrible decisions by wrapping his arms more tightly around me when I, still half-asleep and overheated, start to push at the heavy blankets. My semi-conscious brain is already desperate to escape before I even fully wake into the cage he put me in.
But his scent is what really does it—bitter clove soured with the stink of male satisfaction.
Reality crashes into me like a freight train.
My eyes snap open, but the nightmare refuses to dissipate as I adjust to the light.
I find myself trapped in an unfamiliar bed with—fuck!
— Logan’s heavy arm draped possessively around my waist. His face is inches from mine, golden eyes closed in peaceful slumber while my world implodes.
Memories flood back in disjointed flashes. The heat. The basement. Cillian. And then...Logan. The bond. The claiming.
My breath catches in my throat. No, no, no. This can’t be happening.
“Get off me!” I shriek, the sound tearing from my lungs with enough force to make my throat burn.
Logan jolts awake, his grip loosening just enough for me to wrench myself free. I scramble backward, tangling in silk sheets that smell too much like him, the scent invading my senses as another reminder to me of an even worse invasion.
“Maya, calm down?—“
There aren’t words to describe how I feel in this moment. A combination of shame and rage that can only be satisfied with violence.
I launch myself at him with every ounce of strength my bone-weary body can muster. My nails find purchase on his face, raking down his perfect cheekbone as I aim for his eyes. “How could you!?”
Logan catches my wrists, his Alpha strength effortlessly holding me back as I thrash against him. “Fuck, stop this. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
Instead of answering, I twist in his grip, landing a knee somewhere soft enough to make him grunt in pain.
His golden eyes widen in shock. “Stop this now, Omega .”
The command washes over and off of me like the gentlest ocean wave, barely enough to be noticeable as it pushes against me. The unsettled Omega part of me has no intention of listening to an Alpha barely worthy of the name.
I bare my teeth, feeling both deadly focused and entirely feral.
I know I stand no chance of really hurting, much less killing him.
But that won’t stop me from trying.
I try to claw my way out of Logan’s grip, but he easily blocks my attempts to strike him.
He is frustratingly careful, in fact, blocking each attack while barely exerting himself.
The more I struggle, the more my post-heat exhaustion catches up with me, my muscles trembling with the effort it takes not just to give in to him.
“Maya, stop,” Logan says, ducking another wild swing. “I know you’re upset?—“
“Upset?” I spit the word like venom. “You took advantage of me during my heat! You forced a bond!”
His face darkens. “I did not force anything. We have a mating contract.”
“That contract is almost as big of a joke as you are.” I kick his shin hard enough to make my toes ache. Logan winces but doesn’t retaliate, just continues his infuriating defensive maneuvers.
My lungs burn with exertion. My limbs grow heavier with each passing second. The room spins slightly, but I refuse to give in. I would rather he just kill me now than ever be forced to give in to him again.
Logan finally seems to realize I won’t stop.
I’m crying now, hot angry tears streaming down my face as I continue fighting against his hold.
The perverted mating bond pulses between us, a horrifying reminder of what can never be undone.
I can feel his emotions bleeding into mine—confusion, frustration, and something that feels disgustingly like pride.
“This is ridiculous,” he mutters, then raises his voice. “Cillian, I need you in here. Now, preferably.”
A door that I thought was for a closet bursts open almost immediately. Cillian stands in the opening, pale hair disheveled, ice-blue eyes taking in the scene with a quick, assessing glance. His expression hardens when he sees me struggling against Logan.
“Let her go,” Cillian demands, voice low and dangerous.
“Not while she’s trying to claw my eyes out,” Logan retorts, still holding my wrists. “Help me calm her down before she hurts herself.”
Cillian hesitates, conflict evident in the tight set of his jaw. I can see the weight of the calculation in his gaze—his duty to his prince warring with whatever urge is being produced by our forced bond.
“Please,” Logan adds, something almost like desperation in his voice.
With obvious reluctance, Cillian approaches and I renew my struggles. Despite the inevitability of it, betrayal still burns in my chest at the sight of him siding with Logan.
