Bounty

4. Colin

Chapter Four

COLIN

I sit on the couch in the living room, right in front of the bay window. It’s dark, but the street light illuminates my view of Wisteria’s shack just fine. A few weeks ago, we paid off the losers who rented this place and moved in.

All the better to watch over my little flower and protect her from an enemy she knows nothing about.

As I watched her, a part of me had hoped to see her bloom, to know that she was doing well without us, and that she could stand on her own two feet without Norma. An evil part of me wanted her to fail, to be a complete and utter disaster so that she had no choice but to come home.

Either way, she’s coming home–-whether she walks through the gate willingly or we drag her through kicking and screaming. Her safety is our number one priority. The evil fucker inside me was quite satisfied when we realized how fucked she truly is here on her own.

She works a dead end job with a shady boss, lives in a crumbling tin can she can barely afford, and her car is so unsafe, Cain easily manipulated it to break down. She’s not meant to live this way, and the fact that I wasn’t there to help her makes me spitting mad. No one has come and gone from her house except the Chinese food delivery guy and a woman around her age carrying a bottle of wine. A friend, I’m assuming.

The footage from the surveillance cameras we installed a couple weeks ago gave us the most damning evidence. Wisteria Jean Flowers, the queen ball buster of Harvest Farms, spent the majority of her time crying. From the minute she got through the door to when she finally went to bed, she’d cry on and off. My little flower doesn’t deserve to be sad. Or alone.

She’s a shell of the woman she used to be.

Wisteria Jean was always a spitfire who went down swinging. As a child, she never accepted her punishments, arguing to the bitter end in an effort to avoid getting her hide tanned, even if it was at a gathering. She could be the cutest girl in the world, until you got on her bad side. Then she was a devil who’d make your life a living hell.

The only person more stubborn than her is Cain. That’s why I’m not surprised when he comes back to the house with her slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Not that she looks like a potato at all. Even unconscious, she’s a vision—a masterpiece of curves.

“Did you have to use chloroform on her?” I ask incredulously.

“She was running barefoot in the snow, freezing her ass off, and wasn’t listening to me, Col. She was going to hurt herself, and I didn’t wait years to get her back so she could die of hypothermia.” He rubs his face, his nervous tell, and huffs. Sitting on the couch, he places her on his lap and hugs her to his chest.

“She’s so beautiful.” I sit next to him, partially pulling her onto my lap. I inhale her scent. She still smells like wildflowers.

Her thick, blond hair fans over my shoulder, damp from the snow. Her Cupid’s bow lips are relaxed, the bottom plump and inviting. Although she’s asleep, I can see her pulse thrumming beneath the delicate skin of her neck. I kiss it lightly, a hopeful promise for more later.

After taking her coat off, Cain wraps his arm under her breasts, a content sigh escapes him. “ Fuck , she’s a woman, huh? She’s got enough tits and ass for all three of us.”

“Watch what you say. Some women are sensitive about their weight, and I don’t want our girl feeling any sort of way because you said something stupid.”

I thought the same thing. Her curves grew with her, and her hourglass frame has me drooling.

He pulls her off me and carries her to our bed, placing her in the middle. He changes her into some of his pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt, then we change into our pajamas and sandwich her between us under the blankets.

“Things will change for the better now, Cain. I feel all the pieces coming together.” I reach over Wisteria and kiss his forehead, then her’s, before settling in bed.

“I hope so. I didn’t wait for years and spend months surveilling our girl to bring her into harm’s way.”

I pull Wisteria to me until her back is flush with my front, throwing a thigh over her to get comfortable. Having her here with us—being in bed with her—brings back old memories of a time before she was forced to leave, when we could still keep her safe.

Six Years Ago, Christmas Eve

“Did y’all take care of it?” Father Mannix asks as he sits at the head of the table.

Jude passes him a beer, and they clink their bottles. “Yes, the crops were moved out of the south warehouse, into the safehold. They should be sitting tight down there for a while until our visitors pass through.”

“And the rat?” he asks, his voice harsh and full of foreboding.

“He’s been exterminated,” I confirm. I did the job myself with a Bowey knife and my bare hands, and enjoyed watching the light leave his eyes. His sobbing and blubbering were the best part though—something about watching a man on his knees begging that does it for me, even if he is a piece of shit traitor.

“Good. No one betrays their family without consequences,” Father Mannix booms after taking a deep pull from his bottle. “You’re all becoming fine young men. You should take pride in protecting the farm. Your brothers and sisters. Our livelihood.”

“Together, forever. We thrive,” Cain recites.

“Together, forever. We thrive.” We all chorus together.

I hear a creak on the stairs, and soft footfall. We all scan the area as we hide our weapons in kitchen drawers or holsters. Father Mannix doesn’t like us having them out around the women unless we absolutely have to. I smell Wisteria's sweet wildflower scent before I see her–soft, clean, floral. She’s half awake, and a little yawn escapes her as she enters the kitchen. She startles when she sees us all at the table.

