"Saint," she pleaded. "I know you're upset, but we just wanted to get it over and done with. We weren't looking to make you feel like-"
"Like you don't trust me?" I finished for her and Kyan growled something angrily as he stood from his bed, stalking over to stand at my side in solidarity. I loved when he got like this, that anger and rage inside of him pressing out against the confines of his skin as the darkness in him hungered for blood.
"It's not that," Tatum gasped, seeming to realise how deeply she'd cut me with this behaviour as she took a step closer. "It's just-"
"You know how I get?" I supplied coldly, trying not to feel that bite of pain in my chest as I tossed her words back at her.
Tatum's eyes widened and for a moment I was certain that she had realised the cost of her actions to me and I could see how she really hadn't meant to hurt me like this. But it was a little too late for that and we both knew it. There was only one way that the beast in me would be tamed now.
She glanced at the others for a moment then dropped down to her knees in front of me, making my heart lurch as she gave me what I needed so easily. Submitting to my control, offering herself as a sacrifice to the darkness in my soul and giving me this way out, this release which we both knew I needed beyond measure now.
"Look, I know she fucked up in the mind of Saint Memphis," Blake said heatedly as he pushed to his feet and moved to stand between us. "But it was really all on me. So punish me if you have to punish someone. I'm not gonna let her take the rap for my mistake."
"I think we all know that Tatum is a strong, wilful, powerful woman," I hissed. "She was more than capable of making her own choice to go with you, just as she is more than capable of paying for her missteps. But you do make a valid point. You must be punished too."
I flicked a glance at Kyan beside me and he barked a laugh as he lunged for Blake who surprisingly made very little attempt to escape him.
"On the bed," I said casually and Kyan dragged him over to it. "Face down. Ass up," I added.
"You're not seriously going to spank me, are you?" Blake laughed as Kyan shoved him onto the bed and yanked his sweats off.
Tatum lifted her head, her eyes twinkling as she watched, and I retrieved a coil of rope from my bag.
"On your knees," I said casually as I moved towards him and Blake huffed before complying. "Lean forward and grasp your ankles." The moment he did it, I tied his wrists in place tightly then shoved him forwards so that his face hit the pillows and his ass was left in the air.
"Fuck you," Blake said, half laughing as I made him my bitch and the others laughed too.
"Do you like this, siren?" I asked, looking back over at her where she remained on her knees in the middle of the room.
"It has a certain appeal," she admitted, and the hint of a smirk touched the corner of my lips.
"Why don't you count then?" I offered her and she nodded eagerly. "Does ten strikes seem fair?" I asked my brothers, because this punishment was on their behalf too. I wasn't the only one Blake and Tatum had betrayed tonight.
"That should do it," Nash agreed with a snigger, rolling up a magazine and handing it to me.
"Wait a second," Blake protested. "I thought you were gonna use your hand?"
He tried to struggle as I moved to stand behind the bed, giving Tatum a perfect view and Kyan placed his hands on Blake's shoulders to stop him from wriggling about.
"Take it like a man, naughty boy," he teased and I couldn't help but smirk again as I raised the magazine for the first strike.
"Bare ass, I think is fair," Nash said quickly, yanking Blake's boxers down too and he started cursing.
"Do you want a safe word?" I offered Blake.
"Just get the fuck on with it," he growled, giving up his struggle and I shrugged before clapping the rolled up magazine down on his ass.
Blake swore as I struck him and Tatum dutifully started counting, her blue eyes flaring with excitement as she watched.
The magazine struck his ass repeatedly and his skin pinked from the slap of it against his flesh while Blake called me every name under the sun. For the final strike, I tossed the magazine aside and clapped my bare palm down against his ass as hard as I could.
"You sadistic motherfucker!" he yelled at me, but there was a hint of amusement to his tone which told me well enough that he'd been happy to take this punishment. No doubt he knew he deserved it.
I moved away from him with the beast in me settling just a little. But punishing Blake didn't come close to satisfying my cravings and as my gaze met Tatum's sapphire blues, I could see she knew that too.
I moved to take a wooden chair from the side of the room and placed it down before her then lowered myself into it slowly. The others were all watching us with keen interest, and I knew they were curious about this side of me, wondering if they wanted to share in it or not and I welcomed their hungry eyes on our movements.
I didn't need to say anything. Tatum knew what I needed and she stood slowly, sliding her sweatpants off and stepping out of them before pulling her shirt over her head and tossing that aside too. She was wearing a sheer navy bra which showed her hard nipples through the material but had paired it with a red thong and as her eyes met mine, I knew that the mismatch was intended to rile me. How often had she been wearing unpaired sets, hoping I would get her clothes off and find it, punish her for it?
I ground my jaw to keep from mentioning it and she dutifully moved to lay across my lap as I spread my legs wide to support her better.
She took hold of the chair legs beneath me to brace herself as her golden hair spilled down towards the floor and I ran my fingertips along her spine gently, loving the feeling of her shivering at my touch.
