It was interesting to watch the men fight, even when they were all in agreement about an issue.

It was also really exhausting.

And loud.

The issue in question was the dreaded collar that was currently sitting about twenty feet from me on Luca’s desk. I couldn’t actually see the collar, but I recognized the box from the previous week when it had been sitting on his desk in the other house… the one in the Hamptons.

Because of my freak-out when Con had shown me the collar, we’d ended up spending another night in the ocean-front house and it hadn’t been until the following afternoon that we’d made our way to the city. I’d slept through the entire night after my meltdown, so Vaughn and I hadn’t made love. I’d woken up in his arms with him watching me with a solemn expression on his face. I’d kissed him and told him I was okay, but it hadn’t been hard to figure out that he was upset. He hadn’t asked me about what had happened, so I’d figured he’d talked to Con about it at some point while I’d been asleep.

But it wasn’t until Vaughn and I had entered the kitchen that morning for breakfast that I’d realized Con hadn’t had a clue about the collar I’d been forced to wear for so many years.

And how hard it had been to give it up, both figuratively and literally.

Poor Con had been an absolute mess when Vaughn and I had shown up for breakfast.

The first thing we’d both noticed were grits.

Everywhere.

They’d been in containers all over the counter and Con’s clothes had been covered in flour and all manner of ingredients. When he’d caught sight of me and Vaughn, he hadn’t stopped moving for even a moment.

He’d just kept right on cooking.

And talking.

Dig in, guys. There’s all kinds… sausage and cheese, bacon and cheese, ham and cheese, just cheese… this one’s got cinnamon and that one’s got fruit on it but maybe don’t try that one because it was more of an experiment. I didn’t make shrimp ones because that’s Vaughn’s thing but if there’s another kind you like, I can make them for you…

As he’d spoken, Con had pointed to the different containers full of grits. And he hadn’t stayed still for a moment. I’d never seen one of his fights, but I could picture him in the ring… always on the move and always waiting for that next strike to come his way.

My heart had broken for him and when I’d tugged my hand from Vaughn’s, he’d instantly let me go. I’d walked around the large kitchen island. Con’s verbal diarrhea had only gotten worse as I’d approached him but when I’d walked into his body, he’d shut up and then he’d put his arms awkwardly around me.

Then he’d hugged me hard. I’m sorry, Aleks. I didn’t know.

It hadn’t really bothered me that Vaughn had told him about the collar I’d been forced to wear because I’d known Vaughn wouldn’t have shared anything beyond the facts.

I’d squeezed Con in response and it had been enough. When he’d released me, he’d handed me a spoon, and I’d started trying all the different versions of grits he’d made. I’d liked them all, but I’d ended up grabbing the cinnamon ones. I’d never seen Con looking happier than when I’d pushed my bowl away and let out a loud belch that I hadn’t managed to quell.

That had been a week ago and things had been chaotic ever since.

The move to the city had been like a smoothly choreographed dance and I’d had so many of Luca’s bodyguards surrounding me that it had almost reminded me of when I’d lived with Father.

Almost.

But not quite.

Because besides the bodyguards, Vaughn was nearly always with me. And despite him worrying about my safety, when I’d started to feel stir-crazy in Luca’s fancy apartment, Vaughn had taken me to Central Park and he’d shown me all the trees he’d climbed as a kid and the place he and Luca had met Con, King, and the third brother I had yet to meet, Lex.

We’d still had bodyguards on those outings, but I’d been glad because it had helped Vaughn to relax a bit. He hadn’t shown me any affection in public but he’d explained why beforehand. Because on the remote chance there were people from my past watching, it had to look like I was just another pet being taken out for some air.

Similar to when Father had allowed me to go to the flower shop every week.

But I hadn’t felt any of the same emotions beyond the natural fear that came with knowing that there was a possibility someone was watching me. I hadn’t actually felt that sensation myself, but at one point, Vaughn had thought he’d spied a man following us. He’d actually pursued him after leaving me with the bodyguards in front of Luca’s building and I’d been hustled inside and had had to wait for nearly fifteen minutes before Vaughn had returned to declare he’d lost the guy. He’d set about to reassure me he wasn’t even sure there’d been a guy, but we hadn’t ventured out again after that.

