Chapter Text
“Daphne!” Anthony rushes towards her, reaching out to steady her but at the last second, he pauses, a strange expression on his face. Something akin to horror, Daphne thinks. She might be imagining it in her current state, but Daphne swears she sees Anthony’s eyes dip down to her abdomen as though he can see the pain she’s experiencing.
There’s a second set of footsteps that come rushing at Anthony’s exclamation.
“Oh dearest,” Violet exclaims, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “You look most unwell.”
“Mother,” Daphne says, though she thinks that perhaps there might be a slur to her words. “I am feeling rather…” she trails off, unable to describe it exactly, this overwhelming pain.
“Oh no,” Violet brings a shaking hand to her mouth. “It’s far too soon.”
“What’s too soon?” Daphne glances between her mother and Anthony hoping that one of them will answer.
Anthony seems to be waging some war with himself. He looks extremely pained when he swallows harshly then says, “You’re going into heat, Daph.”
“Heat?” It is surely far too soon, Daphne thinks. Even though she knows it to be the truth. She desperately wants to be mistaken about her own body, her unnatural desires for her brother. Daphne tells herself her body is reacting so strongly to Anthony’s presence because he is the only Alpha around. But that’s another lie.
“Quickly, we must take her to the Heat Hospital,” Violet begins to usher Daphne towards the stairs.
“Where?” asks Daphne, utterly confused. She has never heard of such a place. It feels as though the world is spinning too fast for her to stand her ground. Daphne realises that the world is not spinning, but her head is. She leans heavily against her mother until her senses return, trying not to breathe too deeply of Anthony’s scent.
“They’ll help you, dearest,” Violet says softly before turning to snap, “Anthony! Don’t just stand there!”
“I won’t have her taken there,” her brother protests. “It’s not safe!”
Safe. Daphne wants to be safe; she knows that much. Unconsciously leans towards Anthony at the thought. Swears that her brother leans away and something horrid twists inside her at this small perceived rejection. Alpha doesn’t want you.
“It is perfectly acceptable, Anthony. What else would you have us do?” Violet hisses at her eldest and Daphne feels as though they’ve forgotten she’s even here.
“Call for the Duke,” Anthony suggests, looking as though he has no desire to follow through on his own suggestion. He reaches up to absentmindedly scratch at his scent gland and Daphne’s legs almost give out.
“No,” Daphne manages to understand that Anthony is suggesting she spend her heat with Simon. That’s the last thing she wants. “Not him.”
Alpha is already here.
Daphne looks to her brother, begs him with her eyes not to force her to suffer through such a fate. If she cannot be with Anthony, she cannot be with anyone else. Furthermore, she suspects that Simon does not truly care for her. At least, not enough to help her through her first heat.
“Daphne, please,” Anthony tries, once again moving to touch her but reconsidering at the last moment. She can practically taste his irritation, his desire to take care of his sister no matter the circumstances. Her body burns for his touch alone.
“No,” she shakes her head again. “I don’t want him.”
Anthony shoots a pained look towards their mother before closing his eyes and breathing in deeply. Daphne thinks he looks ill. He probably finds her scent disgusting—as he should, considering he’s her brother. There must be something wrong with her. Surely, she imagined the lust in his eyes earlier, a reflection of her own sick yearning.
“Fine,” Anthony says and Daphne realises he’s talking to their mother.
“Very well, let us take a carriage—”
“No,” Anthony interrupts. “I will take her, Mother. It is my duty.”
“Anthony,” Violet tries to protest but the eldest Bridgerton sibling is having none of it.
“I will not argue this point, Mother. I shall escort Daphne to the Heat Hospital and see that she is safely taken care of.”
“Very well,” Violet sighs before turning to Daphne once more. “Let us hasten you along, dearest.”
Anthony gives a curt nod and strides off, no doubt to arrange the carriage. Daphne tries to breathe shallowly through her nose, each inhale of Anthony’s scent only makes her ache. More so now because he’s moving away from her. Alpha is leaving you, her mind hisses but Daphne knows he’ll be back.
“Where exactly will I be taken?” she manages to pull together her thoughts enough to voice the question.
“To a place where you will be taken care of dearest,” Violet murmurs, running a soothing hand down Daphne’s arm as she guides her towards the exit.
