by Susan Bliler
Sam tried to control her emotions, knowing that with his heightened senses he’d easily scent her grief if she dared for even a second to let herself reflect on what she’d endured. She watched his nostrils flare as he attempted to glean more from her scent than she was willing to give with words. She tore her eyes from his, turning her head to focus intently on the wall. Don’t think about it, don’t think about it. Think about something else. Think about revenge. Think about the anger…think about hate!
“I’m not like that, Sam. I’m a good man.”
“I wouldn’t know,” she instantly replied, eyes still locked on the wall. “I’ve never met one. And you can stop touching me now.”
She could feel Bellis’ eyes as they bore into her. He was trying to read her, scent her, to discover her secret—a secret he had no damn business knowing.
“What did he do to you?”
His words were so soft, Sam knew that, if she looked at him, she’d see pity in those gorgeous eyes. The sight would break her. Her façade would crumble, and she’d confess all to this God among men. The frightening thing was, it wasn’t because he pitied her, or hated her, and not even because he held her down under his weight. She’d confess it all to him because, after all the years of clinging to her hatred, she finally wanted to share it with someone else and let it go. She wanted to lay her burden at Bellis’ feet and see if he was strong enough to rescue her from the turmoil. The suffocating blanket of hatred that made her recklessly risk her life on the flimsy excuse that it was for a good cause. After confessing her role, something had changed in her. That dark, heavy weight she’d been carrying for so long had cracked. She felt almost light, like a tremendous slab of stone had held her down for so long, and now, new life was peeking through the cracks, straining for the sun. It was too soon for all that shit. Yet, finally, after all the years of solitude she knew—felt deep down—that she could feel something for Bellis. It honestly and wholly terrified the shit out of her.
They lay there for long minutes, his body pressed to hers. And with each passing minute, her awareness of him ratcheted higher. She knew what he was doing. He was waiting for her to show him that there was some good part of her, some pure part, some vulnerable heart that was still left. It was something she’d never do. She might be an asshole, but she wasn’t a fucking asshole, and the last thing she’d do would be to awaken any interest from Bellis StCroix, because she had no intention of forming any type of bond or relationship with him. No, she wouldn’t destroy another the way she’d been destroyed. She wasn’t a fucking coward. She knew what betrayal could do, and she’d fought long and hard to keep from becoming the very thing that had twisted her. If there was a redeeming quality about her, that’d be it, and yet it wasn’t enough to offer up to anyone. She’d be no Walker’s Angel, no Keeper’s mate, no man’s wife. All hope for that had burned away years ago. It had been seared from her with each abuse inflicted on her by the Megalya monsters, by Kennedy and Odium and their ultimate betrayal.
“Samantha?”
The use of her full name spoken softly, so imploringly, by what she knew was one of the fiercest of all Walkers had her blinking back the tears that flooded her eyes. No weakness. NO weakness! “Get. The fuck. Off me. Demon!”
She knew he hated when she called him that, his cheek always twitched when she used it, so she’d hoped it would work. It didn’t. Bellis leaned even closer, smashing her breasts between them as he growled in a sexy rumble, “Not until you talk.”
“Fine!” she clipped out. “What? What do you want to know?”
“I want to know about him.”
Sucking a deep breath was hard with his weight pinning her, but she managed, and then she talked.
Chapter 20
“He’s all I remember. No parents, no home, no happiness. Just Odium.” She knew that Odium wasn’t the he Bellis had been talking about, but Odium was the only he that she was willing to discuss.
Her eyes took on a far-off look. “Mom died and I forgot her face in what felt like days. She’d been gone so much, it felt like she’d already been dead. Most of my memories are of him keeping me in a cage.”
A shudder tore through Bellis at her admission.
“He treated me like a dog. Fed me and gave me water twice a day. Let me out to use the bathroom three times a day. Pulled me out for exercise.” She chuffed a humorless sound. “Exercise,” she muttered under her breath before amending, “beatings. He thought the pain would make me strong, and that I’d eventually learn how to fight. As I got older, I was so starved for the world that I grew bolder and bolder, and was willing to endure more and more for the chance at a glance out the window or a break for the door. That’s when he started threatening me. His threats were worse than his fists ever were. He always told me how one day he was going to peel my skin off while I was still alive so we could both see if beneath it all my heart was black like a Megalya or red like a human. He always called me that. Human. Like it was a slur.
