“Where is your offering?”
Titus tensed at the question. His hand pushed down hard against my mouth to keep in my whimper as his dick twitched inside me, beginning to harden again. “She has a name.”
“Like it matters.” I bristled at the detachment in his voice. “Just make sure she doesn’t wander off before the Ritual. It will be your job to escort her. I’ll have my hands full with her mother.”
“I don’t understand why you went as far as to marry this one. You kidnapped my mother. Simple drive-by at a gas station. Easy as that. Why do it this way? The wedding was a pain, as is all this sneaking around. Now she’s leaving town and spending the money you’ve taken from the other offerings. What if she doesn’t come back?”
My blood crystallized. Titus’s mother was kidnapped? What was an offering? How many were there? It had to be a lot, if their funds supported my mother’s crazy spending habits. And what was this Ritual? My mind was a whirlwind as it scrambled to parse the information Titus was giving through his unaware father.
“She’ll be back. As for marrying her, this way she came with her daughter. You're of age now, you have been for years. It’s time you give your first offering to the Elder One. So cut that tone, boy. You should be on your knees thanking me for serving an offering up to you on a silver fucking platter.” He stormed out, anger radiating off him in vicious waves.
When Ezra’s footsteps faded, Titus pulled out of me and plucked my panties from my mouth in the same beat.
“Youaretrying to protect me!” I gasped. I sat up, tucking my legs together while Titus smoothed my skirt back down. “From your father! Is he the monster?”
Titus raked a hand through his hair, shaking his head. “It would be easy if he were the only one.”
“Is that why you’re trying to scare me? You want me to leave town, don’t you? What’s the deal with your father? What did he mean by ‘offering?’”
Suddenly, my stepbrother appeared weary, like he hadn’t slept in days. “Ezra Leeds runs a cult, as I’ve mentioned. Offerings are what we call the people that we lure here, kind of like sacrifices.”
My stomach somersaulted. “What?Sacrifices!?”
“For fuck’s sake,” he snarled as he hurriedly stuffed himself back in his jeans. “It would be so much easier if you just left town. Why do you have to ask so many damn questions? But fine. You want answers? I’ll give you fucking answers.” Taking me firmly by the waist, he lifted me out of the truck bed and set me on my feet. Taking my hand, he pulled me alongside him. The gesture might have been sweet if it wasn’t for the fact that it felt like I was being led somewhere I didn’t want to go.
“Ow…where are we going?”
“You wanted answers. There’s something I need to show you.”
We started toward what seemed to be the town's border, but there was nothing around to see other than dense woodland. My lips slanted in a frown as confusion overtook me. "In the woods?"
Titus glanced back at me, dark shadows casting a mask over his face. “The Pine Barrens hold all of Bishop’s dirty little secrets.”
Chapter Nine
Lore
Iwasalreadynervous,and I could tell Titus practically smelled it on me. His devilish smirk made my face heat, as if he was getting off on my fear.
My new stepbrother was irresistible and deplorable all at once, and I couldn’t explain why it drove me wild. Maybe it was the mystery that clung to him the same way the fog hung over the forest floor. He had a six-inch tongue, and claws that could grow at his whim. I knew I hadn’t been imagining those things.
So why had I been so stupid in letting him fuck me? And stupider yet, I was allowing him to lead me into the Pine Barrens to who the fuck knew where to do whatever the fuck he wanted with me. Was I that desperate for answers?
Or, was I just that hopelessly into him that I’d already decided it didn’t matter what he was? I wasn’t going to want him any less.
Something between us had shifted. It wasn’t just because of the sex.
I felt closer to him on a different level. I trusted him. More than anyone else, even my own mother.
Especially my own mother. Gloria Brooks would always choose her comfort, and her love of designer crap, over her daughter's health and safety. At least Titus was concerned with keeping me safe.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll have to see for yourself.” I tensed at the way his cadence came out—all rough and serious.
“G-great…” I flopped my arms out at my sides, hoping to dispel some of the uncomfortable tension rolling off him in waves. “So, I’m being dragged out into the middle of the woods. Not creepy at all, right?”
I relaxed a little when I caught the corners of Titus’s mouth curving into the ghost of a smile. “If you had a problem with creepy, I doubt you’d read the books you do and fuck the monsters you fuck.”
