MELANIE
“You can’t justkeepher, Axel.”
The voice pierces my consciousness, dragging me out of the darkness and back to the freezing cold.
Only… it’s not cold. Not at all. Warmth surrounds me, wrapping around me like a blanket.
No, wait. Maybe that’s an actual blanket. Whatever it is, it’s soft and warm and I want to stay wrapped up in it forever.
Beneath my cheek, something vibrates, and the deep rumble of a man’s voice reaches my ears. “Try and stop me, Ford, and see how far you get.”
“It’s not me you should worry about.” There’s the first voice again, not quite as deep, but just as growly. “Gray is going to fucking flip over this.”
“You let me worry about Grayson. I found her, so I’m keeping her.”
Another voice joins the fray, sounding almost amused. “You know she’s not a puppy, right?”
“Don’t care. She’s mine.”
It takes my sluggish brain several long moments to finally engage. Are they… are they talking aboutme?
Fear spikes in my veins, sending my heart racing, but I can’t seem to convince my muscles to move. After hours spent in that freezing cold van, it just feels so nice to be all wrapped up like this, and my body doesn’t seem inclined to escape the snuggly warmth.
But I need to. Whoever these men are, clearly they’re in disagreement about whether or not I should be allowed to stay. And I’ve seen enough scary movies in my lifetime to know what happens when dangerous men decide it’s too risky to keep someone around.
“Dammit.” One of the men sighs. “When Gray finds out about this, I want it made abundantly clear I was against it from the start.”
“Your objection is duly noted. Now, are you going to check her over or not?”
“Fuck. Yeah, yeah, bring her back.”
I’m moving. I don’t know how, but I’m moving, floating through the air, and the movement is disconcerting enough to distract me from wondering what “check her over” could possibly mean.
“Lay her on the table.” The voice has changed, become more brisk, more business-like. “Do you know how long she was out there before you found her?”
“No idea.”
“All right. Put her on her tummy so I can take her temperature.”
Again I’m moving not of my own volition, and something hard presses against my stomach and chest. Prying one eye open slightly, I peek around at what appears to be a doctor’s office of some kind.
“Here. Put this over her. It will help keep her from moving around too much if she wakes up.”
Panic grips me by the throat as something heavy settles over my lower back, trapping me in place. But it isn’t until warm air brushes over my thighs that my brain really engages.
“No!”
“Correction.” The voice from before is dry, humorless. “Whenshe wakes up.”
Another voice, the one that claimed me as his, rumbles in my ear. “Shh, little one. Uncle Ford just needs to check your temperature and make sure you’re not suffering from hypothermia.”
I don’t know who the fuck Uncle Ford is, or what him checking my temperature has to do with being held down and exposed to these strange men. But I have no intention of sticking around long enough to find out.
Bracing my hands on the table beneath me, I shove upward—only to find my progress halted by the thing stretched over my lower back. “Let me go, you perverts! I’m calling the cops!”
Sharp, burning pain explodes across my right ass cheek, then my left, and it takes me several stunned moments to process what just happened.
“Did you just… Did you justspank me?”
