The interior of the SUV smelled like them. All of them. Not just Caleb and Leo, but?—
Honey and sunshine.
Cedar and ozone.
Mason. Ethan.
My stepbrothers. The four men I'd been running from for three years. They were here. All of them. I started to shake.
"Breathe, little fox." Caleb slid into the seat beside me, his massive body taking up too much space, his scent overwhelming everything else. "You're hyperventilating."
"Because youkidnappedme," I snarled, finally finding my voice. "Let me out. Let me out right now or I swear to God I'll?—"
"You'll what?" Leo dropped into the seat on my other side, boxing me in, trapping me between two walls of Alpha muscle. "Scream? Go ahead. No one's coming to help you." He leaned in, inhaling deeply, and groaned. "Fuck, you smell even better than I remembered. Like burnt sugar and sin."
"Don't touch me." I hissed at him.
"Can't help it, sweetheart." His fingers brushed my thigh, and I flinched like I'd been burned—not because it hurt, but because it felt good. Too good. My treacherous body arched toward him even as I tried to pull away. "Three years without you. Do you have any idea what that was like?"
"I don't care." My voice cracked. "I don't care what it was like for you. I left. I had every right to leave."
"No." Caleb's hand closed around the back of my neck, his grip firm but not painful. A claiming hold. A possessive hold. "You didn't." The car started moving.
I watched through the tinted windows as the airport fell away behind us, replaced by winding mountain roads and endless trees. Every mile we drove was another mile between me and freedom. Another mile closer to whatever nightmare they had planned.
"Where are you taking me?" I demanded.
"The cabin." Leo's voice was almost casual, like we were discussing weekend plans instead of my kidnapping. "Nice and isolated. No neighbors for miles. Perfect place for a little... reunion."
"Carol's cabin. Except Carol doesn't exist."
"She was an actress." Caleb's thumb stroked the back of my neck, and I shuddered despite myself. "Very convincing, wasn't she? Ethan wrote the script. He knows you better than you know yourself."
Ethan. Of course. The strategist. The planner. The one who saw everything, predicted everything, controlled everything from behind the scenes.
"This won't work," I said, hating the way my voice trembled. "Whatever you're planning. I'm not—I won't just?—"
"Won't just what?" Leo's hand slid higher on my thigh, and a whimper escaped my lips before I could stop it. "Won't surrender? Won't submit? Won't beg us to knot you until you can't remember your own name?"
"I won't." But even I didn't believe it. My body was screaming for them, slick flooding between my thighs, my nipples hardening against my shirt, my core clenching with desperate, aching need. Three years of suppressed heats were crashing over me all at once, and I couldn't fight them anymore.
"Your body says otherwise." Caleb's voice was dark with satisfaction. "You're soaking through your jeans, little fox. I can smell how badly you want us."
"My body doesn't get a vote." I gave a small growl.
"Actually," Leo murmured, his lips brushing my ear, "it's the only vote that matters." I closed my eyes, tears streaming down my cheeks, and tried to remember why I'd run in the first place. All I could think about was their hands on me. Their scents surrounding me. Their voices promising things my body craved even as my mind rebelled.
Three years of running.
Three years of hiding.
Three years of building a life without them. It had all led to this. A black SUV on a mountain road, two Alphas pressedagainst my sides, and a heat rising inside me that I couldn't control.
I was trapped.
I was theirs.
Some broken, desperate part of me wasglad….but I would never admit it…even to myself.
