Page 128 of Promised to the Alpha Prince

Wait.

Was that… fucked up? Locking them up for disobeying me? Was that too far? Where was the line between what was sexy for all of us and what was abuse? If they were turned on, was it okay? On the other hand, I had power over them. I could sort of force them to be turned on. So… from a certain perspective, did that mean they couldn’t consent at all?

I stopped walking in the middle of the hall, horrified.

Was I a rapist?

My heart beat staccato in my chest and I felt, through the bond, the brush of Aurelie, reacting to my horror. Her emotions washed into me for a moment. She was excited and frightened and tense, but she used this connection to soothe me, to send a tendril of sweet, reassuring love through the bond to me.

No, I wasn’t abusing her. We were in love.

I let out a breath.

Abruptly, the bond connection snapped closed, and I couldn’t feel her anymore.

Fuck.

I rushed to Johannes’s room.

“Nikolai and Aurelie left the castle,” I said to him when he opened the door.

“Hello to you, too,” said Johannes.

“Oh, is it more important for us to do greetings than to discuss this? Call them. They won’t pick up for me.”

Johannes sighed. “Look, I’ve been blowing up Nikolai’s phone all day, sending tons of texts, and he won’t answer a single one of them. So, I don’t think I’m going to have much more luck than you.”

“Try Aurelie, then,” I said.

“Yes, alpha,” he said in a mocking tone. He saluted me.

I glowered at him.

He got his phone out and dialed Aurelie. I waited. He lowered the phone. “Voicemail.”

“Fuck,” I said.

“Whatever,” said Johannes. “Nikolai is annoyed with me for going off on my own with her, so he did the same thing. Let them have their time together. You don’t own her, you know. You don’t own any of us.”

“I know that,” I said. “But I am… I do… I have a responsibility to all of you. You’re all mine, and it makes me feel…”

Johannes raised his eyebrows at me.

I licked my lips, feeling stupid and scared. “Things,” I supplied lamely. “It makes me feel things for you, for all of you.”

Johannes started to close the door in my face.

“Tender things,” I said in an unsteady voice. “I want to take care of you all. Do good things for you and make you all happy. I…” My jaw worked. The words were not going to come out, were they? I looked down at the floor. “I love you, Johannes.”

Nothing.

Slowly, I raised my gaze to his.

His lips were parted. He looked stunned.

“I’m sorry if I’m a jackass,” I said in a rush. “I really am. You can’t understand what it’s like, how intense my alpha instincts are. And since the omega showed up, I’m practically in a rut all the time. She smells so fucking good, and I can’t get enough of her. I’m fucking her nearly constantly, but it just makes me want more. And you, all of you, you all just intensify it. I’m in this haze all the time, that’s how I feel. I want, fuck, I want…” My gaze dropped to his crotch.

He swallowed.

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