Pack Possessed, page 18
part #4 of Thrown to the Wolves Series
Sabrina scrubs a wet hand over her face. “Or for all they know, rats are dragging around my corpse.”
Shooting her an exasperated look, I sigh. “Didn't we talk about this already? Maybe you could put all of that pessimistic energy into thinking Ash will get struck by lightning instead and save us all some effort.”
Amusement sparkling in her eyes, she mimes zipping her lips. Hunter sets what remains of the burning embers aside as we get lost in our respective thoughts for several minutes, trying to make sense of every surreal thing that’s happening in our lives and the reality of our current situation. A mate with abilities we barely understand, the wolves we’ve spent a lifetime with actually being demons, and an immortal madman playing puppet master with all of our lives. When push comes to shove, being trapped down here in this place that radiates something ancient and magical doesn’t seem so bad... if you ignore the lack of food and my brothers that must be going out of their minds with worry. Plus the fact that we only have so many clothes we can burn before we’re left naked in the dark, sitting around hoping someone will save us.
Aaaaaand we’re back to this being a shitty situation.
“So, this is where that guy got the stones to fuck us all over, I take it?” Hunter muses, looking towards one of the coral gemstones embedded in the wall.
“Probably,” Sabrina concedes, following his line of sight. “But to be fair, he was only trying to help because he saw that Acheron was a narcissistic douchebag, too.”
Hunter swipes a handful of water and scrubs it over his face. “We’re not going to make any more progress this afternoon, so as much as I hate it since the others will be freaking out right now, we should try to get a couple hours of sleep and kill some time that way.”
Sabrina’s quiet for a long moment, gods only know what going through her head right now. “Anyone opposed to rinsing off before we lay around pretending to sleep since we all know we’re not going to be able to? The water’s still coming in, so we can drink from there if it takes forever for the water to filter out. Heck, maybe the dirt will make it more obvious where it’s draining and we can start chipping away at it.”
“Might as well,” Damian agrees, stripping out of his wet t-shirt. “Not like I’m going to be able to sleep in boxers that could stock a garden bed.”
It sets off a chain reaction of shedding our remaining clothes, and I slip into the water. This section at least only comes up to my chest, but there’s a downward slope towards the center. While the basin is made of smooth stone, there are enough grooves in it to offer some footholds for stability. Sabrina stays in her bra and underwear when she climbs in, and we make the best of what we have to work with. Submerging our clothes, we use the wall as a makeshift washboard, rinsing them until the water dripping from these is relatively clear. Wringing them out, Hunter climbs out with our haul, laying everything out beside the fire to dry.
Sabrina slides one of her bra straps off her shoulder. “Honestly, I expected it to be a lot colder.”
“Here, let me help.” Stepping up behind her, I unhook the back, sliding it off, submerging it, and toss it up to land beside the rest of the pile.
“Well, if we’re offering to help get her naked...” Damian cages her in between us, skimming his palms down her sides and over her ass, hooking his thumbs in the waistband of her underwear. Giving her plenty of time to protest, he begins dragging them down her hips agonizingly slowly.
Settling a hand on her stomach beneath her pendant, my fingers curl around her side, pinning her back against me and nuzzling her temple. “If you want to stop, I highly recommend you speak up now.”
She pointedly keeps her mouth shut, grabbing onto my arm for leverage to help Damian get her underwear off.
Casting them off in the general direction of the fire, Damian slides a hand up her leg, guiding her into wrapping it around his waist. “What are you in the mood for, beautiful? Want us to tire you out quickly, or should we take advantage of all the time we suddenly have on our hands?”
“I think I’ve made enough poor decisions today, it’s someone else’s turn.” Resting her head back against my shoulder, she tilts her chin up to face me. “It would be really helpful if for the next half hour or so you could tell me what to do so I don’t have to think.”
Fuck, she’s perfect.
