Love & Stitches at The Asylum: Part Seventy-Five

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If there was one thing Seth had learned in his training as a mercenary, it was never to take the path you were led down. Chances were high if you did you’d find yourself in a trap. Straw was shit for silent movement, so he wasn’t too surprised when his foot slipped on his way over another stack of hay bales. He smiled as he heard a creak of sound that could only be leather.

Jared is on the other side of this wall.

Glancing around, he gathered intel on who might be watching, noting shadows along the rooflines around The Asylum. Vani’s men were too well trained to be obvious, but he was too well trained not to spot them.

Not wanting to get himself shot, he didn’t wave. This kind of game was his territory, his board, and Jared was smoking serious levels of dope if he thought to best him at it.

What the stakes were in this case, he wasn’t entirely sure, and he didn’t really care. Winning against Jared had become a prize all its own. With every successive rung up the ladder of their relationship, Seth had found the tension he craved vibrated all the more sweetly along the lines that bound them together. Jared couldn’t fail to acknowledge him amid the discomfort of repeated challenges, and that perhaps was what he craved most. The man’s laser focus.

And respect.

Jared had one of the best poker faces Seth had come up against, but it had been a long time since the man had been able to fool him with it. His tells were in every glance he sent Wren and Noah’s way, the moments in which he dropped his guard for them and them alone.

They hadn’t talked about Seth’s mishandling of Wren, and if he knew anything, he knew Jared would choose some fucked up show of dominance as an opportunity to get in his face about it. At least he no longer barked orders at Seth in the desert in front of thirty other men who were so busy wetting themselves over their C.O.’s surliness that they couldn’t see what was right in front of them. Namely, that Jared was as scared shitless of the bombs and guns as the rest of them, but had seen too much in his life to let it cow him.

It was something we had in common.

And why they’d once been friends.

Seth shook his head at himself. Today’s scenario was for Wren, and had nothing to do with him. Jared played at being a dragon in his lair, defending home and treasure from a marauding band of trolls, hobbits, princesses, and faeries—or whatever else the Core contingent decided to dress up as. Like Quint, he’d forgone dressing up, but a dragon would have been a tempting option.

Fairytales always gave the shit end of the stick to dragons. He’d breathe fire out of every orifice, too, if some shire-born shits tried to get their grubby hands on his pretty things.

For the moment, however, this isn’t about treasure. 

This is personal.

Between me and the dragon.

Grabbing a handful of hay, Seth twisted it hard, into a tight knot. It bit into his fingers as he added more until he’d made a rope-like stick. Changing his approach, since he’d been heard, he jumped lightly, soundlessly, to the ground and crept along the wall. Lighter out, he placed a bet on Rhodey having a fire extinguisher nearby.

This battle of two dragons is about to get very real.

As he stepped around the wall, more shadow than substance, he flicked the lighter and touched it to the end of the stick of hay. Compact, it would burn slowly, like a torch, with a lot of black smoke he could use to blind his opponent.

Surprise in location wasn’t Seth’s only advantage. 

Still looking upward, Jared frowned, sniffing as the smoke reached his nose. 

Seth brandished the torch. “Back, dragon. I don’t wish to singe your pretty scales.” 

Really, role play is amazing. I don’t know why I didn’t get into it sooner.

“Are you fucking insane, Bizzy?” Jared whirled, taking a step back. “Put that out before you force me to beat your ugly ass. I have no wish to go blind.”

“Do you yield?” Seth took a bolder step forward, closing in on his adversary. The orange and red flames guttered, mesmerizing. The world glowed, filled only with torchlight that warmed the snap of ice blue eyes.

Pain lanced his side, then his thigh. Between his shoulder blades, very close to his vertebrae. Clawing at Avery’s darts, Seth attempted to keep hold of the torch at the same time. Smoke clouded his eyes, making them sting, and he nearly dropped the thing on the ground.

“Heyo. Thanks for the show.” Avery’s smile widened. “Fire’s gotta go.”

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Jared swooped in, snatching Seth’s torch away. “Rhodey. Put this damned thing out.”

“Give it here.” Rhodey had a fire extinguisher on the ground by his boots, but instead of using it, he snatched the torch himself and stomped on it a few times, looking like he was rather enjoying himself. “I never thought I’d have to do this here, but having a teen is good practice for all kinds of random shit. Should’ve thought of that damn lighter, though. Next time, I’m stripping all the mercs before they get to play.”

