Chapter Text

behind enemy lines

Part 1

A stupid root is Violet's downfall on a moonlit August night.

She's doing recon behind enemy lines. Or well, can one call them enemies if war has never officially been declared? Violet's scribe training says it's technically not applicable, but leadership sure acts as if it is. 

Either way, she and Tairn had landed further from the stronghold that is called the Summer House, a veritable fortress within the mountainous terrains of Eastern Tyrrendor. It's owned by the Riorson family, whose sole remaining member rules Tyrrendor – Xaden Riorson, a young dragonrider whose merciless reputation precedes him – and functions as a training ground for specialized forces. She had trekked down the mountains and has been roughing it for days in the wilderness, scouting and noting down the active dragons in the riot stationed here. Now, on the hike back to her extraction location, she's encountered a fucking root.

Violet Sorrengail, lightning wielder, second lieutenant of Navarre, taken down by a single misstep. And not even a verbal one, like she is so often reprimanded for.

Her ankle is fucking wonky, and she hit her head hard enough for there to be blood, but not a concussion. She's still nowhere near her extraction location, and if she doesn't get there tonight, Tairn won't be able to retrieve her until the next night. The woods are too thick for dragons to land easily, especially ones as big as Tairn.

Her grumpy dragon has been having the time of his life while she's been here, because apparently his mysterious mate – whom he refuses to talk about to her or Andarna – is somewhere nearby.

At least one of us is getting some, Violet thinks bitterly, and limps on. She's been in a dry spell for months, and she's honestly getting desperate. Desperate enough that she might just have to lower her standards when she gets back to her outpost.

The trees thin out into a tiny clearing, revealing a small waterfall leading into a deep, clear mountain pond.

"Thank you, Amari," Violet praises. She's not bathed in days, and while stopping will slow her, she's sort of lost hope of being extracted tonight. The cold water should soothe her bruised ankle, too.

"I'll be circling in case you make it," Tairn booms. "Be vigilant. You are not alone in these woods."

Violet rolls her eyes. He's been constantly reminding her of patrols flying overhead, and she is aware she isn't far from a small sanctuary dedicated to Dunne, but no one will be climbing there this time of night. It’s calm and quiet in the clearing, only the small waterfall making noise, and moonlit enough to see, which is another excuse not to hurry to the extraction point. Tairn is black, but even he isn’t invisible at night.

Setting down her pack and unwrapping her joints, Violet piles her clothes neatly, unstrapping her daggers. For a second, she contemplates how to get in or out of the water. The easiest way seems to be just sitting down on the edge of the water, easing in, since it’s probably deep. She shivers when she lowers her ass to the edge and the cool water hits her feet, but determinedly slips in, taking a few slow strokes.

The water is just as cold as expected, and she splashes a bit as she tries to both tread water with her uninjured foot and wash a few days of dirt off her skin. Her hair is still firmly in its coronet braid, but there’s no point unbraiding it now.

She moans quietly in pleasure and relief as the throbbing in her ankle eases, the sound echoing across the clearing.

“Oh, what do we have here, cousin?”

The voice comes from behind, and Violet spins in the water so fast she gets dizzy. Shit, shit, shit. Why did she leave her daggers on the shore? She was so sure she was alone, how did someone appear out or nowhere?

Two someones.

“Tairn?”

“Approaching. But I cannot land, and torching any enemy would surely reveal our presence here.”

He’s right. The clearing is too small, and torching the enemies, a bright flash of fire in the moonlit night, will bring a patrol onto them from the Summer House before they can escape. 

“Such a pretty little thing where she shouldn’t be, making sweet noises.” The man who is speaking is tall and imposing, flight leathers stretched over broad shoulders and a sculpted, powerful body. There’s a menacing smirk on his gorgeous face, the moonlight glinting off the hilts of two swords strapped to his back. “It seems Loial favours us on this night, cousin.”

“Indeed, Xaden,” the other man says, and from this far away, in the dark of night, she can’t tell them apart. They look nearly identical. Then the words catch up with her, and her blood runs cold. Xaden?

“Or, perhaps, Dunne?” The man called Xaden, who she begs to all the gods isn’t Xaden Riorson , glances at her coronet braid, where the silver strands are surely visible in the moonlight. “After all, it’s not every day you capture a beautiful spy on your own land, is it, Violet Sorrengail? ”

She freezes in shock. How does he know?

Her hair is distinctive, yes, but it’s still a quick conclusion to draw just from that. He must see the indecisiveness of whether or not to try lying her way out flash across her face.

“Don’t deny it,” Riorson orders, and his commanding tone runs down her spine, her body on high alert as she treads water, wondering how the fuck she’s going to get out of this one.

“You’re too wet to wield without an electrocution risk,” Tairn states, but something about his feelings feels off. “I am close now. Try to confirm their identities.”

What good will that do? But Tairn wouldn’t ask for that in a high-risk situation if he didn’t have a reason. Maybe he knows something about Riorson that we can use?

“Clearly, there’s no use denying it,” Violet spits at them defiantly, trying to cover up her fear as the two approach. The water is dark enough at night, even with the moonlight, that she thinks they can’t see much of her, but she feels the water caressing every inch of her naked skin, and knows she’s in a terribly exposed position here. Gods, they’re huge, double if not triple her size, and while their handsome features are similar, they do differ a bit. And the cousin is a tad shorter. “So what will you do with me, Xaden Riorson?”

It’s a wild guess, but he’s close enough to the water’s edge for her to see his eyes flare in surprise, and then a slow smirk stretches across his face.

She turns on the cousin then, wracking her memory for a name. She learned about the Tyrrish noble houses in the Archives in her youth. It comes to her from somewhere, and she thanks whatever god is listening, because at least she’s able to set them on uncertain footing too.

“Or you, Durran?”

He offers his first name with a tiny, pleased smile, like he’s happy she knows of him. “Bodhi.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Bodhi,” she tosses sarcastically, but isn’t quite succeeding in covering up the fear. She feels defenseless and exposed, kicking back into the middle of the body of water as they approach the edge, standing between it and her things. Submerged to the neck, they still can’t really see her, but how long were they watching? “Didn’t anyone teach you two that spying on ladies bathing is wrong?”

Riorson and Durran exchange a quick, amused glance. Riorson takes point, as she suspected, the leader of the two, crouching on the edge of the cliff.

“And didn’t anyone ever teach you that spying in general is wrong?” His tone is almost bored, his features schooled in a mask of apathy again, but his eyes are anything but. They’re alive, burning and intense, wholly focused on her. 

“Tairn?” Violet demands, but gets no answer. What the fuck is going on?

She shakes her head dismissively at Xaden’s comment, wonders for a second if denying being a spy is worth considering, but decides against it. They clearly know who she is, and she has no reason to be here. Confirming her identity or her mission won’t hurt her more than whatever torture they’ll already put her through to get any information she has. They must already suspect.

Still, it goes against what she’s been taught.

“I go where I’m ordered to,” she answers curtly, and Riorson’s dark eyes flash. Durran lets out a dry, amused huff.

“Well, in that case, I’m ordering you to come out of the water.” Riorson’s tone is commanding, like he truly believes she will obey, and she barks a disbelieving laugh even as she feels an undeniable attraction rise. His low, rough and firm tone is way too interesting to her body. 

“I don’t take orders from you, Riorson!”

“Call me Xaden,” he smirks. “And it’s your choice. We can also get you out of the water. But you won’t like our methods, I’m afraid.”

He’s right. They could. Some part of her wants to force them to, see if they’ll strip off their leathers, see them annoyed and inconvenienced by cold water. But there’s no chance they won’t succeed, two on one, coming from two directions. And besides, she can’t wield in the water. A lightning strike is much less suspicious than Tairn torching them. She needs to get onto dry land, at least wipe off a little.

“Hold off on the lightning for now,” Tairn commands, and she frowns minutely but evens out her expression, not wanting to give anything away.

“Back away from the edge. And turn the fuck around! I’m not giving you a show.”

Riorson rises to his full height, and joins Durran by her pack. “I don’t think we will,” he drawls. “You’ll learn soon enough that you won’t be the one giving orders here. Getting some fun out of a beautiful, dripping spy is the least of the payments we should get for dealing with you.”

Dealing. He means killing.

Violet swallows drily, praying to Dunne that Tairn has a plan, that maybe she’ll be able to wield once she’s out of the water, if she can just get her palms a bit drier. She’s wielded in rain and damp before, just not full-on submerged. Being in a body of water naked makes the charge too difficult to control.

No fucking in bathtubs for Violet Sorrengail.

Not that there’s been any action on that front lately. Shaking her head, she focuses.

Desperately, she tries to remember if she knows their signets. Despite there being no outright hostilities, only sabotage and spying and both sides striking at each other with plausible deniability, relations have been tense for years, ever since Tyrrendor sided with Poromiel, declared themselves independent. And everyone knows how General Melgren sent assassins in retaliation five years ago, poisoning the bulk of the leadership in Tyrrendor in one fell swoop. It was blamed on some sickness or another, and left a lot of Tyrrish children orphans, including Riorson and Durran.

Violet can’t regret it, because Fen Riorson killed her older brother during the hostilities surrounding the Rebellion, and she will never forgive him for that.

But it has left Xaden Riorson, his heir and now de facto ruler of Tyrrendor, an unknown entity. She knows they’ve created their own war college, and that dragons bond them. There’s a hatching ground in the Riorson valley. But their signets are a well-kept secret. The only reason they might know hers is that she’s the daughter of a General, and some loose-lipped idiot leaked that information into Navarrian ranks quickly. She’s not surprised if it’s travelled.

Whatever he has, it must not be suited for combat, or he would have already ended her, right?

She won’t die here. She won’t. She’s already late, already about to be declared missing, and while she hasn’t seen her friends or Mira in years, she thinks they’ll still miss her.

“Get on with it, Sorrengail,” Riorson-call-me-Xaden demands, and she kicks cautiously closer to the edge, her ankle barely even sore with all the adrenaline in her veins. They tower over her, still standing between her pack and the edge of the water, and there’s absolutely nothing to do for it except to heave herself up to sit, turning in the same motion – which leaves her naked back and ass turned towards the cousins, a position of vulnerability she abhors. Blood rises to her cheeks at the thought of them watching, of them seeing all of her – even against her will.

Rapidly, Violet pulls her legs out of the water, gets them under her.

She wipes her hands surreptitiously against the dry stone as she pushes up to stand, wobbling for just a moment on her unsteady joints before she forces herself to turn around and face the threat.

They’re close, powerful bodies tense and faces – well, not leering, but appreciative. 

For a split second, it feels good to be wanted. Feels good to see Bodhi Durran’s eyes track down her bare body, Xaden Riorson’s throat work as he swallows, his eyes locked on hers. Then she’s raising her hands slowly, hoping they’re distracted by her modest curves, and calling down a strike.

“Do not wield–” Tairn bellows in her head, but there’s not even a chance before shadows rise from the ground, enveloping and trapping her hands in the air, unable to shift even a hairsbreadth to release the energy coursing through her. 

Fuck.

She slams up the door against Tairn’s power, feels it fizzle out, sweat beading on her forehead at the effort of letting it go. A fucking shadow wielder. And just like that, her odds of survival shrink and die.

“How–” did he know?

“You’re hardly unpredictable, Sorrengail,” Riorson drawls, and she shakes her head in denial – of what, she isn’t sure? Maybe of having her only remaining weapon stripped from her as easily as breathing.

The daggers are behind them. Her hands are trapped. Tairn is suspiciously quiet, and she doesn’t understand what is going on. Why isn’t he here yet? Even if they have to burn these two Tyrs to the ground and make a hasty escape to avoid enemy forces, completely abandoning stealth, it’ll still be better than her bleeding out at the end of one of those wicked twin swords Riorson carries.

Or… whatever else they’ll do to her.

“Look at that, cousin.” And now, both their eyes are wandering. She wonders what they think of her: small, firm breasts, the curve of her hips, her toned legs. Shifting on her feet, unable to escape their tangible stares and unwilling to venture closer, Violet feels like all of her has been turned into the lightning she wields – electrified, tense, burning. At least her cheeks are. “Caught ourselves such a pretty little spy,” Riorson croons, and she glares daggers at him until he chuckles. “Feisty and wet and pretty.”

“All defenseless for us to admire,” Durran agrees, voice low and rough. “And Dunne help me, I could look at her all night.”

Violet shivers, but raises her chin defiantly and even if she could, she’d refuse to cover herself with her hands. They can stare at her naked form with obvious desire, they can do whatever they want with her, but they can’t break her. She refuses to give in, to show them how aware she is of their closeness. She wants to spit threats at them, but bites her tongue. Revealing anything will just be to her disadvantage, and Tairn must be close.

“Should we let her get dressed, Bodhi?” Riorson asks, a mean smirk on his face. “It might be impractical to drag her back to the House like this, but I’d enjoy every second.”

“Why interrupt our trip?” Durran muses. “We aren’t expected for nearly a week. Dealing with her ourselves sounds like much more fun.”

A cold sliver of fear runs down her spine as if Ridoc is playing a prank on her like he used to at Basgiath, dropping ice down her shirt. And now she’ll probably die here, not having seen them for a long time, only exchanging letters that aren’t the same thing as Rhiannon’s hugs or Sawyer’s calm advice or Ridoc’s dirty jokes or Dain’s warm, kind eyes.

I’m going to let them down, she thinks, and feels Andarna’s rage along with something much more complicated from Tairn.

“You will not die!” Andarna screeches in her mind, sounding panicked. She’s too far away to make it here in time if Riorson and Durran do decide to kill Violet, and she thanks Zinhal for that stroke of luck. If it comes to a fight between dragons and their riders, she doesn’t want Andarna – still a young dragon by all means, even if she’s grown significantly – caught up in it.

“If I do, promise me you’ll live, Andarna,” Violet begs. But then she can’t spend another second on being distracted, and knows her dragons forgive her for that.

Riorson looks like he’s contemplating it, his gaze roaming over her from top to toe, before he turns to Durran and the cousins exchange an intense look which tells her they’re speaking in that way people who know each other really well do. Durran’s eyebrows lift as if in question, and Riorson’s eyes go unfocused, like he’s talking to his dragon. Then he nods slowly, as if coming to a decision.

“And where’s your big black dragon, Sorrengail?” Riorson asks, drawing out the words.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she spits at him, crossing her arms over her breasts and cocking her hip. The shadow bonds follow her movements like air, but she suspects they could tighten again at a moment’s notice. Durran’s eyes drop to the movement, and she hides a smirk. Maybe her body could be her ticket out of this situation. Distracting them, maybe even letting them touch her… She’s never done anything like that before, and using herself that way should feel disgusting, but even though fear courses through her veins, she feels flushed and affected by the thought.

Somewhere deep inside her, she’s admiring their muscles in their flight leathers, their beautiful features, though she tells herself she’s just watching them for any sudden moves.

Riorson hums and takes a single step closer, a step she feels all the way to her bones. His proximity, almost within touching distance, makes her shiver. A summer wind sweeps through the clearing, raising goosebumps onto her skin and pebbling her nipples.

“Unless you want to die, I suggest you call your dragon off,” Riorson says, and her lips tense into a frown. “Might be the stupidest suicide in history, but.” He shrugs carelessly, as if all of their lives aren’t in jeopardy right now, as if the situation isn’t strained and dangerous. Arrogant man.

Is he trying to confuse her?

“Stop speaking in fucking riddles, Riorson!” she demands, frustrated and scared – not that she’d admit it.

Riorson – fuck it, Xaden – adjusts the hold on the shadows she’s trapped in, aiming she supposes, to move her arms, and she takes his moment of distraction, gathering the power that has been fizzling in the back of her mind to aim a small strike at them. If she can fork it, like she’s been training to do, perhaps she can get them both? Tairn roars in warning in her head. 

She can’t focus on him.

But as soon as the hair rises on the back of her neck, energy turning the air static, Durran – and she might as well call him Bodhi – raises his hands, twisting them oddly, and–

Her power is gone.

Nonexistent.

“What–” She’s left speechless, again, and Bodhi’s lips curve into a slow smirk that makes him look that much more like his arrogant asshole of a cousin. 

“Didn’t know my signet, either, then,” he says, low satisfaction in his voice. “Don’t try it again, sweet Violet. Wouldn’t want to have to hurt you.”

“As if you aren’t looking to torture and kill me!” she spits. “Stop toying with me and speak plainly!”

Xaden looks at her then, studies her face which must show her anger and confusion. He cocks his head to the side, a smile spreading over his lips. Stupidly beautiful, he is. “You don’t know.” Violet refuses to react, refuses to give him the satisfaction. “Your dragon hasn’t told you.”

“Tairn?!” she demands. “What is going on? Answer me!”

She hates being on the backfoot.

“He’s mated to my Sgaeyl,” Xaden tells her, way too amused by the situation, and Violet struggles with the instinct to slap his cheek as a screech sounds overhead. Tipping her head back, she expects Tairn but sees a large, dark blue shape cross the sky, momentarily blotting out the full moon. It’s followed closely by a slightly smaller, green-tinted dragon.

Her blood runs cold as she understands the implications. If they’re mated–

Shit, she’s on her own.

“I’m sorry,” Tairn says, and her heart squeezes with pain while Andarna roars in fury at the betrayal. “If I try to torch him, Sgaeyl will defend him, and that is the only bond that trumps the one I have to you. And you aren’t in mortal danger, for the shadow wielder can not kill you without killing himself. It will stay his cousin’s hand, too.”

She can barely focus on his explanation, her head reeling, and Xaden’s gaze softens, as if he can sense how this cuts her to the core. But it’s Bodhi Durran who steps forward, shoulder pressed against his cousin’s, his voice kind.

“So you see, we’re not out to kill you. Sgaeyl and Cuir are just being cautious.” There’s a hint of apology in his tone, like he’s sorry she’s found herself in a situation where her dragon has hidden important information from her. Like he sympathizes, somehow. “Don’t be afraid, Violet.”

“You can still hurt me,” she says, and hates how small her voice is, how fragile. Ever since she bonded Tairn, she’s felt – not invincible, but confident. Now, she feels like the rug has been swept from under her feet and she’s scrambling for balance.

“I’m coming, ” Andarna tells her, sending waves of comfort down the pathway they share, and Violet clings to her determination, her love. She understands Tairn’s reasoning, but she’s undeniably hurt, just as Andarna is. Keeping the identity of his mate from her for so many years hasn’t bothered her, Tairn is allowed to be private, but that he’s mated to the leader of her enemies? And that Xaden Riorson knows more about her dragon than she does? He also knows Violet will be Tairn’s last rider, even his fucking cousin knows.

That hurts.

“Don’t, Andarna,” she begs, because she knows the odds. Even if Violet can kill Xaden and Bodhi without risking killing herself – which is doubtful, since she doesn’t know the strength of his bond to Sgaeyl, who must be the blue dragon – it means pitting Andarna against two larger and no doubt more experienced dragons. Violet’s girl won’t stand a chance without Tairn’s support. “Please stay safe and out of sight.”

“The shadow wielder and Sgaeyl have a strong bond, but she should survive his demise,” Tairn tells Violet stiffly, like a peace offering, and she blinks. As if that helps, right now. Xaden clearly believes killing him might kill Sgaeyl, and in turn Tairn and Violet.

She needs to solve this without bloodshed.

And while the cousin is disposable, not tied to her, they will both fight her, and their signets are powerful.

Violet sags slightly in defeat, tears welling into her eyes, and she blinks them back stubbornly.

“We’re not looking to cause you undue harm,” Bodhi insists. He steps even closer, and she instinctively stumbles backward, catching herself before tumbling into the water. Her ankle throbs, and she swears under her breath. Shadows rush to steady her, wrapping around her waist and another creeping to support her ankle.

She swings her gaze to Xaden, and glares. He has the audacity to chuckle.

“What? No thank you for stopping you from tumbling headfirst into the water?” Xaden’s dark eyes gleam menacingly. “Well, it’s no matter. I’m sure we can make you thankful, in time. Now, what to do with you, little prisoner?”

Chapter Text

behind enemy lines

Part 2

“I’m not your anything,” Violet hisses, but she can’t deny that they’ve got her well and truly trapped. 

“No? What a pity,” Xaden murmurs, and tosses Bodhi a look she can’t call anything but playful . It throws her off so badly she almost forgets to glare at them. “And we were so hoping you’d be ours.”

There’s almost a mocking edge to the last comment, and yet she can’t shake the idea that he’s serious. What the actual fuck?

“Do you two make a habit out of sharing women?” Violet accuses, and tries desperately to hide how much that thought makes her wet and bothered: their large hands manipulating her wherever they like, that rough chuckle from Xaden over her head as they use both her mouth and her–

No .

What is wrong with her?

Yes, they’re handsome. One might go as far as to call them magnificent, attractive, drool-worthy, hot, any kind of positive adjective really. 

But she should be afraid, and in a way, she is. It’s just that the fear mixes with the way she just feels drawn to them, her nakedness and their dark eyes appreciating her body only heightening her senses. She feels each caress of wind like it’s a touch on her skin, presses her crossed arms into her breasts and feels her nipples rub against her skin.

But she can’t let them know the maelstrom they’re creating in her body. Can’t let on how affected she is.

“Perhaps,” Xaden allows, and tilts his head, a glint in his eyes making her feel like he’s seen right through her and knows exactly how wet she is from the situation. But that’s impossible. “Would that surprise you, Violet ?”

His voice dips low on her name, intense and dark. It feels like a challenge, and Violet Sorrengail hasn’t backed away from challenges since she crosses the parapet.

“No,” she snorts. She’s almost dried off in the wind now, and shifts her weight uncomfortably, eyeing her pack and the clothes and daggers beside it hopefully, but it’s behind Bodhi’s feet, way out of reach. “With how depraved you Tyrs are rumored to be, I’ll believe most anything.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Bodhi mutters, glancing at his cousin before his gaze skitters away. Xaden doesn’t markedly stiffen, but she sees the tension increase in his frame. Something hit a nerve, and she filed that observation away.

“And are you Navarrians prudes, then?” Xaden inquires almost politely, folding his arms across his chest in a mirror to hers, his legs shifting until they’re shoulder-breadth apart. His whole posture screams military. “Because that rumor seems false, considering how comfortable you look over there, naked and on display.”

His eyes rake over her again with unmistakable heat, and Violet shifts under his gaze.

“Because I don’t have a choice,” she spits.

“You could have asked nicely,” Bodhi points out, like that’s obvious.

“Like hell I will!”

He raises his hands in mock-surrender, and Violet feels like her glare is very ineffective. “Don’t say we’re depraved when you can’t even be polite.”

