It wasn’t the bond. It was the darkness … because she was just as damaged.
They all had monsters living beneath their skin: proverbial cloaks they could shrug on and off when the mood struck, the material woven with obscure malevolence. They could use it to do unmentionable things, or they could use it to do the impossible. Isobel didn’t wear her darkness the same way. She couldn’t seem to control it or demand it serve her.
Maybe that was what drew her to them. She needed someone to bring it out of her.
Enough about the Sigma.
He dropped his carefully walled composure and welcomed that caged beast into his skin with practised ease. He felt the change in his stance, and when he spoke, he could even hear the silken cadence that edged his usually guarded tone.
“It’s time to leave work,” he said. “Go back to your apartment, Tilda.” A calm, cool emotion drifted over him. Control. Beautiful, sweet fucking control. “I want you waiting on your knees four steps from the door. You’ll be punished for every article of clothing left on your body. You have twenty minutes.” He hung up, pausing a moment to give her enough time to leave her desk as he had ordered before he made his way back toward Theodore’s room.
He didn’t need to question whether or not Tilda would obey him. She would. Despite everything, she would. Despite her own nature, even. This was what she wanted, what she was always begging for, always trying to push him to give to her.
The one piece of him he wasn’t always willing to share.
Theodore’s room was dark as he closed the door, the figures on the bed tensing. All of them except Carter. Even in the darkness, he could clearly see her curled up in a rumpled mess of blankets, her cheek resting on Oscar’s arm, her fists curled in Kilian’s shirt, pulling it close to her face.
“What is it?” Kilian asked.
Oscar didn’t say anything.
“I need her scent.” Mikel stopped at the end of the bed, holding out both hands. It wasn’t a request.
Oscar lifted to his knees, bundling Carter into his arms. “The fuck for?” he asked quietly, his chest rumbling with a warning.
“Kilian filled you in.” Mikel crooked his fingers, fixing Oscar with a cold, steady, demanding gaze. He wasn’t asking a question, but Oscar nodded anyway. “I need information from Tilda.”
The two of them stared at him for a moment, Kilian’s pale eyes widening, Oscar’s dark eyes narrowing tightly.
“Now.” Mikel’s tone turned low and velvety, almost a whisper, his power flexing out and expanding across the room. He didn’t bother with Alpha voice.
Oscar knee-walked to the edge of the bed and Mikel reached out, carefully taking the sleeping girl from his arms.
“I don’t think that will work,” Kilian said gently. Hesitantly. “Mikki, I don’t think you can just trick your system like that.”
“We’ll see,” Mikel rumbled out, keeping his voice soft so as not to stir the Sigma.
He held his breath, carefully rearranging her to drape across his front, held up by his arms banded across her thighs and back, her head falling into the crook of his neck.
“You can’t get hard with Tilda anymore?” Oscar asked, confused. He was scratching his neck, his attention roaming over Mikel and Isobel.
Kilian shot out a leg, kicking Oscar in the thigh. Oscar ignored him, staring hard at Mikel’s arm.
Mikel tried to keep his breath short—when he was forced to draw one—and he blocked out the scent that tried to curve cloyingly around him, just like he was blocking out the sensation of the soft body pressed up against his. She had lost weight. He didn’t like that.
It also had nothing to do with him.
“She’s desperate for me to Dom her,” he said quietly.
“So Dom her.” Oscar shrugged.
Kilian rolled his eyes. “I’m sure it isn’t that simple.”
“It’s not.” Mikel gave Oscar a disparaging look. Isobel shifted like she was waking up, her nose brushing against his neck. Her hands drifted up his chest, resting at his collarbones, her fingers curling in against the collar of his shirt. Her legs shifted up, like she was trying to cling on to him, and he considered quickly handing her off, but then her legs parted, twisting around his waist, her thighs squeezing with a contented sigh. He could feel the warmth of her everywhere, suddenly, and he forgot to resume his shallow breathing, accidentally pulling in a lungful of her contented scent.
Warm, wet, sticky cherry. It was like she had turned to syrup to drip over his skin. It was simultaneously exactly what he needed and everything he didn’t want. He closed his eyes, forcing all the sensations down. When she settled again, her breathing returning to soft little puffs against his neck, he opened his eyes.
Kilian was wrong.
He could definitely trick his system.
“Tilda is inherently unhappy.” He resumed speaking like nothing had happened, his voice perfectly composed. “That’s why she was such a good target in the first place. She was vulnerable enough for me to slip right in and give her everything she needed, but that was last year. I should have cut her off and moved on to someone else, but I got lazy and nobody else caught my interest, so we’re stuck with her. I’m not a sadist.” He let his eyes rest on Oscar for the briefest moment. “I’m an experienced Dom. I don’t like lording my power over people and seeing them suffer. I enjoy women submitting to me.”
“Are you asking me to subdue her for you?” Oscar asked, relaxing back against the headboard, ignoring the second kick Kilian aimed at his legs.
“Stop it,” Kilian grumbled.
Oscar smirked—he loved to tease Kalen and Mikel for their lifestyle. It was a pity. They could probably teach him to harness and control some of his more savage urges, but he wasn’t interested in rules and structure, and the kink community was all about rules and structure.
Mikel snorted, his lips lifting into half a smile. “Tilda doesn’t enjoy fear. She enjoys control, and that’s the problem. Even bound and blindfolded she still never hands over control, and I’m finding it harder and harder to convince my dick that we still need her.”
“Why bother playing, then?” Kilian asked. “Just have normal sex. Think about something else.” He managed to keep a straight face and not look at Isobel as he said it. Barely.