Pack Punished, page 12
part #3 of Thrown to the Wolves Series
I’ll keep her safe until she’s ready to take the world on again. Then, I’ll profess my theory on shifters for her to weigh in on. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if a subconscious part of her has already come to the same conclusion, but Jonathan’s betrayal is a fresh wound to her and Reid, and any conversation of shifters will send their thoughts right back to that night.
Sabrina’s stronger than anyone I know, but even Atlas got a break once from holding up the heavens. May not have lasted long, but nothing good ever does, and that’s why we need to cherish the hell out of it when the opportunity arises.
Following along as she rounds to the next aisle over, I keep pace as Sabrina holds up several things to show Emmy for approval or rejection before tossing them in the basket. By the time they hang up with each other, I make a mental note to send a thank you gift to the youngest Hawthorne, er, Kincaid. Or I suppose it’s really Adler since they’re operating under the fake identity Slade bought them.
There are far too many people to keep track of in my life. I need a damn reference guide to keep everyone straight these days.
“Why do movies make it look so easy?” Sabrina asks with a grimace, poking at the half-filled basket. “I’m all for foreplay, but this feels like an all day event, and I’m a little intimidated, not gonna lie. But people do this all the time so it’s no big deal, right?”
“If you attempt to reassure her that it’ll be fine, she’ll ask how you know. I swear, if you’re that stupid, I will shred your mind faster than you can blink. Keep our mouth shut.”
She’s looking at me waiting for an answer, what the fuck do you want me to say, then?
I feel my mouth moving, but I don’t process the words until they’re out, and not mine. “There’s no reason to build it up into more than it is and psyche yourself out. No rush, either. Hell, you might change your mind and decide it’s not for you, and that’s fine too. But if you feel like attempting it, it’s at whatever pace you’re comfortable with.”
Thank you so much for that, I’ve always dreamed of being a ventriloquist's doll. If you ever do it again-
“You’ll what?” The scoff he spits echoes around my head, drowning out the reply on the tip of my tongue. “Throw me in time out? Lock me in a cage? Hate to break it to you, but your threats don’t carry any weight now that Sabrina set me free. This is as much my body as it is yours.”
And therein lies his weak point, because she's mine.
I’ll tell Sabrina that since it's my fault her mates are at odds with each other, as punishment and motivation, she shouldn't touch or even kiss me until everyone can live and work together as a cohesive unit.
I swear, I can feel the rage emanating off of him. “You wouldn’t.”
Oh, I sure as shit would. Touch starved until we're one big happy family. And the moment the twins find out, they'll intentionally start fights between us so that we'll be forced out and they can keep her to themselves. You want to play, I'll fucking play.
Attempting to conceal my mental argument, I busy myself looking at the items hanging in front of me, feigning interest.
There’s a brief moment when I can feel him wrenching control away from me, and we both wind up trying to shout over one another. “Sabrina, -your mate’s- don't listen to -a dick!” Even better, being tongue tied results in me drooling a little and I have to hastily swipe away the evidence. "... him."
Not only did she see it, though, every single person in the store did. They’re all blatantly staring at us, the girl behind the counter red faced with her barely restrained laughter, and the other customers are biting their lips. Shooting them all a vicious glare, I wait until they return to their shopping to face her again.
Pretending to scrub her jaw, Sabrina wipes away her smile. “Ah, yes, I concur, but who can really blame them? The only thing dicks ever want to talk about is how lonely they are and beg you to play with them.”
Narrowing my eyes at her, I don’t attempt to respond, because I can still feel my counterpart pacing in the forefront of my mind. The absolute last thing I need is for him to make me look like even more of a demented jackass than he already has.
Chuckling, she rises up on her toes and kisses my cheek. "Bright side, at least I'm not embarrassed to be here anymore. Not like anyone's looking at me."
Boden shakes with quiet laughter and claps my back. "Use Sabrina as a bribe; works for me at least."
Trapped in a mental fistfight, I force my feet into motion, following them as Sabrina continues to explore the rest of the store now that she got what she actually came here for.
