Chapter 35
CROSS
River and I break through the clearing, and the sight that greets us has all the air in my lungs instantly vacating.
Damon has Olivia on her knees, precariously close to the edge of a jagged drop, as he bows her body backward and fucks her face savagely, and she holds onto his thighs for dear life.
Even from here, I can hear his grunts of pleasure, and her small, pained cries and choking sounds.
It hits me like a blade between the ribs, sharp, immediate, and humiliating.
Damon is using her. My prize. My stepsister.
My obsession. I know she's not really mine in any way that counts, not in any way she'd ever claim, but the twisted, damaged thing coiled behind my ribs doesn't care about technicalities.
It only cares about the sight of him touching her, commanding her attention, drawing those sounds from her throat, sounds she swore she'd never let any of us take from her.
Fuck, jealousy burns hot, a fast and feral thing that wants to lay waste to everything around me, including my best friend, but beneath it lies something much uglier and more sinister: betrayal.
Not necessarily hers, although allowing herself to get cornered by him on this cliff plays a part in it, but his.
My best friend, my brother, the man who is a part of my fucking soul.
Damon knows precisely what he's doing. I know he feels my violent stare on the back of his neck, and he revels in it, the fucker.
That little smirk he hides, the way he angles himself so I don't miss a thing, motherfucker is provoking me on purpose.
Taunting. Claiming ground, he knows damn well I've already bled, and lost my control, for.
The sickest part, the part that disgusts me most?
I can't look away. He's made sure of it.
Every inch of her, every beautiful tremor, every ragged, desperate breath is a battlefield, a war she's fighting against our possession.
Mayhem's not just Damon's, and he seems to have forgotten that.
I ache to remind him with my fists, and see him bloody and on the ground before me.
Seeing Damon's treacherous hands on her body, instead of mine, lights something wrathful in me that I can't name without choking on it.
It's jealousy, yes, but also hunger. A dark, coiling desire to rip her away from him, to stake my claim deeper than he ever could, to show her exactly who she should be trembling for, and belongs to.
Me, her stepbrother, her owner, her nemesis.
I want to brand her as mine, every single delectable inch of her.
The vengeful urge to push them both over the cliff almost causes me to take a step forward, but I force myself to remain still.
I can't afford any further loss of control.
I hate that he's touching her and that, in a way, she's letting him.
Even though I know that's not rational, and that she doesn't have a choice, given her current predicament.
I despise that part of me that wants to step into the heat of her body, and take what Damon is savoring right out of his hands.
The betrayal gnaws at me, sharp and acidic.
Damon isn't supposed to get ahead of me, not now, not ever.
I'm the fucking leader of our group. He isn't supposed to touch what I want first, at least not without permission, or a fight.
Yet here he is, pushing every fucking boundary, every rule we've ever set for ourselves, for her, and against me.
"That's it, little monster, you're doing so well taking all my cum.
This pretty mouth was made to swallow my cock," Damon's voice crackles through the clearing, and I feel River stepping forward, the rage building inside of him radiating energy.
I strike out, grasping his arm and halting his movement.
When I stare into his eyes, I witness the same swirling of overwhelming emotions I'm currently writhing in.
Fuck, this is messing all of us up. This woman is nothing but fucking trouble.
A huge part of me wishes I had never laid eyes on Olivia Springhill.
I have a dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach that she's going to be our very destruction.
"Don't," I whisper to River, and after a moment of us locking eyes, brown warring with green, he angrily pulls back from my grasp, but doesn't continue forward.
My attention returns to the pair in front of me, and I watch with trepidation as Damon leans closer to her, whispering something I can't hear.
What is he telling her? Is he daring to promise her that she'll be safe from me?
Would he turn his back on River and me for her?
So many questions, and yet I have no answers.
They all lie locked inside that psychopath's unhinged mind.
My hands clench at my sides, and my jaw locks so hard I feel my teeth creak.
The possessive fury within me is so intense it's almost a heartbeat in my throat.
Beneath all the rage is the truth I can't escape: I want her for myself.
My thoughts are a vicious, jumbled mess.
I want to tear Damon away from her, and at the same time, I want them both to look at me.