Kissing her forehead, I step away, leaning against the wall beside them. “I think Hunter still needs some convincing to get on board, beautiful. Why don’t you show him what he’s missing?” As Damian grips the edge with his free hand, I trail my fingertips down her arm, guiding her hand to wrap around my cock. “He’s got his hands full keeping you both steady, gorgeous. You’re going to have to help him out.” She reaches between them, rubbing the head of his cock across her slit twice before slowly impaling herself.
Damian lets out a soft groan. “Always torturing us in the best of ways.”
At her breathy laughter, I tighten my fingers around Sabrina’s hand with a small smile, setting the pace as I force her to stroke me. “That’s my girl. Now, let me see you ride him.” Nails digging into Damian’s shoulder, she experiments for a minute before finding a good rhythm.
Far too silent thus far, I glance Hunter’s way. I get it; it’s a fucked-up situation. The weight of the world could literally come crashing down to crush us at any moment, and the others have to be frantic with worry by now. But short of digging our own way out of here, there’s really nothing for us to do but wait, because Sabrina’s right. There’s no way in hell any of us will be able to sleep. So, we can either sit around worrying, or we can kill time another way. And right now, she’s not the only one that needs a distraction.
Catching Hunter’s heated gaze on the way her tits are bouncing, I pump her hand quicker. “Little faster, gorgeous. Really test Damian’s ability to hold out.” As she increases her pace, Hunter swallows, fisting himself. Nodding my head towards her breasts, I suggest, “That can’t be too comfortable without a bra. Hunter, why don’t you help her out?”
After only a brief hesitation, he gets back in the water, taking his place behind her. The second he finally lays his hands on her, he’s a goner. All moral dilemmas over how best to take care of us with nothing to work with, fears, and urgency to escape this place go up in smoke, as if her touch alone is a balm to his soul. With a soft rumble escaping his chest, he clamps his teeth around the side of her neck, biting down gently.
Gripping both of her breasts, thumbs rolling and toying with her nipples, he flexes his hips against her ass. “You are far too tempting for my better judgment, you know that?”
Breathless, she hums in approval, grinding back against him. “You’re welcome.”
“How do you feel about pushing your limits a little?” While I technically mean the question for all of them, she answers automatically. “Willing to try almost anything once.” Though there’s suspicion in her gaze, it’s vastly overshadowed by intrigue.
Catching Hunter’s attention, I raise an eyebrow at Hunter. “Not like there’s any lube around here, and her mouth’s mine tonight.”
It takes him a second to get the insinuation, but the moment it clicks, he cocks his head in contemplation. “Not against the idea.”
“Damian?”
He hisses in a sharp breath as Sabrina rolls her hips. “I’m with them on this one; willing to try anything once. Hunt doesn’t really do anything for me, but seeing how much Sabrina can take is one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon.”
Leaning closer, I turn her head and capture her lips, sliding her fist down my length again. “Relax, for us, pretty girl. Deep breaths.” Slowly, Hunter presses into her and she tenses a bit before kissing me back with a vengeance, easing back onto him a little more as she relaxes.
Hunter gives her another inch and I swallow down her small whimper as he praises, “That’s it, princess. Show us how well you can take everything we give you.” Drawing in slow inhales, she breathes through the stretch and pain until Hunter can’t drive any deeper.
“Fuck.” She bites my lip, shifting her hips as my cock twitches in her tight fist. “Start moving, please,” she begs.
They spur into motion instantly; gradually at first, testing the waters, but soon settle into a rhythm. Sliding my hand down her stomach, I circle her clit slowly at first, but as she takes over stroking my cock, I match her pace. Rolling her palm over the tip, she pumps just the first few inches of my length quickly, followed by a long, slow stroke to the base in a tight fist.
Against her lips, I groan. “You’re killing me, beautiful.”
Through gritted teeth, Damian hisses, “You? Fuck, if she squeezes me any tighter, it might snap off.”
The corner of her lips tilts up in a smirk as she mercilessly brings us to the verge of combusting. Between the firm grip she has on my cock and the soft moans coming out of her mouth, she damn near has me coming in the palm of her hand. But I’m bound and determined to hold out long enough to honor my claim.
