by Zoey Marcel
“What?” Greyson looked insulted and desperate to prove himself. “That’s bullshit. There’s no such thing as eternal life. I collared you because I love you, and I was under the impression that my idiot brothers had already talked to you about this whole thing.”
“That’s why Tasha died, isn’t it?” A cold shiver of terror slithered through her.
Emmett seemed uneasy. “I’m not superstitious, but it does seem like a disturbing coincidence that she died while trying to leave town. She only had my permission to leave. Greyson didn’t know she was leaving. The curse must have applied to her because she was engaged to him and in a relationship with both of us.”
Mellie put a hand over her mouth, shuddering at the sudden chill in her bones. “Take the collar off me, please.”
Greyson sounded frantic. “Melanie, we didn’t know about the curse back then. If you want me to prove it’s you I want instead of an empty promise of everlasting life, then we’ll all move wherever you want and you’ll be free.”
“Take the collar off.” Her lungs couldn’t seem to get air into them, and her heart ached when he removed the collar. She felt lost and incomplete without it as she headed toward the door.
Greyson grabbed her by the arm. “Melanie, don’t leave. Taking it off probably doesn’t change anything. You agreed to this. I don’t want to lose you.”
“Please let me go. I want to take a walk.”
“Damn it, no. I won’t let you leave me.”
“I just need some space.”
“Greyson, let her go. She’ll be fine. Just give her time to think,” Hunter said.
“It’s not like she can leave anyway,” Emmett reminded his eldest brother.
Mellie cringed. When Greyson let go of her she hurried toward the front door. “That white buffalo you mentioned before, Emmett, was that some evil spirit of chauvinism?”
“The myth has it that it’s the guardian spirit of whoever was responsible for casting the spell on McKenna Downs. I never believed it,” Emmett admitted. “After Tasha died and I saw the white bison, I started to wonder. I’m a skeptic by nature, but I’m not willing to take a chance on losing you. I need you safe. We all do.”
She couldn’t stop shaking. “I’m going for a drive.”
“Stay in town,” Greyson ordered.
The order sent a shiver of awareness and a chill of fright through her. “Don’t say that. I can drive outside town if I want to.”
His countenance was wild with fear for her safety. “Melanie—”
“You can’t keep me here against my will.”
“It’s not against your will, Melanie,” Emmett corrected her. “If you didn’t love us or at least have some level of commitment to us, you would be free to leave no matter how badly we wanted you to stay. As much as it pains me to utter something cliché, it’s love that’s keeping you here.”
Her eyes watered and her heart softened with feeling. Despite the strong pull she felt toward them, fear was potent within her. “Hunter’s slave bracelet didn’t have that effect on me.”
“That’s because the bracelet is more like a promise ring than a wedding ring. Whenever a woman is collared as a slave or a sub, given an engagement ring, or a wedding ring that she willingly accepts, she becomes bound to the men who claimed her,” Hunter explained. “We’re sorry it turned out like this, Mellie. We were gonna tell you tonight.”
“We didn’t know Greyson was going to ruin everything,” Emmett hinted while eying his oldest brother.
“Fuck you,” Greyson spat. His complexion lightened with affection and insane worry when he spoke to Melanie. “Come back to us. Take some time to cool off, but come back to us.”
She hurried out the door and slammed it behind her.
After driving into McKenna Downs, she parked the car at the edge of town and then got out to investigate the spooky myth. She walked until she bumped into something—something she couldn’t see. A pound of dread slapped her silly. An invisible wall kept her from leaving town just as her men had predicted. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t wearing any of the jewelry they got her at the moment. She was still stuck, bound to them unconditionally. The knowledge gave her a soft, achy sense of belonging as equally as it sent her into panic mode.
This was supposed to be temporary. What happened to adopting a baby or two? They said they were fine with adopting kids, but what if that was just to get me to stay with them?
I love being their woman, but a prisoner? Is it a prison if it’s exactly where I want to be?
They said they’d move for me, but I can’t take them away from the ranch they grew up on and love. Their dad is getting up there in years. He needs his sons.
What about my family? Oh god.
She needed to get out of town. If she drove just a mile or two and got a feel of what leaving would be like, then she would know whether or not she could ever truly leave them, or if she would be able to handle being under the complete ownership and dominance of the five men she loved.
If she called Diego to get permission to leave, he would probably be onto her.
Jake, on the other hand, was vanilla and had made it clear that he thought the rumors about McKenna Downs were just myth and nothing more. She might be able to trick him into giving her permission to take a brief drive outside of town to test her true feelings on the matter.
She clicked on his name in her cell phone to dial him, heart stalling when he picked up.
“Hey, baby,” he said cheerfully. “What’s up?”
My world is falling apart and I don’t know whether to be thrilled or terrified.
“Oh, not much.” She struggled to keep the uncontrollable shakes in her body out of her voice. “Listen, I was just going to go for a little drive. I thought I’d do some shopping outside of McKenna Downs. Is that okay?”
“Sure, honey. Go right ahead. Do you need any money?”
A trickle of guilt seeped into her. “No thanks. I’m fine. So…I have your permission to leave town?”
