Kylo stared at Hux in horror, his hands still gripping Rey's cheeks between his large hands as his one knee pinned her shoulder to the bed. She was out like a light, her body limp beneath his knee and Hux's grip on her ankles, her head lolling between his hands as he slowly released his grip as he finally understood that her skin was hotter to the touch than it should be.

"What the fuck was that, Kylo?" the redhead asked, drawing a deep breath in through his nose, and then—

"Oh. Shit."

Kylo leapt back, away from the bed, as if he had been burned, taking one slow step after the other as he backed away from the bed. "Hux, what are you—" His heart was racing, his pulse hammering away in his ears as he felt arousal curl through his gut, but he could barely control himself, let alone control the other alpha.

He watched, eyelids lowering, as Taj moved sinuously up the bed, his lean form all smooth muscle and predatory grace as he crawled over the prone form of the little omega, the complete absence of fight in her setting something inside of him on edge…

"Armitage!" He snapped the alpha's name out, a growl curling around the last syllable and drawing it out, until he was bristling, stepping forward—

Shit.

He took a step back, and then another, until he was standing in the doorway, the breeze from the open windows pushing the scent of heat back.

He watched as Hux shook himself, leaned in to drag his nose against the skin of Rey's neck, inhaled deeply once again, and then shook his head sharply back and forth before throwing himself off of the bed.

He sprawled on the floor, blinking his eyes wide open as if he were trying to wake himself up, and Kylo darted forward, grabbing the back of Hux's jacket and dragging him back and into the living room of the cabin. He pulled the man onto the couch, leaving him there as he went to open up more windows, barely restraining himself from darting back into the room they'd just left.

The cool air gusted through, calming them more than anything else could have in that moment.

More than—

He wrenched his eyes away from the doorway to the bedroom.

Best not to think of that.

"What the fuck was that?" Hux gasped out.

He looked shaken, and that shook Kylo, in turn. There was so very little that shook Hux, and so when it did happen… Kylo was normally the one who couldn't control himself, but in this case he'd gotten lucky. Hux hadn't been prepared, hadn't felt the warning coming in the Force, hadn't been able to use the Force to barricade himself against the storm.

Against the heat.

Against the bloodlust and arousal and the want, the need, the drive.

He hadn't seen Hux lose control like this since the last time the man had gone into rut… and it was a force to be reckoned with, when a man with such tight control lost it. The control was there for a reason, as Kylo found out for himself.

And Kylo felt his own control slipping, as well, every time he even thought about the little omega.

If they weren't careful—either of them—they would plummet right over the edge and into rut.

And that was one thing that would make this entire situation worse, all three of them losing themselves.

"Heat," Kylo groaned, finally snapping himself out of his thoughts as he threw himself onto the cushions beside Taj.

"Really," Hux drawled. "I hadn't gathered."

Kylo rolled his eyes and then let out a small, delicate snort, grateful that he could finally breathe again and that they were able to control themselves enough to joke.

He didn't like losing control, much as Hux might rib him for his… displays of anger—his words, not Taj's. No, Taj's words were always much worse.

They fell into a deep, comfortable silence, the smell of the trees—pine, cedar, and birch, predominantly—ghosting over them until it wiped away all but the barest hint of her.

Finally, Taj broke the silence, as Kylo knew he would. The man could never let a problem rest until it was solved, or proven unsolvable—though Kylo had seen precious little of the latter.

"That was more than a heat."

Kylo slanted him a glance. "Astute as always." He could practically feel the holes being burnt into him by Hux's glare, but he didn't give Hux the satisfaction of reacting. It was more fun like that, and they both needed as much distraction as possible over the next…

Shit. What were they going to do?

"Her heat didn't hit until the very end—or, at least, we didn't notice it," he started to explain, slowly, mulling over his choice of words as he went. "Before that… well, from what I could tell, she got stuck in her mind."

A pause. "And, pray tell, what does that mean?"

Kylo made a humming noise as he thought for a moment. "She seemed to be incapable of telling what her memories were, and which were… mine," he finally said. It had been a very… interesting glimpse into her mind; the little that had made sense, at least. "I don't think she had truly spent much time looking at what she had gleaned from my mind during our last encounter," he mused. "The beginning of what we now know was her heat, coupled with the memories her mind kept cycling through—" He stopped, and smiled gently at Taj before tugging him against his side.