“You’re fucking holding me captive!” Violet feels power rise under her skin, but doesn’t try to gather it. Not yet. Maybe at some point, she’ll have a moment when they’re distracted. She’s been practicing smaller currents, just enough to stun, not kill, but she’s not dared test them on a human being. Perhaps the cousins will be her first trial runs.

“And that we won’t negotiate on,” Xaden says firmly, sounding almost bored with her arguments, like he just wants to get past them and onto something else. What, though? “Anything else– well, just say the word stop, and we’ll stop.”

“As if!”

She doesn't believe him, doesn’t trust them as far as she could throw them – though that is not far at all, with their bulk. But the set of Xaden’s mouth turns serious, and he steps closer, as if challenging her words. She struggles against the shadowy bonds and they allow her hands to her sides but no further. Arching her back, tugging – nothing makes them budge as Xaden approaches, danger dripping off him like the shadows he wields.

Fuck, he’s so tall. She needs to tilt her head uncomfortably to see him properly, and his hand rises without hesitation, skimming along her cheekbone with too much familiarity for the situation they’re in. Like he’s allowed to touch her, like she would welcome it. Violet turns her head away from his touch, ineffectually, and when that doesn’t work, tries to bite his fingers.

They dance out of her reach, and he chuckles, dark and low.

“So violent.” But it doesn’t deter the fucker, because the ruler of Tyrrendor – they’ve reinstated the old bloodline after the separation, which means he was crowned at sixteen years old – just steps even closer, until she can feel the heat of his body, and when she lifts her knee rapidly, aiming at his groin, he just side-steps, tutting. “Predictable, Violence. But you won’t get me that way.”

Then his hands are on her, trailing over her upper arms softly, teasingly, drawing patterns as he goes like he’s rubbing in her helplessness to deny his touch.  She tries to shrug it off, and in her periphery Bodhi inches closer, bracketing his cousin’s side, standing close enough that he is within arm’s reach of Violet too.

“Is this a fucking game to you?!” Her voice is rough, and a tad desperate. She doesn’t want this, she doesn’t, she doesn’t–

“Only if you make it one,” Xaden says calmly. It’s like he can sense the fight in her, because his next touch is deliberate on her outer thigh, and she shivers at the feeling of his fingertips on her skin, but it’s in a place where she can shake him off – and she does. Still, she gets the feeling he let her on purpose, to make her feel like she had control. Control is going down the drain fast, though, when the rough pads of Xaden’s fingertips drag along the curve of her hip. She keeps in the instinctive desire to lean into the touch, because damn him, it feels good.

She will not play their game.

Except, Bodhi is closing in, and his hand reaches out to trace her collarbone gently, like she’s made of fine china, and Violet wants to scream. The touch makes her feel weak and dainty and she hates that. She’s not breakable, she likes it rough, but she can’t tell them that, can she, because that would be an invitation.

Extending it here and now, surrendering… it sounds too tempting with the way their light touches are making her head spin, but that would give away the only card she has to play with. Her body. 

Or, well, they could be underestimating her mind, too.

“Don’t touch her like she’s a doll, Bodhs,” Xaden directs his cousin, and her eyes flicker wildly between their faces. They’re not even looking at each other, and yet somehow they’re that in tune with both each other and reading the signals she’s trying desperately not to send. “I think this sweet little spy likes it rough.”

How does he guess?

Bodhi’s next pass, trailing insidiously over the slope of her chest, the top of her breasts, is firmer, more proprietary. Violet shivers, and still tries to shy away from it.

“No, don’t–”

She can’t avoid it, the shadows holding her in place for them.

“Tell us to stop , and we will,” Xaden repeats, the liar, and she doubts she even wants to try the humiliation of saying stop and them not stopping after all. At the same time, she wants to do it now, while he’s within reach, so she can spit in his face when he doesn’t. “But you don’t want that, do you?”

Xaden runs a finger slowly and deliberately over Violet’s nipple, barely grazing the pink bud, and she can’t help the gasp she releases or the way her body contorts. 

“No, you don’t.” He sounds smug, arrogant, and all too pleased with himself. Bodhi huffs lightly, an amused, dark sound. It vibrates through her, and she curses her traitorous body for the way it’s reacting. She can’t be aroused by this, she can’t . By all logic she should be terrified, angry, frustrated…

And she is, but also undeniably turned on.

It’s just the touches, their attractiveness and the way my body associates men admiring me while naked with sex, she tells herself sternly. Get a fucking grip and try to form an escape plan!

“How long do you think we need to keep her… distracted, before whatever information she’s gathered becomes old?” Bodhi asks evenly, as if he isn’t discussing her imprisonment while his cousin teases her nipple and his own hands roam over her exposed body. “Will a week be enough?”

The humiliation of it, as well as the expert way Xaden is touching her breasts – flicking over the sensitive peaks slowly – shoots bolts of pleasure down between her thighs.

“Well, I’m not about to hand her over for interrogation when I can just as well figure out what she’s been up to by myself,” Xaden tosses to his cousin, and they exchange a meaningful glance.

“Abuse of your power, my king,” Bodhi teases lightly, and Violet is stunned to see a real, small smile gracing Xaden’s lips before it disappears and he focuses on her again. The cousins must be close, and clearly they’re comfortable like this, their hands not getting in the way of each other. Their touches are relentless now, and Bodhi is cupping her ass with one hand. She’s breathing heavily, heart in her throat, and while she knows where this is going her brain refuses to understand it.

“I’m sure you can be a good girl for us for a week, can’t you, Violet?” Xaden’s tone is low, his intonation dark and amused. “Maybe you can even convince us to let you go when you’re no longer a safety risk.”

“I won’t fuck you to save my life,” Violet spits, because she has some dignity left. Their proprietary touches and intense gazes have left her flustered and aroused and wanting , but she’s not about to admit that.

“Oh, no, your life isn’t in danger, as we already established,” Xaden chuckles. “Besides, that wouldn’t be fun. We like a challenge, and we won’t take anyone against their will, but I hardly think that will be a problem. You are already trembling in our grip, tensing those toned thighs. You want us. So whenever you’re ready, you can beg.”

“Fuck. You.”

“You will,” Bodhi promises calmly, his tone softer than his cousin’s. His hand trails slowly up her thigh, and Violet squirms, her heart beating fast. She should be wiggling to get away, but she’s afraid she’s wiggling to get closer. To get more. 

“No,” she denies, and they both huff in amusement. Her voice sounds weak, even to her own ears.

“Yes.” His hand is dangerously close to her core now. “All you need to say is stop, if you want that, or please, if you want more. Very simple, pretty little spy.”

She shakes her head, because this can’t be happening. The situation is absurd, must be a mix of a nightmare and a horny dream. There’s no way Bodhi Durran’s thick, warm fingers are creeping along her inner thigh as Xaden Riorson mercilessly teases her nipples while she pinches her lips together, keeping in the sounds that want to escape.

But it is real.

And so is the whimper that slips from her, unbidden, when Bodhi’s fingers find her folds, teasing along them briefly and never touching where she needs it most, where her clit is pulsing fiercely.

“Sweet little noises indeed,” Xaden says, and Bodhi groans, his fingers dipping just slightly to tease at her entrance, an embarrassingly easy glide through her slickness. Violet closes her eyes in mortification. “It’s going to feel like a victory each time we coax one from you, won’t it?”

“She’s so fucking wet, Xay,” Bodhi reports, and he sounds strangled. Violet wants to sag in defeat in the hold of Xaden’s shadows, but she can’t. She’s not done fighting. She won’t accept this. 

“Of course she is,” Xaden murmurs lowly. “Let’s get her back to camp, shall we?”

The cousins move as one, their hands dropping away, and Violet whimpers at the loss but tries to muffle the sound at the last minute. Judging by their faces, they heard.

Her head spins as the shadows tug her forwards, straight into Bodhi’s hard chest as he steps into her path, and the rough leather of his flight jacket rubs against her bare skin. He smells like woodsmoke and something else, something she can’t identify, and though she expects rough treatment, his hands are gentle on her body as he picks her up, swinging her over his shoulder like a sack of grain.

She squeaks at the indignity, and Bodhi’s hand grips her ass firmly, unapologetically, in stark contrast to him saying: “Sorry, Sorrengail. But we can’t have you running from us.”

She sees Xaden’s back as he passes behind Bodhi, moonlight glinting off twin swords, and then the man under her is turning. They pass her pack, clothes and boots, and she stares longingly at her daggers, before Bodhi’s hand pets along her thigh suggestively and her arousal roars to life again.

With it comes the reminder that she should fight this, and she tries to do so, to ram knees or elbows or anything into the man carrying her, even hitting her forehead against his back. Bodhi grunts, stumbling slightly in surprise, and before she can push her victory, he spanks her.

It’s a sharp blow, straight where thigh meets ass, and she lets out a strangled sound, stunned at both the pain and the unexpected and humiliating way it was delivered. Her surprise costs her, and he’s landing another before she can continue struggling.

“Try that again, and you won’t like the consequences,” Bodhi says softly, and she realizes maybe she should be just as scared of his calmness as she is of his cousin’s dark smirks. Fear mingles with arousal into a heady cocktail that makes her feel more alive and awake than in years.

Then her limbs are pinned with shadows even if Xaden hasn’t deigned to say anything, and her skin throbs from Bodhi’s blows.

“Thank you,” Bodhi tosses to his cousin, and gets a low sound of acknowledgement in response.

Their campsite is close. So close, that she can’t believe she didn’t hear them. Clearly, they heard her.

She’s put down unceremoniously, her naked feet on soft ground covered with dry pine needles. Her ankle throbs, and suddenly she’s glad she was carried, even if she feels off-kilter now, like the dynamics have shifted somehow.

They have a fire. 

Of course they do – they’re not afraid to get caught here, this is their country – and even if the summer night is warm, the heat from the flames is welcome as they usher her closer to the campfire in a stone circle, surrounded by logs laid out as benches to sit on. There’s a tent pitched between the trees, and she wonders if they often travel like this, just the two of them, because their routine seems well-oiled even with the addition of her, still naked and standing still, bound with Xaden’s shadows and hoping they’ll forget about her.

Yet, inexplicably, she also hopes for them to watch her.

She shouldn’t. She shouldn’t want them, but her traitorous body doesn’t agree. She should try to run, she should struggle, she should fight. Violet tells herself that she will, when they next touch her. She’ll put up some resistance – futile as it would be. She owes that much to herself.

Bodhi sinks to his knees to tend to the fire, burnt down to embers. That’s probably why she didn’t spot it earlier through the trees. 

“So quiet,” Xaden muses, and roughly tilts her chin up to meet his gaze. “You aren’t still thinking you could escape, are you?”

She glares, and says nothing. There’s a tilt to his lips that makes her suspect he enjoys her defiance. 

His next words confirm it.

“Oh, how I’m going to enjoy fucking that attitude right out of you.”

“In your dreams, Riorson,” she spits back, but feels unsteady, like prey caught in his grip.

“You’ll beg for it soon enough,” he answers confidently, and if her hands were free, she’d slap him, no matter the consequences. Bodhi rises to join them, and she wants to slap him even more, because her ass is still smarting.

But her hands aren’t free, are still bound behind her by Xaden’s shadows, leaving her entirely at their mercy.

They surround her from both sides, hands wandering over her bare body, only grazing gently. The soft touches are enough to drive her wild, and she’s helplessly aroused even as adrenaline still courses through her, her body aware of the danger it’s in. It’s a delicate stalemate, them taking her prisoner.

She wonders how long it will last, and whether they’ll hurt her when the truce inevitably shatters.

“If they do, they will answer to me,” Tairn booms, and she shudders. He’s close, circling as much as he dares, but so must his mate and Bodhi’s dragon be as well. 

To her relief, Andarna is staying away.

Xaden drags a hand slowly over her hip, his warm chest pressing onto her right upper arm, and she’s so fucking trapped. It shouldn’t be exciting. It shouldn’t make her heart beat as fast as it does. So far, they’ve kept their promise of making her ask for it. The touches are only teasing, seductive. Brushes of skin over skin, their warm breaths washing over her temples, their voices pitched low for the three of them alone to hear as they drop teasing comments.

She feels exposed in the firelight, more so than she did in the clearing and the forest. On full display, wedged between their solid forms, unable to move. It’s scary, and delightful at the same time. Violet ignores the latter feeling.

Clearly, it’s fear making her heart beat like a rabbit’s, not arousal.

Chapter Text

behind enemy lines

Part 3

Violet can scarcely breathe with both of them touching her.

Soft protests still fall intermittently from her lips, but they ignore them, talk over them, and she can’t quite muster the spark of anger and indignation she had earlier.

She’s tired, she’s sore, and their touches just feel so good.

If they want to hurt her, they will. They’re right that there’s no escaping, not right now. She can’t win against the two of them, and escaping barefoot and naked into the dark forest to try to reach Tairn and Andarna before the cousin’s dragons reach her… well, it’s a fantasy, nothing more.

The reality is that giving in, biding for time, is the smart thing to do.

At least that’s what she tells herself.

“Won’t you ask for what you need?” Xaden croons, and his fingers splay possessively over her hip.

She shakes her head mutely in denial. Something in her can’t accept the defeat that comes with vocalising her wants, can’t melt into their hands like her body wants her to do. 

“Fuck, your skin is soft,” Bodhi praises, and his head drops as he brushes his lips over the skin of her shoulder. Violet moans quietly as he drags blunt teeth over it, his curls tickling her neck. “I want to mark it.”

She shivers. “No…” But it’s not the word stop that they’ve been trying to convince her they’ll listen to, so a few seconds later, he’s sucking what will be a bruise into her skin and she can’t help gasping, can’t help arching into the sensation. Xaden hums, clearly satisfied, and his clever, long fingers inch closer to her core.

It’s hard to protest their progression when no small part of her wants them to reach their target so desperately. 

Xaden’s breath hits the sensitive shell of her ear. “Wouldn’t that be something? Sending you back to your outpost, covered in our bruises and teethmarks and scratches. How humiliating, for you.”

“I’d scar you equally,” she hisses between clenched teeth, her core tensing as Xaden strokes along the crease between stomach and thigh. 

“Don’t doubt you would if you had your hands free,” Bodhi muses. “My dear cousin is right, you are a violent thing in a pretty, small package. Too bad you’re all trussed up in his shadows.”

“I’m going to kill you,” she spits at him as he noses along her neck and behind her ear, leaving a thorough row of kisses there. The threat seems empty, somehow, in this situation. Bodhi only chuckles, his lips warm against her skin. 

Then Xaden’s finger traces over her clit, and she can’t think anymore.

She’s magnificently wound up from their teasing, more aroused than she's ever been in her life, and even the fleeting touch feels like everything she could ever want. But when he only pets over it gently, she hitches her hips in a desperate attempt to get more.

Xaden tsks. “If you want more, you’ll ask for it.”

She pinches her lips together stubbornly to keep in the instant begging rising in her throat. Bodhi’s fingers trail across her stomach, and she knows they mean it. They’ll keep up this torture until she succumbs, and they have the means to do so. They can switch roles while there’s only one of her at their mercy, and eventually she’ll be mindless with it.

“You’re not p-playing fair,” she whines, and Bodhi nips at her earlobe. “Fuck!”

“When did we ever say we would?” Xaden sounds all too smug, and his finger moves torturously slow, dipping down between her folds, gathering wetness and rising again to circle lightly around her sensitive nub. Shit, it’s so good, even like this when it’s not enough, and her hips move restlessly for more friction that he doesn’t give her. “We’ll use everything we can to win you over, pretty little spy. You can’t have expected anything else.”

“I expected pain, not– fuck, ah! Not this!” 

Though it is torture too, just in a different, more insidious format.

“If you want pain, we can give you pain,” Bodhi comments idly, and before she has time to protest – which would be a lie anyway, because she likes an edge of pain in bed – he’s bent down to bite her nipple, tongue flicking over it after to soothe the sting.

Violet squeaks in a completely undignified way. “Bodhi, ple–” 

She catches herself just in time and Xaden laughs lightly. Bodhi’s fingers trail down to her core as well, as if in reward for what almost slipped past her guard. They tangle momentarily with Xaden’s before they sort themselves out, Bodhi’s blunt nails scraping against her soaked folds as his fingers slip down to tease at her entrance.

“I’m going to give you a finger for that, sweet Violet,” he whispers, and when he pushes it inside slowly the stretch is barely noticeable, her core so wet he glides in without resistance even when she tenses, subconsciously fighting the intrusion. “Good girls get rewards.”

“Feels more like– punishment,” Violet gasps, especially when he begins moving it glacially slowly, not even thrusting, just grinding into her, not crooking to reach the sweet spots that would make her come instantly. It’s careful and calculated. She hates it as much as she loves it.

A warm puff of air against her chest as Bodhi moves his head to her other breast. “Can’t it be both?”

Her reply is interrupted by a moan as his tongue flickers over the tip, circling her nipple with intent before he sucks it into his mouth. Xaden has shifted to stand more behind her, one hand still between her legs, torturing her with soft touches while the other moves to the breast Bodhi has left unoccupied.

“Look at you,” Xaden murmurs into her hair. “A writhing, desperate mess for us. Just think about how good we could make you feel, Violet. Just ask for what you want.”

She doesn’t intend to, but finds her mouth forming the words anyway. “I want–”

Then she catches herself, almost too late, and Xaden huffs in amusement. “Give her another for that, Bodhi.”

His cousin complies, another finger slipping into her to join the first, and she whines at the feeling of being filled. “Feels good, doesn’t it?” Bodhi murmurs against the curve of her breast, and she sighs in response, pleasure making her tingle all the way out to her fingertips.

“No hurry, sweet girl.” Xaden’s touches are borderline cruel, featherlight and not nearly enough, just enough to set her aflame. “We can do this all night.”

And isn’t that the problem?

She can’t take it all night. She’s already so close to coming, so close to telling them whatever they want to hear, whether that’s every secret she’s ever held or the filthiest begging they can come up with.

Bodhi’s fingers continue their lazy pace inside her, like he has all the time in the world, like his hardness isn’t pressing against her stomach through his leathers, like Xaden isn’t in the same state behind her. Like they have endless patience.

And hers has run out.

The words spill out of her frightfully easily, but she’s been holding them back and there’s nothing stopping her once she starts.

“Please, please, I need to come, please,” she sobs, and Bodhi’s fingers still inside her while Xaden continues circling her clit with featherlight touches. “Need to come, please make me come, I need you–”

“What do you need, Violence?” Xaden croons in her ear, his voice wrapping around her mind like dark, slippery silk. She knows what the answer is, knows they want to hear it and she wants to say it.

It’s too easy.

“Want your cock,” she whines. “Want both of you, I need to come, please, please–”

The light, teasing pressure on her clit lets up. “There we go,” Xaden murmurs, “I know you could do it. Just let go now, Violence, and let us give you what you need.”

Bodhi’s smile is satisfied, and he slowly removes his fingers, licking off her wetness from them as he takes a step back. Xaden trails his fingers up to her stomach and around her body to where her hands are pinned by shadow, and she lets out a plaintive, disappointed sound at the loss. She wants to come, not for them to let her be! 

“Patience,” Bodhi urges, must see the frustration on her face, and she writhes in Xaden’s grip, body undulating and searching for the pleasure it wants.

Xaden’s hands hold her captive and still. Struggling against his grip while she’s this dazed is futile, but she does it anyway, and gains herself a faint chuckle, low and amused. Xaden keeps her facing his cousin as Bodhi backs away to one of the logs surrounding the fire like benches, one that is close to the treeline. He sinks onto it, leans back against a tree trunk right behind it, and pats his lap a bit condescendingly. 

“Come here, sweet Violet.”

She goes on unsteady legs, too tired to fight, too tired to pretend she doesn’t want this, shadows trailing with her. Her blood sings, and she’s so soaked that her wetness coats her thighs as she moves.

Firelight flickers alluringly over Bodhi’s face, emphasizing his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose, while other parts fall into shadow. It makes him look ethereal, like a god , and when she glances behind her Xaden is silhouetted against the fire. His features are indiscernible, as concealed as their motivations for her, and she shivers, turning to Bodhi again. He seems at least a tad softer, more human even in his godlike-looks, compared to Xaden’s darkness.

Bodhi grabs her when she’s close, turns her around. Xaden’s shadows tug her hands in front of her instead, looping around her wrists again as Bodhi tugs her down into his lap.

It’s such a vulnerable position to be in, hands tied and her legs not reaching the ground where they’re spread over his thighs. Bodhi adjusts her as he likes, and she can’t do anything about it. Strong fingers delve between her legs, parting her folds, and now he wastes no time touching her. His fingers – two, again – push inside her without preamble, his thumb firm on her clit.

It takes only a few seconds before he’s made her come, and she spasms on his lap, pleasure overwhelming her being until there’s nothing but sweet bliss, nothing but the feeling radiating through her limbs and making her boneless. Bodhi keeps moving throughout, prolongs the pleasure wonderfully.

“Came the instant he touched you, didn’t you, Violence?” Xaden is standing closer now, but still outside of reach, and she can’t read his expression with the way he’s backlit from the fire. “Such a needy, desperate little thing.”

Violet squirms as she comes down from the high. “You fucking teased me– oh, Bodhi, no, no, I’m oversensitive!” 

He doesn’t stop.

Fingers picking up the pace, he starts working her again, not teasing but full-out touching, intense and fast. She squeals and tries to dislodge him with her bound hands, but he’s barely even fazed by her attempts.

“No, please, p-please, Bodhi–” 

But it’s useless. Her begging might have been her downfall earlier, because now there’s no escaping the pleasure he forces onto her. Violet twists her hips, but there’s not enough space to maneuver on his lap with her legs over his. She lifts them, distantly hears Xaden chuckle at the fight she’s putting up, and tries to close them, tries to pin Bodhi’s hand, but it’s still fucking moving , still torturing her core.

“Please!” Violet tries again, as if it would work now when it didn’t the first time.

“You won’t get away from him,” Xaden warns her. “Just stop struggling, Violence. He’s tenacious when he’s decided on a course of action.”

But it’s too soon, she can’t come again, surely? Still the peak builds mercilessly, painfully.

Bodhi manhandles her like she’s a fucking ragdoll, not even attempting to keep her pinned, only keeping her on his lap and letting her squirm and buck while his hand stays resolutely between her legs, fingers fucking into her oversensitive, spasming core.

She shatters with a scream that must echo against the very mountaintops around them.

It hurts, but it’s good too, pain bleeding into pleasure, her whole body seizing. Bodhi laughs in delight, the noise mixing with Xaden’s pleased groan from in front of her, both mingling in the empty, blank space that is her mind.

And he still doesn’t stop.

She can’t take another, can’t do it, and she tosses restlessly in his grip, trying to dislodge his fingers from her clit and from inside her, but it’s useless.

