Chapter 42 Sai
Fuck waiting for Zeek. I’m buying the collar tonight.
The image of Red pulling me around on a chain has my mind working overtime. And apparently my imagination’s feeling ambitious, because it even throws in a sexy little giggle that sounds exactly like hers.
“Damn it, I was doing so well.” The covers rustle and a very awake Red turns to face us with a small smile. “Hi.”
Urgh, how does that even turn me on?
Probably because she is the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.
And she’s mine.
Bonded to me.
Us.
I’m smiling without even realising, easing myself onto the edge of the bed while the others are trapped in a trance of red.
“Hey, baby. Missed you.” My voice comes out rougher than I expected, closer to a growl than a joke. Then I reach over with no hesitation, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
Not only does she let me, but she smiles, straight at me.
“It’s only been a few hours, Sai.”
“Every second feels like an hour without you.” I smirk, and wonder where the hell I got that line from, but she laughs and my darkness shifts at the sound.
“So… how did it go?” she asks, her gaze flitting over us all.
Doesn’t take an empath to sense the sudden unease seeping into the room.
How did it go? As well as it could, considering we were torturing a man who we’d all once trained to resist torture by my very hand, who had also been compelled to die before telling us anything.
Zeek managed to break through the compulsion, just. But it left him a blubbering mess. A mind-melted zombie. Kinda felt sorry for the poor bastard, but we got what we needed.
But now… I’m not sure if it’s what we want.
Zeek steps closer. “We’re confident that we’ve eliminated the remaining Cloaks from this district.” When he doesn’t immediately continue, Red’s wary gaze jumps between us.
“And… that’s great, right?” she says slowly, carefully, while trying to dissect our expressions. “So… why do you all feel so… uneasy?”
How the fuck do I keep forgetting she’s an empath? Does that mean she felt how turned on I was before? Or maybe she’d become desensitised to that by now.
Ezekial moves closer, taking a seat at the top of the bed nearest to her. “Because it means we have no reason to keep the lockdown barrier in place,” he explains, but not directly answering her question.
She frowns—her confused expression ridiculously adorable—then her gaze bounces between us all, searching for someone who’ll explain in simpler terms.
And they land on Kane. But even he can’t say it.
Big guy steps up. I barely caught him moving to the other side of the bed but now he’s settled on Jasmine’s left.
“Without the lockdown in place, there’ll be no restrictions. Creatures will roam freely again.”
She slowly nods. “Yeah, I understand that.” Her brows dip lower, waiting for the punchline. “What I don’t understand is why you’re acting like this is a bad thing?”
Who’s gonna say it? We all look between one another but no one speaks.
“You can leave.”
Kane.
Never one to mince his words, but I still wince at how bluntly he delivers it.
“That’s why you feel like that?” she says softly. “You think I’ll run?”
No one answers.
Because what would be worse? Admitting the truth? Telling her that’s exactly what we think she’ll do? That she’ll run back to that so-called ‘family’ who’ll fill her head with more fucked-up shit and we’ll never see her again?
Oh fuck.
What if she never wants to see us again? What if she tells them what we did?
We gave her that mark.
We wiped her memory.
Why the fuck would she stay with us?
With me?
“Sai.” Her hands are on me, my face, and her calming warmth seeps into me. The static energy, the slicing dread… all of it soothed with that one touch.
“I’m not leaving,” she says. “I’m not leaving you.”
I let out a sound, an exhale, a plea. I don’t fucking know. But those words hit me hard. Sinking straight to the part of me that still remembers being the boy who was left behind.
“Believe me.” She’s on her knees, her hands pulling me closer, eyes locked on mine. “I’ve made my decision, I’ve signed your silly contract, I’m in your bed, for Goddesses’ sake.” Her fingers brush my cheek, somehow tender and teasing. “Is that not enough?”
“Well…” Now my body isn’t fuelled by anxious dread, I give her a small smirk. “A kiss would help.”
She gasps, eyes wide. “But what happened to wooing me?”
How did she…
“You heard us?” Red winces at Zeek’s question, peering up at him with an adorably guilty expression.
“Yeah… I’ve kinda heard you all for a… while,” she mumbles the last word.
Kane steps out of the shadows. “Since when?”
She stares up at the ceiling, mentally calculating. “After we slept together.”
“Which time,” I mutter, well aware I sound bitter.
“Erm.” She closes one eye. “The very first time, after my nightmare.”
We’re all silent, desperately trying to recall exactly when that was. It was at the house, weeks, maybe even months ago?
“But that was…” Zeek glances at us all, looking slightly panicked.
“And you’ve heard us, all of us, since then?” Julien tries to clarify without sounding concerned, but completely fails.
And if Julien is worried…
Normally, I’d send out a quick we’re fucked, but seems a bit pointless now I know she’ll hear it.