“Damn.” She flips a package over, impressed. “How have I never bought one of these before?”
Bo plucks it out of her hands before scoffing. “You don’t need to spend money on something to suck your clit when you have several people that would happily volunteer whenever you wanted.”
Waiting until he sets it down and urges her forward, I snatch it on my way past, slipping it into the basket with a smirk. Sabrina catches me, eyes sparkling with amusement.
“So that means I don’t need to bother with these?” She lifts up a set of soft restraints. “You know, since I have so many volunteers to hold me down.”
“That’s different,” he counters. “What if you’re not in the mood for group play time? I only have so many hands.”
As he tosses it in, she chuckles and turns my way. “You’ve been awfully quiet. Anything you want to throw into the pot for consideration?”
Mulling it over, I wander back the way we came with them following behind me. Finding what caught my eye earlier, I double check the size before grabbing a couple of things to add to the basket.
Sabrina wastes no time pulling them back out to inspect, furrowing her brow. “Socks?”
“Thigh high socks,” I correct. As she contemplates it, confused, I playfully tug the basket away from her. “Excuse me, but I do believe we’re in a no kink shaming zone. A topless Sabrina in thigh highs and a pleated skirt has starred in enough of my dreams at this point that I think it’s officially considered a fantasy.”
“Of all of the things in this place, at least this one is something I’m confident in being able to pull off,” she chuckles, leaning in to kiss my cheek.
Turning my face at the last second, her lips land on mine instead, and when she doesn’t pull away, tension bleeds out of my shoulders. Everything’s been so complicated and emotionally draining lately that even though it’s only been a couple of days, the distance between us has taken its toll. I expected the first time I touched her she’d flinch or freeze until she was able to rationalize away the subconscious resentment that she held against me.
What I wouldn’t give to be able to see into her head. While the rest of us may say we’re getting our thoughts in order, Sabrina’s out here with a complex filing system in a code only she can decipher.
“Sabrina...”
Reading my face like an open book, she claps a hand over my mouth. “Nope, no serious topics or heavy conversation for at least a day, remember? I’m happy because I choose to be, and that includes choosing you to be here with me. It’s seriously that easy, Damian.”
I don’t have a single reply, simply continue to study her face and try to make sense of how she can just move on without holding a grudge. But delving into it, trying to make her hate me, or at least be pissed enough that she beats the shit out of me so I can tell myself that she got it out of her system would be for me, not her.
It’s the greatest punishment, having the person you wronged forgive you when you know you don’t deserve it. The guilt eats away at you, forcing you to become better in an attempt to make it up to them, yet you’ll never succeed since they aren’t expecting anything from you anymore.
You torture yourself in a quest for absolution that you’ll never obtain, because you can’t accept that anyone would give something as precious as forgiveness away to someone that hurt them without an ulterior motive.
With a soft smile, she pats my chest. “I’m not a liar, Damian. So when I asked you to trust me to take care of you the way I trust you to take care of me, I meant it. None of you are holding my mistakes over my head; I’m simply returning the favor.”
Without a backward glance, she heads off to catch up with Bo in the next aisle, leaving me reeling. It takes several minutes to collect myself before following, to process her words and put them somewhere I can accept. I owe her that much, though, and so much more. She broke her rule of not broaching serious topics because she saw that I was flailing and needed help. I can return the favor by getting my head on straight so that she has a chance to do the same.
Grabbing a massive box off of the shelf, Bo looks at it with a mixture of horror and respect. “Fucking hell, why do women even sleep with men when they have jackhammers at their disposal?”
“Aw, don’t be threatened. Consider it a performance enhancer. We only get to come once, so when we're tapped out, we can keep her in our beds instead of her needing to crawl into one of the others’.”
Turning it over, he shakes his head with a laugh. Looking from it to Sabrina’s face, he asks, “Is this seriously what women are after? If so, I thoroughly apologize for not completely obliterating your vagina; I’ll stop holding back from here on out.” He continues reading the back of the box before suddenly blurting, “There’s a surge warning on this thing. Might as well shove a taser up there at this rate.”
