NEW MOON
ONE
DELILAH
“Foundyour way to my compound, did you?”
The truth barrels into me with the force of a two-ton truck. Because this…thisis Finneas. Holy fuck. The man who sent me running from the side of the road, the asshole who attacked me, my would-be rapist, and the one I was forced to protect myself from. He’s the missing leader of the cult of deviant miscreants I’ve been captured by.
I thought I’d killed him, and the nightmares I’ve had since have messed with my head. Sweat pops out on my brow as my lungs constrict painfully. Blinking into the dark, I study his feverishly bright onyx eyes and the way his lips curl beneath the half mask he wears, teeth bared. Fear rises in my chest, filling me up until I can hardly take a single, ragged breath without wondering if it might be my last.
Fingers dig into my skin as he grabs at my wrist and wrenches my arm until he has a view of the mark onmy skin. His beady eyes blaze hot. “Tell me, Twenty-Three”—the edge to his voice has me stiffening—“have you enjoyed your stay with my family?” A huffed chuckle rolls from his tongue as he eyes me, not-so-patiently awaiting my answer.
Jaw rigid, I shake my head. “You’re fucking crazy.” I tug on my arm and squirm in his hold, trying to wriggle free. Every cell in my body screamsYou have to get away from him.Run.The irony that this man’s sonalsotold me to run isn’t lost on me. And now I’ve ended up worse off than I was before.
He shoots me a nasty sneer. “Am I, though?” My stomach launches into my throat as he takes off, barging through the wilderness.
We hurtle past trees, and I cry out, branches scraping wickedly across my flesh. This deranged asshole doesn’t give a flying fuck. The wolf has me in his clutches, and he’s made several things clear: (1) no matter how I struggle, he won’t be letting me go, (2) he doesn’t care what damage he does to me in the process, and (3) he might be even more disgusting a human being than I’d first assumed.
“Where are you taking me?” A whimper falls from my lips. For all I know, he’s heading for a cliff, bent on tossing me over the edge. At that thought, cold fear trickles down my spine.
My gaze darts everywhere as we continue to crash through the trees, but everything is happening too fast, and it’s so dark, I can’t get my bearings.
A sick sensation curls inside me, gnawing at mygut. Hayze told me to watch for the wolf. Hepromisedhe’d come for me. Why did I assume he was telling me the truth? Was all this planned? Did he know his father had returned to Dark Falls Hollow? I never told him I’d been attacked out there. This newfound knowledge—the fact that Finneas and the asshole at the side of the road are one and the same person—is throwing me for a loop. This foul man is Hayze’sfather.And he has awolfmask.
My eyes crash shut, refusing to believe I could have been so foolish as to put my trust in any one of these cult-creating, Kool-Aid-drinking psychos. They’ve been here years—have built this society from the ground up. What made me think I’d find a soul willing to help me? Even the women are batshit crazy, so delusional they probably wouldn’t leave if they were told they could.
Coming to a halt, Finneas grips my jaw, forcefully angling my face toward his with relentless, biting fingers. One hot breath after another gusts past my lips as he stares into my eyes. “Tell me, have you learned any lessons at all in your first weeks living here?”
My heart beats like a hummingbird’s wings as it tries to escape the cage of my chest. It’s futile. And there’s no way out for me either. I’m certain he can feel my frustration, this man who looks at me as if I were some vile creature.
That idea makes a disturbed laugh boil inside me, because he’s the one who is a disgusting deviant. His tongue pokes out to slick along his lower lip as he takesin every hitch of my breath and the tremble of my chin.
An agonized cry claws from my throat as he swivels and rams my back to a tree. Pressing his weight against me, he leans in, nose hovering near mine. Horrible imagery of what he might do to me tears through my mind as my heart rate ratchets up. And the kicker is, I know based on our past interaction and what I’ve discovered his followers are capable of, that my wildest assumptions can’t be all that far off.
I shudder hard, my body racked with revulsion. Unable to help myself, I shriek, “Get your fucking filthy hands off me!”
His cock grinds into my pubic bone through the thin cotton gown as he slicks his tongue over his lip. Eyeing me with sick amusement, he grits out, “I would have thought the others would have taken great pleasure in teaching you our ways. But… since they clearly have failed without my presence, I will take on that duty myself.” His lips twitch into an ugly smile. “I willsilenceyou. You will learn.”
Terror coils in my stomach and a ragged breath peals from my mouth as I stare at him.
A split second later, he yanks me away from the tree, spinning us around. I stumble in the dark, the sudden movement throwing me off balance. Big, rough hands grip my shoulders, and all at once, the air rushes from my lungs, and I’m shoved downward until my knees buckle. I meet the muck and leaves of the forest floor with a bone-jarring thud. Rocks biteinto my skin, and a stuttered gasp escapes my lips. I blink up at this cruel man, my mind twisting as memories of the day he first drove up beside me in his beat-up truck assault me from all angles.
I’d been at my lowest, and he’d pretended to be a gentleman offering help. I recall the kind smile he’d given me—a tiny bit teasing and a whole lot flirty. It’d been a trick. A ruse. I was ripe for the picking. Down on my luck. A runaway.
It hadn’t taken long before his eyes had slicked over me like he was a starving man looking for his next meal. A warning alarm had gone off in my head. I’d run as fast and as far as my legs could take me, but he fucking tracked me, caught me. Held me down. There hadn’t been a doubt in my mind that he would hurt me, so in a moment of panic, I’d done what I had to, acting on instinct alone.
And in the end, everything that’s happened, everything I’ve survived… all of it was for nothing, because I’m right back where I started.With him.Whether he had taken me that day or things had played out just the way they did, nothing would have changed. My path would have been unaltered. Only, if I had never escaped him that day, I would have been stuck dealing with his fuckery all this time. Maybe the turmoil and uncertainty had been worth it for that alone.
I’m afraid my wretched situation has just gone from bad to infinitely worse. Desperate panic surges up from deep within. He’s waiting to see what I’ll do.
I know what’s expected of me. He might behoping I refuse to grant him the words demanded, the compliance. Breathing unsteadily, I cock the angle of my head to catch a glimpse of him, only to find he’s tracking my movements, waiting to see what I’ll do next.
Ever so slowly, I allow my lips to part, forcing out the words he wants to hear—my acceptance of his dominance. “I follow. I honor.” Lips trembling, I drag in a choked breath and continue with hands fisted on my thighs, “I nourish. I kneel.”
“That’s a good girl,” he grunts out. I can sense the leer on his lips without looking up to see it. He shifts, his hands going to his waistband. “I believe it’s time to ensure you understand who is in control.” My breath becomes shallow as I retain the submissive tilt of my head. This asshole. I grit my teeth as, from under the cover of my lashes, I watch him work the button and zipper. He dips a hand inside his pants and pulls out his cock, then leisurely strokes himself as if we have all the time in the world. He groans, the night sounds of the forest surrounding us.
My fingernails dig into the fleshy parts of my palms, and my muscles tense, ready. As I surge upward, I throw my fist directly at Finneas’s groin. It connects with the base of his stiff dick. The howling roar that erupts from his lips echoes through the air. He staggers backward, hands cupping his junk before crashing into the undergrowth behind him.
