He tries to free his hand, but I dig my nails in, refusing to let him go. “My body is yours to do with as you please.” I move his hand across my breast, my nipple hardening under his large palm. “I know you want to.” My eyes purposely drop to the swelling in his pants. “She’s gone, but she’s still winning because you’re letting her.”
I see the instant the switch flips in his head. His eyes burn hot, and he slides his hand to my hips, yanking me flush against his body. “You don’t know what you’re asking for,” he barks.
“I do.” I palm his hard length. “I know exactly what I’m asking for.”
Grabbing me by both hips, he slams me down on the table, swatting the plate of food away with his hand. It crashes to the floor, food landing everywhere, while Dane pushes me flat on my back, tugging my legs apart. He’s not gentle and I’m loving it. My entire body is shuddering in anticipation. Perhaps I should be scared of the thunderous rage in his eyes, and the rough touch of his hands, but I’m not.
I’m the exact opposite.
I’m massively turned on. Dripping into my panties.
I’m not sure what he sees on my face, but it only incenses him more. Grabbing my legs, he yanks them up until my knees are bent and shoved back against my chest, exposing my most intimate part to him. With one arm, he keeps my legs locked in place. It’s not the most comfortable position but you won’t hear me complaining. With his free hand, he shoves my panties aside, plunging three fingers into my pussy without warning. I cry out at the sudden invasion and the brutal way he’s fingering me. “Is this what you want?” he demands, prodding his little finger into the crevice of my ass. I shriek at the unwelcome invasion. No one has ever touched me there, and I’m not sure I like it. Sudden unease blooms. “Is it?” he roars, continuing to pump his fingers into my pussy and push his little finger farther into my ass. “You want to be hurt and humiliated? You want to know what it feels like to be me?”
Tears squeeze out of my eyes. His fingers are vicious as they plunge into me over and over. I thought I could help him. I thought I knew what I was doing, but I don’t. This isn’t going to help anyone. “No,” I whisper. “I just want to make you feel better.” My voice is shaky and tears roll down my face, and that does something to him. He looks at me as if only seeing me properly for the first time.
“Fuck!” He swiftly removes his fingers from me, staggering back, looking disgusted with himself. “Fuck!” He grabs tufts of his hair, kicking his booted foot into the leg of the table repeatedly. I’m incapable of moving, only now realizing the full extent of the horror.
There is no easy or quick fix for this.
I understand why Dane agreed to do it. And I already forgive him for that. Hell, there’s nothing to forgive. Dane did what he’s always done—sacrificed himself to protect those he loves, so how could I ever hold that against him? I can’t, but it’s not that easy to forget. I want to. I’m sure he wants to, but how the hell do we do that?
How can I get over the sense of betrayal?
How can he overcome everything he endured?
How do I stop the images of him passionately kissing Alandra from haunting my dreams?
How do I eradicate the horrible ache in my chest?
Most importantly, how can I help him heal when it feels like he cheated on me? The logical part of my brain knows he didn’t, but try telling that to my tormented heart. I don’t want to feel what I’m feeling, but I don’t know how to stop it. And I can only imagine how traumatized he must be. If I’m like this, it must be ten times worse for him.
It’s a complete clusterfuck, and I’m only now realizing how truly clueless I am. I don’t know how to handle this. How to deal with the fact he gave himself to my enemy but he can barely tolerate looking at me. That hurts. So much. But I’m trying not to be selfish because I know Dane’s in immense pain.
We stare at one another. Both exposed. Both vulnerable. Both hurting.
“Fuck. Alinthia.” He crosses to me, helping me sit up. Then he wraps his arms tenderly around me. I can’t hold the sobs at bay, and I can’t help clinging to him. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. I never want to hurt you, and I just keep fucking doing it.” He steps back, shielding nothing now, and I’m torn apart again as his emotions batter me on all sides.
“Dane,” I sob. “Please tell me how I can help you. What can I do?”
He shakes his head. “You can’t help me. No one can. I’m a complete fuckup, Alinthia. And I can’t pin all that on Alandra either.”
I slide off the table, gently placing my hands on his chest. “That’s not true, Dane. You’re not a fuckup.”
He winds his hands into my hair, his penetrating gaze boring into mine. “You want to help me?” I nod. “Then stay away from me. I will ruin you too, and that will only make me feel shittier.”
Tears roll down my face as he walks away. He doesn’t look back at me as he exits the room, and I can almost feel the new fissures splintering my heart. The door slams shut after him, and I start picking my clothes up from the floor with trembling fingers and a wounded heart.
This is much, much worse than I thought.
Dane is broken, and I’m powerless to help him.
CHAPTER 34
Dane hides in his room after our disastrous encounter, and my mood is low. Coop asks me what happened, and I give him a hugely censored version of what went down. If he knew what Dane did to me, it would start a full-scale riot, so I don’t tell him that part.
Maddox is pleading with Dane to come to Mom’s for dinner, but he refuses, so the rest of us go alone.
