Hyatt Lee cowered in the slender space beneath the set of bunked beds he shared with his beta brother Symon, his entire world a confusing blend of physical pain, screams, and the acrid scent of his alpha brother Rebel’s fury. He huddled as close as he could get to the wall, his naked body curled in on itself as much as possible, while violence he couldn’t see happened. He tried to block out the thuds and crunches and wet sounds of flesh meeting flesh.
Rebel was killing Edgar, and there was nothing Hyatt could do to stop him. Not that Hyatt would. Not after Edgar had broken the promise he’d made to Rebel.
Twice.
Hyatt had been too scared to speak up the first time; scared of Rebel’s alpha temper and protective streak. So he’d dealt with the pain and ignored it, which had given Edgar the confidence to do it again. Edgar, the beta man who’d been guardian to Hyatt and his two siblings for the last ten years, had kept them fed and alive for a price. A price only Rebel had paid until these last three weeks.
Rebel roared again, and then Symon was in the room. Yelling at Rebel to stop. Begging him to stop, over and over. That Edgar was dead and it was over, and Hyatt sobbed so hard he nearly vomited. “Hyatt?” Symon yelled in his cold-muffled voice. “Where are you? Hyatt?”
He didn’t have the breath to answer, and when a hand brushed his arm, Hyatt screamed. Shrank back but he had nowhere to go. “Okay, it’s okay,” Symon said. “Oh fuck. Are you hurt? Of course, you are. Shit. Hyatt, you’re safe now, okay? Just stay put.”
Hyatt wasn’t going anywhere. His senses were fried from not only Edgar’s attack, but also Rebel’s unexpected, violent response to it. He had never in their lives seen Rebel completely lose his mind. Rebel was their big brother and protector, and this snarling, furious teenager was not his brother.
“I’m going to get help, I promise,” Symon said. “You both just stay fucking here, okay? Stay here.”
As if Hyatt could move a muscle to flee. The chilly room made his bare skin crawl, and his backside ached in the worst way, but nothing in that moment scared him more than Rebel’s anger and the cloying scent of blood. Edgar’s blood. Had to be. The room went quiet; the only sound louder than Hyatt’s racing heartbeat was Rebel’s ragged breathing and occasional snarl.
Hyatt dared to open his eyes. Beyond the gloom of the bed’s underside, he saw Edgar face down on the floor, blood and gore where facial features should be. Not moving. Hyatt shrieked and covered his glasses, as if he could erase the image now seared into his brain.
“Hyatt?” Rebel’s voice, still furious but also desperate. “I’m sorry. He promised me.”
A thick sob kept Hyatt from responding. For the better part of the last eight years, Edgar had tricked Rebel into allowing Edgar to sell him for sex to alphas in exchange for not going after Hyatt or Symon. And up until three weeks ago, Edgar had kept that promise. Maybe if Hyatt had spoken up after the first time, it wouldn’t have come to this, but Hyatt couldn’t change it. Couldn’t change the fact that his hero had killed their guardian, and Hyatt had no idea what was going to happen next.
“Hyatt, please take this.”
He dared to draw his hands away from his eyes, glasses smudged with fingerprints and tears. Rebel had shoved a blanket under the bed but he was nowhere in sight. That gave Hyatt the strength to yank the blanket forward and hug it, no real room to wrap it around his shivering body. But it was something, and it showed him Rebel was calming down. Thinking again instead of reacting to a loved one in pain.
“He lied to you,” Hyatt said. “He lied to us all.”
“Goddess, brother, I’m sorry.”
“I know.” He tucked the blanket around whatever body parts he could, ashamed of himself for hiding, but the room still reeked of Rebel’s fury and Hyatt’s own fear. Not fear over Rebel ever raising a fist or even his voice to Hyatt. Fear of what would happen next.
Their trio of brothers had spent their entire lives as little more than pets to other men. Even after eighteen years, they didn’t know much about the outside world. Hyatt couldn’t stand it if they were separated because of today. Because Rebel had killed Edgar because Edgar had