Pushing off the wall, Arrow watches Twenty-One set the tray down, then stand to open the section of the cell to pass my meal through. Warily, I get to my feet. My legs are shaky, but worse is the tightly coiled, unrelieved tension still thrumming in my core.This isn’t awkward at all. The internal sarcasm oozes through me. Fortunately, the orgasm that had been impending only a minute ago begins to ebb. My eyes flick to Arrow. I can’t tell what’s running through his head, but he gives me a slight incline of his chin, and only a moment later, he races off, leaving me here with Twenty-One, a flushed face, and dampness between my thighs.
I exhale unsteadily as the least friendly of the women watches him go. When her gaze swings back to stare at me, it’s plain that she’s curious, but there’s also a hint of something else. Her mouth curves into a taunting half-smile.
They just had to sendher, didn’t they? I pinch my lips together and do what I can to ignore the odd light in her eyes. It reminds me too much of the way she’d looked at me when she’d warned me away from Kiefer. I don’t claim to have any idea what’s going on in her brainwashed mind, and honestly, I don’t want to. I wish she’d justgo.
A flash of her in the woods hits me out of nowhere, and I sway on my feet as I’m traumatized all over again by the fear of being caught and ofeverything I’d seen out there in the black void of the forest. This woman had not only been out there with more than one of the men—I don’t know which, only that the masks had antlers or horns or something—but she’d enjoyed it.I look away. Look back. A flash of this woman getting fucked like an animal in the woods slams into me. The warped look of rapture on her face is etched on my memory like a burn ruins skin.
I blink, coming back to myself as she finally goes to slip my breakfast through the slot. She waits, eyeing me with an unnerving twitch of her lips. Just as my fingers brush the edge of the tray, but before I can get a firm grip on it, she jerks it away from me again. Shocked, I can’t help the blurted protest that erupts.
She raises a brow and shakes her head, an ugliness gathering on her face. I snap my mouth shut as my brow furrows.What in the hell?Exhaling hard, purse my lips. All I can do is wait and wonder what’s gotten into her.
Does she know that I saw what she did in the woods? Does this odd behavior have to do with that? Why would it even fucking matter?
Honestly, I have my own bone to pick with all the women. Not one of them saw fit to even try to warn me beforehand. But as for Twenty-One, I hadn’t expected her to say a damn thing to me. She was off in her own world right before that horn blew as it was.
Or maybe—my brain skids around a corner, and I rub both hands over my face in frustration, trying to come up with any plausible explanation for herbehavior this morning—maybe she knows about my encounter with Finneas. She couldn’t possibly have any idea that he tried to rape me in the woods all those days ago or that I was the one who tried to brain him in self-defense, but maybe she’s aware that he caught me last night and has a problem with it? Hell, she could even be jealous, knowing her crazy ass. I wet my lips, watching her as she stands on the other side of the bars, holding my breakfast hostage.
It must have been big, huge news to the members of this commune that their leader had returned. Does anyone suspect it had a damn thing to do with me? I wish I could ask, but with the bizarre way she’s acting, this is definitely not the time for that. Unwilling to cause myself any more trouble than I already have, I swallow the question down, then let out a little huff. It attracts her attention. Those piercing green eyes of hers home in on me, glinting as she rears back before spitting all over the food on the tray.
“What the—?” This time, I can hardly hold in my dismay and those words burst from me before I can think better of it. I remain perfectly still, gape-mouthed and staring as she presents the tray to me again. When I don’t immediately take it, she cocks her head to the side. This lunatic spit in my food, and I swear, she’s having a good fucking internal laugh at my shock. In my head I repeat my earlier question.What. The. Fuck?With a sick little smile, she shoves the tray through. It takes flight, sailing into the cell to land on the stone floor at my feet.
My eyes go wide at the clatter it causes. The sound rockets off the walls while a sausage link bounces away along with the shiny red apple. The worst of it, though, is the splat of warm grits that goes in all directions. The fluffy biscuit that’s now landed in the dark corner I’d been sitting in last night would have been made fresh early this morning by either Eight or Sixteen. Thisbitch.
Shaking her head, she smugly crosses her arms over her chest and… hovers, almost as if she’s waiting for me to retaliate in some way. It’s fucking weird, but I’ll be damned if I’m opening my mouth and giving her any more ammunition against me than she already has.
I lift my brows, then with a flourish of my hand encourage her to leave me the fuck alone. I have no clue if she understands, but I’m sure the pinched glower on my face says plenty for me. To my consternation, she doesn’t move. Not a fucking inch.
