by Marilynn Fae
Ethan's voice is panicked and guilt-ridden when he blurts, "Shit. I didn't mean to-"
"Just get the fuck out, Ethan," Master Darius bites, at a loss of what to do at the sight of her crying on top of the kitchen counter, wearing nothing but his oversized suit and her tail around herself.
Ethan continues, panicked, "She liked it, alright? I wouldn't- I wouldn't force myself on her. She thought I was you and she liked it."
Master Darius stays in his spot for a second, and then he's holding her in his arms, lifting her up and away from the kitchen counter, strong arms curled around her body to keep her safe and secure. He wraps his fingers around the back of her neck and pulls her face to his neck, letting her scent him and take comfort from his familiar scent. "Shh... It's okay. It's okay," he murmurs, bouncing her in his arms like she's some sort of infant and she kind of hates herself a little because it works.
Her sobs taper off as she is held in the safe confines of his arms, breathing in the scent that is undeniably him and not at all like his brother, who smells just enough like him to convince her.
"I'm sorry," she whispers against his skin. She feels like such a burden.
"Don't apologize, love," he sighs. "My brother is an idiot who's used to taking what he wants without considering the consequences. I should've hidden you better."
She doesn't like that he had to hide her from his own family. Her Master has to go through so much trouble for her and all she knows is how to make it even harder for him.
She sniffles a little as he carries her out of the kitchen, purposefully ignoring his brother as he does.
He has her tucked in her bed in record time, somehow managing do it without lowering her from his grasp. To her surprise, he doesn't leave right after, instead, he climbs under the blankets with her and keeps her face tucked to the nape of his neck, keeping her on his lap as he holds her tight.
It's warm and comforting to be held like this and she can't help but melt into his hold, trusting him to take care of her.
When she feels it the first time, she thinks it must be her mind playing tricks on her, phantom sensation on her skin from where his twin brother - Ethan, had kissed her earlier. "Master Darius?" she whispers tentatively when she feels it again, his tongue against her neck where Ethan had worked love bites onto her skin. It's unmistakably her Master Darius kissing her neck.
"Sorry," he pulls back a little, though he keeps her cradles in his chest, her entire weight on his body as he sits with his back against the headboard. "You smell like him," he says with a hint of disgust.
She wants to tell him that it's impossible. They smell exactly alike. Except if there's anyone who could tell the two of them apart, it would be his own twin. Werewolves have strong olfactory senses, after all.
"Can I- Can I please." His hands are still shaking when he touches her neck and she understand now that it's not just that he feels bad, he feels jealous too, unhappy that someone had touched what belongs to him. Wolves are territorial creatures. It's not surprisingly for him to be so upset that Ethan had marked her as his.
Her breath sticks in her throat. For a second, she thinks of denying him this. It would only make it harder for herself if she were to say yes and let him leave his own mark against her skin, but her traitorous heart is already rejoicing at the idea of having his lips on her. "Okay," she says, soft and afraid, a little excited too.
He lets out a sigh of relief, as though worried that she would deny him, and a second later he has twisted her around the bed, pinning her under the weight of his body with his arms on her shoulders and his mouth on her neck, sucking fresh bruises on her skin with an urgency that surprises her enough to let out a startled gasps.
The fierce pleasure that surges through her veins make it hard to her to breathe, to think of anything beyond how good he feels around her, even the weight of his body against her is comforting, all-encompassing and perfect.
Her back arches as she feels his hips rock against her own, his hardness pushing her upper thigh. His fingers dig into her hips, pinning her down, sharp claws drawing scarlet lines against her porcelain flesh.
Her eyes shoot open, stunned by the sensation of claws on her skin. "Master Darius?" she murmurs, looking down at his half-shifted form. His jaw lifts from her neck, sharp fangs tinted at the tip with blood. "Master Darius," she gasps, surprised to see him lose control of his wolf. She's never seen him in this form before. The low growl from him sends a violent shiver through her and she clutches at the sheets, trying to pull herself away from him.