“Sorry to interrupt Father Mannix,” she apologizes. “I just wanted to get some water. I can come back later.”

Her worn, oversized red sweater falls over her shoulder, revealing her fair, mouth-watering skin. I can’t pry my eyes off her. All I want to do is fantasize about how her skin feels beneath my lips, how it tastes when I run my tongue down her neck. How pliable it will be if I sink my teeth into it. Would it break and bleed for me?

I think about her all the time–she’s part of all my waking thoughts and dreams.

“Nonsense, child, stay as long as you want,” he replies, showing his soft spot for her.

“Why are you awake so late?” Jude asks, his tone short. It seems he’s always short with her lately.

She opens the fridge, giving me a view of her ass in thin pajama pants. Fuck, no panty line. I think of how her round, luscious ass would look jiggling in my face as I devour her from behind—how good it would feel to slide my dick between her cheeks until I spill all over her lower back.

She swings around, glaring at Jude as she pours some water into a glass from the cupboard.

“ Brother ,” she greets him with a hint of sarcasm. “I was up late reading a new book and fell asleep. Got thirsty when I woke up.”

“That was irresponsible. You have a busy day tomorrow prepping for the harvest party and you should have had an early night,” he admonishes her.

She begins to roll her eyes, then remembers herself and smiles at Jude instead. Father Mannix has had to reprimand her multiple times over the years about eye-rolling. Her saccharine smile is a promise of pain behind pearly white teeth. She hugs Father Mannix. It lasts a beat too long for my liking.

“Good night. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

Several minutes later, the meeting winds down to shooting the shit and drinking beers around the table. I excuse myself and pretend to head home. I open and close the door, then lock it before tip-toeing up the back staircase to her room. After a light tap on the door, I let myself in. She’s awake, curled up in bed under a heap of blankets as she continues to read the book I got her as an early Christmas present. Some wolf shifter romance, whatever that is. When I saw the cover, I knew she’d love it. The only light in the room is the small lamp on the bedside table.

She’s angelic. Her dark blond hair fans across her pillow, and her violet eyes are wide as they take me in.

“Hey,” she whispers, scooting over to make room for me.

I climb into bed, pulling her into me and throwing a thigh over her as she nuzzles her face into my neck. If I could, I’d absorb all her golden, pure light so it can drown out the depraved darkness that never seems to leave me. This always happens after I kill someone. I ride the high, revel in the chaos and the torture. Then I remember how deranged I am for not feeling the rough and jagged edges of my broken soul. Am I even human anymore…do I feel any remorse?

Then I find my Wisteria and hold her in my arms until I start to feel like me again. Eventually she forces the inhuman monster inside me back into his cage for another day.

“You can talk to me, Colin. I love your visits, but I know you usually come because something is wrong.” Her quiet voice sounds like a soft melody.

“Nothing is wrong, little flower. I just needed to see you.” It’s not a lie, but not the whole truth either. I take a deep pull of her fresh, floral scent, letting it fill me.

“I wish you wouldn’t lie to me… I know ,” she whispers. “I know what you did tonight.”

I pull away from her, holding her neck so she’s forced to look into my eyes.

“What do you think you know?” I demand of her. She shouldn’t know anything.

“My window was open…and I couldn’t sleep because I heard screaming from the shed in the woods. It turned into shrieking, like someone was dying. You, Cain, and Jude came out from the far treeline after it was all over. I saw you three.”

A jolt of fear races down my spine. My fingers squeeze into her neck, so she knows how fucking serious this is. She shouldn’t know anything about that… It’s too fucking dangerous.

“Wisteria Jean, you listen to me, and you listen good. You didn’t see or hear anything tonight, because your window was closed. You woke up because you got too hot with all these blankets.”

I collar her neck, putting more pressure on the sides until a few tears fall from her mesmerizing eyes. I’m holding my little flower’s life in my hands, gripping her by the stem, and it feels like I’m soaring.

“C-Colin,” she gasps.

“Did you hear me? Nod if you understand me.”

She nods, and I give her back her breath. I expect her to argue, yell at me, slap me. Claw at me until I’m out of her bed. Goddamit, I deserve it. But she doesn’t do any of those things. Her eyes are blown wide, hazed over like she’s floating. Her plump lips are parted as she sucks down air. I shift, so I can take a better look at her, and my hand grazes her hard nipple through the T-shirt she changed into.

“Do you like my hand around your throat, taking your breath away?”

She tries to bury her face in my chest, but I pull her hair back, so she can’t escape her embarrassment. She has nothing to be ashamed of. “Answer me.”

I ghost my lips over the column of her neck softly. She inhales sharply as I take her skin into my mouth, pulling hard enough to leave a mark. The thought of her wearing my bruise for everyone to see has the monster inside me snarling.

“Yes.”

“Oh, my dirty flower, you like a little pain, huh?” I remark as my cock hardens, thinking of all the things I want to do. All the ways I crave to make her hurt—then the ways I’ll kiss, bite, suck, and lick her better.