I need them both on their knees, awaiting my demands.
I require the control back, the power, the dominance, the right to decide how this night ends.
I take a few steps forward, until I'm so close to them I can feel the heat radiating off of Damon's broad back.
I watch as it flexes with awareness. He's always been the ultimate predator, and there's no catching him by surprise, well, that is, unless you're Olivia Springhill.
"You're getting out of the forest, unhinged princess, but not away from the wolves," Damon declares, making a choice that's not his to make.
He uses his grip on her hair to force her to her trembling feet, and that's when she finally stares in mine and River's direction.
What is that expression I see across her face?
It's fear, but also something else, something stronger and determined.
She's not done fighting yet. That knowledge sets a blaze of anticipation through me as I await her actions.
Damon shoves her forward, and she stumbles.
I quickly reach out, grab her, and prevent her from face-planting.
"You belong to Mayhem now, Olivia Springhill, you best remember that," I mumble, wanting to say more but biting my tongue and biding my time.
This is not over, not for any of us. She arches, fear and defiance tangled in the same breath at my words, as her seafoam green eyes meet mine.
Something molten and vicious unfurls in my chest as I stare down at her.
Mine, blares through my head so loudly that no other thought is making it through.
Suddenly, one moment she's standing, and the next she's collapsing forward into a dead faint, and I have to grab and lift her slender, toned body into my arms, and cradle her against my chest. Her skin is frigid to the touch, her lips tinged in blue, and now that I'm closer, I see all the damage the chase through the woods has done to her.
Fuck, I never meant to seriously hurt her.
I just wanted to scare her, and gain control over her. What the hell have we done?
"Is she dead?! What the fuck did you do to her, Damon?!" River bellows, grabbing the front of Damon's shirt, and yanking him into his chest with fury.
"Release me, River. We’re not in the bedroom, and you don't have my permission to put your fucking hands on me," Damon utters calmly, as if a naked girl didn't just fall unconscious after he fucked her face before us.
"Permission?" River growls, "You wanna talk about permission right now, Damon? Who the fuck gave you the authority to do that to her, huh?" Shove. "Who said you could take from her, when she belongs to all three of us?" Shove. "Did Livy give you permission to abuse her like that?" Shove.
I've had enough of them and all this shit for one night.
I'm fucking tired, dirty, cold, and genuinely worried that we've done some damage to Olivia that she might not recover from.
"ENOUGH, FUCKERS! We have to get her out of these woods, and warm!
" I watch with a mixture of intrigue and dismay, as River immediately pulls off his shirt and steps toward me, his golden, tattooed skin glowing in the dawn light.
I grit my teeth as I watch him slip it over her cold limbs, and, at the feel of his touch, she burrows deeper into me, as if seeking more warmth and comfort.
"Get us back to the car on the shortest route. We have to get her out of here, now."
"I can take her." River reaches forward to take her from my grasp, and I bare my teeth at him, like a vicious wolf protecting its mate.
The feeling inside me of needing to keep her close is so foreign that it stops my breath in my chest. "Or not," River sighs and steps safely away from me, his expression filled with dismay.
"Good luck taking her away from him now.
Cross won't fucking admit it, at least not out loud 'cause he's a stubborn fucking ass, but he's just as addicted to her as we are.
" Damon winks in my direction, as he heads toward the treeline that River and I came through.
"I didn't fucking hurt her, at least not as much as I wanted to.
There's something about her... something that calms the beast inside of me.
" He meets my gaze over his shoulder. "I won't allow you to take her from me, Cross.
Keep that in mind with whatever you're already planning in that fucked-up, control-freak head of yours.
If you try, you and I are going to have a problem, brother. "
Damon disappears through the thick trees, and River follows him, after a look back in my direction.
He doesn't utter a word, but his expression says it all: he agrees with Damon, and he'll fight me over the woman in my arms. I stare down at Olivia Springhill, who has managed to do something no one, not even our dads, has done before.
She singlehandedly, after just a few days in Soule, managed to drive a wedge between the three of us, and made us question our loyalty to each other.
That makes her the most dangerous person in Soule right now, and I have to decide what to do with her.