by Willow Hayes
I find her clit and circle it, making her moan. As I circle it I insert first one finger then two and set a slow pace. I retake her mouth and kiss her with the same languid pace, driving her crazy. As her body begins to shake I pull back, so I can watch her come apart. She closes her eyes, but I say, “Open your eyes, Firefly. I want to watch you fall apart.” Her eyes fly open, and she falls with my name on her lips. She is unbelievably sexy when she cums, and I will enjoy finding every single way to make her fall apart while saying my name. By the gods, I need this woman.
She blinks at me as if coming out of a daze, and I take this moment to memorize the way she looks right now. Her eyes unfocused with desire and need, lips swollen from our kisses, cheeks flushed with heat, and her breathing erratic. “You are exquisite, and the way you respond to my touch is intoxicating, but when I have you for the first time and make you mine,” my voice growls at the idea of finally making her mine in every way, “it will not be against the gym wall.
She shivers at my words, still slightly dazed, before she is finally able to say, “Fuck Nakoa, how am I supposed go focus on anything now?”
I give her a predatory grin. “At least I know you’ll be thinking of me all day.” I can’t help myself and lean down to give her one more brief passionate kiss before I walk out of the gym with my hands shoved in my pockets whistling a tune, thinking about all the wicked things I plan to do with my mate.
Fifty-One
Kenna
We are gathered to debrief about what we’ve learned the past few days, and to determine what our next steps will be. I’m anxious to move forward because every day we wait is another day the bastard can hurt her. I fidget with my hair and bounce on my toes, my frustration creating a frenetic energy within me.
So far the night watch has identified that there is one guard stationed in the front lobby with a shift change at two-am, the names and cleaning patterns of the night janitors, and which doctors tend to stay late. Neither the night nor day watch teams have seen any patients who could be considered the so called volunteers and have concluded that there must be a floor below ground where they are being held. Though no underground floors appear on the blue prints they are fairly confident that there is one regardless of what the building schematics say.
Luka, having worked his computer mojo, says, “The power usage for the clinic shows they are using a great deal more power than others of a similar size and kind. I think there’s something happening that we just can’t get eyes on. There has to be an underground floor,” his voice passionate and firm as he explains his findings.
However, without any windows there is little additional information to be gained from the outside, bringing surveillance to a standstill. “We need to send someone in to get the intel otherwise we’re going in blind,” Teo’s voice reeks of the frustration we all feel as he runs his hands through his hair yet again, leaving it sticking up at odd angles.
“I agree, but who goes in? Luka? He’s the fastest. He comes across as unassuming, and his size makes him appear less threatening. He’s less likely to be remembered.” Nakoa thinks through the prospect, arms crossed in front, one resting on the other, while his long finger taps at his chin in the familiar habit he has when he concentrates.
The idea of one of my men going in alone terrifies me. “Um, nope. That is not happening. Whoever orchestrated this likely knows who you all are and has probably already informed security. They would take him down then and there if he’s spotted,” the snark in my voice masking the fear. Thankfully they agree and decide to call in a favor from a buddy.
Liam, a former Royal Guard member with Nakoa and Callum and an occasional freelance agent on their security team was on board immediately. So now we’re set up on the roof with our camera trained on the entrance and ear pieces tuned into Liam’s feed as he goes in undercover as a janitor.
“The elevator doesn’t go down from the ground floor, so you’d have to take the stairs. Looking for the door now,” Liam’s voice is calm, but it does little to soothe my fear for him. I hate that he’s risking so much for us, but he says he wants to be here. “Fuck!” his exclamation makes my heart stop. “There’s a keycard system in place, so we’ll have to figure out how to get a card. There’s a small window in the door, so I’m going to take some pictures, but all I can really see is concrete floors and a hallway full of doors. A second hallway turns right at the end of this one. There is a security camera on the ceiling aimed at the door.” I’m glad Liam was able to get evidence of an underground floor at least.