That earns her a rough growl in response and strong hands seizes her by the waist, yanking her right back underneath him. Sharp teeth sink into her nape and she lets out a shrill scream, unable to hide the pain of his teeth sinking into flesh, deep enough to draw blood and really, really hurt. She struggles in his grip, pushing at his chest to try and get him off her but that only causes him to strengthen his hold on her body, teeth sinking deeper.
She feels him in her bones, and it hurts so much she begins to cry. Heaving sobs rock her body and she collapses on the bed, giving up completely. She knows he's upset that she smells like someone else and it's her fault for being so stupid, but it pains her that he's punishing her like this, that he's punishing her at all. She's been trying her best to be good for him.
"Mas- Master Darius," she whimpers, tears pouring down the sides of her face to wet the sheets beneath her head. His hips grind against her, a low continuous growl vibrating through her bones from where their bodies are connected. He pulls back and a surprisingly gentle tongue licks the blood welling from the fresh teeth marks, soothing the pain with his tongue and then licking up to clean away the tears on her face.
"Shh..." he coos. "You're mine," he rumbles. "Mine, mine, mine."
She closes her eyes as he licks at them, like that's enough to stop her from crying.
Aria doesn't know what to feel. He's never hurt her before and even though she knows logically that he's hurting her now, her mind tries to make excuses for him, make sense of why he's doing it.
"You smell like him," he snarls, teeth sharp and inches from her face, as though he understands her confusion and is trying to explain to her why he's being so rough, why he's biting over the hickey and replacing it with teethmarks like it's an acceptable compromise.
"Master Darius," she breathes, shuddering at the way he's looking at her. He looks more animal than human now, his control over the animal part of him so thin that she doesn't know if he even understands her.
"You're mine," he growls the angry declaration against her skin. "You belong to me."
She knows that, but he doesn't normally says it quite to possessively or look as though he's considering devouring her whole so that no one else can have her.
He captures her lips with her own, kissing her with a ferocity that stuns her, licking into her mouth like he's trying to replace his brother's scent of his own and it's working. She moans into his mouth, trembling hands curling around his shoulders and holding him back. "Mine," he growls, rubbing his palm over her breasts, playing with her nipples to make her keen and whimper into his mouth. It feels good enough that she forgets about the ache on her shoulder where his teeth had bitten her raw. Her hands come up and tangle gently in his hair, resting there carefully.
When he feels sated, knows that there's nothing of his brother's scent left in her mouth, he pulls back and drags his mouth down her breasts, leaving a trial of fire all the way to her soft belly and lower, licking a stripe down, down, and then burying his nose between her legs. He inhales deep and her clit throb.
"Mine," he rumbles, rubbing his cheek over her inner thigh, blatantly scenting her. He sucks up a bruise on the inside of her legs, high up where the flesh is soft, pale, never exposed to the sunlight. "You're so soft, baby," he tells her, gripping her thighs hard enough to leave bruises. The soft flesh there wobbles a little under his grip and he kisses them again, his stubble prickling the sensitive skin there.
"Ma
ster Darius," she whines, high and desperate.
"That's it, baby. Pretty little pup," he mumbles, fangs dropping and biting harder.
She doesn't have time to ask why he's calling her 'pup' even though he knows she's a cat shifter. She's not wolf, not like him. It doesn't matter though, because he mouths along the injury he's left on her thigh, licking up the blood the pebbles to the top. "Ah- ah-," she gasps, eyes filling with tears again when she feels his teeth sink deep.
"Poor baby," he coos. "Tiny little thing," he growls. "I'm gonna make you feel good." He kisses between her legs and then licks inside of her, tongue spearing past her soft lips to taste all the way into her body. It feels too much too quickly even though he had been building up to it. The knowledge that it's him and he's doing this is both wonderful and terrible. Wonderful because her Master Darius wants her and terrible because a part of her thinks he's only doing this to mark what's his and get rid of Ethan's scent on her.
