21. Sadie #2
It still felt insincere. I sighed heavily, because as much as I was enjoying the electric life-forces pumping through my veins, I was still aware this was wrong.
“ Do jumping jacks .”
I grinned as they leaped to their feet and immediately pumped out some of the most athletically impressive jumping jacks I’d ever seen.
“ Stop. Now hug each other and apologize to each other. ”
Four six-foot-five warriors embraced one another in a big circle. “I’m so sorry for hurting you,” they said at once.
I laughed with elation.
“ Now cry as you apologize .”
They wept as they clung to one another and apologized.
“ Now danc —
Aran cut me off. “Sadie. What in the moon goddess’s fucking tits are you doing? Also, did you pass the test?”
I slowly turned to her and nodded.
Her eyes widened as she took in my bloody mouth and the four warriors crying and embracing one another like zombies.
Then she threw her hands up in the air. “Fuck yeah, I knew you’d pass. I’m the best teacher ever.”
Walter stood behind her and gaped like the don himself was murdering someone in the foyer.
“Um…,” I started to explain, then pursed my lips as I struggled to describe what was going on without sounding absolutely unhinged.
Instead of coming up with a believable lie, I arched my lips into a manic smile, heady pleasure still making my head spin.
“The girls are coming. You must stop this,” Walter said with horror, his gray eyebrows quivering.
Aran sighed. “Don’t ruin it. I think this would be an excellent learning opportunity for them. A life lesson, if you will.”
Lucinda. The thought of my sister staring at me in horror was like being drenched in a bucket of cold water.
She needed someone she could look up to.
Before I could let the bloodlust overtake my common sense, I reached my palm out. Like I’d done with the fae queen, I pulled at the droplets of blood, dragging them back through the layers of flesh until they slammed into my outstretched hand.
With a snap, the electric tether among all five of us broke, and I crashed to my knees, heaving.
The men stumbled away from one another, and I ducked my head as I dry-heaved bile across the floor.
The aftermath was like falling from the stars and face-planting into the dirt.
My body ached as it re-acclimated to the shaky existence of surviving without another’s life-force.
“They’re back!” Jess said with excitement from the top of the stairs.
After a long dry heave, I stumbled back to my feet, avoiding eye contact with everyone in the foyer.
“I’ll call the maids,” Walter mumbled and ran down the hall.
Suddenly, I was hyperaware of four sets of eyes staring at me.
Violence cackled.
Slowly, I turned to face the men I’d just joyfully enslaved with my blood.
From the tense jaws and tightened fists, they weren’t happy.
Aran backed up the grand stairs. “Girls, this is a good lesson about how to deal with angry alphas. We need to give them some space.”
“What happened to them? Why are they so mad?” Lucinda asked innocently.
There was a long, awkward pause, then Aran said, “Sadie got a little carried away showing off.”
I opened my mouth to apologize to the men.
“Xerxes invited me to his first heat. Said it should be soon and he needed a female alpha present.”
Fresh indignation filled me. “I’m not sorry.”
Eyes glowed.
Cobra whispered, “You’re going to be.”
“Run for your lives!” Aran screamed at the girls as she scrambled up the stairs.
I didn’t need to be told twice.
As fast as I could, I bolted after her, feet slapping against the marble as I ran like a vampyre was chasing me.
There was silence behind me.
Then the crashing sound of four pissed-off men sprinting after me.
“Save yourselves!” I yelled at the girls, who I’d quickly overtaken in my mad dash. I pushed them into an open door as I sprinted past.
Aran was farther down the massive hall and shrieked as she looked over her shoulder.
It was the only warning I got before callused hands forcibly grabbed me and tossed me into a room like I weighed nothing.
There was a loud crash as someone slammed the door shut with so much force it fell off its hinges.
“We should talk about this. Like adults,” I pleaded as I was tossed onto the bed.
“We’re done talking,” Jax roared.
Cobra and Ascher picked up the silk sheet and ripped it cleanly in half, and both of them kept ripping until they had several long strips.
“Um, what are you—”
Jax cut me off my grabbing me and easily pushing me against the headboard while Cobra and Ascher wrapped the strips around my wrists.
“You know you can’t actually restrain me. I could just bite down on my tongue and infect you with my blood.”
The four men stilled.
I cursed my unfiltered tongue.
Xerxes slammed his dagger through the ends of the strips around my hands so I was pinned to the headboard.
Cobra took another strip and wrapped it around my mouth. He tied it behind my head.
“You’re a bitch,” he hissed into my ear.
He tightened it so I couldn’t talk.
I wrinkled my nose at him and told him with my eyes that I was going to infect him with my blood again, but this time, I’d make him my bitch for the day.
“Now. We’re going to talk,” Jax said as he stepped back to admire their work.
I pulled at the makeshift restraints and screamed in frustration.
Xerxes had burrowed his daggers through the headboard and into the wall, so only the hilts were visible.
I was pinned.
My eyes widened as I realized the gag around my mouth was so tight I couldn’t move my jaw to bite down and release my blood.
I was truly at the mercy of four beasts.
Ascher adjusted his pants, and the other three followed.
I was at the mercy of four very turned on beasts.