“Heyo...” Avery called to Rhodey, holding up his weapons. “Two darts to go?”

“Hell, no!” Having just retrieved the one from between his shoulders, Seth whirled, glaring up at Avery, who sat on top of the bale wall.

Rhodey tapped his chin as though considering. “I wouldn’t want to ruin your fun, my little viper. How about you go see how well Curtis has kept up with his training. He gets a dart for each pun. And another for every one he doesn’t dodge.” His lips curved into a positively evil smile. “And you get a lash from my belt for each time you miss, since I’m such a sweet Dom.”

Blowing Rhodey a kiss, Avery leaped off the wall to the other side. Half tempted to follow him, if only to get to the end of this crazy place, Seth limped toward the opposite wall where there was a nice hay bale bench to sit down on.

“Oh, no, soldier. You can stand at attention, right there.” Jared’s voice was silky smooth, nothing like the growl he’d held as a C.O.

Old instincts died hard, however, and Seth straightened with his back to the wall for whatever sick inspection Jared had decided to land on him. Back in the day, it had been everything from checking to see whether the latex gloves he’d tossed in the trash after a surgery had every single finger inside out, or whether all the labels on the bottles in the pharmacy had been precisely fronted. 

Evil man.

Rhodey observed him for a moment, like another officer overseeing disciplinary measures, a little detached, but more than ready to step in as needed. He exchanged a look with Jared. “If he gives you any trouble, you know how to reach me.” His gaze caught Seth’s, his lips slanting. “And if there’s any confusion about who’s in charge, I’ll clear that up right now. In The Asylum? Jared and I are the two you will always answer to. That’s an order.”

The last part snapped Seth’s mouth shut, just when he’d been about to assert his position as chief financier and a merc on Vani’s team in his own right. Settling on caution as the better side of valor, he gave a shallow dip of his chin, but his mouth wasn’t nearly as compliant. “You never could win a battle with me without a little help from your rank.”

“And you never could get a leg up on me because you don’t know how to play the long game, Seth.” Shadow and sunlight glittered across the dips and valleys of red leather scales when Jared pressed closer. “Rank is earned, and it can be more powerful in its simplicity than your Machiavellian schemes.” 

Though Jared never touched him, Seth’s skin buzzed with the kind of energy that had seemed to come from his own internal nuclear power station back in the day. Something he hadn’t felt in a very long time. 

“Holy shit.” He breathed the words, his understanding making him take a half step back. He hit the wall with a crunch of hay, releasing its warm, sweet scent. “It was you. I’d always been hyper, but you drove me nuts. Next level nuts.”

“You’re a slut for power, Bizzy. Of course I did.” The barest sliver of distance between them now, Jared snagged Seth’s right wrist, the contact registering as a jolt of electric awareness before iron’s cold bite secured him to the wall. “But I never much cared for messy. It was much more fun to harness all that energy and watch you make Quint glow.”

Mouth dry, Seth forced himself to refrain from licking his lips. Any show of weakness now would only tip the scales in the wrong direction. This close, he smelled nothing but those damned Cubans the man loved so much, and felt the waves of heat emanating from his skin. As if he were an actual dragon, seconds away from bringing about Seth’s spontaneous combustion with his nearness alone.

“Liar. You enjoyed living vicariously. I did your literal dirty work, so you could keep your hands surgically clean.” Toying with the man, Seth watched as Jared’s nostrils flared at the jab. “You’re afraid to get as dirty as you secretly want. Worried someone will see that underneath that pristine exterior, you’re just as common as the rest of us.”

Jared’s only answer was the clink of iron around Seth’s other wrist. He moved a bale, revealing a winch that he cranked. Chains groaned and clanked, stretching Seth’s arms over his head until he stood on his tiptoes. Clinical precision in every movement, Jared adjusted him to secure each ankle in a cuff of its own. Then raised the chains some more until gravity pulled at Seth’s shoulders and only the slight protrusion of one bale behind him kept him from being completely at both it and Jared’s not-so-tender mercies.

“Aren’t you going to give me a safeword?” Seth taunted, just to poke for a reaction.

“Wetting yourself already, Bizzy?” Tone wry, Jared unsheathed a dagger. 