“I don’t understand,” Daphne protests, irritated by her mother’s evasiveness. Alpha can take care of you now, her mind whispers.
“Oh, Daphne,” Violet sounds distressed. “I am truly sorry that this has happened before your marriage could occur. They will take care of you, I promise. The nurses at the Heat Hospital have a marvellous and discreet reputation.”
Daphne stumbles towards the door and wonders just how slowly she was moving that Anthony has already corralled them a carriage. She swallows down the hunger that rises at the sight of her waiting brother, impatiently checking that watch of his.
“Quickly,” he hurries towards them, reaching for Daphne to all but push her inside. “We can’t leave you out in the open like this.”
“Anthony, calm down. There are none here who would besmirch her honour, the true danger lies beyond our home,” Violet chastises.
Even in her dazed state, the pain of heat cramps making it hard to focus, Daphne spies the twitch of her brother’s eye at their mother’s statement. The rational part of her mind wonders whether Anthony might be convinced to besmirch her honour, if only to sate the lust that grows within her.
“Then let us hasten Daphne’s journey,” he says, before turning to address Daphne herself and gesturing at the carriage. “Sister, please do not delay.”
Daphne finds herself unable to so much as step up into the carriage, hand shaking even with her tight grip on the door.
“Anthony, I—” she breathes through another wave of pain. A blush staining her cheeks as another gush of slick trickles down the inside of her thighs.
Anthony’s hands are broad and warm through her thin robe as he hoists her into the carriage.
Daphne lets out a sigh of relief once she is seated upon the silken cushions inside, slumping inelegantly against the wall. Her relief is short lived because moments later, Anthony clambers into the carriage and shuts the door, locking them inside the confined space. Her brother smells delectable, and Daphne bites her lip in mortification, crossing her legs as though that will keep the slick inside her.
Anthony raps on the roof of their carriage and they are off, trundling along the unknown path to the Heat Hospital. Part of Daphne still thinks it cannot possibly be a real place. The other part of her hopes it will only be a short journey for her proximity to an Alpha is driving her wild.
“How long will this take?”
“Daphne,” Anthony sounds so serious that for a moment, the pain fades away and all she can focus on is his words. “I’m not taking you to the damned Heat Hospital.”
“What?”
“I don’t trust them to take care of you, nor do I trust them not to accidentally allow someone to take advantage of you.”
“Where are we going then?” Daphne doesn’t understand, where else is she to go if not the fabled Heat Hospital?
“Aubrey Hall.”
“That’s practically hours away!”
“Hence the urgency, sister.”
Daphne makes a noise of frustration. How dare her brother prolong her suffering just because he thinks he knows what is best for her! Daphne knows what’s best for her and it’s across the carriage in Anthony’s pants. She rubs the soft gland on the side of her neck, feels slickness beneath her fingertips. Presses harder just to feel a delicious jolt of pleasure course through her body.
“Daphne! Are you even listening to me?”
Anthony’s voice snaps her from her staring at Anthony’s trousers and when she shakes her head, not having heard a word from his mouth prior to her own name, he frowns.
“Stop doing that,” he says, eyes pointedly fixed upon her fingertips.
“Sorry,” she mumbles, allowing her hand to fall to her lap, gripping her robe to keep from touching herself again.
Anthony checks his watch. Again. Shifts closer to the window as though he cannot stand to be close to her in this state. It’s the truth, but not for the reason Daphne believes.
“It’s fine, Daphne,” he sighs.
The carriage jolts over an uneven patch of ground and Daphne squirms, embarrassment flooding her cheeks as the fabric beneath her becomes steadily soaked. She’s certain the cushion she’s perched on the edge of will no longer be serviceable by the end of the journey.
Anthony looks as though he would rather be anywhere else, elbow perched on the edge of the window, hand over his mouth and nose. Daphne feels a fool for even thinking, for just a moment, that her brother would want to take her the way an Alpha should. She wants to tell him to jump out of the carriage, to leave her be if he finds her so repulsive. Might do so if she could think beyond the way he smells and if it were not also raining.