As my hand made it to her ass, I couldn't resist the urge to slide my fingers over her thong, following the material down the valley between her ass cheeks until I found slick, wet material and her swollen pussy. I drew the fabric aside and pushed two fingers inside her, wondering how much of this was for Nash and how much in anticipation of this punishment because I knew she needed this release just as much as I did.
Tatum moaned breathlessly, murmuring my name and making something in my chest settle as she fell to my commands so simply.
"You are our queen. We will worship you and covet you and love you with the might of the monsters we are. But we are monsters. And we are a family. Which means that there must be consequences for failing us. Do you agree that you deserve this punishment?" I asked her roughly.
"Yes," she breathed, and it didn't escape my notice that there was a moan in there too.
But I didn't even care if she enjoyed this. If she derived pleasure from her punishments, then all the better. It would just make the message I was delivering to her more memorable.
I dipped my fingers in and out a few more times, listening to her moans before I drew them out suddenly and spanked her hard. The cry that escaped her lips was all pleasure and a groan of longing drew my attention back up to my brothers watching us as she panted, "One," and began to count.
Kyan was unashamedly pumping his cock as he watched the show I was putting on and Nash looked like he was only a moment from doing the same while Blake watched with wild eyes from his position still tied on the bed with his ass in the air. He wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it if he wanted to stroke his own dick and I smirked at him as I went back to caressing our girl.
"It isn't really fair that Monroe be denied his release when you're the one at fault," I mused, dipping my fingers back into her heat again.
"It's not," Tatum agreed breathlessly and I jerked my chin to beckon him closer.
He only hesitated for a second as I took a handful of Tatum's hair and lifted her head for him. She opened her mouth obligingly and I watched hungrily as Monroe pushed his pants down so that his solid cock could spring free.
Tatum leaned towards him, licking the tip of it before sliding her lips around it and I spanked her again, hard enough to knock her forward and make her
take his cock deep into her mouth in the same movement.
She cried out around his shaft and I paused a moment as he groaned but as she began to bob her head back and forth, I knew she wasn't going to ask me to stop.
My cock was driving into her hips where she lay on me and as Monroe began to thrust into her mouth, the friction of her movements made me growl with desire.
I spanked her again and Kyan took over counting for her now that her mouth was full, his inked hand running up and down his shaft as he just enjoyed the performance we were putting on.
By the count of eight, Tatum’s ass was pink and perfect and as she screamed her pleasure around his shaft, Monroe thrust in hard and came with a grunt of satisfaction.
I slid my fingers into her swollen pussy again, pumping them harder, stroking her g-spot and bringing her to the edge once more without letting her fall over it.
Monroe slid his cock from her mouth and she gasped my name, begging me not to stop this time, but I was too angry to allow her to come, needing to finish this ritual before I could let it go.
I pulled my fingers out and spanked her again, loving the sounds she made as I smoothed my fingers over the tender skin, caressing her through the lingering sting of my strike as my dick throbbed almost painfully.
Unsurprisingly, Kyan didn't wait to be offered a place in our party and stepped into Monroe's place, fisting her hair and driving his cock between her lips to finish what he’d been doing with his hand. He thrust in and out hard, fucking her mouth with a groan of pleasure that signalled him coming within moments and proving just how much he'd been enjoying what he was watching.
I spanked her for the final time as he moved back again, a sigh escaping my lips as I finally allowed the turmoil within me to settle and my anger to leave. She was here after all. Safe. Close. As beautiful as ever. It had worked out alright even if I wished they’d gone about it differently.
I ran my fingertips all over her body, unclasping the uncoordinated bra and sliding it from her arms as I drew her up to sit in my lap where I could pull her nipple into my mouth.
She was panting and moaning, her body wound so tight that I knew she was desperate for the release I'd been denying her, and I decided to stop being an asshole and let her have it.
"Touch yourself," I growled, my fingers sliding over her ass and up her spine.
Tatum's hand moved inside her panties without a word and I watched the way she played her body, taking note of just how she liked it as my cock pressed into her thigh with an aching need.
I didn't protest as she pushed my sweats down, freeing me from the confines of them and shoving her panties aside. Her sweet pussy sank down onto me and I groaned loudly as she rode me, still rubbing her clit for me like I'd commanded.
I stared into her defiant eyes as I thrust into her, drinking in the sounds she made as her pupils dilated and she panted, her release drawing closer and closer.
It took her hardly any time to come and as she tightened around me, I took control, my fingers digging into her hips as I slammed my cock up into her as hard as could, making her scream for me until I was coming too and my rage finally fell away. She sagged forward and we merged into a heap of limbs as I found her lips and kissed her softly, the two of us spent and wrung out and relieved to have found one another in the dark again.
***
We spent several days hiding in our new location. I wouldn't call it a home though and I couldn't deny how much I missed The Temple, but I also understood what Nash had said about family being your true home. I had the only things that truly mattered to me right here and that was what was getting me through the upheaval. Still, I was in the process of designing us a suitable house for after this was over, one which I would have constructed from scratch and built to our perfect specifications once I'd settled on the ideal location for it.