“You’ve waited so long for this, I won’t ask for one. I know you need it. To win back some of that stature you think you’ve lost.” Abs rippling, Seth failed to hide his body’s response as he tipped his chin down to watch Jared flick away the buttons Pike hadn’t managed to remove. 

White disks arced, sailing every which way. Then the strategic cuts to remove his clothing began as the sadist in Jared fully emerged. It never failed to enthrall him, the way the man had a modicum of warmth he hadn’t realized existed in his eyes...until it was gone. Dark pleasure, wraithlike in Jared’s hyperfocus on his prey, coated the air. 

Despite not being a submissive, Seth found his body responding. It was difficult not to, in the face of so much beauty. Hard lines, the blade of Jared’s jaw and the high slope of his forehead, culminated in an eagle-like aspect that made the absence of talons surreal. Transformation such as this was rare, terrifying, and sublime. And it had never been turned on him.

“I hope you didn’t like these boots.” Crouching, Jared brought the nose of lethal looking snips to the neck of Seth’s boots, and began their slow dismantling.

Jerks and slices at the leather brought strips away in sensual curls, releasing the scent of hide that Seth momentarily forgot wasn’t his own. Unable to look away, he watched from his vantage point above the salt and peppered thickness of Jared’s head as broad back muscles rippled, undulating the leather scales of the dragon costume. 

When only the shoe-like soles of the boots remained, Jared slipped them off and laid them in the neat pile of scraps that had once been Seth’s wardrobe and stood. He smiled his coldest smile, bringing the point of the knife under Seth’s chin. “The battle stops here and now, Seth, or I’ll show you exactly why I turned down your job offer.”

Seth swallowed, the feel of the knife’s cold steel and the bite of the air not nearly frigid enough to make him shiver. No. The hard walk of phantom fingers up his spine was one-hundred-percent Jared. And for once in his life, he knew enough to remain silent.

The knife’s point didn’t move. Except to press so close to his jugular that he felt each time the pulse of his blood brought his vein uncomfortably close to the blade. Nose running along the edge of Seth’s jaw, Jared brought his lips to the bandage that covered the wound Wren’s teeth had opened in his flesh. He inhaled deep, and Seth’s breaths quickened, his heart thundering as he realized the depths of darkness Jared’s silky demeanor hid.

“I wanted it. So much. The feel of blood and flesh over my fingers. He saw it. Wanted to use it.” There was a pause, and the barest hint of an aroused groan. “I controlled it for so long. A doctor. I convinced myself I could be that, and get what I craved. He tempted me, but he didn’t win... Then you came along.”

“Jared...” Arousal and fear screamed, caressing a hollow void that craved the darkness within the man who stood a hair’s breadth from him.

Death, in the merc world, showed its face as the obvious flip-side to the coin of life that Seth, somewhere along the line as both a doctor and a killer, recognized came with every breath. Someday, that coin would flip for all, and for some like him the toss was half the fun. Right now, only the slimmest hold on his common sense told him not to beg the question of this man.

Heads or tails?

“Shh...” Another kiss, then a lick to the bandage. Then Jared’s knife carved a paper-thin slice of skin from the ridge of Seth’s clavicle. “You tempted me, Bizzy. But you have no idea what you would’ve unleashed.”

Stepping back, Jared sheathed the knife in his boot and straightened. He met Seth’s eyes, his gaze flicking to the cut that trickled hot blood down the line of Seth’s pectoral. Between one breath and the next, his soul landed back in his eyes, turning them from nearly black to blue. So painfully blue it took everything in him not to look away.

“You cut yourself.” Turning, Jared went for a bale and drew out a medkit.

It took the sting of the disinfectant wipe to snap Seth’s awareness back to center. He cleared his throat, coming face to face with all of the times when, with this man, he’d unknowingly and quite literally played with fire. 

“Was there a reason you wanted me trussed up for the Inquisition?” Head at an awkward angle Seth stared down at gloved fingers as they dabbed ointment over the cut.

“Hmm?” Tone mild, Jared glanced up at him. “Oh... I suppose I thought it would make a fun optic for Quint, and I do so want to see him pleasure you with his mouth. It’s been such a long time since I’ve helped him bring you over while he enjoyed himself.” Jared snapped his fingers. “With me, boy.” 

