The eye dangling from his cheek had gone milky and pale. Dead where it hung against his cheek from knotted black strings.
She couldn’t tell if he was unconscious or dead. One swift slap from Ilya solved the question as the man jerked and gave a thin scream of pain. The eye swung, slapped against his cheek with a spatter of gore.
“Like this, pet.” Lee took her hand, adjusting her grip on the knife until he was pleased with it. He made a careful slash, the keen edge of the blade just whispering against cloth.
The desperate whine slipped out before she could hold it back.
He was going to make her do it on her own.
“Make me proud, pet,” Lee whispered against her cheek before he stepped away, removing his heat and will.
Shivering hard enough her teeth chattered, Quinn took a messy, aimless swipe at the male. He flinched, but his body swung wide of her wavering precision.
“It cannot be allowed to remain unanswered,” Ilya said, the rasping of his voice changed, thick with things Quinn didn’t want to hear. “I will hold him for you.”
Ilya took up position behind the unknown Alpha, jerking down against pinioned arms so Ilya’s impressive weight held the male still. A jerky nod given, Quinn swallowed back the bile rising in her throat and made another quivering slash.
She’d never done this. Never wanted to hurt anyone, could never imagine doing something like this.
Yet as the bitter, hot spray of blood fanned across the frozen cement, something surged inside of her. It howled, demanded. Enraged and demented, it shrieked for release. She saw herself weak, beaten and bruised in a disgusting motel room. Saw him grinning as he mounted her again and again.
The next swift arc of the blade didn’t quiver. It didn’t falter as it slashed across his midsection.
Neither did the next.
Or the next.
Dozens, hundreds, thousands. There was no counting as vivid crimson stained her hands, the soft white of her robe, her soul. The male’s small sounds of agony became thin wails and airless screams that burned through her veins. Etching their way through delicate tissue with every flash of the blade, it became an indelible brand as that single pale eye pleaded. Begged. Grew dark and fogged over.
As heavy arms rippling with muscle came around her, Quinn screamed, thought to lash out with her newfound rage and weapon. Both were taken away with an ease that left her staggering. Gripped to a purr that was so raw, edged with so much violence that it clawed and scratched at her spine, she went limp. Lee’s nose was at her neck sucking down deep, panting breaths of her. Clutching hands guided her around in his embrace until she was spread around his hips, his throbbing length shoved deep.
His excitement was tangible. Smoke and ash, blood and pain. They sat heavy and rank on her tongue.
As he ascended the stairs two at a time, bouncing her on his stiff cock, Quinn stared in numbed desolation over his shoulder. The bitter, icy blue of Ilya’s eyes caught her gaze and held it hostage. One corner of his lips ticked up, his eyes never leaving her until the walls swallowed her view.
In her room, Lee heeded the haggard tone of her wail, veering away from her nest for the exorbitant bathroom. Back slapping against frigid tile, wet with things she couldn’t think of, she hung listless as he began to rut.
Through his growls and praise, she was ragdoll slack. Eyes vacant, she stared into an eternity where her soul would never be clean again. The knot swelled inside of her, locking them together, and she felt none of it. Everything was barren, dried up and dead. Even as he put her down and rinsed the horrible muck from her skin with tender hands, there was nothing. Stumbling from the shower, still dripping, she aimed for her nest. The double-edged sword of comfort and inadequacy.
“It’s time to get ready, pet,” Lee said, catching her hand and pulling her towards the vanity and the fresh robe waiting over his arm.
Mechanical, she sat. Let him fuss and dote as he helped her get ready. Still hard and leaking the thin, potent fluid of his excitement, he smeared it over her flesh in slow drags.
“The blue dress, pet.”
Quinn managed to drag her eyes up from the bottom of the closet, the creeping edge of coherence shredding the already frayed threads of her sanity. A smile slipped into place, unbidden. A slow nod, a trill of her fingers over the muscled arm that held the door.
“The blue dress,” Quinn whispered as she took it from the hanger.
Chapter 3
“Ah, sweetness.”
Quinn blinked her eyes open, a frown set on her face as she looked around the darkened room. It felt like she’d only just closed her eyes, but everything was in shades of shadow and darkness. A tumble of thoughts and questions banged around her bleary skull before one thing became clear.
Lee never called her that.
“Look at you. Heavy with the child growing inside of you.”
