Deviant Evolution

by L. V. Lane

  Her head popped up, and through the gloom, I could feel her study. “Is that what this is? Sharing?”

  “You have a problem with that?” If she said she didn’t want both of us, or worse, neither of us, the fallout would be—unpleasant. I’d be fine if she said she didn’t want Ryker—I wasn’t going to be so lucky.

  Her head rested back against my chest, and her gentle fingers resumed their pattern. “No. But I keep expecting one of you to leave.”

  Her statement left an uncomfortable weight in my gut. None of us had discussed what would happen next. There had been so much bullshit on my mind with Tsing that I hadn’t thought to discuss it. It took considerable restraint not to grip her tighter. We’d put her through a lot tonight; she needed to sleep. Yet, I could not help myself from poking to see what she would say—even though none of this was her fucking decision. “Do you want one of us to leave?” If she gave the wrong answer here, I would be perilously close to taking my belt to her again. A sharp unwholesome image sprang to my mind of Ryker trying to drag me off as I forced her into heat.

  “No,” she said softly. Her fingers stilled, and she settled against me, wriggling until she was pressed a tiny bit closer.

  The beast in me was partially appeased. Petting her hair, I offered the comforting rumble as a reward. “Then, we’ll work it out,” I said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  MY OFFICE WAS the same as it ever was. But I could not shake off the notion something was different.

  I stood at the window, staring down at the landscaped garden. I was standing because sitting was…a challenge.

  My father and his circus were about to arrive.

  And I had no idea what we were going to talk about since I was sure every topic would turn into a minefield.

  Merry poked her head around my door. “He’s here,” she said.

  I nodded, sucked a deep breath in, and headed for the conference room where we would meet.

  The corridor was empty when I made my way to meet him. The security would have already been through, ensuring this route was clear.

  What was he going to say? Would he still be cross at me for shooting that poor soldier? And what about Ethan and Ryker? How the hell did I find myself in such a mess?

  I thought I would have a good ten minutes to wait for him, so it came as a complete shock when I passed the two security men outside the door and found my father standing there.

  I halted inside the door. Victor Brach was facing the window with hands in his pockets. His head whipped around at my entrance, and he covered the few steps between us in long strides before wrapping me in a giant hug.

  Squeezing my eyes tightly shut, I enjoyed the simple pleasure of the embrace. “Ah, Lilly. You’ve been trying to kill your poor father with your antics.” His arms were gentle around me—he had always been gentle for such a huge man. “There, it’s over now.” He drew me away so he could inspect me. Then he tucked me in against his side and pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

  “You’ve got too much of your damn mother in you,” he said.

  That brought a smile to my face. Complaining I was like my mother was his go-to grouch. He couldn’t be too angry if he were offering up light-hearted complaints.

  “I thought you would be angrier,” I said.

  He puffed out a breath and gave me a gentle squeeze. “At you? Never. I was angry at myself.”

  He didn’t say anymore, and I was grateful for that. I didn’t want to hear him tell me that I should have been settled with an Alpha years ago, that I should have resigned from my position on the program the moment I revealed, or how my mother’s poor character had influenced my rebellious behavior.

  We had had all those conversations before.

  I couldn’t change his mind, and he couldn’t change mine.

  “You’ve had a difficult transition,” he said. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “I might have brought some of it on myself,” I admitted.

  He chuckled. “Do I need to mention your mother again?”

  I shook my head. “No.” But I was smiling, too.

  It was there again, a bubbling awareness of change once more upon me. This time, the changes were not so bad. I didn’t know how that was possible given I had welts on my bottom.

  It wasn’t the belt or the marks it had left. It was the conversation this morning with Ethan as we lay, tangled together, and his determination that this would work out—with them.

  Both of them.

