“He’s just saying how we all feel,” Valen said. His slight British accent had become so normal to me that I barely noticed it these days, except in times like this. Whenever he was stressed, it was more pronounced. “I’ll fight anyone if they come for you.”
“Same,” Archer said, his voice filled with energy. A fierce determination to make it all okay for me. “But we could also think about working smarter in this. Why not look into private security? I could tell my parents that I’m getting threats from somebody at school to justify the expense.”
“I wouldn’t want to be a burden to anyone,” I said and took a deep breath to try to center myself again. I didn’t like seeing them all spin into my anxiety, and I didn’t like having that effect on them. It was unfair for me to project my own concerns like that.
“You’re not a burden,” Kingston said, squeezing me tighter in his embrace. “You could never be a burden.”
“Why are you guys so nice to me?” I asked at last, feeling as if I was on the edge of a mini break down. The past couple weeks of them having to be aloof to me in public, and the constant separation from them was finally wearing me down. I didn’t know how I was going to last until June, or if I was going to make it without losing my mind. “I’m just a nobody. You were supposed to break me down, but you ended up breaking me free from the chains they had around me.”
“You’re not a nobody,” Kingston said, close to my ear. “You’re my everything, Evie. You have been forever. I remember the first day I saw you at school, when those kids had you surrounded and were taunting you. Most girls would have crumbled under the pressure, but you stood up to them. You were such a little wild cat, I just knew I had to know you.”
“I wish I could have seen that,” Valen chuckled. “I can picture it, though. Even when they were keeping you down, drugging you, and we were...well, you know, trying to break you. You were still so self-assured. You were so beautiful, even when you tried to hide it,”
“You know I wanted to kill myself sometimes back then,” I whispered, almost in shock that I was sharing it with them. “I wanted to end the misery that seemed to follow me everywhere I turned. And then when Kingston hated me, I didn’t know what to think. I thought I was worthless, that the world would be better off without me.”
“I hate that you ever thought that,” Archer said and reached out to touch my arm. He lifted his hand to my face and held me in his huge hand. “I hate that the world ever made you feel like that, and I hate that we added to it. Fuck, every day I wish we could go back and stop ourselves.”
“You didn’t know,” I said. “None of us knew back then.”
“You don’t feel like that now, do you?” Kingston asked me carefully, as if he was afraid of my reply.
“No, not anymore,” I said and at last I smiled. The good feeling I had around them managed to bubble to the surface and scour away the stain of anxiety and depression. “You guys, I tell you. If I could bottle up the way you make me feel and sell it, I’d make a million dollars.”
“I think they do sell things like that, but they’re called illegal drugs,” Valen teased and I laughed.
And just like that, they blew my storm clouds away and the sunshine reappeared.
I turned in Kingston’s arms and kissed him, then turned around again and kissed Valen and then Archer. We were connected again, and that’s what I’d been craving. What my body had needed on that primal, cellular level. As if we were our own little pack, with me as the little queen as they said. The leader of them all, the center of their attention and their worlds.
I was going to explain to them how good they made me feel when I heard the scuff of somebody brushing up against the door outside, and then it swung open.
I stepped back immediately and stood apart from the three of them, but I realized we were caught when Mitchell Miller strolled into the room. He was the one with the sprawling estate where we’d held the last fight night.
“Hey, Kings,” he said and raised his eyebrows. “The Organization wants me to sign up. They’re worried you aren’t breaking her down far enough, so I get to join in.”
“The fuck you are,” Kingston said and stood up, keeping me against him with his arm around me protectively. “You can fuck right off with that bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit, they think you’re too soft on her,” Mitchell smirked and stepped in front of us. He looked me up and down, then raised an eyebrow at Kingston. He was conventionally good looking, but the more you looked at him, the less attractive he became. He had this coldness to him, and his eyes were too small and too close together. The closer you looked, the uglier he got.
“I can see you’re too soft, even just looking at her,” Mitchell said. “Remember last year’s Tribute? She could barely go to the bathroom without begging the Kings by this time last year. She was broken, she was tragic, and she was beautiful. And fuck, she was a champion cocksucker. Remember? Oh that’s right, you weren’t here and these two weren’t allowed to see her.”
“Fuck you,” Valen snarled and took a step towards Mitchell, but Archer caught him and held him back.
“He’s not worth it,” Archer said. “He’s going to turn around and leave us the fuck alone, he’s not worth it.”
“That’s right, call your dog off, there,” Mitchel laughed. “You guys are out of control. How do you expect to break this little whore into pieces when you can’t even control your temper? This time last year our bitch was on her knees sucking cock after cock after cock. She’d suck off the entire football team before each game, so why isn’t this one out there? Why haven’t you had her on her knees for our boys?”
“She’s not for anyone but us,” Kingston growled and held me tightly, keeping me close to his chest. “She’s ours, and ours alone.”
“Good, then I can expect those beautiful lips wrapped around my cock because according to the Organization, I’m one of you, now.”
He flashed us an evil grin, something akin to a Bond villain. Under any other circumstance it would be laughable at how seriously he took himself, but in this case it sent ice water spilled through my veins and straight to my heart.
How could I expect to survive when the Organization was controlling my every move?
And how could I expect to burn them to the ground when my hands were tied?