“Yep. I’ll miss you.”
A tear dribbled down her cheek. “I’ll miss you, too.”
“Buy something pretty to wear…before I take it off you that is.”
She smiled through her tears. “Okay. I got to go.”
“I’ll talk to you later, baby. I love you.”
Her heart broke. “I love you, too.”
She hung up before he could ask her any questions. This time when she reached out her hand went farther ahead of her than before. The invisible wall holding her here was gone. She got into her car and drove way.
Chapter Eleven
Less than five miles outside of McKenna Downs Melanie had to stop the car to wipe away the sea of tears streaming down her cheeks. She sat bawling and trying to harden herself against the deep, unrelenting ache in her chest.
If she kept going, she would be free. The men didn’t believe in the eternal life part of the myth. What was to say the rest of the legend was even true? Obviously the inability to leave without her men’s permission was accurate at the very least.
She was only a few miles outside of town and already she missed them terribly. Could she ever truly leave them? What did it matter whether they lived in McKenna Downs with her or they all moved somewhere else? The important thing was that they were together.
True, they should have told her sooner, but she understood their desire to get Greyson on board first before spilling the beans to her. Too bad they couldn’t have used better communication to arrange the conversation before Greyson collared her and accidentally bound her to them forever.
She wanted them for the rest of her life, whether that meant one lifetime or for eternity. In a way the town hex was really just an extension of her commitment to them. If she ever wanted out, which she never would, they would probably let her go.
She looked down the long, endless highway sandwiched in by a swaying landscape of wheat colored grass. The overcast sky was steel-gray as with the threat of an approa
ching storm.
When Eddie Vedder’s “Hard Sun” came on the radio, it transported her memory to the day she first arrived in McKenna Downs. The sun had been blaring down on her and soaking the land in the heat of summer when she’d happened upon Jake trying to catch that stray calf that had been nomming on everything he could get his baby bovine mouth on.
She’d heard some say the song was about a love of nature and others said it was a man talking to his lover. Both meanings felt real to her. The song had made her think of the sun-soaked plains ever since she came here. It also reminded her of the time Greyson had been listening to it with her while driving in his truck. She’d asked him what he was thinking and he’d said that the song reminded him of her and how she’d made him whole. Even if she left she knew the song would always bring her back here to South Dakota and the men who’d become a part of her.
She looked at the road ahead and she couldn’t do it. The crippling pain and staggering quantity of tears wouldn’t let her. She needed her cowboys too badly. Whether they moved with her or not, she needed them in her life and had grown to love the charming little town of McKenna Downs.
I love you. Their names ran through her head one by one. I’m coming home.
Her heart swelled with joy at the thought of seeing them again and having make up sex.
A cold shot of horror pierced through her when she saw the white buffalo standing in the distance.
Oh my god.
The ghostly bison stared at her as if in challenge.
Mellie shook uncontrollably. “It’s not what you think. I love them. I’m going home.”
She felt silly talking to an animal, especially in her car with the windows rolled up. Still, she didn’t want to give the murder buffalo any ideas.
Before she even knew what was happening something shattered the driver’s side window. She screamed and clutched her skull in defense. Someone popped the lock and yanked open the car door. She tried to get away, but big, strong arms held her still and she felt a gun pressed to her head.
“I told you I’d come back for you, Mel.” Saul Finch’s dark voice turned her blood to ice and made her eyes prickle with horror.
“Saul, let me go.”
“Shh. No, L.D. You left me alone to fight these demons on my own. That was very selfish of you.” He cocked the hammer on his gun, making her whimper and scaring a few stray tears from her.
“I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt me.”
“I have to, Mel.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, milking more droplets from them.
“You said you’d let me use your body until I was healed. Well, guess what, bitch. I ain’t healed yet.”
She shuddered violently. “You need therapy.”
“Don’t you ever say I need therapy again!” He grabbed her by the throat and squeezed. “The voices tell me I don’t.”
Oh god, not the voices again.
“Please let me go.”
“Shh. My car’s over there. I’m gonna give you one more chance to heal me, L.D., and if that doesn’t work I’m gonna have to kill you.”
“No! Please!”
“I couldn’t let you live with the guilt of being useless. I figure either you can heal me, or Greyson can hear the voices and understand me. One of you better come through for me or I’ll kill one of you.”
* * * *
“What?” Greyson yelled when Jake mentioned Melanie’s bullshit excuse to leave town.
“Geez, guys calm down. I had no idea that myth was real or that Greyson collared her,” Jake said. “Crap. Does that mean she’s in trouble?”
“She might be,” Emmett answered on his way out the door.
Hunter followed quickly behind him.
“Damn. I’m sorry. Let’s split up and look for her.” Jake hurried out.
Greyson tugged on Diego’s forearm. He hesitated a moment, pride fighting with necessity. “Do I have your permission to leave town to look for her?”
“Yes, lover, you do. Come back to me, though.”
He smiled. “Always.”
Diego gave him a quick kiss on the lips before they went outside together.
