Page 136 of Rot In Knotty Pieces

He looks confused. “I’m not sure I understand the game you are playing.”

“This isn’t a game, Rose. This is a very big problem, and you’re going to help me fix it.”

I wish I didn’t have to ask. I wish I could do it on my own.

“Oh, and why would I do that?”

I sway towards him, walking my fingers up his chest, before leaning in and kissing his jaw. He tastes like a paradise, like a temptation and a reward. This is what I’m going to fight for. If I can get free, Rose is going to be waiting for me at the end.

He’s so startled and hypnotized by my presence that he doesn’t stop me.

“You’re going to help me because it’s your duty to care for the helpless and to right wrongs, and because Father needs to be stopped.”

“Where is Dove?” he asks in a low growl.

He believes us. Good.

“She’s here with the rest of us. He broke us, Rose. He shattered us. Now we’re just parts and pieces. But I want to see him dead. I want him to have everything taken away from him, and I know that you are the alpha to do it.”

He stands perfectly still while I slide my hands up his chest and lean up to kiss him. Properly. I have to. Not taking my next breath would be easier than denying myself this kiss.

Fuck, I’m going to love him so much.

“Also, I really like you, Rose. I’ve been watching.”

He tries to resist, but it’s just a few seconds of pressing my lips to his before he lifts me. I wrap my legs around him, and we don’t stop kissing, not until he falls asleep. Then I kiss him once more and leave, with just a note promising to return on the table.

Raptor

The punch almost breaks my jaw.

I surge forward into existence, kicking and punching, and within seconds, the idiot alpha who thought he could rape me is unconscious and about to be dead.

I take my time.

Ha! Who am I kidding? I make a sloppy fucking mess and kill him in about five minutes, then I walk out laughing.

I rub my jaw. That fucking hit hurt.

All around me is a dark neighbourhood that I don’t recognise. I don’t know where I am or how I got here.

“What you looking at, bitch?” A homeless man shouts at me.

I scowl. “Your fucking dead corpse if you don’t fuck off.”

He stares, and then with a eep of panic, rushes into the dark, disappearing.

I stretch my arms out, enjoying the freedom. For a moment, I stand in the dark, and this sense of the world being too big, too huge, grows and grows until I feel smaller than an ant and scared.

Truly scared.

Which makes me angry.

Which makes me furious.

“I am Raptor. I am the huntress. Fear is my enemy. Fear is not in my vocabulary,” I chant. “Now, let's go explore.”

I force myself to pick a direction and then walk.