Not to be Borne (Intertwined Fates Book 2)

by N. J. Lysk

  He didn’t, instead it was my turn. Zybyn was next to me, petting my hair and caressing my skin. When I woke up, I surged into him, needing his touch so badly I—

  And then he was gone. I blinked, dazed and confused, and saw Xander was there instead. My hole throbbed at the sight of him, but I still turned my head to look for my brother, uncomprehending. It was Zybyn I— Xander took hold of my knees and shoved them apart. I must have lost some time because the next thing I knew were the fingers twisting inside me, lighting me up even further than my body had accomplished on its own. I moaned, lost and needy and he laughed his pleasure above me.

  It didn’t occur to me to think he was Zybyn’s mate or that I was going to belong to a different alpha, he made me spread and put his cock into me, the immense thing I’d seen go into Zybyn slicing into my own wet passage. It split into me, one shove at a time, until the alpha was rutting in me fast and hard and I was screaming—ecstasy and pain and a need so strong I couldn’t think as I lifted my hips for more.

  And then I erupted, making a mess of my thighs and clothes, and he did inside me—filling me up while he held me in place so his seed would go deep within me. My belly started hurting and glancing down I saw it was expanding as he filled me with his come. His come. His seed. He was— It was only then my brain seemed to process what was happening, and it was how my eyes were open for Xander to meet with a brutal smile as he shifted inside me and started knotting. Sealing himself inside me—breeding his cubs into my body.

  Breeding was natural, but it didn’t feel it, it felt like my body was being forced into a shape it wasn’t meant to take—nothing like shifting—and I had no choice about it whatsoever. Inside me, I could feel the knot growing, increasing the pressure until I felt I’d burst. And then it stopped. It should have helped but it was actually worse, an unremitting pressure that made me squirm like I needed to pee but couldn’t. The same pressure that was making the alpha on top of me moan and grunt as he poured his seed into me. “Yes, you are full now, I’ll breed a dozen into you tonight and another tomorrow. We can just stay here— I’ll have my own pack, just from you both.”

  I whimpered, shaking my head, but couldn’t manage any words of denial. I couldn’t even beg.

  “Please,” my twin’s voice was a thread.

  “Please?” the alpha spat at him, even with the knot, he was still moving inside my body, grunting with every thrust, but he made an effort to pant at Zybyn, “You’re lucky your brother is taking your place, or I’d leave you both here to rot.”

  My twin didn’t speak again. I closed my eyes and stayed still under the man who now owned me. He didn’t bite me, but the mark wasn’t necessary, not when I knew his seed must have taken.

  The second wave of heat was less intense. I woke from my exhausted sleep to my hips being tugged backwards until they met his groin, and he shoved it into me without warning. My body must have been learning its functions because the pain was but momentary and then there was just relief, to have my hole filled that way, to have that pressure where I needed it. I was half-unconscious as he rutted in me and the knot he allowed to form once again still hurt. As did knowing each time he did it meant that at least one more cub was conceived.

  He woke me when he rolled off me, soft cock sliding off my arse and slapping against my thigh as he lay on his back next to me. His breathing went deep, he’d gone to sleep.

  I raised my head from the sweaty bedding and looked for my twin. He wasn’t on the bedding, naturally, because the alpha was taking up that space now. The— My alpha, he was my alpha. Because I was carrying his cubs. I felt my neck for a bite that wasn’t there, a bond mark. I didn’t know why, but its absence bothered me. It didn’t change anything, really...

  As my eyes got used to the darkness of the cave, I made out Zybyn’s body tucked into a corner, curled up tight as if he was protecting himself from something. I got to my knees at once, intent on going to him and a stab of pain ran from my arse to my belly, making me grit my teeth and grunt. My eyes went to the man who had done it to me, but he was still deeply asleep.

  I had managed to get my brother’s attention, though, because when I next looked towards him, he was standing halfway between us and his hiding space. I watched him, hopeless, hurting, desperate... for something I couldn’t name but knew only he could give me.

