The walk from my room to Dominic's takes twelve seconds. Tonight my feet drag through every one of them because my body does not want to go where my mouth is about to take it. My scent is already sweetening beneath the blocker, reaching for them before I've even knocked, and my jaw clenches against the warmth gathering in my chest.
My knuckles hit the door and Dominic's voice comes through immediately. "Come in." The sound of it almost buckles my resolve before I've touched the handle.
They're both in the room. Amos is cross-legged on the bed reading with his glasses on, and Dominic is at the desk going through paperwork. They both look up when I enter, their expressions shifting as they register what's on my face. Amos' book lowers to his lap while Dominic's pen clicks down onto the desk.
"Close the door, firefly." Dominic's voice carries the warmth he reserves for private spaces, and the nickname hits me in the center of my chest.
The door clicks shut behind me and I lean against it, my hands buried in my pockets to hide the trembling, my face wearing the empty compliance I practiced in the mirror. "I can't do this anymore."
The words come out flat, sounding rehearsed because they are. Silence meets my statement, giving me room to continue.
"It's too dangerous. My mother knows about us and she's threatened to tell Richard everything. Not just about the three of us, but about her operations, the honey trap history, all of it." I keep my gaze fixed on the floor between them. "And it's not just her. If your father really wants to, he'll destroy both of you. Your careers, your reputations, your position in the company. Everything you've built."
"Let him try." Dominic says it without hesitation, his voice clipped, his body already shifting forward in his chair.
"You don't understand. She told me..." My throat tightens and I grip the door handle behind my back. "She told me she was grooming me for your father. This whole time. Every blocker, every lesson about suppression, every warning about letting Alphas in. It was all preparation for handing me to Richard. She brought me to this house because Richard's type is young Omegas and a bonded mate has legal claim to the estate."
The silence that follows is different from the one before. Amos goes completely still on the bed, his face draining of color behind his glasses. Dominic's hands flatten against the desk and his jaw locks so tight I can see the muscle jumping beneath his skin.
"She was grooming you." Amos' voice is barely above a whisper. "For our father."
"Since I was nineteen. The blockers, the apartment, the four years after Marcus. All of it was to keep me available for the right Alpha." My voice cracks on the last two words. "She said Richard told her two nights ago that he's making arrangements. That his patience is ending. She said every day I spend with you two is a day closer to him taking what he's decided is his."
Dominic is on his feet before I've finished the sentence. He crosses the room in three strides and his hand catches my jaw, tilting my face up. The fury in his expression makes my breath catch, but underneath it sits something I've never seen on his face before, something that looks like horror.
"Richard. Doesn't. Get. You." His thumb presses into the hinge of my jaw with each word. "He doesn't touch you. He doesn't bond you. He doesn't get to be in the same room with you without one of us present. Do you understand me?"
"You can't promise that." My eyes burn. "You can't control what he does."
His forehead drops against mine. "Watch me. I have spent my entire life surviving that man. I know every move he makes before he makes it. He is not getting his hands on you, Mattaniah. Not while I'm breathing."
"I need to go back to how things were." The rehearsed words push through even as his scent fills my lungs. "Blockers at full dose. Professional distance. No more of this."
Amos is off the bed now, standing beside Dominic, his hand finding my wrist with his thumb pressed against my pulse point. "You don't get to sacrifice yourself to protect us. That's not how this works."
"She told me you two coordinated everything from the beginning." My mother's voice is louder than Dominic's proximity and the words spill out despite every cell in my body telling me to stop. "She said you brought me to Dominic's room deliberately. That the approaches were planned. That none of this was spontaneous."
"She's right that we approached you on purpose." Amos doesn't flinch. "We noticed what Father was doing to you and we made a decision to intervene. I won't pretend otherwise." His grip tightens on my wrist. "But she's wrong about everything else. We're not using you. This is not a transaction. Wanting to be touched and cared for is not a weakness that's going to destroy you."
"How do I know that?" The question rips out of me louder than I intend. "How do I know you're not just better at this than Marcus was?"
"You don't." Amos says it quietly. "I can't prove a negative, Niah. But I can tell you that I'm in love with you, and that was never part of any plan."
My knees give. Dominic's hand on my jaw and Amos' hand on my wrist are the only things keeping me upright.
"He's not the only one." Dominic's admission comes out rough, forced through his teeth. "I don't have a speech for it. But I'm not letting you walk out of this room because your mother told you to be afraid of something real."
"I want to believe you." It comes out barely above a whisper while the tears start falling. "I want to believe you so badly it scares me."
"Then believe us." Amos cups my face and his thumbs wipe the tears from my cheeks. "Your mother taught you that your instincts are weapons to be suppressed. But your instincts brought you to this room tonight, Niah. You came here because you wanted us to fight for you."
"Make me forget." The words tumble out wet and broken. "Make me forget everything she said. I don't want to hear her voice anymore. I just want yours."
Dominic's mouth crashes into mine. The kiss is desperate and tastes like salt from my tears. He bites my lower lip hard enough that I gasp and his tongue sweeps into my mouth while his hand fists in my hair. He walks me backward toward the bed, lowering me onto the mattress that smells like both of them, like leather and smoke and pine, like safety.
He lowers me onto the bed, their combined scent rising as my weight settles into the soft fabrics. Dominic drops to his knees in front of the bed and pushes my legs apart, his mouth moving from mine to my throat, biting and sucking marks into the skin while his hands strip my shirt over my head.
"I brought you somewhere you can feel safe," He says against my collarbone. "So, this is where we're doing this."