Stepping out from behind a hedge, where he’d manage to even conceal his shadow, Quint obeyed without hesitation. But his gaze didn’t lower, snapping instead to the wound, as though needing a second to ensure himself it was as mild as he’d probably measured it to be when it happened.

He approached Jared’s side with quiet steps. “Sir.”

Seth met his gaze, giving him a wink he hoped was reassuring. Though, it was difficult to tell with his thoughts all over the place. 

“We’re all going to get along now. Stop playing games and maneuvering our positions.” The bandage came next, Jared being as thorough as Quint would have been in dressing the wound. “As Rhodey indicated, I am in charge. This is our home, but it is my domain. Noah’s. Anything that puts him in a bad space, or Wren—” Jared’s thumb softly caressed the bandage over the bite. “—is out of bounds. We work together now. Is that understood?”

Meeting Jared’s eyes, Quint inclined his head. “I’d like that, sir. A stable team is important and I want to be part of this place being safe. Protecting everyone. I know it’s difficult to see, sometimes, but we…we care about them. You. Very much.”

Gloves off, Jared bundled them and the scraps of bandage into a tidy bundle that he placed on top of the medkit. He straightened, facing Quint, his profile in Seth’s view. “That tag is more than symbolic, love.” One finger traced the precise spot under Quint’s clothes where the tag lay, showing its outline. “I care about your cares and worries. You’re mine to protect, as well. To use and enjoy...to pleasure.”

“I know that, sir. I’ve always wanted it to mean…everything.” Quint inhaled roughly, remaining perfectly still. “I’m working on becoming a better sub for you. I appreciate how patient you’ve been…” His lips twitched up to one side, a hint of humor shining in his eyes. “I didn’t even consider tackling you once when you had that blade, which was only in part because of the damage it would have caused.”

Brows raised, Seth scoffed.

“If you say one word about his merc training being good for something, Bizzy, I will leave you up there until morning.” Jared spared him a glance, then returned his attention to Quint. He brushed a soft kiss over their boy’s ever-smiling lips, then eased back to capture his gaze. “What you’ve forgotten—the only thing that matters—is that there is no work for you to do. You’re already perfect when it matters most. Each and every time you do one simple thing... Submit.”

Quint nodded slowly, lowering his gaze now. “Some times that is more…difficult than others, sir. But I’m working on it. This space was a good choice, it’s completely out of anyone’s line of sight.”

“I might not be a merc...” The wraith slithered behind Jared’s eyes and was gone. “But I was trained by one, and I know more than you think about some things.” He made a slight face, like mentioning this fact was more distasteful than bad manners at a tea party. “Now. I am the dragon, and I demand a tribute if you wish to secure the release of the princess from my lair.”

“Princess—” Seth began, indignant.

“A princess I will gag if he doesn’t keep his fair mouth shut.” Jared growled, scowling at him. “This is my story, and I get to write it whatever way I damned well please.”

If Quint hadn’t bit into his bottom lip, he’d likely be laughing. His eyes shone as he glanced at Seth, then stood a bit straighter, clasping his hand to his wrist behind his back. “It would be my honor to offer myself as tribute in exchange for the princess, sir.” The word ‘princess’ was said very seriously, but knowing Quint as well as he did, that slight inhale held back another laugh. “I am yours to do with as you will, Sir Dragon.”

“Hmm...” Jared’s stare was assessing, his sinuous movements in front of Seth reminiscent of a beast who lashed his tail. Hands behind his back, he paced, seeming to come to a decision as he stopped directly in front of Seth. “But I might not wish to give this morsel up so easily. I need to think of what winning him cost me.” Closer now, Jared pressed his weight against Seth, bringing their chests together. The warmth of the leather brought awareness to skin that had gone a bit numb with cold, as Jared spoke against Seth’s lips. “Damned fool.”

“Surly bastard.” Seth grinned, accepting the kiss that Jared claimed, opening to the slick bite of teeth and tongue that came with the man’s signature claiming.

If he were free, he would’ve held onto sturdy shoulders, worked to control the kiss. As it was, he couldn’t claim any such luxury for himself. Taking what Jared had on offer had never been easy, but Seth found himself grateful that for once the man didn’t give him a choice. He accepted the pressure of firm lips, the grasp of rough palms around the base of his dick, and the growl of his name against his lips.