“Bodhi– Bodhi, please!”

“No,” Bodhi denies, and Violet whimpers as he mercilessly spreads her thighs over his again. “You asked for it. Now take it.”

She sobs. “I can’t! I can’t! ”

“You can,” Xaden commands, and when her eyes blink open – when did she close them? – lashes thick with frustrated tears, he’s crouched down before them, his eyes level with where his cousin is coercing pleasure from her oversensitive, soaked core. “You’re a dripping, wet mess, Violence. But you look so damn good spread out on Bodhi’s lap, writhing on his fingers like you could escape them. You won’t. You’ll take what he gives you, unless you tell him to stop.”

Violet shakes her head restlessly, tears running down her face uncontrollably as Bodhi just keeps going, uncaring of her protests. She chants no until she has to pause to breathe, and then she just screams, because the pleasure is cresting again and it’s painful.

“Oh, does it hurt, sweet Violence?” Bodhi croons. “Just one more, and then I’ll give you a small break.”

She sobs out another please among her desperate screaming, her whole body rolling and her legs kicking as she tries to escape, but he controls her body effortlessly.

The third orgasm hits her like a dragon’s tail to the stomach, forcing out all air in a silent scream, devastating her body even as it remains theoretically safe and contained in Bodhi’s arms. She’s soaking his leathers with a gush of wetness, but she’s too high to feel ashamed, floating yet balancing on a razor’s edge of pain.

“What a good girl,” Bodhi croons. Xaden hums in agreement, and her head thuds back against Bodhi’s shoulder when the tension in her body releases, her core still clenching down hard on his fingers. His other hand rises to dash away the tears from her face, and she registers a kiss pressed to her temple as his fingers slip from her body. Bodhi doesn’t seem to care that his hand is slick with her wetness, petting her thigh idly as she gasps for breath, heartbeat racing.

She loses some time, she thinks, staring up at the starry sky above while Xaden and Bodhi chat over her, voices quiet like they know not to disturb her peace.

“Are you back with us?” Bodhi asks a bit later. She blinks and tilts her head down, her neck stiff and her body lethargic.

“We’re not done. Far from it, in fact.” Xaden’s voice promises unspeakable things, and Violet’s body makes a valiant effort at arousal, the low and rough tone sweeping through her like a firestorm. It blows life to the embers simmering in her abdomen.

“Xaden–” she tries, and realizes she’s long since dropped the last names even while speaking. “I don’t think I can…”

Her words trail off when Xaden rises from his crouch, steps closer. He looms over them, tall and broad and imposing.

“I don’t hear a stop, Violet,” he responds, tilting his head in consideration, and he’s right. She’s not used that word, has stayed far away from it actually, though she can’t quite fathom why. She wants this to end, right?

Right?

There’s no Tairn in her head to tell her what a liar she is, because he’s probably giving her some space.

She refocuses on Xaden, while Bodhi’s hand caresses up her thigh and stomach, landing between her breasts to hold her pressed against him. Violet shivers in his arms, and even with how hazy her mind is, she knows what they intend to do. Still, she tries.

“Will you… let me go?”

It’s a stupid question.

“Oh, no, he’s going to fuck you,” Bodhi tells her, his voice low in her ear. “I’m going to keep your gorgeous toned legs spread open over my thighs, and Xaden’s going to take you. And when he’s done, I’m going to fuck my cousin’s come back into you, until you’re a sloppy, screaming mess on my lap, Violet.”

As if she isn’t already. Still, she gasps, and Bodhi chuckles behind her, low and rough. Xaden’s dark eyes gleam in the firelight like a predator’s, and Bodhi gathers her arms – still lazily bound by a loose shadow that always tightens the second she pulls on it – looping them up over her head and behind his own. She grips onto his hair, pulls sharply at the strands at his neck, and he swears lowly but doesn’t otherwise punish her, which makes her feel safer. No retaliation – or maybe he simply likes the pain.

“Last chance to tell him to stop,” Bodhi warns her, and she’s starting to think he might actually mean it, but has no intention of testing that out.

“Do your worst,” she challenges Xaden instead, and his eyes flash dangerously before he’s stepping between their parted thighs, Bodhi hiking hers open wider and Xaden’s hand stroking over the bulge in his pants once before he is slowly, deliberately, unlacing himself.

Chapter Text

behind enemy lines

Part 4

“You shouldn’t ask for things like that when you don’t know what you’re in for, Violence,” Xaden warns.

She can’t help but gulp when he pulls himself out. He’s a tall man, broad and solid and lean, and while she can only guess at what else is under his leathers, she suspects a sculpted body with muscles honed for functionality. 

His cock is proportional to his size, hard and straining up towards his stomach, a wicked curve to it that makes her certain it’ll hit spots inside her that make her see stars.

Fuck, if he actually knows how to use that body and cock of his, she’s done for.

And from what she’s seen and felt so far, she doesn’t really doubt it. He must see the way her eyes are fixated on his length, because Xaden takes himself in hand, strokes languidly, as if showing off.

When she meets his eyes, they’re heated and intent on hers, before they trail down her body. 

“Play with her nipples, won’t you, Bodhs?”

The casual use of a nickname when he’s about to fuck her while she’s spread out on his cousin’s lap makes the whole situation even more depraved. 

Violet’s breath hitches as Bodhi obeys instantly, the hand between her breasts diverting to strum at a nipple, and her chest arches up into his touch, craving the pleasure even as she was just trying to desperately escape his ministrations. It’s messing with her head, the way they’re playing her, and she’s no longer sure what she wants.

Xaden steps ever closer, the leathers covering his thighs brushing against the bare skin of hers. They’re both still clothed, while she’s bare between them, but their bodies, the warm night and the fire have kept her comfortable so far. Not to speak of the fire in her body, centering between her legs.

“I think Bodhi’s fingers and a couple of orgasms was enough prep, don’t you, Violence?”

She’s quite sure it wasn’t, looking at the size of him. He’s not the biggest she’s ever taken, but she’d certainly feel him even if it hadn’t been fucking months since she last had a bedmate.

Her core clenches in anticipation, at the same time as her brain screams that she can’t handle getting fucked now, can’t handle any more pleasure or orgasms.

But Xaden is running the head of his cock through her folds, coating himself in her arousal, and she whimpers at the feeling. She’s still reeling from Bodhi’s brutal assault on her sensitive clit, still spasming periodically from her last orgasm, and yet somehow, against all logic, she wants Xaden Riorson to fuck her.

She needs to get herself checked out by a mender or something. Something must be wrong with her.

There’s no time to contemplate it, because Xaden starts pushing in, and she tenses instinctively. It’s been months, and he feels so godsdamned big against her, like he might split her open until there’s nothing left of her.

“Relax, Violet,” Bodhi murmurs into her ear. The hand on her breast cups it gently, and his other strokes over her left thigh, hitching it further over his own, opening her up for Xaden to take. “If you tense up, it’ll only hurt.”

She knows that.

“Be good for me now,” Xaden tells her, his voice slightly strained, as if he’s hanging onto his control. It warms something in her, that she’s affecting him, that his Malek-may-care façade is crumbling.

Or at least showing cracks. She shouldn’t be greedy.

Deliberately, she looks him straight in the eyes while she forces herself to relax, to take the head of his cock when he hitches his hips again. Xaden’s mouth tightens, like he’s holding back a moan, or perhaps praise, but Bodhi fills that role, murmuring directly into her ear.

“Just like that. Be perfect for my cousin now, and let him use you.”

Violet sighs in pleasure as Xaden slips further into her, and once the head is past the tighter fit near her entrance, he gives up on fucking into her slowly, in small increments. Instead, his large hands grab onto her hips, and he sinks in with a long, unforgiving thrust.

It makes her release a choked noise of pleasure, his length stretching her deliciously. He’s big, and when he snaps his hips a few times, she knows he could have really made it hurt, but chose not to. Instead, it just feels good, so good Violet trembles in their grip.

She’s so endlessly confused at why they’re performing this seduction when they could have just bent her over by that pond with the waterfall and used her body. 

It must be a game of some sort to them.

“Oh!” Violet is rudely pulled from her thoughts by a spike of pleasure. Xaden’s done being merciful it seems, because his hips jerk hard into hers, his cock hitting that spot inside her that makes her keen, the noise getting stuck in her throat and coming out strangled. “Fuck– oh, that’s…”

“Perfect.” His voice brooks no arguments, and his thrusts feel designed to break her, to destroy her until she’s nothing but pieces, scattered across the forest floor like the pine needles underfoot. “So tight and wet and looking at me with those pleasure-hazed eyes. You were right, Bodhi.”

Right about what?

She hasn’t heard Bodhi say anything that Xaden at this moment would be agreeing with, but Bodhi chuckles near her ear like he knows exactly what Xaden is referring to. Violet feels like Xaden’s cock has carved out a space inside her and apparently taken it from the part that houses logical thought, because she can’t quite follow their conversation.

“I can count the times you’ve said that to me on my fingers.” He sounds surprised, yet happy. “But I do have the best ideas, don’t I, cousin.”

The emphasis he puts on the last word must mean something, because it makes Xaden groan and while his eyes stay roaming over Violet’s form instead of flickering to Bodhi’s face, his next thrust is vicious and has her gasping in pain.

So far, he’s kept away from her clit, but now that his pelvic bone hit it roughly, she’s once again reminded that her body’s already been pushed to the limits, sore and oversensitive.

If Xaden notices, he doesn’t care, but Bodhi’s teasing her nipple again and she forgets the pain. Instead, she tries her best to relax into the way Xaden is fucking her. There’s no other option, really, since she’s trapped between their bulk, Bodhi’s body warm even through his leathers and Xaden bending down over her, his torso preventing her from arching up. She can only watch, and take his ruthless thrusts.

Xaden’s face is like a work of art, dark brows pinched together, mouth slightly open in pleasure, eyes burning and intense.

She’s helplessly drawn to him.

The way he’s fucking her is perfect: hard and fast and rough, just as she likes it. He even hitches her hips a bit to better hammer at that blissful spot inside her, like he knows the angle was wrong. Perhaps he could see the yearning on her face.

Each thrust punches sounds out of her until it’s mostly a continuous noise, interspersed by her gasps and moans.

“You’re taking my cock so well,” Xaden croons, and she likes the fact that he’s a bit breathless too, a bit undone for her. “Spreading those pretty thighs over Bodhi’s and letting me fuck you. Won’t you come for me as well, Violence, like you did for my cousin? Your moans were so gorgeous. ”

The words hit her hard, wrapping around her like the blast of heat from a maorsite explosion, and her mouth falls open. She’s so far gone, she can’t really form words anymore, so the please she breathes out is just a mess of consonants and vowels, but Xaden must understand the tone, because he keeps that same pace, hits the same spot relentlessly as the pleasure builds.

It’s too much. She tenses, thrashes between them, unable to stand the feeling. It’s overwhelming, threatening to unmoor her when she’s got nothing to anchor herself to reality with. Bodhi grabs onto her tied arms, keeps them behind his head when they almost rise to hit Xaden’s face. Her eyes fixate on Xaden’s, more expressive than she’s seen them so far, somehow soft in the midst of this.

Like he’s… proud? 

“Almost there, sweet thing,” he encourages, fingers biting into her hips. She’s going to have Xaden-shaped bruises. “Don’t fight it.”

Violet really shouldn’t respond to his orders, but her body does. It relaxes, and allows the wave to crest.

She blanks out. Her orgasm sweeps through her body so powerfully that she loses her grip on reality. Violet floats, unconcerned with anything but bliss.

They must know that, because when she slowly comes to, they’re kissing, Xaden still hard inside her.

Xaden’s mouth is fused to Bodhi’s, their lips meeting over her shoulder in a passionate, filthy kiss, and she blinks dazedly in confusion, because a good orgasm has never made her hallucinate before. Perhaps it’s just how many they’ve forced out of her?

“Andarna?” she checks.

“It’s not a hallucination, but human mating habits are disgusting.” The affront in Andarna's voice makes Violet giggle, which sounds slightly unhinged given the position she’s in, but it makes the cousins separate immediately. The intensity on Xaden’s face, the way his eyes gleam in the firelight like he’s danger personified, sobers her instantly.

“Shit,” Bodhi swears near her ear. “Thought you said she was out.”

“Evidently not long enough.” Xaden’s tone is clipped. “Well, nothing for it now.”

“What– are you two–” Xaden interrupts her line of questioning with a brutal thrust. “ Ah–”

“Mhm, less talking, more moaning, pretty spy.” His fingers bite into her hips, pulling her ruthlessly into the next snap of his body into hers. “Apparently you did uncover one state secret, at least. Good job. Too bad you’ll be too fucked out to find out any others.”

She gaps at the next thrust, and the next, until gasps turn into high-pitched keening, every movement punching sounds out of her sore body.

“Such a tiny thing,” Bodhi muses by her ear. “We’re going to fucking wreck you, Violet. Break you.”

Her head lolls back against his shoulder, and she can barely keep her eyes open as Xaden’s movements pick up speed and depth until each stroke of his cock inside her slams her body against Bodhi, like he’s fucking her into his cousin’s grip until the two of them fuse into one. Bodhi holds on, keeping her legs mercilessly open for Xaden.

“Such a fucking vision, the two of you,” Xaden all but growls, voice low and rough. “Fuck it.”

Then he’s bending down and kissing his cousin again while Violet squeals between them, the slick noises of Xaden pounding into her and the slap of his skin against hers mixing with the wet sounds of their mouths and tongues – Xaden’s groans and Bodhi’s moans.

She sags when Xaden comes, feels the hot spurt inside her. He muffles his noises into Bodhi’s mouth, and she can’t even begin to consider the implications, can’t begin to parse how wrong that should feel to watch when she’s instead mesmerized by the way they kiss lazily, Xaden fucking into her a few more times before stilling.

Her head spins, and then by some unknown signal, they both move, lips parting and their hands maneuvering her off Xaden’s cock. She whines, and Xaden chuckles while he effortlessly lifts her hips. It both keeps his come inside her and leaves Bodhi space to unlace his pants. 

“I can’t, Bodhi–” she starts to protest, which feels like it’s becoming a theme, and to her eternal surprise, Xaden bends down to take her mouth, silencing her while his fingers stroke the skin of where he’s lifting her lower half. It’s a firm, claiming kiss, and she offers little resistance when his tongue invades. He’s thorough and dominating and she moans weakly into his mouth when she feels Bodhi press inside her.

The thought hits her that she’s probably tasting them both on Xaden’s tongue.

Fuck.

Bodhi’s cock stretching her anew, the squelching sound of Xaden’s come as he lowers her onto his cousin – it’s too much. Her eyes roll back into her head and she forgets to breathe, simply existing as Xaden plunders her mouth and Bodhi rolls his hips slowly up into her.

“You’re taking me so well,” Bodhi whispers into her ear, and a shiver runs down her spine. “So tight and wet around my cock.”

His hand slips down between hers and Xaden’s body, finger circling her swollen, sensitive clit, and her eyes fly open as she outright screams into Xaden’s mouth.

“There it is again, the screaming,” Bodhi purrs, and she chokes on the scream as he starts driving into her steadily, oddly gently yet unyieldingly. His cock feels good, but his hand on her is pure torture. Her body seems to recognize the fingers that ruthlessly drew orgasm after orgasm from her and she tries to shy away, but there’s nowhere to go. 

Xaden pulls back from her mouth with a chuckle, wet lips curving into a wicked grin.

“Scream for us, Violence,” he coaxes.

“I can’t– come again,” she gasps, breathless and driven into some mad place between pain and pleasure that is pulling on every muscle, firing every nerve-ending, raising every hair on her skin. It’s making her senseless and yet oversensitive, so bad she screams again.

“Oh, we know, ” Xaden tells her, and she wants to curse him, but can only rake her nails down the back of Bodhi’s neck viciously as he fucks her while his cousin watches, onyx eyes with golden flecks roaming over the mess that is Violet is Bodhi’s lap, speared on his cock. “This isn’t about your pleasure, sweet thing. It’s about his. ”

Bodhi’s groans and grunts fill her ears, and she clenches down on him when Xaden idly twists one of her nipples. 

“Does she feel good, cousin?” Xaden asks, reaching past her to grasp Bodhi’s face. She can’t see what he does, but there’s a muted groan that sounds like Bodhi’s mouth is full – of Xaden’s fingers? “You look like you’re enjoying yourself. So fucking gorgeous. ”

There’s no audible response from Bodhi, but Xaden clearly doesn’t need one, his mouth curving into a smile.

Violet doesn’t understand how a man that can smile that lovingly at his cousin can be the same that orders his soldiers and riders to sabotage Navarre’s wards, to sneak into outposts to steal and aid gryphon riders in their fight against Navarre. The duality of it is staggering.

“It doesn’t matter, because you don’t need to understand right now, Violet.” Xaden shifts his gaze to her, and it goes more distant, contemplative. She must have spoken aloud, though she can’t understand how she managed to form words considering Bodhi is ripping screams from her throat. “You only need to take '.”

She screams until she’s hoarse, and then Xaden’s hand wraps around her throat almost reverently, restricting her air just enough to cut off any sound as Bodhi takes her. She goes boneless in their grip, all fight leeching out of her. There’s no protesting, there’s only accepting the pain and oversensitivity they wring from her until Bodhi comes with a loud groan of pleasure.

Violet feels as if she’s disconnected from herself, but Xaden’s fingers stroke over her throat as he lets go and the soft brush, so different from the overwhelming sensations they’ve wreaked on her body, makes tears well in her eyes.

Xaden’s hand rises to tilt her chin up, and while Bodhi catches his breath, she stares at the flecks of gold within onyx and wonders why she feels so fractured, so unguarded, so emotional. She expected anger or fury or shame – some aimed inward and some outward – but there’s none of that. Only an undeniable vulnerability that she fears they will exploit.

But Xaden doesn’t ask her any questions. Instead, he offers praise.

“So perfect,” Xaden croons. “You made him feel so good with your surrender, sweet girl. Not that you ever stood a chance against us.”

There’s nothing left in her to protest, no drive to spit out that she could have taken them if they hadn't surprised her. Instead, his words soothe over the crack inside her gently. Like he’s giving her permission to be defenseless, explaining why she’s not culpable.

“He’s right.” Bodhi’s voice is rough, but her hands are soft as he lifts her infinitely gently off him. It still hurts and his hands up her sides soothe her whine. “Not your fault, sweet girl. And you did so well for us.”

Violet can’t answer. Bodhi maneuvers her until she’s sitting up, but she’s only capable of a groan, sore and sated and just as ruined as they must have wanted to make her.

“Oh, did we fuck you into exhaustion?” Xaden’s voice is mocking, a touch cruel. It’s in stark contrast to his hand reaching out for Bodhi, skimming gently along his cheek. “Take care of her and take her to the tent, I’ll stoke the fire and put up some wards.”

She’s lifted by Xaden, like she weighs nothing – and to him she probably doesn’t. There’s a gush of wetness down her thighs and it probably gets onto Bodhi’s leathers as he stands and she’s manhandled into his arms again. Her head is fuzzy and her eyes keep sliding shut.

It’s hard to remember who she is, let alone what’s going on around her. Violet feels like she loses time.

“You need to stay awake for a bit.” The voice seems to come from far away, gentle and coaxing. It talks her through cleanup and using a latrine, wipes sweat gently off her body with a damp, cool cloth.

“Feels nice,” she murmurs, and the owner of the voice laughs softly. It’s joined by another, pitched low as if to not disturb her fuzzy state of mind. Hands push a waterskin into her hers, and she follows the leather of the jacket up its sleeve to the face of its owner. She blinks, and Xaden Riorson still stares down at her, looking faintly amused. Something clicks into place, and she frowns as her gaze swings to his cousin, both of them now warily scanning her expression, Bodhi’s hands lifted as if to smother her signet at a moment’s notice. 

Her hands aren’t bound, but she’s in no state to do anything with them.

“Sleep, Silver One,” Tairn suggests, and she winces at the loudness of his voice. It’s quieter in her mind when he continues. “Andarna and I will keep watch. The cousins shall do you no irreparable harm.”

She faintly remembers that she’s angry at him, but never angry enough to not trust him. The men in front of her though – those she thinks she shouldn’t trust.

“I hate you,” she whispers to them, but it’s so unconvincing she doesn’t even believe it herself. Hatred requires energy, of which she has none.

“Hate that you want us?” Bodhi suggests, and she’s agreeing with a slow hum before she realizes she maybe shouldn’t have. “Thought so.”

“Can’t blame us for that fact,” Xaden says drily. “Perhaps for acting upon your desire, though, but we won’t apologize for that.”

Violet only barely registers being carried into the tent they have put up, laid down on a sleeping roll. Bodhi undresses, the rustling calming, and she tries to figure out where he lays his weapons, but it’s too dark to see. When he lays down, she can’t help turning into him, nestling closer like he’s trustworthy. Strong arms cradle her into a naked, warm chest, and she sighs blissfully before remembering she’s not supposed to take comfort from them, not supposed to want it.

She stiffens in the circle of Bodhi’s arms, and his palm strokes over her head. 

“Don’t fight it, Violet. That was intense. If you need comfort, let me give it to you.” She shakes her head, but can’t make herself pull away. “It’s alright, I promise. You’ll be alright.”

Is he convincing himself, or her?

Xaden enters then, and there’s a brief chaos of sound and limbs as he also gets ready for bed. His warm shape settles behind her, gently lifting her neck to slide something soft under her head as a pillow. 

“Why?” she murmurs to him, because out of the two, he logically must be the one calling the shots. “Why this?”

Why not imprisonment, not being dragged back to the cells surely existing beneath the Summer House, not being transported to Aretia for trial, not being tortured to within an inch of her life and then executed? Or well, probably imprisoned for life, since apparently killing her would mean killing himself and leaving Tyrrendor without a king. The images flash through her mind, one after the other, and fear flickers through her. She doesn’t want them to become reality, doesn’t want to switch the miserable existence that is her lonely, unfulfilling life in Navarre’s ranks for pain and scorn and worse things.

Xaden understands, thankfully, because she wouldn’t have the words to explain.

“Because it was infinitely more preferable than the other options.” His voice is flat, no inflection, but she thinks idly that it's too even, and that gives him away. He’s controlling it on purpose, hiding truer and stronger opinions or feelings. “Because perhaps, something in me rebelled at the thought of seeing you truly hurt. And because we’re only men, not untouchable leaders. We wanted it. And so did you.”

She drifts off before she can form a reply.

Chapter Text

behind enemy lines

Part 5

She wakes sandwiched between them, surprised she got any sleep at all in this situation, that her body felt safe with them. At first she doesn’t understand what woke her, but then a hand traces slowly over hip, and she blinks her eyes open. Bodhi in front of her is dozing – she wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve taken shifts guarding her – but Xaden shifts behind her, hard against her ass.

