“It’s going to be okay, sweetheart,” he crooned at her ear, yet he still held her to the wall, touched her, nipped at her ear and had her screaming in rage.
“Son of a bitch!” Desperation lent her strength, but it didn’t help her escape. His hold was unbreakable.
“You’re a wildcat. ” His chuckle was soft at her ear. It wasn’t cruel or hard and it was all the more frightening for it.
Panting, exhausted, she held herself still, trembling in his hold as she felt a single tear fall. She wouldn’t cry over this, she told herself. Not this. Tears wouldn’t change his course, and it wouldn’t help her find the strength to endure whatever he had planned.
“Do you love Tanner, Scheme?” Cabal whispered at her ear, his voice so soft it was barely heard.
She closed her eyes, knowing any lie she told he would smell.
“I love him. ” And it made no sense. How could she love the man who had left her to be raped by another?
“Why do you love him?” He nuzzled her neck, his hold never weakening, the careful readiness in his body never changing. “Tell me why you love him, Scheme, and I’ll let you go. ”
He wouldn’t let her go. She knew this trick, the insidious promise of freedom for something so little, so destructive.
She leaned her head away from him, the fear rising sharply within her as she felt his incisors rake her neck, felt the subtle threat in the action.
“Because I’m too stupid to live,” she whispered. “Too stupid to know hell when I see it. ”
Oh God, his touch hurt her. It was agonizing. The lightest of touches, but suddenly it felt like daggers digging into the flesh of her arm. She screamed out in agony as his hands quickly released her, but his body still held her to the wall. The knowledge that she couldn’t fight him sent a surge of insanity through her mind.
“It’s okay,” Cabal whispered, his voice gentle. “He’ll be back for you, Scheme. One more second, he’ll be back. ”
She wasn’t in a coffin buried beneath dirt, but the same suffocating, terrifying fear racked her mind. She wouldn’t survive this; even if she lived, she would never survive this man taking her.
As she bucked, fought, she was certain she didn’t have the strength to scream again, but an enraged snarl, a roar of fury, echoed around her as she was suddenly free, the momentum of her fight throwing her to the floor, her hair cascading over her face as she caught herself against the stone.
The sound split the air again. An animal’s roar of killing rage.
Swiping her hair back from her face, Scheme stared across the room in shock.
Tanner. He had placed himself between her and Cabal, snarling back at his brother as he crouched protectively in front of her.
“I didn’t tell you to rape her. ” The sound of his voice was horrendous. Animal and man, a snarling, graveled sound rife with violence.
Cabal flicked her a glance, amusement glittering in his eyes for but a second before they jerked back to Tanner. Scheme could feel the throb of murderous rage in the room now, hear it in the rumbled growls coming from Tanner’s throat.
“You gave her to me,” Cabal reminded him gently. “How I take my mate is my decision. Isn’t it, brother?”
Tanner’s responding roar was filled with challenge and fury.
“Mine!” The single word that left his throat had Scheme flinching in shock as Cabal tilted his head and watched his brother carefully.
He raised his hands slowly, a gesture of surrender.
“I won’t fight you for her,” he said softly, gently. “She’s all yours, Tanner. She always was. ”
He backed slowly to the doorway, throwing Scheme a cocky wink as Tanner watched him carefully.
It had been deliberate? Cabal had been deliberately goading Tanner? Pushing him? Why?
Scheme moved slowly to her feet, shaking, watching the two men carefully. Breath sawed in and out of her lungs as she tried to understand what the hell was going on. She could feel the undercurrents of a savage fury and, when she glimpsed Tanner’s face, the savagery of a naked, primal lust.
His eyes glittered gold as he watched his brother back slowly from the room, the primal growls that vibrated in his throat more animal than man. As though some inner demon had slipped its leash and taken control of the man.
Rubbing at her arms, Scheme backed away, wondering now if there was a way to escape Tanner. This wasn’t the Breed the world knew, the soft-spoken, smiling, public relations wizard. This was the animal the Council had created, the killer it had trained.