With one exception.
I’d used to long for him. I’d pretended like it didn’t exist, because it felt so pathetic. But it had been there. Even with how much I hated him, I’d still carried a pathetic hope in the deep recesses of my heart that he would change and I could be complete.
That was gone now. The tendril of feeling had been wiped away. I didn’t know what exactly had done it—or who had done it—as terrible as it was to be in this situation.
At least I felt like I’d been cut free from the burden I’d been carrying since the moment I’d realized I belonged to him.
One of the males that had been seated with the group stood up, and the raucous party almost immediately came to a halt. Everyone gave him their rapt attention, and the music quietened. He was obviously an alpha, his body twice the size of almost everyone around him. He had curly auburn hair that should have given him a friendly appearance were it not for the darkness of his eyes. I didn’t think I’d ever seen anyone with eyes that black. It was unnerving to just be staring at them, let alone experience their glare.
“In two days, all of our hard work will finally come to fruition. The Khan pack will pay for the servitude they’ve forced on us all these years. Their guns are ours, and soon…their heads will be ours.”
The crowd roared in delight, and his answering bloodthirsty smile made my blood chill.
Looking at the size of the group at this gathering, it would be quite the attack, even with all the soldiers that Hendrix and his brothers kept on their island.
Crates were dragged in by men who hadn’t been among the partiers. They threw them in a pile and then lifted the lids, showcasing a multitude of weapons.
“We all know that the Khan guns are the best in the business. Can you imagine that cunt Hendrix’s face when he sees his own weapons pointed at him?” he crowed.
Brayden was laughing uproariously next to me, the idiot. Hendrix had told me how Brayden cowered and begged like a worm the night they’d made their “deal.”
Brayden’s muscles were vanity muscles, designed to look good but not actually be of use. If this attack did happen, he would do well to stay as far away from Hendrix, River, and Caspian as he could.
Because the end result of an interaction with them wouldn’t be pretty.
I was certain that Brayden would not have the luxury of being spared this time.
Everyone suddenly had a cup in their hands, and they all raised them in unison with the male who must have been their leader. “Down with Khan,” they screamed before guzzling their drinks.
Worry spiked through me, thinking of the attack. What were they doing right now? Had River survived? Were they searching for me?
Did they even care?
I was used to being disappointed by the male species. Hendrix had certainly disappointed me in a way I wasn’t sure I could forgive.
But that weak, stupid part of me was hoping they were out there, hunting for me. That some part of them was desperate to have me back.
Brayden yanked on my chain again, motioning for the cup on the table that he’d just held in his hands for the little war chant everyone had been a part of.
I gritted my teeth, thinking of the million ways I wished I could kill him at the moment.
That was the great thing about that hope being gone. I never could have ended him before.
Now, as I pressed the cup against his lips and tilted it back for him to get a drink…I could think of a million ways to kill him, each worse than the last.
My wolf growled in agreement with my bloody thoughts.
After I’d given him his drink, he pulled me onto his lap.
I almost started laughing. Because I realized I was totally having a Princess Leia moment. I was dressed like she’d been in the movie when she’d been chained to Jabba the Hutt or whatever that gross slug monster guy had been called.
Honestly, I thought Leia had the better gig. A slug monster would be way better than having to perch on your asshole fated mate’s lap, a hard erection poking your ass as he murmured all the disgusting things he wanted to do to you.
The party was growing wilder. The crowd was a writhing, drunk group that probably couldn’t even feel their butts at the moment, they were so intoxicated.
Brayden was growing handsier the more he drank, and every cell in my skin was crawling. It was all I could do not to throw up on the bastard.
I tried to think of a way out of this, but with the collar cutting into my skin, and with the fact that the rest of the leaders sitting around us did not appear very intoxicated, I just couldn’t think of how to manage it. There was also the matter of the witch. She lurked near the leaders, throwing longing glances at them. She was probably way more powerful than they were, and yet there she was, desperate for any scrap they could give her.