For a while, the sound of the rain pelting the top of the carriage lulls Daphne into a stupor, her mind drifts, senses honed on the presence of the Alpha across from her instead of the pain rippling throughout her abdomen. She barely registers the movement of her hand in her lap, fingers slipping through the part of her robe, gathering the hem of her shift upwards to stroke between her thighs.
Another little gush of slick escapes her, catching upon her fingertips and easing their path from her entrance to that little pearl of pleasure above it. Daphne barely notices the soft, wet sounds that come from between her thighs, but her brother certainly does. Anthony’s head whips towards her, eyes wide.
“What are you doing?”
Daphne can only stare back, mind too slow to stop touching herself so intimately. Lost in the tiny pleasures she brings with her movements.
“Daphne, please,” he begs, voice hard. “Stop touching yourself like that.”
“I’m sorry,” her lip trembles and she bites down upon it, forcing herself not to cry. “I cannot seem to stop.”
“It’s not—” he shifts in his seat. “It is not appropriate, sister.”
“Anthony,” his name is an accidental moan, fingers slipping deliciously against her most intimate place. She feels as though she’s burning up, the glands on her neck throbbing. Unconsciously, she reaches up with her free hand to rub at her scent gland, filling the carriage with a heady scent. Doesn’t even notice the way the fingers of her other hand have pressed into her cunt, shallowly thrusting. “Please.”
“God, Daphne, stop. Stop! I beg of you, sister,” Anthony is across the space between them in an instant, gripping at her wrists to halt her movements. Manages to remove her fingers from her neck and press her hand down onto the seat.
“No, I need—” she struggles against him, breath hitching, fingers thrusting insistently, chasing pleasure to rid her of the pain in her abdomen. “It burns, Anthony. Please.”
“I cannot…” he trails off as he gives her wrist another tug. Her fingers slip from her sex with a wet noise that makes her brother groan. Though not as much as the sight of her slick cunt does when the sash of her robe fails her, the fabric falling away from her middle to provide her brother with a scandalous view of her nakedness. “Daphne, we must…you must…”
Daphne is confused, her brother seems a wild thing, knelt between her thighs, unable to release her wrists, unwilling to look away from the place that craves his touch though he does not know it. Why is he looking at her so intently if he is disgusted?
Seeking some sort of friction, Daphne thrusts her hips upwards, whining about the pain which ripples throughout her body. Rain showers down upon the carriage and were Daphne slightly more lucid, she would be ever so thankful for the fact that her next words remain unheard beyond the confines of this small space.
“Touch me,” her voice is laced with delirium, body acting instinctually as she registers Anthony’s scent. He is aroused. She can sense that he wants to take her, to dominate her. And even if it is so very wrong for brother and sister to want one another in such a manner, why would their bodies react in this way were they not made to be together? “Anthony, it hurts so much.”
“Fuck,” he mutters. Licks his lips and finally drags his eyes from the mess between her thighs to meet her own. “Daphne, we cannot.”
“It hurts so much. I cannot stand it,” she sobs for the pain is almost unbearable. “I must…please let me touch—”
“Daphne. No.”
Alpha does not want you, her mind whispers. A frustrated tear slips hotly over the curve of her cheek, but Anthony is not moved. Her heart begins to race, and she struggles once more to touch herself though Anthony’s grip remains firm. So firm, in fact, that in her efforts to relieve the pain coming from between her thighs, Anthony’s fingers somehow graze her most intimate place.
The world stops.
“Alpha.” Slipping from her mouth in a breathless rush, a word which shall damn them both. Daphne finds her thighs splaying wider, exposing herself further to her brother’s gaze, to his touch, despite not meaning to do so.
Anthony freezes. Closes his eyes and breathes in the scent of her arousal. Releases her wrists to drag a finger softly through her folds. And when he opens his eyes, Daphne wonders if she is staring at the same man she has known and loved all these long years, for it could hardly be her brother staring back at her.
“Just one little taste,” he murmurs, shifting himself between her thighs, spreading them wider and tugging her to the edge of the seat. Pleading eyes stare up at her as he whispers, “That’s all we need. Just one little lick to this pretty clit and you’ll feel better.”
Daphne nods fervently, hand already weaving itself into his hair, guiding her brother’s mouth closer.
Anthony inhales deeply, groaning as he does so, and the sound sends a shock of want through Daphne’s body.
