Violet
When I opened my eyes, the world was a sea of masculine colored blurs and the scents of chai, coffee and cinnamon wrapped around me like a weighted blanket.
Lava pooled low in my stomach as I squinted, looking side to side to fully take in my predicament.
“Here, munequita,” Benji purred before grabbing my glasses off the night stand and nudging them onto my nose.
Adjusting them, I blinked as the world came into view.
My head was still nestled on Vinny’s uninjured arm, his skin warm beneath my cheek. Lifting my head, I looked around, trying to ignore the strand of drool connecting us.
Benji was on the other side of me, hair a mess, shirt off. His body wasn’t rock hard like Vinny’s, or covered in tattoos like Skye’s. Instead he was soft and his honey-toned skin was dusted with coarse golden hair.
He caught me staring and lifted a brow, mouth twitching like he was fighting a smile.
“What?” he asked quietly.
I shook my head, suddenly aware of how tightly wedged between the two of them. Not only that, but Benji’s cock throbbed as it pushed into my thigh, and Vinny’s erection had turned the thin sanguine sheet into a miniature tent.
The heat in my stomach rose to my chest as I tried to tug at the collar of my dress. I was in danger, but also exactly where I wanted to be.
“Careful,” Benji hummed before lacing my fingers in his. “That dress is my favorite, don’t wrinkle it.”
My pulse kicked up as my lips parted and I signed, why are you here?
He’d talked about how our shower this morning put him behind schedule. That’s why he needed me to pick out Vinny’s clothes.
He tilted his head. “Because I missed my beautiful little omega, silly.”
Benji put his hand on my shoulder and rolled me to face him before dragging his nose across mine.
“And, when I checked on you, you looked good enough to eat.” Benji’s tone was sweet but his expression was dark. One of his hands dropped to my stomach. “It’s just so hard to resist a pregnant omega.”
He inched in closer, intoxicating me with his chai scent. For a second, I forgot how to breathe.
“Your body’s working so hard,” Benji murmured. “All to grow our pack. You don’t even know how intoxicating that is.”
His thumb traced a slow, reverent circle just beneath my ribs, and my knees pressed together. Was it possible to melt? I felt like I was going to melt.
“All of my beta instincts say to take care of you,” he went on softly. “Feed you. Hold you. Make you feel wanted.” His teeth grazed my ear. “Make you feel how precious you are to us.”
My pulse thundered.
“You’re doing something incredible,” Benji whispered. “And it makes you devastatingly beautiful.”
I shivered.
“Benji,” Vinny’s voice cut in. “Easy.”
I groaned as all of the budding momentum was sucked out of the room.
I’d nearly forgotten he was here, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
Vinny still acted like he owned me, like he could dictate what I ate and pick me up whenever he wanted.
But… he protected me from the Stellar men yesterday, and I liked how he smelled, and when I didn’t want to see someone die, Vinny chose to be kind for me.
Well, maybe not kind, but he didn’t kill anyone, which seemed hard for him.
Benji smiled against my skin.
“I’m being easy,” he said softly. “I’m just talking.”
Vinny shifted beneath me.
“Talk’s fine,” he said. “But she decides what happens next.”
He spoke like he meant it, and I wanted to believe he did, but my memories of Logan were too fresh, and he and Vinny were so similar.
At least, they were on a surface level.
So I did the petty thing and leaned into Benji.
Not because I trusted him more or because I needed him, even if I did. But because Vinny was watching, because his voice still carried that edge of authority even when he wasn't intending on using it, and because spite had always been one of my more reliable coping mechanisms.
Benji inhaled softly as his arm wrapped around me.
“There you go,” Benji murmured. “On your terms.”
Vinny stiffened behind me.
“So, you’re going to fuck him in my bed?” Vinny said, annoyed.
I looked over my shoulder and started to nod, then an idea dawned.
Sitting up, I turned my full attention to Vinny before signing, watch us.
It wasn’t that I wanted to venture into some voyeuristic day dream, but I wanted Vinny to snap.
Well, maybe want was too strong of a word.
I needed to prove that he was just like Logan. That when push came to shove, he’d take what he wanted. I needed concrete proof that Vinny was bad, because after yesterday, I was starting to fall for him.
And while that felt logical—between the pack, the babies, the safety—I couldn’t risk being trapped, or hurt, or owned by an alpha who would eventually decide my no didn’t matter.
If I just pushed him enough, he’d snap, that’s all I had to do.
“Sweetheart, I don’t give a single fuck if you call the rest of the pack in here for a morning orgy and kick me out, but, I’m not watching you fuck my beta in my bed,” Vinny growled.