"Well. I would've gotten lost as well," he said as he pressed a kiss into Taj's mussed hair.

Hux groaned but said nothing as he pressed his face into Kylo's chest, breathing the scent of him in—he would often ground himself that way, at least when they had the luxury to do so, and Kylo always relished the moments of privacy that would allow them to partake.

"Why couldn't I control myself?" Hux finally asked. "It's not like I haven't encountered omegas in heat before," he grumbled.

Kylo was silent a moment. "It's her first."

Hux's quickly drawn in breath was his only response to that. But after a moment, he added, "But that can't be the only reason. Stars, we've gone through each other's ruts with more control than that."

Kylo pressed a kiss against the other alpha's forehead as he withdrew himself from the tangle of their limbs upon the couch. Hux was right—they'd seen each other through ruts with more control than this situation heralded. Sure… she was an omega going into heat, not another alpha going into rut… the hormones alone would leave them nearly animalistic, but… "You don't need me to answer that, Taj. You know why." And then he stood.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

Kylo looked back and met Taj's eyes. "I have some things I need to do," he replied.

"What about the girl?"

His gaze softened a fraction more. "I trust you," he said simply.

And he did.

One moment she was awake, the next she wasn't.

There were no in between steps, no sluggish climbing towards consciousness, no dreams drifting slowly into semi-wakefulness and then into awareness. No, one moment there was nothing, and then there was… everything.

She had never felt anything like it before, and she wasn't sure if it was bad, or good—just that it was other.

It was… much like when she had been awoken to the Force within her. She could smell more, hear more, feel more—everything was just more. There was an additional awareness of everything around her that she knew hadn't been there before. It was different than the feeling the Force had given her, of being able to sense the life in things; the energy. No, this was… hm. It was hard to describe, even to herself, but it was as if she were aware of the very air currents around her, where everything was in relation to herself, by scent alone, where everyone was—

Oh.

Her eyes snapped open and she shot straight up in bed, realizing only in passing that there was something odd about being able to wrap her arms around her torso, pressing them tight against her as if she could protect herself, before she shoved the thought clear out of her mind.

She wasn't alone.

Oh, arguably she knew, had been aware even in her sleep, that she hadn't been alone for hours and hours now, but this—

She was vulnerable.

And not alone.

She was at the mercy of predators, and her body knew it. Her mind was the only part of her that was slow on the uptake, as it propelled itself forward in an admirable attempt at catching up to what her body, her senses, already knew.

"Fuck," she bit out vehemently when it finally hit her.

So that's why she'd felt so… aware. Why she felt like her body was thrumming, hot, alive.

She was in heat.

"Fuck," she said again, softer this time.

Or, at least, the beginning of her heat. And if this is what it felt like at the beginning…

"I agree," a voice rasped from clear across the room.

Rey jumped, breath hitching, heart nearly in her throat, and she whipped her head around towards the voice.

Only to be faced with both of the predators she was currently stuck with.

Kylo Ren had his arms wrapped around the waist of the slimmer man standing in front of him, hips tugged back against his, and cheek pressed against the crown of red hair. It had been his voice she'd heard, but both of them were looking at her as if she…

Well. They were looking at her rather… hungrily.

Rey shuddered but couldn't pull her eyes away from the two men. Every instinct in her told her not to move, not to lose track of them, not to blink until the danger was past, but, well…

That wasn't going to happen, now was it?

Rey huffed, and brought one hand up to brush a strand of hair from off of her forehead. She paused, hesitating slightly before she darted her eyes quickly to one hand, then the other, and then back to rest on the men. They hadn't moved a muscle.

Good.

"Why are my hands untied?" she asked, slowly enunciating each word. Her tongue felt a little… odd. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but if this is some trick…" She narrowed her eyes at them.

Hux simply tilted his head and Kylo frowned at her. "No trick," he said slowly, and then shoved his nose into his partner's hair, breathing in deeply.

What the—

Oh.

Oh.

Rey was suddenly caught between the desire to curl into a tight ball as close to the wall at her back as possible, to stand up and square her shoulders and show them she wouldn't be taken without a fight, and—

She gulped.

