Page 6 of Plug and Tame

Mary gasped, but Kira kept her focus on Nathaniel, whose lips twitched with amusement.

“I fed on an animal en route. It was…enough to sustain me.”

“Probably a very small animal,” Kira sneered. “Something slow. You don’t look like you could have caught a deer.”

Nathaniel tilted his head, studying her in a way that reminded her of an owl. His scrutiny made her insides shrivel, but she held his gaze.

Finally, he said, “It was a hedgehog.”

Kira scoffed, the tension between them easing slightly. “Sounds very appealing.”

Nathaniel’s smile widened, but it wasn’t a friendly smile. His upper lip was curled up, revealing his fangs. “Not as appealing as you, dear Kira.”

As his meaning sank in, she took a step back. “Forget it. You said you wouldn’t bite me again.”

Nathaniel licked his lips. “At this stage, I don’t have a choice.”

“I thought vampires didn’t need blood to survive.”

“Vampires in my condition don’t chase wolves several kilometres across the country. I must feed now. The alternative would mean death for me.”

“Death it is,” Kira shrugged, taking another step back. If she could put a little distance between them, it would give her a chance to morph if the vampire tried anything. It also brought her a step closer towards Byron and Mary. Regardless of how strange their behaviour, she would not hesitate to defend them. “After grooming me to become your father’s plaything, I think death is almost too good for you.”

“You haven’t been told everything,” Nathaniel replied. “I was not the only person to groom you.”

Kira felt as if he’d slapped her. “Fuck off.” She glanced at Mary and Byron, who were still stonily silent, before looking back at Nathaniel. “Who else? Victoria? Felix?” She wracked her brain. “Chelsea?”

Nathaniel shook his head. “No. Someone closer to you.”

She swallowed. “Not Susie?” Please, tell me it wasn’t her. The wolf had become something of a big sister to her.

“Not Susie.”

Kira shrugged helplessly. “Then who?”

“Us.” Byron’s deep voice rasped the word, but he might as well have screamed it for the way it carved a hole in her heart.

“What?” she whispered.

Mary spoke up. “It was us. We were grooming you.” She placed a hand on Byron’s arm to console him.

What about consoling me? Kira’s head spun. The world had gone mad.

“We were preparing you for the uprising you are to lead,” Mary continued, “And the duties you would face along the way.”

“What. Duties?” Each word felt like a death sentence.

Mary glanced at Nathaniel—she fucking glanced at him for permission to fucking speak—before turning back to her. “Kira, your duty is to help Nathaniel take his father’s place on the throne—”

“By sucking his father’s cock?” The angry words burst out of her before she could stop them, but she didn’t care. Everyone else was dancing around the topic as if it were a minor detail, and no one had acknowledged that she’d been kept in the dark all these years. For her, the worst was still ahead.

“Kira…” Mary began.

“Don’t. Kira. Me,” she snapped, forcing herself to stand still when all she wanted to do was rip Nathaniel’s throat out. Or sink to her knees in defeat. The only thing holding her together was the desperate hope that this was all some cruel prank. “Someone tell me what the fuck is going on right this instant, because none of you are making any fucking sense!”

“We’re trying,” Byron said. “We didn’t want you to find out this way.”

“It sounds like you didn’t want me to find out at all! Did you know what Nathaniel’s done to me, Byron? Do you have any idea that he’s made me wear a…a…” her anger stalled and fizzled out. She couldn’t bring herself to tell her father-figure that Nathaniel had made her wear an anal plug. It was too humiliating.