“Alpha, please,” her hips shift incrementally towards him, encouraging Anthony to taste that which has always been—and should have always been—forbidden to him.
Relief is instant the moment Anthony’s tongue darts out to lick from her entrance to her clit and Daphne cannot contain her moan.
“More,” she gasps, urging his mouth closer still. She wants her eldest brother to devour her.
“God, your cunt, Daphne,” he swirls his tongue around her bud of pleasure, dips it back down to circle her entrance. “So perfect. You taste so sweet.”
Anthony does indeed devour her. Tasting and licking at her most intimate place with a hunger reserved for the starved. With every kiss, open-mouthed and sloppy over her entire sex or chaste and teasing against her clit, Daphne feels her pain ebb away.
Her fingers drift once more to touch her scent gland and then his own. The most ambrosial sweetness fills the carriage, cloying in the confined space and Daphne’s mouth waters. She has never experienced anything so wonderful.
Slick pours from her cunt, her body telling her Alpha that she is ready and wanting. Anthony drinks her nectar as though it is the finest of wines, swallows her essence down as he brings her to the heights of pleasure with his mouth.
It is only when he slides a finger into her cunt that Daphne truly loses any coherent thought. There is only Anthony and the pleasure he provides. Only Alpha. Nothing else matters. Only the fingers working her open and Anthony’s murmured, “So fucking tight.” His tongue sliding inside her body to move delectably alongside his fingers.
“Oh yes! Anthony!” Daphne’s moans echo in her ears, a beautiful accompaniment to the slick noises of her cunt. “Don’t stop, please.”
He doesn’t stop. Keeps thrusting his fingers, curling against a spot she could not reach in her earlier explorations, sucks hotly on her clit until she is shaking. A climax overcomes her, and Daphne bends forward, clutching at her brother’s head as he continues to bring her pleasure, panting all the while.
Eventually, the haze of wantonness recedes, and Daphne can think clearly beyond: Alpha, Alpha, Alpha. Inhales steadily, sitting upright once more, and realises that a delicious lustfulness still infuses the carriage. This time the overwhelming need comes not from her, but her brother.
Mouth glistening with her slick, pupils black as night, Anthony gazes reverently up at her from his position on the floor. Cunt sticky fingers trailing down her inner thigh, he is yet to move away.
“Thank you, brother,” Daphne sighs, relief flooding her body, though it does not last long. Anthony stares up at her with a frown, eyes roaming her body as though he expects something terrible to occur. And it does.
Pain worse than anything she has ever felt before grips her body with a burning hand. Tears spring to her eyes and the glands on her body pulse in time with her racing heart.
“Anthony?” she reaches blindly for her brother. “What’s happening to me?”
“I’m so sorry, Daphne,” he whispers, raising himself up to hold her face between his hands. “I did not mean for this to happen.”
Daphne feels as though her skin is on fire. Desperately, she struggles out of her robe, tugging her shift over her head and flinging it to the floor to leave her naked and panting before her eldest brother. She knows, instinctually, what she needs. Anthony knows too, she’s sure of it, for he allows her to slide off her seat onto the floor, perching herself in his lap.
“I know,” he whispers, clutching her body against his as Daphne grinds her sex against him, seeking friction. “I’m sorry.”
“More, I need—” she needs to be filled. Sobs into her brother’s neck, nuzzles at his scent gland, tearing at his cravat and exposing him to her needy mouth. Tentative licks to the heavenly gland provide a tantalising taste of him before she seals her mouth over it and sucks.
“Daphne, fuck,” Anthony’s hands shift her back on his lap, fumbling with his pants. “I need to be inside you.”
Rational thought is gone. No longer are they brother and sister, their union forbidden. Only Alpha and Omega, their joining necessary for survival.
“I’m so empty, Anthony,” Daphne grinds herself down upon him. “Fill me, please. It hurts. I need you.”
“Forgive me, sister,” he moans and then he frees his manhood from his trousers.
Daphne glances down with blurred vision, mouth agape as she takes in the sight of her brother’s length. Curiously, she reaches down to touch it and Anthony hisses at the contact, bucking up into her hand. It is softer than expected despite the hardness. She wonders if it hurts him as much as it hurts her not to be joined together.
“Will it fit?” she gasps, slick dripping from her core at the thought of her brother entering her body.
