Mia's Masters [Locks and Chains 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More)

by Sara Kingston

  Crawling out from under the house, she’d walked inside. Her father was again working in his den, ignorant to everything around him. She walked toward her mother’s study. She was also working, oblivious to her daughter’s needs. For the first time as she looked at them, she didn’t look with love and amazement. She looked at them with disgust and hatred. It was not she who wasn’t good enough for them. They weren’t good enough for her. From that day forward, in her heart, she no longer had parents. The names Mom and Dad were just that, names. Not titles. Not positions. As she toured through memory lane, she realized that right now she was that ten-year-old girl. She was asking these men to love her and to take care of her. And they were rejecting her. She would no longer beg. She had herself, and that was all that mattered.

  She stood on shaking feet and turned toward the door. She didn’t stop to look at them. She felt more naked now than she had ever felt in her life. She ran to the bedroom and grabbed the first clothes she saw, throwing them on before pulling a suitcase from the top of the closet. She began throwing all the clothes and shoes she could see through her tears into it. She left all the expensive lingerie and the club gear. They could burn it for all she cared. Her head snapped up as Peter walked into the room, followed by Mathew.

  “Leave,” she whispered.

  “Pardon?”

  She struggled with her desire to look at them. Part of her wanted them to watch her heart breaking and her soul dying. Although the bigger part was terrified they wouldn’t care.

  “Just leave,” she hollered near a scream. She needed them to go away before the last tethering twine of her control snapped. She thanked the universe for the small mercy that they listened to her and left. When she was sure they wouldn’t be able to hear her, she let her head fall to the floor and sobbed out the pain that raked through her body. She clutched her hands to her heart, trying desperately to hold the shattered pieces in position in her chest. Over and over, she asked why? Why was this happening to her? Why was she not lovable? Why did everything she loved leave her? Why was she alone again? Why couldn’t they love her?

  After what felt like hours but was mere minutes, she stood and wiped the tears from her face. She walked with her head held high toward the front door, carrying her suitcase. She’d texted a cab and knew it would be here any second. She needed to collect herself and find some way to survive this. She’d survived before, and she would survive this as well. All she had to do was find a way to piece together her broken heart and find a reason for living. She walked out of the house without speaking a word to anyone. Within a minute, the cab had arrived.

  “Take me to the closest hotel to the city.”

  “Sure thing, lady.”

  * * * *

  Dylan watched through the upstairs window as the cab pulled away from the house, taking Mia and his heart. He had done it. He had let her go, so she could have a better life. Yes, she hurt now, but soon she would thank him. He had nearly thrown the whole plan out the window when she’d begged him on her hands and knees. The pain in her eyes nearly undid him. But the memory of the hospital and the judgment of her from the rest of the vanilla world steeled his thoughts. This was the right thing to do. She deserved better than them. He heard Mathew and Peter enter the room before he saw them. Their thudding footsteps and the door slamming back against the wall announced their arrival.

  “What the fuck have you done?” Mathew bellowed. “You’ve been pushing her for days. You’ve been punishing her and tormenting her, and tonight…what the fuck, Dylan. Why? Why did you do it to us all?”

  “I don’t have to answer to you. You have no right to question me,” Dylan said, still facing the window.

  “You can stick your fucking Master-and-sub shit up your ass, Dylan. Why the fuck did you send the best thing that ever entered our lives away?”

  “Because she deserved better than us,” he screamed back. He knew it was time to tell them about what he had overheard the nurses saying about Mia at the hospital. He had to tell them how the vanilla world was going to judge her. Mathew was no slave. He would leave if he didn’t come to the same understanding of the situation that he’d been forced to do. He led them to the dining room and sat them down. He told them about the hospital and what he’d heard. They both looked shocked and then pained. He explained his plan and how hard it had been for him to carry it through, and he saw they now understood.

  “So it’s over then.” Peter’s pained statement cut him to the bone.

  “Yes, Peter, it is. We still have each other. We’ll get through this together.”

  “Okay. I…I’m going to bed.”