  I felt greedy and selfish, and yet, they seemed to want this, too. Both Ethan and Ryker had been physically changed so they could be with me…and they had conditioned me to want to be with them. It no longer felt like a terrible sort of control…it felt a lot like love…and like I might look back in twenty years and see a relationship like the one my father shared with Celeste.

  “You’ve settled with them,” he said, his voice a little gruff. “He called me after he collected you from the ship. Told me he was keeping you. Threatened to destroy the bloody Empire single-handedly if I interfered.” He puffed out a breath while I tried to process that. Was he talking about Ethan? “On reflection, the conscription wasn’t handled well. He had a troubled introduction to the Empire. I’m good at reading between the lines, Lilly. My ability to read people has helped me retain my position on the ruling council. I’m sure his interest in keeping you started out as revenge…or at least, he convinced himself of it. Might still do. But I have the greatest faith he’ll come around to his new situation, given time.”

  He smiled.

  Yes, he was talking about Ethan.

  I tried telling myself that a man threatening to destroy things to make your father take him seriously wasn’t the healthiest approach to a problem, but a sensation close to giddiness consumed me regardless.

  “I have a strong suspicion the other one is going to start the same games after my last conversation with the general.”

  My father chuckled.

  My brain was doing a poor job of playing catch-up.

  “They haven’t killed each other yet, so I’m assuming you have a plan for when you come into heat.”

  My face flamed. This conversation was heading in a direction I wasn’t comfortable taking. I expected he had long harbored suspicions I had been tampering with nature.

  “Yes,” I said, although the details were fuzzy. And I certainly wasn’t going to start a ménage conversation with my father.

  A knock sounded on the door.

  At my father’s call, they entered.

  “Five minutes, Sir,” the man said.

  My father nodded, and as the door shut, he kissed the top of my head once more. We spoke for those last five minutes about the rest of the family, an easy conversation that returned a sense of normality.

  I couldn’t leave my family, any more than I could leave Ethan or Ryker.

  It was time to start making new plans.

  “So, do I need to start making plans for a new job?” Merry asked, teasing. Her hair was a subtle lilac today. It was one of my favorite shades, and set off the bright blue of her eyes.

  Taking a short break, we had found a bench beside the feature lake to sit and eat our lunch. Such downtime was a rare treat, but it was a pleasant location, and the warm sun felt good.

  I smiled. “Not yet. They seem okay with me to continue working for now.

  “That could change if you catch. There’s a fifty-fifty chance with the first heat. Much higher the next time…and there are two of them.”

  There was a definite gleam in her eyes.

  I gave her a mock-warning shake of my head. “You’re evil,” I said.

  She laughed. “So, are you going to—pick one—when the time comes?”

  “I’ve no idea,” I said because I didn’t. We hadn’t discussed it. My bottom was still suffering from the welts Ethan had meted out. Between my sore bottom, and the other kinds of attention they lavished on me every moment of spare time, there had not been a great deal of talk
ing on the subject of what was going to happen next. “I’m going to broach it tonight.”

  “Oh,” she said. Her hand squeezed gently over mine. “It’ll work out Lilly, I know it will. Even a blind person could see they are as smitten with you are you are with them. If people care, they work it out.”

  “Smitten might be stretching it a bit,” I said dryly.

  “But you do care about them, don’t you?” She pressed.

  “Yes,” I admitted. “I do.”

  “I saw you have a meeting tomorrow morning with Doctor Tsing?” she said, changing the subject. “You two seem to be getting on better lately, too?”

  “Yes,” I replied. “We had a talk a few weeks ago. Aired a few things. I felt a lot better after. He said he was trying to help me find a way to chemically manage the flushing. So I wouldn’t need a—” I gestured inadequately.

  “A Controller,” she offered.

  I nodded. “If only he’d explained this to me at the time, I might not have been so upset with him. He’s not so bad. In his own way, I think he cares.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Obsessed, I would call it. You don’t see the way he looks at you. When I found out Ryker had threatened to snap Doctor’s Tsing’s neck, I might have hugged him if he wasn’t so freaking scary. Tsing took the testing too far. He always does. And don’t delude yourself into thinking he’s doing anything for you. He’s selfish that man. If he’s helping you, it will be part of some bigger scheme to help himself.”

