Pack Punished, page 17
part #3 of Thrown to the Wolves Series
She snorts, the sound saturated in disdain. “Her beast is a parasitic abomination that doesn’t require contact to affect you, and any shifter caught in her proximity is a potential victim; hence why they’re all drawn to her. The only place she’s safe is surrounded by humans where her wolf can’t grow so strong that it’ll completely destroy her, but she can only survive on her own if she’s so miserable, it keeps her alive. I thought that her being different might mean something was finally changing to end our wretched existence, and I was right, just not in the way I’d hoped. You take her back to that place, surrounded by hundreds of wolves that she can feed off of? She’ll kill us all.”
No wonder she looks like hell; she hasn’t had anyone taking the burdens from her shoulders since I left.
I clear my throat, because we don’t have long left before we hit the lobby and can’t afford to waste time standing around dumbstruck. “So you put the block in place then, I wasn’t born with it?” As she glances my way, I clarify, “How else could you have known that I had alpha traits?”
A dark look overtakes her face. “Yeah. Cost more than I wanted to pay, but he made it so that I could actually pick you up as a baby without being at risk of you draining me dry.”
My chest tightens, and like a broken record, the first thing out of my mouth is, “Why didn’t you ever tell me anything? Who did you find that was even capable of putting a block in place?”
As she scoffs, it hardens my heart a little bit more, my counterpart pacing with furious indignation. “You’ve always been after someone to swoop in and take care of you, like the rest of the spoiled princesses. If you’d known that all you had to do was snap your fingers to get people eating out of the palm of your hand, coupled with the power boost you’d get from them? You’d have jumped at the chance.” Her condemning gaze rakes over me from head to toe as she ignores the second half of my question. “After all, you really went all in on the mate front once you found out what you were, didn’t you? Surrounded yourself with as many spare batteries as you could. I tried to keep you from turning out like the rest of the alphas, but it was an effort in futility. The only thing your kind is capable of loving is power.”
The sound of my palm smacking across her cheek echoes around the metal walls with enough force that it renders everyone speechless, the low growls coming from Kaige and Slade cutting off abruptly. I don’t even remember closing the distance between us; one moment I was standing beside Slade as all of my fears were confirmed, and the next I’m standing before her, rethinking my decision not to walk away.
At this point, I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for reasons why I shouldn’t relinquish control, and it only serves to irk me that the more I try to hold onto it, the more I’m proving her right. Ultimately though, I steel my spine and hold my ground, because I’d already had my own concerns about my other half conniving quietly in the shadows, being ten steps ahead of all of us. If she’s screaming at me to shut my mother up, there’s a reason, which is all the more incentive to keep her alive.
Even if I trust the devil on my shoulder far more than my mother, the only thing that I know without a shadow of a doubt is that I don’t really know anything. With only half the facts, making an irreversible decision in the heat of the moment is just as likely to bite me in the ass as playing the waiting game while I gather more information will.
Though my heart is thundering a mile a minute, I lean back into Kaige’s bare chest, acting as a barrier between the two of them as he vibrates with barely restrained fury. “No. You don’t get to come here after all of these years and make me feel like shit again. Of course I wanted someone to take care of me; I was a child, and the people who were supposed to take care of me left me to fend for myself. First Dad, then you.”
She opens her mouth to retort, but we’re out of time, and I’m out of fucks to give.
“You never warned me to avoid the wolves, or told me why you ran from them in the first place. You never told me anything about myself, so is it seriously a surprise that I didn’t become the person you secretly wanted me to be?”
Grinding her teeth, she crosses her arms, stepping into my space. “You done?”
Kaige wraps an arm around my stomach, but he doesn’t allow either of us to lose an inch of ground. Staring her down, she looks so much... smaller than she used to. Still fiery, but easier to identify as a bitter person that continuously blames the world for all of her problems instead of someone to be feared.
