Chapter 27 Lena
"You can do this," Silas said, locking eyes with me as I hesitated outside the basement door.
Knox stood beside him, shoulder against the wall, arms crossed, giving me space but never drifting far. He didn’t rush me. He never did.
It had taken me a week to get to this point, just opening the basement door.
I’d heard them down there. Not just voices or questions, but screams. They carried through the vents, dulled by distance but impossible to ignore.
The first time I heard Marco scream, I froze halfway down the hall, every instinct telling me to run, to shut it out, to ignore what was happening beneath my feet.
I pressed my hands over my ears and forced myself to keep walking.
The next time, I didn’t.
I slowed, listening.
And eventually… I lingered, ear pressed to the basement door.
Marco no longer sounded controlled, untouchable, or prideful. His voice broke, stripped of everything that had once made him feel larger than me. The man who had hurt me so easily, so completely, didn’t sound like himself anymore.
He sounded weak.
And it did something to me.
In some twisted way, a quiet, creeping sense of balance was being restored. He had taken so much from me, carved pieces out, leaving me jagged and raw. And now he was the one being carved into, piece by piece, his control stripped away the same way mine had been.
As far as Silas and Knox went, both men seemed lighter since Marco took up residence in their workshop.
Not just in the way they moved, but in their emotions too, like something that had been coiled tight inside them had finally found somewhere else to go.
As if knowing he was downstairs, bound and bleeding and paying for everything he'd taken from them, had loosened something inside them.
Maybe, like Knox said, if I finally worked up the courage to join them, it would loosen something for me too.
"Remember what I taught you," Silas continued, his voice steady and grounding. "We’ll work together."
"Just no screwdrivers, okay? Command wants more intel before…" Knox’s voice trailed off into a low chuckle.
I gave him a flat look. "You guys are never going to let me live down the screwdriver thing, are you?"
"Nope," Silas said, a slow smirk pulling at his mouth.
Despite myself, a quiet breath of laughter slipped free. The tension in my chest eased just enough to make my anxiety manageable.
Silas and Knox had gotten good at that, pulling me out of my head with easy teasing and giving me something lighter to hold on to when everything else felt too heavy. It almost seemed like the two of them were competing to see who could draw more reactions from me. More laughter. More smiles.
Their presence comforted me in a way nothing else could. Their alpha scents steadied me. Knowing they would be at my side when I walked into that basement, when I faced the monster waiting below, was the only thing that kept me calm.
It also helped that Dr. Hampton had spent weeks preparing me for this.
At first, our therapy sessions had been daily, long, and exhausting.
She guided me through the fractures in my thinking, the places where fear still controlled my reactions, where instinct told me to shut down, to disappear, and to survive instead of act.
We started with grounding techniques, learning how to pull myself back into the present when memories tried to drag me under.
Breathing patterns. Sensory anchors. Small, controlled exposures that forced me to stay put instead of retreating.
Our sessions slowly shifted from survival to control. From reacting… to choosing.
Now we met once a week instead of every day. And for the first time, I wasn’t just getting through each session. I was actually enjoying them.
I felt stronger.
Certainly, not unbreakable or fearless.
But less hollow... more like myself.
I glanced between Silas and Knox, breathing in their alpha scents and pulling at our bond to settle my nerves.
"I’ve got this," I said quietly, taking the first step down the basement steps. And then another.
"Don’t let him see anything but your strength," Silas whispered as I reached the final step. "He doesn't deserve it."
I took a slow breath, keeping my eyes fixed on the floor as I stepped into the room. For a moment, I focused only on the ground beneath my feet and the steady rhythm of my breathing.
Then a weak cough, followed by a wheezing laugh, pulled my attention upward.
I lifted my gaze slowly, taking him in, piece by piece.
Bare feet first, blood gathered thick at the nail beds where the nail had been torn away. My eyes moved up his legs, over bruised and mottled skin, to his toned torso, slick with sweat and streaked with drying blood. And finally, his face.
Still beautiful.
A wicked smile carved into it.
But his eyes…
They weren’t the same.
Not like I remembered.
There was something unfamiliar there. Something hiding beneath his false confidence, betraying him.
Fear.
Not just of Silas. Not just of Knox.
Of me.
"My Lena," he breathed.
"I’m here, Marco," I said, studying him from a distance.
Silas moved past me without a word, stopping at the workbench as he began selecting tool and laying them out across a silver tray. Metal clinked softly against metal.
Marco didn’t even glance in his direction, completely uninterested in what was in store for him. Instead, his eyes stayed locked on me, unblinking.
Knox hovered nearby. I could feel him reach through the bond, a quiet pull, making sure I was still anchored.
"I knew you’d come," Marco said, his voice breaking into a wheezing cough that twisted into laughter.
"Of course I came."
"Because you belong to me." As he spoke, his smile stretched wider. Unhinged. "You’re mine, Lena. You always will be. Even after I’m gone. I made you."
A low warning growl rumbled from Silas, but I shot him a look, steady and certain.
I’ve got this.
"Maybe you’re right about one thing, Marco," I said, taking a step closer. "Maybe you did make me. The version of me that hid in the dark. Too afraid to speak. Too afraid to be touched. Too weak to fight back."
His eyes lit up, something hungry flickering behind them, his smile carving deeper into his face.
"Maybe you made them too, when you killed their mother," I continued, motioning to my alphas. "They became violent, angry men, hellbent on revenge. Who knows who Silas and Knox would have been without you."
I felt Knox shift behind me, but I didn’t look back.
"But do you know what else is true?"