Neither Mom nor Aunt May seem to notice how quiet we all are, keeping the conversation flowing around the table as we eat. Turns out, Mom took her sister into her confidence when I disappeared, and she knows everything. The fact Aunt May has taken it in her stride is remarkable, and she’s completely at ease with us, which relaxes everyone.
Dinner is delicious, but I only manage to shovel a few mouthfuls in my mouth. Mom tries to coax me into eating more, telling me I’m getting way too thin, but I lie and tell her the space travel has messed with my appetite, and she buys it.
We are drinking coffee after dinner when there’s a loud knock on the door. Coop stiffens, and a look of panic ghosts over his face. “Shit! It’s the fucking authorities!”
Dane races into the kitchen, and Aunt May shrieks, clapping a hand over her chest as shock splays across her face. “Oh my! Where did you come from? You gave me the fright of my life.”
“The front door was unlocked,” he skillfully lies, unaware my aunt is in the know now. “We need to get Alinthia out of here now.”
“Alinthia. It’s Special Director John Tanner,” a familiar voice shouts from outside. He must be using some kind of loudspeaker because I can hear him clearly. “I mean you no harm. In fact, we need your help. If you let me in, I can explain.”
“Hell to the no.” Coop jumps up. “We’re getting you out of here.”
“Is that the man who took you?” Mom asks with a strangled glint in her eye.
“It was on his orders, yes.”
Before any of us can stop her, Mom is stomping toward the front door. She yanks it open, revealing the director standing on the front step with his fist raised to knock again.
A sleek black car with blacked-out windows is parked in the driveway behind him. Two men wearing gun straps and “don’t fuck with me” expressions are leaning against the side of the car, eyeing us suspiciously. The director opens his mouth to speak when Mom slaps him across the face.
Maddox splutters, and my mouth drops open. “Way to go, Mrs. King,” Coop says, admiration drenching his tone.
“You!” Mom shakes her fist in his face. “You have some nerve showing up here! How dare you take my daughter against her will! And if you think you are taking her now, you can think again.” She plants her hands on her hips, glaring at him. “You’ll have to get through me first.”
“Mrs. King.” The director takes a s
tep forward.
“May. Get the rifle from the cabinet in the living room,” Mom says, glancing over her shoulder at her sister.
The director raises his hands in a surrendering gesture. “Mrs. King, I assure you, there is no need for that. I apologize for taking Alinthia against her will, but we didn’t mistreat her, and we never had any intentions of harming her. Quite the opposite, in fact. If you could just hear me out, I will explain everything.”
“Victoria.”
“Yes, Mom.” I step up beside her.
“Do you want to speak to this man?”
“Not particularly.”
“Very well. Good day to you, Director Tanner.” She starts closing the door, but he puts his foot in the way, stalling the motion.
“Alinthia. Please, I’m begging you, just hear me out.”
“And why should she give you any of her time?” Dane demands to know, pulling me and Mom behind him as he and Maddox shield us.
“We need her help. We need all your help.”
Tiny hairs prick the back of my neck, and I push my way in between Dane and Maddox. “What is this about?”
He glances anxiously around at the exact moment Glennev and Donovan appear at the end of the drive. “What’s going on?” Donovan asks, looking between me and his ex-boss.
“We have a code red maximum alert, and we need Alinthia’s help.”
Donovan visibly pales. “You’re sure?”
“I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” the director confirms.
“We need to listen to this,” Donovan says, and that’s good enough for me.
“Okay, let’s go inside.”
We all pile into the sitting room, anxiety bleeding into the air. Coop pushes me down on the couch beside Mom and Aunt May and then perches on the arm, his brothers lining up behind him. Glennev takes a seat alongside the director, looking thoughtful. Donovan folds his arms across his body, standing in front of his old boss. “Let’s hear it.”
The director clears his throat, squirming a little in his seat at the sight of so much hostility directed at him. He focuses solely on me. “I would like to apologize for how things panned out. It had been my intention to fully explain everything to you, but you left before I had the chance.”
“I was there long enough. I’m sure you could’ve found an opportunity.”
“Not while Commander Zorc was around.” He runs a finger along the collar of his shirt, clearly uncomfortable. “Our alliance was always a fragile one, born out of necessity on both sides. We were aware Zorc was monitoring conversations at the compound, so we had to be very careful in all our conversations with you.”
“Is there a point to all this?” Dane impatiently asks.
“I’m getting to that.” He narrows his eyes at Dane before capturing my gaze again. “We’ve always known you were here, Alinthia. We were aware the moment your capsule crash-landed on Earth. We knew it was an extraterrestrial ship, and we were debating how to handle the situation when Commander Zorc and General Jentarr arrived. That part happened as we explained it to you previously. We were skeptical at first, but once we got our hands on the prophecy and they handed us some weapons as a show of good faith, we bought their story. We also realized that things we had always suspected, about us not being alone in the universe, were true and how advantageous it might be to have one of their kind grow up among us.”