When he took me to witness him kill for the first time, his victim was a Skin Walker.” She smiled sadly at the memory. “He nearly lost, nearly died.” The smile faded. “I’d been so damn hopeful.” She shook her head sadly. “I was praying that Skin Walker would gut him. But Odium and the six other Megalya with him killed the Walker and his Angel. He told me that it’s what we did. What I would do. I was Megalya and so my life would be hunting Walkers.
The next time we encountered Skin Walkers it was a larger group. Dr. Chambers wanted to keep the Walkers to start his work on biomimicry. It was Dr. Chambers’ belief that there was a biological solution to why individuals were born Skin Walkers, and that if he could replicate that cell propagation he could create his own Walkers, or worse…a hybrid Walker/Megalya. Odium couldn’t wait. He wanted to attempt to capture mated pairs and breed them for a permanent food source. Odium and the other monsters were convinced that if they drank enough Walker blood, they’d be able to see, hear, and use their noses like Walkers. He wanted the ability to shift like Walkers. It didn’t work, not even close, but Odium and the other Megalya kept at it. It was like they believed that, if they found and drank from the “right” Skin Walker, something would click and they’d have shifting abilities. Odium was unaware though, that Dr. Chambers’ intentions went much further than hunting Walkers as a food source for Megalya. The two were secretly at war with one another. It was the break I needed.
They started taking captives. Odium had to let the Walkers live to breed. While the Megalya slept, and the scientists and Doctors were busy in their labs, I listened to the Skin Walkers in the cells. They spoke of a man, Monroe StoneCrow, coming for them. There was such reverence in their tones.” She blinked, staring over Bellis’ shoulder. “They talked about him like he was a God. I decided then and there that he was a God I wanted to believe in. So, I started praying, and eventually I helped one of the males escape with a message for Monroe that I’d be here, on the inside, with an offer of aid in exchange for salvation. And so, it began.”
“You asked for rescue and he left you there to spy?” Rage colored his tone as Bellis bit out the words.
Sam shook her head. “He didn’t have a choice. Neither did I. Things had gone too far. Dr. Chambers took over. Odium played his sick, twisted games, forcing Walkers to breed other Walker women, and humans too, but all the while Dr. Chambers kept trying to convince Odium that with biomimicry, science could gift him with what he sought. Odium didn’t understand the sophistication of it all, so I had to explain it to him. Over and over, days and days, months and months. All the while I changed, grew like him, hardened my heart. Over time, Odium grew to trust me and would seek my counsel. I played the villainess so well. It’s easy to do when all you have to do is tell the devil exactly what it is he wants to hear. Odium used to say I was more sinister than he could ever be. Funny, I always just thought on what was the worst possible choice of action, the decisions Odium himself would make, and regurgitated those back to him. He grew to like me, bec
ause I was a mirror. In me, he saw himself.” She shook her head and muttered, “Psychotic fucking narcissist.”
“He could have pulled you out,” Bellis accused. “Monroe should have pulled you out. How long, Sam? How long did he leave you there?”
She shrugged. “A minute, a day, a year…a decade. It doesn’t matter.” She turned to face him with emotion shining in her eyes. “Every second was worth it.” She swallowed hard, a true smile finally claiming her lips, and it stole his breath. “We saved hundreds.” She whispered the words as if they were a great secret, a tremble in her voice. “Hundreds of Walkers. Men, women, children. And all it took was…”
When words failed her, he supplied angrily, “All it took was you sacrificing your life to save theirs!”
Sam let her head fall back onto the bed. “I’m no one, Skin Walker. No one loves me, no one knows me. I have no family to go back to. Those Walkers belonged to someone, even if it was only each other!”
She tried to look away, but his eyes stalked hers. “So, you gave up your life under some misguided belief that their lives were somehow worth more than your own?”