  He watched Peter stand and abruptly leave. As he passed by, Dylan saw the tears in his eyes and wanted to cry himself.

  “This is how it’s got to be. My god, I don’t even know how to deal with this,” Mathew stated as Peter left the room.

  Dylan stood and walked out onto the deck. He couldn’t stand seeing the pain in the boys’ faces. Not with the memory of the pain on Mia’s face as well. He felt as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders right now.

  As the days passed, life only became harder. He would walk into the office expecting to see Mia’s happy smiling face. Each time he looked toward her desk, he felt the sharp pain of the reminder that she was gone. Each night when he rolled over in his half sleep, expecting to feel the soft curves of Mia’s warm body, he only found an empty space or one of his boys. None of them had had sex since she left. No one felt like it. Peter wept all the time and was losing weight. Mathew was silent and miserable, living in his own world of pain. And he felt like half a man.

  It was another night of Peter and Mathew silently sitting on the deck. He knew they were looking out at the city below, wondering where Mia was and if she was okay. The ringing of the front door bell jolted him. He wanted to deal with it before the boys noticed. Opening the door, he was surprised to see Craig.

  “Don’t even bother telling me you’re not receiving guests. You haven’t returned my calls, and I’ve been told by Michael and Jason that I must sort this shit out or face death. Apparently Grace is worried about Peter, and with her latest pregnancy, they can’t take the risk of her being under any stress. And Peter’s pain is stressing her.”

  He pushed past him and strode toward the living room. He sat down and turned to face him.

  “So tell me. What happened with Mia?”

  He was so desperate to talk to someone about it that he told Craig everything. Every fear, every event, and everything he’d done. He was prepared for a reprimand for his behavior and treatment of Mia. But he knew Craig would understand why.

  “So let me get this straight, in the Reader’s Digest version. You punished and pushed Mia away because you thought she deserved better. Because some bigoted idiots are going to judge her choices in life.”

  He nodded his head in agreement.

  “So because the love of your life and the woman who openly and publicly accepted you all, the one who wanted to love you forever, was going to suffer some snickers and nasty comments by people, you threw her out,” Craig said.

  Okay, this didn’t sound like he understood.

  “So she took every punishment. Every humiliation you dished out, and she still stayed, only because she loved you all so much. She even begged you to let her stay after she safe-worded out. Which, by the way, safe-wording doesn’t mean the end of a relationship. You used it against her as a means to send her away. That isn’t proper BDSM protocol.”

  Craig’s words ran over and over through his mind. Had he made a mistake? Should he have talked about it with the family? Maybe he was wrong. Maybe this was a decision they all should have made or at least discussed. “I made a mistake, didn’t I?”

  “What led you to make this decision, Dylan? Goddamn you. When I saw Michael fuck up so badly with Grace, I thought it was just some sort of temporary insanity, but now you, too? I can’t believe it. You’re both giving Doms a bad name. What’s it with you Doms and love?
As soon as you feel genuine love for something, you turn into righteous dickheads. Well, thank the fuck that’s never going to happen to me.”

  How could he have been so goddamn stupid? Craig was right. She didn’t care. She’d been the one to tell the nurse she lived with the three of them. She didn’t want to hide it. She was proud of their family. So what if some people judged them? If they had each other, what would it matter? He had just pushed away the greatest, most beautiful, loving woman on the planet and the love of his life. For what, fear? Fuck, he had to fix this. He had to get Mia back. He needed to put his family back together, forever. “Craig, thanks for coming. I have a lot of things to do.”

  “Make sure after you beg Mia to come back, and if you’re lucky enough that she forgives your sorry ass, you invite me to the wedding,” Craig said.

  “I’ll do better than that. Book the club for our collaring ceremony this Friday. Then you can come to the vanilla wedding in a few months.”

  “How about I pencil that in until you confirm. Or maybe Mia should confirm.”