Violet can’t help her small whimper at that, registering the ache between her thighs that is a tell-tale sign of being well used. 

By them both.

She shudders at the invading memories from last night, and Xaden chuckles in her ear, low and dark.

“Our pretty little prisoner is awake, I see,” he croons, his warm breath hitting her sensitive skin, and his hand skims over her thigh, circling insidiously closer to the junction between her legs. “Did you sleep well, Violence? Did you have… enjoyable dreams?”

Then his hand plunges between her thighs, stroking over her, and she squirms, only now realizing her hands are free and she could try to grab him, stop him. 

But she doesn’t want to, not as the rough pad of a finger circles her clit, and she keens low in her throat.

Xaden bites the shell of her ear gently in rebuke. “Ah, ah, ah,” he chides in a whisper. “Quiet now, sweet thing. Don’t wake Bodhi, or I’ll be displeased with you. He deserves his rest.”

Violet clamps her lips shut at the threat in his tone, but she’s not sure if it’s the threat of punishment, or the threat of him stopping that gets to her more. 

“Good girl,” Xaden praises, and a tiny hitch of breath escapes her at that. His fingers slip lower, circling her entrance. “So wet for me. You won’t be able to keep quiet while I take you, will you?”

She doesn’t answer, won’t admit to him that if he pushes inside her now she’ll scream, both from pleasure and from oversensitivity, because she’s deliciously sore.

“Tell me, Violence,” Xaden demands in a harsh whisper. “Tell me, or I’ll stop.”

She shakes her head in a panic, unwilling to lose the way he’s touching her, and he chuckles again.

“Thought so. Let’s make it easier for you, shall we?” 

Firm hands roll her onto her stomach, and she mourns the loss of his fingers between her thighs. It’s both humiliating and exhilarating, being manhandled like this, arranged into a position of his liking, her hips tilted up slightly. Xaden’s knees end up on either side of her thighs, his powerful body caging her in as he lowers himself down over her. His palm pushes unyieldingly at the back of her head until her face is pressed down into his flight jacket that was folded up as a makeshift pillow for her. The smell of leather and mint overwhelms her as he bends down to place his lips to her ear again.

“There you go, sweet thing. Muffle those pretty moans you make when I fuck you into my jacket.” She groans quietly, and feels his cock notch at her entrance. It’s hard and hot and her body remembers exactly what it felt like last night, claiming her with every thrust. She wants it, and she should hate that. “And to be sure they don’t slip out…”

Violet isn’t prepared when a shadow detaches from the folds of the jacket, sneaking over her mouth, and she jerks under him in surprise. Xaden huffs in amusement. 

“So reactive, Violence,” he purrs. “You’re so fun to play with. How you can’t help but enjoy what we’re doing to you, your body betraying your mind. Now, put your hands by your head, where I can see them.” She obeys, dragging her hands up and clutching at the jacket. “That’s right,” Xaden murmurs, “you’ll need to hold on. Keep them there, sweet thing, because if they move, I’ll stop fucking you.”

Once again, both a threat and a promise. That if she lets go, this stops instantly. She’s not sure she trusts it, but there’s nothing to do about that either. Violet nods into the jacket, feeling deliciously helpless, unable to speak, and feels Xaden brace his weight on his elbows.

Then he’s sliding into her in one brutally slow thrust, making her feel every inch.

She tries to jerk her hips away, into the thin bedroll and the hard-packed earth beneath, but his large hand is immediately there, stilling the movement and tilting her pelvis. Making her take it.

“Oh, fuck, Violet,” Xaden groans, low and rough. “So fucking tight like this. I bet that feels like a lot, huh?” His voice is mockingly gentle, his mouth pressing a few soft kisses to her bare shoulder as tears rise in her eyes.

He’s so deep, so thick, and she’s wet but she’s also sore. There is nowhere to go though, nothing to do but toss her head in frustration as he slides back out with a wet, filthy sound, and then fucks into her again.

Xaden takes her like that, trapped between his body and the ground, powerful legs caging hers as he thrusts, hard and measured and even. The pace is relentless, and she trembles under him, her moans and screams muffled by his jacket and the shadows over her mouth. Bodhi must be a deep sleeper to not wake to the way Xaden’s hips slap against her ass with a sharp sound at every thrust, or maybe he has awoken and is content to watch – Violet’s face is pressed down into the leather and she can’t see.

“Look at you,” Xaden croons, his voice slightly breathless. “Taking me so well. You must be sore, sweet thing. It must hurt. But you’re so wet, so eagerly pushing back into my thrusts.”

Any lingering pain has long since turned to pleasure, but she can’t tell him that, so she just arches her back, pressing her hips higher into the air.

She will be ashamed of it later, she’s sure, how easily he plays with her body and makes her want this desperately, but right now all she can think of is more.

“Oh, she likes that,” Bodhi comments, and Violet jerks in surprise while Xaden chuckles. She twists her head Bodhi’s way until her cheek rests against the leather and she can meet warm brown eyes, already blown wide with lust. “She’s so desperate for your cock, Xay.”

“It seems we’ve woken you, after all, even if I tried to keep her quiet.”

Violet whimpers under the shadow gag, and Bodhi reaches out, stroking over her cheekbone. She shudders, wondering if she’ll be punished for waking him. Figuring out their dynamic, with hazy memories of last night and Xaden’s cock utterly destroying her ability to think, isn’t going to happen right now. Still, she wants to be able to predict their reactions, wants to observe. It’s in her nature.

“Ah, don’t worry, pretty girl,” Bodhi whispers. “You’re doing very well, taking him quietly and obediently. I won’t punish you for my cousin’s transgressions.” Bodhi rolls over onto his back, a hand slipping down to his hard cock, palming it slowly as he looks challengingly up at Xaden behind her, whose thrusts never falter. “Couldn’t keep from fucking her until I was awake, I see.”

“Could have woken you and fucked you instead,” Xaden reminds him sharply. “I tried to be considerate.”

“You are loud, ” Bodhi says, pointedly gazing at where Xaden is hitting her skin with his hips on every downward thrust. But his hand is stroking his own cock slowly, so he can’t be too angry.

“Careful with your complaints, my love,” Xaden warns, and Violet blinks at the term of endearment, stunned. She knew that they were involved, but to state feelings so openly… “Or I’ll be punishing you. Let me finish with her, and we’ll take care of you next.”

“I don’t mind the show,” Bodhi smirks. He rolls so that he’s fully on his side again, and Violet, with her head turned his way, can’t do anything but meet his eyes and moan behind the gag. “I want to hear her noises, though, Xay.”

The shadows disappear as if they never existed, and her voice breaks on a high sound, torn from her throat by a harsh thrust. Bodhi smiles, like he’s just won something, and the boyish sparkle in his eyes makes him look warm and approachable. Then his eyes drop to her body, tracing over the relic on her back, roaming over bare skin to where Xaden is fucking her.

Violet knows instinctively what he’s about to say, and he doesn't disappoint.

“She looks so good when you’re fucking her.” Bodhi reaches out, his fingers sliding over her jugular like a mix of a caress and a threat, fisting into her messy hair that’s come out of its braids. “And you…” Bodhi’s eyes roam shamelessly higher, uncaring of her as his audience. They take in what must be the sight of Xaden, because his gaze softens. “You’re always a sight for sore eyes, Xaden.”

“You shouldn’t sign up for border patrol so often. Then you’d be able to watch me– all day, every day,” Xaden suggests, and though he’s a touch breathless he sounds so collected and in control. “My bed has been empty without you.”

So they’re… a steady thing, then. A relationship.

Bodhi’s hand jerks his own cock while his fingers tighten in her hair, as if keeping her in place. Only then does she realize she could have tried to move, could have tried to scramble away from him, from Xaden.

Should have.

Her hands are still obediently fisted in the jacket.

“Well you’ve got me for a week, now,” Bodhi quips, brown eyes sliding half-shut in pleasure as he works himself over. Violet feels like that’s permission to close her own, to sink into the bliss Xaden is encouraging with every merciless stroke of his cock inside her.

Her arousal is winding steadily higher, but Xaden isn’t hitting her clit, and Violet seems to be too wrung out to come quickly without that stimulation. Still, it feels unfairly good, and a few tears track from the corners of her eyes. Why here, and why now? Why can’t she ever find pleasure like this with someone who actually wants and loves her?

Outpost life isn’t exactly built for long-term relationships, and ever since Halden’s dismissal of her in her late teens she’s had a string of unsuccessful relationships and hookups, always so far from what she wanted. Or needed. And now this, two men who play her body perfectly, but only as a form of sick revenge?

“Oh, she’s crying, Xaden.” Bodhi’s voice isn’t exactly mocking, but there’s an edge to it that makes her believe he enjoys her tears. “Open your pretty, mesmerizing eyes, sweet Violet.” 

It’s coaxing and soft. She wants to listen to him, wants him to continue speaking to her like that, like she’s precious and worth his time.

Blinking her eyes open just makes them water more, because Bodhi’s face is right there, brow slightly furrowed, big brown eyes curious.

“Why are you crying?” he coos. “Is my cousin taking you too hard for you to stand?” She shakes her head as well as she can with Xaden’s punishing thrusts rocking her body into the ground over and over. “No? Do you need more, is that it?” 

She breathes out a no this time, because she’s surprisingly okay with not coming yet, just hanging on and letting the pleasure roll through her in waves. Bodhi smiles, and his nails scrape across her scalp. It’s such a contrast – his almost caring questions, coupled with Xaden’s brutal thrusts and Bodhi’s obvious enjoyment of the situation as he gets himself off with his other hand. 

“Is it simply overwhelming?” Bodhi’s head tilts, and when she doesn’t answer, Xaden makes an impatient, harsh noise behind her. Immediately, the words spill out, like she just needed a push.

“It’s just so– good.” Her breath hitches on a sob, and then on a moan, as Xaden changes his angle slightly. “Why– why can’t I have this? Why like this ?”

“You can have it, if you just stop fighting it,” Bodhi says softly, and abandons his own pleasure, rolling closer until his lips are a hairsbreadth from hers. His hand cradles her scalp now. Xaden’s thrusts never let up, but his hands stroke over her sides, like he’s telling her to listen to his cousin. “Don’t feel guilty about enjoying it, enjoying us. Fate or the gods or something brought you here, and the pull is irresistible, isn’t it? You feel it too.”

She nods, blinking rapidly. They’re just – she can’t stop fighting, it’s not in her nature, but she knows what he’s saying.

“Mm, we’re pushing your limits, aren’t we?” Xaden murmurs, like he knows. 

Like he knows exactly how this is waking some primal part inside here that craves being controlled and held down and taken, even as it yearns to be cared for at the same time. Like he knows how that side is at war with the part of her that wants to be independent, strong and honorable – to do the good, right thing.

“We’ll push them until you yield, if that’s what you want,” Bodhi says, and she tosses her head in frustration, because how can she want to lose to them? “And if you don’t, you know what to do.”

Stop.

The word flickers through her mind. She could also channel: Bodhi is right there, within her reach, and if she kills him and manages to grab a weapon in the chaos, she might wound Xaden enough to flee. It’s not like she hasn’t killed with her signet before – War Games was the first time, to save a squadmate’s life.

But she doesn’t.

She closes her eyes, instead of giving them an answer, but knows that a nonanswer means the same thing as a positive one: they will continue.

Bodhi sighs quietly against her mouth, and Xaden groans behind her, hands gripping her hips more possessively. 

Violet feels Bodhi’s lips press against her, and he kisses her while Xaden’s hips stutter, while his cousin fills her with come. It’s a hot, lingering kiss, full of desire and things unspoken.

Violet whimpers when Xaden pulls out, but she’s being dragged away from Bodhi’s mouth and maneuvered in the small space of the tent. Bodhi moves with her – Xaden must direct him somehow, perhaps with touch – sitting up and backing until Xaden gets her on all fours, her head by Bodhi’s lap.

There’s no real need for Xaden to say it, but he does. “Take his cock down your throat, Violence.”

It’s an order, and Bodhi’s hands are on her again, tilting her face up to study her eyes before he nods resolutely. It feels like a sealing of her fate, them agreeing on her next task, and so she does, mindlessly. 

Blanking out and focusing only on this, here, is easier than the complex feelings they’re stirring.

“Open your mouth,” Bodhi commands, and guides her slowly down. 

He’s so hard, precome spread over the length of him earlier by his own hand. She wets her lips instinctively, parts them for him. Bodhi pushes her face down in increments, moans as he tests her limits. 

When she chokes, he huffs quietly. “Breathe around it. Relax.”

Xaden has moved to kneel behind her again, fingers trailing over her ass.

“He must feel so big in your mouth, huh? You’re so much smaller than me. Won’t you take him a bit deeper still, Violet?”

The thought of Xaden’s mouth wrapped around the cock she’s currently being forced down onto makes her abdomen clench. She’s wet and sloppy, Xaden’s come dripping out of her, and without his relentless pace driving her higher she feels empty. There’s no promise of an orgasm – or countless, like yesterday – but she’s not sure she needs it. This, just the whole situation…

Xaden interrupts her train of thought.

“So beautiful, Violence. Your mouth full of my cousin’s cock while my come drips out of you. All ours to do with as we please.”

And then he’s pushing said come back inside her while the pointer finger of his other hand begins stroking her clit.

Violet moans around Bodhi’s cock, and he moans in turn. Then his grip turns firm, and he holds her in place, hitching his hips up into her mouth. She sputters around him, but is made to just adjust and breathe as well as she can while he continues. Focusing on that is difficult when Xaden is playing with her, gathering come on a single finger and pushing it back inside her, over and over. His touch on her clit is startlingly gentle, but just enough to push her pleasure further.

She could fight off Bodhi’s grip. Her hands, holding her weight, are free to punch him, her teeth close to a vulnerable area.

Instead, Violet comes like that, suspended in some kind of mindless bliss.

“She’s coming, Bodhs, let her breathe for a bit.” It’s a quiet command. Bodhi obeys, and her lungs expanding with air – the relief of pulling in a breath – just exacerbates the pleasure.

Bodhi waits for her until she moans weakly again, before pushing back into her mouth. She accepts the intrusion automatically, lets him fuck her however he wants, floating as she listens to his groans of pleasure. They exchange words over her head, the cousins, but she only catches pieces, the rest floating away like flower petals in the wind.

“She feels so fucking incredible–”

“–just like that, you’re so close, love.”

“Xaden, fuck!”

“Won’t you come for us? Be good now.”

Bodhi, apparently, follows his cousin’s requests.

Violet swallows as well as she can, sputters and coughs around the rest, their hands soothing her while she fights for breath.

“So gorgeous," Xaden coos, and she’s not sure who he’s talking to – her, Bodhi, them both? “So good for me.”

“Xay,” Bodhi groans, and one of his hands reaches over her shoulder. She feels the way it meets Xaden’s, the way their interlaced fingers drop onto her sweaty back.

“You’re mine, Bodhi. You’re both going to be mine.”

Chapter Text

behind enemy lines

Part 6

It’s not awkward.

But it should be. 

Violet sits on a log by the fire, in pants that are way too long – Bodhi’s, rolled up – and a shirt that is Xaden’s, but looks more like a dress on her. Her bare feet seem out of place on the mossy ground, and she stares down at them as she sips coffee that Xaden made, curling her toes and wondering how the fuck this is her life right now.

Bodhi is bent over the fire, stirring some porridge in a metal pot, and Xaden lounges on the log beside her, like he didn’t just fuck her senseless half an hour ago. His long legs stretch before him lazily, one hand twirling a twig between his fingers idly, but his eyes are sharp.

Watchful. 

His cousin, in contrast, is relaxed, his back turned on them like he isn’t at all worried about Violet attempting to hurt him.

Perhaps he just trusts Xaden would be quick enough to stop her.

“It’s going to burn at the bottom,” Xaden tells Bodhi, and Bodhi’s brown eyes glare surprisingly fiercely from the fire pit at his… cousin? Lover? What even are they?

“Come over here and do it yourself, then,” Bodhi challenges.

“Don’t be a fucking brat, Bodhs.” Xaden’s tone dips low, a bit threatening. “Behave for our guest.”

Bodhi narrows his eyes, and Violet’s gaze flicks between them like they’re opponents in a sparring match, waiting for one of them to make a move.

Xaden tilts his head, mouth drawing into a thinner line. Bodhi drags a hand through his curls, and doesn’t say anything, but turns to stir the pot. Conceding whatever momentary power struggle that was–

“He’s baiting me, Violence.” Xaden’s voice cuts through her thoughts. She startles and her face turns to his quickly, almost spilling her coffee in the process. “Bodhi and I like to play games like that. Who ends up in control, who puts their trust in the other to lead them. In bed and outside it, though of course my position means that politically, I make the final calls.”

She blinks, stunned. “I didn’t ask for an explanation–”

“No, but you wanted one.” Xaden seems amused, though she can’t quite tell. Bodhi huffs quietly by the fire, his shoulders shaking with laughter. “So ask.”

Violet hesitates, because will either of them truly answer her honestly?

“Don’t try Xaden’s patience, Violet,” Bodhi warns, companionable, turning to give her a mischievous grin. “You’ll find it is short right now, and longer in a week when he’s rested. Or right after a good fuck.”

“Are you two…” 

But she can’t finish, doesn’t even know how to form a question.

“Together? In love? A secret? Just as fucking depraved as you called us Tyrs?” Xaden drawls. “Yes, to all of them.”

Violet swallows, too stunned to answer. Her thoughts are whirling, and she can’t quite seem to contain her blush.

“Such a romantic way to confess your love, cousin,” Bodhi teases, rolling his eyes Violet’s way. “Always so blunt. Why don’t you recite to me some of that Tyrrish love poetry your dad made you learn, instead?”

“You’re walking a thin line, Durran,” Xaden bites out, but there’s no true anger on his face. 

Bodhi rises, crossing the distance and pressing a kiss to Xaden’s cheek as he goes to their packs, picking up some bowls. There’s only two of each thing – but Xaden and Bodhi seem to be very comfortable sharing a coffee mug which leaves Violet with the other. Understandable, considering they regularly exchange saliva. And probably other bodily fluids.

“And… me?” 

She feels like she’s interrupting their comfortable interplay, but she can’t help it. Violet simply cannot understand what is going on. It was weird enough in the beginning, both of them deciding in unison to try to seduce her, to fuck her – their enemy – instead of handling her as they ought to. And now, to find out that they’re in a committed relationship…

“And you, Violet,” Bodhi responds calmly, holding her stare. “As Xaden said last night, none of the other options appealed to us.” Options like torture or imprisonment, Violet fills in bitterly, but Bodhi says it out loud. “If you were in the dungeons… well, there’s always dissenters. People who don’t like Xaden’s politics. Them accidentally pushing an interrogation too far and killing both you and Xaden in a fell swoop – it’s not a risk I want to take.”

Violet hadn’t even thought of it, but she does now. She is a king’s weakness, and isn’t that something Navarre would use if they knew? If she gets home, if this is discovered – they’ll kill her just to be rid of Xaden. But she could skirt the truth. Dain would never read her against her will.

Bodhi continues, unaware of her dark thoughts. “Besides, we feel… weirdly protective of you. And you clearly have no real desire to kill us, or you would have already.”

She can’t meet his gaze any longer, dropping it to her hands instead. Bodhi moves past, in the direction of the fire, but it is Xaden who speaks.

“There’s something about captivity,” Xaden says, slow and even. “It reduces someone to their bare bones. Strips away all the niceties and leaves who they reall are. Their motivations. Their needs.”

She can’t refute that.

“We’re… compatible, physically, the three of us. You can’t deny it, because your body responds to us, and your mind goes so beautifully submissive when we give it no other option. You want to let go of control, even without us forcing your hand. It’s just that you can’t stop fighting your own instincts.”

“I– I have reason not to want you,” she stammers, thrown. Desperately, she tries to cover up how well he is reading her. 

“Enemies,” Xaden snorts, shaking his head in dismissal. “But what have we ever done to you?”

“You support the gryphon riders in raids against Navarre! Innocent people die!”

“Innocent people die all the time,” Bodhi mutters, low and angry, scooping porridge into the two bowls. Violet’s anger flares in response, but she tries to remind herself that she doesn’t have a monopoly on feelings. Xaden ignores him and continues.

“Gryphon fliers–,” Violet blinks at the emphasised new word,”–have their reasons to attack. Clearly things Navarre considers beyond your security clearance, though that is no surprise, the liars.” That stings, like a barb at her abilities or rank, but Xaden shakes his head immediately. “I don’t mean it like that, Violence. Not in a bad way. It’s just that there’s things outside your scope of knowledge at play.”

How belittling.

“So tell me,” she demands, bold and angry. The cousins exchange a careful look, Bodhi’s brow crinkling in thought and Xaden shaking his head at his cousin.

“Not now,” Xaden deflects, and she feels inexplicably disappointed. She’s not exactly entrusted them with her body, with the most vulnerable she can physically be, but they’ve taken it all the same. Not damaged it, treated it well enough that she would put herself in their hands again if all she wanted was physical pleasure. She can admit that to herself, in the privacy of her mind.

But they won’t be vulnerable with her.

How is it, that in daylight, having a serious conversation, Xaden is more flat and guarded than he was last night, fucking her and using her body for his and Bodhi’s pleasure? The expressive, intense eyes are now hard and calculating, sweeping over her.

She swallows her disappointment along with porridge and some berry preserves Xaden digs out of his pack.

A while later, Bodhi collects their waterskins, then crouches down in front of Violet, picking the empty bowl from her hands.

“I’ll fill the waterskins and wash the dishes.”

“Thank you,” she says softly, because there’s no reason to be rude. They’ve not treated her badly, really.

Except for fucking you the best you’ve ever been fucked, but without explicit consent.

Bodhi gives her a wide smile, and it lights up his whole face. She can’t help the way her stomach swoops, the way she watches his cheek dimple, mesmerized. There’s many small differences between the cousins, and she could spend days cataloguing them. 

“No problem,” he says happily. She feels terrible, because if their circumstances were different, she’d like him. Bodhi seems friendly and nice, and she feels bad about deceiving him. “I’ll collect your pack at the same time. No point keeping you in borrowed clothes all week.”

She must look as worried as she feels. The thought of staying their captive for a week… it doesn’t sit right in her gut, and she wants to struggle against it.

Bodhi puts the bowl down and grabs her hands in his. “Seriously, Violet, we don’t intend to hurt you. Don’t make us, please. We’ll take good care of you if you let us.”

He sounds so sincere, so honest. She searches for the lie, for the little tells, but doesn’t find any.