I swallowed hard and licked my lips.
“Pl…ea…se.” The word scratched like sandpaper on its way out and I kicked myself for ever going silent.
Vinny didn’t move.
Didn’t grab me. Didn’t growl. Didn’t pin me down or surge forward or do any of the things my body had braced itself for.
Instead, he slowly exhaled, rolled his eyes, and carefully shifted so his injured shoulder wasn’t jostled. One hand came up, not to touch me, but to brace against the headboard behind my shoulder, giving me space even as his presence loomed.
“Fine,” he said flatly.
He looked unimpressed and I wondered if he thought I wouldn’t follow through. But I would. I was going to follow through so hard.
Benji's hand slipped up my dress, inching up my thigh before he rolled me over.
I gasped as my back hit the sheets. Benji hovered above me, gaze molten as he dragged his fingers along the sensitive crease where thigh met hip.
I should have been focused on Benji, but from the corner of my eye, I watched Vinny. He didn’t move, just watched us looking completely unimpressed.
Whatever.
I was having sex and he wasn’t.
“I’ve got you,” Benji whispered, his lips ghosting over mine as his hand slid under the hem of my dress, rough fingertips teasing the edge of my thigh.
I was soaked already, damn it, and they both knew it. But only one of them seemed to care. Which was good? Or bad? I wasn’t sure.
But now I wanted Vinny to pay attention to me.
Benji kissed me as his hand slid higher, and I groaned into his mouth when his fingers brushed the damp seam of my panties.
Vinny still didn’t seem to care, and now he was checking his nails.
“Violet, if you want him, just say so, you have two holes,” Benji joked.
And I glared.
He wants me, I signed.
Benji’s eyes flicked to Vinny’s. “That true?”
Vinny didn’t even look up at first. Just stretched his neck like he was bored out of his skull. Then, I saw the twitch in his jaw.
“She’s not wrong,” Vinny said eventually. “But wanting her doesn’t mean I’m playing this game.”
I narrowed my eyes and signed, It’s not a game.
“It is, and that’s fine,” Vinny yawned. “I want you happy, but I’m not letting a pint sized omega boss me around.”
I huffed, chest rising fast beneath Benji’s hands. I wanted to scream. To shove Vinny against the headboard and force him to see me. To touch me. To feel how much I was shaking. I wanted him to want those things as badly as I did.
But he was an old dinosaur who couldn’t be aroused, that or he knew I was just doing this to see how he’d react.
You don’t want me. I signed.
Vinny’s eyes snapped to mine. The look he gave me was cold enough to make me shiver.
“I didn’t say that,” he said.
You don’t like me. I continued. You want to control me. You want to own me. But you don’t want me.
My hands shook as I signed, and I hated it. Hated how my chest felt too tight and how the lump in my throat made it hard to breathe.
Benji’s hand stilled on my thigh, but he didn’t interrupt.
“You think I don’t want you?” Vinny asked quietly. “You think I force myself to sleep far away from you because I don’t want you?”
My hands moved before I could think. Yes. I think you’re mad I’m here, and that the rest of the pack likes me. I think you hate that I don’t give you what you want and that it’s me carrying your baby. I think you don’t–
His lips crashed onto mine, sending me deeper into the pillows than I thought possible.
I gasped against him and my heart slammed against my ribs. The kiss was messy and rough and warm, and unlike anything I’d experienced before. His hand fisted in the sheets beside my head, and I could feel him holding himself back even as he poured everything into that kiss.
My hands trembled between our bodies, caught between grabbing him and pushing him away. But I couldn’t find the strength to do either.
His mouth tore from mine, breath ragged as he stared down at me. His pupils were blown, and his scent, Gods, his scent, cinnamon and coffee, and heat, and unadulterated alpha musk.
“I don’t think you’ve ever had a fucking gentleman in your life,” he growled. “You’ve told me not to mark you, what do you expect?”
The words hit like an open palm to the face, leaving me to stare up at him. Logan marked me without consent. Logan fucked me without consent. Logan married me without consent.
My lips tingled with the echo of his kiss. I wanted to say everything, that I didn’t know how to be wanted without being taken, that my last alpha didn’t care either way. But, that would result in me taking off my ring and admitting that I was the missing Stellar omega.
And, I didn’t see that going well.
My hands hovered uselessly between us, fingers curling and uncurling as they searched for a language that didn’t exist. Fear slid sideways in my chest, changing shape, mutating into something worse.
It wasn’t just fear of being owned by Vinny anymore.
It was the fear of letting him in, of opening myself up, only to be discarded when I stopped being convenient.