“That I'm a bigger monster than he is. And that scares the fuck out of him. Which is why he keeps me at arm’s length.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. Eros was confirming what I had suspected for a while now. The distance between him and his den brother had shrunk, but it was still there. Vincent was keeping everyone shut out, especially Deathwish. And that weighed on Eros.
“Baby…” I reached up to stroke my mate’s cheek, but he seized my wrist and bared his fangs in a savage sneer.
“I’m not showing you this to have a fucking heart-to-heart about Feral. You know why you’re here.”
Right. As much as I wanted to dig deeper into this wound that Eros’ had shown me a glimpse of, we were right in the middle of our twisted little game. I’d come this far into the dark psyche of my sweet sadist. I wasn’t going to ruin this for us now.
I snarled back at him, trying to wrench my arm out of his grip in vain. “No. Why am I here? I’m not interested in joining your freaky little zoo.”
“I wasn’t lying when I told Corry I was bringing you here for your safety. I’m a man of my word. Thing is, I can keep you safe from the plushiest room of the mansion, fit for a princess, or chained up in my slaughterhouse. I just need to figure out which one it’s going to be.”
The edge in his voice made my knees go weak.
“What do you mean? Why?”
He ran the bed of his index finger down the edge of my jaw, and somehow the simple contact of flesh on flesh felt more lethal than if he’d been holding a knife to my throat. “Because of what you are.”
Suddenly, he took me by my wrists, which were still bound together by the metal zip tie and raised my arms over my head with one hand while his other arm banded around my waist and lifted me up from the floor enough to secure me to the meat hook overhead.
My arms were stretched so tight my toes barely touched the floor.
“Comfy?” He smirked, stepping back to admire his handy work.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
He strode back to the table, pushed against the wall opposing me, pulled out a paper carton from his pocket, and extracted a cigarette from it with his teeth. He lit it, giving it a few thoughtful puffs as he took in the sight of me, helpless and waiting for whatever torture he had in mind. This was all a game, but his dark eyes drank me in like I was something new to slake their thirst on.
“I need to figure out exactly what you’re capable of,” he muttered, smoke spiraling from his mouth as his gaze shifted to his toolbox, gears turning behind his eyes.
“What I’m capable of?”
“You are a hybrid. That by itself isn’t a big deal. But you are two halves of something that don’t go together. That creates something inside you called chaos.”
“Chaos?”
“A monster. A ball of instincts and energy that has the opposite will as your tamer side. Feral is a hybrid with chaos. I need to figure out how much control you have over your monster and how powerful she is.”
“How? I don’t know how to bring her out.” I was only half feeding into the fantasy. Recently, I seemed to have much better control over my monster, but at the moment, she didn’t seem to want to come out. Probably because of the shit that happened with Vin, and the act of us stabbing him and Eros’ dream was maybe just a little too real for her. Unlike me, she missed him and was lamenting his absence.
Eros peeled his shirt over his head and tossed it into the corner, revealing his tight, ink-covered muscles. His reaper tattoo must have sparked so much fear while he was with his victims, especially when it was covered in their blood. Funny how it did nothing but trigger an ache between my legs that had my thighs clenching.
“Easy.” He tongued the tips of his fangs and let out a laugh that sunk straight to my apex.
“We force your monster out.”
Chapter ten
Tempt the Beast
Eroswaseverythingthatshould kill me. But he didn’t.
That was the fun part.
With my heart in my mouth, I watched him stride to his toolbox, open the drawers, and root around his fucked-up collection of torture equipment. What was he looking for? What was he planning?
My mouth went dry with all the wild possibilities playing in my mind.