“Oh fuck, I’m-” she breathes, tightening around all three of us and closing her eyes, biting my shoulder to muffle her scream.
The others don’t stand a chance, groaning their releases. I let them steal her away from me for only a moment, Hunter wrapping a hand around Sabrina’s throat and craning her head back to kiss her breathless as he shallowly thrusts into her from behind. Damian feathers a line of kisses across her collar, gently biting down on her shoulder as he rocks her hips against him, riding out the last of the aftershocks.
When she eventually comes down from her high, I steal her away, hoisting her out of the pool and hauling myself up after. “On your knees, pretty girl.”
Guiding my cock to her lips, I wait for her to come to me. The anticipation is nearly as thrilling as the first flick of her tongue, but nothing compared to how she swallows me further than she’s ever managed before. Using her hand on what she can’t take, she hollows out her cheeks, my eyes damn near rolling in the back of my head. With every roll of her tongue, each pump of her tight fist, and gasping sound she makes, I come undone.
Palming the side of her head, I take over, fucking her mouth in a few quick, shallow thrusts before pushing deeper and coming hard down her throat. Stroking a thumb over her cheek, I hold her gaze, waiting until she’s finished swallowing every last drop before pulling back on shaky legs. Dropping to my knees, I kiss her temple with a ragged exhale.
“Alright, I admit it; you were right. Thank you.”
She laughs, not pulling away. “For what?”
Kissing her once more, I smile. “For talking me out of killing your boyfriends when they first showed up. Things are definitely more exciting with them around.”
Chapter 13
Slade
Memories play on repeat in my head no matter how much I try to shake them away, like my inner demon is lamenting the loss of our mate as much as I am, desperately trying to hold onto any trace of her.
Leaning back against Cinjin’s chest in the bed of the truck, Sabrina gives me a sad smile. “If you were actually the soulless monsters you claim to be, it wouldn’t be so easy to torture you.”
And gods, she was right, because my soul is completely shattered. Every rock I cast aside without finding her magically safe and sound beneath is another stab in the heart. I’m not even sure when I was last able to draw in a full breath. Ever since hearing Sabrina, Boden, Hunter, and Damian were caught in the landslide, a pressure has settled in my chest like I’m being crushed beneath the rubble with them.
“There's no way anyone survived this.” To my right, a couple of men from Wilder’s pack are hauling one of the boulders off of the endless pile, passing it down the chain on that side.
“No, but you know Ash will be confiscating whatever’s left in that warehouse now.” Dusting his hands off on his jeans, he grabs another rock with a grunt. “Might put us on the short list if we’re the ones to find her body soon enough to salvage enough blood for another batch.”
Two seconds later he’s flat on his back with my fist buried in his eye. Every insult, every denial that I want to scream in his face seizes in my throat until I’m choking on them, unable to breathe. It all blurs together into white noise; the blood rushing through my veins, the chatter around us, and the thoughts I can’t put into words. With each heavy heartbeat pulsing in my ears, I slam my fist into his face, the rhythm the only thing I have left to cling to. The harder I hit, the faster it beats until it becomes my single-minded focus, a comfort. Constant.
This I can do. This makes sense. Because finding the person I love, only to lose her before we’ve even had a chance to really live? That’s not something I can wrap my mind around.
“Slade.” Shrugging off Kaige’s hand on my shoulder, I throw another punch, but he doesn’t let up. “He’s dead, man. I get it, but it’s time to put that energy to better uses; getting them out of there.”
This time when he grabs my arm to help haul me to my feet, I don’t fight him. I just stare down at what remains of the bloody pulp of a pathetic excuse of a man painting the rubble beneath him. Tracking the small rivulets of blood that run down the stones, my stomach twists violently at the images they evoke.
Voice a rough croak, I rasp, “Tell me they’re okay. Just... I need to hear it again. Please.”