“Oh, Daphne,” he murmurs, cupping her cheek and forcing her gaze unto his own. “We were made for each other; you cannot deny it. My cock was made to be inside you, dear sister. And it shall be. Come here.”
Hands soft on her waist, pulling her forward until she is holding herself above Anthony’s length. He holds the tip of his cock against her dripping core, hesitates, as though he is valiantly attempting to fight his urges, but Daphne has no patience. She is in pain, knows that her brother’s cock will make everything better. Rushes to take him inside herself, pressing down and gasping at the stretch of him working her open.
“Easy, Daph,” Anthony murmurs, slowing her down, thrusting up into her slowly, giving her slick cunt time to adjust, because even though she’s ready, she’s still a virgin. “You’re taking me so well,” he soothes as she whines. “Almost there.”
A heavenly feeling overcomes her once Anthony has sheathed himself completely inside her. Daphne can only lean heavily against his solid form, taking solace in his fingertips tracing gentle patterns across her hips and over her back, his soft words of reassurance whispered into her ear. Instinctively, she rolls her hips, sighing at the feel of him moving inside her.
“That’s it, sister,” he laps at her scent gland as they move frantically together. “Take what you need.”
All of him. She needs all of him, and he is only too willing to give it to her. Though in the back of her mind, she knows it should not be so.
Fingers dip down to circle her clit and Daphne lifts herself with shaking legs, fucking down onto her brother’s cock, cunt spasming with the promise of an orgasm. Slick pools between them and Daphne reaches up a hand to palm her breasts, one after the other. Seeking more stimulation as the tightness in her abdomen draws in upon itself.
Anthony bounces her on his cock, drags his mouth from her gland to her jaw, lips barely brushing her own. Daphne turns her head and gives in to the kiss they both desperately crave. Terrible and sweet all the same, tongues seeking and giving, lips chasing each other over and over until they are breathless.
Something nudges at her core and Daphne finds herself struggling to take Anthony’s cock. It is as though he is stretching her wider with every thrust. Her brother seems not to share her troubles, panting harshly as he wraps his arms around her and drives fiercely into her sex.
“What’s happening?” Tears well in her eyes though she does not mean to cry, scared that their bodies are not as compatible as she thought. “I need—"
“Calm yourself, Omega,” Anthony says lowly, voice commanding unlike anything she has ever heard. Daphne does not even question it, feels her temperament settle as her brother thrusts into her and stills, stretching her open impossibly wide. “You can take my knot. I know you can.”
Oh. Daphne did not realise such a thing was possible, that an Alpha’s cock would swell to fit so wonderfully inside her core, locking them together.
“I feel…Anthony…” she gasps as he grinds up into her, fingers swirling against her clit. “So full. Anthony.”
“Let me knot my cock inside you, sister. I beg of you, please,” he groans as her walls quiver around his widening length.
“Yes, yes, Alpha,” she throws her head back, giving Anthony a delectable view of her chest, mottled with a delicate blush. He moves to capture the bud of a nipple in his mouth as Daphne grants him permission. “Anything you want.”
Exquisite is the only way to describe the pleasure which floods through her body. Anthony’s knot pulses inside her cunt, cock spilling his warm seed deep inside her as Daphne herself climaxes. Every nerve in her body is alight with desire and ecstasy as she moans her brother’s name.
“Daphne,” her name is a whispered prayer, Anthony’s fingers pulling her hair, arching her neck towards his mouth. “I wish…” his mouth brushing over her mating gland briefly enough to send a frisson of pleasure to her core.
And for one moment, Daphne wishes too.
Anthony’s fingers still tracing circles over her slick clit and the thought of his teeth sinking into her mating gland, claiming her completely, has her sighing through another blissful orgasm.
There is still time, she tells herself as she slumps forward into his embrace, moaning each time his cock pulses inside her, spilling soothingly into her core again and again. A heat is expected to last days, after all. And by the end of it, may God forgive them, Daphne hopes that her brother will claim her as an Alpha should.
Daphne drifts off to sleep with her brother’s cock inside her, his hand stroking her hair, overcome with satisfaction.
“Good girl, Daphne,” Anthony whispers, barely audible above the still pounding rain. “My perfect little Omega.”