Chapter Twenty-Four
Sage
The cold bites at my bare feet as I run, but I hardly feel it. Not with the way my body's still burning.
Every step I take, I feel him. Asher. The stretch he left behind.
That aching fullness now turned into a hollow pulse, begging to be filled again.
And the worst part—or the best part—is that I know they're coming.
Both of them. One strategic, controlled, and inevitable.
The other fast, reckless, and unrelenting.
The thrill hums in my blood like static.
I dart between trees, branches brushing my arms, the smell of pine and damp moss all around me. My heart hammers in my chest. Not from fear. Not this time. This isn't like the running I've done before—away from pain, away from Darius, away from everything I couldn't face.
This time I run toward it—toward surrender.
Because I want to be caught. A predator's game, but I'm not just prey. I'm the willing prize.
The hem of my skirt flutters with every step. I know they'll scent me in the air. I can feel the tingling warmth between my thighs—evidence of what they did to me in the car and what they haven't finished yet.
I glance back for a split second and don't see them, but I feel them. They're close.
The ground is soft beneath my feet, the forest floor blanketed in leaves and needles. I push harder, my breath sharp now, chest heaving. My hair catches on the wind, whipping around me. A part of me hopes they let me run longer. Another part hopes they don't.
Then I hear it. The snap of a branch.
A low curse.
A rustle too loud to be the wind.
They're behind me.
Close now.
I can't stop the smile curling across my lips, because this is what it means to be alive—to be hunted by the only ones I'd ever let catch me.
I veer left, down a narrow path, slippery with old leaves, and laugh, sharp, breathless. The forest blurs around me, greens, grays, the flicker of fading sunlight through the canopy overhead.
I'm flying, weightless, legs carrying me faster than I thought I could go, barefoot.
A sharp turn. A breathless laugh. And then—
I nearly slam into him.
"Asher—!"
He steps out from behind a tree as if he's materialized from shadow, solid and still. I skid to a halt with a startled gasp. His hands catch me by the waist in that unshakable grip.
"Caught you," he murmurs, voice low and infuriatingly calm.
Before I can react, before I can shove him, kiss him, or dart away again, another set of arms wraps around me from behind.
"Oh, hell no. She's mine," Kayden growls into my ear as he yanks me backward with a wicked laugh, his body pressing flush against mine.
I yelp and try to twist, but it's no use. I'm sandwiched between them—Asher in front, Kayden at my back. Both are solid heat and tension. Their arms move fast, playful but firm, pinning me lightly as I squirm between them like a trapped fox.
"You set a challenge, sunshine. Did you really think you'd win?" Kayden breathes against the back of my neck, his grip tightening just enough to make my breath hitch.
"You're fast," Asher says, his hands roaming down my hips, pinning me in place as I writhe half-heartedly, "but not that fast."
I huff, breathless with laughter and arousal. "It was worth a try."
"You like being chased," Kayden says, voice all sin and shadow behind me.
Asher leans in, lips brushing the shell of my ear. "But you love being caught."
I shudder. They feel everything—every tremble, every throb of heat low in my belly. I'm not hiding any of it. I don't want to.
"What now?" I ask, the question slipping out on a breath that's already turning into a moan.
Asher's eyes glint. Kayden's teeth scrape lightly against my shoulder.
Then—
The bark digs into my palms as they shove me up against the tree, the moss-damp trunk cool against my front, a shocking contrast to the heat rising between my legs. The woods are quiet except for the rustle of breath, the shiver of wind, and the deep, low growls of want behind me.
"I caught you," Asher says again, voice sharper now. "And that means I get to go first."
Before I can say a word, my skirt is yanked up again and bunched around my hips. He pulls down my leggings along with my panties, leaving me bare before him. Cold air ghosts over my skin, but it doesn't last. His body presses behind me, hard and ready.
Kayden steps in close too, his hand gripping my jaw to turn my face just enough. "You're flushed already," he murmurs, eyes devouring me. "But that's nothing compared to what's coming."
There's the sound of a cap snapping open. Asher lubes his fingers again. I arch my back instinctively, spreading for him, offering my ass. The lube is cold, but his fingers are efficient. He knows this path now. My body remembers him and that insistent, impossible stretch. That burn.
"That's it," he says, low and approving as I push back against him. "You're ready."
The head of his cock replaces his fingers, hot and slick, already pressing. My breath catches on impact—he's not teasing this time. He slides in slow but firm, holding my hips steady as he breaches my back entrance again.
"Oh… fuck," I gasp, forehead pressed to the bark, body stretching around him.