She lifted her chin and looked him right in the eye. “It’s not misguided. They were. They are.”
Bellis grabbed her then, a strong hand gripping her chin and pulling her face closer to his as he peered down at her. “NO. They. Are. Not,” he snarled. “How long, Sam? How long have you been working for Monroe?”
A sad smile touched her lips, and her eyes drifted to his chest. “Since I was seventeen.”
His lips parted and all the air left Bellis in a whoosh. His grip on her loosened and he pulled back, quietly asking again, “How…” He swallowed hard. “How long, Samantha?”
“Nine years.”
***
Nine years? Nine FUCKING years! Oh, that was it. Monroe StoneCrow was a dead motherfucker! Right now, it was literally taking every ounce of Bellis’ strength to keep from rocketing off his mountaintop and flying to StoneCrow to pound seven shades of shit out of Monroe, but Sam came first. She spoke so flippantly of her time, her wasted years. It gutted him. He wished he could go back in time, find her sooner, save her sooner. But, he couldn’t. All he could do was deal with the here and now, and as interesting as her story had genuinely been, it’d been a deflection.
“Thank you for your honesty.” He struggled to keep his beasts from polluting his voice. He failed. “That’s not the him I meant though, and you know it.”
Sam shrugged. “That him is a monster just like Odium. No,” she quickly amended. “He’s worse.”
“Megalya?”
“No.” She snorted a soft sound. “He was the darkest creature I’d ever met. A devil, a real live, honest to god demon. A fucking evil beast. I’d lived among Odium and his creatures for years, but him… He hurt me worse than any of them ever had or could.” She blinked once. “I lived a life among all these creatures. Skin Walkers, Megalya, Keepers, evil scientists, power hungry officials. Yet, he was more sinister than them all, and he was one hundred percent human.”
Bellis’ brow furrowed. He wanted to hear more.
“I’m hungry.” Sam’s soft words tugged at something in him. The need to feed her overrode everything else. His eyes dipped to her mouth.
“It’ll put you out,” he warned.
She blinked up at him. “Better that than this fucking migraine that’s splitting my head from that damn drug. I’ll only take a little,” she promised.
He’d feed her. He wanted to reward her for all she’d shared with him. That and he felt compelled to take care of her, see to her needs. “Take all you need.” Angling his head, Bellis exposed his throat, and when he peeked down at Sam she was staring up at him in shock.
“You…you sure? Like this?”
“I’m sure, Princess.” He leaned closer, and when her lips touched his skin he couldn’t help the shiver that coursed through him. Part of him wanted to pull back to see her with her canines elongated. He bet she looked sexy as fuck. She felt sexy as fuck when her hands slid down his biceps and one hand lifted to curl around his nape. He felt her smile against his throat a split second before her teeth sank into him and his already hard cock nearly erupted as his balls drew up. Beneath him, a feminine moan left Sam’s throat and when her lips tugged on him, he stopped trying to control the growl that rattled his chest. Her hips rolled against the hard bar of his erection, and he had to pinch his eyes closed to keep from bucking against her. Holy fuck, don’t come! His breathing was labored, his arms starting to shake from the need to grab Sam and rip that fucking suit off her, bury his cock so deep in her tight pussy that she wouldn’t know where she ended and he began.
Her soft body writhed against him as she drank deeply, the scent of her arousal perfuming the air. Don’t come, don’t come, don’t come. But he was rocking his hips against her now, and he could feel the heat of her even through her suit as she rolled her hips hard against him, releasing his neck quickly as she cried out, this helpless little sound, her body tensing against his as an orgasm claimed her. The sight of her open mouth, swollen lips, and heaving chest, coupled with that sound, was his undoing. Since he’d met her, she hadn’t ever acted, looked, felt, or sounded helpless, but that sound that had just left her…that goddamn sound. With a snarl, he came in his BDU’s like a teenager watching his first porn.
