“We’ll own you, Rain.” He continued down, sliding along the valley of my breasts, to my exposed belly button. “Mind, body, soul, and body. Did I mention body?”
“Fuck. You.”
He laughed. “That’s the idea.”
“I’d rather turn myself in to the sheriff right now.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Roan said, “or we wouldn’t have caught you swinging from the rafters.”
“But you’ve got the choice now,” Legend threw in. “We said you can run and that includes running to the station. You get away from us, you get your freedom.”
“You don’t,” Jacques whispered, “and you’re mine.” He dropped the bat. It bounced off my knee and rolled away. “Ten seconds.”
“Nine.”
“Eight.”
I swiveled between them. What the hell is this? This can’t be happening.
“Seven.”
Jacques picked up his bat.
“Six.”
“You can’t do this,” I said. I got to my feet, hissing at the pain in my shoulder. “You don’t have the right to keep me, or let me go.”
“Four,” they said. “Three.”
“Cairo, stop.” I backed toward the door.
“Two.”
“I said stop!”
“One.”
Twisting around, I ran.
I clutched my arm, biting my lip till it bled. I pushed aside the pain and ran faster than I ever had in my life.
“Whoo! This one’s fast.”
“Not fast enough.” A hand fisted my shirt.
Screaming, I ripped away, picking up speed—bolting for the trees.
They welcomed me back with open arms, reminding me of all the places I once hid on those days I played hide-and-seek with Ivy.
Friar’s Copse. If I shake them loose, I can hide there till they give up.
I looked over my shoulder and locked on to Arsenio only a few feet behind. They were not going to give up.
Crashing through the brush, I veered right to the thickest part of the woods. The trees grew close enough to share their bark. This was my chance to slow them down.
My heart thrummed in my ears, louder than their pounding and howls. The noise bounced across the leaves and it sounded like they were coming from everywhere. Behind, beside, and right at me.
“Come on, Rain.” Cairo slid in my ear. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it? My devotion. You wanted me to save your soul.”
Devotion. Why, of all the words to use, did he choose that one? What was devotion to a wounded wolf? Why, from his lips, did it sound so much like possession?
I ached to scream they couldn’t have me, but that would’ve given me away.
Lungs burning. Shoulder numb. Side swelling, I raced away from their thrashing—the forest muffling my footfalls in the sodden earth.
“Come back, little Rainey,” Roan called. He sounded far away. “Don’t you want to have some fun with us?”
Were they always this wickedly dangerous, or did they have to work at it? Either way, I was finally beginning to understand why everyone at the party dropped to their knees. These five took what they wanted. Power, respect, money, Bedlam. Now, they wanted me.
The copse emerged up ahead. There was a thick underbrush shielded by a tight collection of trees. I’d stay low and hide as they ran deeper into the forest. Then, all I had to do was make my way back home, bolt the doors, and stay there till they cleared out.
I have the generator and some food to last me a couple of days. Then I’d— Well, I’d figure out the rest later. Almost there. I—
Fingers tangled in my hair. I cried out as I was flung off my feet, pain exploding in my scalp.
“Hmm.”
In a blink, Cairo was there. Straddling me, digging my hands into the dirt, pressing his full weight on my body.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
“I hoped I’d be the one to catch you.” Cairo bit my sore bottom lip, drawing a gasp of pain. “Were you secretly hoping too?”
“You’re fucking insane, Sharpe. Get off me.”
“You know, I wondered for a second while I’ll was holding exhibit a, my burned wallet, if this was karma.”
My breath caught, holding tight in my chest as Cairo laid my hand on his warring wolves.
“I’ve done wrong. More than the oldest man on earth could achieve in his lifetime. Was fate finally making me pay for it?”
He let go of me, only to grasp the crossbow. Light glinted off the tip pressed just below my collarbone. All thought fled my mind.
“Now I see that’s not true,” he continued, like we were a couple out for a lovely dinner and a chat. “You’re not my curse, Rainey de Souza, you’re my cure. I was bored, hungry, furious, before you came along and rattled the die on my one-track life.”
His words were a steady soundtrack to the movie playing on my heart. The tip broke my skin, greedily taking my blood.
“You’re going to give me what I want, Rain, and I’ll give you what you need.”
“You don’t know what I need,” I rasped, “and I won’t give you what you want.”
“Won’t you?” He lowered himself to my chest, kissing the spot of blood. “That’s our word: fate. It’s what brought us together. It’s the only thing that’ll break us. The only thing that’ll make me stop.”