Candace
When I opened the door, the familiar scent of Deidre’s room wrapped around . Pink drapes matched the pink carpet, and warm lights fell over the portraits of my cousin hanging proudly on the walls of the lavish bedroom that had once belonged to .
In the middle of the queen-sized bed was a sight that sent a knife through my chest.
I had seen this before yet it destroyed every single ti. Deidre was naked and on her knees between two of my mates.
Before her stood Ragnor, the first of the Pendragon brothers, and a strangled breath escaped as I watched my cousin’s lips wrapped around his cock. The sll of sex hung thick in the air.
Ragnor was naked except for the necklace dangling around his neck. The pendant was a fang that rested against his ripped chest, moving slightly with every controlled breath he took.
Dark, intricate tattoos covered his right arm, the black ink stark against his bronze skin as he gripped Deidre’s hair and guided her mouth. His black hair was slicked back, his steel grey eyes closed in pure ecstasy.
Those eyes had once watched like I was the pure gold. Three years ago, before I was accused of committing an abomination, Ragnor used to touch my hair gently in a way that made my chest ache, and now his fingers were buried in my cousin’s hair while I stood there pain lancing through .
For one brief mont, his nostrils flared and a muscle ticked in his jaw tightened. It was so small that anyone else might have missed it, but I saw it because a foolish, broken part of still knew how to read him.
Ryker Pendragon had no such restraint.
He was the third of the triplets, built just as massive as Ragnor, broad-shouldered and commanding. His heterochromic eyes shot daggers at as he drove into Deidre’s pussy from behind.
One eye was a cold blue, the other a dark brown that looked almost black beneath the warm light. His fingers gripped handfuls of her slender hips, his golden signet ring glinting on his left ring finger.
"What the fuck is this pig doing here?" he gritted out, his eyes blazing with unadulterated rage as he kept pounding into her.
His voice hurt harder than Aunt Elena’s blows.
Once upon a ti, Ryker used to pull into his lap just to hear laugh.
He used to bury his face in my neck and tell my scent made him lose his mind. He used to growl at anyone who looked at too long. Now he looked at like sothing rotten dragged in from the streets.
Fresh tears welled in my eyes as I stepped behind one of the pillars in Deidre’s room, sha washing over in a suffocating wave.
My fingers curled around the pillar for support, and I hated that my body still recognized his warm, citrus scent beneath the sweat and sex.
His gaze flicked over , fast and brutal, but it lingered for half a second on my swollen eye. His fingers tightened against Deidre’s hips.
His throat bobbed as he swallowed, and then the cruel mask dropped back into place so quickly I almost wondered if I had imagined the crack.
But I had not. I knew what I had seen. And sohow, that tiny flicker hurt worse than his hatred.
After what felt like forever, Ragnor and Ryker finally pulled away, leaving Deidre curled on the bed, flushed with satisfaction.
Ragnor dropped a kiss on her forehead and grabbed his clothes from the floor and donned them on with the calm indifference of a man who had not just shattered what remained of .
Ryker captured Deidre’s lips in a fierce, passionate kiss while she rolled the used condom off him. My cousin’s eyes slid to mine as she kissed him, and she tossed a wink.
A stab of pain pierced my chest, adding to the countless stings already covering my body. My mates were all fighting for Deidre’s attention now, and I was the thing they stepped over on their way to her.
Ragnor pressed two fingers beneath Deidre’s chin, tilting her face up toward his. "Take care, baby girl," he murmured against her temple.
His scent drifted toward as he moved, fresh mint, oud, and white musk wrapping around my throat like a hand.
I hated that I still rembered the way that scent used to cling to my pillows. I hated that for one stupid second, my body wanted to lean toward it.
"See you guys at dinner," Deidre giggled, purring like a satisfied cat. "I will have to make this up to Reign later, won’t I?"
"You know how he is," Ryker said with a grin, giving her one last kiss before pulling away. "He’ll sulk about missing out, but honestly, knowing Reign, he’ll find a way to make it everyone else’s problem. Don’t worry about it, baby."
I held my breath as the mates who had rejected a year ago stalked toward the door.
They walked past , ignoring . Ryker stopped close enough that the heat from his body brushed against my battered skin.
His eyes dropped to the collar around my neck, then to the burn I was trying and failing to hide beneath the torn fabric of my dress.
"Out of my way, trash," he spat, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "You are stinking up the place."
I shrank back against the pillar, my hands gripping it so tightly my fingers ached.
Ragnor strode behind him and for the first ti since I entered the room, his eyes collided with mine.
The eye contact lasted only a heartbeat, but it was enough to make my chest tighten. His gaze moved over my swollen face, the blood on my lip, the trembling in my hands, and the thin line of his mouth hardened.
For one wild, painful second, I thought he might say sothing. He did not. Instead, he looked away first and walked out like I was nothing. Once upon a ti, they had been mine. Now those days were over.
Just as the door closed behind them, sothing warm hit my arm. I flinched and looked down, irritation and horror twisting through as the condom Deidre had peeled off Ryker slid down my forearm. It left a warm, slick trail on my skin before dropping to the floor with a soft, wet sound.
My stomach lurched. Though suppressed and collared, the mate bond still knew his scent.
So broken, traitorous part of still responded to anything that carried even a trace of him, and now it was on my skin in the most degrading way imaginable.
Humiliation burned deep inside . I sank my teeth into my lower lip, forcing back the retort rising in my throat.
There was nothing I could say that would not make things worse.
"Stop staring," she said with a cruel, mocking smirk as she stretched languidly across the bed. "You will never get a taste again. They are mine now."
It had been three years, and I should have been used to my cousin’s taunts by now. But I was not.
Could anyone ever get used to a best friend who set them up after the worst tragedy of their life?
Could anyone get used to the girl who once braided their hair and shared their secrets becoming the person who smiled the widest while watching them break?
Our fathers were blood brothers. Deidre had been my sister, my best friend, and my confidante before my world went grey. Now she treated worse than an oga, especially since that day.
"If you are done ogling like so ogre, clean that up," she ordered, pointing to the condom wrapper on the floor. "I am so tired. The triplets really know how to fuck a woman properly."
More tears clogged my throat as I dropped to my knees and picked up the filled condom, another wave of nausea rising inside .
The sa n who used to treasure , who used to treat like a princess now clung to my cousin and ex-best friend. They hung on her every word, touched her without sha, and flaunted her in my face as if I had never ant anything to them.
"Will you be fast with that?" Deidre snapped.
"You still have to draw a bath, and I need to be sparkling clean before Daddy’s dinner."
I watched her climb off the bed eagerly, and a sick feeling settled in my stomach.
Ryker had said surprise. Every instinct I had left told it involved , because whenever they smiled like that, whenever Deidre’s eyes glittered with too much excitent, pain always followed.
I rose slowly, the burn on my back screaming with every movent. The collar pressed cold against my throat, and dread settled so deeply into my bones that it felt like a second skeleton.
Whatever the Pendragon triplets had planned for tonight, I already knew one thing with terrifying certainty. It was going to destroy all over again.
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