“Apollo belongs to Scott, and he wants him back. I’m fucking keeping him.” Dexter’s voice trembles, strained as he tries to resist the more dominant Alpha. His body shakes. He doesn’t even notice as I drop my bag on the floor, Apollo’s blades in both hands.
“Apollo,” Hudson roars, standing slowly, his dominance joining with Thor’s in an almost suffocating show of power as he continues, “was never Scott’s!” Hudson’s snarl is so vicious that I tremble from the sound.
The glossy look in Apollo’s eyes fades away completely, and when he grins, I know he’s fully with us. With a single nod, we move as one. Bodies blur, weaker men scream, and a manic giggle escapes my lips as I toss one blade at the man closest to Beau.
Hudson and Thor are trained well, easily disarming the men closest to them. Beau is not as controlled, but he’s scrappy, and I lose track of him after he jumps on someone's back to choke them out.
A gun goes off, and someone screams, but it’s not a voice I recognize. Beau just shot someone.
I launch my body up and backward, hoping to catch Dexter off guard. The force causes him to lose his grip on my hair. I use the advantage to pin him under me, slamming him down onto the futon mattress, one blade against his throat, the other pointed at his heart. His putrid stench of fear sends a bolt of satisfaction through me.
“Don’t move,” I warn, keeping my eyes on him.
Apollo is leaping through the air and landing on Dexter’s chest before I can take my next breath. The movement causes me to stab the vile man beneath us a little, but his cry of pain only makes me smile.
Apollo grabs my hand that’s holding the blade, pressing further into Dexter’s throat, and meets my eyes.
“You’re not his victim. You’re his nightmare. Make sure he never gets to hurt anyone else ever again.” I glance down at Dexter. He is so weak. Pathetic. Powerless.
“Call me…” Apollo trails off, his voice breaking, and I snap my head back up so I can look at him once more. “Say it," he whispers.
“Pretty Boy?” I ask, watching as he shivers in response, his eyes falling shut. My heart aches for him. Leaning in, our foreheads press together, and I close my eyes too. “You’re my pretty boy, aren’t you, Apollo? Dexter and Scott will never hurt you again.”
Beau’s body rattles the futon as he moves beside us, panting and covered in someone's blood.
“Kill him,” Beau purrs. “R.I.P. Dexter. You won’t be missed.” The grin on his face would be terrifying if it wasn’t so sexy. Dexter doesn’t seem to agree.
“Wait—wait! Beau! I know the cell your father keeps the kill switch code in!” Dexter’s squeal has everyone freezing.
“I don’t know what that is.” Beau shrugs. Waving his comment away, but Apollo and I don’t move. Dexter takes the opening.
“The kill switch your dad has in your spine, like the ones we used at Whitehill to stop everyone from escaping! Just ask Apollo!”
“What is he talking about?” The betrayal and uncertainty in his eyes cuts to the core, but Apollo is done hiding.
“Let's tie him up, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Thor and Hudsontied Dexter up in the corner, neither of them bothering to worry about how rough they’re being. Good. I wonder if I can get Thor to crush some of Dexter’s bones while he’s at it.
“Scott caught me going through his desk the day he took me to Whitehill. I broke in unnoticed, or so I thought. That's when I found emails on his laptop between him and your doctor. I thought I could find the code, but the longer I looked, the more time Scott had to get to me,” Apollo says.
“Why wouldn't you warn me?” The bitter notes in his scents have me ready to tear the world apart to make it better for him.
“So you wouldn't panic.”
“We didn’t want you to worry about it. Apollo and I never would have done anything to provoke Scott into using the code. It’s his insurance policy,” I add, pressing into his side as Apollo holds his hands.
“He would have already killed you by now if he wanted you dead. I thought he forced you to live as a Beta because he saw your designation as a weakness, but…” Apollo trails off, wincing.
“But you think I was right. What I said about him planning to do something even worse to Beau is real.” I whisper.
“I—if I tell you what I know, you p-promise to let me go?” Dexter speaks up from the corner. I consider cutting his tongue out, but we might need him to speak.
“Sure.” Apollo nods. “I’ll let you go. If you give us everything we ask for.” He shrugs, but the way his fists clench in his lap is all I need to know.
Dexter can leave…in a body bag.
“The injections he gives you, they’re to alter your hormones so you seem Beta, but they’ll also make your first heat so intense you’ll be half feral with need. So far gone you won’t even know or care who’s fucking you. Or…” Dexter trails off as the Alphas all start growling, eyes wide with fear. Thor’s dominance is still heavy in the air.
