The Flesh Cartel, #10: False Gods

else.
    Mat squeezed his eyes shut, ignoring the tears streaking down his cheeks, the whine of pain and misery and pleasure that escaped through his clenched teeth. He should have killed himself. He should be dead right now, not here, not enduring this thing so far beyond endurance it made even the serum look like a day in a fucking amusement park. Dougie’s hands clenched on his neck, his moans quick and high and raspy. His hips stuttered and he bore down hard, and every one of those internal muscles clenched and spasmed around Mat’s cock as he cried out and shot all over his stomach and chest.
    And Mat, weeping over their wasted lives, was quick to follow, his orgasm ripped right out of him by spasming muscles, vise-tight. Flooding his brother’s ass with cum as he screamed and howled and cried.
    He wished he were dead.
    But he wasn’t. He was alive, and this was his life, and he fucking deserved it for the part he’d played in what Dougie had become. Penance, that’s what this was. And staying alive, suffering through this, was the price he’d have to pay for the chance to make things right again. Somehow. Some way.
    Nikolai walked around the chair, tugged gently on Dougie’s shoulder. Dougie slid off Mat’s lap without hesitation—and no, Mat felt no shame at all about his sob of relief at that, didn’t even begin to try to hide it—and tucked himself happily into Nikolai’s embrace, his back to Nikolai’s chest, Nikolai’s arm slung around his shoulders. “That was perfect,” Nikolai murmured near Dougie’s ear, and Dougie beamed , so young and innocent-looking with that sweet, toothy smile on his face, and Mat found himself sobbing afresh at how much it reminded him of sneaking Dougie to the ice-cream parlor on their Saturday morning runs, watching him attack his contraband with such perfect glee. “Let’s get you washed up, and then you can say your good-byes to my guests.”
    “Yes, Mast—” Dougie began, but then Cruel, Short, and Ugly darted a hand out, grabbed Dougie’s wrist and said, “No.”
    Nikolai peered down at his guest, one eyebrow arched in an all-too-familiar expression that made Mat’s skin crawl with sick anticipation, and the man added, “Let him keep his brother’s cum inside him.” Before Nikolai could remind the little shit who was the master of ceremonies here, the buyer turned to Dougie, and there was no mistaking how tight his grip was getting, even though Dougie didn’t let the pain or fear show—or at least, didn’t let it show to someone who didn’t know him as intimately as Mat did. Or used to, anyway. Because this? This Dougie was a stranger. “I’ll have him, Nikolai. I’ll have both of them.”
    Like the deal was already done.
    “Doesn’t that sound wonderful, my little lovely?” the buyer said. “You can have your brother’s dick like this every day, as much as you want. Again and again and again.”
    Again and again and again? I can’t. I can’t. We’re better off dead.
    “Yes, sir,” Dougie said, seemingly unfazed, and not only that—was Mat going crazy, or was that a hint of pleasure in Dougie’s voice? No, not crazy; a little smile was curling Dougie’s lips now, too, but it looked . . . strained, somehow, like maybe Dougie was just putting on a show, doing what was expected.
    Funny, but Nikolai’s smile right then looked just the same.
    Short, Cruel, and Ugly smiled back. All three smiles didn’t reach their eyes. All three of them with their secrets, all three of them entangled in this mysterious power play, this twisted fucking bond of blood and cum and pain, with Mat the unwilling victim at its center, bearing the brunt of it all.
    Alone.
    Despite Dougie’s presence—or maybe even because of it—for the first time in his life, Mat was completely, terrifyingly alone.

Bookended
    Giving an Inch (Professor’s Rule, #1), with Amelia C. Gormley
    Apple Polisher (Rear Entrance Video, #1)
    With Violetta Vane :
    Mark of the Gladiator
    Galway Bound
    The Druid Stone
    The War at the End of the World
    Hawaiian Gothic
    “Salting the Earth,” a short story in the anthology Like It or Not
    Cruce de Caminos
    Harm Reduction
    The Saturnalia Effect
    Coming soon :
    Wallflower (Rear Entrance Video, #2)
    An Inch at a Time (The Professor's Rule, #2), with Amelia C. Gormley

    Power Play: Resistance, with Cat Grant
    Power Play: Awakening, with Cat Grant
    Master Class (Master Class, #1)
    Sublime: Collected Shorts (Master Class,