That had been a couple days ago.

While Luca had stayed at the apartment with us, we hadn’t seen much of him. Con and King had come and gone but hadn’t slept in the penthouse like they had at the house in the Hamptons. I’d found myself missing the comradery between the men. Even when they were at each other’s throats, like they were now, there was no missing the affection they had for one another.

The only real anger I’d seen between them in the past week had been when an argument had erupted between Con and King about their younger brother, Lex. Con had once again pressed King to explain why Lex hadn’t joined them in New York or why he wasn’t answering Con’s phone calls, but King had refused to respond. They’d nearly come to blows and Vaughn and Luca had had to intervene and tell them both to walk it off.

I’d asked Vaughn about Lex but he wasn’t sure what was happening with the man, either. He’d told me that as the youngest of their group, Lex had always been on the receiving end of some overprotectiveness, especially when it came to his older brothers, because he’d had both a hard childhood and some health issues, but he hadn’t gone into details and I hadn’t asked. I definitely understood what it was like to be younger and protected, and while I’d always welcomed it with Dante, I wasn’t sure how it would have felt to be treated the same way once I’d been older and more independent.

And had had a normal childhood.

I’d only spoken to Dante a few times in the past couple of weeks. Each time, he’d practically begged me to let him come get me, but, of course, I’d always refused and had spent much of the time trying to convince him I was safe and that it would all be over soon. I’d only spoken to Dante for a few minutes on each call because it was really hard not to break down and just tell him where I was. Despite keeping the calls short, I’d gotten to talk to Magnus and Matty too. They were all still staying away from home, but Matty had turned it into an adventure and Magnus had said he was using the time to try and get Dante to commit to some wedding plans.

But when I’d questioned my brother about the wedding, he’d stubbornly had the same response.

We’ll talk about it when you get home.

I’d taken that to mean he hadn’t agreed to a date yet. I’d wanted to kick my brother through the phone for his stubbornness and blatant refusal to see how much Magnus loved him and that Dante was worth every single ounce of that love, but there were some things that would just need to wait until I was home.

Dante wouldn’t know what hit him because the old me wouldn’t have dared to confront him about something like that.

Well, the old me had changed.

A lot.

And I had Vaughn and his crazy brothers, both of the blood and of the heart, to thank.

“I agree, damn it!” Con snapped as he threw up his hands. “But we need to find a way to send some other message that he’s taken.”

“He’s not leaving our sides, so it doesn’t fucking matter!” Vaughn shouted back. “Those assholes won’t approach him if he stays with Luca!”

I sighed as the back and forth continued. Not one of the men wanted me to wear the collar, but I knew what it would mean if I did.

It would mean I was Luca’s property.

The picture had been the start.

But the collar would cement it.

It would make the whole scenario more convincing, and since I’d overheard the men talking about how rumors were swirling online that Luca wasn’t a true “believer,” we were already at a disadvantage going into the party. As it were, Luca, and me by proxy, would probably be carefully watched for any signs that our relationship wasn’t what it was supposed to be.

There’d still been no contact from the Stylianos character who’d supposedly had the lead on Gio at one point, but there had been multiple offers from other men to purchase me. Vaughn had warned me that they’d made it look like Luca was open to selling me for the right price, but it was only in the hopes of forcing Stylianos’s hand. If the sick man thought he was going to lose me to someone else, he might be more inclined to make himself known.

I glanced at the box again.

It’s not real, I reminded myself. And it could be what brings Gio home.

I climbed unsteadily to my feet and went to Luca’s desk. None of the men seemed to notice me, so I tuned them out. For all the determination I’d felt just seconds ago, the moment I flipped the lid up on the jewelry box, my resolve fled.

In a big way.

Close it.

Close it!

My brain kept screaming the order at me and I knew I could.