Begrudgingly, she nods. “Alright.”

Bodhi gives her another of those blinding smiles in return, squeezing her hands and rising. He hums as he goes, gathering what he needs.

“Be right back,” he tells Xaden as he passes, and Xaden grabs him by the elbow steadily. Bodhi stops in his tracks, turns an expectant gaze on his cousin.

“Be careful,” Xaden says, low and serious.

“As if there is anything more dangerous than a feisty lightning-wielding spy in these woods?” Bodhi jokes, but then calms. “I will be, Xay. And you stay put, Violet. Don’t cause him any trouble.”

“I won’t,” she quips sarcastically. “Just going to torture some state secrets out of him.”

Bodhi tilts his head, eyes glittering. “Well, if you get down on your knees and use that pretty mouth of yours, I bet he’ll tell you anything you–”

“Go,” Xaden barks, and Bodhi laughs, sidestepping a playful slap to his ass, but it gets him moving. Xaden’s gaze follows him all through the clearing and into the trees, then it snaps to Violet. “I’ll pack up camp. You sit tight and look pretty. No trouble, Violence.”

She nods meekly, which would be his first clue if he knew her – Violet is rarely cowed or meek. But Xaden turns to start his task. Returning her gaze to the fire, Violet contemplates her options.

She has to try.

Xaden’s focused on the tent, stowing away the pieces. There’s not going to be a better chance – she’s alone with the cousin who definitely will not kill her unless he wants to die too, her hands unbound, and he’s far away besides. Slowly, she inches down the log, adjusting her posture casually so it’s like she’s just restless.

Her bare feet will be a problem, and she already dreads the cuts she’ll acquire to the soles of her feet, but it will be a small issue compared to being a prisoner – however nice her captors are, however much she’s enjoyed what they can do to her.

“Your feet cold?” Xaden calls out from the packs, holding up a pair of woolen socks, his face stern like he knows exactly where her thoughts just drifted.

“I’m alright!” Violet calls, trying desperately to keep her voice level and natural. She’s not sure she succeeds. Fuck. “Besides, Bodhi will be here with my boots soon, right?”

She plans to be gone before then.

“Your call. That ankle does need the support of a boot.” Xaden shrugs, and returns to his work, turning his back on her. “Just stay put, and he’ll be here in a few minutes." 

The morning sun glints off the hilts of the swords on his back. For a second she gets distracted by the sight of his ass and thighs in his leathers, but she shakes it off.

“If you make up your mind and actually run soon, I’m ready to grab you in the nearest large enough clearing.” Tairn’s voice is exasperated at her slowness, and he’s already relayed to her which way she needs to go. The forest is dense enough this way – spruce, not pine – that she should be able to lose the cousins pretty quickly, if she ignores her ankle. With the adrenaline pumping through her veins, it shouldn’t be hard. The only question mark is Xaden’s signet – how far do his abilities stretch? If she’s not in sight, he can’t catch her, surely?

Violet throws a single, final glance at Xaden’s broad shoulders and back, following the black leather all the way to his boots. She wishes they hadn’t met like this, the three of them. Wishes desperately that this could all be a dream, so she could wake in her bed with an aching heart and empty feeling in her chest, just like every time she dreams of having someone to call her own.

Then she bolts, quickly, on quiet feet.

The needles and moss are soft, but the branches and stones and roots are not. She winces as she slips between the trees, immediately picking up speed.

There’s no shouting behind her, which makes her think maybe Xaden is distracted for long enough that she can get a decent headstart. The forest around her is oddly silent, sunlight filtering through the trees. She makes it maybe half a minute, just long enough to think she can do it. Just long enough to see the thinning of trees ahead, not quite a clearing but Tairn has informed her that in this particular emergency he’ll be able to grab her in his claw. They’ll probably break a few treetops, but as long as there’s no Sgaeyl to challenge him, he’s willing to try to save Violet.

It’s just long enough for hope to overtake fear.

He hits her like a battering ram. Violet shrieks – in anger and in fear – but while the impact of Xaden onto her is hard, the fall isn’t bad. She’s dazed, though, and tears well in her eyes as her cheek bounces off the soft ground, her eyes fixed on the lighter area ahead, where the trees thin.

Tairn’s roar of anger and disappointment rings in both her ears and head, and a second later his shadow swoops overhead.

“I’m sorry,” she manages to tell him, as Xaden efficiently pins her struggling form down with his weight.

“As am I, Silver One. This is partially my fault, after all.”

To hear Tairn – proud, prickly Tairn – admit fault only makes it all worse. 

“Don’t be,” she answers him, because she can’t not forgive him. Violet is Tairn’s and Tairn is hers, but they can belong to others as well. “Your mate– I know nothing of that type of deep love, but I am glad for your sake that you have it.” Violet fights to catch her breath before focusing on Xaden, who is also speaking.

“Thought you could make it, did you, Violence?”

There’s anger in his voice, or perhaps frustration? Like he kind of expected this, but wishes it wasn’t so.

She juts out her chin in defiance, stiff under him as her body remembers the last time he had her pinned face down. That won’t happen again, though. This will be the part when she’s pushed too far, when the cousins decide she’s a flight risk, and take her to the Summer House and her inevitable fate.

“I had to try.”

Violet knows she’d never have forgiven herself otherwise.

“Oh, you shouldn’t have done that, pretty girl,” Xaden croons into her ear, his firm body pressed along her back and his grip unforgiving. “You are outmatched. Did you really think you could escape? You know I’ll have to punish you, now.”

Before Violet can even begin to comprehend what he means, he’s dragging her up like she weighs nothing, and she struggles futilely in his grip.

Chapter Text

behind enemy lines

Part 7

Part 7

Xaden’s long strides eat up the ground between the small clearing that would have spelled freedom and the camp that spells continued captivity and guilt over her attraction to her captors. Violet struggles uselessly. Xaden is too strong, avoiding her kicking feet, his shadows subduing her easily. 

Finally, she falls lax in his grip.

“I knew you’d run,” Xaden bites out. “But I wanted to give you the benefit of doubt. Bodhi thought you wouldn’t. He’s not going to be happy with you.”

“You can’t expect me to just accept this!” Her voice breaks, but she’s also angry, because they seriously need to get a grasp on her point of view.

“That’s exactly what we expect.” There’s no give in Xaden’s tone. The world sways as he drags her rapidly back into their camp. “You’re safe enough, fed, unhurt.”

“And fucking raped repeatedly!” But even as she shouts it into his leather jacket, she knows it’s not really true. 

Xaden snorts. “I won’t deny that we didn’t care too much about explicit consent, but then again I won’t call myself a good man, and I made the decisions.” She can’t disagree with him on that – he’s bonded to a blue, and he’s ruthless even in his appraisal of his own personality. “Bodhi has more of a conscience, but even he could read that your mouth was just spewing words it’s been trained to say: enemy – wrong – fight. That’s what they’ve taught you to do, instead of listening to your heart or body.”

“I–”

“Did you ask us to stop, Violence?” The question is harsh. “Did you use the one word we told you would make us back off, or did you consciously stick to other protests, because you really wanted us to continue?”

She’s silent.

“Thought so,” Xaden snorts, and puts her down. Her ankle throbs, and she winces, but a firm hand tilts her chin up to meet onyx eyes, hard and displeased. “It may not be completely ethical of us, but we don’t care. And if you tell us to stop, we will. In all things – even unconventional punishments or in bed. We’ll revert to distant, typical captors. Until then, your struggling just pleases us, the same as how, deep down, it pleases you. And you know it.”

She does, her body flushing with warmth. Xaden’s gaze tracks over her – restrained by his shadows, hair likely astray, dirt clinging to her clothes. It shouldn’t feel nice, the way he at first seems to check for wounds, before his sweep turns lingering, dark.

“Now, let’s address this little escape attempt of yours.” His eyes turn predatory, narrowing, and Violet’s pulse skyrockets. She shifts nervously on her feet, fisting her hands. “You know I can’t let that go without correction.”

“Just this once?” she whispers pleadingly, because the way he’s looking at her makes fear rise in her throat, mingling with the desire his body seems to always call up. “I won’t do it again.”

Xaden shakes his head slowly. “Not good enough, sweet girl. You’re not going to escape a punishment.”

His hands grab onto her elbows as he steps closer, and Violet panics.

“I’m sorry, Xaden–”

“You’re not, but you will be,” he tells her calmly, and spins them so he can sit down on a thick fallen tree at the edge of camp. “I really don’t want to have to do this, but you brought it upon yourself. We can’t have you running away from us, you understand that, right? Maybe this will serve as a reminder.”

Then he’s unceremoniously pulling her pants down, and laying her over his knee. Her thoughts spin, but she can’t quite comprehend what he intends to do, even as she knows. His shadows wrench her hands behind her back, and she fumbles for balance, her feet kicking uselessly in the air, her body suspended over his thick thighs. The large shirt Xaden loaned her rides up to her shoulders, exposing her back under her bound hands.

“Xaden–”

The first smack hits before she can say anything more, and it silences her immediately. It's nothing like the two slaps Bodhi gave her earlier, when she was all too stunned to register what they made her feel. The sting now is brief, edging immediately into a lovely burn that makes her shiver. Violet gasps at the foreign feeling.

“That shut you up quickly,” Xaden observes. Then he spanks her several more times in quick succession, and Violet can’t help her whimpers. She squirms on his thighs, unable to get away from his punishment, but she also doesn’t protest.

Because it feels good.

Oh, there’s pain, certainly. Her cheeks blossom red with humiliation at being spanked like a child, ass up over his lap. Her own parents never did, though she knows Dain’s father was different on that front. But she’s never heard of it being done to an adult.

“Never been spanked before?” Xaden’s tone is insidiously soft. “Oh Violence, are you enjoying it?” She shakes her head in denial, ashamed and still speechless with some kind of shock. “Don’t worry, it’s not abnormal to like it. I can make it pleasurable, but I can also make it hurt.”

And then his palm slams down on her ass brutally, and she shrieks, suddenly finding her strength again.

“No!” But he’s raining down blows, hard enough that her eyes water, his other arm and his shadows pinning her form down over his lap. “No, no, ow, that hurts, Xaden, no, st–”

But she doesn’t finish the word, biting it off immediately.

Xaden stills, his thighs tensing under her, and he waits. Violet struggles to catch her breath. 

“What were you saying, Violet?” His palm strokes over her ass, igniting a burn. The skin feels so sensitive that she flinches at first, then sinks into the burning feeling, pushing her hips up into his hand. How can something be so painful and yet so blissful at the same time?

“N-nothing,” she stammers.

“If you’re sure,” Xaden murmurs lowly. “I’m going to turn this pretty little ass red until you scream for me, Violence.”

It doesn’t take long. He varies the placement and strength of his blows, the sound of his palm smacking against her skin echoing through the trees for anyone nearby to hear. They would also be able to hear Violet’s sobs, a mix of humiliation and regret and pain and pleasure. And they would hear when Xaden targets the sorest spots mercilessly, making her scream and thrash in his grip.

They would hear the silence when she relents, when she goes pliant in Xaden’s hold, breath hitching at each blow.

“Look at that.” Xaden’s voice is like a lifeline among the dizzying sensations in her body. “You’re doing so well for me. Accepting your punishment.”

Violet can’t help the way his subtle praise warms her, settles her.

“We have company,” Xaden tells her, and a shadow tugs on her hair, pulling her head back to look forward. She blinks tears out of her eyes to see Bodhi at the opposite side of camp, standing like a statue, observing what he’s walked into.

Her cheeks flush anew with embarrassment, and when the shadow lets go she hangs her head.

She can’t face Bodhi. Can’t face the thought of someone seeing her like this – bent over Xaden’s knees, ass up in the air, most likely bright red. Him being witness to her humiliation twists something in her abdomen that she’s afraid to call arousal, because she doesn’t know what that will tell her about herself. And Bodhi will know – he’ll know she’s done something in his absence, something to cause this, and that makes her feel ashamed.

In the pause that follows, the ache in her ass truly registers as Xaden strokes over the inflamed skin. She whimpers, and wants to beg for this to end. She can’t take more, can’t handle this at all. 

Yet she wants it. 

It’s a contradiction she doesn’t know what to do with, but maybe Bodhi will.

The arguably nicer cousin comes over, crouches down in front of her, gripping her chin and forcing her to meet his eyes.

“Oh, Violet,” he sighs. “What did you do?”

She doesn’t answer, only begs with her gaze for his help.

“Tried to escape,” Xaden says shortly. Bodhi looks disappointed and that momentarily makes Violet feel small. Angering them – especially Xaden – feels inevitable, but disappointing Bodhi is somehow worse. It makes guilt creep up her throat, for some reason.

“Please,” she whispers. “Bodhi.”

He shakes his head slowly and trails his fingers from her chin down her neck in a gentle caress. “No. If Xaden decided that you deserve this, then you do. And he isn’t lenient with punishments, either.”

And she knows how to stop this. Has known the whole time, that even if Xaden is truly angry, if she so much as breathed the word stop, he’d probably stop. Oh, he’d find other ways to punish her, perhaps, and she’d still be their prisoner, but she could end this particular hurt at any time.

Violet hangs her head, accepts her fate. But Bodhi picks it up by the chin again, makes her look at him as the blows start anew. He’s clearly cataloguing each sound, each twist of her features, drinking them in like he both loves and loathes them.

Even if she’s stopped struggling, she can’t help but try to explain, try to get through to them.

“I’m sorry, Xaden–” She whimpers, loses her train of thought. “Bodhi– I didn’t really want to, but you know I had to, right?” It’s a continuous stream of words, and she’s not sure she makes any sense, but tears stream down her face and she can’t stop the truth from spilling out. “It– duty, I’ve sworn allegiance to Navarre, I– had to try. Once–”

“And never again,” Xaden demands, sharp and cutting, his hand smacking against her skin meanly, driving a sob from her.

“No! Never again!” 

Bodhi’s brown eyes are serious and he wipes some of the tears from her cheeks gently, just as Xaden slaps her ass again. It’s a weird kind of comforting, Bodhi condoning Xaden’s punishment, not doing anything to stop it, and yet his presence is a comfort, his words even more so as he starts to murmur.

“You’re doing so well, sweet Violet. Just take it, until you’ve atoned. You’ll feel better.” She presses her lips together to contain a moan, as Xaden’s fingers accidentally brush against her core while pulling away from her ass. “Breathe.”

She follows his steady stream of advice through a few more harsh blows, until her ass is throbbing and Xaden seems to be done. Time has lost its meaning, and she’s not sure how long she’s been bent over Xaden’s lap, but Bodhi holding up her head has made sure she isn’t dizzy from blood rushing into it.

Just for other reasons.

“That’s enough of that, I think,” Xaden muses, and she sighs in relief. His hand strokes over her thigh gently, upwards toward her core, and she tries to twist away, because she knows what he’ll find, and it’s embarrassing.

Xaden’s fingers trace her soaked slit, and she gasps, Bodhi’s eyes intense on hers, only a few inches away.

“I think someone is enjoying her punishment too much.” Xaden sounds pleased, his voice low and rough. “All soaked from being bent over and spanked until you submit to it, aren’t you, Violence?”

Her gaze darts nervously over Bodhi’s face, looking for judgement and finding none. He seems unsurprised, perhaps even smug. Like he knew she’d react like this. He couldn’t have, though, not when Violet herself didn’t even know.

Xaden pushes a finger inside her lazily, and there’s absolutely no resistance as her soaked core welcomes him. It feels amazing, and she hadn’t even realized how wound up she is, her hips hitching back against his finger in search of more, in search of relief.

He tuts. “Oh no. Little spies who try to run don’t get to come before they’ve apologized properly. ”

“I’m sorry!” she tries again. “I am.”

It just makes her sound like a petulant child. Bodhi, still crouching in front of her, chuckles.

“Not sorry enough,” Xaden dismisses. His finger continues playing with her, torturously slowly. Not sorry enough? Her ass throbs, her cheeks are wet with tears still, and Xaden thinks she’s not sorry?

“Words and actions are different things,” Bodhi tells her quietly. “You can say whatever you like, but only time and what you choose to do will show us they’re true.”

“But I want to–” Violet scrambles for words. She doesn’t want to wait, doesn’t want to drag this out and prove to them that she is not running again. “How can I–” Her throat is dry, and she pauses, wets her lips. Can’t quite believe the words coming out of her own mouth. “How can I show you I’m sorry right now?”

“Do you want to apologize properly, sweet girl?” Xaden croons, and she nods desperately. “Mhm, I thought so. You’ll bend over nicely for us then, and let us both have you until you’re forgiven.”

“Yes,” she whimpers. Because truly, that sounds almost like a reward, not an apology.

“You’ll have to stand up,” Bodhi croons, taking her hand as the shadows fall away from her body, Xaden stroking soothingly along her spine. “Here, let me help.”

Her head spins as she gains her feet, Xaden’s hands steadying her hips, and Violet can’t help the way her free hand goes to rub at her ass, nor the moan when it aggravates the soreness. Xaden pulls it away carefully but firmly, lacing his fingers through hers as he stands.

“Don’t touch.” It’s a command, softened by his other touches. “That pretty red ass is all ours right now. You can soothe it later, when we’re done.”

“Not that it’ll help.” Bodhi huffs, amused. “You’re going to feel that for a while.”

“As she should,” Xaden says, and surprisingly, drops a kiss to the crown of her head. Violet opens her mouth to ask what the fuck he thinks he’s doing, being sweet in the midst of this chaos he’s stirring up in her, but then Bodhi’s hand strokes up her arm as Xaden moves to stand behind her, and she snaps her jaw shut. It doesn’t feel bad as their hands roam over her body, touching gently. Somehow they know just what she needs when she doesn’t know it herself, feeling off kilter. 

She leans into their grip, accepts their comfort, until she realizes maybe she shouldn’t. When she stiffens in their arms, Xaden sighs deeply and Bodhi hums in answer to him, but they cease.

Together, their hands divest her of her borrowed shirt instead until she’s naked again.

“Bend over for us, Violet,” Bodhi encourages softly. “Show us what my cousin did to you.”

Her cheeks burn. They want her to do it herself – bend over the tree trunk in front of her, offer herself willingly to them. 

“Be good now,” Xaden warns, and she swallows.

And bends.

The bark is rough under her palms, the wind caressing her skin. They’re shaded from the August sun, rising towards the peak of its daily arch across the sky, but the dappled sunlight through the trees paints shadows across the ground.

There’s hands on her hips – whose? – and she doesn’t dare to move a muscle in case Xaden thinks she’s about to bolt again. Like this, her ass is just as accessible for a spanking as it was earlier. 

It frightens her, that maybe she wants more? Or at least to experience that weird mix of pain, humiliation and pleasure again, sometime. It makes her heart beat overtime, her brain so overwhelmed she can’t make sense of it all.

How the fuck is she going to explain to a potential partner: Oh, this one time when I tried to escape captivity, my captors punished me by spanking me ruthlessly, and that got me going. Could you do the same?

Yeah, no.

There’s rustling behind her, both of them probably undoing their flight leathers. Feet kick hers apart a touch wider, and a hand – probably Bodhi’s with how gentle it is – presses her down further, adjusts the angle she’s bent at.

“So short,” Xaden muses. “Even if you’re on your toes, we might have to lift your feet off the ground to fuck you. No matter, it’s not like you’re heavy.”

Violet swallows, unable to stand how turned on that thought makes her.

Then there’s a cock being stroked across her wet core, bumping her clit as it’s coated in her wetness. She whines at the feeling, whines at it notching against her hole.

“Shush, Violet,” Bodhi orders calmly, and she realizes it’s him teasing her. “You’ll have it in just a second. Now let me enjoy you, hm?”

She nods desperately, trying to keep still, almost trembling with anticipation.

Bodhi goes slow. He makes her feel each inch of his cock as it stretches her open again. There’s soreness, yes, but nothing compared to her aching ass, and Violet mewls at the feeling. He’s thick and hard and warm inside her, filling her perfectly, and it’s exactly what she needs.

“Thank you–” She gasps as he presses in deeper. “Bodhi, yes, please, thank you.”

There’s a soft, pleased huff of air behind her. “Don’t thank me yet, sweet girl,” he warns. “I’ve not even started fucking you.”

“Don’t care, feels good, thank you–”

She’s lost all filters, can hear the words slipping out but she’s unable – and almost unwilling – to stop them.

“So polite,” Xaden murmurs, sitting down on the thick tree trunk and turning her face his way with a firm touch. “Seems like you don’t even need to be taught your manners, not like my brat of a cousin. Just as long as you’ve lost your inhibitions, you’re all pliant and obedient and thankful. Aren’t you a perfect little slut?”

“Don’t– Ah,” Violet moans, interrupted by Bodhi pushing all the way in, as deep as he can go, his hips snapping sharply against her aching ass. 

“Don’t what?” Xaden croons. “Don’t call you a slut? But if the shoe fits.” He leans closer, his breath caressing her lips as he thumbs the bottom one. “And aren’t you being one right now? Bending over naked for my cousin and I to fuck as we like, using your pretty, wet cunt to apologize.”

Violet wants to protest, wants to say he planted this idea in her head, but she can’t muster the energy as Bodhi begins taking her with even, carefully aimed strokes of his cock. Besides, what does it matter? Xaden is right.

Instead, she focuses on how good Bodhi feels, how his measured pace and deep, hard thrusts hit the exactly right spots, pushing moans from her lips. Xaden watches her face for a while, quiet and intense, head tilted to the side.

“You’re going to shatter on his cock,” Xaden informs her, and only then does she realize that the coil of pleasure between her legs is pulling tight. “And he’s going to paint your red, punished ass in his come before I take you.”

Violet keens at pressure on her clit, momentarily confused as Bodhi’s hands are gripping her hips, keeping her still from his thrusts, and Xaden’s are within her field of vision.

Then she sees Xaden’s hand twirling as if idly, and realizes he’s sent shadows to touch her. At that exact moment, they flick her clit, and she comes immediately, a scream of surprise and pleasure ripped from her throat.

Xaden laughs, low and deliciously rough, while Bodhi moans as she clenches around him, her core fluttering helplessly around his thick length as black spots momentarily consume her vision.

She didn’t even understand she was so close, her body so overwhelmed by sensations that picking out that cresting wave had been impossible.

Yet Xaden did.

“Fuck, you’re tightening around me.” Bodhi’s voice sounds slightly wrecked, like he’s either just as wound up from watching his cousin spank her, or simply so desperate from the short time he’s been inside her. 

Either way, it’s delicious, the way his voice cracks and breaks. 

Violet clings to it like it might bring her safely out of the haze of her orgasm.

