Love Like Cyanide - ch 17
alpha idol paranormal romance
Chapter 17: Natalie
I’m drifting. Blissful. Relaxed. Comfortable and warm. Safe. Wrapped in the scent of roses and the rise and fall of Dante’s chest. We must have passed out for a few hours, because I’m feeling more rested than I have in what feels like an eternity. But I keep my eyes shut and snuggle in closer to him, not ready to get up and face what might be another day or two of the unending cycle of Valentine’s rut.
The idea of Dante bearing witness to any of that… Isn’t nearly as embarrassing as I thought it would be. Maybe Dante’s right, and I am greedy. Both alphas feel like they’re mine, but in slightly different ways... Maybe a girl could have both.
I sigh, shaking my head a bit. I’m definitely overthinking things. There’s no way in hell they’d go for that.
And Valentine proudly displays that proof as the blanket is torn off of Dante and I, and I’m shoved aside. I scurry to get out of the way as fists connect with flesh, the hollow thud of blows landing sending ice through my veins and chasing away all the coziness I’d just finally settled into. Alpha or not, I know better than to get in between two guys that big who are trying to rip each other to pieces.
It doesn’t end the way I expected it to. Valentine’s face down on my floor, with Dante’s knee in the middle of his back, an arm cranked up behind him. They’re both sweating and panting.
And bleeding. Jesus Christ, they’re both bleeding. There’d hardly been a sound as they kicked the shit out of each other, and the quiet makes it all the more terrifying.
Valentine squirms, trying to push himself up with his free arm but Dante knocks it loose with a snarl and torques it up behind him, trapping both of the smaller alpha’s wrists in one of his hands against the small of his back.
His long fingers lace into Val’s hair and he grips a fistful, the tension singing through the muscles of his forearm looking like he’s torn between lifting him up by it, or driving him through the floor.
Valentine growls, the sound guttural and nowhere near human. “How fitting that the knight should show up to save the damsel in distress.”
Dante opts for trying to squash him through the floor, pressing harder into him with his knee. “Prince, you mean? Know your fucking place.” He squeezes Val’s wrists so hard that I hear the bones creak in protest.
“And how dare you put her in a position to feel like she was in distress in the first goddamned place?! You have the balls to fucking claim her, after I already had? And then even considering she could handle you in rut, all by her damned self? How fucking stupid are you, leader?”
The derision in his voice is sharp and cutting, and he just keeps going. “You normally plow through twenty to thirty women in three days, and you put all of that burden on one woman, because you got possessive butterflies? She could have ended up in the hospital, or worse! I’m surprised you’re even lucid right now, you knotless bastard. You know how much damage control the rest of us have to do when it’s you in rut.”
They’re talking too fast. Slinging insults at each other that I can’t even absorb properly. Wait. …Wait a damned minute. “ Back up the fucking bus, guys!” I pipe up, the reality of what Dante just admitted hitting me full force. He claimed me that night we were together?
I assumed Valentine had marked me some time in the past few days, but nothing really felt terribly different. But how could both of them have the same mate? Me?
They ignore me, carrying on like an old married couple. “About time you finally said it out loud. I’ve been having to choke past your floral scent all over her, since it happened.”
“Fuck all the way off, Valentine. At least roses and cinnamon go together, unlike your weird-ass ocean breeze aroma winding in between the two that’s all over her, now.”
Valentine snorts, finally managing to wrestle an arm free and rocking his hips to throw Dante off of him. He pins the taller alpha with his knees on either side of his hips, a forearm pressing into his throat. “That’s a matter of taste, and yours is clearly terrible.”
Dante doesn’t seem surprised by the reversal, but he also doesn’t look bothered by it. I’m still worried they’re going to seriously hurt each other, and I’m tired of being talked over. And everyone says women are trouble when they’re hormonal.
So I chuck one of the throw pillows from the couch at them, smacking Valentine in the back of the head. He tilts his face towards me, his expression torn between irritation and laughter. “What in the hell did you two mean, just now?” I say, getting to my feet and adjusting my robe properly, trying to have a little decorum.
Dante has the grace to look embarrassed, but Val speaks before he gets a chance to defend himself. “Claiming a mate is instinctual, Natalie. Our beast sees what it wants, and goes for it.”