—and the desire to fling herself at them and show them her neck, to let them take her, soothe her, comfort her, slake the thirst in her body and subdue her—

Rey was halfway across the room before the widening of both of their eyes made her pull up short, breaths panting shallowly in her chest as she strained to scent them; to pull their scents into her lungs and inhale them, wrapping her senses around them…

She swayed on her feet, and then sat herself down on the ground, solidly, as quickly as she could. She closed her eyes and placed her head in her hands, propping her elbows on her knees as she wove the strands of her hair between her fingers. She quickly lost herself in the sensation, trying to calm her mind back into some semblance of control.

It was a hard fought battle, but she won.

Barely.

The alphas kept away, but the damage had been done. Her mind couldn't rest, her body was on fire, and that was from what they could tell within the first hour.

As the day grew longer, they knew they had to do something to distract themselves, or else they would have another tally to add to their list of sins.

Rey slept. She slept a lot that second day.

When she wasn't awake and pacing, she was caught in fever dreams that seemed to wear her out even more than being awake did.

When she was awake and pacing, she was trying desperately to access the Force, to use it, to harness it... but it kept slipping through her grasp, bringing her to angry tears and muffled screams into the pillows on the bed.

She tried to stay awake. She tried to fight it.

And yet, inexorably, her body threw her back into sleep when the toll became too much.

He could still smell her. He was buried in Kylo, outside, and he could still fucking smell her.

Taj growled and sunk his teeth into the other alpha's neck, and the answering snarl and bucking of hips sent his instincts ratcheting even higher.

Fuck, she smelled good.

She hadn't stayed in the bedroom. They knew she wouldn't. But it was one thing to know… and another to know.

To know that that was her in the bathroom, the sounds of running water, the silence… the little breathless moans, the sharp, inward gasp as she—

Taj had to hold Kylo back as they heard her come.

He didn't even stop to acknowledge the fact that the other man was holding him back as well.

It finally dawned on her to check the ship; to see if she could find a way off of this damned planet. To find a way out of her prison.

She made her way out of the small window in the bathroom and then made her way slowly, carefully, towards the ship.

And then made her way back, desolate, angry, and so so tired, when she found that parts of the engine had been dismantled.

It seemed they knew her too well.

She fell face-first onto the bed once she arrived back inside, not even caring if she was heard. She didn't care. She didn't even have enough energy to push off the heat and fog holding her body and mind hostage, let alone the energy to push back her disappointment and frustration.

Rey was becoming well-acquainted with frustration.

They left her food at periodic intervals, but refused to confront the woman when the plates remained untouched.

They couldn't let themselves get near her, out of fear—Maker-forsaken fear of all things—that they would hurt her, ruin her, sully her… take her without her permission.

That was a line they would never cross, for all their other admitted acts of war.

The water, at least, was always returned empty.

It satisfied the alphas… somewhat.

"What do we do?" Kylo asked, his voice practically stuck on a growl.

They were losing themselves, little by little.

As was she.

"I don't know," Hux replied breathily.

A pause. "We can't just keep her here like this."

"And yet we can't bring her with us, either. You know what would happen."

Silence.

Finally, minutes later, "I know."

"What does your precious Force tell you?"

Kylo hummed, drawing his bottom lip between his teeth. If they hadn't just slaked their thirst on each other, Hux would have pounced. Instead, he closed his eyes and waited until Kylo next spoke.

"It says to wait," the other man said slowly.

"Then we wait."

Rey smelled them. It was torturous, because she couldn't escape it. Their combined scent was everywhere, permeating everything in the small cabin, and the first morning, after, when they had… that, it had only seemed worse from that moment on.

She wasn't sure if they were doing it on purpose or not, but she hadn't been in the same room as them since that first time she'd woken. She knew she should feel grateful, but for some reason, the space was… disquieting.

They were not acting in any way like she had expected them to, especially once her heat had set in. None of them had acknowledged that's what was happening, but… well, she knew they knew. And she knew that they knew… she knew.

She sighed at herself for being so ridiculous, but the breath out turned into a shaky exhale in as her nose picked up one of them placing food outside of the open bedroom doorway. She couldn't see who it was, but she could see their shadow, and even the mere sight of that was enough to set her mind to spinning, her hormones whirling, her body buzzing with want, with need, with fire.

None of which was helped by her mind being dragged back to its earlier thoughts—they were not at all what she had expected, and she had zero idea what to do with that knowledge. They weren't taking her, forcing her, pushing themselves upon her even though she knew that they desired her. She could hear them. Could hear their whispers, or at least most of them, and knew that they were just as attuned to her and her body as she was to them and theirs. To both of theirs.

