by Maia Dylan
One was gentle and coaxing and would whisper words of encouragement to her. The other would start off as gentle and encouraging but would slip into bossy and grumpy very quickly.
Both were insistent on one thing, though, that it was time for her to open her eyes and wake up. This, as far as she was concerned, was a very stupid idea.
If she were to wake up, there would be pain. There would be fear. There would be the incessant darkness that signaled to her that the Reverend had put her in the ground and effectively buried her alive. Again. With no concept of time or reality but a study stream of fear.
She hadn’t realized that she had met someone so inherently evil the night she had first met the Reverend. He had just been a patient like any other to her. She had closed a deep laceration in his arm and had spent no more than an hour with him. She had felt uncomfortable with the intense way he would look at her, but she had managed to ignore it.
Two weeks after that initial meeting, he took her. The following two years were a kaleidoscope of pain, fear, rage, and captivity. Nope. She was better off staying exactly where she was, inside her own head, in a room she had created where there was no pain, no fear. Normally there would be nothing in the room with her, but every now and then, one of those voices would be there with her. Faith almost thought it might have been…
But no, it couldn’t have been them. She refused to think any further down that line, as it would open up memories that she just couldn’t face right now.
“Faith…” There it went again. The cajoling voice was back. “Baby, its time. You need to come back to us. I’ve missed you, Faith.”
Huh? How could a figment of her own imagination miss her? Weird. It must have finally happened, looney tunes and stuck in a hole in the ground.
“Faith, you need to open your eyes. Both of us are here with you.” Ah! Here was Mr. Grumpy. “You shouldn’t keep your alphas waiting. Wake up!”
Alpha? Whatever, Mr. Grumpy. Faith smiled at that thought.
“She’s smiling. She must be waking up.” An excited voice sounded louder than it should have been. Faith felt herself almost floating, her safe room fading in the distance.
No, no, no, I don’t want to leave.
“Faith, you will come back to us.” Mr. Grumpy again, but something had happened to his voice. There was a slight compulsion behind it that made it near impossible to ignore. Faith had the strange desire to want to tilt her head slightly, baring her neck. What the heck? “Faith! Now!”
This time the compulsion was not slight in any way, and Faith was ripped from her solitude and forced to the surface.
She could feel again. She whimpered as the pain in her body came rushing back to her. Her skin felt tight across her face, swollen and sore. Her right side burned, and her head pounded.
“That’s it, Faith! Come on, baby. Come on back to us.” Excitement and joy radiated in that voice, and it trembled slightly.
Faith really wanted to see the face that went with that voice. Risking the pain of realizing she was still in the ground, Faith cracked her eyes open, wincing at the pain the light caused, the pounding in her head ratcheting up a notch. She went to take a deep breath to try to quell the nausea but felt a sharp pain in her side and gasped.
She could sense movement around her, and voices rose, but she concentrated on not vomiting. As the nausea abated, she took shallow breaths and waited for the sadistic bastard with the steel hammer currently playing percussion inside her skull to back off a bit.
She felt cool hands lifting her wrist, taking her stats. That meant she was being looked after, and if the antiseptic smell that was currently assaulting her senses was to be believed, she was in a hospital.
Opening her eyes and blinking to clear what felt like a ton of grit, she waited as her vision cleared, and she looked up into the chocolate-brown eyes of a doctor. When he saw that she had finally focused on his face, he smiled at her.
“Welcome back, Faith. We have all been quite worried about you.”
As she was about to open her mouth to reply, she heard a grumbling noise coming from the other side of the bed. Amusement flashed across the young doctor’s face as he gently settled her hand back on the bed and took a step back, tilting his head to the side just slightly. “My apologies, alphas.”
There was that word again. Faith frowned as she realized there were others in the room then gritted her teeth against the pain in her head as she turned to see who was standing close to her on the opposite side of the bed. Her gaze clashed with two sets of amber eyes that watched her intently.
The pain in her head suddenly lifted under the joy and long-forgotten ache of yearning. There they stood. The two men she had fallen so hard for. Tyler and Trent. She heard footsteps walk across the room and her door open and then close with a muffled whoosh.
They were both tall and muscular, each standing over six feet, towering over her five-foot-six frame. Both were lean but muscular with bodies that made a woman want to lie down and beg. Although she knew that they had battled all their lives with people who could not tell the difference between the two, she knew without a doubt that it was Trent who stood closest to her, his hand resting atop her own, and Ty that stood behind him.
It wasn’t just that Tyler’s gaze was that little more intense than Trent’s or that his smile looked just that little more strained. It was more fundamental than that. They smelt different to her. Both were alluring and delicious, but there was a distinct difference in the two.
“Trent. Tyler. You found me?” Faith cringed at the hope and longing that caused her gravelly voice to tremble. She felt her chin begin to wobble as she fought against sudden tears. Both men moved closer to her, and Tyler placed his hand on her arm, both men touching her at the same time skin to skin. Faith felt a jolt of awareness throb through her body, and judging by the way both men’s eyes darkened, they had felt it, too.