“Maya,” Cillian says softly, stepping closer. “I need you to relax.”
Something in his tone—gentle but firm, concerned rather than commanding—reaches past my rage.
It’s enough to make me hesitate for a split-second as I yank against Logan’s iron grip on my wrists.
But the moment, Logan tries to drag me back against his chest, I’m spitting and hissing like a pit viper.
“ Enough ,” Cillian snaps.
My body responds to him instantly, the fight draining out of me so suddenly that my knees buckle. Logan releases my wrists in surprise as I collapse backward.
Cillian catches me, his arms wrapping securely around my trembling form. I sink against his chest, breathing in his calming scent, my fingers clutching weakly at his shirt.
“I’ve got you,” he murmurs.
For a split second, I actually want to believe him.
“What the hell was that?” Logan demands, looking more surprised than angry. “Why did she obey your command and not mine?”
I feel Cillian’s chest vibrate with dark laughter before I hear it. The sound rumbles against my back. Despite everything, I find myself leaning into the solidness of his form. His arms tighten around me, the grip not possessive like Logan’s, but as if he can’t quite help himself.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the black amusement I feel rising up is an echo of Cillian’s emotions and has absolutely nothing to do with me. This is all about whatever fucked up thing is happening between these two men.
“You really don’t understand what you’ve done, do you?” Cillian’s voice carries a dangerous edge I’ve never heard before. Gone is the dutiful guard, replaced by something far more primal.
Logan’s golden eyes narrow. “Explain it, then.”
“The primary bond is between Maya and me.” Cillian’s words fall like stones into still water, creating ripples of tension throughout the room. “Your bond with her is inherently subordinate, superficial. It isn’t strong enough for your commands to work on her.”
“That’s not possible,” Logan snaps, but uncertainty flickers across his face.
“Isn’t it?” Cillian’s lips curl into a mocking smile.
“Only you would think you could alter the basic laws of nature through sheer force of will. Your clever little scheme doesn’t change our biology, Logan.
You already have an Omega—me. Whether you want it or not, whether you like it or not, our bond formed first. No Alpha can claim multiple Omegas, not while they’re all alive, at least.” The smugness radiating from him through the bond is almost enough to pierce the dark shadows of my despair and impotent rage.
Cillian sounds like he has waited his complete life to deliver to Logan the emotional blow he deserves.
“Without me, you have nothing. Your connection to her only exists because I’ve formed a link in the chain between you. ”
I feel my breath catch. The implication settles over me like a warm blanket. I twist slightly to look up at Cillian, searching his face for any sign he’s bluffing. His ice-blue eyes meet mine, and I see nothing but cold certainty there.
“That’s ridiculous,” Logan snarls, but there’s a note of doubt in his voice that wasn’t there before. “I claimed her. I feel the bond.”
Cillian’s grin is malicious. “Through me.”
I let out of snort of hysterical laughter, even though no single bit of this is funny.
It isn’t my amusement, not really.
Logan’s rage is a paler thing, though I sense how it overtakes the satisfaction he felt upon waking.
Cillian might be right that he forms an emotional border between us, but it’s more of a hastily constructed fence than a solid wall.
Logan still has a way of seeping in, even if he can’t reach me completely.
Cillian traces a gentle pattern against my arm, and I find myself leaning into him before I realize I’m doing it. “Try giving her another command. See what happens.”
Logan’s jaw tightens with a surge of disquiet through the bond, but the Alpha in him won’t allow for backing down from a challenge. His voice is a low growl. “Maya, come here.”
I hear the words, but they’re muted and distant, as if someone is shouting them from the bottom of a well.
And I stay exactly where I am, pressed against Cillian’s chest.
Cillian whispers against my ear, his voice barely audible. “G et off the bed .”
His hands slip away as I scramble off the bed. My feet have barely hit the plush carpet when I’m whipping back around with an angry snarl of my own.
“Don’t do that again!”
“Sorry, you’re right. I promise, I won’t.” Cillian holds up both hands in a placating gesture, seeming genuinely apologetic. When his gaze returns to Logan, his expression is pure challenge. “But I needed to make a point.”