  “Zybyn?” I asked and he came to me. He made sure to avoid the alpha’s sprawled body, coming around to my other side and putting a hand on my lower back, leading me back down.

  “Rest,” he whispered. “He’ll come back; you have to rest.”

  I shook my head; my eyes were suddenly full of tears. I couldn’t rest. I couldn’t— I couldn’t be alone. I put my head down and then used what little strength I had to reach out and grab his wrist.

  His eyes widened, but after a moment, he laid himself down by my side and put his hand on my chest right where it hurt most. I let go of his hand so I could do the same, closing my eyes to the familiar rhythms of my heart.

  Chapter 3

  They say you can get used to anything and I found this to be mostly true. I woke often when my alpha shoved his cock into my hole—now always wet and ready for him as a secondary effect of the pregnancy—and I learned not to open my eyes while it happened.

  Outside of heat, the sex was more disturbing than arousing, even when my alpha accidentally got an angle that stimulated me right, I kept getting distracted by the most mundane details—my mind desperate to escape what was happening to me. My hard dick was mostly an inconvenience that needed protecting if the bedding—just a pile of furs, not all of which were always dry enough to use—wasn’t placed quite right. Even so, I was mostly grateful when he did me face down, saving me from seeing his face and catching his smell.

  There was a river nearby where I went to clean myself, and after a few weeks, Zybyn was allowed to accompany me. He kept his distance until I was done cleaning myself and then we’d play fight like we were cubs again, splashing and dunking each other, as uncaring of nakedness as if none of the terrible things that had happened to us both had ever touched us.

  Xander hadn’t tried to touch my brother again, a small mercy I was constantly afraid would be snatched away. I couldn’t help remembering what he’d said, that he’d keep us in this mountain—far away enough from home to never run into anyone—and breed us both himself.

  But for whatever reason, Zybyn hadn’t gone into heat again.

  He was safe for a little longer.

  IF IT HADN’T BEEN FOR the stranger, maybe I would have just let it go on, let my belly go from a little tender to visibly swollen, and then...

  But he came upon us in the river and stopped to watch us bathe.

  I don’t know how Xander knew, maybe the stranger had left his scent elsewhere in the area where the alpha hunted—he’d made it clear it was no job for an omega.

  It was Xander’s presence that made us take notice, Zybyn’s arm tightening on my elbow and turning me towards the two men sizing each other up. I inhaled and stiffened. The other man was also an alpha, though I couldn’t tell what type of shifter he was.

  It could have easily devolved into a fight, an alpha showing any interest in another’s omega... But Xander smirked and tilted his head our way. “Like what you see?”

  There was a beat of silence, then the other alpha nodded. “Your omega is beautiful,” he offered, obviously cautious.

  Xander’s eyes bore into mine a moment later. “Come out here, Michuá.”

  I was almost unaware of my legs moving me his way, and the stranger kept his eyes off me this time. It was only when I stopped next to my alpha that I realised Zybyn wasn’t far behind me.

  My alpha reached out and placed a possessive hand on my belly. His touch made it feel heavy, full, but it was all in my head... and in my scent, of course. The strange alpha had known I belonged to Xander, even though my neck was bare of marks. “He is,” Xander told the other alpha, then he raised his head and looked behind me.
“Come around,” he told Zybyn, and I felt my twin stepping forward until he was right next to me.

  The strange alpha made a sound, something that I couldn’t quite decipher. “Uncanny,” he commented, licking his lips, he smelled intensely of arousal.

  “You’ve got anything to trade?” Xander asked him then.

  The alpha’s befuddled expression was the only thing that made sense about the exchange. But it didn't last, he turned and went to a bush nearby where he retrieved a huge backpack.

  He set it down and started taking things out of it and I turned to my alpha and offered, “Should I get anything from—?”

  Xander gave me a look, snorting and shaking his head. “You really were a virgin,” he said with disdain. “Why do I need you to get anything? I’ve got you here to trade.”

  I gawked at him. Was he talking about...?

  But he was already busy surveying the stranger’s possessions.