Sam’s body convulsed as he continued to rub against her, drawing out her pleasure, and when her head fell back and she exposed her neck, he wanted to lean forward and bite her so damn bad. Her breathing evened out, her eyes opening slowly as she lowered her head to look at him. Two more long blinks, and on the third, her eyes didn’t open back up. Good. Quietly, he whispered the threat he’d made to her several times since meeting her, only this time it didn’t feel like a threat. It felt like a promise. “Sleep, Princess. Know that when you wake, I’m gonna be right here.”
He settled Sam back on the bed, pulling a blanket over her before he gave her one last look. He was going to change his damn boxers and pants, and then he was hauling ass to StoneCrow while Sam recovered. That motherfucker, Monroe, had some explaining to do.
Chapter 21
Bellis stormed down the third-floor hall of StoneCrow Manor. His eyes were narrowed into thin slits on the door that led to Monroe StoneCrow’s office. In falcon form, he’d made the flight in record time, and he was positive that the rage surging through him had something to do with it.
Monroe! He growled, long and deep. Fucker’s dead! He didn’t even try to talk himself out of his course of action, because one thing kept playing over and over in his mind. Samantha’s softly spoken words. ‘Since I was seventeen. Nine years.’ A fucking child! Monroe had used a goddamn child to gain leverage in his war against the Megalya, and now he was going to pay for it.
Bellis’ boot hit the door so hard that it crashed inward, ripping from the top hinges and slamming in, only to bank off the wall before falling loudly to the floor.
Monroe sat behind his desk, eyes on the Bellis, no shock registering as if he’d expected the sudden violent intrusion. Fucker had no idea. The violence was only starting, and Monroe’s personal guard, King, was nowhere in sight. No one to save his ass!
Hunching his shoulders, hands balling into shaking fists, Bellis opened his mouth wide, and roared his rage.
The quirking up of one eyebrow was Monroe’s only response. He should’ve known better.
Bellis threw himself across the room and launched himself over the Dominant’s desk. He’d been dying to try Monroe, but hadn’t had an excuse until now. Dominant his ass. Bellis was a fucking Demon, and it was time to find out who was tougher!
With unbelievable speed, Monroe was up out of his chair. Partially shifted, elongated incisors at either side of his mouth matched Bellis’ own. The two collided with the force of Mack trucks smashing into each other. The desk shattered beneath them as they crashed down on top of it, and then the fight was on.
All Bellis could see in his head was
a teenage Sam stuck in a hell not of her making. A hell Monroe could have rescued her from, but hadn’t. His fist connected with Monroe’s face with a viciousness that surprised even him. Good!
His celebration was short-lived, as the Dominant punched him so hard that he heard a crack as all the air left his lungs in an agonizing whoosh. Dropped to his knees, Bellis was left vulnerable as Monroe jerked one of his knees up and connected with Bellis’ nose. Oh, Hell No! The demon Walker leapt back into the fight, blood spraying everywhere.
Lunging up, Bellis tackled Monroe around the waist, slamming them to the floor as they battled, snarling, bleeding, and shifting. When Skin Walkers battled each other, the fight got ugliest when they shifted. Their animal instincts tended to take over, and it was hard to convince the beasts that killing a fellow Walker would be frowned upon.
Now, with Bellis in giant panther form, the teeth of Monroe’s massive Bengal tiger were sunk into his shoulder, and the Dominant wasn’t holding back. Monroe’s teeth sank in until they hit bone, and then tightened further. Using his back legs, Bellis kicked up, shredding the soft underbelly of the tiger. It was enough to force Monroe to loosen his bite.
Pain was pulsing through Bellis something fierce, but he ignored it. This was his chance to avenge his Sam, and he was going to do it right.
“ENOUGH!” A voice boomed from the door, but both Monroe and Bellis ignored it as they circled each other, lips curled back, animal teeth dripping crimson, snouts scrunched up exposing lethal intent in their animalistic fury.
Suddenly, the room darkened as the world outside was cast into shadow. A loud clap of thunder sounded, and both Monroe and Bellis jerked their gazes to the window before turning to stare at a clearly pissed-off RedKnife KillsPrettyEnemy.
He stepped into the room and crossed to place his body between the two beasts. “What in hell are you thinking?” He was looking at Bellis. “You attacked the Dominant?”