ASPEN
Keeping my gaze trained on my knees, I refuse to meet the eyes of the evil surrounding me.
Instead, I take stock of who’s here to guess what cruelties will befall me.
There are five remaining members of Pack Mordred.
Three of them are Alphas: Devlin—the Pack Alpha—Kage, and Luther.
And two betas, Vincent and Bates. They’re all sick fucks, but each has their own brand of brutality.
Using my peripheral vision, I notice Kage and Bates looking at me with hungry eyes.
While dealing with these two is rough, I’m just thankful it’s not Vincent.
He’s the worst of Pack Mordred. The hardest to tune out as he takes what he wants from my body.
Vincent is a bloodletter—he uses blades to slice and dice, leaving little cuts everywhere.
Thin pricks of pain that become so numerous you can’t help but scream and scream until there’s nothing left.
But what he takes is never enough to kill you—that would be a mercy—just enough to drain you dry.
Kage and Bates tend to be more varied in their abuse, beatings, degradation, and water torture; Breathing through my mouth, I try not to get swamped by Kage’s decaying scent.
Everything about him reminds me of the end of my happiness, dreams rotting and dying, the longer I’m stuck in this captivity.
“You smell like shit. Time for a shower and some food.” Kage’s words seem benign enough, but nothing with him is ever that simple. The door to my kennel creaks open. “Crawl to me, whore.”
Once upon a time, I would have leveled anyone who treated me like that, but now I slide to my hands and knees… and crawl. Humiliation makes me cringe, but if this is the worst part of our interaction today, I’ll be glad for it.
“So pathetic. A compliant piece of trash,” Bates pipes up, grabbing my hair and giving it a good, hard yank. Once my legs clear the cage, I tense my arms, ready to heave myself off the floor, but a boot in the middle of my back stops me. “Bad omegas stay on the ground like animals.”
The anger in his voice makes my limbs shake, threatening to give out. Shit. What’s going on now?
“Follow. And don’t you dare fucking stand. I’ll put you right back down.” Bates lifts his foot off my back, then uses my hair to drag me forward, my scalp stinging with each tug. Crawling as quickly as possible, I follow them out the door and down the hallway.
“Where are you going?” a loud voice booms, making Kage and Bates stop in their tracks. Motor oil and gasoline assault my nose. At least Vincent’s still not here.
“Just cleaning the bitch. Someone left her filthy… and sticky. Disgusting.” And whose damn fault is that?
Though I know the dehumanization is a tactic to break me, something inside me dies, knowing how dirty I’ve become.
Hygiene has always been important to me.
Before them, I would spend hours combing my long blonde hair and playing with different skincare routines to make my face glow.
“That can wait. Beatdown and Mud are nearly here to fill us in on the little mouse. Meet me in the office.” It’s pathetic how they’ve named the rooms in this bunker. The office is just a room with a desk and a ton of fold-out chairs.
“What should I do with the bitch?” Kage whines, shifting from foot to foot. “I haven’t had a day with her for a week. Frigging Vincent almost killed her last time, so I missed my turn because she had to ‘recover.’”
Manic laughter bubbles in my throat. So sorry my near-death stopped you from getting your rocks off. The sound echoes down the hallway, and all heads snap to me, their scents intensifying.
“Something funny, Butterfly?” Devlin asks, crouching and taking my chin in his hand. Nails dig into my skin, but I can’t stifle the sound. Maybe I’ve finally cracked. “Answer me.”
There’s nothing to say; my laughter flows until it feels like my chest will crack open.
“Fine. Maybe listening to our plan to capture your sister will shut you up. Bring her.” He jerks my head, then stands, spinning around to walk toward the office. Bates makes me crawl behind them, but I don’t balk, scared yet eager to hear any news of Willow.
We’re barely settled in the room when Vincent opens the door, followed by two men wearing leather vests. The first is the man who was here last time, but the second doesn’t look familiar. From my position, I’m able to see them better.
They’re both dressed similarly: dark jeans, boots, and biker vests with the name Black Plague over a skull on the back. I take in every detail possible, just in case I ever get out of here.
“Beatdown, you’ve brought another today?” Devlin’s voice is deceptively calm, but knowing him as I do, there’s violence waiting to be unleashed.
“Hi, boss. Yeah. We wanted to give you your cut of the drug cash. It’s going well.
An underserved market.” The man with the name Beatdown over his heart and the word President under it steps forward, dropping a duffel on Devlin’s desk.
It falls with a heavy thump. Devlin doesn’t even bother to open it, just lifts it off and places it to the side.
It’s clear he doesn’t care about the money.
It’s a drop in the bucket, compared to the inheritance he wants…
“And the other project?” Devlin prompts. Mud, the second biker, stares over at me, his filthy gaze raking over my body. He licks his lips.