“Alright Liam, get out of there. We’ll debrief back at the house,” Nakoa orders.
My breathing completely stalls when I hear an angry voice come in through the feed. “What are you doing down here?” the new voice asks Liam.
“Man, I was told I needed to clean the hallways down here,” Liam remains calm, but his voice takes on an obnoxious nasal quality.
“No one comes down here. Who told you to clean down here?” The angry voice drips with suspicion.
I’m grateful that surveillance has learned the night janitors names because Liam quickly improvises, “Sean sent me down. I’m just doing what I’m told, man.” His tone placating.
There’s a long pause where neither says anything, and I hold my breath. The man finally speaks, “Well you go remind Sean that he is the only one who is cleared to be down here.” His voice hard and biting. “Now get out!”
We hear the slapping of boots on concrete stairs while Liam books it out of there. “Alright guys, I’m clear. I’ll see you back at the house,” Liam’s voice is still steady, and I wonder how he can remain so calm when my heart is racing and banging around in my chest. I don’t breathe easy until I see Liam’s long strides putting distance between him and the building.
Fifty-Two
Kenna
With shaky hands I wait with the guys near where the night guard parks before his two am shift. When the guard gets out of his car the guys immediately surround him. Between the combined brute strength of my four guys and their magically strengthened rope they manage to subdue him. After some inventive questioning he reluctantly tells us the password for the evening. Luka uses one of his bottled spells to knock him out for a few hours, and they stick him in the trunk of his car.
A heated debate took place back at the house about who would pose as the guard. Teo, despite his charms, was eliminated because as a shifter he would be suspicious. And although Luka comes across as unassuming, he’s an underworlder and would never be hired as a guard. Which left Nakoa and Callum, both of which are memorable as Fae and Sentinel.
Tonight, Nakoa wears the navy blue uniform identical to the guard’s, and I watch fascinated while he becomes someone new. His transformation is so complete I am reminded that he was once a deadly assassin in the Royal Guard and can see why he was so damn good at his job.
Now we wait with bated breath while he heads in. “Who are you?” The guard on duty jumps to attention.
“Bryn got massively sick, and they called me in for the night. Normally I’m over at the council building, but I go where they send me. You know?” Nakoa shrugs as if to say he knows as much as this guy.
“What’s the password for the day?” the guard asks, still suspicious of him.
“Yellow twenty-four,” Nakoa states it so matter of fact you would never guess he wasn’t the guard sent to relieve Bryn.
The guard seems to relax after Nakoa produces the correct password. “Let me show you the command room, and where you can put your lunch.”
“That would be great, thanks.” As Nakoa walks out of view I hold my breath, listening in as the guard walks him though the different aspects of the command room system then bids him goodnight. We watch anxiously as he jogs out to his car, eager to get home, and drives off.
Once he’s gone Nakoa appears in the door and motions us in. We dart across the street and into the building. He leads us straight to the command room, and Luka does what he does best. He sets the
cameras to loop the feed for the next hour. We race down the hallway and through the door into the stairwell. We take the stairs as quietly as we can in the cavernous and echoey space.
When we get to the door we use the keycard Luka swiped off a doctor in the parking lot earlier today. I wait with my fists clenched, eyes on the little red dot, until the light turns green, and the door clicks. Releasing a small sigh I take off to peek through each door. Most contain a small cot and a sleeping patient, though some are empty.
Arriving at the end of the hall I see a room that has been set up as some sort of makeshift morgue. I look closer and see three tables, each with a body. My knees go weak at the sight of a little girl with blond hair, and I know if I were able to look into her eyes I would find that they are hazel. The reality of who lies in front me crashes down on me, Helka.