They all split up to search for Melanie. Greyson drove until he found her car parked by the side of a back road. He parked and then dashed to the vehicle, but she wasn’t in it. A sick, dizzy spell came over him when he saw her window smashed in and broken shards of glass shattered all over the seats in the car.
“Christ.” He ran his hand down his face and looked around. “Melanie!”
Only the distant rumbling of thunder and the gentle fall of rain could be heard aside from his bellowing into the void.
A buzzing told him someone was calling him. Relief shot through him when he saw that the caller was Melanie.
“Shit, Melanie. Where are you? We’ve been worried sick.”
“Have you?” a sinister male voice replied from the other end.
His stomach dropped suddenly like he’d just descended on a tall roller coaster. “Saul?”
“That’s right, Greyson. I’ve got our woman. Now come and get her.”
“If you hurt her I swear to God—”
“Save your breath, bitch. I’ll do what I want with her, but I’ll hold off until you get here if you like. That is as long as you don’t do anything stupid like bring any police or weapons with you.”
“Fine. Where are you?”
“You know where I am. The place I made you beg for your life, remember?”
He felt sick to his stomach. “I remember.”
“This time I’m gonna give you a chance to plead with me for her life. I doubt she’ll think of you as a man after this, but I personally find it hot as fuck when you beg me.”
Bile rose to his throat. “I’ll come alone and unarmed if you let her go when I get there.”
“You’ll come alone and unarmed or I’ll kill her before you get here.”
His eyes jammed shut and he couldn’t stand the frenzied panic he felt. “Just tell me what the fuck it is you want. If you let her go I’ll give it to you and do anything you want.”
Saul moaned like a pervert on the other end. “I like the sound of that. You know what I want, Greyson, and if you don’t by now, then I’ll just have to cast lots to decide her fate and yours.”
Saul hung up. Greyson hung up, in shock as the rain came tumbling down on him in heartless torrents. Melanie’s life was in danger and to save her he had to bargain with Saul. His two worst nightmares had come to life.
Greyson climbed into the truck, soaked and shivering with cold or fright. God, he couldn’t face that horrible man again. For Melanie he could. He must.
He opened the glove compartment for napkins.
“You know what I want, Greyson,” the fiend had said.
Greyson wasn’t sure he did. Saul seemed to want nothing more than to hurt and kill people. His mind wandered back to the things Saul had demanded of Melanie. He’d hurt her years ago as a brutal means of catharsis. He wanted healing.
When Saul had tormented Greyson, it had been partly out of revenge and power, but there had been another element there that he hadn’t noticed back then. Lately, however, he’d started to wonder if there was a deeper very human desire in Saul.
Greyson thought back and it came to him. He knew what Saul really wanted deep down. When he noticed the old box of pills that he’d forgotten about in the glove compartment, he knew what he had to do.
* * * *
Greyson nearly faltered in his steps when he saw the peach-colored house that haunted his dreams for years. Only Diego’s touch, and eventually Melanie’s, had quieted the internal nightmares of the past.
Standing in front of the house of terror again turned his legs to jelly. His lady was here, his treasured submissive, and his wife already as far as he was concerned. He had to keep going.
He turned the knob to the door Saul had told him in a text would be unlocked. Greyson closed it behind him, almost falling over with anxiety when he saw
Saul standing there with a gun.
“About time. We’ve been waiting for you. Move.”
Greyson walked into the other room where Melanie was tied to a chair. His stomach churned with illness that her life was in peril.
Her eyes widened when she saw him. “Greyson. No! Saul, let him go. It’s me you want.”
“Shut up, bitch.”
Greyson wanted to club him to death for insulting his woman.
“Take the jacket off and put the handcuffs on.”
He obeyed since the gun was pointed at him. “We need to talk.”
“Shut up. Hands behind your back,” Saul ordered, cuffing him completely when Greyson did what he commanded. “Sit there.”
Greyson was shoved into a chair, but the gun was still pointed at him so he didn’t make his move.
A slow, devious smile spread across Saul’s lips. “Now I have you both right where I want you. The question is who am I gonna play with first?”
“Saul, wait.”
“Shut your trap, Mel.” Saul moseyed toward her, still pointing the gun at Greyson. Not that he could do anything while chained, but he had a plan. “Almost two years we were together and you didn’t heal me. You said you would.”
Melanie looked like she was on the verge of tears. “I tried. I really did.”
“Trying is no good.” He gripped her chin so tight his nails scratched her.
Saul pulled the trigger and shot near Greyson’s feet when he started to stand. Judging by the subdued noise, he figured the gun had a silencer on it. He sat back down.
“Sit down, Greyson. You’ll get your turn.” Saul kept the gun pointed at him while he spoke to Melanie. “All you ever did was whine about how much it hurt. Do you think it didn’t hurt me worse? I never even took your ass, you stupid whiner. You got off easy, but you won’t this time.”
Greyson used the shim he’d stuck in his back jeans pocket and began to wiggle it in the hole. Hopefully the handcuffs unlocked soon and all those experiences of escaping from bondage with the threat of danger paid off. Diego couldn’t call him crazy now when his fear-loving Houdini stunts had inadvertently prepared him to save Melanie’s life.