Wings

Tyranny (Revised)

⚠️Content warning: This chapter contains depictions of extreme physical and sexual violence. You have been warned. ⚠️

This revision contains plot changes.

DERRICK

Honeymoons, especially with a masseur, were incredibly relaxing and contained lots of delicious food and lots of celebratory sex, even if self-proclaimed Supreme Leader Master Luka called it masturbating. Really, what part of sucking off your Master wasn't sex?
Either way, I was going to take free teryaki and orgasms without complaint any day of the week; particularly, the fantastic time I got for not slapping Luka's most sensitive parts the second time around.
Neither of us were happy when we were separated; however, Luka's rehabilitation plan didn't take no for an answer, and I was sent on my way the very next morning. Something wasn't quite right today, though.
What I didn't expect when I was pushed through the doors was the smell of blood.
Blood wasn't the only thing out of place in my second home: enraged snarls and the whimpering of several birds permeated the usual lull of the birdcage.
The moment Gloria had freed me from an oppressive pair of mitts, I shuffled quietly to the end of the hallway leading to the great room with strained ears and a furrowed brow.
Miasma settled in the atmosphere like the heavy humidity before a hurricane, saturating the air and strangling my lungs to the point where I couldn't tell if I was breathing in air or tension. It wasn't long before my searching gaze found the source of both the iron scent and the cowardly whimpers.
An apathetically cool growl. "So nice of you to join us, dearest."
Bleeding blond wings cried out with pleading whine, "Please help me!" The owner of despairing blue-gray eyes met my shocked gaze as a foot stomped down on already-abused feathers. A sickening yelp, craven whines, and quivering, busted lips defined the hunter I that had patched me up just two days before.
Jordan sat cradling Diasha nearby. The smaller bird was shielded behind the teenager's wings, but the normally-feisty Asian shook with a variety of bruises covering her flesh.
Harmony looked half as bad as Kennedy-- one wrist flopped limp where it pressed against her chest, and the submissive bird sported a black eye and cut lip, but was otherwise unharmed.
Owen and Orlando were the only two still standing, albeit cowering in a huddle in the farthest corner of the birdcage. Both bared their teeth, but still folded their wings and lowered their heads in compliance to the alpha, the smaller male trembling in his mate's arms.
As I surveyed the chaos with silent shock and wide eyes, caramel hands slipped over my arms. I tensed immediately when I felt a presence behind me. Glossy, black feathers encircled my frame, but settled around my chest in order to avoid obstructing my view of what Riya had done.
Kennedy laid curled into a ball just a yard away away from me. Busted lips, two black eyes, a sampler platter of bruises and bumps, broken feathers, and streams of red where deliberate claw marks sliced into the blond bird. The hunter's begging eyes tore into me while Riya's gentle hands traced the stitched lacerations they had scored into my cheek.
"This is your fault, dearest." A sultry voice hummed into my back. "You so rudely declined my request. You disobeyed your alpha. You hit me. It's only fitting you be punished." One single claw danced across my neck. "You should do your best to stay in my favor, or your boyfriend," She spat the word as if it were venom. "Will wish you had killed him yourself."
Stressed tears marked trails down the blond bird's cheek, his head shaking a fervent no. Muscles tensing, jaw clenching, I hissed to the alpha, "What do you want?"
"You." Riya purred. "Be my mate and I'll leave your friends alone." The alpha didn't miss a beat when she saw me hesitate. "Or would you prefer me to break Kennedy's pretty little wings right now?"
"You're a piece of shit." I snarled at the woman.
"I'm your alpha." She snarled right back. "I can do whatever I want to you."
"No you can't!" An vitriolic laugh left me as I blew hot air at the scene in front of me. "You did this because you can't! You're too weak, you need blackmail!"
Suddenly, the black wings and wandering hands withdrew from me. Spinning around to meet Riya, I saw that she was progressing towards Kennedy with long strides and protracted claws. I was not about to let her drag him back into this.
"Leave him alone!" I shouted at the psychopath.
She didn't acknowledge me. "Fight me if you're so high and mighty!"
A crushing hand was extended and met Kennedy's neck, the blond's eyes bulging as the alpha cut off his blood supply. Desperation began to take root inside of me. "Leave them out of this! I'm the one you want."
Riya didn't so much as glance my way as she raised her opposite hand in the air with the intent to mar Kennedy's flawless skin.
"Stop it!" I cried, "You win, I submit!"
A shit-eating grin devoured the harlot's features. "What a good bird. All you needed was some incentive." Kennedy was released, and proceeded to sputter and cough violently as the alpha rose and walked back my way.
"Come, Derrick, I do believe it's my right to get the stench of flowers off of my mate." I was taken by the hand and towed to Riya's room while my beaten packmates observed silently.
Nothing more than the quiet click of the alpha's door sealed me in her private room, but I may as well have been bound head to toe in metal chains.
Just like the rest of the birdcage, pastel yellow popcorn walls and linoleum tiles enclosed the space. One potted plant sat next to a warm armchair that looked more like a throne than a place to read a book, a lonely framed picture of a woman I didn't recognize sat on a plain, metal nightstand, next to an equally plain, metal bed, and framed photos of a coastline decorated the sparse walls.
I didn't have much time to admire her sub-par interior decorating skills. An angry hand curled in my hair, grabbing a fistful and dragging me to the bed before practically throwing me onto it. Riya joined not long after, pinning my shoulders down and straddling my lap.
What's with this chick and sitting on my crotch?