I push open the door and rush to her side. What kind of sick fucks are they that they’re taking kids? Kids! I reach out and fix a piece of her hair, thinking of the last time I talked to her. Of the alphabet she was learning. Of the small sad smile she gave me as I walked out the door of her new foster family’s house after reassuring her that she would be safe with them. But she wasn’t. And now she’s gone, and I wasn’t there to stop her death from happening. Just. Like. Callie. I point to Helka with a sob, “That is one of my kids. How the fuck did she get here?” Breathing ragged, frozen and unable to look away.
Nakoa wraps me up in a tight hug. “This is truly horrible, and I am so sorry, Firefly, but we have to keep moving if we’re going to find Rya, or we might be too late.” His words penetrate the fog in my brain, and I nod. Wiping away the tears I follow him from the room. We turn down the next concrete hallway, and I peek in door after door, but I can’t find Rya. My panic begins to climb. Then I hear the voice that has haunted my nightmares for years.
Fifty-Three
Kenna
“So glad you could join us, little bitch, and it looks like you’ve gone and turned yourself into a whore. But seeing your body I can’t say I blame them.” He makes a show of looking me up and down. I stare at the Fae who has haunted me for years. He’s exactly as I remember him. Tall, with blonde, short cropped hair showing off his pointed ears, sharp, angular features, and long nose. Wearing black trousers, a short sleeved white button-up shirt, and loafers he looks the part of a respectable doctor, ever the talented deceiver.
When I tried to tell my social worker what he was doing to me she looked at me as though I were crazy and told me to stop stirring up trouble because, after all, he’s a doctor, and I was just a troubled foster kid. When he found out I had tried to report him the punishment I endured kept me home from school for days. That day he stole more from me than my body; he stole any hope I had of escaping the darkness.
He’s holding Rya in front of him, with an arm wrapped around her shoulders, and a knife pressed to her throat. Eight armed guards surround him, and he grins with madness in his eyes. “See, the Queen told us you would come. She even brought us a present to play with while we waited.” He strokes his hand down Rya’s face then slaps it, eliciting an involuntary gasp from me. “Guards, restrain the men. If they struggle kill them,” his words are spoken with such glee, as though this were just a game. I watch helplessly as my men are bound and lined up on the other side of the alcove.
“I’m sorry, Rya. I tried to protect you,” my voice cracking with my admission. She manages to open an eye, the other too swollen from a beating. Tears stream down my face at the sight of her abuse.
“Oh look, I forgot how much I liked it when you cry. Little bitch, you couldn’t protect your precious Callie, so what makes you think you can protect anyone?” He taunts and tightens his grip on the knife at her throat.
“Please let her go? Please?” I take a few steps forward, but stop immediately when he presses hard enough to draw a few drops of her blood. “What do you want?”
“Well, the Queen wants you, and she wants you alive,” he sneers his words as though they leave a terrible aftertaste.
“The Queen? Why would she want me?” I try to play it off, but I know it’s no good. I’ve never been able to lie to him.
“Because you’re the fucking Princess. Which I assume you know given your harem of men following you around like little lost puppy dogs.” His patronizing tone suggesting that it was stupid to try to play him.
“Okay, you have me and my men, so please let her go,” I beseech him. Begging has never worked with him, but I have to try.
“I’ll let her go after I’ve had you one last time.” His face adopts a thoughtful look, and he says, “Or maybe I’ll kill her now and still have you.” At his words the guys’ enraged shouts reverberate off the concrete walls in the small space as they violently fight against their binds, desperate to stop him from having me.
The guards shove the guys to their knees, wrench their heads back, and thrust blades against their throats, silencing them. Lachlan looks pleased with the whole affair and raises his voice to be heard over the noise, “If your men don’t stop, you will have to watch as we slit their throats one by one. Now, deal or no deal? Will you be a selfish bitch and allow your friend to die, or will you let me remind you who that cunt really belongs to?”
He always knew exactly what to say to cause the most fear, ensuring my ultimate submission. I look at the guys, and their eyes beg me not to submit to him, but I can’t be responsible for Rya’s death too. So with bile rising to my throat I look him in the eyes and say, “I accept.”