  “Maybe,” I said. I wasn’t quite ready to give up on Erison yet. The offer he had made was financially generous, and he was taking a huge reputational risk if his involvement was ever discovered. I was glad I’d made my decision, and that I wouldn’t need to accept his offer.

  Tomorrow, I would explain to him I was choosing to stay here. For better or worse, this was my new life. Merry was right, I cared for Ethan and Ryker, and while aspects of our lives still drove me to despair at times, the thought of never seeing them again was worse.

  “You’re too trusting,” Merry said.

  “I am an Omega.” My smile was rueful. It felt strange to admit as much without feeling the usual cloying depression.

  “So you are,” she said, lips pursed in thought before her pretty face bloomed into a smile. “So you are.”

  It was Ryker who collected me from my office, and it took all of a glance to see Ethan had followed through on his threat.

  A sigh escaped my lips as I took in the damage. I was perilously close to tears and could sense the imminent onset of a flush.

  He gathered me up in his arms like I was the one who had been hurt. “It looks worse than it is, babe.”

  “You said that last time,” I said. “And I didn’t believe you then.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, I’m lying—hurts like a motherfucker. But at least I got some good punches in this time. And I’ve noticed I heal a lot quicker since I’ve been taking your blood.”

  My thoughts surged and then collapsed; the changes from my blood were dangerously close to locking in. Perhaps they already had?

  He set me away from him, putting a finger under my chin and checking my pupils. “Are you flushing?”

  Resisting the urge to say I was fine, I nodded. “I don’t like seeing you like this.”

  “Come on. Grumpy has promised to quit his extracurricular activities early so we can begin preparations.”

  Merry had left for the day, and the reception room was empty when we walked through. “Preparations for what?”

  “Ethan thinks you’ve been worried about it.”

  I sent him a questioning look as we made our way along the corridor to the elevators.

  “Heat,” Ryker elaborated, which nearly had me face planting. He grinned and caught my arm to steady me. “Well, you’ve been suppressing it for three years, babe. No one does that unless they’re trying to hide their dynamic…or are scared about going into heat.”

  The elevator arrived. Only three other people were present within the confined space, but Ryker stood attentively close.

  I sought to create some distance. Preparations sounded ominous, and it wasn’t helping with my flush. He shook his head and tutted, drawing me into his chest and petting my hair.

  “Behave yourself,” he said. “Or I’ll have to treat these nice elevator patrons to a public disciplining.” He said this loudly enough for everyone in the damn elevator to hear. My face heated, and my flush pounded heavier. “Be a good girl, and I won’t need to tell Ethan about your naughtiness.”

  My little huff set him chuckling, but I didn’t try and pull away. Pick your battles and all that.

  When we arrived at the apartment, Ethan was already there. And as Ryker had indicated, his face showed evidence of their altercation, although he wasn’t close to being as bad as Ryker.

  He gathered me in close the moment I entered. Lifting me into his arms where I wrapped my legs around his waist as his lips captured mine in a searing kiss that stole my breath away. Pulling back, he studied me briefly before his focus slid to the side, to something over my shoulder. His hands lowered to cup under my bottom as Ryker pressed into me from behind.

  I sucked a sharp breath in, dragging their combined scents deep into my lungs—rich and spicy, wild and earthy.

  I loved the scent, the ‘both of them’ scent. I could drown in that scent.

  And I felt like I was drowning, like I was being drawn into unfamiliar territory, and despite my earlier bravado in thinking I was ready for this, I realized that I wasn’t.

  I searched Ethan’s face for some signs of weakening. I tried to take shallow breaths, but their essence was inside me. “I can’t. It’s too much.”

