Page 1 of Feral

1 PENELOPE

“W

atch it,” my brother, Blake, reaches out and pulls the strap of my shimmery dress up on my shoulder. I’m being a brat right now, and he’s caught onto my little game. Rylan and Thomas look in

our direction. Their eyes ghost over me before landing on Blake. Rylan’s lips are curled into a knowing smirk, but Thomas looks absolutely bored. I know he’s not, because he wouldn’t be so interested in what Blake is doing with my dress if he wasn’t tuned into me right now. My brothers are triplets and three years older than me, to the exact day. Mom says it’s luck, but Dad is way too anal-retentive for anything in their lives to be a fluke. He’s in the mafia, even though no one will admit that to me. My family has several casinos that serve as a cover for what they really do, but I’m not as dimwitted as they’d like me to be sometimes. My brothers want me to think they run the casinos, but I know what they do while I’m left here to be the pampered princess that never leaves the four walls of this mansion. I sneak around and snoop enough to know how ruthless they are, what they’ve done to people to maintain our status, but they’ll never admit it. I’m not their equal. I’m the doll they’ve vowed to protect at all costs. I also know why Dad makes them protect me. My only value to him is who he can marry me off to in order to strengthen his position in this society he’s practically built from the ground up.

We’re at a fancy party our mother is hosting and sadly, the highlight of my month has been leaving the premises to get fitted for this gown. It’s a beautiful navy-blue gown with silver sparkles all over it. Dad said no at first, and Blake said absolutely the fuck not. It was Rylan that snickered when Blake nearly had a meltdown and started describing how much eye gouging there would be if someone looked at his little sister in that thing. Thomas was intent on pretending that he didn’t want to be there, that he could not give one fuck less what I wore, but his eyes told me differently when I walked out from the heavy drapes of the dressing room.

I pouted a little and Dad gave in pretty quickly, but I suspect that it had more to do with whatever Mom whispered in his ear than the fact that his only daughter was pleading for a form-fitted dress instead of the usual ballgown I’m usually forced to wear before. I’m twenty and so fucking bored it’s not even funny. I’ve been given everything and anything a young woman could ask for except for autonomy, which is what I crave the most. Well, almost as much as my brothers’ touch. I used to think I fantasized about it because my three brothers are the only men other than Dad who are allowed near me. I thought it was just happenstance due to circumstance, but now I’m not so sure.

Now Mom and Dad have been bringing up marriage and how they want me to meet potential suitors. I heard Dad on the phone talking to one of his friends or business associates, whatever you want to call it. It’s nothing more than a business merger. My virginity in exchange for more power, joining two families to create an even bigger, stronger one. They’re doing the same with my brothers, but they have more say over who they marry. I know my brothers are valuable to my father because of the jobs they do for him. I’ve seen them come home covered in blood. I’ve heard them talk about killing, and yet I’m not afraid of them. Maybe it’s because I know Dad would have their dicks on a silver platter if they hurt me, or maybe it’s just because I know that Blake would fuck Rylan and Thomas up if they left a fingerprint on my skin. Dad is up in the front of the grand hall with a spotlight on him while he’s talking about his new casino that I won’t be allowed to visit until I'm forty, probably. I roll my eyes and I’m thankful that we have a table in the back where it’s dimly lit because I don’t need a lecture from Mom about respecting my father.

I shift my shoulder, letting the strap of my dress fall again and instantly Blake’s head snaps toward me. He leans in, his mouth against my ear. “Stop fucking around, Penny.”

“Why do you care? No one in this room is paying attention to me as usual.” I smile at him. “I could slip the top down right now and everyone’s eyes would still be on Dad. This is his show, his party, and everyone is hanging on his every word.”

He flexes his jaw. “Stop.” His hand comes up to rake through his dark mass of curls. I wish I could do that to him. All three of my brothers have been known to manhandle me when I get, as Dad likes to say, uncooperative. I’ve never touched them, not really, not how I want to. Blake is genuinely so handsome for someone who is unbelievably crabby.

Boldly, I grab his big hand and pull it up to cup my breast through my dress, and to my surprise, instead of pulling his hand away, his fingers flex hard. I’ve never been this daring, but I feel like I have nothing left to lose anymore. My life isn’t my own, so I’m deciding right now that I’m going to do anything and everything I can before I’m sold off, like livestock.

“Fuck,” he practically growls, pinching my nipple between his fingers with a practiced ease. He cups me with his palm one more time before finally pulling his hand away.

“How does she feel?” Rylan asks him coyly from across the table, and it’s only at this moment that I’m glad it’s just the four of us in this little bubble. My skin is flushed, and my nipples are pebbled, pleading with him to touch me again. Rylan is wiggling his eyebrows, trying to gain a reaction out of Blake.

“Shut up,” Blake warns him and then turns his attention back to me. “When Dad’s speech is over, you’re going back to your room.”

“Aw, let her have some fun. She’s cooped up here all the time,” Thomas says, waving his hand at Blake like he’s bored, but I don’t miss the quick beat when his eyes flash down to my chest and then away like it never happened. My brothers aren’t identical, and their personalities couldn’t be more different from one another, but I love them all the same. Thomas is laid back, well, I guess as laid back as someone can be when they were trained from a young age to be a problem solver. Rylan is the goofy one, always trying to get a rise out of everyone. But I’ve heard them bickering and apparently, he has the most kills out of all three of them. It makes sense that the funny one of my brothers is the most unhinged. It always felt like he was walking a fine line with his sanity. That brings me to Blake. He’s wound so tight sometimes that I think he might combust right in front of me. I think if any of them are going to snap and kill me one of these days, it’ll be him. The other two will help him cover it up, but he’ll be the one to take my last breath. To be honest, I don’t care. I don’t want to be sold off to some man who might treat me horribly, or worse, lock me in my own mansion.