It doesn't stop her from crying out in pleasure when his tongue delves in deep, fingers joining her virginal hole to stretch her open so he can curl his tongue inside of her and lick every inch inside her. "Oh, oh," she whimpers.
"That's it. That's it, pup. Let go," he growls as he pulls out, fingering her now instead, forefingers from both hands inside of and pulling her open, breaking through her hymen with only a sting of pain that she barely registers through the overwhelming ecstasy that rolls through her entire body.
"Master- Master Darius," she keens.
"Gonna make you feel so good, baby, you're so good, so good for me like this," he says, stream of words spilling out as he strokes her, curling his fingers as he spreads her open, and then licking into her again. "That's it, love. You're so lovely. So soft and perfect," he growls, moving his face to nip at the fleshy part of her thighs, fingering her until she's gasping, begging underneath him. "That's it, pup. Come for me," he coaxes.
She does, whimpering and crying as her orgasm washes over her, intense and amazing.
He continues pumping his fingers inside her through her orgasm, rumbling filthy things in her ears about how he's going to fill her with pups, breed and make her full of his cubs. "You want my cubs, don't you, pup?" he whispers, his voice a few octaves deeper than normal, pupils blown black. "Want my cock? Want my knot inside you, plugging you full of my seed?"
She nods, eyes clenched shut because it all feels too much, too intense. His fingers come away soaking wet and he brings them to his mouth, tasting her with a blissful expression. His claws on her thigh are still sharp, probably unintentionally so as he sucks his fingers and licks them clean.
"Absolutely delectable," he says.
He finally appears sated, knowing that there's nothing left on but him, her soft skin pink from his scruff and teeth marks, from bruises his fingers left on her and little cuts from his claws. He leans up and licks a kiss into her mouth, hands on her ankles to push them up over her head, folding her up so that he is able to press the hard line of his cock against her opening. Even though the suit he's wearing, she can feel him, thick and throbbing, ready to take.
She knows she's being greedy but she wants him to do it, want his cock in her, wants to be filled the way he says he would.
Of course, Ethan would choose now to walk into the room and, upon seeing her, bruised and bloodied, come to all the wrong conclusions and tackle his brother.
Chapter Six: Rough
Darius has always been the stronger one when it comes to physical confrontations. It's a little unfair, really, since they're twins and are supposed to be the same in every way. Darius has the drive of an Alpha that Ethan is self-aware enough to recognize that he lacks.
He's perfectly fine with following orders, doing what Darius wants him to do.
Well, except for that thing with the kit they had procured from the Lion pack. He thought Darius intended to bring her to the facility, as they have done with all the half shifts they've managed to save from their packs. People treat shifters like her like they're less than human.
Their mother was a half-shift. Even though their father loved her very much, they could both see that it was a wrong sort of love, one borne out of an obsessive desire to own her.
When Darius mentioned that he wanted to keep her, Ethan had been... curious. He wanted to see for himself where she was being kept and if she's happy, so he stole his keys and lied his way through the security. Having an identical face to his twin meant doors opened for him with ease.
He didn't expect to lose control the moment he saw her, didn't expect himself to want her, especially when he saw the way she brightened up on seeing him. She's so beautiful, so perfect and wonderful and really, it's unfair of Darius to keep her to himself like this. Such beauty should be shared, cherished. He wanted her- wanted her more than anything he had wanted in his life.
He deserved to be thrown into the wall when Darius returned and found him touching what's his. Darius doesn't share the things he thinks is his. And it's obvious he thinks she belongs to him exclusively.
Ethan likes pushing buttons though. He rubs the back of his head as he tries to see if he has a concussion from how hard Darius had thrown him into the wall. There's a sizable bump on the back of his head, but he's not bleeding, so that's a good thing. He huffs and sits up. He should leave now while his brother's still distracted, but he's curious. He wants to see what they're up to. He can hear her from here, moaning and whimpering like a cat in heat. She's making such lovely noises that he wishes he could record her.