Looking straight into her eyes so there’s no misunderstanding, my voice comes out completely calm, and each word that rolls off of my tongue shifts something integral inside of me. “With you? Yeah, I think I finally am.”
The door behind us opens to the lobby, the noise of people milling about a precursor to my turning around as I track her movements. I watch as she takes a hesitant step past me, and then swiftly passes Slade until she’s safely surrounded by witnesses. And I watch as she shakes her head like she’s disappointed in me before merging into the crowd, returning to the shadows that she so desperately clings to in order to survive.
Storming toward me, Slade demands, “Why?”
With a sad smile, I watch one of the glass doors open in the distance, a blip of dark hair visible over the sea of people slipping through, and out of my life yet again. “Because Cinjin was right. Death is quick, but suffering is much more satisfying. And there's no worse fate for Annika Slaughter than continuing to live the miserable life that she made for herself completely alone.”
Chapter 12
Sabrina
“Going up?” some guy asks as he takes a step through the open doors. The warning rumble that escapes Slade’s chest is amplified within the confines of the elevator, each reverberation chasing more blood from the stranger’s rapidly blanching face.
“Occupied.” Shoving him out, Slade smacks the button for the top floor, and then the one to immediately close the doors. Whirling around, he narrows his eyes on my face. “She’s going to come back to bite us in the ass. You do realize that, right?”
Holding his gaze, I bite my tongue. She is; I’ve no doubt about that. Sure, I could save face, play up the fact that keeping her alive gives us a bargaining chip if things go south with the Slaughters, but I’m... not that person. Not really. I may occasionally feel inspired to throw my hat into the games the guys play, navigating the waters between various pack politics, but that’s not who I want to be. Or at least, not the version of Sabrina that I’m currently in the process of constructing.
Kaige inspired the creation of someone that accepts her men are here to hold her up instead of back, and that I need to offer the same support if I want this to work.
“I do. But I also realize that when you eventually calm the fuck down, if I’d have let you kill her, no amount of siphoning would have saved you from the self-loathing.” I attempt to turn around, but Kaige’s grip is unyielding, plastering me against his body with a low snarl. So I can only manage a half-assed glance over my shoulder to include him. “Either of you. I respect you both enough not to let you fall into the trap she was setting. Because while she may be a bitch, she isn’t stupid. She’s too paranoid not to have had an ace up her sleeve to give everyone a final fuck you from beyond the grave if her plan went awry.”
"And next time?" Slade demands, pulling my attention back to him.
Holding his unwavering gaze, I ensure every word out of my mouth is imbued with such conviction, he’ll be forced to accept them as facts that may as well be written in stone. “No matter what happens, I will always find my way back to you.”
Closing the distance between us, he takes my face between both hands and crushes his lips against mine. For once, he doesn’t worry about handling me like something precious he’s desperate to protect. He kisses me like he wants to hurt me as much as he currently is, to punish me for scaring the hell out of him. With every clash of teeth, every dangerous sound that he forces me to swallow, he shoves the warning down my throat, and into every fiber of my being.
The wolves are done hiding in the shadows.
Kaige’s hand slides up my outer thigh, inching my towel higher as his teeth slowly rake along my shoulder before clamping down. While my body jerks at the sharp sting, there’s nowhere to go. They have me firmly trapped between the two of them, and as Slade tears his mouth from mine to work a path down one side of my neck, Kaige takes the other.
The heat of his breath sends a shiver through me as Kaige growls against my skin, “You need to stop trying to protect us.”
Breathing growing ragged, I manage a weak reply. “Nobody's allowed to yell at me today, remember? It’s my free pass day to get into whatever trouble I want.”
His dark, breathy chuckle elicits another shiver. “Yell?” As Slade slips a hand between my legs, Kaige kisses a lazy path up my neck to whisper in my ear, “Why would we yell when there are much better ways to get our point across?”
I fist the front of Slade’s shirt as he slips two fingers inside of me, thumb working my clit. Drawing my attention back to him, Kaige nips at my earlobe and shifts his hands to my hips. Pulling me away from Slade, he spins me around before gently pushing me back against Slade’s chest.
