A Goodbye

Celine POV

21 YEARS old

I'm tired. For the past week, the brothers have barely left me alone. My body is exhausted. When I came here, I was with my mother, but she died.

Richard kept me, however, so I've stayed as their slave. The brothers and my mates...I don't know how to feel about that. On my eighteenth birthday, they each used my body. It became a recurring thing.

Sometimes, only one of them would come in at night, and other times, all three would use me together. I'm their mate, yet I have no power here.

The only benefit to being their mate is when others try to touch me. They refuse to allow it to happen. They never told others I was their mate but ensured people knew I was theirs and only theirs in that way.

I wonder how bad things would have been if I wasn't their mate. Their father didn't care when men would feel me up and try to drag me into rooms to use me. It was always the brothers.

So I know if I weren't their mate, I would have been used by everyone.

The sound of the door opening makes me look up and watch as they walk in. I thought that was it for today. Once they have used me, they rarely return to me that same day.

"Please," I whisper, too tired to raise my voice any more than that.

"You're leaving," Wes looks at me, and I see pain in his eyes. "Tomorrow, you won't be staying here anymore. Father has decided to let you leave as he can't find the use for you."

Am I leaving? Are they going to let me go? I feel hopeful that I can finally have a real-life—something for myself. Alex pulls me up, his large hand wraps around my throat and visions of my kneeling in front of him as he thrusts and gags me burn into my mind.

"We're here to say a final goodbye all night," Dolton says, waking me up from the images. If I fight or refuse, it doesn't work. The fact I saw that when Alex touches me proves nothing I do stops this.

So I nod and submit. I never submit. I always refuse to start with. Even though that part deep inside me craves them, the mate bond is muted because I don't have a wolf. So, while I can feel they are my mates, and I feel hurt by leaving them. I'm glad.

Their eyes shine brighter when they realise I won't fight them and that I'm submitting. I'll miss them; they kept me alive. Their father would want to punish and hurt me physically, and they refused to let him.

Their father often refused to feed me, and they would go against his orders. They protected me in so many ways and helped me stay alive, but they never gave me a choice in sex. They just took that; no matter how much I fought and refused, they took it.

"Will I see you again?" I ask because if they protected me against their father, surely they will protect me when I leave if someone tries to hurt me?

"NO!" Wes growls. I reach up and wrap my arms around his neck. He stares at me in shock. I don't usually do this. I'm hoping that if I accept this and touch them, they will let me see them again. That way, I know I have someone to go to if I don't feel safe.

"Celine?" He peers down at me, and I reach up and kiss him. He groans and pulls me against him. Images of me touching him and removing his clothes flood my mind, and I know that's what he's picturing; it's not a vision of the future but what he's seeing right now.

My hands stroke down his body, and I unfasten the buttons. As my hand strokes across his chest, his breathing becomes frenzied, his wolf comes to the front, and I hold back the panic.

"Me!" I'm pulled from Wes' grip and find myself against Alex. "Touch me," he looks at me with pleading eyes. My hand moves, stroking along his neck. His wolf thumps in his chest as my hand tangles into his hair. He leans forward and kisses me. My hands stroke down his chest, pulling his shirt open.

I'm dragged away from him and facing Dolton. His eyes pierced mine. He doesn't need to say it. My hands grasp his belt, and I pull him closer and kiss him. My hand pushes into his jeans, and I grasp his length. He growls into my mouth and slams me against the wall.

"More," his word is loud as he bites against my lip. He kisses along my jaw and down to my neck. I push my body closer to him and moan.

His teeth scrape across the bottom of my neck near my collarbone.

His body is suddenly thrown across the room. Alex and Wes stand in front of me.

"No!" they shout together. "We do not bite and claim her, Dolton. You know that isn't allowed. Why would you even try?" Alex shouts.

Was that what he was going to do? Dolton looks past them to me, and pain seems to flood his eyes as his head drops. I quickly learnt that Dolton cares despite being the first to sleep with me.

He often cuddled me as I slept, snuck in late at night to watch me sleep, and, sometimes, somehow knew I was bathing and came in to wash my hair for me.

He admitted he loved me, while Wes and Alex made me aware that the bond was nothing. So, seeing Dolton look so hurt somehow hurts me. I push past them and walk to him. My hands grasp his face.

"You can't claim me, but you can take tonight as a reminder, Dolton," I whisper before kissing his lips. His hands pull me closer, and I lose myself in the feel of him.

His fingers thread through my hair, pulling my head back so he can reach my neck. His lips move across it, and I feel someone behind me. Their hands pull quickly against the fabric of my dress, ripping it from my body and falling to the floor.

I feel like crying. I got into that routine of fighting them and refusing them. Now, though, I wish I could go back and fully embrace every moment with them, as I'm not sure if I'm going to get any other moments like this going forward.