“You drive me insane, Bizzenhoffer.”

“Yes, sir.” Seth answered his C.O. The man who’d mentored him, and seen him through his own breakdowns at a time when he very much needed a rescue or two of his own.

No matter the years or the distance between them, those moments hadn’t been forgotten. The anger had cooled, but the love and devotion had always been there. Underneath the stubborn need to prove to Jared that he could and would stand on his own two feet. If only for the fact that the need to give back to him that strength and support—to balance the scales—had been the reason Seth had made damned sure to make it out alive no matter how dark the hole his merc life landed him in.

“Don’t ever stop.” Biting Seth’s lip hard enough to leave a mark, Jared pulled away.

“No, sir.” Wind stealing his quietest of whispers, Seth met those assessing eyes, then failed to hold back his smirk. “This princess doesn’t come easy.”

Hand snaking out, Jared gripped Quint’s arm, pulling him in front of Seth. “Then you’d better hope your knight errant has the skill to get you there, because you don’t join the party until after you do.”

Smile a bit sly now, Quint held Seth’s gaze. “You’ve both benefited from my skills and my mentorship to another…” His brow creased, like he was trying to find the right word. “No, not squire, Pike would be terrible at that. He’d stab his knight with his real sword by accident. Maybe just a smaller prince. Who’s…outranked by the princess. In any case, he managed to survive the dragon. How could I do any less?”

Lips rolled between his teeth, Jared bit back an obvious smile at Quint’s mental gymnastics. He pulled on a stern face, hands gripping Quint’s shoulders. “Don’t you know to kneel in the presence of royalty?”

Seth shifted his hips, hay prickling along his spine and at his tailbone. Getting in places hay had no business being. Still, that didn’t stop his dick from kicking at the thought of Quint’s lips wrapped around its head, or the skillful things he knew from experience his boy’s mouth could do to bring him...release.

“I do, sir. But you’re the dragon and at the moment, it seems wise to serve at your pleasure.” Quint slid his smile Jared’s way, the touch of playfulness showing Pike wasn’t the only one who’d learned something in their time together. “I wouldn’t want my princess to become a barbeque if I made a wrong move…though I’m sure she’d be delicious.”

Tongue flicking over his lips in what appeared to be an unconscious gesture, Jared pressed down on Quint’s shoulders, compelling him to his knees. He ran his fingertip from the base of Seth’s shaft to its tip, gathering the precome that had gathered there and bringing it to Quint’s lips. Where some Doms would paint their boy’s lips with to make them glisten, and others would’ve issued a command to ‘suck’, Jared did neither. Instead, he pressed that finger past Quint’s lips, fucking his pouted mouth as he held Seth’s gaze. Adding finger after finger until he had all but his thumb in Quint’s mouth.

Not moving a muscle, Quint gazed up at Jared, his jaw relaxed as he kept his lips around flesh glistening with his saliva. His breaths came quiet and steady as he waited for his Dom to tell him, or show him, what to do next.

Watching a show he hadn’t had the privilege of being a spectator or idle participant in for so many years, Seth found himself captivated by the submission and complete trust in Quint’s lake blue eyes. The purity in his expression left no room for the mercenary mantle he’d been forced to don, leaving visible the heart of the boy he’d been in the desert. That he still was, and always would be, if only his Doms continued to work together to give him the safety of that space to reveal it.

Jared withdrew his fingers as slowly as he’d inserted them, one at a time, then used his spit dampened hand to manipulate Quint’s pliant mouth and jaw. He made a perfect ‘O’ of their boy’s mouth, bringing his free hand to Seth’s shaft to angle the tip to Quint’s lips.

Enthralled, Seth watched, unable to tear his gaze away, as Jared controlled the motion of Quint’s head with pressure to his jaw, fucking in slow deep strokes that built the anticipation of release with a maddening steadiness. Each time he attempted to control his own thrusts, Jared’s grip tightened to a near-painful pressure until Seth relaxed into the proscribed rhythm.

Smiling with his lips stretched around Seth’s dick, Quint obviously remembered the other part of his instructions, the skills he had to use to bring Seth over the edge. He added a glide of his tongue, never changing the surrender to Jared’s hold, but letting it guide him as he slicked his tongue in a circle around the head of Seth’s cock, then down. A hum of pleasure that vibrated through every nerve he touched, licked, teasing sensitive areas in a way that showed exactly how well he knew Seth’s body.