“People will always try to take you away from us.” Palming my cheek, he simply holds my gaze for a weighted moment, and I watch as the small bit of color remaining in his eyes is engulfed. “Our job is to always give you a reason to come back.”
Slade slides a hand over my collar before wrapping it around my throat. To Kaige, he commands, “You have four floors left before you’ll have to fight the rest of us for her. Make them count.”
Without wasting a moment, he drops to his knees at my feet, capturing one of my legs and throwing it over his shoulder. Shoving my towel up out of the way and palming my ass to keep me steady, he tongues my clit experimentally at first. Each swipe of his tongue, every brush of his lips, he meticulously files away what gets a reaction.
Which is damn near everything thanks to the ace up his sleeve.
“Of course your tongue’s pierced,” I breathlessly complain, squirming. “Like you guys didn’t have enough advantages to get your way already, now you can just sic the virgin king of oral on me to-” Slade tightens his grip on my throat and my sentence tapers off into a soft moan.
Bringing his lips to the shell of my ear, he whispers, “One minute left, and then you’re mine. Don’t you want to get Kaige addicted to the taste of you coming on his tongue so he’ll be inspired to get a few more piercings for you to enjoy?”
Wrapping his lips around my clit, Kaige sucks, hard, and my hips buck. It drives my ass into Slade’s straining erection, and he stiffens for a moment before pressing a smirking kiss to my temple. Sliding a hand up the back of my thigh and over my ass, he gently tugs on the toy.
At the sound of my small whimper, he practically purrs. “Is this why you insisted on showering alone earlier?” At my shallow nod, his fingers flex around my throat. “It’s a good thing you did, because the others aren’t going to be nearly as patient to get their hands on you as I am.”
Pressing the button, the vibrations send me arching into Kaige’s mouth. What he lacks in experience he makes up for with enthusiasm, and with every twitch or gasp I make, he doubles his efforts on the things that garner the most visceral reactions. Between the extra stimulation, Slade whispering dirty promises in my ear, and Kaige devouring me like it’s a life or death mission, by the time the elevator stops, I’m combusting.
Tangling my fingers in Kaige’s hair, I hold him in the perfect spot while I ride his face through the crest of my orgasm, only loosening my grip when the last aftershock fades. Sucking down lungfuls of air, I rely on Slade to keep me upright. As Kaige turns to kiss my inner thigh before carefully guiding my leg back to the ground, Slade turns off the toy, giving me a small reprieve.
“Oh good, you found her.” My head whips to the open door and my face instantly flames at the sight of three of the guys from the pool staring at us with varying expressions of lust, jealousy, and sheepishness. “We’ll, just, uh...” With one last look, they head off down the hall toward the stairwell, and I groan, thumping my head against Slade’s shoulder.
“You knew they were there.” No point pretending it’s anything other than a statement, because with as worked up as the guys are right now, there’s no way they’d let their guards down completely. Kaige, I could give a pass to because he had his face buried between my legs, but Slade had a perfect view of the doors opening.
“I did,” he confirms without an ounce of remorse. “We’ve been too lax in making it abundantly clear to anyone that looks at you twice that they have no business doing so.”
Kaige rises to his feet, scrubbing a hand over his glistening face with a wicked grin. “It was this, or eviscerate them, but it’s your day off from stressful situations, remember?”
Before I can come up with a retort, Slade’s sweeping an arm under my thighs, lifting me up. “My turn.”
Striding out of the elevator and down the hall, he approaches the door to our room. But as I begin to squirm to my feet to free up one of his hands to let us in, I quickly realize that it isn’t necessary. The door’s hanging at an angle, as if someone ripped it open with such force it removed the top hinge.
Shouldering it open, he crosses the main lounge space to the left this time, toward the untouched bedroom. Laying me on the bed, he pulls his phone out of his pocket and dials someone before switching it to speakerphone. Tossing it on the mattress beside me, he sheds his shirt, shoving his pants off in a fluid motion as he crawls to hover above me.