"That human marked you. I can smell it." The alpha noted bitterly. Without a word more, the much smaller female was nuzzling against my chest in no affectionate way, working tirelessly to wipe my master's scent off of me. Her wings joined the force, jostling and sliding against my own to rub the smell of spice onto me.
It was one of the most awkward things that I've ever experienced. When her lips met my own with a dominant ferocity, though, is what took the cake. Refusing to kiss her back, I could do nothing but submit while she nipped and smashed her lips against mine. The kiss was a one-sided power struggle, in which Riya made a show of forcing my mouth open and playing with my tongue in a way that made me wish I was still locked in solitary.
There was nothing loving about the clawed hands that wandered my body, that removed clothes, that touched me in places I didn't want them to.
There was nothing intimate about the mouth that locked with mine, that nipped my skin, that took my body inside of it.
Riya could do whatever she wanted to me. At that moment, she wanted to fuck me. And she did.
I hated the feeling of being inside her. I hated the way she moaned my name as she rode me. I hated the way she sunk her claws into me when she climaxed. I hated finishing inside of her.
I was hers, and there was nothing I could do about it now. The alpha climbed off of me and into the full-size bed next to me, nuzzling my neck almost sweetly.
"You're delicious." The alpha hummed pleasantly and kissed my lips one last time before we separated for good. A clawed hand ran through my hair, and just as quickly as she had came onto me, Riya slid off of the bed and strutted confidently to the room's attached bathroom. The pitter-patter of water told me that she had decided to take a shower.
With a slowness that suited an inchworm, I crawled out of Riya's bed and to the door. My heart thundered in my chest. I cast jumpy glances over my shoulder as I made my way. The door outside was just that— a door. It wouldn't get me away from her, it wouldn't take me out of her crosshairs, but it was a world away from what I had just experienced.
Once I left the hellish cell, I whisper-shouted, "Kennedy?" No answer.
The birds had evacuated the first floor, and I picked up the smell of blood and the sound of whispering coming from the fourth story.
A moment of thought later, I was armed with a first aid kit and a sense of guilt that weighed me down like cinder blocks. The flight to the top floor was quick. As my wing beats brought me closer, the whispering died to a smothered silence.
The first greeting I got was a volatile,"Fuck you." Jordan's hateful voice spat from where she sat on the ground with Diasha. At least she was up front about it. The others refused to meet my gaze. Even Kennedy, who laid curled into a ball on the mattress, wouldn't acknowledge me with anything more than teary eyes.
Orlando broke the silence with guarded contempt. "Normally, I wouldn't side with the salt master." The small male met my eyes with resentment decorating his features as clear as day. "But seriously, fuck you, Derrick."
"She blew up when you left." Diasha whispered cautiously as she snuggled in Jordan's chest, wrapped in the older's brown plumage.
A battered Harmony let loose a rare snarl from her seat by the wall. "Riya's been beating on Kennedy since she found your scent all over him."
Ice ran through my veins at her words. Without an ounce of grace, I sped to where the blond bird lay, a pang of sorrow striking me in the chest at the fearful whimper he let out at my presence.
"Kennedy?" I begged despairingly, rummaging around in the first aid kit, "Where are you hurt? Let me help."
The weak shove I got in return felt like a stab in the heart. "Leave me alone! If it weren't for you, none of this would have happened."
"He's right." Owen agreed. "If you leave your scent on Kennedy again, who knows what Riya will do?"
"I'll make sure there isn't a Kennedy left for Derrick to touch." A body behind me spoke slowly. The scent of cumin wafted over me, and the pack was trapped in a suffocating silence.
"I should take you right here." Riya guffawed and collectedly strutted over to me. "So that you and all of these fledglings know that you are mine."
I heard Orlando and Owen slowly inch to the edge of the platform, trying to make a run for it. The alpha didn't so much as look their way, but sent them a low growl regardless. "Don't even think about it. You're staying." The pair froze reluctantly.
A deceptively tender arm slithered around my waist. "What do you think, Derrick? It's nothing we haven't seen before."
Riya's forehead pressed against my right shoulder as she sat down behind me. "You're funny." I growled humorlessly. Her amused chuckles told me that she certainly believed she was.
"Am I?" She drawled, a single caramel hand played with the waistband of my pants.
As I was opening my mouth to protest, my body froze as if I had been turned to stone-- Riya was casually making her way into my underwear. Eyes wide, and jaw dropped, I listened as the sound of sadistic giggles filled the air.
"Say something." Riya hissed, carefully tracing her protracted claws down my length. "I dare you."
With eyes the size of dinner plates, I swallowed my words and stood stock-still until the claws retreated. Fangs nipped playfully on my shoulder once the nails were safely out of my pants. A press of lips against my neck, a flick of damp hair, a few footfalls, and the beating of black wings, and the alpha had left our presence.
The pack shifted anxiously. Jordan ruffled her wings around Diasha who sniffled pitifully. Kennedy watched me with a measure of spite. Owen puffed his wings up slightly, situating himself in front of Orlando.
In the end, Orlando was the bird to speak up. "Does this make you our alpha male?"
Jordan wasn't having any of it. "It makes him our alpha's bitch." The teenager spat. "You stink like her. She fucked you already, didn't she?"
"No!" I told a human lie, "She just marked me."
"Sure she did." Kennedy hissed dolefully. "She had her hands on your dick, Derrick. You aren't fooling us!"
Shifting uncomfortably where I sat, I met the hunter's livid glare with my own gaze. What was I supposed to say?
A diaphanous whisper came from a small form nestled in Jordan's wings. "Will you protect us?"
"I-I can try." I promised despite not knowing if I truly could.