“What happened after you shot at Avery?” I ask Shiloh, watching as Ansel bites Bellamy’s forearm. It’s where there was a bite bond before. While it’s healed, it no longer has the shimmery look that a healed bite bond usually does since that evil cunt broke the bonds.
“I put explosives in the chamber, closed the door and blew it up,” Shiloh says smugly. “Unfortunately, I’m not a hundred percent sure she’s dead, because there was too much smoke for me to check. I squirreled after that and found Jake.”
“She’s a cockroach,” Bellamy complains, “I bet the bitch is alive.”
He and Ansel look a lot more relaxed now that they’ve solidified their bond again, and I decide I want that too. Right now, there’s a slight, happy buzzing from Shiloh, but I need more.
“Bite, Alpha,” I purr, pouting at Shiloh. He groans as he watches me, and I know he won’t be able to tell me no.
“You’re too tempting, even in this bed,” he mutters. “Abbott, how can you possibly say no to her?”
“I can’t,” he complains, stalking toward me. “Can you handle both of us?”
“Ahh, pretty sure I have,” I tease him.
They’re my safe place. The past seems less black when they’re here, and I’m going to hold onto that. Maybe therapy will help at some point, or I can kill everything that’s ever hurt me.
“Is it bad to kill people as therapy?” I ask suddenly.
“Absolutely not. Is that what you want to do?” Abbott asks, sitting next to me.
“Yes,” Bell and I say at the same time.
“I want to move past it, while knowing the past can’t hurt me because I watched it die,” I admit. “Does that make me a bad person?”
“Never,” Ansel says, leaning back in his chair so he can see us all. “Do you want to be part of it, or just watch it?”
“I have to be part of it,” Bellamy says, wincing at how adamant he was about it.
“I do too. The things that happened, the sounds…” I shake my head as I remember Cassidy’s multiple rapes.
“Winter,” Shiloh whispers, his hand rubbing his chest. “Baby, you need to tell me. Please. Fuck, this hurts.”
“Cassidy alpha barked us,” I say softly.
“What?” Abbott asks with wide eyes.
“She didn’t want us to see what happened to her,” Bellamy adds. “I think that the only way to break our bonds was to exhaust us physically, emotionally, and mentally. That’s why Avery spent hours making me swim and bleeding me. We weren’t allowed to sleep, they tried to drown Winter, and electrocuted us. This all happened while we were blind. Cassidy alpha barked us to close our eyes, and then wasn’t able to remove the command because she was gagged while she was continually raped for fucking hours.”
“Fuck me,” Abbott breathes.
“We all wanted to die, and I think that’s why Avery was able to break the bonds. We were weak,” I say, beginning to cry.
“I do not see weakness,” Abbott growls, his hand cupping my cheek as he leans forward. “I see survivors. Do you hear me?”
“Yes,” I sniffle. “I don’t know how to feel about it all.”
“You just feel,” Shiloh murmurs, lifting my arm to kiss the inside of my wrist. “Ready, Kitten? Looks like you’re getting all your bonds today.”
“Ready,” I confirm.
“I can’t be left out,” Abbott says, taking my arm connected to the IV carefully.
If Cassidy was so affected by losing both bonds, I wonder how awful it was for Abbott. I don’t believe in rubbing salt in open wounds, so I won’t ask.
My eyelids slide shut as they both bite me, and I sigh as the bond snaps into place.
“Mmm,” I say happily. While there’s pain from the bites, I hurt in so many other places, it doesn’t even faze me.