“Like what you see?” Kage snarls at the beta, pulling me between his legs. Holding my head steady with one hand, Kage uses the other to flick open the button of his pants. “Take me out, whore.”
He uses an Alpha command, and I must obey. The zipper comes down, one tine at a time, and all eyes in the room bore into me. “Suck.”
Opening my mouth, I take his flaccid cock inside, gagging as the flavor of dead leaves and musk of decay slide over my tongue. “Do you like watching what’s mine, Mud?” Kage croons, thickening as he fucks my face.
“What? No! She just looks so much like the other one. It surprised me,” the beta tries to explain.
“You’ve seen her sister?” Devlin interrupts as Kage moves faster, hitting the back of my throat with every brutal thrust. I gag around him, torn between the violent use and trying to pay attention.
“Yeah. Spoke to her, too. She’s got a crazy-ass dog with teeth like razors. Tried to stop me from talking to my ex. Fucking cunt.” Of course, my big sister is protecting people. It used to be me. Willow’s always been such a mama bear.
“Well. That’s good information. Beatdown, was the package received?” Kage yanks my head, pushing his cock deep into my throat. Panic seizes me as I try to inhale around him, and I attempt to scramble back, but he holds me tight against his putrid pubes.
“Yeah. Are you sure that one can breathe?” The biker sounds just the slightest bit concerned as spots dance along my vision.
“Don’t worry about her. Pay attention,” Devlin snaps. “The package. What did she do? Did she look scared? Did you take a video as I requested?”
“Uh… no. A dickhead biker named Gytrash brought it into the house. She seemed fine later when they came out together.” I fight to hold on, needing to hear every word. Kage finally pulls out, and I gulp air greedily before he plunges back in. “Any chance I can get with that one next?”
“No,” Kage snarls.
“Go back to what you were saying. Who is Gytrash? Will he be a problem?” Devlin guides the conversation once again to Willow.
“Might be. The Hellbent Hounds MC is in the area. They have a pretty intense reputation. We might not be able to stay long,” Beatdown admits. Kage’s cock twitches, dripping precum along my tongue, and I dry heave.
“And the little mouse is a part of it?” Luther asks, the tapping of keys following his question.
“She’s been seen talking to them several times,” Mud jumps in. “But not until recently. I think she might be training dogs for them. Or fucking them. You never know.”
“Well, we need to know. It’s your fucking job to know.” Luther sounds pissed. “Get me someone on the inside.”
“Inside the Hellbent? They’re a real brotherhood—it’s not possible. Those assholes are stupidly obsessed with each other.” Kage fucks my face harder, and I sense he’s on the edge. Straining my neck, I try to pull back. Please don’t knot my mouth. Please.
“I think I know one I can turn…” Beatdown says. “He’s been buying our drugs…”
Kage comes with a roar, and I yank my head back as fast as I can, getting blasted in the eye with his sticky cum. It burns like hell, but it’s still better than being mouth-knotted. “You just made a big fucking mistake, whore. Huge.”
He tosses me to Bates, demanding he hold me still, and I tremble, wondering just how bad it’s about to get. My eye waters, starting to swell.
“Ignore the theatrics.” Devlin demands, “Do you have any plans in place yet to bring me Willow? This one is proving more difficult to bond than expected. We might need her alive.” My hand goes to the painful bites on my neck.
How had I forgotten those? In the haze of Vincent’s last punishment, Devlin had tried to bond me—twice—will I have to give in to save my sister?
“Work harder. I want a solid plan by the end of the week.” Both bikers nod, glancing at me one final time before Vincent escorts them out.
As they leave, Kage re-enters the room holding something in his hand.
“Got a treat for you, obstinate butterfly. Maybe next time you’ll think twice before pulling a move like that.
” Evil gleams in his eye as he advances on me.
When he gets close, he opens his hand palm up, and in the center, a gleaming, sweet, red strawberry.
The juice coats his filthy hand, and my eyes widen, taking it in.
“Kage…” Luther’s voice is full of censure, but he’s the lowest-level Alpha of the bunch. The only one who can stop this is Devlin, but when my gaze strays to him, he grins. Is this the way I die?
“Open her mouth, Bates.” Using my feeble legs, I try to push away. To fight. But I’m no match for their strength and size. Fingers pry my lips apart, and then it’s there, the sweet, refreshing burst of strawberry on my tongue.
Itching begins immediately, and Kage wipes the juices all over my lips, staining them red as they swell. My heartbeat pounds, panic setting in as my throat swells.
“You’re so perfect when you can’t breathe,” he croons as inhaling becomes impossible. The room swims, darkening at the edges.
“Now, let’s see if she’ll accept.”
The dim light disappears, and everything blacks out while I try with all my might to suck in oxygen. Teeth pierce my neck, the pain a sharp tether to the body my soul’s attempting to leave behind.
A bond is offered. Yes or no.
One moment. One choice…