"You can take it. You did it before, and you will in the future," he grits out behind me, thrusting deeper until I feel the full length of him seated tight inside me.
My knees nearly buckle, but he holds me steady, one hand gripping my hip, the other sliding up my back, pinning me in place. His pace is slow at first, allowing me to adjust. Then it gradually grows relentless, thrusts deep and punishing, angled to claim, not coax.
Kayden watches from the side, one hand stroking himself slowly, his eyes black with want. "She's so loud when you fuck her ass like that," he growls.
I don't care. I can't care. All I can do is hold on, take it, cry out with each thrust as Asher drives into me like the forest itself might burn down if he stops.
My hands claw the bark. My body melts and tightens in waves, the cold forgotten. I'm fire caught between two predators, and I never want to be free.
Asher's hand moves between my thighs, fingers deliberate, knowing. Not just touching, but understanding the way I'm unraveling. It's maddening, how focused he is. How even after everything, he holds the reins.
Each time his fingers slide over my clit, I jolt, already too sensitive, so close to that edge again.
"Hold still," he murmurs, voice calm, low, cutting through the wind like it obeys him too.
I try. Gods, I try.
But his cock is buried in me, thick and hard, stretching me wide. Every breath draws in that burn, that delicious stretch that I should be used to by now but still makes me ache. It's too much. It's not enough.
And then he does it—just the right pressure, just the right rhythm—and the world buckles. I cry out, a helpless sound, clawing at the bark, my body pulsing around him in desperate waves.
Asher groans softly, one hand gripping my hip as I come, the other still moving over me, drawing every last tremor out of my limbs.
Then his control cracks.
He thrusts once. Twice. Deep and grinding, the tension in his body coiled to its breaking point. His breath stills, and then his release hits him. I feel it. Every shudder, every tremor, every low grunt against my ear as he buries himself inside me.
It makes me moan again, softer this time.
He stays there, chest against my back, breath hot in the crook of my neck. Then, carefully, slowly, he eases out of me. I gasp at the shift, the sudden emptiness, the wet slide of him leaving my body.
"Still with us?" he asks, brushing my spine with his palm.
I nod, not trusting my voice.
I feel wrecked, but something primal still lingers in the air, like the hunt isn't over. And I can feel it—the other presence.
Kayden is watching. Waiting for his turn.
I'm still catching my breath, knees trembling, hands braced on the tree bark slick with mist and sweat, when I feel Kayden step behind me.
He doesn't say anything at first, just presses forward, his presence wrapping around me like smoke and shadow, his hand smoothing over my hip.
"Asher always plays it cool," he murmurs, voice husky, wicked at the edge, "but I know you, sunshine. I can feel how badly you need more."
I whimper, but it's not a protest. I can't refuse. Not when I'm this wet, this open and deliciously wrecked.
His fingers slide through the mess between my thighs, where I'm slick and ready. His low groan is almost a growl. "Gods, you're dripping."
And then he's there—thick, hard, pressing right at my entrance.
No teasing or waiting, just the hot, blunt push of his cock slipping into my pussy with maddening ease. My body stretches to take him.
Kayden isn't gentle. He doesn't try to be. He slams into me hard enough to rock me forward against the tree, one arm wrapping around my waist to yank me back onto him again. My hands scramble for purchase on the bark, my moan cut off by the sheer force of him filling me.
"Fuck, yes," he hisses behind me. "You were made for this. Taking both of us. Stretched and ruined and still begging for more."
And I am. At least in this moment, I am completely theirs.
My body answers before my mind can, arching, clenching around him, chasing the edge he's driving me toward with brutal efficiency.
He fucks me with full force. Each thrust punches a cry from my lips, each shift of his hips sending jolts of unbearable pleasure straight through me. My skin is fever-hot despite the chill, my legs shaking as he holds me up.
And when his fingers slide down to find my clit, rubbing fast, relentless, I splinter. Another orgasm hits—raw, violent, blinding—and I cry out, the sound stolen by the wind in the trees. My knees almost give, but Kayden doesn't let me fall.
He keeps thrusting through it, riding my climax until his own catches up to him. And when it does, it's fierce. His whole body tenses as he buries himself deep, coming with a grunt that's more animal than man.
Then he rests there, forehead on my shoulder, his breath ragged and warm. We stay like that, tangled and panting, the cold forest forgotten. My body is aching, spent, but more alive than it's ever been.
For once, I don't want to run. And that's the scariest thought right now—I really don't want to run away from them.