“Or, hear me out; let’s not.” Chuckling, Sabrina urges him to put it back, slapping a vibrating cock ring in his palm instead. “I might be up for trying new things, but I think I’m safe in saying that tasering my uterus is too kinky even for my blood.”
Grinning, he follows her lead, tossing it into the basket I’m holding. Pausing mid-step, I double back and grab a handful more, because I think she’s going to love that addition, but the last thing any of us wants is to have to borrow another man’s cock ring. No matter how much you clean those things, you can’t scrub the knowledge that they’ve been on someone else’s dick out of your brain.
Rounding to the next aisle, I find Sabrina and Bo both staring at a display of boxes with a diagram on the front so convoluted that even I don’t have the faintest clue what the hell it actually is.
“Is that-” Bo squints “- a supersonic cactus dildo?”
“It sort of looks like that old game, Kerplunk,” Sabrina mumbles, tilting her head in contemplation and studying the picture curiously. “How the hell does that even work? The spikes can’t possibly feel good. Maybe they’re not hard, but silicone fibers? Like the kind on a basting brush, and the beads inside... spin around for extra vibration?”
Following suit, I crane my neck to try and assess it from a new angle. “I can't keep up with technology, but damn; it's impressive how many ways people can reinvent getting fucked.”
A few footsteps precede the evil pixie’s voice. “It caters to the breeding kink crowd.” Whipping my head to track her approach, she raises an eyebrow at me in challenge, striding right past. Bo’s already subtly shifted positions so that he’s a buffer between her and Sabrina, and whether it’s from his size or she simply knows how to read a room, the woman stops several paces away. “Those ‘beads’ actually act as eggs that are expelled to mimic alien dick insemination.”
While I cringe at the imagery, Sabrina nods, looking at things from a clinical perspective. “That makes so much more sense. Not my thing, but props to how much had to go into creating that; and my sympathies for whoever has to clean and reload it.”
Snorting, the cashier crosses her arms. “Carina. Haven’t seen you around here before, anything in particular I can help you find?”
At that, the clinical curiosity fades from the forefront of Sabrina’s mind as reality catches up to her. Namely, that she’s here with two men, so Carina will have already jumped to conclusions, and humans aren’t particularly kind to anyone off of the monogamous spectrum. But if there’s one place that’s a judgment free zone, it’s a place that sells alien dildos.
Gesturing to the basket in my hand, Sabrina offers a nervous laugh. “If there’s anything else I need, I might have to rethink this plan altogether.”
Giving her an understanding smile, Carina offers, “May I?”
At Sabrina’s nod, she comes forward, shamelessly yanking the basket out of my hand without remorse. Setting it on the ground, she squats, rifling through it. Setting a few things aside, she mutters as she goes. “You’ll save a few dollars getting the bigger bottle than two smaller ones, so we’ll swap those out. I recommend switching this butt plug out for the one that vibrates, especially if this is your first time, but in general, it’s just more popular.”
Flicking several more cock rings than necessary for the two of us out of the way, she glances up, looking between me and Boden, then at Sabrina before turning her attention back to our haul. “May want to consider grabbing another size or two bigger as well as a transition. Last thing you want is to have your first time go terribly and chase you away from the idea for good. One second.”
Taking the items she discarded, she flits off to put them back and grabs a few replacements, returning in record time to dump them in the basket. “And may I recommend,” trailing off, she shakes a decently large mystery blind bag. “Thirty bucks, but something tells me you’ll like it.”
Sabrina doesn’t even have her mouth open before Bo is plucking it out of the woman’s hands and tossing it in with the rest. “We’ll take it.”
