A prideful smirk stretched across my face as I guided Blair, her palm slick with nervous sweat, toward the room I’d taken her the other night.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Brooks charging away from the girls toward the exit that led to the tunnels.
Good. Hopefully, he was leaving to chill out.
While I personally didn’t give two fucks about Daphne, I didn’t want to deal with the other girls getting pissed if Brooks kicked her out of the Devil’s Lair. Seraphina would start bitching, and I’d have to deal with that.
Plus, I didn’t want to hear any more shit about Blair being here. The other guys were thankfully keeping their mouths shut.
Alcohol typically wasn’t Brooks’s vice, so I wondered what had happened. These past few weeks, I could tell something had been bugging him more than usual. I figured it was his father. He was always on Brooks’s ass about everything. That pressure intensified as midterms approached.
When we landed in the room, I shut the door behind us and released Blair. Her shoulders slumped as she took the few steps toward the chair she’d sat in before, but I grabbed the back of her sweater, tugging her flush against me.
For a moment, I draped my arm around her neck, holding her in place.
I couldn’t stop myself from pulling her hair free from its ponytail.
Unlike the horrid perfume she’d worn her first day in class, her scent had improved.
Tonight, she smelled like the roses my mom kept in the rose garden at the mansion. She’d taken over the garden from my father’s first wife, who had passed away when Benny and Gigi wereyounger.
Even though my mom never knew her, she always tried to find ways to respect her in the home.
After three slow inhales, I shoved her toward the booth that ran along the wall. She fell onto her hands and knees on the crimson leather that suddenly reminded me so much of blood.
I climbed in behind her, and she scooted until her back was against the wall. I completely cornered her.
This time, I didn’t want her across from me.
I needed her within arm’s reach so I could do whatever was necessary to extract information from her.
I had to go a different route than I normally did in situations like this. Typically, if someone didn’t tell me what I wanted, I’d torture the answers out of them.
Cut off fingers. Pull teeth. Saw off limbs. Bring their family in and do the same with them until they finally cracked.
Those were my typical means to get what I wanted.
But I couldn’t do that to Blair. Ididn’twant to.
For the first time ever, not only was I taking it easy on someone, but there was a twinge of empathy for this girl.
Also, for the first time ever, I’d felt a pinch of guilt during an Initiation. But I couldn’t say anything or ask to stop. It would’ve made me look weak.
Just as much as a Fawn had to prove herself during Initiation, so did we.
We had to prove our spines were strong enough to watch their torture. That we could watch our Fawn scream and plead to stop the Initiation. Normally, I had no problem. I’d grab a drink, kick my feet up, and enjoy the show.
But with Blair, it was different.
And I fucking hated that.
During her Initiation, as I watched, I wanted to tell them to shut that lullaby off. My fingers curled around the chair’s armrests, and I hated that anyone else had seen her wearing only those bra and panties.
I wanted her for my eyes only.
Wanted her formeonly.
There was more of a sense of ownership with her than I’d ever had with any Fawn.