“Sometimes.” She shrugs, leaning back on her elbows like the queen of smug and sexy. “Normally, I can only hear you when you’re all together. And it’s been…” She tilts her head side-to-side thoughtfully. “Helpful, to hear your thoughts.”
She’s so damn sexy.
And now she’s looking at me, wearing a dirty little smirk that…
Oh shit. Can she hear me now?
But it’s too late, every crude, filthy thing I thought was safely hidden floods my mind. My darkness skitters to the surface, letting those needs out in sharp, heated growls as I battle to drag him back.
“Stop… all of you… this…” she tries, but her words dissolve into laughter. Her arms clutch her stomach, breaths coming in short bursts. “Your faces… your thoughts… stop… I can’t breathe!”
I snap to attention. We all do. What the hell does she mean she can’t breathe?
“Oh fuck… no… I’m joking… it was a joke…” She rolls onto her side, practically dying with laughter while we all stare at each other in silence.
No mental messages. Nothing. Because we’re all fucking terrified she’ll hear it.
“I’ve stopped…” she wheezes, gasping between laughs. “I swear.”
Red tilts her head back, breathing hard from laughter, and she’s so damn beautiful.
The room settles into suspicious silence. Because we’re all doing the same thing, desperately not thinking the thoughts we’re now painfully aware we’ve been thinking.
Zeek is staring into the distance, eyes tight, probably reciting code.
Julien looks at Red with some concern, but also a hint of admiration.
But Kane… his lips are not flatlined into his usual grimace. There’s a subtle upward curve, barely noticeable if I wasn’t desperately avoiding thoughts about Red.
“Are you sure you can’t hear us now?” Zeek asks cautiously, finally looking back at her.
Red rolls onto her back. “Mmhmm.”
That is not a yes.
“This is psychological warfare,” Julien says, smiling slightly.
“Restrain yourselves,” Zeek mutters into our minds, testing Red’s words.
She hums softly, rolling her head to him. “But you’re so bad at that, my lord.”
His jaw twitches.
And then it starts again.
But this time, I can’t even try to hold my thoughts back, because my darkness surges, staring straight at her, imagining crawling up the bed, over her body, shadows slithering all over, wrapping around her wrists, pinning them above her head…
“Pure thoughts, Sai,” she says with a devilish smirk, and I swear there’s a flash of darkness in her gaze.
“Not a chance, baby.” I grin right back, voice gritty with the dark, realising my fingers have curled into the mattress.
“I had an inkling,” Kane suddenly says, fracturing the haze and staring at Red with pure… admiration. “At the meeting.”
“You never said,” Red murmurs softly, brows furrowing.
He steps closer, but doesn’t sit, forcing Red to tilt her head up to hold his gaze.
“It was only an inkling. You were already looking at Ezekial before we said aloud that he would stay,” he explains. “And I thought you deserved to hear us. To make up for all the private conversations we’d had around you. All the secrets we kept. You deserved this.”
“All this time, you thought I could hear you, and you never said a word?”
Kane nods once.
Red looks at him like she truly sees him, like she understands what keeping this from us means. He gave her control, allowed her to truly see us. Trusted her.
For a moment, she’s quiet, and when she speaks again, it’s not aloud but inside our heads.
“I’m staying,” she states, her voice sliding into my mind with that soft, soothing sensation.
All my nerves ease and all our darknesses still, content to listen, even the hairs on my neck stand to attention.
“I’ve heard your thoughts, your desires, your insecurities. Seen your loyalty.” She lets the silence build beautifully. “You kept your promise. You haven’t lied to me, and…” Her voice gentles, brushing against all our hidden, vulnerable places. “It’s only made me want you more.”
Her words… They’re everything I’ve dreamed.
None of us move for a moment, terrified we’ll break whatever this is, this moment. But this is real.
It’s Red who restarts time. “So, now you know I’m staying… the barrier?”
Zeek nods. “Now there’s no threat from this district—”
“From what we know…” Kane mutters, his cynicism always adding a nice spice to the mix.
Zeek gives him a pointed look before continuing. “I’ll reach out to Delphine. She’ll organise a meeting between the other districts.” He’s already pulling out his tablet: swiping, tapping, doing all that serious shit. “After they’re informed, there’ll need to be a cooling-down period, and then…”
He doesn’t finish, but we know. Then, the barrier drops.
That’ll be the real test.
Will Red still choose us when her family comes sniffing around? They’ll undoubtedly be the first fuckers through.
A thrill of aggression crackles through me, picturing that wolf again—the prick who abandoned her when we were too busy being pricks ourselves.
But he won’t touch her. Not now. Not ever.
My darkness stirs, hungry for the taste of his fear, whispering how easy it’d be to tear him apart.
Not our choice, I tell him. It’s hers.
And on that, we both agree.