Chapter 154: Glass Houses
[SOREN POV]
My grip tightened around the doorknob as I felt another jolt of pleasure shoot through my body. Immediately after, there was an aftertaste of soreness, as though I had pulled a muscle.
For some reason, even though the mark was left on Briar’s neck and not mine, I could feel my skin tingle all the same. It was as though there was a phantom leaving scandalizing grazes across my skin, and I was finding it more and more difficult to support my weight entirely. The double whammy of pleasure and aching pain made me feel as though my knees might collapse at any moment now.
I inhaled sharply when yet another course of heat darted through my lower body, and with, an equivalent pain.
Suddenly, I understood what was happening to me.
Just like how Briar felt pain when I kissed Violet at the altar, similarly, I was feeling pain when Briar was together in bed with Rowan. At least the pain wasn’t unbearable, possibly because Rowan and I were both her fated mates. Whatever I felt must have paled in comparison to what Briar experienced.
Guilt curdled in my gut. Briar certainly had endured a lot of hardship because of me.
More pleasure and pain coursed through me, and my trousers got even tighter, to the point where I was starting to feel chafed. The pain had not caused my lower half to deflate, so I had to take matters literally into my own hands.
I quickly turned on my heel back into the room, ignoring the woman at the door. Right now, I didn’t have the mental fortitude nor patience to deal with her. Violet couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Last I heard, she was sick and had desperately sent several maids over in an attempt to get either Rowan or me over to visit her. Eventually, they stopped, and I assumed that she finally realized we had no interest in visiting her. After all, she wasn’t even actually sick. Surely she didn’t actually need our company, and even if she did, she should be looking for a healer, not us.
In the beginning, I had kept my silence whenever Violet decided to act up. A part of me thought that it was right of her to do so. She was the Luna that we had chosen for ourselves, and she had every right to wish for her mates’ attention. She was also grieving over the loss of her best friend, and she took it out on Briar, whom she thought was responsible. I couldn’t fault her for acting like that.
All of us behaved in the same reprehensible manner. People living in glass houses couldn’t throw stones at others.
But now that Briar had found Willow, I found myself getting increasingly irritated by Violet’s mere presence.
Perhaps she had used the same tricks one too many times, so much so that it was starting to get on my nerves. I couldn’t speak the same for my brothers, but either her acting had gotten more and more sloppy, or she had gotten more and more arrogant to think that she didn’t need to put up a better act.
Whichever it was, I wasn’t planning on entertaining her any further. I had not mated with her, and I never would, if I had anything to say about it. If we were to play on technicalities, she may be our Luna, but she wasn’t my fated mate.
Briar was.
And she was in the room next to me, in Rowan’s arms.
I shuddered as I felt another frisson of pleasure through the bond, along with its accompanying pain. I had to hand it to Rowan; he certainly knew how to please a woman.
I would need to take care of the pressing problem in my pants, preferably alone.
"Get out. Now," I ordered curtly, not even turning back to look at her.
Unfortunately, Violet refused to leave.
"Alpha Soren, are you alright?" Violet asked, her footsteps light but insistent as she followed me into the room. "You look unwell..."
"In that case, shouldn’t you be leaving?" I growled out, my head snapping over to glare at her. When I realized my voice came out much hoarser than I intended, I quickly turned away, holding a hand over my eyes.
Shit. I didn’t even need a mirror to know that I was starting to lose control.
I shook my head harshly, as though the action would bring me back to my senses. It did for a fraction of a second, but when the next wave of painful pleasure hit me, my knees buckled, and I had to cling to the dresser for support.
A tent had already been pitched in my pants, and if I stood there any longer, I was at risk of staining my own pants. Whatever Briar was going through, whatever Rowan was doing to her, I could feel it through our bond.
A mixture of embarrassment and rage flooded me, and I bit down harshly on the inside of my cheeks, hoping the increased pain would bring back some clarity since the pain I felt through the bond wasn’t dampening my lust in the least.
Samuel hadn’t mentioned this when he was going through the list of possible symptoms. If I had known that this was possible, I would’ve bolted myself in a silver cage down in the dungeons. Even if I had to drive silver stakes through my own palms, it would’ve been better than to stay here, listening to the ambiguous sounds that came from Rowan’s bedroom.
I should have been in the room, helping Briar.
But instead, Rowan was the one offering Briar relief from a problem I caused.
I couldn’t see them, but being able to hear everything and feel everything just made matters a thousand times worse than any visual impact possibly could. I couldn’t do anything but imagine what they were up to, and even if I wanted to stop, I couldn’t. The incomplete bond between us made it impossible for me to turn a blind eye to everything that transpired.
I found myself welcoming the pain that came with each burst of pleasure. This was punishment for my own mistakes.
I bit my tongue so hard, I could taste my own blood filling my mouth. A sudden burst of pleasure ricocheted through me at the same time, and my body shook.
"Soren!" Violet exclaimed in surprise. She charged forward and held me before I could slam onto the floor, her fingers digging into my skin. "What’s the matter with you?"
"Go. Away," I bit out, using as much force as I could garner to shrug her off. However, I didn’t have much strength left in me. Violet merely stumbled back a few steps, but she wasn’t even thrown off balance. "Leave me alone."
"How could I?" Violet asked, concern evident in her voice. "You... You evidently need help. Do you need me to call someone..."
Her voice trailed off, and I could feel her gaze lower to the bump in my pants.
"Alpha Soren," she said, her voice suddenly slightly lower and more seductive than it previously was. "I can help you."
Violet ignored my previous commands and slithered forward, kneeling down in front of me. She placed a hand on my cheek to guide my gaze over to her body.
That was when I finally realized she had on nothing more than a thin silk nightdress; it accentuated every curve in her body, and somehow, one of the thin spaghetti straps on her shoulder had even dropped, causing the dress to droop provocatively to one side, revealing a lot more flesh than necessary.
"You’re in pain," she said, reaching forward with her other hand. She smiled coyly, slowly reaching for the zipper of my pants. "Let me help with that―"
I grabbed her wrist right before she could pull the zipper down. Violet winced, and any other time, I would have let go and apologized for the excessive use of force, but now, I didn’t care.
"I don’t need your help," I gritted out. "Don’t touch me!"
I flung her hand away. There was a red mark on her wrist, courtesy of my fingers. But Violet was not dissuaded. She moved closer, her hands touching my clothed inner thighs, drawing patterns on them..
"Alpha Soren, now is not the time to be stubborn," Violet murmured, her voice deceptively soft and gentle. She peered at me through her long lashes as she batted her eyes. "I am your Luna. I am supposed to help you with this."
She nuzzled the tent in my pants with an almost obsessive, reverent expression in her gaze. Her mouth opened, and she pressed her lips against the clothed outline of my cock. It twitched under her touch, and she smiled up at me mischievously.
"If you don’t want my mouth... I have other methods," she added coquettishly. Her hands went to her chest, and she eagerly pressed her breasts together, deepening the valley between them. "Or do you prefer somewhere tighter?"
She continued, shifting her legs wider to reveal her womanhood.
"Alpha Soren, what do you prefer?"
The scent of her arousal was slowly and surely filling the room. Any other man would have felt enticed by the seductive image she made.
But all I felt was revulsion. Even the smell, the scent of her arousal, which should have spurred some form of interest, only made me want to gag.
I stared down into her expectant eyes and sneered.
"I want Briar, not you."