“Then how in the fuck did that happen to both of you, with singular me?”
Valentine shrugs. “I’ve got some theories about that, but honestly… there isn’t much scientific proof for how mating bonds work with alphas and their mates. We just kinda roll with it as it happens, if it happens. And two alphas, rather than an alpha and omega pairing? Who fucking knows. We’re evolutionary relics that regular human society wants to outlast until we just fade into extinction.”
I take a few steps closer to them. “Okay, so… big mystical mystery. Got it. Then why can you two also smell each other? I thought that was just a thing that happens with mates.”
Green and brown eyes both flick to me suddenly, wide and startled. Part of me is glad that Valentine seems to have returned to his senses, but I know better than to draw attention to it. They look back to each other, and the animosity in the air fades just a little.
“Lady might have a point.” Valentine’s voice is low, but level.
“A ridiculous one.” Valentine leans into the pressure he’s putting on Dante’s throat at his snarky comment, earning a strangled noise for his troubles.
“Don’t!” I say, moving closer, hand outstretched towards them.
Valentine fixes me with a dark stare, his beast temporarily back in its cage, but heat flowing from his gaze nonetheless. “If he wanted me to stop, I would have been on my back in a heartbeat. Notice I don’t even have his arms held down.” He glances sideways at Dante, who’s gone very still under him. “Besides, the little freak probably likes it, anyway.”
Dante laughs. Full-on belly laughs that manage to shatter the rest of the angry tension that was making the air too thick to breathe only a few minutes ago. “Little? Me? Shut the fuck up, short stack.”
Val leans in closer, a snarl twisting his features. “Short stack? I’m only two inches shorter than you, dumbass.”
Dante shrugs with a smirk, despite his voice being strained. “Every inch counts, you know.”
“All too well,” Val snipes back.
Dante reaches up and wraps a hand around Val’s forearm to ease up the pressure on his trachea. “What’s the matter, big boy? You wanna kiss me?” Dante’s tone is mocking, and I wonder what the hell he thinks he’s doing by provoking Valentine so much. It’s like he’s asking to get socked in the face.
My heart’s in my throat, and I’m fully expecting to have to grab the lamp off the table to keep Valentine from squeezing the life out of Dante. Instead, Valentine goes quiet for a moment, his eyes raking slowly over Dante’s face. The edges of his full lips quirk up at one corner, and the look on his face is unreadable.
“You know what, Your Majesty? I kinda fucking do.”
He shifts his weight, wrapping fingers around Dante’s throat and kissing him in a slow, insistent way that has my heart fluttering. I expected at least a little resistance from Dante, but he seems more than happy to be receiving Val’s ministrations. To be fair, they’re both fun as hell to make out with, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
It reminds me that Dante’s the only one in their group who’s publicly bisexual. Valentine may have been honest and open with me, but he’s never come out officially to the masses. I don’t know if the other members of the group know. Well… at least one of them does, as of this moment.
When they come up for air, Val leans his weight backwards, pressing his ass fully against Dante. He chuckles. “Maybe little wasn’t the right word, but freak definitely still fits.”
“Want to see what else fits?” Dante quips back with a grin, breathless.
JE-SUS. Nope. I’m out. I feel like a creep, just being in the room and watching them. If they want to have a moment, or an hour, whatever they need… Good for them. I’m gonna take advantage of the distraction and go grab a proper shower.
I go to walk past them and I feel fingers wrap around my ankle. I pause and look over my shoulder at the two of them piled on top of each other, Dante’s grip somehow both relaxed and firm. “You good, Doc?” he asks softly, concern in his pretty green eyes.
“I haven’t been able to take a shower, without getting dicked down, for two days… If you two are preoccupied, I’d like a little time to actually get clean. By myself. And process—” I gesture vaguely to the room and the three of us “—whatever the hell is happening.”
His long fingers caress my calf and he lets go. “Sounds like a good idea. Just don’t fall asleep in there, okay?”
I give him a tired smile, and nod to Valentine as he meets my gaze. “Towels are in the hall in the closet if you guys get overzealous while I’m in there. Don’t leave me a mess to clean up, alright?”
They laugh and go back to teasing each other like teenagers who just discovered that their boy-crush didn’t think they were repulsive, after all. I can’t help but smile as I leave them to it. My mates. What an absolutely wild thought.