There’s an immediate pulse right where the vampire’s mouth is, briefly distracting me from what Damien is doing, and I almost cry out, feeling myself at the very fine edge—

It feels like a cold bucket of water is dumped on me at the very last second, stealing every single ounce of pleasure all at once, and stealing what was going to be an amazing orgasm.

Anger is definitely the first emotion that surges forth, but I quickly temper it.

My head pops up, and I stare down at Arion, who is teasingly kissing my inner thigh with the most mischievous expression I’ve seen yet.

“What the hell?” I ask him, as he grazes his fingers up my thigh, remaining content to kiss me in the very sensitive area so close, yet so far away from where I want him.

Damien’s touch is gone, and he’s still invisible, his laughter sounding more distant than it is.

“Feeling cute,” Arion says, grinning like he thinks he’s adorable or some shit, as he lazily shrugs a shoulder. “May give you an orgasm. May not. I dunno.”

“That’s possibly the worst joke I’ve ever heard from an ancient vampire. This is how we’re going to spend our wedding night or whatever it is?” I ask, and then cringe when I feel like an idiot for saying that.

I wish I could knee him in the balls right now.

He continues grinning, as Emit takes a seat next to my side. Damien’s cool breath breezes against my neck on the other side, even as he remains unseen.

“Violet, surely you can’t tell us to help keep you grounded, despite all your power, and then not expect some form of punishment, after admitting to keeping this many secrets,” Emit tells me.

I cut my eyes to Emit, feeling some betrayal.

My wolf.

The gentlest, nicest, most compassionate alpha of the group, who shows more restraint than the three of them combined, says I deserve punishment?

“You’re punishing me?” I ask, my voice definitely hitting a few high, disbelieving notes.

Why is he grinning like this is a good thing?

“And testing you,” Damien murmurs somewhere near my ear, as a breath hisses between my teeth.

The heat has stirred once more, and there’s a steady pulse hitting every erogenous zone I have, and it’s all working in synchronized unison. He could easily give me hundreds of orgasms without ever touching me.

All because Talbot forgot he existed.

Instead, he’s going to deny them all.

“I feel rather special now that I know just how powerful you are,” Damien tells me. “Especially since I have power over you, which means I get to deliver your punishments. Aren’t you a lucky girl?”

Arion teasingly blows a chilled breath of air on the most sensitive part of my body, and my back bows in response to the overstimulation all happening at once.

“Vance is going to need some time to come around, because it’s hard to go through what we went through with Idun,” Damien tells me, his voice growing sober.

I take that in, letting it really settle on me how much this amount of power is truly going to impact everything we have. I wish I never had to tell them.

“You’ve tricked us, lied to us, and hidden a lot of secrets this past year. Then you pushed us away. Then you kept breaking one time after another, pushing us farther away, instead of telling us the whole story,” Emit adds, as one of his calloused, firm hands lifts mine to his lips.

He places a soft, chaste kiss on it.

“We’ve let you get away with so much in the past, because we thought you weak,” Arion states, smirking as he ghosts his lips over me once more, teasing me with every single, unsatisfyingly brief touch.

“Now that we know you’re not, it’s only fair to hold you accountable for your transgressions,” Arion continues, his tone almost sounding as though he’s gloating.

I dart a look between them, slowly coming to grips with what they’re doing.

“On my wedding night, the three of you are going to punish me with orgasm denial? You’re serious?”

They all smile.

“I expect this out of them, but you?” I ask Emit, not understanding why he’s so proud of this.

He slowly kisses his way up my palm, and then drags his lips back down to my wrist.

“Arion did something awful, and I had to bury him for a hundred years because of it,” Emit tells me like he’s explaining something important. “Tensions between my people and his have been at an all-time high, and the mutinies have piled up as a result. I do punish people, little monster.”

I say nothing to that. It feels weird that he’s using Arion’s offenses as a comparison, since…my ‘crimes’ are way less offensive.

“The last thing I ever wanted to do was fall in love again, because it’s never made me anything but fucking miserable,” the wolf adds very seriously.

He levels me with a look.

“You came along during the middle of all this, and I’ve seen you as almost human. You’re very soft, Violet. We keep telling you this, but you don’t understand it. Because you’re soft, I’ve been exceptionally soft toward you. I don’t keep betas around. They stab me in the back. I’m used to soft omegas, who always washed my back for me.”

For the first time ever, there’s a tiny pang of envy. I immediately cast it out, because I love those omegas. I don’t fault him for wanting them around all those years.

“Never once has any woman ever again tempted me into falling in love across these many centuries,” he carries on, giving me a pointed look. “Now I know you’re an alpha. I never would have believed it, and I’m still struggling to wrap my mind around it. It certainly changes all the rules.”

“If you’re a good girl and accept your punishment, Vance will likely take your words more seriously,” Arion tells me, placing another small kiss on the inside of my thigh, while keeping his eyes on mine the entire time.

Damien becomes visible, drawing my attention, as he gingerly strokes my cheek, while giving me a serious look.

“Vance has been duped, deceived, and made to feel inferior all in one night. You claim you’re willing to prove you don’t want us submitting to you. You claim you’re not seeking dominance. You claim a lot, even though you have an unknown amount of power resting inside you,” Damien states. “Yet it seems your monster is indeed calculated and devious, and you already know about our great deal of trust issues.”

I mull that over in my head.

“You don’t want to be feared, so prove you’re willing to surrender to consequences. Your monster is devious. The best way to learn control, is to be humble, Violet. Can you accept your punishment?” Arion asks me.

I hesitate, mostly because it doesn’t make any sense. I’m still trying to learn monster logic. Alpha logic is even harder to understand.

“Orgasm denial on my wedding night is my punishment? For how long?” I ask, trying to be as reasonable as possible, while stretched wide, chained, and feeling really vulnerable.

I knew there were going to be some hurdles to jump once I revealed the truth, which is one of the reasons I held back, so I should have expected at least some backlash.

“Not orgasm denial, Violet,” Emit says, grinning as his lips press to my wrist again. “Delayed gratification.”