Despite having blades pressed to their throats the guys’ enraged shouts echo through the space again. I cry out as I see blood trickling down a few of their necks. “Stop! Please!” I beg them. I know stopping goes against every fiber of their beings, but they do. I turn back to the bastard and plead again, “Let her go. I’ll come with you.” My whole body trembles, and I can feel myself wanting to escape to the place I would go whenever he would hurt me, but I struggle against it. I need to make sure Rya is safe first.
“I will let her go when you are here with me.” He indicates the space next to him. “Can’t have you running off again now can I?” He cocks his head to the side and lifts his eyebrows. I clench my teeth feeling powerless to change anything. I haltingly walk over on wooden legs to stand next to him.
Smelling him nearly has me emptying my stomach. It permeates my every pore until all I can think of are the many ways he’s hurt me before. He looks positively euphoric at my submission. “Drop your weapons.” He avidly watches as I unclip the scabbard holding my swords and lay them down on the ground. “Now see, isn’t this a nice little family reunion.”
“I am not your family,” I say between clenched teeth, and his glee transforms into malice.
He abruptly drops Rya and slams me up against his chest, turning us around to face my Chosen. He wraps one hand so tight around my throat I’m forced to stand on my toes and with his other hand he reaches down to cup me. The similarity to my nightmare leaves me reeling. “Oh, but I am, because I told you all those years ago that this,” he squeezes me painfully causing me to cry out in pain, “was mine and would always be mine, and look, here we are and it is still mine.”
His mouth right by my ear sends his hot breath skating over me. He tips his head and bites my neck hard enough to draw blood, making me cry out. I’m crying in earnest now at being in his arms again, and the paralyzing effect he has on me. “You always were my favorite little pet. The noises you made when I took you made me crazy.” As if to prove a point he rubs himself against my ass.
“Remember the rule little bitch…if you fight me I will beat her.” As I stare at each of my men, trying to memorize their faces, he says, “Take them to the disposal room and kill them.” I scream and fight against his hold trying to get to them, but the bastard tightens his grip once more until I can no longer breathe. I watch my men be shoved down the hall while the bastard kicks Rya in the stomach, and she goes still. Oh gods! Please let her be okay. “If you fight me I will kill her.
” I go limp in his hold at his threat. “Good little pet.”
Lachlan walks us over to an exam room across the hall. He throws me on the table then locks the door. Face down on the cold metal table I’m able to take my first full, shuddering breath since he grabbed me. He grips my legs and flips me over, so I’m face up as he backhands me. I see stars and whimper in pain. I don’t move to touch my cheek though because I know he won’t allow it.
He reaches out and grips my hair with one hand yanking hard, so I’m forced to face him, and the knife he holds in his other hand. “When Queen Isadora told me who she was after I couldn’t quite believe my luck. See, after you ran away I tried to find a new pet, but none of them compared to you.” As he talks he makes small cuts in my shirt, getting close enough to make me tense, but not quite piercing the skin. “Imagine my surprise when I found out the very pet I missed the most was, in fact, the long lost princess.”
Ignoring his ramblings I ask, “What did you do to Rya?” My voice tremulous with the thought of him hurting her like he has hurt me.
“Ah pet, are you jealous? Don’t you worry I saved it all up for you. Once I learned who would be coming I just knew I had have to have you.” Relief pours through me at knowing she was saved from the same fate. He trails the knife down my stomach and with a violent thrust slices my shirt down the center.
“My my little pet, you have grown.” He reaches out to pinch my nipple, but I flinch away from his touch, unable to stop myself. “Ah, ah, ah, shall I remind you of the rules?” He quickly slashes the blade across my stomach, just deep enough to cause my blood to pool instantly. I cry out at the pain, my hands flying to my stomach. Lachlan yanks my hands away and slams them back onto the table with such force that I hear a crack in my right hand, and I know he’s broken it. “That’s right pet. I make the rules. I have the power.”