Fuck her.

Oh, that was the problem, alright.

She wanted them, and she wanted them badly, and she wasn't sure what was her body's need, what was her mind reacting to the intrigue they presented her with, what were Kylo's memories and thoughts influencing her, and what was… well, whatever else that left her with.

Her brain was scattered, becoming worse as they entered the last bit of the third day after entering her heat, a not-so-pleasant fog starting to settle itself over her senses, in turns sharpening them, and then dulling them.

She was finding it increasingly harder to think, let alone make decisions, but she desperately held onto every shred of awareness she had, trying to tame her thoughts into some semblance of order so that she could figure out what she should do.

Because she had to decide, and quick.

Her heat was, from what she could gather from her recollection of the old women teaching her back on Jakku, entering its pinnacle, and it would stay there, all thanks to the two alphas who were pacing a hole into the floor of the other room—she could hear them, why could she hear every single step, it was agony. Their scents had triggered what would have otherwise been a slow, incessant burn… but one that would have lasted months without outside interference from an unmated alpha's scent.

The men may be mated to each other in spirit, but biology was another matter, and her body more than responded to them.

And she was quickly running out of time.

She could feel it. She could feel it in her bones, in the Force. She knew she would reach a time soon when she would be incapable of making logical decisions—if she was even making them now, she mused distractedly—and where she would have to act or die, because she was long past the point of being able to leave this system if she was to have a better than average chance at survival.

And survive is what she always did.

There was no one here that she could hurt, and she knew that the alphas wouldn't be able to hurt her while she was in heat—not if they didn't want to fight millennia of ingrained instinct.

And she knew they wanted her.

She had seen it, in Kylo's mind. In the brief flashes she now knew came from him, when his shields came down—and they were down with increasing frequency, of late.

Rey could use them, and let them use her—and then steal away in the aftermath. After fixing the ship, of course. But there would be enough time. She wouldn't be getting away from the planet otherwise, not unless she wanted to leave it in First Order custody, at least—and she ignored the thrill that coursed down her spine at the thought of that very thing.

Corralling her responses back, little by little, Rey tilted her head in thought. Omegas always recovered first after heat and rut, alpha men using themselves up to the point of complete exhaustion, from what she could recall. Alphas protected the omega during heat, and omegas protected the alphas in the aftermath, until they were able to recover properly.

A little evening of the playing field, if you will.

She could use that.

It was enough of an opening, if she played her cards right.

She'd worked with less.

Rey firmed her resolve, making sure she was okay with what she planned to do—

—and ignored the part of her that gloried at what was to come. The part of her that wanted to be used as much as she wished to use.

She slept on it, just to be sure, and it took everything in her not to go to them in the middle of the night when she heard them, skin against skin.

When she smelled them.

When she could feel them move.

But she had to be sure. She had to know that this was what she wanted, that this was her highest chance of survival without turning her back on everything that she was, everything she believed in.

So she gritted her teeth, and cleared the fog from her mind as best she could through meditation, using every skill she'd learned over the last year just to hold onto that slim edge of sanity.

And—most important of all—she asked the Force if this was what she should do; if this was the right course; if she was betraying it, in some irrefutable way, with her choice to give in and to use, in turn.

But she wasn't, she could tell, as the Force sang to her, lulling her into as close to a peaceful frame of mind as she could in the circumstances.

The Force wrapped her up, surrounding her, pushing away the hunger and the fever and the near-manic edge that her thoughts had gained in the last few hours.

In the morning, she stood up, bracing her shaking legs as best she could, and let the feeling of peace wash over her once again as she made her way towards the door. She followed the sounds of their voices until she caught sight of them, sitting beneath the trees on the edge of the forest, a short distance from the cabin's main door.

They were wrapped around each other, legs tangled as they leaned against a large trunk, and Rey was able to observe them for a few moments, their smiles warming her…

…until the wind shifted and the warmth disappeared, heat blazing a trail from her nostrils and down her body, suffusing everything—everything—as she caught their scents and breathed them deep.

And that was when the Force gave way to a more powerful drive—

—heat and thirst and hunger and sex and basic instinct.

Rey's whole being devolved into a single thought; a single, powerful, all-consuming urge of which she had no idea had been lurking below the surface:

The hunt.