I fought the urge to roll my eyes so far back that they’d never go forward again. “You’ve got to be fucking me.”
He grabbed me by the back of my hair, forcing me to look up. “You have to eat. You will weaken both of us.”
Of course it was all about him. “Maybe I should starve on principle then.”
I would have spat on him if I thought it wouldn’t end up on my face.
“You can eat the easy way or the hard way, but you are eating.” He grabbed the mink and pressed it to my face, rubbing still wet blood on me.
“Sure, force feed me the raw meat. That will make us both feel better.” I shoved the thing away from my face.
He stared at it a long time before he dropped it with a grumble. “Stay put, Talia. If I have to catch you again, you’ll pay for it.”
“I always do.”
He left, and before I could even make a plan to escape, he rolled a giant boulder over the doorway, enveloping me in darkness.
Panic smothered the strange comfort the nest gave me.
It took every ounce of discipline to practice the smooth, deep breaths that a school counselor taught me in middle school. In through the nose and out through my mouth.
My eyes searched up, looking for the light of the stars and was met with more darkness.
“Look here, little bitch.” My foster father snatched my arm enough to leave bruises, but I couldn’t see his face, because the light above him blinded me. “You’re lucky she didn’t believe you. Don’t you ever try that shit again.”
He shook me hard enough to make my brain rattle against my skull.
“Maybe after this, when I tell you to do something, you’ll do it without complaints.” He tossed me into the closet of his man cave, and a chain jingled on the other side of the door, sliding into place in a way that made my heart sink.
The suffocating darkness made my heart bang painfully and my breathing hitch.
“If you want out, you know what you have to do.”
“I’m sorry,” I cried. “Let me out.”
Cold water dripped on my forehead, breaking me out of the long forgotten memory that needed to be pushed back deep down inside me. I refused to let the fears of a terrified twelve-year-old girl rattle me. I couldn’t even remember that man’s face. That was fourteen years ago.
Why were my memories so focused on that timeframe lately? I thought I’d buried that demon long ago.
Light filtered back into the cavern as the boulder moved, and he returned with a bunch of sticks and rocks. It had felt like forever, but he probably wasn’t gone more than a few minutes.
I casually wiped the tears off my face, so that I could pretend he didn’t know about my breakdown while he was gone. He moved some of the pelts and brush, creating a clear circle with rocks. He tossed sticks into the center and attempted to start a fire.
Attempting, because the way he was doing it would never work as he rubbed two random sticks that were water logged against each other. It didn’t help that water dripped from the tall ceiling right onto his sticks.
He grumbled with irritation, but I had to applaud how much energy he put into it. Until the two soft sticks broke. I giggled at the bewildered look on his face.
It was almost cute.
Even if he was being a giant dick.
At least until he went to all fours bellowing out a roar that made me want to pee my pants. The den echoed his rage, making me cover my ears. My hands shook as I watched him snap his teeth at the air over the pit, like a confused wild animal.
The light in his red eyes that always felt wrong dimmed, and it was like watching the humanity leech out of him. The human part was gone, and all that was left was the monster.
But as quickly as the change started, it left. He was off his arms, kneeling by the pit, with irritation lining his eyes as he studied the shreds of branches left.
“You could help me,” he snarled at me.