  I turned to Zybyn, but my brother was looking at the ground and I only had time to put my hand on his arm before a clap announced a deal had been struck.

  Xander was already turning towards us again. “Hands and knees, Zybyn.”

  Zybyn startled but obeyed, falling to his knees and shuffling back to have space to put down his hands at my feet. My heart clenched, knowing he was unable to resist an alpha’s will.

  No, a voice inside me said, not Zybyn! I can... And it was loud enough I opened my mouth, “Alpha, I—”

  But that was all that was allowed to come out of my mouth before Xander shut me up with a glare. “Be quiet, both of you.”

  I glanced towards my twin, his head hanging low, his spine the picture of defeat. Then I realised the stranger was going around to position himself behind Zybyn’s bare arse.

  The sight was like a stab to my heart and forced into silence as I was, I dug my nails into my hands instead. On the ground, I saw Zybyn’s face contract into a grimace as the alpha put his hands on his arse cheeks and squeezed without as much as a word of warning.

  It was like watching Xander force himself on him all over again, and I would have taken his place in an instant if offered the chance—it was my only comfort when I had to serve my duties, that Zybyn was spared.

  And now Xander was taking even that from me, he was going to let this man rape Zybyn, just to get some things. Not anything we needed like our pack had needed the money Xander himself had given them for us, to survive. There were only three of us and in this area there were plenty of mountain goats and small prey to keep us fed, and the river, of course, which was too rapid right where we were but slowed down enough at other points to catch fish.

  Zybyn shuddered as his hole was exposed and the stranger started rubbing at the sensitive space—from where I was standing I couldn’t see that, but I didn’t need anything but Zybyn’s face to read his pain and discomfort. He didn’t try to resist or ask them to stop. He couldn’t speak, of course, but he could have moved. Except of course he didn’t have the protection of a pregnancy and who knew how far Xander would go if he disobeyed?

  The stranger huffed. “He’s too fucking dry.”

  “Mmmm...” My alpha said thoughtfully. “Okay, Michuá, get on all fours, face your brother.”

  My body did as it was told, even as my mind scrambled for meaning. Then my alpha came forward and patted my hip. “Get wet for me.”

  It happened, like it always did, my passage slickening up, my hole clenching and sending my scent rising around all of us. My face burned with humiliation at being shown off to a stranger in this state. I checked Zybyn’s face, trying to connect once more.

  He didn’t look up.

  “Okay,” Xander said. “Come around to this one, dip it in, then you can start on the frigid bitch.”

  I turned my head to seek out Xander, my brain struggling to understand what was happening. Was my alpha telling someone else to fuck me?

  Xander shot me a disapproving look when I met his eyes. “Look forward, and don’t move, either of you.”

  That last part made Zybyn look up, which was worse of course, because now I could see my own terror and pain, like a mirror of not just my face but of my very soul.

  And then I felt my own arse cheeks were spread apart and heard the man behind me hum in satisfaction and then slowly—much more slowly than Xander had ever bothered—he pushed his cock into me, inch by inch until I was full and he could fuck into me, groaning his pleasure.

  Xander’s grunt reminded him to pull out and he did it too fast, making me wince.

  But that was just the beginning, of course, he was already going around and even with my eyes still screwed shut, I felt Zybyn exhale, warm and wet on my face, as the alpha used my slick to force his unready body to give way for his pleasure.

  I opened my eyes, blinking back tears, determined to offer Zybyn the only thing I had to offer. His own eyes were shut, for which I couldn’t blame him, so I nudged at the side of his cheek, feeling his own ragged breathing. For a moment, he didn’t move, then he swayed forward so fast he almost knocked his head against mine.

  No, not him. The alpha, Zybyn’s head had fallen forward again as he got the alpha’s dick shoved into him with force, arms glistening with sweat as he locked them to stay in position and not fall on his face. The alpha probably wouldn’t have stopped, Xander hadn’t when it’d been me and I was carrying his children.