“No,” Blake barks at Thomas’s suggestion, and I look around the room to see if anyone is even glancing toward us. When I’m certain they’re not, I slip both straps off my shoulders and let the slinky bust of my dress drop to expose my breasts to all three of my brothers. My peaks instantly pebble up and stand at full attention for them.

“Is this what you’re worried about? That I’ll turn into one of those whores the three of you bring back to fuck in the basement?” I look at Rylan first, and I’m convinced if he was sitting close enough to me that he’d already have his lips wrapped around my nipple. “You didn’t think I knew about that, did you? The girls you tie up and fuck like they’re nothing but toys? Sometimes you fuck them all at the same time, each taking a hole. Other times, you watch each other and fuck them one right after the other.” Every time I’ve seen them do this, they’ve worn condoms, but I’m squeezing my thighs together, wondering if they would with me? Would they fill me with their come? Or fuck me like their little fuck dolls?

“Holy mother—” Thomas breathes out, turning fully to face me. He looks like he’s tempted to reach out and touch me himself, but Blake glares at him. “You’re the dumbest fuck in this room if you think we don’t see what she looks like, clothes or not.” Thomas’s bored tone is back, and the way he says it has Blake scowling.

Blake already has the top of the dress in his hand, stretching it up over my breasts and I arch my back, forcing his hand to brush across my hard nipples. He slips both straps back up until I’m decently covered again. I’ve never been touched before except for the times I’ve sneaked and touched myself in the dark of my room, but I ache for it. I want him to touch me so badly that it hurts.

“Damn it, Blake, you suck the fun out of everything. They’re just tits. The nicest tits I’ve ever seen, but still just tits. If she wants to show us, let her.” Rylan jokes, and Blake lets out a low curse under his breath.

“Get the fuck up,” Blake says and pleasure zings from my nipples to my clit.

“Dad’s orders. I’ve gotta stay for the whole dinner, remember?” I smirk at him, but he’s hauling me up out of the chair and before I know it, I’m trying to keep up with his long strides in these stupid heels that he said I had no business picking out. When we’re out in the main corridor, he has me pressed against the wall, his hand around my throat. Blake is always mad about something, but I’ve never seen him this angry before.

“You want to show your tits to the whole fucking room like a little whore?” he barks out the words and I should feel ashamed with what he’s said to me, but I don’t. It just makes me wetter. I look over and see Rylan and Thomas ducking out from behind the heavy metal door. Rylan is grinning like he’s about to get the show of his life and Thomas looks a little worried, like he thinks he might have to go dig a hole to bury me in if Blake doesn’t calm down. He’d, of course, enjoy watching first.

“I don’t want to lose my virginity to some guy Dad picks out and none of you will let me out of your sight long enough to find someone who doesn’t completely suck,” I tell Blake and for whatever reason, this seems to make him even angrier because his hand tightens around my neck even more. I struggle to breathe through my nose.

“Calm down man, it’s not her fault he’s marrying her off,” Thomas tells him, trying to be the rational one in this situation. It seems to work because Blake loosens his hold enough that I can breathe. “She’s been a little shit tonight on purpose, but that’s not why you’re homicidal right now. He’s taking her away from us and you can’t fucking deal with it. We knew it was happening and none of us like it. Killing her so no one else can fuck her doesn’t make you the problem solver you think it does.”

“Yeah, you’re being a dick, Blake. She’s scared, and she’s acting out because she doesn’t want to be married off to some fifty-year-old pervert who will destroy her.” Rylan isn’t smiling now, but there’s a hunger in his eyes when he looks at the way Blake has me pressed against the wall. “We play by Dad’s rules. Hands off Penny, isn’t that what he always says? She showed us her tits. It’s not like we haven’t seen every pair in this fucking town,” Rylan adds. “What does it matter? We can’t keep her forever, even if we want to,” he adds softly.

“We?” Blake snaps, turning his neck to glare at our brother. Ry flings his hands up as if to convey he’s flustered, which is funny to me because out of the three of them, he never gets flustered.

“We know you want her. Your overprotective big brother thing is just a ploy to cover up your obsession,” Rylan says, but my eyes are on Blake’s profile. He’s so beautiful and angry and broken.

“We’re as fucked up as you are. We’d gladly fuck her. She’s gorgeous, I mean, look at her. Sister or not, good pussy is good pussy,” Thomas says like he’s explaining algebra, but when the words leave his mouth, his eyes lock on mine. There’s something there, a softness that he doesn’t show hardly ever. He’ll never say it in front of Blake, but fucking his only little sister would mean more to him than just getting some good pussy after a night of torturing people around the city. He shakes whatever he’s thinking away and says, “But you go insane if anyone breathes near her. You don’t just want to fuck her. You want to keep her caged in your room like a bird, and that’ll never happen. She’s promised to someone else. She’ll be a broken little bird in someone else’s cage.” And Blake’s fingers tighten again.

“I don’t want to fucking keep her,” Blake says the words like they’re bitter on his tongue and they sting me all the same. “I just want her to stop acting like a fucking whore,” he grits out, his eyes back on mine. I’ve never seen him like this. His green eyes are filled with rage and pain and something else I can’t quite place.

---