She nods again, and I crash our lips together in a frenzy of tongue and teeth. All these nights I snuck into her room, I took comfort in the warmth of her soft body against mine, never kissing her, always scared she’d turn me down. Now that I know how delicious she tastes—how right it feels to feast on her succulent lips—I’ll kiss her all the time. Every damn day.

I bite her bottom lip, then suck it into my mouth to soothe the sting away. She melts into me like a puddle as I plunder her mouth, then nip at her sweet lips again. With every taste I grow harder, until my dick is pressing against my zipper.

I roll her on top of me with my back to the headboard, so her pussy is sitting right over my cock, and I buck up. Her eyes go wide as I push my hand into her underwear and run a finger through her slickness.

“Someone enjoyed being choked,” I note, sliding my finger up and down her seam, then over her swollen little clit.

She moans, moving her hips for more friction. She bites her bottom lip as she leans over me, our mouths not even inches apart.

“Colin, please.”

I shouldn’t… As far as I know, Wisteria is inexperienced. Jude would have beat the shit out of any mother fucker on the farm who tried to get up Wisteria’s skirt. He, Cain, and I have an understanding when it comes to protecting her.

But when she grinds on me like this in nothing but the panties and a worn Led Zeppelin T-shirt she changed into, her full breasts swinging with her movements, begging to be touched…

“Lift your arms,” I rasp before taking her shirt and panties off.

Grabbing one, I palm it, brushing my thumb over her nipple. Her skin is so warm, soft. Inviting. They’re perfect, everything I dreamt they’d be like. They look so much better in person without the windowpane between us. “I need a taste of these perfect tits.”

I savor her nipple, sucking it long and hard as I stroke her clit lightly, giving her just enough that she can see the edge without going over it. She squirms on top of me, chasing the pleasure I’m keeping just out of reach. Her little whimpers and frustrated noises bring out the feral beast inside me—the same one she helps put away.

My teeth dig into her until she hisses, then my tongue laves the pain away. I put a finger inside her slick, wet heat and use the heel of my palm to play with her clit, torturing her with slow, deep kisses as I rub against her spot. She falls apart from being brought to the edge and back a few times, like putty in my hand. While we’re in her bed together, she’ll take what I give her. I pop off her nipple, licking her tears away.

They’re salty. Delicious. Mine .

“Little flower, do you want to come on my fingers?”

She nods, breathing heavily as I switch back to using my fingers to stroke her.

“Say it, use your manners, too. I want to hear your sweet little voice say those filthy words.”

She hesitates for a moment, then I stop. That gets her talking.

“Please, Colin, make me come?”

I take her nipple into my mouth again and bite down hard enough to draw blood, then shove two fingers into her tight as fuck cunt. She cries out as I give her exactly what she craves. Pushing in deeper, I feel a soft barrier, the proof of her innocence.

I can impale her on my cock and take it right now, claim it for me and only me. Fuck whatever understanding the guys and I have. I want to feel her stretch around me. Her tight little pussy strangling my cock until I fill her up with cum.

Maybe that seed will take. Her belly will grow round with our child, a beautiful mix of her and me. We can have someone linking us forever. They’ll both be mine forever.

“One day, my little flower, I’m gonna fill you up ‘cause you’re my good girl. You’re all mine. Tell me.”

“Y-yours,” she moans, her mouth a perfect O-shape as her cunt flutters around me. I take her lips, keeping her sounds of pleasure for myself. They’re for me and only me.

“You gotta be quiet,” I warn her. Then I wrap my hand around her throat, cutting off her air enough that she falls silent.

Her eyes go wide, a wildness taking over and she slams herself onto my fingers, riding them hard. The pure expression of lust on her face makes me lose my breath—she’s always beautiful, but right now she’s glorious. She bites her bottom lip, her hazy, hooded eyes focused on mine. Her pussy clamps my fingers like a vise when she shatters around them.

Her thighs shake. She slumps over, laying on top of me as her breathing evens out. I’ve never cuddled with a woman since I was a child and cuddled with my mother. But I can see myself holding Wisteria Jean like this, for eternity if she’d let me. I’d fuck her every night until she was a puddle on the mattress if I got to hold her afterward.

The warmth of her naked body seeps into me, almost relaxing me until I remember what riled me up in the first place.

Before she falls asleep, I grab her hair, pulling her up so she’s forced to look at me. She winces slightly, but I need to let her know how serious this is. I need her to stay the fuck out of it—to deny her curious nature for her own safety.

“You will never go near the barn in the woods. You know nothing —” I grip her hair tighter, “And you will forget what you saw tonight.”

Nodding, she says “Y-yes, Colin. I trust you.”

I’m not sure she should ever trust someone like me. The emptiness that consumes me most days, makes me feel more monster than man. But if she deems me worthy of it, I’ll do whatever I have to, to protect her.

Even if that meant hurting her.