  When my own hips were dragged backwards, I instinctively dug my fingers into the soft soil, but my alpha didn’t even seem to notice as he aligned himself and entered my hole. My body, intent on protecting me, had produced as much lubrication as could possibly be needed, and the penetration was as easy as if I had been designed for it.

  Nature had designed me for it, according to the elders. Me and Zybyn, we were meant to be used this way by alpha men, to give them cubs and do as they told us.

  They’d also told me alphas were meant to protect me, instead I was kneeling on the ground in front of the person I loved most in the universe, getting rammed with one alpha’s cock as I heard the sounds of his pained breathing because another alpha was doing it to him.

  “Stop!” Xander said from behind me, hips stilling. I swayed under his hands, having been braced for his thrusts. He wasn’t speaking to me, though. Once he got me into a position, he was perfectly happy to do the hard work himself, I had learned this early and well after being told to stop bothering him when I’d offered to be more active in bed. If he wanted my mouth, I was to keep it open and my teeth covered, if he wanted my arse, I was to try and not move from where he put me—that was all an omega needed to do, wait patiently for his alpha to finish using him.

  I blinked my eyes open and met Zybyn’s tired gaze. He was still again, which meant the alpha behind him... Xander pulled out of my body. “Come try this one out,” he said to the other alpha across from him. “I want to see if the frigid one’s tighter.”

  Neither Zybyn nor I reacted, having been forbidden from speaking or moving. And what did it matter anyway? An alpha cock was an alpha cock. As the stranger put his inside me again and I saw Zybyn’s grimace indicating my alpha was inside him, I leaned forward enough to press our cheeks together, Zybyn understood at once, doing the same until we were locked in place, neck muscles straining. It didn’t matter, we both needed each other too much to give up this small comfort as the other men used us in tandem.

  The strange alpha made quite a racket when he unloaded inside me, circling his hips to keep his cock inside my body as long as possible. I bit my lip bloody reminding myself he couldn’t knot me, Xander had already done it as many times as my body could accept. I tried not to think about it, but right then it was a comfort to know I was as full of cubs as I could get.

  As his cock left me at last, his slick dripping down my thighs, I realised Zybyn was still as a rock against my face. I leaned back, opening my eyes and realised Xander was still pressed close to his back. Still inside him, I understood with a spike of panic. He couldn’t be... Zybyn wasn’t in hea
t, Xander couldn’t be—

  My alpha grunted and pushed Zybyn forward hard enough that if I hadn’t been there to catch him, he’d have ended face first on the ground.

  “Can’t get a knot to catch,” he complained, clearly speaking to the other alpha.

  “Well, he’s a good fuck,” the stranger commented, unconcerned. He walked straight into the river without another word to any of us.

  My alpha followed him, cleaning himself perfunctorily in the shallows before stepping out and walking past us. “Clean yourselves up and get back,” he said as he did, not even looking our way.

  We were grateful for that much.

  GETTING CLEAN A SECOND time didn’t feel as good, it wasn’t just the alpha come all over us both—the scent lingering even after we scrubbed ourselves with some grass—but the heaviness of what had happened left inside us.

  Zybyn collapsed on the shore, curling up around his own knees, and I immediately sat next to him, putting my arms around his waist.

  “Zybyn?” I said, rubbing at his back, he was shivering too much. “Should we shift? You’re—”

  “He said he was going to breed me, to make... to make sure I’m not... broken.” His voice was flat with shock.

  It wasn’t the first time Xander had suggested he intended to have Zybyn as well as me as his mate, but I’d assumed it was just something he was saying in the heat of the moment. There was no way he could support a pack as large as the one that would result if he did it, and... I felt my belly tighten with fear. Everything was wrong, I knew that, but I was an omega, how was I supposed to get myself out of this? And Zybyn? How could I let this happen to Zybyn?

  “You should go.” The words were out of my mouth before I could think it through. “Just go and—”

  Zybyn’s claws dug into my side, returning my touch at last. “Shut the fuck up, Michuá,” he growled. The wounds stung for a moment as he pulled away and rubbed at the broken skin, already healing. “I’m never leaving you.”