“Use your hands, sweet knight. Finger his hole, roll his sac in your palm. I want him to go off so hard I feel him shoot down your throat.” Jared’s grip on Quint shifted, his palm curving around their boy’s throat, fingers flexing like he controlled Quint’s access to air.

Hissing in a breath through his teeth, Seth stared down at his rescuer through half-closed lids. “Fuck, you’re so sexy down there, smiley. Look at how fucking beautiful you are with Jared’s hands on your throat. I missed seeing this.”

Hand slipping between Seth’s thighs, Quint palmed his balls in a way that added a gentle stimulation to the erotic play. His breaths, when Jared allowed them, came in short bursts. The first bit of struggle there, maintaining absolute submission, rather than a well-honed alertness to potential danger. His throat worked around Seth as he took him in deeper, slick fingers moving to his hole to add pressure there.

“Good.” Jared’s voice was silky with approval, his eyes on Quint, his respirations and pallor. Attentiveness to his sub—their sub—was part of his skill as a Dom. His other, the way he read a dynamic, using it to play up the arousal and enjoyment of those in a scene. “You know I’ve got a cock ring for you, sweet boy. I’m going to snug it around your dick and your sac, and you’re not coming tonight. That will be your reward for swallowing every drop of Bizzy’s come. Do you like that?”

Quint closed his eyes, settling a bit more as he nodded without lifting his mouth from around Seth’s length. He picked up the pace, as though he was determined to both bring Seth the most intense pleasure, and show Jared the depths of his obedience. Usually, he only fingered Pike to get him ready for their play together, but the way his fingers curved inside Seth, with just the right angle and pressure, proved he was more than adept at finding ways for even someone who didn’t usually bottom to enjoy it.

Sensations he hadn’t tripped over in so long they felt brand new skittered up Seth’s spine from his tailbone to the top of his head. The shorting out of his nervous system as his muscles tightened reached an intensity that made his shout impossible to muffle. If he’d had any thoughts to spare—or the ability to think at all—they would’ve been for the rooftop mercs who all either unholstered their weapons or exchanged money based on the bets they’d taken on how long he’d last.

At the last moment, Jared pulled Seth’s dick from Quint’s mouth, using the remaining bursts of his come to paint Quint’s lower lip with the sensitized tip. A half-groan, half-hiss escaping him, Seth pumped his hips. Dancing to Jared’s tune in a way that would slightly fuck with him later, but right now, felt so incredible, he never wanted to come down from the high of seeing the man’s hand on Quint’s throat, and his fingers wrapped around Seth’s shaft.

“Clean him up until he begs you to stop, sweet one.” The sadist in Jared slithered to the surface. “Give me the pleasure of watching him writhe.”

Licking his lips, Quint sucked in a breath, his eyes on Seth as he took him into his mouth again, licking and sucking, that little hum back, a sound more like one he might make when served a big helping of chicken wings covered in sweet, spicy sauce. Licking it off his fingers, playfully swatting Pike when he tried to steal from his plate. Only now, Pike wasn’t here, and Quint seemed to relish in claiming every last drop for himself.

The sight of his boy abandoning himself to his submissive side, the way the years and missions fell away, gave Seth the first glimpse of peace even amid the pain of overstimulation that he’d truly been able to claim in a decade. Together, he and Jared gave safe harbor to an aspect of Quint that needed as much tender care to come back to life as a rosebush that had been left to grow wild and had begun to sag underneath its own weight. It required careful pruning and feeding, watering and training.

Meeting Jared’s eyes, Seth realized tears slipped down his own cheeks. Not only of pain, but the pleasure of seeing Quint free from the chains that he’d been shackled with for so long. Wearing them now, he vowed to don them as often as required to bring him to this place. Where being on his knees liberated him from the responsibilities of being anyone other than himself.

“Fuck that hurts.” Seth rolled his head back against the straw, gritting his teeth.

Jared made a cooing sound. “Come now, Bizzy, I know you can take it.”

For Quint? This and more.