  Dylan opened the door and basically pushed Craig out, slamming the door as he turned and headed for the deck to talk to his boys.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Dylan walked out and saw at the sorry sight of both his boys looking so miserable. How could he have done this to them? It was his job as their Dom to love, protect, and care for them. He had not only failed Mia but also his boys. Should he ask them for forgiveness and kneel at their feet? Or even walk away from them and leave them all to have a happily ever after without him? The answering pain in his chest said he couldn’t live with that. The only answer was to Dom it. He shut the door forcefully, and both Peter and Mathew turned in his direction.

  “As your Master, you understand that Mia’s going to marry me. If you both want to make the commitment, then I want her to also be both your wives as well. It may not be legally binding, but it will be a commitment you shouldn’t take lightly. Also with this commitment, you’ll be taking my name as well as your own.”

  He then turned to face Peter. “Peter, you would become Peter Burke-Cooper.” He turned to Mathew. “Mathew, you would become Mathew Reed-Cooper. This will give our family consistency, especially when we start having children. But I won’t order you to do this. You must do it of you own free will.” He stood back, waiting for their reactions. He knew he’d shocked them. Only last week he was kicking Mia out the door. Now here he was telling them he and perhaps they were going to marry her.

  “Yes, Master. I would love to become a Cooper,” Peter replied, his face lit with happiness and excitement.

  “Am I still able to dominate her?” Mathew asked.

  “Mathew, you’ve shown great strength in being a dominant. If you wish to further your path, you can also start to dominate Peter as well. I have no problems with that.” Walking up to Mathew, he laid his hand against his cheek.

  “However, you will never dominate me.”

  “You don’t mind sharing the top?” Mathew questioned.

  “Mathew, I’ll be honest with you. I’d love to share the burdens and the pleasures. It’s not all fun and games, and I’m enjoying our time together as fellow Masters.” He leant forward to place a chaste kiss on Mathew’s lips. “You know, having two willful submissives can be a challenge. But I’d ask that, occasionally, I need you to submit to me. Whether it’s alone or with the others, I’ll leave that up to you. But I still need my boy sometimes.” Giving him another kiss and a quick lick of his lips, he let him go and stepped back. He was surprised they held no resentment or anger toward him for what he’d done.

  “Dylan, I’ll also cherish the time we have together. I enjoy submitting to you. You can have your sub whenever you want.

  With that settled, I would be honored to become a Cooper,” Mathew said with a huge grin.

  “Fantastic, so all we have to do now is plan our wedding and of course the honeymoon,” he said to his boys with a matching smile.

  “Really, Mia said yes? Thank God. I thought she’d never forgive us and come home,” Peter said with a deep sigh.

  Dylan watched as Peter relaxed. Relief radiated from him. He really didn’t want to ruin this moment of peace for him.

  “Well, number one, I wouldn’t ask her. And number two, she doesn’t know yet.” The tension instantly returned, and Peter reacted as though he’d been physically slapped.

  “You haven’t asked her yet?” Mathew hollered.

  “You’re a fool if you think you can just tell her, Dylan,” Peter added.

  And there he thought they didn’t hold any anger or resentment toward him.

  “Of course, I will kind of ask her. But she’s going to be our wife, not just mine. I had to ensure that you were all happy with my decision and on board. She wears my collar, but she will be our wife.” He wasn’t an idiot. He knew it was going to be a long shot as to whether she would actually accept their proposal. But there was no use walking into this thinking they were going to fail. It would only guarantee failure if he did. Was he being naïve?

  Dylan knew Mathew worried that he’d take all the power in the relationship and that he and Peter would be footnotes in his and Mia’s life. He was glad to be able to surprise them and show this really was an equal relationship. They really were going to be her husbands as well. The excitement at the concept of a new era for them slowly etched away the lines of pain that had formed in the past week. He, too, felt this was right. He felt like his entire life, every struggle and every doubt, was to prepare him for this. He wasn’t foolish enough to think that he was forgiven. He knew Mathew and Peter were both still angry with him. But he also knew that once Mia wore his ring and collar, their anger would fade. Mia brought laughter, happiness, and joy to their home.

