“I felt it,” he admitted. “Which is why I haven’t fucked you since. My brother and I have never shared a woman before. I didn’t know that something like that—that type of connection—could happen by doing so.” He stood up and slammed his hands down on the table. His eyes grew black and he snarled, “I’m not interested in forming that bond, so I stopped it that day.”
I sat dumbfounded. So, that was why? I wondered why he never tried to take me again. Even when I could see his cock straining against his pants during a discipline session, he never acted on it. Never. Now I knew why. He was protecting himself. He felt the bond and didn’t want it. He was scared.
Pike began pacing back and forth, the red of his skin glowing bright. I sat and waited for the storm to erupt. I was asking for a severe beating by continuing on, but I had to. If there was even the slightest hope. He turned to me ready to speak when Cross walked into the room, drying his hair from his shower. He looked at Pike, then at me, and back at Pike.
“What happened?”
Pike pointed to my bedroom door. “Truth. Leave. Now. My brother and I have nothing to offer you. Final.”
I stood up quickly and ran to my room. Not out of fear, although I was scared of Pike’s wrath, but because I didn’t want them to see how truly devastated I was.
I was in my room crying when I heard a knock at the door rather than it just being opened like every other time. I knew it was Cross before the first knock had even finished echoing through my room. Pike would never knock. Never.
I quickly dried up my tears. “Come in.”
Cross opened the door and gracefully entered the room. “Truth, I can see…no I can feel that we have upset you.”
I looked into his deep eyes and said nothing. I met his gaze and allowed for him to truly see my pain. I wanted him to see how not being with them once we arrived on Canary caused anguish like no other. I understood I was simply merchandise, but that didn’t mean I liked it.
Cross pulled me into his arms harshly. He pressed my head to his chest with more force than I had ever experienced from his hand. “It kills me to see you hurt. I want to never be the cause of your heartache.” Without releasing his grip, he continued, “But what you want is not possible. It’s not the way your life should be. Even if we could save you from Canary, transporting slaves with Pike and me is no way to live.”
I pulled from his strong embrace. “I don’t care what we do as long as I’m with the two of you.” I sniffed and wiped away the tears, trying to regain my composure. “Anything is better than being delivered to my death.”
“I told you, that it doesn’t have to mean death.”
“But it is! It might as well. Even if I don’t mutate, what kind of life will I have working the mines?”
“A better one than you would have with Pike and me. Look at us. Neither one of us is a true being. We both lack whatever the other has. I am nothing but a weak coward, while Pike is simply cruel and cold.”
I shook my head. “But together…you are not. And don’t speak that way about yourself. You are loving, gentle, kind. You are the best of everything. The way you have treated me this past month is something I could never have imagined.” I paused to drum up the strength to tell Cross my true feelings. “I love you. I love you so much, Cross.”
He looked at me surprised. “And my brother? Do you love him as well?”
I shrugged and looked down at the ground. “I don’t know what I feel for Pike. It confuses me.” I looked back up into Cross’s deep onyx eyes and added. “But I do know that I love you. I love all that you are.”
“I love you too.” Sighing, Cross shook his head. “We can’t give you what you need.”
“Then take me someplace else. Anywhere else.”
“We can’t do that, and you know it. We would be executed and they would hunt you down and do the same.”
I reached out for Cross’s hands and pulled him close to me in desperation. “Buy me then. I would find a way to pay you back,” I suggested, feeling hopelessness take over all sense. “You can buy me to be your slave. You know this.”
Cross wrapped me in his arms and kissed me on top of my head. “Truth, this is final,” Cross dictated. “You heard Pike. And I agree with him. We have nothing to offer you. Hours and hours, years upon years, in a metal transport ship is not the way to live.”