When Seth was helped onto the couch next to Kaydon, Bryson felt all eyes on him.
It wasn’t uncommon to pass out during a branding ceremony, but Bryson silently prayed that he wouldn’t. It wasn’t pride. He just wanted to remember the moment fully.
“Bryson Winters, this brand is permanent. It marks a lifelong commitment. If you choose to proceed, the Triune will bear witness to your acceptance. Are you of sound mind—and acting of your own free will?”
Bryson’s body trembled, but when he looked into her eyes, he felt himself still. He would walk through fire for this woman. He would walk through the depths of hell for all of them.
And he had.
Had a gun pressed into his head, threw himself into the pool, almost drowned. All for them.
Theywere his family.
Technically, this brand wouldn’t change anything. Because the way he felt burned all around him.
It would just be a physical marker of what was already there.
He clasped his hands behind his back, feeling exposed. On his left chest was a tattoo of three silhouetted eagles. Adria and he had spoken about putting his brand a little higher so it didn’t cover the tattoo that symbolized him, Kaydon and Seth.
But that meant the brand would touch his collarbone and would be particularly painful.
His breathing increased as she cleaned the spot that would be his new mark.
“Are you ready to be mine, mind, body, and soul?” she asked.
“I already am,” he said.
Elena gave him the belt to bite down, and the leather was soft and warm in his mouth. He was never meant to wear a brand.
Winters didn’t get brands, they gave them.
His father would roll over in his grave.
Good.
Adria’s hand moved, the red-hot iron moving closer. He felt the heat of the metal before the pain racked through him. Searing, white-hot agony that moved through his body at record speed. His muscles locked. His jaw clamped on the leather, and he tasted his own saliva mixing with the belt.
Pain rippled through him; time seemed to stop. The pain seemed fleeting and forever at the same time. It was completely consuming, and his eyes scrunched shut.
The world broke apart around him.
And all he saw in his mind was Seth, Kaydon, and her.
For a second, he was completely broken by them.
And then?—
It was gone.
Left was an intense throb, and when he opened his eyes, Adria was there. Her lips were moving, but he couldn’t hear what she was saying.
Bryson willed himself to stay with her. To stay with them, and slowly the room came back together around him.
The pain throbbed in his chest, but he was awake.
The belt was removed from his mouth, and strong hands guided him to the couch. Kaydon’s shoulder rubbed against his.
A cold cleaning cloth was dabbed on his chest and he watched plastic wrap being placed on Kaydon and Seth’s marks. The idea was to starve the wound of oxygen and slow the healing process. They didn’t want it to heal, they wanted it to scar.
