Looking down at both padlocks, I shivered. It was incredible seeing them there. A tiny reminder that our dynamic didn’t start and stop when we left home. And that it was evolving in a way that worked for us. We weren’t purely a sex-only dynamic anymore, and that was okay with me. It was evolving slowly, and it worked for us.
“I don’t have to go anywhere today, but I still want to wear them.”
“You’ll wear them every day,” Theo said. He reached for me and pulled me to my feet before arranging me over his lap. “If there’s a day you want to take them off in the apartment, ask. That’s fine. But wearing them isn’t optional anymore. You need permissionnotto wear them.”
“Okay.” I snuggled closer to him and closed my eyes.
I no longer questioned my instincts or why being owned by them felt like the most stability I’d ever had. Them owning me meant they wouldn’t leave. They were mine.
Following those same instincts, I slid off Theo’s lap onto the floor,leaning against his knee. I was tucked between his legs. I felt his hand on my head, running his fingers through my hair, and I wished I could stay in this moment forever.
Someone turned the television on, and I heard low conversation, but it didn’t penetrate. I was wrapped in a warm and fuzzy glow. Theo’s fingers gently scratched my scalp as he ran his fingers through my hair.
“Trinity?”
“Mm?”
Theo chuckled. “Come here, sweetheart.” He lifted me off the floor and tucked me into the corner of the couch beside him, slinging my legs across his and into Aiden’s lap. “Subspace looks beautiful on you,” he murmured.
The floaty feeling. They were right. It didn’t go away. His soft praise turned the velvet softness my mind floated in gold like sunlight through fog. “Feels good.”
He cupped my cheek. “I’m glad. I need you to come back to me a bit, okay?”
I tried to focus on him and the slow glide of his thumb over my cheek. “Okay.”
Beside me, Bastian sat down on the floor, legs crossed, and took one of my hands. Brooks was still on the other side of the corner-shaped couch, and Logan floated into my field of view, sitting in the armchair.
Brooks cleared his throat. When he spoke, it was soft and gentle. “We need to know what happened, baby.”
Logan said that we would talk once we got home. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell them—it was that I wasn’t sure how. Where did I start? How did I let go of the fear that laced the idea of speaking it out loud?
“I don’t… how?—”
Lifting my hand, Bastian kissed my palm. “Start small. Is it your father’s pack?”
“Yes.”
I sucked in a breath, everything in me waiting for something to happen. As if even speaking those words would call down thunder.
But nothing happened. Nothing had changed in the last ten seconds. That same breath shuddered out of me in relief.
“When did it start?” Logan asked. “How old were you?”
“Eight. My dad thought I was finally old enough for him to leave me longer. I had a nanny, but she couldn’t do really long stays. He was restless and dying to go on an adventure. It wasn’t until he met Liz that I ever saw him slow down. He doesn’t like staying in one place for long.”
It all flowed out of me in one long rush. Like a dam being pierced. Or a water balloon. It felt like I couldn’tstop.
None of them moved or spoke. I saw them struggle with it when I talked about certain things—a hand curling into a fist or one of themclenching their jaw. But I loved them for not interrupting. If I stopped, I had no idea how to start again.
I stopped when I reached the point where I moved out and went to college. One thing Val and I agreed on—she wanted me out of the house as soon as legally possible and I couldn’t get the fuck away fast enough.
Since then, it was a silent agreement that I never went to the house unless Dad was home and not traveling. It had been better. I knew Dad was hurt that I wasn’t around as much, but I could barely look him in the eye.
“At Element, the night we met. I told you I interrupted a scene, but I didn’t tell you why. The woman was screaming for help, and it sounded so real. Somebody needed to hear her.” I swallowed. “Because no one ever heard me. Or if they did, they didn’t care. Even when I begged.”
Silence hung heavy around the six of us. What was there to say after that?
“Thank you for telling us,” Logan said. “That’s a lot to carry by yourself.”