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“Devin…”
“Shut up, Beau!” Climbing on top of the massive Alpha who was her mate no matter what happened at the end of all of this, Devin pinned him with the shimmering blue of her gaze as she relaxed the painful hold upon the bond. Refusing to give him the space to breathe, to collect his thoughts, much as he often did to her. Leaning over, she poked her fingernail deep into the hardness of his sternum. “You’re going to listen to me, or by the Gods, I will make you regret ever laying eyes on me.”
Beau rocked back, sliding further from the pair. Avoiding looking at either of them as if in preparation for an all-out war. He wasn’t wrong. Not as Rey bared his teeth again, the heavy thunder of his growl resonating through the thick air.
“You’re killing me, Rey,” she whispered, relenting as she slapped his hand against the well-defined hills and valleys of her rib cage. Shoved his touch to the protruding shelf of her hip. “I’m literally wasting away in this hell you’re building all around me, and I can’t. I just can’t do it anymore. No amount of your purring and trying to destroy me under your will can change that.”
“I’m not like them. I never have been,” she continued in a voice gone wet and swollen with emotions far beyond mere sadness. “It doesn’t matter how many children you think you can rip from this withering body. It will never be enough. Do you understand me? It’s not going to fix a damned thing.”
“You’re wrong,” Rey rasped, though the deep brown of his eyes darkened to near black with the shadow of his troubled thoughts. “All Omegas want children. They need them.”
“Not me! I know they would be beautiful and wonderful with you, but they will never make me whole. I’m not like other Omegas. Ineeda purpose beyond that, to feel useful and… and that’s just not enough.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do, Daniel,” Devin sobbed, and leaned down to press her forehead against his chest, swearing she could see the bond crumbling to dust between her fingers. The sensation of being hollow was returning, scraping through her chest to be rid of every vestige of the glorious warmth and comfort he always gave to her, even when she didn’t want it. Even when she hated him for it.
“Get out, Beau.” Rey’s arms curled around her, pinning Devin to him so she couldn’t think of escape.
“Don’t you send him away,” Devin said, words a smeared wreck of syllables as she cried at the inevitable loss of Rey. All the anger and frustration melted away, leaving her with a profound emotion full of the sweet and tender moments too close to her heart. “He’s going to be the only thing to put you back together. Don’t make him go.”
Beau’s hand trembled as it slid over Devin’s back. When she turned her face to see him, his focus so tight on every twitch and shift of Rey’s body, he jumped when Devin took his hand and placed it on Rey’s shoulder. Surprising them both, enough that Rey’s hold loosened. Leaving her a path of escape that she took at once, scrambling down the length of the bed to huddle against the footboard.
“Get back here, Devin,” Rey shouted, curling his bulky frame up to make a grab for her.
“For fuck’s sake!” Beau snarled, one arm wrapping around Devin and hauling her towards him, the other shoving Rey flat.
Wedged between the two men, Devin roared. Giving voice to her rage as Beau pushed and shoved her into a subservient position with head bowed and pressed flush against Rey’s chest. Beau covered her back, crushing her between them.
“Both of you listen to me,” Beau snarled, fisting Rey’s hair to bring narrowed chestnut eyes to meet his. “You’re being an idiot. She’s asking for some space, that’s it. I don’t give a fuck what’s expected of a mated Alpha. You blew that to shit whenyoulet hermarkyou.”
“And you,” he hissed, wrenching Devin’s head back on her neck, making her whine in pain. “Stop doing whatever it is you’re doing. You’re going to kill him with that shit and freaking him out isn’t getting you any closer to what you want. So be a good little bitch and stop using itagainsthim.”
With that, Beau launched off the bed, pacing the length of the room and shoving both hands through his golden locks. After making it stand on end, he turned back to the bed, the icy blue of his eyes alight as he looked down his nose at them. “I’m not the Gods’ damned voice of reason here! Get your shit together, or I’m fucking you both senseless and keeping you that way.”
She couldn’t stop it. It shoved its way up through her sinuses, the loud snort deteriorating into a mad cackle she tried to muffle behind both hands. Shoulders quivering, she shook her head as tears seeped from the corner of her eyes, trickling down her cheeks. She must have gone completely insane for that to be her first response. It was just so ludicrous, all the tension imploded, leaving her laughing so hard she snorted more than once.
“You broke her,” Rey said with an uneasy scoff, tugging Devin against him. Not to manhandle and molest, but at his side, arm a loose cage around her as his fingers skimmed over her thigh.
“V-voice of reason!” Devin dissolved into a gasping fit of laughter at the very idea. Beau could never be the sensible one. He was violence and action, always reacting without thinking as it seemed to her. Especially when it came to her.
“So, it’s option two then?” Beau’s lips spread wide in a smile that showed too many teeth. He ripped away his rumpled shirt, sending buttons flying in every direction as he crawled up onto the foot of the bed.
Chapter Twelve
Devin’s laughter dissolved into giggles, then faded all together. She gasped as Beau came nearer, her heels digging into the twisted sheets to shuffle up the bed until her back slapped the headboard.
“Beau, enough.”
“She’s fine.”
She supposed he meant to be sensuous, displaying his body to her, the play of muscles as he made his way towards her in a slow crawl. It took him an age to reach even her feet where Rey’s hand clamped down onto Beau’s shoulder to stop him. Glancing at her mate, she noted one of Beau’s hands on the rich ochre of a thigh, gripping the taut muscle.
Perhaps she should be terrified as Rey thought she would be, but the hint of levity still teased at her senses. Beau was dangerous, she had no illusions about that, but he wouldn’t hurt her with Rey so close. It made her braver than she should have been. Chin canting to the side, one side of her lips pulled up at Beau’s performance, rolling her eyes as he voiced a throaty growl.
She didn’t know where the playful tease came from, but she grabbed hold of it with both hands. Reveling in the not-so-simple act as heady warmth invaded her. One foot freed from the knotted sheets, she put her arch to the firm swell of his shoulder. Pushed hard, and it was only because he let her that the insignificant nudge made him sway. Neither missed the fact her new position opened her to him.
Neither did Rey. Possessive thunder vibrated through his chest as he launched himself at Devin. Would have hurt her if he landed on top of her as he aimed. Only Beau’s steady hands caught him, wrenching Rey back at the last moment. Forced to his knees, Rey jerked at the implacable grip Beau had on his arms.