It was a choice like any other. And it wouldn’t make me a coward. None of these men would look at me that way.

I left the box open and wrapped my arms around myself as I studied the piece of gold jewelry. It wasn’t exactly a necklace, but it looked nothing like the dog-style chain Father had put around me so many years ago and had one of his men weld together with a blowtorch while another had held me still, not caring about the screams of pain I’d let out.

Or the tears I’d shed.

Or the pleas to stop that I’d repeated over and over.

I’d thought the worst of it over when the blowtorch had been turned off.

But my humiliation and pain had only begun.

“Aleks.”

My brain tried to shut out the memory as the familiar and oh-so-perfect voice filtered through me. I felt rather than saw Vaughn’s hands on my arms as he came up behind me. He reached past me to close the box, but I stayed his hand.

“It doesn’t look anything like the other one,” I murmured. It was actually quite beautiful, and I guessed whichever of the men had purchased it had spent a small fortune on it. The links were very delicate and I suspected the whole thing could be ripped off one’s neck with little force.

It was almost ironic.

Father had welded a collar on me so I couldn’t remove it.

But this collar was meant to show that the pet who was wearing it could have removed it themself but was too well-trained to do so. And while I knew there was a whole other lifestyle where men and women chose to submit to another person, nothing about the world we were going into was about submission by choice.

“I made too much noise when Father put the collar on me,” I said softly. “And I cried and said no… he didn’t like when I did that. He said I was supposed to know better – that he’d paid a lot of money for me to know better than that. I tried to apologize, but he didn’t like that either.”

Vaughn’s arm went around my collarbone and I felt his lips brush my temple. “It’s okay, Aleks, you don’t need to talk about it.”

I nodded. “Yes,” I whispered. “I’m fighting back,” I reminded him.

He kissed me again and I felt him nod against me.

I knew the other men were still in the room and I figured they hadn’t left because they would have had to move past me to get out. Maybe they’d been afraid they’d frighten me into another blackout.

I wasn’t sure.

But I didn’t want or need them to leave.

Because I wasn’t embarrassed about what had happened to me.

I hadn’t done anything wrong and I hadn’t deserved it.

I understood that now.

I wasn’t sure I would have if Vaughn hadn’t given me my own chance to “wake up” like Gio had woken him and Luca up.

“When I apologized, I grabbed his arm,” I said. “I wasn’t ever allowed to touch any of the men unless they told me to or gave me some sign. I knew that, but I was scared and in pain and I wasn’t thinking.” I reached up to touch the burn scar on my neck. “He hit me and I fell. Then he grabbed my hair and forced me to my knees. He nodded to one of his men and the guy, he just knew what Father wanted. It made me wonder how, you know?”

Vaughn’s arm tightened around me, but he didn’t say anything.

“The man left the room. He was back within a minute. He had something black in his hand, but I didn’t know what it was until he handed it to Father.” I drew in a breath as a huge shudder ran throughout my entire body. I could still remember the terror that had gone through me when I’d identified the object.

“Fire poker,” I breathed.

I heard someone gasp, but I wasn’t sure who it was. “I wasn’t wearing a shirt because they’d taken it off when they’d put the collar on. I again made the mistake of begging Father not to hurt me. I told him I’d be good and I’d never defy him again. He didn’t even let me finish before he hit me on the back with the poker.”

“Aleks,” Vaughn whispered into my ear. I could hear the emotion in his voice. It sounded really thick.

But I couldn’t stop now.

Not even for him.

“I thought each blow would be the one that killed me. I couldn’t even go into my head because it hurt so bad. I almost passed out after the first few hits, but one of the men kept throwing cold water in my face to make sure I didn’t. I could feel the blood running down my back but then after a while I didn’t feel anything. I remember the fire poker hitting the ground and then I was pulled to my feet and bent over the desk. I was afraid Father would let his men take turns with me after he was done, but they didn’t. Father just left me there, my pants around my ankles, and told his men to clean me up and put me in my room. I think… I think he was sorry he scarred his pet because he used to tell his friends that he regretted not using something lighter to teach me that first lesson.”