I closed the distance between us, leaning in just enough to wrinkle my nose at the stench rolling off him. Sandalwood, buried beneath sour sweat, blood, and piss.
"We rebuilt each other," I said quietly. "We made each other strong."
My gaze held his, unflinching.
"We overcame what you tried to make us. And we belong to each other, no one else. Certainly not you."
I let the words echo, watching surprise flicker in his eyes.
"And now," I added, more coldly, "we’re going to erase you so completely…"
I leaned in just a fraction closer, my whisper low in his ear.
"…that there won’t be anything left of you to haunt us."
His face twisted, whatever cool control he had left slipped, as rage broke free. "You are all nothing! Without me, none of you would be anything. I made you. I broke you! I am everything! You are nothing."
His outburst only solidified my resolve.
Marco wasn’t a monster.
Sure, what he did to me was monstrous...
But the man himself?
Pathetic.
A sniveling, frightened brat. Too greedy to stop taking. Too spoiled to accept denial.
I laughed, letting my amusement cut through his rant as I tuned him out completely. Turning my back on him, I walked toward Silas at the workbench, my eyes scanning each neatly arranged tool.
"Anything you want, little mute?" Silas asked, pressing a brief kiss to the top of my head.
"Yeah," I said, pointing to a curved paring knife hanging from the cork backing. "That one."
"Good choice," Silas replied, his brows lifting with quiet approval, a hint of pride in his smile.
"Oh, there's something I forgot to tell you both. I figure now would be a good time…" I said, trailing off as Knox and Silas turned to me. Marco finally quieted, realizing his tantrum was not affecting me at all.
"When Marco kidnapped me, he threatened me. Something along the lines of... tying you both up, and then fucking me in front of you. Oh, and then he mentioned killing you both and fucking me again next to your corpses."
Neither of my alphas looked pleased.
A low growl filled the room, and I watched Knox’s hand curl into a tight fist before it drove forward, slamming into Marco’s face. Bone cracked on impact, his head snapping back as blood spilled from a nose that had already been broken several times.
"I thought it would be fitting…" I started, my voice trailing as my confidence wavered for a split second.
Silas stepped closer, his attention sharpening, dark satisfaction flickering in his expression. "You want to finish what we started earlier in the workshop, Lena? In front of him. Before we kill him?"
I nodded.
"I want the last thing he sees to be the men I chose," I said, my voice steadying as I held Marco’s gaze. "The ones I gave myself to freely. I want him to watch it. To understand it. And I want him to die knowing exactly what a failure he is."
Marco went pale.
He sat in the center of the room, completely exposed, whatever control he had clung to stripped away, leaving nothing behind but the hollow outline of a man who was finally realizing he had lost.
"Done," Silas said as he lifted me easily by the waist and set me back onto the workbench.
Knox leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, watching us both, his gaze moving between his brother and me.
"Remember what I told you," Silas murmured, his voice low against my ear. "Anything you ask for, I’ll give it to you."
His fingers hooked into the waistband of my pants, dragging the zipper down before pulling them from my legs in one smooth motion. I started to lift my shirt over my head, but he clicked his tongue in quiet disapproval.
"No, little mute. Your body is for our eyes only."
His hand slid between my thighs, shifting my underwear aside before he pushed into me in one swift motion.
The sensation hit all at once, full and overwhelming, pulling a loud, unrestrained cry from my chest. Silas didn’t try to quiet me or cover my mouth.
If anything, he seemed to welcome my screams, driving into me harder, faster, as if chasing the sound, pushing for me to become louder and more desperate.
My body reacted without thought, gripping, arching, and unraveling under the feeling of his cock stretching me, as everything blurred together into pure sensation.
Over Silas' shoulder, I caught movement.
Knox noticed that Marco wasn’t watching.
In a few quick steps, he crossed the room, grabbing Marco by the jaw and forcing his head up. His voice was calm, but the threat in it was unmistakable.
"Watch," he said, "Or I’ll cut your eyelids off."
Marco’s eyes snapped back to us and this time they stayed there, wide and fixed, unable to look away.
After that, everything seemed to collapse into a haze of motion and feeling, time slipping out of reach as one moment bled into the next. I lost track of how many times I came apart, of where one brother ended and the next began, of anything beyond the overwhelming pull of desire for these men.
At some point, Silas stepped back and Knox took his place. While his knot stayed locked in my core, my forehead pressed against his as our breathing tangled together, my hands bracing against him.
And in that moment, despite where we were and what surrounded us, I felt it deep in my chest.
For the first time in a long time, I felt truly and fully safe.
His hand came up, firm at the back of my neck, not forcing, just anchoring me.
"Look at me," Knox murmured.
I did.
His eyes searched mine, not for weakness, not for cracks, but for strength.
"You did exactly what you needed to do," he said quietly. "You didn’t break. You didn’t hide. You faced him."
His thumb brushed along my jaw.
"I’m proud of you, Lena."
His words hit harder than anything Marco had ever said to tear me down. I was becoming addicted to their praise. Every kind word washed away another piece of Marco’s cruelty.
"I’m ready," I whispered, my voice softer now but certain. "I’m ready to be done with this."
Knox didn’t look away.
"Done with him," I continued, holding his gaze. "Done with what he did to me. I don’t want him living in my head anymore."
My hand rested against his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart.
"I only want you. You and Silas. You’re the only ones who get to stay in here," I said as I tapped my temple.
Knox's expression hardened, eyes filling with resolve.
"Then we finish it," he said.
Behind him, Marco made a broken sound, but it didn’t pull my attention.
For the first time, I didn't care about him at all.
Because I wasn’t his.
I never was.