  “What if she says no? What if you can’t order her to marry us? I don’t think you know how upset she is. How hurt and betrayed she felt,” Peter said, worry etched on his face.

  “Don’t be pessimistic, Peter. She won’t say no,” he said, taking Peter in his arms. Peter was so distressed, and it upset him that he’d not only failed Mia but also Peter as well.

  “Peter, my boy, I have a plan. How could you think I don’t have a plan?”

  “You do?”

  “I do, and you, my boy, are a necessary player in that plan. I just needed time to resolve things in my mind and my heart before I could commit to the future. I know I let Mia down, and I know I hurt her.”

  “That’s done now. Right?” Peter questioned.

  “What! You think the whole engagement and wife thing didn’t settle it for you?”

  “Okay, okay. I just—I don’t know. Now that it’s settled, it’s just… I don’t know. Mia’s not here making these decisions with us,” Peter said worriedly.

  “Dylan. Tell us about this plan to get our girl back, kneeling at our feet with our ring on her finger.” Dylan smiled at Mathew’s words. It didn’t take long for his inner Dom to return. He may have felt whipped and beaten in Mia’s absence, but he was never down. He grabbed Peter behind the back of his neck hard but not painfully.

  “That, my dear boy, is where you come in,” he said to Peter.

  “What?”

  “Mathew and I are her Masters, so she won’t let us in. But you, as her lover and fellow sub, will be able to hold her and get back into her heart, preparing the way for us to step in and direct her.” Peter looked inquisitively at him. He could see the wheels turning in Peter’s brain by the looks that passed over his face. Yes, he could get closer to Mia. First of all, they were friends and allies.

  “Okay, I’m in. So tell me what to do?”

  Dylan outlined his plan. With every detail, he watched as both Peter and Mathew’s features turned predatory. Even Peter’s body language turned dominant. He could see by the looks on their faces that they knew the plan was a good one, and Mia was as good as theirs.

  * * * *

  Mia stared out at the night sky from her hotel room window. She felt her hea
rt weeping in pain that seared through to her soul. She’d loved them, and she thought they’d loved her, too. What a fool she’d been. She knew the decision for her to leave was mostly Dylan’s. Although, both Peter and Mathew had stood beside him and never questioned what he was doing. They’d never demanded she stay. So what if they fought with Dylan? What would he do, spank them all? Wasn’t she worth a spanking? What was she thinking? Even if they did fight him, it wasn’t like he would suddenly change his mind. They had to make a choice between Dylan and her. They had to choose, and they did. They’d decided they loved and needed Dylan more. In all her time with them, she’d never felt any jealousy until this moment. Now her green-eyed monster was raging. She wanted to slap them. Beat them. She wanted them to see she was worth it. She deserved love. Why couldn’t they love her? Why couldn’t she be needed? The tears streamed down her face. The sobs racked her body as she called out to the universe for fairness and cursed it for letting her love them.

  In all the years she’d suffered and survived, she’d thought her emotions were so heavily guarded that nothing or no one could seep through. She’d forgotten what it felt like to love something and someone. She’d forgotten about her heart.

  The very same heart the guys had charged in and laid claim to and then left her to forever live with the scars they left behind. How could she ever again find what she’d had with them? She’d had the lover and best friend in Peter. They would watch chick flicks, eating popcorn and ice cream. He would gossip and bitch like a dream girlfriend, and then make love to her when she wanted romance. Mathew was her playboy, the guy who wined and dined her and then got her to take off her panties in public. He was the naughty boy that every girl fantasized about. He got her to be carefree and laugh and to enjoy life and enjoy being naughty. Dylan…well, Dylan was the man from her darkest fantasies. The man who’d made her kneel at his feet and beg to be taken. He delivered every dark fantasy she’d ever had. He made her commit fully to everything she did in life. He pushed her beliefs and limits every day. He owned her, and she wanted to be owned. Pet, he’d always called her. At first she was taken aback by the name, thinking he saw her as an animal. Then she came to crave it. She loved being his beloved pet.