Feeling like a voyeur, he makes his way to her room and stops dead in his tracks when he sees his brother's teeth on her. The only reason why Ethan manages to take on his brother is because he's distracted.
"You're being too fucking rough," Ethan snarls as he sinks his claws into his brother's arms and pulls him away from her forcefully. Between one blink and the next, he has Darius pinned under him, knee digging into his back as he keeps him down. "You don't want to break her on her first time, brother," he growls, his face half shifted, fangs sharp and gaze even sharper.
"Get off me," Darius snarls, lashing behind him with sharp claws, slashing behind him to throw him off. Ethan has had a lifetime of experience play fighting with his brother and knows where his weaknesses are and how to keep him down. He's only fighting at half capacity, his wolf so desperate to run back to her that he isn't using strategy and is just mindlessly lashing out.
"You hurt her," he says, gripping his brother's hair and yanking his head back so that he is forced to see the reality of what he had done. He should have intervened the moment he smelled blood, but he thought it was just him taking her virginity. He didn't know his twin would be marking her up.
"She's mine," he snarls, still lost in the animal brain that wants her to bear his print.
"Look at her!" Ethan bares his teeth, and yanks his hair harder, forcing him to see how she's curled up on the bed with her legs folded up to her chest and her long tail wrapped around her body like some sort of shield. There's blood everywhere, clinging to her skin and on the sheets and all over his face. "You're scaring her," he says, wishing his twin would come to his senses sooner rather than later. She is holding the tip of her tail and mouthing at it nervously, making little scared noises that makes Ethan's heart clench and he doesn't even know her that well. He had seen other cat shifters do that before, mouth their tails when they're scared or frightened in order to calm down.
It takes a few seconds for his twin to really see what he's done and he sags in his grip. Blood drains from his face, though that only makes the smears on his mouth more terrible. His animal is pushed back in record time and Ethan lets go, stepping back and away now that he no longer needs to be held down.
"I'm so sorry, love," Darius says, moving towards her on his hands and knees.
Ethan has never seen his twin look so broken before.
He stops short when she flinches, ears perking back as she mouths her tail anxiously. "Master Darius?" she whispers. It's a sweet
sound, confused but yet so eager to get his attention. The chains on her legs jingle when she shifts on the bed.
"Baby, I'm not going to hurt you. Promise," he says earnestly, squatting by the bed, giving her enough space to let her know that he's not trying to crowd her or cage her in.
She sniffs, hand reaching automatically to clutch the broken skin at her shoulder. It's not bleeding anymore, but it still looks a mess, smears of red on her pale skin and deep teeth marks like a wolf had gotten his jaws on her. Well, a wolf had gotten his jaws on her.
"Again," Ethan says, unable to help himself from being cheeky about it.
"What?" Darius snarls, snapping to him.
Ethan's had a lifetime to learn not to be afraid of his brother when he's posturing. "You promise not to hurt her again," he says, gesturing at the wound on her shoulder and then the various injuries all over her.
Just like that, he deflates, anger turning into guilt. Turning back to her, he says, "I'm so sorry, baby. I lost control. I didn't- I won't-" he rubs a hand over his face and Ethan is reminded so much of their father, who couldn't stand the thought of anyone seeing their mother. He remembers the marks on their mother's shoulder too, though they're scarred over now and their father isn't as possessive as he used to be.
He supposes it's natural that Darius is like this too. Ethan wonders if he'll be as obsessed with his mate when he finds one of his own. Then again, this is probably his fault too for putting his hands and mouth on her. It's likely that Darius is just trying to get rid of his scent on her skin and got carried away. He remembers a toy Darius used to own when they were pups, a stuffed lion that he would take everywhere. Ethan had his own too, but he has always been a greedy boy, wanting what others had. He snuck into his room and stole Darius's toy one day. Instead of taking it back when Darius found it, he tore the toy apart.