“Going to come soon,” Bodhi warns – her, or Xaden? “So good for me, Violet. Wet, tight– and fuck, your ass is gorgeous after Xaden’s handling–”

“You’ll come on that ass,” Xaden demands.

“Yes– yes–” Bodhi is pulling out, and she moans at the loss, hears the sound of him furiously jerking himself off behind her. “So fucking pretty, going to mark you, can’t believe you let him punish you–”

Warm come splatters over her sore skin as Bodhi groans.

“Good boy,” Xaden praises, loving and proud.

Violet rips her face out of Xaden’s grip, a pitiful, humiliated sound dropping from her lips. Xaden chuckles, but forces her to face him again, his movements rough. 

“Feeling used and dirty, are you, Violence?” She blinks away a few tears before they have time to fall, and Xaden smirks. “You’ll feel even more so when I’m done with you.”

Then he’s rising, replacing Bodhi behind her, and he does not go slow. Xaden pushes inside demandingly, fingers digging into her hips. His thrusts pick up pace immediately, hard and fast, tilting her hips until she’s straining to keep her feet on the ground, keening nonstop as he fucks her.

It’s so much, bordering on pain.

“Is that difficult to take?” His voice doesn't sound apologetic in the least, more mocking. “Should have thought of that before you ran. Now, hold on to that tree and tell me how fucking sorry you are while I finish punishing your perfect little body.”

Xaden snaps his hips hard into her, the flesh striking her sore ass, and she yelps. 

“Yeah, that’s right,” Xaden coos. “Scream for me again.”

Her feet leave the ground as he pulls her into each thrust, controlling her effortlessly, hips slamming against her again and again. She screams for him. Then she begs, brokenly.

And finally, she sobs out apologies, disjointed and slurred.

“I’m so– ‘m sorry! Xaden– sorry, so sorr–”

Bodhi’s hands touch her then, gently. He must have just watched Xaden take her until now, or perhaps touched Xaden, but his palms soothe over her back, one slipping to cradle the back of her head and neck. It feels claiming, somehow, and the pressure helps.

His other rounds her hip to her stomach, gliding in between her legs. Bodhi’s fingers trace where Xaden is still fucking furiously into her, and then they delve onto her clit.

She comes again, her apologies cut off, nothing but a silent scream stuck in her throat as pleasure rolls through her, electrifying each nerve throughout her body.

When she comes to, blinking the world into focus, the shadows and light spots chasing each other on the ground before her as the wind rustles the trees, Xaden is still fucking her.

“With us, Violence?” he croons, and she hums brokenly. “Good. I want you to feel this, too.”

Her head lolls, and she doesn’t quite comprehend his words.

Just a few more thrusts, and then he’s pulling out, spilling over her ass as well. Violet sobs, a dry, tired thing, and Xaden draws a finger through the mess on her – both cousins, combined on her skin. 

“Look at that,” he croons. “Come splattered all over your red skin, your little hole wet and used and clenching.”

It is, fluttering around the emptiness after them filling her, and Violet trembles at the thought of what she must look like.

“You did well,” Bodhi murmurs, and strokes over her stomach and over to her sweaty back. “Apology accepted.”

Xaden is less forgiving in his tone, but she gets the sense that he’s pleased, too. “All done with your punishment. Now we just have to let it sink in. Convince that stubborn mind of yours.”

Violet tries to rise, tries to move on wobbly legs, but a hand – Bodhi’s – presses her down between the shoulderblades and her hands stay on the rough bark. 

“Stay there, sweet Violet,” Bodhi tells her firmly. “Show us that punished ass and that you’ve learnt your lesson to stay where we bid you to.”

Xaden’s voice is dark with warning as he continues the instructions, and she shivers. “And if you try to run again, it won’t be just my hand. No, you’ll get Bodhi’s too, until your ass is sore and red and you’re squealing with each blow.” She can’t wrap her mind around it, can’t handle the thought of them both punishing her together. “And perhaps, my belt, until you’re so tender you won’t think of sitting, let alone escaping, for a few days.”

Violet whimpers as they step away, the sounds of them lacing up their flight leathers filtering through the quiet daze in her head, but she can’t move. Her ass throbs from Xaden’s punishment, her core is sore from their rough thrusts, and their come is drying all over her. She stays there, bent over and panting, her joints stiff and locked up.

They pack up the remains of camp, and a few tears of humiliation run down her cheeks. Fuck, this is so much worse than the spanking and the rough fucking. The knowledge that her red ass is on display, marked with their come, that they’re just going on with their business and leaving her used and aching…

It’s terrible and delightful, but she tries to banish the part of her that likes it. It’s easy when they’re touching her, to forget she should struggle, and then she berates herself afterwards. But now, her head is still somewhat fuzzy, and she tries her best to sink into that feeling.

Their low voices wash over her from behind, and she feels exposed, but stays in place. Making a break for it again, running into the trees – it would be smart, but every fiber of her being rebels against the thought. She shudders as she thinks of what punishment she’d get if they catch her – and she’s sure they would. 

Violet would be stupid to think Xaden Riorson makes empty threats.

So she stays, and footsteps approach her, the gentle hand on her hip helping her guess who it is before Bodhi murmurs, “Such a good girl, aren’t you, Violet?”

The words hit deep in her abdomen, but also in her heart. Somehow, it smooths over the way his disappointment unexpectedly crushed her earlier. She can’t help tilting her hips into his palm and whining, beyond words.

“So needy,” Bodhi chides softly, and she can hear Xaden approach. “Don’t you trust us to take care of you? You should, because if you let us, we will.” She shakes her head in a choppy movement, uncoordinated. He sighs. “Have it your way, then.”

“For now,” Xaden chimes in. “Let’s just push her a bit further, my love, and she won’t protest anymore.”

What–

The sound of a belt unbuckling and a cock notching at her used hole answers the question she barely started thinking.

They take turns making her scream, though their thrusts aren’t particularly rough – she’s just spent and the edge of pain pushes her pleasure high fast. It’s intense, and she doesn’t really know which of them is fucking her, because they switch seamlessly, both pairs of hands roaming over her – and each other, she suspects, considering she can hear them kissing.

When she’s too gone to protest and they’re both satisfied, they clean her up with gentle touches she doesn’t have the energy to shy from, and then they’re dressing her into clothes pulled from her pack – but sheathes empty of daggers. Xaden urges her to sit, and she does so unthinkingly, groaning from the instant pain as they chuckle, Xaden kneeling to lace her into her own boots. She’s fed and Bodhi coaxes her into drinking what feels like all too much water.

The trek up the mountain on shaky legs and a bruised ankle is not fun, not even with Xaden’s shadows supporting her and Bodhi shouldering her pack. The skin of her ass pulls tight on each step, the ache flaring, and Xaden chuckles each time she goes to rub at it, like he’s pleased with himself.

Asshole.

But even then, they’re considerate of her pace, stopping frequently, Bodhi supporting her when her legs feel like they may fold under her.

She hates them for being so decent.

Chapter Text

behind enemy lines

Part 8

The sanctuary of Dunne is nothing like Violet expected.

Built on a high peak, it’s like a small fortress – apt for a goddess of war she supposes – and easily defensible. The stone walls are thick and the furnishings austere compared to the temples Violet has seen during her life. Attached to the temple is a living space designed for multiple people, with comfortable rooms, fireplaces and a central kitchen. It’s functional, neat, sturdy. Xaden and Bodhi dropped their packs in a room clearly made for leadership, the only one with a proper mattress, sheets folded neatly in a linen cabinet in the corner of the room.

She supposes she’ll sleep in there too, under watch.

The complex also has a beautiful, walled-in garden, overgrown, with fruit trees, flowers, herbs and berry bushes. There’s old glasshouses, brittle beehives and a spring bubbling up into a small body of water.

“The sanctuary used to house a lot of worshipers, back when this region was peaceful,” Bodhi tells her as he takes her on a tour. “The water’s a mountain spring, clean and drinkable.”

Food, water, safety. A tiny stronghold.

The courtyard is big, the stone floor open to the sky, an ancient altar at one end. There’s a gorgeous view of the valley and the mountains, the setting sun casting its golden glow over the landscape. Tired, hurting and truly done with this day, Violet still stops to appreciate the beauty of it.

“I can see why you’d come here,” Violet says quietly as Bodhi steps up to her side, handing her a waterskin he just filled. The liquid is cold and sweet in her mouth, and she drinks greedily.

Bodhi sighs softly. “Supposedly, we’re here for the annual prayers, because it’s important for Xaden to be seen paying at least lip service to the gods. But you’re right. It’s beautiful and peaceful.

“And private.” Violet throws him a sideways glance, uncertain how much she’s allowed to push or tease, closing the waterskin. Bodhi gives her a sheepish smile.

“Okay, so maybe we mainly come out here once a year to fuck without having to think about who can see or hear us. Sue me, my cousin is attractive as hell and I can’t keep my hands off him.”

Violet marvels at the easy way Bodhi recognizes both their familial relationship and his desire for Xaden in the same sentence without any self-consciousness or shame. It’s clearly something they’re confident and comfortable with. Once again, she thinks she should be horrified, but can only call up mild intrigue. 

“And can he keep his hands off you?”

“With difficulty,” Xaden comments drily from behind them, and Violet startles. The movement makes the very faint ache in her ass flare, and she winces. Xaden looks amused, and she wants to sink through the stones of the courtyard in shame. Somehow, she’s too tired to be angry, but shame she can manage. “Sore, Violence?”

A weak glare is all she can muster. 

He knows she is. Due to their late night and subsequent late morning, by the time Xaden spanked her and both cousins took their time fucking her senseless, it was midday. Breaking camp and hiking all day was slow going with Violet’s ankle. They took several breaks, during which she gave up on dignity and laid on the ground on her stomach to rest both of the sorest parts of her. 

The cousins didn’t comment, but they did exchange meaningful glances over her head which made Violet’s blood boil. She knows that technically, it’s her fault Xaden punished her – she shouldn’t have gotten caught, or in their minds, shouldn’t have run in the first place.

They haven’t punished her further, though. They’ve been downright pleasant, not even tying her up with rope or shadows, though she supposes that would have been pointless considering Bodhi’s signet clearly counters hers and they’re certainly fast enough to catch her if she runs. Especially with her busted ankle, which is slightly swollen, though thankfully not as bad as it could be. It’ll heal within a few days, she thinks.

Hopes, because she’s not escaping them unless it’s walkable.

Xaden approaches Bodhi’s side with easy, slow steps. Something’s different about Xaden, but she can’t quite tell what, as he stands so close to his cousin that their upper arms press together. It’s like he’s – relaxed?

Yeah, that’s it. 

His shoulders aren’t so tense, his eyes not constantly scanning their surroundings. Indeed, any enemy approaching would be easily visible and detected by their dragons. It’s like a lot of the rigidity has bled from his posture, leaving less of a leader – less of a king – and more of a man.

Violet watches as the two to them surreptitiously weave their pinkies together, just a hint of movement. Then Bodhi sighs contentedly, and their hands intertwine for real, into a strong grip. Perhaps something they’re not allowing themselves often, for fear of detection.

They stare out at the sunset, and she feels like she’s intruding.

“I’ll just– go inside and…”

Xaden turns his head to her, dark eyes so soft she trails off in surprise. “Stay.”

It doesn’t feel like he’s asking to keep their prisoner in sight. It feels like he just wants her there. Something warm flickers to life below Violet’s breastbone, and she squashes it ruthlessly. No. No. She will not allow that to grow, she’ll root it out.

And still, as if in a daze, she nods in response and takes a single step closer to them. It’s not enough to press her against Xaden’s side, but enough that she’s standing side-by-side with them, only slightly separated.

Tilting her head back, she lets the wind caress her face, and listens to the sounds of nature. 

It’s peaceful, indeed.

Once again, sleep comes easily to her, nestled between Xaden and Bodhi’s warm bodies.

The morning light greets her when she comes to. A hand is cupping her breast, another stroking idly along her hip, but the touches aren’t demanding. She refuses to open her eyes and see who is doing what, refuses to invite further touching by acknowledging it, even if it feels so good, so soothing. They’re all naked this time, neither of the men having bothered with clothes after they washed up for the evening. Violet had taken one look at the options in her pack – sweaty, dirty clothes after her mission – and chosen the same. It’s not like they haven’t seen her before. Not like they haven’t drunk in their fill of her body, ran their hands over it. 

Not like they won’t do it all again if they want to, clothes or no clothes.

It just means their legs are tangled together, coarse hairs tickling her skin as one of them shifts, their bare torsos on either side of her as she lays on her side. It’s intimate, and that feels scary.

They must know she’s awake, because while neither of them says anything, their touches become more active, sweeping over her in slow, possessive movements. She shifts restlessly as they press in closer, hard cocks resting against her ass and hip. 

Sweat beads on the back of her neck.

It’s warm between them, and if she wasn’t in the situation she is, where her mind is fighting her body’s reactions, she’d sink into their touch, surrender to the pleasure. Instead, she lays stiff between them, keeping her eyes stubbornly shut.

They roll her to her back, and she pinches her lips together to keep her noise of surprise inside.

Violet is sure they exchange looks over her body, but there’s absolutely no words, just hands gliding over her skin until they’re cupping a breast each. Their large, calloused palms envelop them completely, the rough drag of their skin against the sensitive area intoxicating.

Their fingers overlap on her sternum.

She feels the rush of air as they heave up onto their elbows, and the shift of weight against her upper arms when they lean in, kissing right over her torso. It must be slow, at first, but soon enough wet, filthy sounds fill the air.

Peeking out from between her lashes, sufficiently sure they’re distracted by each other again, Violet is treated to a spectacular view.

Xaden and Bodhi are battling for dominance above her, neither giving an inch, kissing furiously and passionately. She can’t distinguish who is who from this angle, not familiar enough with their relics or their jawlines, which is mostly what she has to go off on. She thinks the cousin to her right is Bodhi, just because the hair is curlier, but she can’t be sure.

They’re stunning.

Up close like this, watching their mouths tangle like it’s simultaneously a fight and a simulation of fucking is indescribable. She squirms, heat rushing through her and making her skin so sensitive, she feels every brush of them shifting against her. 

Equally good as the sight of them kissing are the noises. Hot and slick, intermingled with faint groans and throaty, rough sounds.

She could watch them make out for hours and never get bored. And that thought scares her.

Closing her eyes quickly, she tries to contain her arousal, to think of something else – anything else. But it’s no use. Xaden and Bodhi are etched into her retinas, and she can’t ignore them while they’re right there.

Finally, they stop kissing, but her relief is short-lived.

Instead, hungry mouths descend onto her skin, kissing across ribs and shoulders, their hands moving apart to better fondle her breasts.

“Such fucking pretty tits,” one of them breathes, Bodhi, she thinks again, but their faces are so close to each other she can’t tell which body the voice belonged to.

“Wonder if we could make her come just by playing with them, cousin?” the other replies, and she’s almost certain that’s Xaden.

Because her eyes are shut, she gets no warning before both nipples are enclosed in warm, wet mouths, tongues flickering out to circle and taste.

She cries out in surprise and pleasure, unable to hold her silence.

One of them – on the left – chuckles against the curve of her breast. The other bites very gently at her peak, just a hint of teeth, but it has her back arching.

“She likes that.”

She gives up on deciphering whose voice it is, because the overwhelming feeling of having both nipples played with – tugged, sucked, circled, licked – takes over every ounce of brain capacity. Her body bucks, trying to escape the maddening torture, the pleasure that doesn’t creep in but consumes, threatening to drive her arousal high fast. In sync once again, the cousins pin her down, throwing a leg each over hers, keeping her thighs spread open as their arms band over her torso like iron bars, pinning her firmly to the bedding.

It makes her busted ankle shift against the sheets, a dull throb reminding her of her aches yesterday, what Xaden did to her ass, now feeling normal again. The movement is also accompanied by the kind of pleasant soreness between her legs that comes from being well fucked – well used.

And now Violet is well and truly trapped for their pleasure again.

Mercilessly, hot mouths lave over her sensitive peaks, and she can’t help the way she is keening low in her throat. One of them chuckles, low and satisfied. It makes an embarrassed flush spread over her cheeks.

They give her momentary reprieve, heads lifting to meet each other’s mouths in a kiss, and when her torso strains up, a disappointed noise at losing the pleasurable torment on her breasts, she’s sure it’s Xaden who murmurs mockingly into their kiss:

“So desperate, isn’t she? Look at her, writhing for more even as she is pretending she doesn’t like it.” Their tongues must tangle then, the noises wet, but she doesn’t dare open her eyes. “We won’t give her more if she continues muffling those pretty noises.”

“No, she won’t be depriving us of them,” Bodhi agrees. 

Violet clamps her mouth shut stubbornly, and fingers trail up her left inner thigh. A moment later, they readjust, and while she’s still pinned down and open by their bulk, there’s now two hands questing up her thighs. One of them licks across her nipple and the other follows suit – hard swipes with a stiff tongue, designed to make her squirm with want. 

Their hands tease ever closer, running across the crease of thigh and hip, tracing along her outer folds without any pressure. She bucks up into their hands as well as she can, desperate for friction, but it’s no use.

“Just give in,” Xaden coaxes around her nipple. Bites it firmly, and she can’t hold back her scream. “There you go, that wasn’t so hard. Again.”

It’s Bodhi, this time, rolling her other nipple between his teeth and tongue. 

Violet moans helplessly, and is rewarded with a finger stroking deftly up her slit.

“So fucking slick and soft, aren’t you?” Xaden murmurs, and traces a circle around her clit. “Just keep your eyes closed, mouth open, and let us soothe that ache between your thighs.”

How would you know if I am aching? Violet wants to spit at him, but it’s useless. Her body betrays her want. Instead a weak moan spills from her as Bodhi’s hand joins Xaden’s, their fingers exploring her and spreading her wetness around, teasing until she’s panting and letting out pitiful little noises.

Their mouths lower to her breasts again, one of them slipping a finger into her, then two and then three, thick and long. The other cousin is working her clit steadily, small, tight circles, and Violet moans, her abdomen tensing as her body shifts restlessly in their grip, seeking that edge to the pleasure crashing through her veins.

The fingers are pumping in and out of her mercilessly, a fast, demanding pace, the slick sounds obscene. 

“Come for us, Violence,” Xaden urges, a dark croon. “Stuffed full of fingers, and soon you’ll get to come again on a cock. We’ll take such good care of you, I promise.”

“You call– keeping me– prisoner– good?” It’s an effort to get the words out between moans and fighting to fill her lungs with air. 

“No, we call coaxing endless orgasms and fulfilling your darkest fantasies good.”

She can’t argue, even though she wants to question how they seem to know her fantasies, her wants. How they seem to be recreating things she’s only thought of in the dark, and never confessed to anyone.

Instead of arguing, Violet comes so hard the world goes hazy. She's still not sure whose fingers she’s coming around, but they feel fantastic to clench down on as her body spasms and bliss overtakes her.

Distantly, she feels them shift, though the fingers don’t leave her. When she blinks her eyes open, Bodhi is kneeling over her body, leaned forward and bracing on one hand, while the other is between her thighs.

Inside her, curling insidiously against her over-sensitive walls.

“No,” Violet gasps.

“Yes,” Xaden orders. “She’s not been very cooperative today, so she can’t expect mercy.”

He’s moved from the bed to grab something, and when she hears a cork plop she realizes exactly what. Kneeling behind Bodhi, Xaden coats his fingers, and then Bodhi shifts on a groan, so that she can barely see the King anymore.

“Please,” she begs Bodhi, feels tears rise to her eyes. It’s all too much. “Bodhi, please.”

“Shh,” he soothes her, even as his body tenses above hers and then relaxes into whatever Xaden is doing. “You can take it, Violet.”

But his fingers slow down – stroke gently instead of pressing firmly. Disobeying Xaden’s order, where he can’t see.

Bodhi bends down, his mouth just over hers, breathing heavily against her lips. His face contorts in pleasure and in pain. Xaden must be fingering him open, Violet realizes through the haze in her mind. 

“One more?” Xaden asks, and Bodhi nods, his lips brushing against hers in a simulation of a kiss. 

“Yes, please, Xay,” he answers, and Xaden hums like he’s pleased, bending over to kiss between Bodhi’s shoulderblades. Violet whimpers quietly under them as Bodhi’s fingers continue teasing her even as Xaden preps him.

When Xaden seems to deem his cousin ready, he pulls back to kneel behind Bodhi, and Violet wonders if he’s going to fuck Bodhi right there, on top of her, while clever fingers tease her into another orgasm.

But no, Xaden wraps his arm around Bodhi’s waist, and when Bodhi’s fingers pull out of Violet, Xaden’s hand closes around his cousin’s cock and guides him into her, Bodhi’s hips sinking into the cradle of her thighs.

She moans at the stretch, but doesn’t protest.

What good would it do? And besides, Bodhi inside her feels heavenly. She’s not going to ask him to stop, not when they’re taking her silence for reluctance. 

Violet knows the exact moment Xaden pushes into his cousin – partly because it pushes Bodhi into her, making her gasp, and partly because Bodhi lets out a low, filthy groan.

“Shit, that’s good,” he mutters into Violet’s shoulder, body pressing tightly against hers as Xaden bends down over them, driving into Bodhi again. “Ah, fuck–”

Violet tries to keep her silence, but just like earlier, small sounds are punched out of her with each snap of Xaden’s hips.

“Did you miss me inside you, cousin?” Xaden croons, low and rough. “Because I’ve missed this tight, perfect ass of yours.”

“Yes,” Bodhi gasps. “Missed being fucked.”

“Not even two days since I last took you, and already desperate.” Xaden’s voice is mocking and mean. “Should keep you permanently open with my shadows, so you’d always have me inside you.”

Bodhi whimpers at that, hands fisting in the sheets next to Violet’s head and hers fly to his back when he digs his teeth into her shoulder – not hard enough to break skin, but hard enough to feel.

“Bodhi!” she gasps in admonishment, digging her nails into his back to counteract the pain, and can’t help using her new leverage to push her hips up to meet Xaden and Bodhi’s combined thrusts. 

“Mhm, he’s a biter,” Xaden confirms lazily, rolling his hips forward at a steady pace. “If it wasn’t undignified for a king, I bet my neck would be nothing but bruises from how he wants to bite down when I fuck him well.”

Violet can’t resist poking back, but her breathlessness makes it ineffective. “Don’t you– oh, always fuck him well?”

“Exactly,” Xaden smirks at her. She can see him now that Bodhi is lying down on top of her, watch that irritatingly handsome face. He raises a hand, as if to circle his own neck. “Bruises upon bruises, if Bodhi wasn’t obedient enough to follow my command to be careful with his teeth.”

Bodhi grunts, and Violet thinks that if she feels unmoored and overwhelmed by his cock inside her and the whole situation, Bodhi must feel so much more, caught between Xaden and her.