Jesus, why the fuck won’t she just go?I exhale through my nose before turning on my heel to take the two steps to pick up the biscuit. I busy myself, tearing off pieces and putting them into my mouth. Thank fuck the spit mostly went into the grits. Walking over to peer through the bars at her, I decide I’ve finally had enough.Fuck it.What’s she going to do, tell them I spoke? “Look. I don’t know what’s got your nonexistent panties in a twist, but I didn’t do anything.”
“Did you forget?” Her voice comes out scratchy from disuse and her brow arches. “I thought I was clear.” My mind scrambles, and nervous energy spikesin my heart. She places her hands on her hips. “I told you that I would keep my mouth shut about finding you in Finneas’s room with Hayze”—my stomach pitches as she continues—“ifyou stayed away from Kiefer, that is.” She shrugs, then wets her lips. “I’ll give you one more chance. If you can’t keep yourself from him, I’ll be forced to let everyone know what you’ve been up to with more than one of the firstborn sons.”
I cock my head to the side, studying her. This bitch really thinks Iwantthat disgusting Kiefer prick. That I’ve been welcoming his advances. Does she think I wanted him to rape me? She really is fucking crazy. I open my mouth to ask her exactly that, but she holds up a hand to stop me.
“The correction won’t be pretty.” She purses thin lips. “I bet you have a good idea by now of just how bad it can get.” Stopping to squint at me, she taunts, “If they remove tongues for talking? Do you think they remove hands for touching? Or maybe it’d be worse.” Her gaze pointedly wanders downward. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she stops at my pussy. “You’re only good for one thing, and if they decide they have no more use for you…”
I shudder hard in response. I already have an idea of the depravity these men are capable of, and I’m terrified it won’t be long before I fall prey to more of their deviant ways.
SEVEN
CROSS
Our usual scheduleis to be up at the crack of dawn to get our dailies done before focusing on bigger projects around the compound. The sole exception occurs the morning after we’ve let our wild sides out to run in the mountainside woods.
Thank fuck I’m not required to get up and get moving this morning. Finneas’s arrival late last night, and all the other bullshit that’d gone down during our most sacred of rituals has turned this entire compound into a powder keg. I want no part of it. The very walls of the building vibrate with explosive energy, the likes of which I can’t remember ever feeling before.
But maybe I’m lying to myself. Maybe this has been coming for a while. Trying to contain my chaotic thoughts, I bring my hands to my head and rake my fingers over my scalp. It’s an odd, creeping feeling that has sunken into my bones that I just can’t seem to shake.
I woke up this morning, legs tangled up in the bedding. Whatever I’d been doing in the early hours of the morning had been fitful, if it could even be called sleep at all. I’d been plagued by a constant nightmare from the second my eyes closed until they popped open a few minutes ago.
Malakai lies in the bunk beside mine, facing the wall. I have no doubt that a big part of the reason for my shit sleep is worry. It’s some kind of miracle he’s alive after the hit to the head he sustained. Whoever hurt him meant to get the job done. Hayze and I spent a lot of time attempting to clean the wound so I could stitch it. It had to have hurt like hell. I swallow hard, remembering how difficult it’d been to focus.
I watch his broad, muscular back for at least a minute as he breathes before finally sitting up and rubbing my tired eyes. The amount of force needed to split someone’s head open like that is significant. I still want to know what weapon was used, but even more so, how the fuck it’d happened in the first place? And who has gone completely off their rocker? I sigh, glancing over my shoulder. The entire room is mostly dark, the barest amount of light filtering in through the long window at the side of the room. Last night’s storm seems to have passed, but only the literal one. The worst of the uproar is yet to come, of that I’m certain.
My brows draw together.Where the fuck is Arrow?His bed is rumpled, as if he were once in it, but it’s very obviously empty now. I scan the cavernous room, eyesflicking from one inhabitant to the next. He’s the only one unaccounted for.
At the moan that rolls from Malakai, my head swivels, attention focusing on his prone form, blond tresses falling over his face. On one hand, his long hair hides the damage done, but on the other, it’d made my job really difficult. I can’t believe I had to sew his fucking hard head closed. It’d taken six stitches to hold the skin shut. Air rushes from my lungs in a whoosh as he groans aloud.
I swing my legs over the side of the mattress, then slip across the space between our beds. “Kai,” I whisper, keeping my voice low as I run my palm over his bicep, gently squeezing when I reach his forearm. “You okay?”
