If I shift back, those men might harm them again. Make me watch...
“Sloane. We're right here, don't hide.” Red stroked my cheek, and the tear that fell from her eye may as well have been the final blow to my heart. My skin prickled and itched, the man inside of me wanting to soothe her, to hold both of my lovers close.
“That's it,” Fischer encouraged. I could only imagine what they must have seen, looking at me in that moment.
In the time it took my heart to beat once, I found myself naked and lying in the dirt. Red cried out as she threw herself over my body, wrapping herself around me like a monkey.
“Sloane, oh gods, baby,” she whimpered as my arms banded around her waist, holding her against me. I breathed in her vanilla and coconut scent, feeling her heart thundering in her chest.Fuck.
Two hands slid beneath my shoulders to push me upright, Fischer sliding down behind me, sandwiching me between the two of them. His soft lips brushed my neck as he buried his face against me. We all let out a collective breath of relief. Something wet hit my shoulder and I realized Fish, my boy, was crying.
Turning slightly, keeping a firm hold on my woman, I reached up and sank my hand in his full head of hair. Our eyes connected over my shoulder and the emotion in his gaze fucking wrecked me.
“Are you—” he started, and I abruptly shut him up by crushing our mouths together. It had been too long since I'd been able to kiss him like I loved to.
He groaned when my tongue swept in his mouth. He didn't need any further prompting, his own tongue meeting mine eagerly, with passionate force. I nipped his bottom lip gently and pulled back, staring at him again.
“Beautiful,” I rasped. Fish's mouth popped open at my words, and I realized I probably had never directly told him how precious he was to me. Yeah, I'd finally gotten my head out of my ass and confessed my love for the man, but we'd never had anything like... this. Something outside of a session or a scene, and fuck me, I wanted it with him. And with her.
“I'm so sorry,” I said to them both, dropping my head. I was gods damn embarrassed. “All of those beatings, the rape, the torture…”
“What are you talking about?” Red gasped, taking my face in both of her hands. Her big green eyes searched mine for answers. “They did that to you?”
My brow furrowed. “W–what? No. They did it to you. To Fischer.”
“Nobody did shit to us. We've only been here for half a day,” Fish explained.
I chuckled without a trace of humor. “I must be losing my mind,” I said, completely confused.
“What happened?” she asked softly, moving her hands down to my chest as Fish wrapped his arm around my waist, his cheek resting against my shoulder blade.
“If I shifted from dragon back to human, they'd make me watch while they did horrible things. Nothing I did—aside from remaining a dragon—prevented it. If I didn't do what they asked, they punished you both. I thought—” My voice broke as images of the horrors I'd been subjected to flashed through my mind. I blinked rapidly as Red's face transformed before my eyes from her normal stunning self to beaten and bruised, bloodied beyond repair.
“No. No. No!” I cursed, jumping up and backing away from them.
“Sloane, it's okay. It's okay.” Fischer's voice soothed me, but for too short a time.
“Help him, Fischer, please,” Red cried, looking more and more hurt by the second.
“Stay back. I have to shift. Shift. Shift. SHIFT!” I paced around, running my hands through my hair. I couldn't hurt them. I wouldn't.
“Sloane, look at me,” Fish called out, and my eyes snapped to his. “Good, that's good. I'm going to help you, but you need to understand that whatever you saw in there, it wasn't real.”
“It was! I know what I saw! It was every bit as real as this moment right here, right now!” I yelled, as I backed away from them.
“You're bleeding,” Saige said in alarm as a trickle of something wet ran over my mouth. Using the back of my hand, I wiped it away and saw bright red. Perfect time for a bloody nose.
My heartbeat was beginning to slow again, and a calming weight settled over my shoulders. My knees caught me when I collapsed to the ground.
Fischer and Saige were once again wrapping me in their arms, running their hands over my skin, whispering words to me that made no sense at the moment.I don't know what's real. What's real?
“Weare real.Thisis real. You escaped and they must've tricked you with shapeshifters or something,” Saige theorized, before kissing my chest. She felt so good.
“I'm so sorry, Red. I almost... earlier, I mean—I didn't mean—” Gods dammit, I couldn't even speak when I thought about the atrocity I'd almost committed.
“We know that, Sloane. You were drugged with adrenaline. They filled your cage with it and it triggered something. What almost happened isn't on you, man. It's on them. On your fucking dad,” Fischer snarled.
My dad.A growl slipped out before I could swallow it down.