“Yeah, baby, we found you.” Trent leaned close, and she felt his warm lips brush against her forehead. Faith closed her eyes as her emotions continued to roll within her. “You are back in Grey River, at the hospital. You’ve been unconscious since we brought you in twelve hours ago.”
Faith’s eyes flew open. Twelve hours!
“The children!” Faith tried to pull her body up off the bed but cried out at the sharp pain in her side. What the hell had happened to her side? Oh yeah, that bastard the Reverend had taken offense to her trying to stop him from hitting his own damn daughter and used her as a pinata. He always wore those fugly cowboy boots with the chrome-embossed toe, which she had vivid memories of seeing up close and personal as it flew at her side as he kicked her. Over and over.
“They’re safe. Stay still.” Tyler growled at her. When she met his gaze in challenge, she watched as surprise flitted across his features. “You’re hurt, Faith, and have only just regained consciousness. Stay still. The children are safe. Our parents have them out at the ranch.”
Pacified somewhat, Faith leaned back on her pillows with a sigh. “That’s good.” She took a couple of breaths as the pain subsided. “So, what happened? How did I get here?”
Faith listened in shock as they told her about the category-three tornado that had torn through the encampment. She had absolutely no memory of that, which was probably a good thing. Being stuck in that grave with the world going to hell around her might have been just enough to throw her off the deep end.
“So let me get this straight.” Faith had always needed to vocalize in order to understand things. “There was a tornado that ripped through the encampment, and you and the other emergency services ended up being sent there because of the fires.”
Both men nodded. So the encampment was gone, no loss there.
“Then, once you arrived, you met the Reverend and the children and were told that they were the only survivors.”
Again came the synchronized nods. Faith felt her eyes tear up again as she thought of Margo and Stephanie, the two other women who had been living the same ni
ghtmare she had been for the past two years. She felt the two men lean slightly forward as if they were going to try to stop her, but they hesitated as she shook her head. She needed to understand everything that had happened, the chain of events that had brought her here to this hospital and out of that hell hole.
“The other four men, they are all dead?” At the grave nod of the brothers, a deep satisfaction tore through her body, and her eyes narrowed. “No real loss there. Except perhaps the loss of being able to deliver the killing blow myself.”
The brothers leaned back a little at the hatred in her voice. Yeah, they only knew the weak Faith.
That Faith had never shown her own true strength, her inner strength that had been hidden for most of her life. That Faith had allowed herself to be kidnapped by an insane bastard who considered himself to be a prophet, of all bloody things. That Faith had cried for weeks after her capture, praying for the two men she had come to love with all her heart to find her, to save her.
That Faith was no longer. She had been beaten and drugged and—nope, she wasn’t going to dwell too much on that. The new Faith that had risen from the ashes of the old Faith like a phoenix was a fighter. She was a survivor now and would never, ever be a victim again. Never allowing her gaze to falter or fall, she looked the two men before her in the eyes, daring them to chastise her in some way or maybe even punish her.
She watched as both men’s gazes narrowed, and then Ty and Trent turned to look at each other. She felt the buzzing in her head that signaled that they were talking to each other and having a silent conversation. This was something she had known they had the ability to do when they were together two years ago, but she had never told them that she knew what they were doing. Hell, she had never told anyone! She was certain men in white coats would definitely come for her if she were to do so.
Before she could think more on that, they both returned their gazes back to her. Faith saw respect and heat in both their eyes.
“Yeah, sweetheart, I kinda wish I had had the opportunity to rip their throats out as well.” Tyler’s voice was warm with amusement, and Faith felt her body heat to match.
Faith felt her breasts start to throb, and they felt hot and heavy on her chest, rising faster as her breath sped up. Her pussy clenched, and she felt moisture escape into her panties. She was aroused! After everything she had been through in that encampment, she never thought she would feel arousal again.
She felt Trent and Tyler’s hands clench on her arm a little then watched as their eyes closed and they inhaled. Both gave a low grumbling in their chests that caused a shiver to run through her body and drew more moisture from her pussy. When their eyes opened, she was stunned to see that they had turned blue, a piercing blue so beautiful it caused her breath to catch.
“It’s okay, baby. Don’t be afraid,” Trent whispered, and Faith shook her head.
“I’m not,” she whispered back.
A loud crash came from the hallway, interrupting the moment. The brothers moved in unison, orchestrated like they had planned this. Tyler turned toward the door with a speed that shocked her, so fast he was a blur. In less time than it took for her to even register the noise, he was at the door and wrenching it open. At the same time, Trent turned and placed himself between her bed and the door, knees bent and stance screaming of lethal intent. Dayum. She should be scared, but hell, that turned her on even more.
Within seconds Tyler returned, and without a word, Trent stood at ease, and they both returned to her bedside, this time with Tyler taking up position on the opposite side. Both reached forward and held her hands in theirs. Trent leaned forward onto the bed a little so he could cradle her hand in both of his, his head turned toward her, a small smile on his face. Tyler held her hand a little tighter, thumb rubbing circles on her wrist. Faith wondered if he could feel her pulse speed up a little.
She was left with very little doubt that he could as his expression became smug, an eyebrow raised, and he smirked. As they continued to look at her, she realized no explanation was forthcoming. Mentally shrugging, she continued her summary of the events that had led to her hospitalization.