  His fingers tightened on my ass as Ryker pressed flush against my back. Their heat enveloped me, in front and behind. My heart rate surged, beating an erratic tattoo in my chest.

  Ethan smiled—the wicked one. “You confused about how this works—again, Princess? I wasn’t asking for your opinion.” Then he lowered his lips over mine.

  I gripped him tighter. Trying to find something to hang onto, because I knew whatever they had planned was going to destroy me a little more.

  Ryker’s hands settled on my waist, and a good kind of tension enveloped me. He squeezed gently, edging a tiny bit closer, bumping me into Ethan. Then ground the thick length of his cock against my ass.

  I couldn’t suck in enough air while Ethan was kissing me, his lips angling over mine, sucking my bottom lip into his mouth before his tongue tangled with mine.

  A hand stroked through my hair, pulling it back into a loose ponytail, and I was confused until I realized this was Ryker. His lips trailed along my throat, and I shivered as they settled over the thin membrane.

  I groaned, lost to the overwhelming sensations, surrounded, and utterly controlled and loving everything about it.

  I whimpered when his teeth teased over the skin, threatening me with the possibility that he might bite. Soft teasing kisses and little nips that set me fidgeting within Ethan’s hold. I wanted him to bite me.

  I ripped my mouth from Ethan’s. “Please. I’m flushed. Please.”

  Ryker’s head lifted. His fingers caressed the back of my throat before tangling once more in my hair. Ethan stared down at me, his heated gaze sliding from mine to the juncture of my shoulder and neck on the right. The side belonging to him. Gripping tighter on my hips, he drew me closer, joggling me between them.

  They both lowered their heads, and I sank into a fuzzy sort of mania as their lips skimmed over the delicate membrane. Blood thudded through my veins, and I tensed in anticipation of the first pop. They were hurt and injured, and although it wasn’t due to an external threat, my body still wanted to give—desperately.

  I was anxious. It lurked on my periphery, but the steady drugging sensation of their lips, brushing and sucking gently over my throat close to the thin patch of skin would not allow the fear to take full hold.

  Teeth nipped against the left side. “Relax
babe, we’re in control,” Ryker growled close to my ear. He nipped again. “Trust me, we worked out all our aggression earlier. Well, Ethan did. I’m much better at sharing and benefited less from the session.”

  Ethan growled against my throat, and it stoked my burgeoning arousal higher.

  I began chanting. A little prayer offered up from my lips, begging them to take.

  They bit as one, and a strangled cry tore from my lips that soon turned into a breathy groan. The maddening pressure eased with the first pull.

  Their strong bodies crowded around me, entombing me in euphoria, and my mind filled with white noise. It was like stepping out of time, and the only sounds that penetrated were the drum of blood through my veins and our ragged breaths.

  I felt arousal like a thousand fingers fluttering over my skin. Mine, theirs, all of ours.

  They drank generously; it would heal them.

  When they lifted their heads, I felt blood trickle down my throat briefly before the membranes reformed. Once upon a time, the sensation had distressed me, but I had become desensitized to such things.

  My eyes met Ethan’s as blood rushed through me like a raging sea. Did he feel it?

  His nostrils flared.

  “Well,” he said, hooded eyes lowering to my lips. “That was quite a surprise.”

  Were we bonded? Was this what bonded felt like? I had already taken Ethan’s blood, bitten him more than once. And he had taken my blood many times, they both had.

  “I need to fuck her,” Ryker said, snapping me out of my daze.

  Ethan’s response was to carry me into the bedroom and drop me onto the bed. I bounced as I hit the soft mattress, hair flying over my eyes. By the time I had brushed it aside, they were both on me. Ethan ripped my top over my head, while Ryker removed my skirt and panties. Their hands tugged as they stripped me with a systematic efficiency that flooded my body with a cocktail of chemicals and set my libido rocketing. Once I was naked, they crowded me back on the bed, laying to either side of me.