Assholes. I hate men. Well, no, I like men when they don’t talk or plot out my death.
“Let her go. She’s not your prey.” Reed’s voice is so calm, like he is coaxing a wild beast.
“Do you want to bet? Her blood is on my tongue. I taste her in my mouth, and she tastes so very sweet. Almost as sweet as she smells. I’m sure you’ve noticed, Reed; you’re the pack that has a weird obsession with humans. She would be fucked until she breaks in your pack.” He looks at Reed with a challenging smirk. “You like to fuck them, play with them like toys when they’re nothing. They should be permanently on their knees for their masters, with one of those enslaved marks and no thoughts in their minds. This one needs to be broken, and not by you.”
“Not all of us agree with the enslavement mark or hate people like you do,” Reed says casually as he moves closer. His eyes lock with mine. He tilts his head to the side just enough to tell me to jump when he’s ready. I blink once at him to tell him I understand. Reed is the lesser of three evils in my opinion, even if what Orion just said about his pack is a little concerning.
“You should hate people that aren’t us. They ruin everything.” He pushes the dagger closer to my neck, this time cutting me harder. Blood pours down my neck. I wince, but I don’t move. The three of them seem to go dead still. “Make me a vow, and I’ll let her go.”
“What new vow do you need?” Reed carefully asks. “What happened to the three of us vowing to trust each other all those years ago?”
“This bitch is what happened. I wanted to kill her in the Crone Pack, and you two stopped me. You even killed that prisoner who spat on her because he dared to go near her at all. I think you care about this one.” Reed did what? My heart pounds as Reed’s eyes find mine, and I see no regret in his eyes. “Now you won’t let me kill her. If our vow to trust each other still stood, you’d have stepped away.”
Blackfire sounds furious. “Orion, you know I couldn’t let you kill her in my pack or even now. I’m bound by my uncle to keep her alive, just as much as she is bound by that mark on her neck to help me. We both have to return to him alive, or there will be punishments. You fucking know what we are risking, what I am risking!”
No one speaks for a long moment. What are they risking? I almost forgot about the mark on my neck and how I will be forced to do what his uncle wants. In a swift move, Reed is in front of me, grabbing the dagger blade with his bare hand, not caring as it cuts him, and he pushes me to the side. I jump and roll, holding my bloody ear, as Orion punches Reed straight in the nose, and there is a snap that echoes. Reed smiles like he enjoyed the punch, blood pouring from his nose. He growls low and Orion tauntingly smirks, just before Blackfire jumps on Orion. Orion and Blackfire start punching each other, fighting in the mud, and I roll my eyes. Men. I shake my head and start walking away from the lot of them. That creature in the sky now seems like a better option than these three wolves.
“Wait.” Reed catches up and grabs my arm, stopping me. “Just stop a moment, little human.”
“Your nose looks like it’s broken,” I point out. Even with blood pouring down his face, he somehow looks happy.Lunatic.
I wince as he clicks it back into place with his other hand, and more blood gushes down his face. “It was.” His groan makes me shiver. He wipes his face with his shirt, showing me a flash of a six-pack on his stomach, and my stomach clenches. “Come sit back down with us.”
“No.” I pull my arm from his. “The three of you are psychopaths, and I’m safer on my own. Now go back to your insane friends and leave me alone.”
Reed sighs, stepping closer. “Little human, I told you already, you don’t know us. Come and sit back down, and no one isgoing to hurt you anymore. They’ll stop fighting soon. Wolves are more aggressive than the human males that you’ve known, and fighting is normal. It helps us work out our tempers. We are possessive of anything we think is ours, and territorial. Our wolves usually claim things that we’ve not agreed to in our minds, and Ori’s wolf has claimed you as his prey. Orion really doesn’t like you now because his wolf wants you, and he hates humans for his own personal reasons, and then you went and selected his half-sister. I heard Blackfire tell you what she did.”
“I didn’t know who she was! How am I getting blamed for that?” I shout at him. “And I’m not prey. What the fuck is wrong with you wolves?”
“Says the girl who regularly tries to get herself killed. I’ve known you one single day, and in that day, well, it’s a miracle you’re alive!” Reed shouts right back and his cheeks brighten. He sounds flustered. Someone should help him calm down, and it’s not going to be me. “And Orion literally warned everybody at the selection. He gave a whole speech about it before we could pick.”
“Oh yeah, I wasn’t listening to him. He babbles on a lot.” I wave a hand in the air. “Most males do. It’s better to ignore you.”
He just looks at me, unblinking, but he looks annoyed. His eyebrow twitches. “Okay, there’s more to you than meets the eye. Can we please go back? It’s safer. Blackfire and I have made a barrier around the trees with our magic, and it will alert us if anyone is near.”
“It failed, because Orion clearly walked right through it.” I arch an eyebrow.
“Orion is…it’s different for him.” He shakes his head. “You’re in danger, Meredith. Can’t you see that, or do you not care? I can’t figure you out.”
“Good, I don’t want you to figure me out, Reed. I don’t want to know you at all, while we are on the topic.” I snort. “We can be strangers who forget the other exists.”
Reed surprises me by yanking me closer by my arm until our bodies are flush. My cheeks burn as he looks down at me. “We will never go back to being strangers, little human. I killed one of my own for you, and you owe me your life. So fucking listen to me and come back. I will carry you if you don’t.”
My heart is pounding as he glares down at me, his breaths harsh and deep like mine. I can feel heat pouring off him as we stand so close.Too close. “Fine, let’s go back.”
“Fine.” He lets me go, and I suck in a deep breath of cold air. He walks ahead of me, and he looks back over his shoulder. “Little human, you forget I know you’re not scared of me. I can scent every change in your emotions, your every feeling, and nothing about you screams fear. Stop pretending you don’t trust me already.”
“I don’t,” I snap, my cheeks flushing. He can scent me? Well, that’s embarrassing for so many reasons. I wonder what I smell like to him. Knowing my luck, it’s gone-off cheese or something equally disgusting.
“You didn’t use the dagger Blackfire gave you against me or Orion. You’re such a bad liar, little human. If you were really scared, you’d have tried to use it.” His deep laugh echoes, and I clench my jaw tight. He is right, and Ihateit. I didn’t reach for my dagger at any point, and I should have done. The truth is, I’m not trained to fight, I hate running or any form of cardio, and I’d rather sit on my couch with a book and a slice of cake. Actually, fuck it, not a slice, the entire cake. I’m usually alone, so there’s no one to judge my life choices, and now I can’t do any of that for comfort.
We walk over to the middle of the three trees where we were standing, and I sit down, leaning back against the tree I’ve claimed as mine. Reed doesn’t move, standing like a guard near me as he waits. Eventually, Blackfire and Orion come back, and they don’t look great.
Orion’s hair is sticking in every direction. It’s messy, full of dead leaves, bruises all over his face and arms, and a cut lip. Blackfire’s jaw looks bruised and bloody, but I bet the mask helped protect his face in the fight. Orion was clearly not as lucky. The odd thing is, they just fought, but the two of them seem more relaxed and almost happy as they walk back. They even laugh at some joke between them. Psychopaths. I was right; this just confirms it. Blackfire’s shoulder looks strange, and I watch as he slams his shoulder into a tree and pushes it back in place with a growl. “Don’t dislocate my bad shoulder, asshole.”
“It’s an easy way to win against you. Don’t have weaknesses, dickhead.” Orion laughs back, and Blackfire playfully kicks his chin. Hard.
Orion’s laugh dies when he sees me, his green eyes almost glowing, and he steps closer like he is in a trance, but Blackfire’s growl is sharp. “Don’t make me warn you again.”