I reached for the jewelry box and pulled it closer. “I never defied him after that. Not once… not until the night Dante showed up and Father bent me over that same desk and showed Dante what I’d been turned into.”

“You’re so fucking strong, Aleks,” Vaughn said into my ear. “That’s who you are and who you’ve always been.”

“Unbroken,” I murmured.

Vaughn kissed the back of my neck. “Yes,” he said in a barely there whisper.

I nodded because I was finally starting to believe it for myself. But every step forward would be about that… about reminding myself that none of those men had done what they’d set out to do.

Break me.

So I reached for the small gold collar.

“No,” a voice said, then a large hand was moving the box out of my reach.

Not Vaughn’s hand, though.

Luca’s.

I hadn’t even noticed how close he’d moved to the desk. It was a testament to the fact that I really was coming to trust all the men as much as I trusted Vaughn.

“No,” Luca said. “You’re not doing this.”

I knew it wasn’t really an order because I could hear his voice breaking.

He was upset.

And I knew why.

“What was his name, Luca?” I asked.

Luca actually paled. “What?”

“The boy… the one you met when you were looking for Gio. The one you had to forget.”

Luca looked at Vaughn briefly. “He told you?” he asked me. There was a little bit of hurt in his voice.

“No,” I quickly said. “He didn’t tell me anything. You did. That night on the porch at the house in Nevada… you said you had to forget a boy to find your son. You’ve never really forgotten him though, have you?”

The man hesitated, then shook his head. “No,” he said. “They called him Billy, but I don’t know if that was his real name or not.”

“Probably not,” I said. “They changed any names that sounded too unique. They let me keep my name but they always spelled it wrong. They said the name Alex was really common here in the U.S. But my name is spelled with an ‘s’ – I was named after my father’s father who was Polish.”

I didn’t say it out loud but my guess was that Gio likely had been given a new name as well.

“We’ll find another way, Aleks,” Luca said as he snapped the jewelry box shut. He kept his big hand on it, but when I leaned across the desk and reached for it, he released it.

“It’s my choice,” I said. I flipped the box back open. “Everything has been my choice from the moment Vaughn told me why he’d taken me. I don’t want that to change… I won’t let it,” I said firmly. I forced myself to pick up the collar. It barely weighed anything, but it might as well have weighed a hundred pounds.

I felt sick as I found the clasp and worked it loose. The party wasn’t for hours yet, but I needed to do this now so I could be one hundred percent focused on everything that was happening around me when the time came.

I swallowed back the bile that was trying to creep up my throat as I reached up to put the collar around my throat. I dropped my eyes and stared at the desk as I fumbled with the clasp.

But I couldn’t get it to snap together and all my effort to be strong felt like it was slipping out of my grip just like the frustrating clasp.

“James,” I whispered.

“I’ve got it, Aleks,” Vaughn said as his hands took over the task for me. When his fingers drifted down my neck and rested on my shoulders, I knew it was done. I could barely feel the collar, it was so light. But I could feel it.

And I was still okay.

I pulled in a breath, then another.

It wasn’t until Luca handed me a tissue that I realized I’d been crying the whole time.

I was tempted to lighten the mood by coyly asking how it looked, but I knew I couldn’t pull it off. And from the looks on the faces of the men around me, I doubted any of them could find even a scrap of humor in the situation.

I reached up to touch the collar… no, the necklace, because that was all it really was. I’d take it off in a few minutes, but I wanted to prove to myself I could forget about it, so I stepped back into Vaughn’s body and reached up to link my fingers with the ones that were resting on my collarbone. His touch did what it always did and calmed me.

I looked around at each of them. They all had different emotions on their face.

Luca looked torn, Con looked like he was feeling completely powerless, and King… King just looked pissed.

I didn’t need to look at Vaughn to know what I’d see.

Because I saw a little bit of that emotion in everyone else’s gaze too.

Pride.