Grinning, Carina leads the way to the register, making quick work of it all, and leaving us with three heaping bags. Watching the total creep higher and higher, I get a bit nervous. Coming out here spur of the moment and then staying a month has drained my nest egg to dangerous territory. Because no matter the fact that we’ve technically merged packs, it’s not like I exactly have a debit card for whatever account Slade was working with. Too much happened too quickly to get everything handled when he didn’t tell anyone about his deal with Thatcher until right before all hell broke loose. I should be in the clear for this and booking the hotel room, but after that, I’m going to be officially tapped out.
Reaching into my back pocket, I freeze. Checking my other, it’s as empty as the first, and I feel my heart plummet into my stomach as I retrace my steps for the last time I remember having my wallet, but I swear I felt it digging into my ass as we were pulling into town. So it must have fallen as I was getting out of the SUV, or...
Cinjin.
That son of a bitch. When he shoulder-checked me on his way past, he fucking pickpocketed me.
Sabrina doesn’t notice my internal panic, never once looking my way on the assumption that I’d be paying. She simply rummages around in her purse and withdraws her card, passing it Carina’s way, but Boden plucks it out of her hand.
“I swear woman, if you don't let me pay, I’m going to be so offended you’ll never hear the end of it.” Holding her card hostage out of her reach, he slides his across the counter despite her protests.
To his credit, even Carina supports overruling her on this matter. “Girl, the fuck’s wrong with you? Don’t tell me all of this isn’t for him to get some, so if you’re going to take one for the team, so can his wallet.”
Awkwardly mumbling, Sabrina steals her card back and tucks it away while Bo grabs the bags, grinning victoriously. As I take the receipt she passes my way, Carina doesn’t immediately let go, giving me a pointed look.
“Why don’t you guys drop the stuff off in the car and I’ll catch up? I’m going to check for one more thing before we head out.”
Boden agrees without a single protest, while Sabrina furrows her brow. “We can stick around another few minutes, no big deal. Not like we’re in a rush or anything.”
Scrambling for a response, I’m left floundering. Putting off telling her my concerns for a couple of days is one thing, but outright lying is another entirely. Thankfully, Bo comes to my rescue.
Slinging an arm around her shoulders, he guides her towards the door. “Seeing the sort of things we have to compete with can mess with a man’s self-esteem, pretty girl. Let the guy buy his hydraulic strap-on in peace, or whatever the fuck he’s after. These sorts of surprises are always fun; either sexy, or hysterical failures. I for one am hoping for the latter, but I’m admittedly biased.”
Sabrina glances at me over her shoulder, studying my face, and bites her lip. Yet she doesn’t say a single word, facing forward again and letting Boden guide her out the door.
“She read you like an open book; you know that right? One day after the promise of no more secrets, and you’re acting suspicious. You’re not protecting her from jackshit. She may need a break, but if she thinks you’re keeping things from her, it’ll stress her out even more than if you’d just fucking told her.”
It was what, ten minutes ago that she slapped a hand over my mouth and told me no serious topics for at least a day? If I ignore her request, that’s not any better. We’ll handle shit today, and tomorrow, ask if she wants to know our theory or hold off. Then we tell her if she wants to hear it, but what reason is there to blurt it out now? It wouldn’t change anything. Jonathan only wanted to kill her because of turning us into hellhounds and creating an exposure risk. We don’t shift, no problems. If this is predominantly a shifter city, there’s not an exposure risk. We’re taking a day or two off, and cross this bridge when she’s ready.
Carina snaps her fingers in front of my face to regain my attention, and I shake my head to clear my thoughts. Doing a cursory scan of the store, she refocuses on me, not bothering to even lower her voice. “That girl said ‘others’ when you walked in, so let’s cut the bullshit, shall we? Not sure what business your lot has in Khalida, but if only for the sake of that sweet mate of yours, you keep your damn heads down while you’re here, and don’t make waves. Raiden doesn’t take kindly to outsiders coming here and causing trouble on the best of days, let alone when he’s in such a shit mood. If you’re here to stay, I can put you in contact with some people to get the ball rolling. But if you’re only passing through, I highly suggest you keep your noses clean before you draw the wrong attention.”