“Then, Sophia told you that the Reverend had put me in the hole, and then you came looking for me.” She felt both men tense a little, and the smile and smirk that had been there a second before were replaced with identical looks of disgust and anger. Interesting.
“Yeah, Tyler confronted the Reverend, and during their, er…conversation, he gave away your location.” Trent’s voice had dropped an octave and sounded very growly. She glanced between the brothers as they both seemed to still slightly and a blue tinge came to their eyes. Again, they were having a private conversation. Not liking to be ignored, she continued.
“You found me in the hole, brought me back to the compound, and then transported me here. Correct?” She almost smiled at the identical synchronized nod this time, but a thought stopped her, and she felt a tendril of fear flutter across her skin. “What happened to the Reverend?” she asked quietly, afraid of what the answer might be.
Both men moved closer to her, surrounding her with their heat and scent, and a sense of safety and home fell over her. “He can’t hurt you again, sweetheart. Once he is treated for his injuries, he will be placed into custody and will be held in Houston awaiting trial.” Trent pressed his lips to her forehead again, and she felt her heart melt a little.
“Wait. Injuries? Was he hurt in the tornado?” That smirk was back on Tyler’s face.
“He resisted arrest.” Judging by the glee that positively dripped from his tone, Tyler was quite pleased with that fact.
Trent threw his head back, and a full, throaty laugh burst forth, joined seconds later by his brother’s. “He did, baby,” Trent said, finally able to speak, “and judging from the multiple injuries he sustained, he resisted more than once!”
Faith smiled and felt her heart turn over at the boyish grins the brothers sent her way. Reminding her of the many times they had laughed together back before she had ended up at the encampment.
Of course, back then she had been a foolish woman who thought she had almost convinced the men of her dreams to take their relationship to a new level. The night before she had been taken they had finally shared their first kisses, and Faith had hoped it was the first step of a journey that would eventually see them together as partners, a triad like their parents. As an orphan, she had no parents or concept of unconditional love, but when she arrived in Destiny for school, she recognized it in many of the family units there. How she had longed to be a part of one, loved and cherished beyond all others by these two men who had tied her in knots from the moment she met them in that diner.
But that was a long time ago. A quick glance to their hands showed no wedding rings, but men like these did not stay single. They must have had a bevy of admirers vying for their attention.
Smiling brighter in order to hide the pain of her thoughts, she said, “Well, no matter what, I have to thank you both for getting me out of that place. You ended a nightmare for me that lasted almost two years. I will never be able to repay you for that.” Her voice had dropped to little more than a whisper toward the end. She looked up and saw understanding in Trent’s eyes, and when she turned to Tyler, she was shocked to see pain and anger there instead.
“What the hell happened, Faith?” Tyler’s voice hardened. “Why the fuck would you go to that place? Why would you leave here?”
“What?” Faith asked in confusion.
Tyler dropped her hand like it suddenly burned hot, and ran his hands through his hair, tumbling it into sexy disarray. “I am trying to understand, Faith, and get to a point where I can forgive you for leaving.”
Trent, who had been looking at his brother with a shut-up-you-schmuck look, suddenly looked at Faith as a pained and shocked sound escaped her. Tyler was too busy spouting crazy shit to hear anything.
“But I’m just not there yet.” Tyler began to pace, unaware that Faith’s face had become blank
. “All I know is that two years ago, you suddenly packed up and went off in the middle of the night. I mean, who the hell does that! Without telling anyone where you were going, just that you were taking a job up north and not coming back! Then to find out that you had actually stayed here believing that fucking idiot spouting prophecies and some insane shit and moved to their compound, I—”
“Tyler,” Trent spoke, his gaze never leaving Faith’s face. Tyler didn’t hear a thing, so lost in his ranting that nothing registered.
“—find it hard to believe that you were so stupid as to follow that man. I mean, he beat you and those children, for fuck’s sake. You should have called us! We would have—”
“Tyler!” Trent roared. “For the love of God, will you shut the fuck up and look at her!”
Faith watched as Tyler turned, his enraged gaze changing in an instant when he finally looked at her. She knew what he was seeing. She had felt the warmth drain from her face as he spoke. That’s what they believed?
“Faith, are you OK? Speak to me.” Trent’s voice was intense, his concern almost palpable in the room. Tyler moved back toward the bed but froze when Faith threw her hand up.
“Faith, I would never hurt you.” Hurt throbbed in Tyler’s tone as he held his hands up in a nonthreatening manner.
Faith felt her face flood with heat as his words registered. Not hurt her?
“Bullshit!” Faith screamed back, rage and hysteria quickly rising. “Not hurt me? If that avalanche of shit you just threw at me was what you have believed for the past two years, then you’ve hurt me worse than anything I had to endure from the Reverend, Tyler. You think I went willingly with that asshole? That I would willingly stay anywhere near him?”
“Now, Faith, calm down. Let’s talk about this. I am sure we can get to the bottom of this if the three of us could just calm down and talk,” Trent reasoned, ever the peacemaker.