“Ryth! Ryth, wait, I’m sorry!”
I cracked open my eyes and shoved upwards, crying out as a sickening wave of agony ripped through my thigh. Ryth…Ryth…I scanned the room, finding the empty space beside me on the bed before I jerked my gaze to the door. “Fuck!”
“Come back!” The female voice sounded, along with panicked steps that faded.
For a second, I forgot where I was, where we were. Until Caleb’s faint roar reached me. “Where is she?”
But that motherfucker, I knew.
I shoved out of bed, nearly screaming with agony as my foot hit the floor. His betrayal…and his selfish fucking ways. It all came rushing back as I stumbled around the foot of the bed. The Order. Her dad. The diner…and the doc. I gripped my thigh and bent over, moaning as I snatched a pair of cut-off sweats from the floor and yanked them on.
If Caleb hurt her.
“I’ll kill him…” I grunted, yanked the waistband high, and stumbled for the door, slowing long enough to grab a gun from the dresser, then tore out the door. “I’ll fucking kill him.”
I half-stumbled and half-ran, tearing through the living room before I plunged outside. The sun hit me like a blow, boring into my eyes, blinding me for a second. “Fuck.”
I lifted my hand to shielding myself from the glare. Trees blurred all around me. I tripped and staggered, calling out as I ran. “Ryth! Ryth, where are you!”
I focused on the blur of the forest and the silver sedan that glinted in the sun. I didn’t know where I was running, didn’t even know where we were. But I couldn’t just stand there. I sucked in hard breaths, letting instinct take over, and scanned the towering trees.
“Ryth, stop!” Caleb called from deeper in the forest.
I gripped the gun, catching movement in the corner of my eye. The doc’s sister stood there, staring into the forest as I raced past.
“I didn’t mean to scare her.” Kit said, fighting back tears. “I didn’t mean…”
I don’t think she even saw me. I gripped the gun and left her behind, charging through the trees. Sticks snapped under my feet. Pain followed, biting.
She needs me…
She needs…me.
Gone was the forest. Gone was the pain. Ryth was all I thought about. Movement came from somewhere deeper, hidden behind a bush. The flicker was nothing more than a blur. Still it was there, leading me forward. I tore around a tree, pivoting, and caught sight of a rotting fallen trunk stretching too far for me to go around. I drove my feet into the ground and lunged, only for my knee to buckle the moment I hit the other side.
A moan burst free as I slammed to the ground.
“Ryth, stop!” Caleb roared.
But the sound was closer…
Just through the group of trees in the distance.
I ground my jaw against the agony, using it to propel me upwards. But I had no strength anymore. I had nothing. I slammed the gun against the tree, using it to brace myself, and shoved forward. My feet blurred as the ground seemed to tilt.
“No…don’t you fucking dare,” I growled.
I drew on my last ounce of strength to keep myself upright and lifted my gun.
“No! NONONO!” she screamed. “Get off me! GET THE FUCK OFF ME!”
All I heard was her terror. All I felt was her fear. I clenched my jaw and wrapped my finger around the trigger.
Caleb unleashed a curse, his muffled words growing deeper and softer the closer I came, until I rounded the thick clump of brush and saw them.
“It’s me, baby.” He held her, kicking and thrashing, against him. “It’s me, princess. It’s me.”
“Caleb?” she moaned.
“It’s me, baby,” he repeated, turning her around.
“I c-can’t stop it. I c-can’t,” she cried, sounding so fucking broken it killed me inside.
“Then don’t.” I flinched with the coldness of his tone. “Don’t fight it.”
My lips curled as I narrowed in on him, watching them together from behind the trees.
“Just let it roll through you. It’s just me in that place with you.”
She pressed her face into his neck and I swallowed a pang of jealousy.
“Me touching you.” He slid his hand between her legs. But she didn’t need that, because we’d just— “Say my name, princess.”
“Caleb.” Her moan was a punch to my chest.
“That’s the way, princess. I’m right there, right? You can see me in that room you can’t escape. You can see me.”
He unbuttoned her jeans and pushed inside. My damn heart thundered, both excited and fucking savage watching them. Something was happening between them, something more than just sex.
“Gonna take you away from here, princess. Gonna take you far away.”
What the fuck?
I took a step forward.
“Fuck, baby, I’ve been waiting for you to come to me all day.”
I stopped. Sonofabitch…
“Breathe against my neck while I finger you.” Her arms wound tight over his shoulders, clinging to him while he dug inside her pants. “Jesus, that’s it.” I couldn’t move as he lowered her to the ground, pushing her backwards against the fallen tree. “Gonna need you to be quiet out here, princess. You think you can do that?
He shoved her jeans open, and tugged her pants low. “That’s it, baby. That’s so fucking it, look how wet you are. Christ, you love this. You need this.”
He fucked her with his fingers, then pulled away, shoving his trousers open. I didn’t want this to happen…didn’t want to share her with him. Because he…didn’t deserve her. Not after what he’d done.
He leaned over to growl in her ear. “I’m going to use this cunt…over and over. My perfect fucktoy. My needy little stepsister.”
Something savage moved inside me. I clenched my grip on the gun as he lifted her, turning her around to face the tree. In a blinding second, I was back at that place, lying on the forest floor, staring up at my father as he aimed his gun at me as I now lifted mine, taking aim at the back of my brother’s head.
“My cunt.”
He drove inside her. That savagery inside me pushed to the surface.
“My fucking sister.”
He gripped her around the throat, driving her hard against the trunk. But she didn’t fight him…she didn’t even cry out. She gave in, letting him fuck her like an animal. Because she needed this. She needed him…
The thought stopped me cold.
She needed the way he was. His darkness. His control.
Because that place had changed her.
It had corrupted her, stained her, left a part of her craving the kind of darkness Caleb could give. I winced, unable to fight the sting that carved through the center of my chest. I could be that for her. I could…
No.
I couldn’t.
Because it wasn’t just about the sex, was it? She cried out, her fingers clawed the bark of the tree on front of her as she climaxed. It was about that place. That place that Caleb had dragged her into. I hated him for that, hated him more than I had before.
But I didn’t want him dead. Because that would hurt her even more. I lowered my gun and took a step backwards as my brother came inside the woman I’d given my heart to. No, I didn’t want him dead…
I wanted him gone.