Sucking a little harder, Quint pulled back enough to tease him with the tip of his tongue, then continued to stroke his dick with his hand as he leaned in to take Seth’s balls in his mouth. Still with his customary gentleness, but anything at this point only ramped up over-sensitized nerves.

“Beg.” Jared pressed his lips against Seth’s ear. “Beg him to hurt you for me, Bizzy. I deserve your suffering. Give it to me. Now.”

Unable to help himself, Seth nodded, sending scalding tears down his face to his lips, where he tasted salt. “Do it. Please. Quint... Your teeth.” Gasping, he tried to find an evil worthy of Jared. “Sc-scrape them along the ridge. Fingernails...”

The sound of glee in Jared’s laugh sent a delicious thrum of satisfaction up Seth’s spine to his shoulders. “Yes. Let’s.”

Quint shuddered, releasing Seth’s balls and bringing his mouth back to his dick. He let his teeth graze Seth’s flesh, his hands going to Seth’s thighs, where blunt nails dug in.

White heat, so molten it nearly registered as cold to Seth’s confused nerve endings, jolted his abused flesh, forcing his muscles to coil so tight it felt as if a full body charley horse overtook him. The rigor’s intensity saturated him down to fingers and toes that turned clawlike. Head thrown back, Seth screamed. And screamed some more.

When he came down, it was to the soft wetness of Jared’s tongue licking his cheeks, his eyelids, and his lips, catching the rainfall of tears that his system had released along with another flood of come that painted Quint’s face.

Sitting back on his knees, Quint quietly watched him and Jared, using the side of his palm to clean the slickness from his lips and chin, his expression a little dazed. He didn’t appear to have reacted to the scream. And definitely wasn’t aware of any attention it had drawn from the other mercs. Even Rhodey’s voice, far enough away to be out of sight, but not out of reach if Jared needed him, didn’t cause him to so much as blink.

Slowly, carefully, Jared unwinched Seth from the wall, strategically placing a hay bale to catch him when his limbs refused to allow him to stand. Pain was his constant companion as Jared massaged life back into his limbs. By degrees, his awareness of the cold, the absence of the metal cuffs and chains, and the prickle of the hay against his skin surfaced. Avery stood by with two robes and some chocolate. 

At some point, Jared had taken out the cock ring for Quint, and was just finishing redressing him when Seth finally managed to speak. “Ow.”

Jared’s chuckle was a warm rumble that still seemed far away. “Still not a masochist, but you do hurt so prettily for me, Bizzy. Thank you.”

“Yes, you made a very pretty princess, sir.” Quint inhaled deep, his voice a bit rough, then cleared his throat. “Is the dragon satisfied?”

Pressing a piece of chocolate to Quint’s lips, Jared smiled down at their boy. “The dragon is vanquished, my love. You saved the village and your princess.” 

A small smile curved Quint’s lips as he moved in close, resting his head against Jared’s chest. He finished chewing and swallowing the chocolate before he spoke. “That’s good. I like when there’s a happy ending. But I have to say, the dragon was hot.”

Seth slipped his arms into the black Asylum robe Avery held out for him, acting as service sub. He felt around in the pocket for the bar of chocolate, taking that for himself. “He was. But he’s a son of a so and so sadist.”

Avery handed Jared an open bottle of water that the man tipped to Quint’s mouth. “And don’t you forget it.”

Shaking his head, Quint managed to spill a bit of water over his chin. “He’s lovely. You’re both lovely. And have you ever noticed how cute and cuddly Avery is? Like one of those bats that doesn’t have a strange face. I can’t for the life of me remember what they’re called.”

“You’re good and high, smiley, and I love it.” If asked later, Seth would most definitely not admit his own words had been muddled and slurred. He slipped off the hay, landing with a soft thud next to Jared and Quint.

At Jared’s nod of thanks, Avery slipped away through the maze, setting off a few screaming coffins as he went. He settled closer to Seth, bringing Quint with him to recline on both their laps. Strange thing was, it was nothing like his memories. It was ten times sweeter. Because even though the desert had taught him to take nothing for granted, these men, and Pike, had taught him something even more important. 

To take every bit of happiness as it came his way and to hold onto it as tightly as he held onto Quint and Jared now. Because sadness and loss were inevitable, but having this, after losing it for so long?

The decision was fully within his control.

One he was finally ready to make.

 

 

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PART Seventy-Six