Apparently, he’s still with them enough to be annoyed by the subject of discussion, biting harsher into Violet and making her moan in pain.

The next thrust smooths it into pleasure, though, and she can’t keep track of what she’s feeling.

“Taking me so well, baby,” Xaden croons to his cousin, one hand coming to wrap around the back of Bodhi’s neck. Then he meets Violet’s gaze, the pupils and irises of his dark eyes almost indistinguishable. “And you’re taking him so well, pretty little spy.”

She tries for a defiant glare, but it’s ruined by her moans.

Xaden only chuckles, a few small, amused puffs of air.

“Do you like that, cousin? You, being such a good boy for me, and Violence here being such a perfect girl for you? Like taking my cock while she just lets me fuck you into her, keeping her pretty little thighs spread open?”

Violet closes her eyes, can’t take the wave of heat rushing through her at Xaden’s words. Can’t deny that she’s stopped fighting – pinned down by their combined weight, she’s trapped either way – and instead undulates into their movements, seeking friction. It’s just so good. Filthy. 

Wrecking her.

“She’s going to come around your cock,” Xaden informs Bodhi loftily, likely reading that information straight off her face, scrunched up in pleasure. “And you won’t come, baby. You’re going to let her squeeze you, and you’ll wait.”

Violet can’t hear Bodhi’s response, because a painfully sharp orgasm washes over her like a tide, leaving her sputtering and breathless, her ears ringing as she clenches down rhythmically on Bodhi inside her. Xaden doesn’t stop, thrusts into his cousin and forces Bodhi inside her at a fast, brutal pace, fucking her relentlessly through the waves. She’s screaming, she thinks, clawing at Bodhi’s back and what she can reach of Xaden’s arm, but they don’t budge.

“I can’t–” Bodhi whimpers, and she feels him spill inside her, his body tensing above hers before the bliss overtakes him too.

Xaden tuts breathlessly behind her, but doesn’t stop fucking Bodhi. “Too bad, cousin. I won’t stop just because you were disobedient and came.”

“Oversensitive–” Bodhi groans, and tries to shift back from Violet, to get his softening cock out of her, but Xaden presses him down with force, hand on the back of his neck. Violet gasps as all air is stolen from her lungs, Xaden punishing both her and Bodhi for the mistake, making their wrung out bodies take his furious pace.

“Don’t care,” Xaden growls. His voice is so dark and so harsh that she flinches. “Take it, Bodhi. Going to use you until I’m done, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

It’s cruel and humiliating, but Violet shudders in pleasure at his words, almost wishing they were aimed at her. Can’t help imagining Xaden using her again, both of them using her whenever they want. Bodhi must share her depraved tastes, because his moan is more pleasure than pain.

“Yes, Xay–” Bodhi manages between hitching breaths. “Yours, yours…”

“Of course you are.”

It’s almost gentle, the tone Xaden uses, and then he groans low in his throat, hips stuttering before he bends forward to bury his face in his cousin’s shoulder.

Violet can’t breathe with Bodhi and Xaden on top of her, but if she could, she’d exhale in relief. For just a heartbeat there, she was almost scared of Xaden, and that thrilled her. There’s so many feelings rolling around inside her that she wants to cry. Bodhi raises on his elbows, peering down at her, and his hand strokes sweaty strands of hair off her face very gently, coming to cup her cheek.

“Alright there, Violet?”

“Can’t– breathe,” she accuses, and he laughs, the sound vibrating through her – and probably Xaden, still plastered along Bodhi’s back where he collapsed after coming.

“Oh, is that your only complaint? Maybe we’re winning you over.”

“In your dreams,” she spits. “Winning me over for what, anyway?”

“Tyrrendor,” Bodhi says, and frowns, like that should be clear.

Xaden chuckles, muffled in Bodhi’s back. “She hasn’t figured it out yet, love. That we’re trying to steal her from Navarre.”

What?

“Win me over by fucking me?” Violet is reeling so bad she can’t seem to manage a filter.

“Look at you, calling it fucking and not rape. Showing your hand, are you, Violence?” Xaden sounds amused, the prick. “Or at least your thoughts. Your wants.”

Xaden must be pulling out of Bodhi, rolling to the side of them, which gives Bodhi space to shift his hips back and out of her. They both hiss at the feeling, and she feels almost ashamed of the mess between her thighs, wet and sticky. Still, the conversation has her focus.

“Stop playing and tell me!”

Xaden is facing them, lying on his side, head pillowed on his arm, body stretched out languidly. Unashamed of his nakedness.

“Why, we want you, little Violet. You’re an asset, as are your dragons.” His tone is serious, matter of fact. “And we also want your body. So, we’ll take you, please you until you can’t resist. When you give in and let us take care of you, take you home with us, your dragons will follow.”

She’s in no headspace to consider the implications of that.

Chapter Text

behind enemy lines

Part 9

Xaden and Bodhi are too free with their words.

She realizes it quite quickly, that they aren’t keeping secrets from her like they should. Politics, opinions, daily habits. Oh, there’s plenty of meaningful glances and loaded silences. But they speak too freely, which means they don’t intend to let her go. 

Or they really intend to convince her to stay.

Perhaps it is not a ploy to get her to submit, to not escape.

Living together means realizing the dangerous, beautiful, harsh men she met in a forest clearing, the powerful cousins who take her body and mind apart with pleasure and pain just to remake them anew – they’re human.

She’s not sure how she should feel about it.

They eat, they sleep, they joke, they train. They cook and clean and help wash her dirty clothes so she has something to wear, though Xaden eyes her contemplatingly and quips something about keeping her naked for him to take whenever.

Violet shudders and tries to hide what the thought does to her.

“You’ll do that anyway,” Bodhi says, and Xaden concurs. “Should I start walking around naked to tempt you?”

Xaden’s gaze is predatory as he approaches his cousin, penning him in against a countertop. “No need to tempt me. I always want you.”

Then they’re kissing, swept up in each other, Xaden’s hand down Bodhi’s pants. Violet blushes and hurries out of the room as quickly as her sore ankle allows, the cousins chuckling at her departure yet not stopping their amorous activities.

Embarrassment burns her cheeks, but in her chest is something worse – an ache to stay, to witness, to join.

She could attempt to run, but Sgaeyl is with Violet’s dragons, Cuir out on patrol, so she wouldn’t get far. And the memory of Xaden’s punishment, of what he threatened her with, makes her shiver. One spanking was quite enough, and she doesn’t think she could handle both of them going at her like that, let alone at the same time. Stupidly, it also makes her just a little aroused.

So she hovers awkwardly in the living space set up in the temple’s living quarters – clear signs the cousins have been here before – and wonders if she’s free to do anything she wants. Deciding she doesn’t want to push Xaden on the escape, but definitely on this tiny thing, Violet walks over to a small bookshelf and selects a volume.

The topics are things she’s never seen in the Archives, books she’s sure a prisoner shouldn’t be allowed to read.

She does so anyway.

The cousins find her immersed in a book some time later, Tyrrish architecture and runes having pulled her in. Violet is curled up on the sofa, and suddenly they’re standing over her.

She startles, dropping the book. Her heart is in her throat.

“Don’t stop on our account,” Xaden dismisses.

Bodhi smiles slightly. It makes him look unbearably cute and friendly. “You looked like you were enjoying yourself.”

Violet nods slowly, and then swallows when Xaden drops to his knees before her, a smirk on his face.

“What– what are you doing?” He lifts his hand, twists his fingers slightly while she can see, and Violet almost jumps when something shifts inside her pants. “Xaden!”

“I like it when you scream my name,” he murmurs lowly, and she wants to smack him. “Do you know, Violence, that there’s always shadows between your thighs? No matter how much you close them, no matter how much you try to squirm away, you won’t be able to escape.”

Her breath is caught in her throat. What? But something nudges at her underwear, slips inside to stroke across her folds.

Xaden’s shadows.

“I learned that the hard way,” Bodhi chuckles. He backs away, leaning against the wall casually. “I think Xaden feels bad about leaving you out earlier, sweet Violet.”

Xaden throws his cousin such a dark glare Violet almost laughs. “Watch your mouth, Durran.”

Then he turns to Violet, a devastating grin slipping onto his face. “Don’t let me disturb your reading. Continue.”

Desperately wanting to seem unaffected, Violet lifts the book. But she can’t focus with the King of Tyrrendor kneeling in front of her, clever shadows teasing her lightly until her body begins buzzing with arousal. Across the room, Bodhi watches, amused.

When a shadow presses against her clit, she still manages to suppress her sounds, but soon enough one slips inside her as well, and she loses the fight.

“Ah,” Xaden coos as a tiny sound breaks the tense silence. “There we go.”

Violet has to abandon the book.

Xaden is playing her like an instrument, building her up. All the while, the cocky, arrogant bastard watches her face, studying her like an experiment. It’s only when her foot kicks out in a spasm of pleasure, clipping his shoulder, that he moves.

“Fuck, I need to taste you, sweet little thing.” Rough hands strip her of pants and underwear while she writhes for his shadows, pleasure burning through her veins. Every nerve ending tingles. “All spread out for me, flushed and sweaty.”

“She looks edible,” Bodhi quips, and then releases a strangled gasp, almost doubling over. Violet can see the bulge in his pants, and the rippling of the fabric. She would bet good money on a shadow being wrapped around Bodhi’s cock right now. 

Xaden’s voice is stern. “Behave.”

Bodhi nods mutely, and though Xaden can’t see it as he buries his face between Violet’s thighs, he must trust it or sense it somehow.

Violet loses track of that thought, screaming and thrashing as his mouth descends on her, hips bucking until he pins them.

To her eternal shame, she’s not trying to get away. She’s trying to get closer.

Bodhi seems to be testing his cousin’s limits. 

All day, he drops wise-ass comments that make Xaden give him a warning glance. Violet enjoys it immensely, not being the only one to challenge them. She may have decided that right now, captivity is more preferable to a failed escape, but she’s definitely not going to be nice to them.

In fact, she’s doing her best to stay quiet.

Observing them is a matter of gathering intelligence, and not one of admiring them subtly.

“Keep telling yourself that,” Tairn chortles. She ignores him.

Besides, being silent feels like some kind of defiance, in itself. And she needs that sliver of control, of resistance, clinging to it with all she has. She doesn’t know who she’d be without it.

Bodhi has no such reservations.

“Come here, Bodhi,” Xaden orders as they’re getting into bed. Violet has already undressed and is sitting on the edge of the bed, watching the cousins go head to head like it’s a game between them.

Maybe it is.

“Ask nicely, my king,” Bodhi challenges. “Say please. We’re trying to teach Violet manners, aren’t we?”

Xaden’s eyes go predatory, his whole body still. “Come here, Bodhi. I won’t ask again.”

“So fucking bossy.” 

Bodhi rolls his eyes and continues folding his clothes away for the night, going as far as to turn his back on his cousin, the smooth expanse of rippling muscles and soft curve of his ass on full display. Violet follows the lines of his thick thighs down to his calves as he bends down, then trails her gaze up again.

“Durran.”

It’s a single word, a warning, and so flat it raises the hairs on Violet’s arms. 

Bodhi doesn’t even flinch, unafraid. “Yeah, Riorson? You want me to come over? Make me.”

He looks over his shoulder, eyebrows raised and something playful glinting in his eyes. Like he enjoys pushing the dangerous man in the room with them. Like he enjoys challenging his cousin and king.

He bypasses Xaden entirely, coming to perch on the bed beside Violet.

"Oh, I think it's time I paid some attention to you, my love," Xaden tells Bodhi darkly. "Your mouth has gotten so bratty. Maybe it's time to remind you where your place is."

Shadows whisper over Violet's naked form, and pull her hands up over her head, tying them together against the headboard and pressing them into the cold stone.

She gasps at the sudden move, and Xaden chuckles.

Then there's another flurry of movement in front of her as Xaden wrestles Bodhi out of the bed, the two of them not quite equal matches in skill or bulk. Xaden is the winner on both fronts, and the muscles bunching under tan skin as they grapple and twist is beautiful.

She needs to stop admiring them like this.

Finally, Xaden has got Bodhi where he apparently wants him: at the foot of the bed, facing Violet, Xaden standing pressed up against his cousin's back, pinning Bodhi's arms between them, against the small of his back.

"Look at that, cousin," Xaden murmurs into Bodhi's ear, and it's fascinating again to see that dark tone turned on someone else, to see Bodhi shiver in response. "Right where I want you, that's your place. At my side, in my bed, on your knees in front of me... Or like this, your body exposed by my hands and my cock pressing against your ass."

"Yes," Bodhi moans. It’s a stark contrast to his earlier challenge, and so fucking hot. How quickly and easily Xaden makes him submit, how Bodhi allows it.

“And I don’t even need my signet to control you, do I?” Xaden’s tone is expectant, and Bodhi shakes his head. Violet can’t help but remember those large, powerful hands on her too, and arousal twists in her abdomen. “No. No, I don’t.”

“Xay–” Bodhi starts, but falls silent at a sharp, warning noise from Xaden.

“There, you go, good boy,” Xaden praises, and Bodhi fucking melts into his cousin’s grip. It’s a delectable sight, such an interplay of power and trust and love that it would make Violet weak at the knees if she was standing. As it is, she shifts restlessly on the bed.

"Ah, where's that attitude now, huh?" Xaden smirks, and shadows creep over Bodhi's shoulders down his arms, clearly twisting them into place behind his back because Xaden wraps his arms around Bodhi, stroking over his chest. "Just me overpowering you, threatening you, and you're meek as a lamb. I thought I'd have to fuck that attitude out of you."

"No," Bodhi, denies, shaking his head, and Xaden thumbs his brown nipples, making him whimper slightly. "I'm yours, Xay, you know that."

"Oh, I know," Xaden reassures him, and the deep fondness in his voice makes something in Violet's chest ache. She blinks back tears, suddenly desperately wanting someone to love her like that.

"Please," Bodhi begs as one of Xaden's hands stroke down to his hip, trailing down his thigh, the other rolling a nipple between thumb and forefinger.

"No," Xaden denies him easily. "You say you're mine, but that also means you're mine to punish. And you have been pushing it with this mouth of yours." 

Bodhi sighs as his nipple is released and Xaden's fingers dance up his throat to his mouth instead, tracing over his lips and slipping in slightly as Xaden grabs Bodhi's cock with his other hand.

Violet can't help clenching her thighs together, overwhelmed by the erotic sight of them in front of her.

"I think the power you exert over her has gone to your head, my love," Xaden chides, and his dark eyes glide over Violet's naked form. She shivers under his gaze. "She's ours to play with, yes. But you're mine.”

Xaden’s large fist begins stroking Bodhi leisurely, and the image of that hard cock wrapped in those clever, long fingers is almost enough to make Violet beg, honestly. She wants. It doesn’t matter who they are, not when these two men are magnetic, like forces of nature, sweeping over her body and mind like an avalanche, or a wave, or a fucking hurricane.

But she has her pride, so she keeps her mouth shut.

Bodhi doesn’t. 

Pleas fall from his lips quietly, interspersed by keens and tiny moans, and while his eyes track over Violet’s naked, tied up form with heat, they’re also flickering down to his own cock in Xaden’s grip, as well as turning inward, like Bodhi is far away in his mind.

Xaden seems pleased by the noises, kissing along Bodhi’s neck.

“You’re such a needy thing, cousin.” That coaxes a groan out of Bodhi, low and rough. “But you’ve not been a good boy today. And only good boys get to come.”

Xaden rips his hand away from Bodhi’s length, and Violet almost pities him. The desperate, naked desire painted on his features displays how much he needs to come.

“I’m sorry, Xay,” Bodhi whispers, and doesn’t beg.

“That’s what I want to hear.” Xaden’s voice is gentle, hand settling over Bodhi’s throat. “You’ll take your punishment nicely, won’t you?”

Bodhi nods, eyes sliding closed, body relaxing so fully into Xaden’s grip. 

Onyx eyes turn onto Violet, sitting frozen on the bed in her shirt and underwear. She hardly dares to blink under Xaden’s gaze, afraid he’ll extend the punishment to her too.

“Don’t worry, little spy,” he murmurs, like he knows what she’s thinking. “Just because Bodhi has been bratty, doesn’t mean I won’t make you feel good.”

She wants to protest that she’d rather him leave her alone, no matter that the wetness between her legs makes a liar out of her, but Xaden’s shadows yank on her body. They wrestle her shirt over her head, underwear down her legs. Since her arms are pinned to the headboard the shirt tangles over her wrists and Violet pants, breathless with surprise and a curl of both terror and arousal.

She’s propped up against a few pillows, and clenches her legs tightly together to conceal her arousal.

Xaden gives her a knowing, wicked smile. Violet refuses to acknowledge how it makes her feel. Luckily, the shadow wielder returns his attention to Bodhi.

“You’ll bend over the end of the bed. Ass out, and keep still.” Violet’s heart hammers. Is she really about to witness Xaden doing the same to Bodhi as he did to her? “For every time I spank you, I’ll fuck my shadow into our sweet, violent prisoner.”

That’s a contradiction on adjectives, but her brain is stuck on the other information Xaden just dropped, blank with shock.

Xaden, surprisingly, waits for Bodhi’s assent. Why does the man go so willingly, bracing his hands on the end of the bed, when he looks apprehensive, like he knows it’ll be painful? What is Xaden’s hold over his cousin? Violet can’t understand.

She’s almost forgotten about herself, too focused on deciphering Bodhi, when a shadow nudges between her legs. Violet keeps them closed out of spite, but Xaden only chuckles, shadow thickening and forcing its way inside her wet entrance. Moaning in surprise, Violet barely focuses as Xaden talks to Bodhi, missing their whole conversation. It’s a slow, lazy rhythm, a tendril sneaking up to touch her clit as well.

It makes her hips hitch against nothing, demanding more, and of course, Xaden stops.

“There we go, all desperate and ready,” he comments to her. “Stay put, baby.” That’s to Bodhi, a large hand soothing up his cousin’s back. “If you move away from my hands, I’ll only spank you harder.”

Then, without any warning, Xaden’s hand lands on Bodhi’s ass. She can’t see anything but the swing of his arm, but the sound of impact is clear. Bodhi’s hands clench in the bedsheets, body tensing, but no sound escapes him.

He’s looking at her, eyes wild and roaming over her naked body, like she’s a balm against his cousin’s punishement.

“Just like that,” Xaden murmurs, as the shadow inside her gives a brutal thrust, aiming for the spot that makes her feel uncomfortably sharp pleasure.

A few more follow, slow and calculated. 

She watches Bodhi’s face when she’s not distracted by the way Xaden is playing with her, watches apprehension and pain fade into something more vacant and slack. Bodhi’s eyes are unfocused, no longer trained on her face or body.

He likes it, she realizes when he lets out a hiss followed by a low moan.

Maybe not the pain, not completely – that is still a punishment – but submitting to Xaden’s will. Obeying him. Playing these twisted games.

Just like she does, even if she can’t quite admit it to herself.

“Fuck,” she moans when Xaden spanks Bodhi a few times in quick succession, the shadows inside her matching the pace. Without her consent, her legs have fallen open, and the way she’s tied up and at Xaden’s mercy, getting pleasure while Bodhi gets pain – spanked in front of her, bent over and clearly liking it – is driving her higher.

"What do you think turns her on most, my love? The fact that she's getting off on you, her enemy, being punished right in front of her?" Xaden lands yet another slap on Bodhi's ass, followed by multiple more, punctuating his sentences. They all gain her blissful thrusts of the shadows inside her, and Bodhi whimpers at each. "Or the fact that she's so helpless against my shadows? Or that she wants us so badly that she's spreading her legs of her own volition?"

And damn him, but she is.

She’s arching her back and moaning and spreading her legs wider, as if that’ll make Xaden fuck her faster with his shadows, as if being a slut for them will make them reward her with orgasms.

Maybe it will.

“Fuck,” Bodhi swears at a particularly sharp smack, and Violet receives an equally brutal thrust between her legs, making her keen in pleasure. It’s not enough, not yet, but each thrust drives her higher, closer to where she wants to be – floating in bliss and unconcerned with matters of war or prisoners or espionage or her uncertain future.

They make her feel good, and she just wants to feel.

Violet lets herself become mindless with it, arms pulling on her restraints. She gets off to a soundtrack of sharp swats and blows, Bodhi’s moans and groans mixing with Xaden’s filthy commentary. 

“Look at her, Bodhi,” Xaden encourages. “You taking your punishment so well is making her feel good. Do you think she’ll come for us, if I swat you ceaselessly for a while?” It’s a rhetorical question, because Violet thinks they all know the answer. It’s embarrassing, how her body betrays her, so ready to come for her enemies. “Do you want me to do that?”

Bodhi’s eyes are filled with tears when they meet hers, and yet his face is hungry, like he can’t get enough.

“Tell me, baby.”

It’s a command, Xaden making Bodhi ask for punishment, and her core clenches around the shadow.

“Yes, please,” Bodhi murmurs, voice broken. “Spank me until she comes.”

Xaden’s face is satisfied and dark.

Bodhi screams when his cousin starts a vicious, quick rhythm of sharp swats, the sounds echoing around the room, but so does Violet.

She wails, and comes around the shadows, spasming.

When she comes to, Xaden is fucking Bodhi, one arm around his throat, bringing his torso back into Xaden’s chest, the other on his cock, stroking him while he calls Bodhi a good boy, tells him what a wonderful job he did, taking his punishment and making Violet feel good.

Unsurprisingly, they cuddle afterwards. She’s realized that whether or not they care about her consent or would stop if she asked, they take care of her after they’ve used her. Fold her into their arms, pet her softly. 

She snuggles into Bodhi’s naked chest, and falls asleep, feeling strangely safe.

In some kind of half-asleep state, she wakes to listen to their voices. Xaden is rubbing her wrists, even if the shadows left no marks, and he’s serious.

“–not our secret to tell.”

“There’s too many fucking secrets, Xay,” Bodhi hisses over her head. “Can barely keep them straight.”

“She’s only beginning to even see us as people and listen to us, let alone trust us!” Xaden sounds frustrated and tired. Violet shifts sleepily, closer to him, like she can be of comfort. There’s silence for a bit as they listen to her breathing – still smooth and even with her only being half-awake at best – before Xaden continues. “It’s too early.”

“We don’t have much time. And it’s not fair to keep her in this limbo, unknowing. She trusts us with her body.” Bodhi’s voice is blunt. “She pretends she doesn’t, but we all know the truth. You better than me, of course.”

Xaden hums in what may be agreement.

“If she can trust us with that, she can trust us long enough for us to take her to Aretia to meet him." Who is this him? Violet's too sleepy to speculate. "He'll explain better than we can. She deserves to know,” Bodhi maintains. Xaden sighs deeply, and she falls asleep before they come to a conclusion.

