Stronger as One (#1, Completed)

53. The calm and the storm🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

RILEY

The earlier lust-induced trembling subsided and, in a flash, my mind cleared up. I could finally think like myself again, Markolf's control being just a distant memory now.

The bite and the burn should have had my crying out in pain but, instead, intense pleasure took over my body and my soul. An electric current ran through me, a force that was so strong that it left me out of breath. It probably sounded crazy, but I had this sensation like threads were being woven together.

Then it hit me- it was our bonds that were strengthening, twining together our minds and souls.

I felt stronger. Better. Connected. Protected. And yet I also sensed guilt, anger, regret. I dug deeper inside my mind and realised that those were not my own feelings- it was the boys that I could feel through our new connection.

"You did it- you brought me back." I tried to push through our bonds all the gratitude I had inside me so that they knew exactly how thankful I was.

"We had to mark you, Riley," Aiden sighed. Ah, there was the regret again, even as he held me in his arms.

I placed a finger to the tender spot on my neck right where Rafe had bitten me and, sure enough, I could feel my usually blemish-free skin adorned with bite marks.

I turned my wrist around to find a small but intricate symbol branded on there. Inspecting it closer, I realised that it was a circle with the outline of Aiden's dragon inside of it.

The most irrational- for me at least- but beautiful realisation dawned on me: I was theirs and they were mine. We belonged to each other.

"I know." I gave each of them a reassuring smile. "I would have done the same. Trust me, you don't want to feel like I had just gone through."

It was Rafe who shook his head in disbelief. "You are not angry, Moreau?"

"That you saved me from a raging lust that consumed me before it killed me? Hell no."

"But do you know what that means?" He pressed on, unsure of whether I really understood the implications of being marked.

Sure, maybe I did not fully grasp all the aspects of what it meant but I caught enough of their conversation to get the broad strokes. And either way, it was the mating bonds that helped me snap out of Markolf's manipulation the first time around and now again.

"Yes, Rafe- last time I checked I was not deaf, so I did hear everything you said. Plus, I prefer to be marked by you than to fall under the control of that psychopath again. You are more tolerable." My lips curled up in a sarcastic smile just to piss him off but I genuinely meant what I said.

Give it a rest, Rafe, she's been through enough today, I heard Aiden say but his lips were not even moving.

What the hell? How did I hear him? Did I just imagine him say that? Wait, was I able to hear their thoughts now?

How did you do that? I thought I asked my question out loud but then I realised that I only thought about asking it.

"It's called mind linking, Riley," Aiden explained aloud. "And no, we cannot hear your thoughts- you decide what to project to us and vice versa." He must have seen my anxious face because that was exactly what I was wondering about.

Good thing that they don't know anything about my dirty dreams with the two of them.

Aiden laughed out of the blue and I could not understand why because no one said anything. "Yeah, maybe we should work on how not to project all of your thoughts."