But for now, my focus was entirely on solving some of our problems. The most pressing being the box of stolen vaccinations we now needed to find a new home for. Kyan had plans to give one to Niall and pass on another for his old housekeeper but aside from that, none of us cared about anyone else enough to want them to have one. And the most pressing use for the vaccines was to give them to a virologist who was capable of using them to create the vaccines the world was in need of.
The only problem with that was that it was damn hard to find a candidate who we deemed worthy of the task. They needed to be a leader in their field. They also needed to have a strong moral compass and no ties to anyone connected to my father. The issue was that most pharmaceutical companies were very much run for profit, the owners of them cashing in on medications that desperate people needed while charging exorbitant prices for them. And while I was all in favour of turning a profit, we were in agreement that we wanted someone who couldn't be bought and who would be fair in the distribution of this life saving drug. After all, if the mega rich were the first to claim it and profit from it then we were only making my father's plans come to fruition. And I refused to line the palms of any more greasy businessmen with the profits of this atrocity. Not to mention the fact that Tatum would have had my balls for it if I tried.
"Dr Valerie De La Cost," I announced as I joined the others for breakfast, opening up my laptop and showing them the online profile for the woman in question.
She was a pretty woman in her late fifties, with dark skin and an intelligent glint in her eyes, posed in the cliched white lab coat for the profile picture and yet still not looking like a cardboard cut out of every other doctor in her field.
"She's the one?" Tatum asked with interest.
"Yes. She's a leader in her profession and she has spent her career dedicating her time to the kinds of drugs which make a true difference to the most amount of people, not just the ones guaranteed to turn a profit. She lives modestly, donating more than half of her income to foundations and projects around the globe and has worked to secure deals with many large companies, getting them to sponsor the production of her drugs for distribution in impoverished countries where the population needs them most. I cannot find so much as a hint of a bribe, foul doing or even a suspicious business partner. She looks squeaky clean and no matter how deep I dig, I can't find any dirt. She even refused a large raise in her pay when a competing company tried to poach her, claiming they didn't adhere to her moral code and I believe that was the truth."
"Okay then," Blake said around a mouthful of toast. "So where do we find her?"
"Swallow before you speak, you heathen," I muttered, taking a moment to lament my eggs and avocado as Tatum passed me some toast too. "And she has an office in Cypress City about four hours north of here and her home is close by."
"Alright then. Let's go," Tatum suggested brightly and I gave her a soft smile, enjoying the way she always managed to stay so positive, like she couldn't imagine any way that this might go wrong. I wished I had her faith, but I couldn’t help but believe that we were living on borrowed time. That my father was only one step behind us and our temporary peace was just waiting to be destroyed.
"We can eat first," I assured her, forcing myself to lift the toast to my mouth in my hand like some classless cretin and eating it as fast as I could just to get it over with.
Kyan made no attempt to hide his laughter at my expense, passing me an espresso with his wrist positioned to show off that ugly fucking squid tattoo as well. I was pretty sure he'd been trying to goad me into losing my shit ever since the spanking-turned-fuck-fest that had taken place the other day, but I refused to indulge his fantasies by rising to the bait. If he wished for me to take part in some kind of dominant fantasy with him and our girl, he was going to have to ask me nicely.
We finished up our breakfast together without any more talk of the problems we were facing, each of us holding out hope that today might just be the day that we solved at least one of them by ridding ourselves of the box of vaccines we were still carting about. I had to admit that it would be a relief to wash our hands of them.
We loa
ded ourselves up in my car, packing the trunk with our things and keeping the black bag with our most important possessions in the front just in case. I'd bought this building with cash and funded every single part of the purchase through false names and untraceable accounts, but I wasn't going to underestimate my father now that I knew he was onto us. I only had to have left behind one breadcrumb and I was certain that it would bring him down upon our heads at the drop of a hat. So I wasn't going to relax any time soon.
We pulled out of our hidden location and started down quiet streets, the car thick with tension as Tatum sat in the back with the box of vaccines by her feet. Once we got to Dr De La Cost's place of work, I intended to deliver the vaccines alone. There was no way I was letting any of those people even get a look at Tatum again. She was a ghost now and that was how she was going to stay.
The heavy thunder of a helicopter swooping overhead drew my attention and I craned my head to watch as not one, but two Black Hawks raced overhead, fully loaded with men and women in their army uniforms.
"What's that about?" Kyan muttered from the seat beside me, sensing danger as easily as I did.
"Nothing good," I replied.
We kept driving, more than a little tension filling the car now as more helicopters swooped overhead and I caught sight of a huge military truck up ahead too.
My new phone pinged in the glove compartment and I reached over to pull it out, frowning at the screen as a news bulletin flashed up.
New test and divide measures coming into place in Sequoia State.
Before I could give that much thought, another bulletin appeared.
Tatum Roscoe wanted for question in relation to the release of the Hades Virus.
"Watch out!" Kyan yelled, shoving the wheel as I almost ran us straight up the curb where a little old lady shrieked in horror.
I jerked us away from her, hitting the brakes as I stopped us right in the middle of the road, flipping the old woman off to make sure she kept fucking walking.
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