Chapter Text

behind enemy lines

Part 10

Despite the hushed conversation she overheard, neither Bodhi nor Xaden bring up whatever they are considering telling her.

Instead, they seem to be set on ruining her as thoroughly as they can.

The depravity of the cousins knows no bounds, and yet Violet is more and more drawn to them each day she spends in their company. It’s disconcerting and makes her feel like she’s betraying all her morals. Her dragons soothe her, though she notices they’re more careful with their words than usual.

She can’t blame them.

While Xaden and Bodhi play their games, she’s not always sure what’s the rough, demanding bedplay they favor, and what's the truth.

There’s love between them, and they act like they care about her, in sharp contrast to how they treat her in bed – or on the floor or bent over a table. It’s frustrating, that she’s so aroused by the filthiness and the humiliation, that their domination and control over her body makes her wet and desperate. That they’ve figured out this weakness of hers and manipulate it ceaselessly.

They even take her on Dunne’s altar, placed beneath the vast expanse of the night sky. Its rough stone is cold against Violet’s skin and above them, the stars shimmer, the only witnesses as she is laid out, arms pinned by Bodhi’s strong grip.

Xaden’s eyes burn with intensity as he positions himself between her legs, spreading them wide, and then fills her with a single, deliberate thrust. The shock of it ricochets up Violet’s spine, her moan echoing through the night as Xaden pounds into her with brutal determination. His hands dig into her thighs as if to leave fingerprints in the pale moonlight, and Bodhi’s grip on her wrists is just as unyielding, watching them with heated desire. 

“Good thing this place is abandoned, or we’d be having an audience in no time,” Bodhi murmurs, but his voice is all pride and his thumbs trace slow, lazy circles against her pulse as Xaden’s cock slams inside again and again, harder with each stroke. 

Before long, a wild arc of lightning shatters the sky overhead, forking so close that the altar thrums beneath their bodies. 

It’s likely visible for miles, and while it’s stupid to think anyone will connect it to her, it’s still a clear sign of her presence in these mountains. The cousins seem unconcerned.

“Yes, Violence,” Xaden growls, his thrusts picking up even more speed. “Come for me.” 

Violet’s body bows, screaming as her orgasm rips through her from the inside out. Her legs shake as they clamp hard against Xaden’s hips, but he just grins, savage and triumphant, grinding deeper as she shatters for him. She’s still shaking when Xaden pulls out, cock slick and obscene in the starlight, and before her mind even registers anything again, Bodhi has taken Xaden’s place, the head of his cock nudging into her, greedy for the aftershocks. Violet can’t breathe, can’t even think, as Bodhi fills her in one smooth motion, softer than his cousin but no less intense.

“Look at you,” Xaden murmurs. “Spread out like an offering to the gods. I think Dunne would appreciate the sight, don’t you, Bodhi?”

“I’d like to think so,” Bodhi answers. His thrusts are maddeningly slow, stoking her pleasure again. “I sure am.”

“A fitting tribute, really,” Xaden continues, and his onyx eyes sweep over her naked body with possessiveness before doing the same to Bodhi. “Us capturing the enemy, and bringing her here. Fucking the daughter of the General threatening war with us on the War Goddess’ altar.” 

Xaden’s hand smooths out Violet’s hair into a perfect halo around her head as she whimpers, her body rocking slightly at Bodhi’s rolling thrusts. Fingers play with her tresses gently, and Xaden bends forward to kiss her forehead, beading with sweat.

“Making you all ours, sweet thing. What a victory, to steal a weapon from the opposing side. And what a victory to toy with your beautiful body, fuck it until it’s betraying your mind, craving us at all times while logic tells you you should escape.”

“But there’s no escape, darling. Not anymore. You’re ours now, and we’ll keep you.”

There it is again, the softness of a pet name mixed with the way they’re taking her. Like it’s an act of caring, of love – and maybe it is? 

She arches her neck, tries her best to look at the man fucking her, and Bodhi’s face is beautiful, pleasure painted across his features so openly, unlike his cousin who is more reserved. 

“Bodhi, please, oh, Bodhi–”

“Good girl. Call out his name when you come.”

She does.

“That’s right,” Xaden praises as they switch places again, and she whines in protest when he slides inside her oversensitive core, still spasming. “We’ll win you over, in the end. We’ll fuck you on this altar every day we’re here, bend you over it or take you on top of it or make you ride us on it.” She writhes, unable to stand the overwhelming sensations and his words. “Watch the battle between your body and your mind until it tips in our favor. In the end, we’ll win over your mind too, so that you’ll accept that you’re ours.”

When she’s spent and used, they gather her into their arms, a soft mess of sweaty limbs, her ear resting over Bodhi’s arms.

“Why are you doing this?” she whispers again, her voice thin and vulnerable. She’s confused and torn, the feelings in her chest so strong yet so dangerous. She can’t be falling for them, she simply can’t.

She wants the truth. Wants them to trust her with it, so desperately that it scares her. 

“Because you’re amazing, Violet, “ Bodhi answers. “Because we want to worship you, and because you want to be used.”

She can’t even muster a denial.

“This is your life now, darling,” Xaden coos. “Taking our cocks, being passed between us. But we promise we’ll love you, sweet thing. We won’t leave you unsatisfied as long as you’re good.” His honeyed words sound both insidious and sweet. “We’ll take care of you, make sure you have meaningful things to do with your time, allow that smart mind of yours all the time it wants to study and learn. Give you everything Navarre hasn’t: safety, fulfillment, family.”

Then they go and say things like that, depraved and yet so sweet, promising a future she can’t possibly have. Yet she wants it.

And Xaden is talking like it’s already a done deal, that what they’ve threatened and promised – to keep her – is already true. That she’s already agreed.

“I’m a terrible person,” she whispers.

“Don’t say that,” Xaden forbids her firmly. “You’re not.”

“But I am. I shouldn’t be feeling– I shouldn’t want–”

She can’t bring herself to say it.

Bodhi sighs. “Don’t feel guilty, Violet. We’re making it very hard for you to resist us, and it’s on purpose.”

Isn’t that the truth?

She gets quickly used to waking to them playing with her body, a cock – usually she’s too sleepy at first to understand whose – slipping inside her, taking her with slow, lazy thrusts until she’s writhing and begging and whimpering for them, her body played by the expert fingers of whichever cousin isn’t fucking her.

It’s overwhelmingly good, the way they learn her body. She’s not been this physically satisfied in years, not ever, if she’s honest, and they take all the weight off of her by initiating.

Somehow, they seem to know that she can’t bring herself to touch them first. Can’t bring herself to ask for what she wants unless they force her to, can’t bring herself to start conversations or share information unless they give her some too.

Betraying her country, her morals, just feels too wrong.

It’s weird, falling into their routine. They still keep an eye on her, Xaden’s shadows ever present at her feet, but she’s not tied up unless they’re… convincing her. She couldn’t run anyway, not with Cuir and Sgaeyl curled up on the mountaintop outside the sanctuary, Tairn at his mate’s side, lazily wrapped around her in the sun. Andarna refuses to be with them, still hurt by Tairn’s secret-keeping, and the smaller dragon mostly stays out of sight.

But while she’s technically still a prisoner, they just… exist, together.

Bodhi cooks. Xaden hunts game. They introduce her to various creative card games. They lounge in the sun, reciting old Tyrrish legends and needling Violet for Navarrian ones once they realize she’s a veritable font of them, remembering all her childhood bedtime stories. Sometimes they make the cousins uncomfortable though, and she can never quite put a finger on what makes them stiffen and exchange meaningful looks.

They spar.

Violet was hesitant at first, but Bodhi coaxed her into a session once her ankle felt a bit better, which turned into an all-out-spar – weaponless, of course – and all too soon she finds herself training alongside them, absorbing their moves and keeping herself fit. She tells herself it’s just a good strategy for eventually beating them and escaping, but she also knows she’s lying to herself. Blatantly.

Bodhi and Xaden kiss. 

All the fucking time. They’re distracting as hell, grabbing at each other like they can never get enough, and watching them go at each other is a stupidly strong turn-on.

Even worse is the softness that makes her heart ache. The way they care for each other through small acts of service, gentle touches and casual support. The way they orbit around each other.

The way it makes her crave to have the same.

They’re not shy about their relationship, though she understands from their comments that they aren’t public, that this is a well-kept secret that they only release like this when they’re alone.

And apparently, with her.

“And what would stop me from telling Navarrian intelligence about the two of you being involved?” she asks them once. Xaden throws his head back and laughs, carefree and beautiful.

“Think they’d believe you?” Bodhi smirks. 

“They’ve got a memory reader,” Violet says, and omits the fact that Dain is her childhood friend and would probably refuse to read her if she signals to him that he shouldn’t. He’s valued highly enough that he can get away with a few small acts of insubordination, and Violet has always been a line he won’t cross. “They could spread the news all over, demoralise and attempt to pick apart your leadership.”

“Tyrrs are too loyal to believe such rumors.” Xaden sighs contentedly, clearly proud of his people. She’s seen flashes of what kind of a king he is, and she can’t help comparing him to King Tauri. Xaden wins every time. “Which only plays in our favour. Besides… You were right, that first day. Traditions here are much more depraved. There would be surprise and some disgust, perhaps, but not outrage.”

“Not even about you fucking a Navarrian spy?”

Xaden’s mouth twists at the challenge in her tone. “You’re not unique, you know. Others have turned their coats, and been accepted into Tyrrendor.” 

There’s something off about the way he says it, the way Bodhi’s hand tightens on Xaden’s thigh in warning.

“I’m not a traitor!” she spits, though that’s not the whole truth. She may not have spilled anything of military value, but she’s sure as hell compromised herself.

“Not yet,” Bodhi murmurs, and presses a kiss to her temple before rising. Violet stares up at him, stunned at the gentle dismissal. “Spar?”

She takes his offered hand on instinct, and then curses herself for it.

Each day, as the sun rises and she wakes between them, as they wring pleasure from her body in a tangle of three warm bodies, she promises herself she’ll fight them, that she won’t give in, won’t let them sway her with their touches. And they, quite literally, fuck her or wrestle her into submission while the sun crosses the sky. The evenings are the worst, because that’s when they take her on the altar, like Xaden promised that first night.

There’s something sacred about it, something that makes her want to cry tears, just because she’s so moved. 

Especially once Bodhi lets it slip that it is their tradition. That he and Xaden always worship each other on this altar, out in the open. 

This particular morning she’s on a different kind of altar though: Bodhi’s ravenous mouth devouring her core as she sits astride his face, facing where Xaden is fucking into his cousin lazily.

Bodhi’s on his back at the edge of the bed, arms pinned and legs lifted to lock around Xaden’s middle.

“Look at both of you, being so good for me,” Xaden croons. “Are you going to come on his tongue, Violence?”

“Yes,” she admits and gasps as Bodhi’s tongue flicks her clit unforgivingly. It’s becoming easier to be honest with them during sex. It’s no easier to withstand Xaden’s intense onyx gaze, though. It trails over her heaving breasts and down the stomach, to where her thighs are spread on either side of Bodhi.

“Such a filthy girl, riding his face while you watch him get fucked.” Xaden sounds satisfied, and Bodhi moans roughly below her, his abdomen spasming and his cock leaking precome over his lower stomach. 

It’s a glorious sight: Bodhi’s hard, thick thighs wrapped around Xaden’s hips, and Xaden’s upper body on display, muscles rippling.

Violet is reduced to whining, broken noises all too quickly, fighting to stay upright, her balance failing her as Bodhi winds the pleasure in her abdomen tighter and tighter while Xaden watches.

And then she snaps.

Unravels, legs shaking and back bowing as the pleasure courses through her, every nerve ending burning and tingling with it. Somehow, she remains kneeling and doesn’t slump down and deprive Bodhi of room to breathe, but it’s a near thing.

Xaden laughs, low and delighted. Bodhi is panting under her, catching his breath, the warm gusts of it hitting her sensitive inner thighs.

“Give her another, baby,” Xaden demands of Bodhi, and Violet squeaks in protest, but is silenced with a single look that urges her to behave. “He’ll give you another while you bend down and suck his cock to reward him, sweet little spy.”

Violet watches dazedly as Xaden hoists Bodhi’s lower body slightly higher, Xaden’s arms hooking under his knees. Bodhi groans as his cousin adjusts the angle, then moans filthily as Xaden finds a good one.

Hesitantly, Violet lowers herself down again and silences his sounds.

With Bodhi half in the air, supported by strong arms, she only has to bend a bit forward to reach his cock, and Xaden makes sure Bodhi is close enough. Shifts him towards Violet’s mouth like an offering.

But they are, both of them, aren’t they? Xaden’s offerings. To the gods or whoever cares.

Bodhi’s cock in her mouth is thick and hard and hot. Violet wraps her lips around him, feels his groan vibrate through her own core, creating a feedback loop of sensation as she moans in turn around him. It’s indescribably intense to have Xaden’s steady movements fuck Bodhi’s cock just slightly into her mouth as Bodhi licks her oversensitive folds.

Torturous, almost, but Xaden is murmuring something that sounds like praise, so Violet just closes her eyes and lets her mind float. Her hands are braced on Xaden, clutching at his skin, nails digging into him.

“Those pretty lips around that pretty cock, fuck.” Xaden’s voice is rough and low. “That’s it, take it, Violence.”

His thrusts are picking up pace, forcing Bodhi into the back of her throat with each thrust. Violet gags and tears stream down her cheeks, but she wants so desperately to please, her mind gone fuzzy, that she doesn’t back off. Only breathes through her nose.

“Cousin, your ass is so perfect, so tight. Are you going to come for me? You’re squeezing my cock.” Bodhi shakes his head between Violet’s thighs, and somehow Xaden sees it. “No? But you’re being such a slut, pushing into my thrusts. Isn’t it a lot, me fucking you while you’re fucking Violet’s throat?”

A shiver of arousal down her spine makes her arch it, and Xaden hums above her, probably pleased at the sight she makes.

“You two will make each other come, and then I’ll pull out and finish all over Violet’s beautiful face,” Xaden vows, and she can’t protest with her mouth full, but she wouldn’t anyway. “Perhaps I’ll aim some for her mouth, Bodhs, make her taste us both on her tongue.”

Violet doesn’t last long. She’s so worked up, and the feeling of having her mouth filled, her breathing partially restricted as Xaden fucks Bodhi right in front of her face – well, that coupled with Bodhi’s talented mouth and pleased groans… She tumbles over the edge again, and Bodhi’s whole body tenses under her, thrashing wildly as he follows.

She forgets to breathe, forgets everything, and some of his come dribbles out of her slack mouth. 

Xaden lowers Bodhi’s hips, stroking his cousin’s thigh lovingly as he does, and then lifts that hand to smear the wetness over Violet’s lips. She blinks, tries to focus, and Bodhi’s hands must be free because they’re wrapped around her hips, lifting her so he can slide from beneath her to sit at her back instead, Violet kneeling between his legs. 

With rough, quick movements, Xaden strokes his cock. Violet sways, Bodhi’s warm bulk behind her keeping her steady.

“Be good for him now,” Bodhi orders into her ear. “Stick out your tongue.”

She does, and Xaden comes all over it.

“What would it… what would it look like, if I went with you?”

It’s a quiet question. She voices it to Bodhi, when Xaden is away, because he’s less intense, sweeter. She also feels like while he’ll absolutely twist things to his own advantage, he’s a smidge more honest than Xaden. Not that she thinks Xaden is lying – just not telling the whole truth.

Bodhi doesn’t turn to her immediately, studying the sunset and giving her space. 

Violet is so thankful, because she’s not sure what her face is showing.

“You’d live,” he says simply. “As Xaden said, Tyrrendor can offer you many things Navarre can’t. Further education, more agency. Fighting for the right side.”

“The right side?”

Bodhi hesitates, turns to her. His eyes are serious, deep brown and bottomless pools. “What do you know of venin, Violet?”

It’s her turn to pause before speaking. “They figure heavily in a children’s book my father used to read me.”

He sighs, rising and offering her a hand. “Let’s go get Xaden. It’s time to tell you what Navarre has been hiding, I think.”

They find Xaden stirring a pot of stew, the domesticity of the king of Tyrrendor cooking for them a familiar sight by now, yet always jarring. He looks up when they approach, a soft smile spreading over his face. It’s not just for Bodhi, but for both of them, and Violet’s stomach feels like it’s full of butterflies.

He’s so beautiful.

That smile falls at whatever expression Bodhi is wearing.

“We have to tell her, Xay,” Bodhi says. “We can’t keep it from her any longer. It isn’t fair.”

“Are you ready to listen, Violet?” 

She affirms that she is, because while she’s spent the whole time here fighting her attraction to them – fighting against the things they’ve been telling her – she’s tired of it. 

Sighing, Xaden nods. “Let’s eat first. No point ruining our appetite, and while I’ve done this before… at least partially, it’s always hard to find the words to explain it.”

Violet eats her stew, apprehension rising, and then sits through a frightful, difficult explanation of the fact that venin are real, and that her life is built on a lie. Over that table, Xaden and Bodhi shatter the foundations of her worldview, as if they’re nothing but sand, slipping through her fingers.

Pale and shaken, Tairn’s voice in her head confirming all that was just said, Violet contemplates whether to stuff these last few weeks and the truth back into a neat box so she can return to Navarre. She doesn’t know if she’s capable of that, but what is the alternative? A leap of trust, letting these two men she’s falling for be responsible for her fate?

They already have been, in a way.

And then Xaden looks at her, mouth a thin line, and she knows what’s coming next is even worse. “I’m so, so sorry to have to say it like this, but there’s no easy way, Violet. Your brother is alive. Brennan Sorrengail is living in Tyrrendor.”

And that decides it. The truth longer fits in the neat box.

She stares blankly into space for a while, says nothing, and they let her. 

When she bursts into tears, all the pent up emotions from the last week – hell, the last few years – hitting her at once, Xaden and Bodhi crowd in close. Bodhi shushes her, and Xaden presses kisses to her hair, but they don’t rush it. They just wait, and her heart feels too big for her chest. She’s feeling so many things, and she’s grateful they’re there, even if they’re at the center of her emotional conflict.

Violet lets them lead her to bed, undress her gently.

But when Xaden tugs her down and tucks her under the sheets to sleep, she makes a rough, protesting noise, clinging to his shoulders.

“Violet?” Xaden asks, and she presses her mouth to his desperately, uncaring of the salt staining her lips.

Xaden doesn’t dodge, but indulges her in a slow, thorough kiss. It’s more tender than she’s ever had from him, but this is also the most naked and vulnerable they’ve ever been with each other. Secrets out in the open and Violet’s conflicted feelings on full display. When he pulls back, his eyes are searching.

“Fuck me,” she begs, turns her head imploringly to look at Bodhi, too. “I need to– this doesn’t feel real. I don’t feel real.”

“We’re real,” Bodhi says reassuringly, laying his hand on her hip. Xaden cups her face gently. “Tairn and Andarna are real. You’re real, Violet.”

“And very beautiful,” Xaden tells her. “But if you need to feel present, we’ll make sure you can’t be anything but present.”

And they do. Xaden takes her apart with his mouth while Bodhi kisses her gasps and moans right out of her mouth. Then he worships her breasts as Xaden gets something to slick his fingers with, and stretches her open. They’ve done that a few times now, but it’s been the kind of lustful, tense, rough fucking that leaves your mind blank. This is a slow, meticulous assault on her senses, each movement and twist of Xaden’s fingers or slow lick of Bodhi’s tongue designed to make her feel, to make her aware of her body and all the pleasure they coax from it.

“Such a good girl,” Xaden praises, three fingers deep into her ass. Violet whines in response. “This hole is opening so nicely for me. We’re going to stuff you so fucking full of us, sweet thing. Make you take us until you can’t think of anything else, until all your focus is on how good we feel inside you.”

Bodhi bites at her nipple, a teasing pain, and Violet arches her back into the feeling. “All pink and puffy,” he muses, thumbing her nipples that are indeed hard, pebbled and swollen from his attention. 

Then they lay her out on Bodhi’s chest. She sinks onto his cock easily when Xaden encourages her, a firm push to her lower back. It’s a familiar feeling, Bodhi inside her, and it feels grounding. Stretches her out, forces her to gasp and moan at the pleasure. Xaden’s head notches at her hole then, his body plastered along her back, and she whines.

It’s overwhelming, the both of them inside her.

“You can take it,” Bodhi encourages as Xaden pushes in. “Just breathe. Let us make you feel good.”

Violet tosses her head, overcome with sensation, but Bodhi kisses her and then suddenly Xaden is all the way in, deep inside her body. They take her apart with steady, inescapable thrusts. Silence her noises with their mouths or fingers, making sure all of her holes are full of them until all she can think of is Xaden, Bodhi, Xaden, Bodhi, XadenBodhiXaden–

Her orgasm is violent, leaves her spasming and oversensitive between them, but they fuck her through it. Increase the pace until it’s brutal, until they’re punching tiny, breathless sounds from her mouth and she forgets all her worries, fucked-out and pliant in their grip.

After, when they’ve cleaned up, she sits cross-legged on the bed, naked and a bit sore, but her head feels clearer. Bodhi and Xaden are sprawled on their sides, one cousin on either side of her, their expressions cautious. She feels the urge to laugh when she remembers how intimidating she found them at first. She still does, in a way, but now they look more scared than she feels.

“I have questions,” she says finally. “But I don’t think the answers to them will make a difference right now.”

They all know there are situations where one can’t just use rational thinking to come to a logical answer. This choice is emotional, at its core. 

“There’s a life in Tyrrendor for you, if you want it,” Xaden promises quietly. “It’ll mean leaving your friends and family, but it’ll also mean freedom. We mean it when we say we want to keep you, but you also won’t be a prisoner. You’ll be a partner, a lover. Whatever you want.” His voice is serious. “And perhaps in time, you’ll convince others of the truth, and we’ll welcome them in Aretia too.”

“You won’t be alone,” Bodhi vows, his dark eyes earnest. 

Violet shifts, the movement twisting her still tender ankle. All this, because she tripped over a fucking root.

“I’ll stay with you,” she whispers, and thinks they may be the most pivotal words she’s ever uttered. “I’ll stay with you.” It’s firmer, certain.

A slow smile spreads over Xaden’s handsome face. Bodhi whoops, and tackles her back into the sheets, laughing brightly. Violet tangles her fingers in his curly hair, and Xaden grabs her other hand, squeezing it tightly and weaving their fingers together.

“We’ll be happy to have you,” the king of Tyrrendor says quietly, and lifts their intertwined hands so he can press a kiss to the back of hers.