Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Chapter 175: I Almost Marked Her, Lucian

He came hard...so hard his entire body went rigid, so hard his vision whited out for a moment. The orgasm hit him like a wave, and he had to bite down on his fist to keep from screaming, to keep the sound from carrying through the estate, to keep anyone from knowing exactly what he was doing, what she was doing to him, how badly he needed her.

When it was over, he stood under the cold water, breathing hard, his body still trembling. The release had helped, slightly. He felt fractionally more human, fractionally less likely to lose control completely. But the ache remained, deep and fundamental and absolutely tied to the woman in his library, in his estate, in his life whether he was prepared for it or not.

***

Sebastian emerged from the bathroom in a towel, his hair still wet, his body still radiating tension despite the cold shower and release. Lucian was still on the bed, but now he was sitting up, his gold eyes bright with something that was part jealousy, part understanding, part his own desperate hunger.

"You kissed her," Lucian said. It wasn’t a question.

Sebastian didn’t bother denying it. What was the point? "Yes."

"Hard?" Lucian asked, and there was something almost hungry in his voice, like he was living vicariously through his brother’s experience.

"Very hard," Sebastian admitted, moving to the wardrobe to pull out dry clothes.

Lucian let out a low growl that had nothing to do with aggression and everything to do with frustrated need. "I can smell it on you. Her. Her arousal. The fact that she responded."

Sebastian pulled on clean trousers and a shirt, his movements still jerky with tension. "She responded."

"Did you want to mark her?" Lucian asked, and the question was raw, vulnerable in a way Lucian rarely allowed himself to be.

"Every second," Sebastian said bluntly. "I wanted to mark her so badly I had to physically force myself to stop. If I’d gone one more second, if she’d pushed closer to me, if I’d let myself touch her the way I wanted to...." He stopped, running his hand through his wet hair. "I would have completed the bond right there in the library."

Lucian stood up from the bed in one fluid motion, and before Sebastian could register what was happening, the youngest brother had crossed the room and slammed him against the wardrobe, gripping his shirt, his gold eyes blazing.

"Show me," Lucian demanded, his voice rough. "Show me what she tastes like. Let me feel it through the bond."

Sebastian didn’t hesitate. He placed his hand on his brother’s head to share what he’d experienced, of letting his youngest brother feel the memory of her through their fraternal connection. He pushed the sensation of her mouth, her taste, her response through the psychic link that bound the three of them.

Lucian gasped, his grip on Sebastian’s shirt tightening, and for a moment they stood locked together, Sebastian’s memory of her feeding into Lucian’s desperate need until both of them were shaking.

When Sebastian removed his hand, Lucian’s breathing was as ragged as Sebastian’s had been.

"We can’t wait four days," Lucian said roughly. "Nicholas is insane if he thinks we can maintain control for four more days when just being in the same room as her makes this hard."

"I know," Sebastian said, moving to sit on the edge of the bed before his legs gave out completely. "I almost marked her, Lucian. I was seconds away from completing the bond, from making her officially ours in a way that can’t be undone."

"Would that have been so bad?" Lucian asked, and there was genuine question in his voice, genuine confusion about why Sebastian had stopped.

"She’s terrified," Sebastian said quietly. "Not of us specifically, but of what we represent. Of what the bond means. Of what the full moon is going to demand of her." He looked up at his brother. "If I’d marked her, if I’d forced that on her without her real consent, we would have broken her again. And I don’t think she’d come back from it this time."

Lucian was quiet for a long moment, the feral energy that had been driving him slowly settling into something more contemplative. He sat down beside Sebastian on the bed, their shoulders almost touching.

"So what do we do?" Lucian asked finally. "How do we survive eight days until the full moon when we can barely survive one hour in the same room as her?"

"I don’t know," Sebastian admitted. "But Nicholas said four days of observation. Four days to see if she’s ready. If she’s not, we have to be willing to wait until the next full moon."

"A month," Lucian said, and the words sounded impossible in his mouth. "You want me to wait a month while watching her every single day, knowing she’s ours but not being able to claim her?"

"I want you to survive this without hurting her," Sebastian said bluntly. "Because that’s what’s at stake here, Lucian. Not our comfort. Not our needs. Her safety. Her healing. Her ability to actually choose us instead of just accepting us because she doesn’t have another option."

Lucian’s gold eyes flickered, Zev warring with the human part of him. But eventually, the human won. "Four days," he said, his voice heavy. "We observe her for four more days. And if she shows any sign of readiness, we mark her before the full moon destroys our control completely."

"Nicholas will make the final call," Sebastian said. "But yes. If she’s ready, we complete the bond early. If she’s not, we find another way to manage the curse."

"Cold showers?" Lucian asked, and there was something almost like humor in his voice despite the desperation underneath.

"And a lot of cold showers," Sebastian confirmed.

They sat together in silence after that, two brothers united in their struggle against their own nature, against the demands of the curse, against the overwhelming reality of a mate who was slowly becoming impossible to resist.