“In what way?” I ask, sitting up straighter.
“Didn’t you wonder why you weren’t mistreated at the compound?”
“You say it like I wasn’t,” I retort. “Kidnapping and subjecting me to medical testing, including removing a bone sample”—I narrow my eyes at him—“constitutes mistreatment in my book.”
Maddox growls, clenching and unclenching his fists, and anger rolls off all my protectors in pungent waves.
The director squirms in his seat again. “Ms. Trainor believed you were in danger, and we happened to agree with her. Although you may not believe this, we took you into the facility to safeguard your welfare.”
This sounds too similar to Kylie’s protests. “You’re right. I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t blame you, but it’s the truth. Think about it. The only thing we asked of you while you were there was to work on strengthening your abilities. Were you not curious?”
“Of course, I was, and don’t pretend like you’re not carrying out tests on the others there or that you don’t terminate anyone who doesn’t offer up something you can use.”
“I won’t deny we carry out tests. We have to. The United States has been deluged with aliens since you crash-landed here. Not all of them, in fact, most of them, don’t have good intentions. Our responsibility is to protect our people. Surely, you can understand that.”
“I do. To a point. But cruelty isn’t always required, yet it seems it’s usually administered.”
“We have carried out tests on alien subjects because we want to try and understand their genetic makeup. To understand how they differ from us. Those who cause us no trouble get to live, and you’ve seen the conditions. It’s far from the prison it’s being made out to be. The only ones we have eliminated are those who pose a threat to humanity, and I’m not going to sit here and apologize for that.”
“No,” Beck quietly cuts in. “You’re just going to insult our kind and then turn around and ask for our help.”
The room is quiet as his statement resonates with everyone.
“Ms. Trainor has spoken so highly of you over the years,” the director continues after a bit. “Kylie spoke of your upbringing in a loving home. Of your kindness. Your sense of morality. Your ability to see the good in everyone.” I look down at my hands, uncomfortable with his words and the fact my friend’s betrayal isn’t as cut and dried as it first seemed. “It was reassuring to receive validation that our decision was the right one.”
I flick my eyes to his. “I don’t understand.”
“We left you here because we wanted you to become one of us. We wanted you to share human traits. To understand human emotion and thought process. To care about humans and Earth.”
“And I do,” I eagerly confirm. “We discussed this previously, and it’s as I said, I consider Earth as much my home as Verron.” I clasp Mom’s hands. “I’ve had a good life, and I owe so much to my parents.”
“It pleases me enormously to hear that, because it’s time for some payback.”
Now, we’re getting to the meat of it.
“So, you hoped I’d develop an attachment to humans and America, which I have, because you figured you would need me one day for … what?”
He rises, closing the door. “What I’m about to tell you is highly classified, and it cannot be discussed outside these four walls. The last thing we want is to create mass panic.”
I exchange a wary look with Glennev as I stand. “What has happened?”
“We were expecting retaliation when our alliance with Zorc and Jentarr broke down, but we thought his destruction of our high-tech weaponry was punishment enough; however, it seems we were wrong.” He wets his lips. “I’d like to bring you to the compound to show you some satellite images we’ve picked up in the last few hours.”
“What do they show?”
“An army of alien ships moving toward Earth.”
“How many?” Dane asks.
“More than we can handle on our own.”
Bile swims up my throat, and my stomach lurches. Arantu doesn’t waste time, and it doesn’t take much to work out what he wants—I killed his daughter, and he’s hellbent on revenge. I killed his loved one, so now he plans to return the favor, on a much larger scale. He intends to wipe Earth out, and me along with it.
“What specifically do you want me to do?” I inquire.
“We can’t protect the planet without your abilities. We need you to help us defeat this threat.”
Coop stands behind me, placing his hand on my lower back. “And what if she says no?”
“Then we’re a
ll doomed. We have a small stash of weapons Zorc didn’t destroy, but it’s not enough to contain the threat on our own. We need you and as many supporters as you can garner to fight this invasion.” He smooths a hand down the front of his shirt, pinning me with a grave look.
“We gave you safety and protection when you needed it. Now it’s time to return the favor.” He steps right up to me. “So, what do you say? Will you help us?”
TO BE CONTINUED
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Alinthia’s story continues in The Chosen One, the fourth book, and second-last installment, in this series, coming 2019.
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Turn the page to read about my new STANDALONE contemporary reverse harem romance, coming November 2018.
SURVIVING AMBER SPRINGS
Let him who is without sin cast the first stone…
I’m the second-most hated person in Amber Springs.
First place honors go to my twin, Ethan; however, hate isn’t a strong enough word to convey how people feel about him.
Not that I blame anyone—some days, I hate him too. Mostly, I’m just lost and afraid, drowning in a sea of betrayal and guilt, wondering how this happened right under my nose.
There’s no choice but to leave. To move clear across the country in a last-ditch attempt to start over.
The Warrior Princess: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance Page 26