Chapter 18
Amber light sparked in the darkness. Teeth grew sharp and vicious. I was in pitch darkness, cool sand between my toes. The only visible thing was his glowing face. Waves crashed in every direction around me.
I had been running until my body no longer allowed it, ran until I ended up on this beach. An invisible wind blew through my sweat soaked hair. I couldn’t breathe, fear and adrenaline leaving a copper taste in my mouth.
It was useless to fight back and useless to try and hide. He could smell me. His predatory instincts far outweighed any of my abilities.
He stood still in front of me, grunting with each breath. I could see in his gaze that the man I knew was gone. I knew what he wanted, I knew what he would take.
In less than an instant, a hand was at my throat. Another collected my hands by the wrists, crushing them together and raising them above me as a tree materialized behind me.
He pushed me against the hard bark, scraping my legs as my body was raised.
My legs were suspended in the air until the hand around my throat moved to a hip and pulled the leg around his waist. His lips were in the nape of my neck, tickling the sensitive skin with licks and sucks.
A sharp pull snapped the fabric of the underwear that separated him from me. The skin that rubbed against me was so warm and rough, so different from anything I’ve felt before and I gasped.
He lifted me further up by the roundness of my ass, pulling me closer to the snake between his legs.
His other hand left my wrists leaving the ghosts of pain from his grip behind. It desperately ripped at the thin material that made up my tank top, instead finding its way to my breast beneath it. His fingers pulled at my nipples and I groaned at the sensation.
I shouldn’t want this.
His lips travel up the side of my neck to the base of my ear, then across my chin. I could feel it moving against my thigh. I squeezed my eyes shut. The hand groping at my breast moved its way down, brushing the area beside my navel.
He arched his lower back to make room between us, my legs clinging to him. The back of his fingers swept over my clitoris and I whimpered at the sensation. He grabbed himself and rubbed where his fingers had been.
I inhaled sharply with realization at the hard thing that threatened to push inside. It was too big, he would never fit. It wouldn’t matter to him either. Grayson would tear into me with every thrust, further and deeper until I was no more, the throbbing and spitting monster claiming every bit of my virginity.
My eyes burst open and I jerked up from where I had been laying in bed. I looked around between pants as moisture clung to the back of my neck. The odd room was different in the light of day.
The glow of Grayson’s eyes had imprinted on the back of my own eyelids as my privates pulsated with the memory of the dream.
I waited for my breathing to calm before climbing out of the bed. It was only a dream, I told myself. Grayson was still tied to the tree outside where I left him last night.
I had refused to let him go. After he rejected the soup I had so graciously brought him, I replaced the gag and returned to my hut before the men woke to find what I had done.
I knew he would be mad enough that if he ever did escape, I would be the first to pay.
But making enemies of these men wasn’t on my to-do list just yet. So far, they have only treated me with kindness which is much more than I can say about Grayson. Plus, the food they made was a lot better.
I went to open the hatch door when I noticed the wet spot across my underwear. My pants had never been retrieved from the waterfall and my wet dream was evident from the dark color between my legs.
Looking around the empty room, my search landed on the bed. I tried out the different animal pelts until one wrapped far enough around my waist to tuck into itself like a towel, acting as a short skirt. I thought it looked somewhat like a bobcat but didn’t really feel like guessing. I had to get my pants back today.
As soon as I exited the hut, the smell of breakfast drifted across my nose. It was heavenly. I only limped a few steps before an arm wrapped around mine to help me down the path. I looked up into the face of Julien and smiled.
"Good morning, seeing your face is like watching the sun rise and set a million times in minutes. How did you sleep?"
"Good morning, Julien. I slept," I wasn’t sure if I could describe it without giving the still fresh feeling away. "Hard."
He chuckled and led me to a seat by the fire. The morning air was crisp and refreshing, though I would still kill for a cup of coffee.
I glanced from beneath my eyelashes over to where Grayson sat. His sight was glued to me and I quickly looked away. I couldn’t tell what the look he gave me conveyed. Was he angry about last night, pleading for my help, or relishing because he knew what I had dreamt about?
A wooden bowl was handed to me that contained scrambled eggs, bits of meat and green strips. My mouth started watering at it.
"You found eggs here?"
"We found birds." Jax told me. "There’s a pen in the back where we keep the ducks."
He handed me a carved fork and I noticed lettering at the handle. An RS was carved in a gorgeous cursive that I then saw matched the same lettering on the bowls side. I looked up at Jax who gave me a seductive wink before returning to his own bowl of breakfast.
I wondered if all of the dishes were marked with the initials of their users and looked around at the men beside me. It was too difficult to see and my eyes had drifted to Grayson again. His stare had not left me and guilt settled in my stomach as I looked down at the breakfast in my lap.
They had agreed not to kill him, was starvation included in that deal? I decided to test it even though Dominic, who seemed to be the most respected, hadn’t yet joined us.
I stood and grabbed a cup of water as I limped my way towards him. Despite my running from Grayson yesterday, my ankle was not feeling as sore as I expected. The pain was dull and aching but not unbearable.
I wrapped my feet underneath me as I sat next to Grayson. The men watched me but didn’t stop me as I prepared my plate for sharing.
"If you act like an ass, I won’t feed you." I told him like the stubborn child he was.
I reached for the gag as his eyes glared at me with a fire that made me fear my fingers would burn. I pulled it down to around his neck and waited to see what he would do or say. When there was nothing, I picked up the fork to feed him.
"They’ll kill you Rebel." He whispered.
I raised the fork up to his lips and held his gaze. He leaned forward and pulled the food from the fork with his teeth and an excitement grew in my stomach. There was something about him being bound to my will that made me feel oddly turned on.
"The water," he requested after a few bites and I obliged. He gulped it all down and I had to go retrieve more. The scratch across his chest was nearly healed and I swept my finger across the pinkish scratch. Werewolves really did heal fast.
At my touch, goosebumps raised on his chest and the hint of a smile touched his lips. I snapped my hand back and picked up the dishes to finish my part of the breakfast back by the fire.
The rogues kept sharing looks with each other like they were having a secret and silent conversation that I wasn’t privy to. I sat on the bench and finished the eggs. Marek walked over with a spoonful from the large pot and wordlessly filled my bowl.
I had gotten away with caring for Grayson, there was no protest to my benevolence towards my aggressor and I sighed with relief. I didn’t quite understand it myself but a weight seemed to be lifted with the knowledge he had gotten to eat and drink.
I purposefully left the gag off and prayed he didn’t say anything to piss these men off.
Dominic arrived from his hut and gave Julien a questioning look at the sight of Grayson. Julien looked towards me and shrugged. He grabbed a bowl while watching me carefully.
He sat beside me and ate. He wanted to talk, I could feel it. There was a tension in the air that I unfortunately caused. The men were uneasy and questions lingered in the air. I set my own bowl down beside me and waited.
When he was ready, he took a deep breath in like he was contemplating how to word the things on his mind. I became anxious, this was about Grayson and I feared the outcome.
"I think we should talk about what we’re going to do with the one you’re bound to."