Chapter 12
Sabrina
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“Going up?” some guyasks as he takes a step through the open doors. The warning rumble that escapes Slade’s chest is amplified within the confines of the elevator, each reverberation chasing more blood from the stranger’s rapidly blanching face.
“Occupied.” Shoving him out, Slade smacks the button for the top floor, and then the one to immediately close the doors. Whirling around, he narrows his eyes on my face. “She’s going to come back to bite us in the ass. You do realize that, right?”
Holding his gaze, I bite my tongue. She is; I’ve no doubt about that. Sure, I could save face, play up the fact that keeping her alive gives us a bargaining chip if things go south with the Slaughters, but I’m... not that person. Not really. I may occasionally feel inspired to throw my hat into the games the guys play, navigating the waters between various pack politics, but that’s not who I want to be. Or at least, not the version of Sabrina that I’m currently in the process of constructing.
Kaige inspired the creation of someone that accepts her men are here to hold her up instead of back, and that I need to offer the same support if I want this to work.
“I do. But I also realize that when you eventually calm the fuck down, if I’d have let you kill her, no amount of siphoning would have saved you from the self-loathing.” I attempt to turn around, but Kaige’s grip is unyielding, plastering me against his body with a low snarl. So I can only manage a half-assed glance over my shoulder to include him. “Either of you. I respect you both enough not to let you fall into the trap she was setting. Because while she may be a bitch, she isn’t stupid. She’s too paranoid not to have had an ace up her sleeve to give everyone a final fuck you from beyond the grave if her plan went awry.”
"And next time?" Slade demands, pulling my attention back to him.
Holding his unwavering gaze, I ensure every word out of my mouth is imbued with such conviction, he’ll be forced to accept them as facts that may as well be written in stone. “No matter what happens, I will always find my way back to you.”
Closing the distance between us, he takes my face between both hands and crushes his lips against mine. For once, he doesn’t worry about handling me like something precious he’s desperate to protect. He kisses me like he wants to hurt me as much as he currently is, to punish me for scaring the hell out of him. With every clash of teeth, every dangerous sound that he forces me to swallow, he shoves the warning down my throat, and into every fiber of my being.
The wolves are done hiding in the shadows.
Kaige’s hand slides up my outer thigh, inching my towel higher as his teeth slowly rake along shoulder before clamping down. While my body jerks at the sharp sting, there’s nowhere to go. They have me firmly trapped between the two of them, and as Slade tears his mouth from mine to work a path down one side of my neck, Kaige takes the other.
The heat of his breath sends a shiver through me as Kaige growls against my skin, “You need to stop trying to protect us.”
Breathing growing ragged, I manage a weak reply. “Nobody's allowed to yell at me today, remember? It’s my free pass day to get into whatever trouble I want.”
His dark, breathy chuckle elicits another shiver. “Yell?” As Slade slips a hand between my legs, Kaige kisses a lazy path up my neck to whisper in my ear, “Why would we yell when there are much better ways to get our point across?”
I fist the front of Slade’s shirt as he slips two fingers inside of me, thumb working my clit. Drawing my attention back to him, Kaige nips at my earlobe and shifts his hands to my hips. Pulling me away from Slade, he spins me around before gently pushing me back against Slade’s chest.
“People will always try to take you away from us.” Palming my cheek, he simply holds my gaze for a weighted moment, and I watch as the small bit of color remaining in his eyes is engulfed. “Our job is to always give you a reason to come back.”
Slade slides a hand over my collar before wrapping it around my throat. To Kaige, he commands, “You have four floors left before you’ll have to fight the rest of us for her. Make them count.”