Clasping my shoulder reassuringly, he squeezes once before leading me away. “They’re fine. Think about it. With the harsh incline in this area, the avalanche of dirt would have pushed them downward before the rocks fell.”
A frantic apology has us looking towards Ash in time to witness him grip the throat of the other bastard that must have run when I started beating the life out of his friend. Giving up the pretense of passing himself off as a regular shifter like the rest of them, the dark haze makes a reappearance on his skin, sending a chill down my spine. Every one of the three hundred and some odd men working to unearth the rubble comes to an abrupt halt, looking on in morbid fascination as shadowy tendrils snake from Acheron’s body and onto the man begging that it was a misunderstanding. Curiosity morphs into fear in the face of the pained scream that tapers off into strangled, choking gasps as a dark tendril rushes down the man’s throat. The acidic scent of burning flesh is followed by Ash snapping the bastard’s neck.
Once the thrashing stops, he drops the body without looking back, turning his furious attention onto the onlookers. “Find. Her.”
As they frantically get back to work, I scrub a shaky hand down my face. “There has to be a faster way.” Kaige falls into step beside me as I stride right up to the bane of our existence. “The caves; you know them better than anyone. There has to be another we could break into from above that would be quicker.”
Jaw clenched and wild-eyed, he snaps, “You think I haven’t thought of that?” He gestures a hand at the cliff above us. “These landslides have been happening since she was born, let alone all the ones that collapsed when this happened in the first damn place. This entire fucking place is unstable.”
Kaige growls, “But we know she’s in this one! We could just dig a little way down; it’s not any more of a risk than removing the rocks is.”
"There wasn't one here!" Chest heaving, he begins pacing, taking a few deep breaths to compose himself. "The entire thing was set up as two closed loops studded with cave pockets to house as many demons as possible, and the only access was at the peak of the mountain so humans couldn’t blindside us while we were sleeping. But there wasn't. One. Here. So we have to assume it's an air pocket and do everything we can not to trigger another collapse, because it'll be a miracle if she survived the first."
My heart plummets into my stomach, but Kaige has always been the one that believes in the impossible and isn't willing to drop the issue. "You had Elementals create that, yeah?" At Ash's terse nod, he states with absolute conviction, "Nobody creating a hiding place for people in the middle of a war wouldn't have had an emergency escape route. If you didn't know about it, that means they had their doubts about your intentions, too."
Several agonizingly long minutes tick by, even the men at work trying to be as silent as possible so as not to draw Ash's attention after his brutal display. Eventually, he dips his head in agreement. "Take the other two with you to the base of the mountain. If you can find where it lets out, go at it from that route."
Searching over my shoulder for where the twins ended up, I only make it a single step before he adds, "She better be alright, or everyone is going to pay the price for your failure to protect her."
Walking away, I don't bother responding. If we find her and she's not breathing? This world isn't worth living in anymore, anyway.
***
“Assuming it was a relatively straight shot down, it’s got to be around here somewhere. If no one has noticed it all of these years, maybe a hatch that’s hiding in plain sight?”
The twins have already shifted, tearing apart everything they come across as we spread out. Kaige opts to stare at the area from a distance, trying to see things from a tactical perspective, leaving me near the river that leads out toward the fields. There’s no drivable path in this area, everything an overgrown mess broken up only by the occasional fallen trees in various states of being hacked up. It’s amazing how much everything is starting to bounce back with as patchy and sickly green as the grass was when we arrived, especially since the Slaughters’ territory isn’t nearly this lush.
“Kaige?” Without tearing my eyes away from the scene, I shout, “Has this area always looked like this, or just since Sabrina got here?”
The crunching of his footsteps proceed him as he joins me. “Not to this degree, but yeah, it’s always been a bit better; it’s right next to the water.” Crouching down, he swipes Reid’s glasses off of the ground before they get crushed underfoot, tucking them to hang on the front of his shirt.
Gesturing a short distance away, I point out, “Even over there?” Finally facing him, I take his silent contemplation as confirmation and jog over.