Before anyone says a single word, when the ringing ceases as someone answers the call, he succinctly declares, “Found her.”
“Where?” comes Boden’s harsh demand.
Lining himself up, Slade thrusts into me without preamble, sinking to the hilt. “Back in the room.”
“What happened?” Bo snarls, but Slade isn’t interested in carrying on a conversation. Gripping my hip bruisingly tight, he picks up the pace, fucking me hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.
Fisting the blanket beside me, I gasp, “Don’t leave him spiraling. Either give him the highlights or hang up.”
Slinging one of my legs over his arm to spread me wider, he taps the button on my vibrator and drives deeper with the new angle. Pinning my knee to my chest as he takes me hard and fast, he swallows down every pathetic sound that comes out of my mouth. "Nope."
Bo’s snarl is followed by the muffled sound of a brutal crack of flesh and bone that has Slade smiling against my lips. “Kaige?” Over his shoulder, I catch a brief glimpse of Kaige watching us with a pained expression. “You might want to rub one out now or you’re not going to make it more than two minutes when she’s ready for you.”
Gently tugging on the toy, he immediately pulls my attention back to him as he purrs against my throat. "Tell me, mon soleil, how long did you need to play with yourself before you could take this? How long were you on the other side of that door dripping with need before you were desperate enough to take whatever relief you could get?”
Cheeks flaming, I press my lips together before taking a slow breath. I’m a huge fan of dirty talk, but at their hands. When it comes to responding? My mouth goes completely dry and I clam up. But new Sabrina is all about venturing outside of her comfort zone and testing her boundaries, even if it makes me squirm.
“Long enough to almost give up on the idea. Wanted to make sure I didn't change my mind before coming out here and suggesting we all learn how to work together."
I reflexively tighten around him as he chuckles, the sound low and teasing. "And did you?"
My nails dig into his back as I pull him impossibly closer. "Nope. Still sounded like a solid plan."
Clucking his tongue, he jerks his head toward the open bedroom door in a silent signal to Kaige. Time has no meaning as he hammers into me, but Kaige returns quickly enough, slipping the bottle of lube into Slade’s hand. Pouring a generous amount into his hand, he makes quick work of drawing the toy out and back in, each thrust smoother than the last.
“You need someone distracting you so you relax enough to make it easier to take.” To punctuate his point, he stands up, dragging me to the edge of the mattress and thumbing my clit as he quickly brings me right back to the brink. All the while, he uses the toy to fuck my ass, and unintelligible words tumble from my mouth when the first wave of pleasure hits me. “That’s it, beautiful,” he praises, maddeningly calm and collected.
The only saving grace as he suddenly pulls out is his tortured groan. Tugging me upright, he shoves Kaige’s shoulder to push him onto the bed and urges me onto my knees in front of him. "Be a good girl and reward him for waiting so patiently, won’t you?"
Without waiting for an answer, he fists my hair and guides my lips to Kaige’s cock. Bracing myself on his thigh, I barely keep myself from gagging, but his strangled litany of praising curses gives me encouragement. Palming the base of his cock, I stroke him a few times to catch my breath before swirling my tongue over the tip and taking him as deeply as I can stand. A few bobs later he's on the verge of coming undone, taking over for Slade to palm the back of my head and guide my motions. Hollowing out my cheeks, I suck hard, and his grip tightens in my hair to hold me in place. With a strangled sound, he stills, cock jerking in my mouth as he comes hard and fast.
Swallowing him down, I flick my tongue over him as I retreat, only getting a momentary reprieve before Slade has my jaw in a firm grip, stroking himself with the other. Parting my lips, I barely manage to take the tip before he’s coming on my tongue. With a few shallow thrusts, he fills my mouth, forcing me to take everything he has to give.
Or so I thought before an arm bands around my ribcage and wrenches me free.
