Bound to Four

Audience Choice

Her cheeks burned.

She forced the words out.

“I save all of you.”

Silence stretched.

The cameras hummed softly overhead, patient and hungry.

Then Cassian’s lips curved, slow and dangerous.

“That,” he said softly, “is going to be very interesting to watch.”

Somewhere beyond the walls, beyond the cameras, beyond the polished lie of luxury,

the audience leaned in.

Watching.

Judging.

Choosing.

Liora couldn’t hear the votes, but she felt them.

A shift in the room.

A pressure in the bond.

Like something unseen had locked into place.

Final.

Irrevocable.

No one here was safe.

Then,

A bright metallic chime rang overhead.

Too cheerful.

Too sharp.

Liora flinched.

GOOD EVENING, CONTESTANTS.

Liora’s chest tightened. She swallowed hard against the bitter taste rising in her throat.

The voice was bright.

But cruel.

THE AUDIENCE HAS VOTED.

Silence fell so heavily it felt physical.

Even the cameras seemed to pause, their red lights blinking patiently in the stillness.

No one moved.

No one breathed.

YOUR FIRST EVENT…

A pause.

Deliberate.

Enjoyed.

…THE BRIDE WILL SELECT ONE PARTNER FOR A PRIVATE SWIM.

Liora blinked.

Her heart slammed once, hard enough to hurt.

“No.”

The word tore out of her before she could stop it.

Raw.

Instinctive.

Absolutely not.

YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS.

At her side, Rook muttered a curse under his breath, fists clenching so hard the tendons stood sharp beneath his skin.

Cassian’s shoulders tightened, the ease finally gone from him.

Kael went very still, which somehow felt worse.

And Thalen,

Thalen simply watched the ceiling, a small mercy of privacy for her, in a room that allowed none.

“No,” Liora said again, quieter this time, but stronger.

“I’m not doing that.”

Silence answered.

Then pain.

The cuffs activated all at once.

Rook dropped first, his knees slamming into marble with a sound that made her flinch.

Cassian caught himself on the edge of the bed, his breath leaving him in one sharp, involuntary sound.

Kael staggered, one hand braced against the wall as scales flashed hot and green beneath his skin.

Thalen stumbled backward, his usual calm cracking just enough for her to see it,

fear.

And then it hit her.

The bond flared like something alive inside her chest.

Pain crashed through her body, not hers; it was theirs through the bond, but all of it at once.

Muscles locking.

Heat spiking.

Breath-tearing.

Her knees hit the floor.

The polished marble pressed cold against her palms.

She couldn’t separate herself from them.

Their pain poured through her in violent, ragged waves.

Her pulse stuttered.

Her lungs forgot how to work.

“What is this?”

Her own voice sounded far away.

“Pick,” Rook wheezed.

His voice barely made it past his teeth.

“Just… pick…”

Another shock hit.

Harder.

Sharper.

Cassian dropped fully to one knee, one hand braced on the floor, shoulders shaking.

Thalen’s fingers clawed at his own throat like he could physically pull the bond out.

Kael made a sound low in his chest, rage, pain, something dangerously close to both.

And still the system waited.

Watching.

Enjoying.

Kael’s voice came rough and broken.

“Stop.”

Not to her.

To them.

To the invisible people beyond the walls who had decided this was entertainment.

The pain cut off.

Instantly.

Silence slammed into the room.

Liora gasped for air like she had been drowning.

The overhead voice returned, bright and delighted.

NONCOMPLIANCE DETECTED.

STAKES INCREASED.

FIVE SECONDS.

Liora’s stomach turned.

No.

No no no,

SELECT A PARTNER FOR A PRIVATE SWIM…

A beat.

Then, almost gleeful,

…NOW WITHOUT CLOTHING.

Her breath stopped.

For one horrible second, she couldn’t even think.

Every inch of her skin went cold.

“No.”

Barely a whisper.

Another shock tore through them.

Rook collapsed fully, stretched across the marble like something broken.

Cassian folded forward, forehead nearly touching the floor.

Kael dropped to one knee, fingertips pressed so hard into the marble she thought it might c***k.

And Thalen,

quiet, careful Thalen,

looked afraid.

That broke her.

“Fine!”

Her voice cracked like glass.

But she didn’t move.

Her hands stayed frozen at her sides, locked so tightly they ached.

She couldn’t.

Not like this.

Not with cameras watching.

Not with strangers somewhere beyond the walls waiting for her humiliation like a prize.

Not with four men feeling every flicker of panic through the bond.

Another pulse threatened beneath her skin.

Waiting.

Ready.

She looked at them.

At Rook on the floor.

At Cassian, trying and failing to hide how badly it hurt.

At Kael, shaking with fury.

At Thalen, still too calm even in fear.

And she understood something awful.

If she refused,

They paid.

Not her.

Them.

Her fingers moved.

Slowly.

Like they belonged to someone else.

She reached for the laces of her gown.

The first tug felt like surrender.

Lace loosened.

Ribbons slipped free.

Pearls scattered softly across the marble like tiny broken promises.

Cold air touched bare skin.

She flinched.

Every layer that fell felt like something being taken.

Privacy.

Choice.

Dignity.

Her hands shook so badly she could barely breathe.

She wanted to disappear.

Instead, she stood there in the center of the room, stripped down to silence and shame, with the cameras watching and the bond wide open between them.

She wrapped her arms around herself.

Too late.

Nothing about this was private anymore.

Then she felt it.

Not hands.

Worse.

Need.

The bond was a pressure sliding over her skin like an invisible touch, down her shoulders, along her spine.

Four different reactions pulsed through.

Shock.

Tension.

Restraint.

Hunger.

Not hers.

Theirs.

Their awareness flooded through her veins like liquid fire. The boundary between herself and them dissolved, leaving her drowning in the undertow of their hunger.

Her legs failed her.

She collapsed next to her discarded gown, each heartbeat a hammer against her ribs.

Their consciousness invaded every corner of her mind.

Unwanted yet somehow darkly welcome, violating yet oddly right, like finding the missing piece to a puzzle she never wanted to complete.

All four of them.

Not with hands.

With thoughts.

With eyes.

She covered her chest, but there was nothing left to protect.

And through all of it,

one presence stood out.

Not louder.

Steadier.

A calm gravity at the edge of the chaos.

Unmoved.

Unshaken.

It pulled at her like the tide.

Her pulse stuttered.

No.

She shut her eyes tight.

She would not choose.

She would not let them make this hers.

But the bond tightened.

Pain lanced through her again, sharp and immediate.

Her body moved before her pride could stop it.

Her hand lifted.

Trembling.

Pointing into the darkness behind her eyes.

“Him.”

Silence.

Total.

Instant.

Even the cameras seemed to stop breathing.

The pain vanished.

The four men lay where they had fallen, chests rising in uneven rhythm.

The bond shifted.

Narrowed.

Focused.

The others receded, distant echoes at the edge of her mind.

But him,

clear.

Close.

Certain.

Her cheeks burned hotter than before.

She felt his attention like a hand at the center of her back.

Slowly, she opened her eyes.

Thalen was already watching her.

Not surprised.

Just certain.

As if somewhere beneath all the chaos, he had known this would happen.

As if he had been waiting for her to realize it.

And somehow,

that terrified her most.

Because the man she was pointing to

wasn’t Thalen.