Chapter Thirteen
Alexandria sat on the ice-cold floor of the cell in the dungeon below the house she had grown up in.
The coarse fabric of the shapeless dress she’d been forced to wear scratched mercilessly at her skin, but she endured it. It made her feel something.
Five days ago, she’d tried to execute multiple escape plans for six people. Five of them had gotten away. Now, all she did was pray that Doctor Amanda had been able to get Rhea to The Console. If they were caught, her parents and the councilmen would have thrown Rhea in here with her. Or at least they would have bragged about finding her. The fact that they gave her five days to tell them her sister’s whereabouts meant they had no clue. Alexandria couldn’t be more grateful. She didn't care what happened to her anymore.
Alexandria knew without a doubt that Cara, dear, sweet, innocent Cara, would be just fine. Her brothers had wasted no time in flattening over twenty of Swan House, unarmed themselves, and managed to escape. Her brothers would keep her safe.
Cara is where she belongs.
But the pain of never seeing her again sliced through Alexandria with a serrated knife. It wasn’t as if her brothers would forgive her and forget what she’d done to them. They would not be friends, have barbecues, or make jokes about her crazy family.
She was their enemy by association, willingly or not.
And her? She’d needed three, maybe four, more minutes before the alarms were sounded. She was caught just at the moment of freedom. Her parents had been horrified and embarrassed and had looked at her with disgust.
After all we’d done for you. Giving you a life of luxury in exchange for a small portion of loyalty to your family. You’re a mean, disloyal, selfish girl who deserves to be whipped a thousand times for your insolence.
She was only alive because there was still a chance she was pregnant, and that mattered more than anything else to them.
Alexandria had silently kept the ‘jokes on you’ card to herself regarding her pregnancy. It bought her some time. But time for what exactly? If they waited to be 100% sure about the pregnancy, the arrival of her period would end any speculation. Would they then just kill her? Or leave her to rot here in the dungeon, where Cara’s brothers would have met their end.
The irony made her laugh, but it was mirthless.
To keep herself from going completely insane, she kept telling herself that Rhea and Cara were safe. Her sisters were safe. She might never see them again, but they had a chance to live good lives, and they deserved every part of it.
She glanced at the tall hourglass. Her time was up. Her parents and the councilmen would be coming to get her, ready to beat answers out of her about Rhea’s whereabouts.
More tired than she’d ever felt before, she lowered her head onto the cold slab of stone that was supposed to be her bed. She closed her eyes for a moment, except it felt like an eternity.
She couldn’t be sure exactly what woke her up, but it was something she felt in her sleep. A presence—dark, silent, and dangerous. More dangerous than what was going to happen to her here at Swan House.
Her eyes flickered open. She strained them, trying to capture the sight before her under the haze of the few lamps still lit.
She sprang up from the slab of stone. A full-body tremble, robbing her of breath, weakened her to the point where she had to sit down again.
She was dreaming. This was a dream. No, it was a nightmare.
She would have recognized them anywhere in the world, dressed in prison garb, naked, or in suits that looked as if they’d cost the price of a small house.
“What…” Her voice faded as her gaze took them in. Heat rose from her body, starting from her toes up and her head down, only to collide in the pit of her stomach, where it became a furnace, burning out of control and consuming her. Her nipples hardened. Dampness assailed the folds of her pussycat. Her wall clamped down on nothing, but in her mind’s eye, she felt the lengths of their cocks move inside her—so thick they suffocated her, so dominant they changed the shape of who she was. The thought of taking any other men into her body destroyed her. She realized no one could touch her now. When she died, however soon that was, she would die only having felt their cocks inside her, their cum, their teeth marks, their tongue, and their lips. She hadn’t even been kissed before, and now she would never be able to give into the pleasure because her body betrayed her and sided with them, selling their allegiance to them. Why would she do that? She was their enemy.
Them
She remembered Cara saying their names. Slade had grey eyes—stoic, dark, and dominant. She wondered if he had ever smiled. Cian had green eyes, like a deceptively calm ocean, serene and pleasant, but she could see the potential beneath his gaze for violence and destruction—the same feelings she got from Slade.
And then there was Lachlan, his eyes so blue that charm dripped from him, his smile so easy, so sensual that he looked like a movie star. A startling image of him suffocating the life from his enemy flashed past her mind, and through it all, his charm never slipped and his smile never faltered.
Dear god, did her parents and the councilmen know who they had brought into Swan House’s dungeon?
“Hello, Alexandria,” Lachlan said, offering her that smile where she couldn’t tell if she was going to die or not. “Miss us,” he drawled, taking a seat on the Swan altar, his legs wide apart, as he leaned his elbows on his thighs.
Cian strolled around the tall hourglass, knocking on the glass and inspecting the imagery on the stone floor with the tip of his shiny black leather shoe.
“We missed you,” Cian said, giving her a moment’s attention before he resumed his fascination with the hourglass.
“Are you talking about her hot, sweet, tight Swan House cunt, milking us of every last drop of our seed, Cian?” Lachlan called out. “Or her stunning little face?”
“Both,” Cian said, not even looking at her this time.
Heaving in fear and confusion, her gaze glided toward Slade, who came to stand in front of her, his hands in his trouser pockets, his legs braced apart, his focus solely on her. She bit her lip and dug her nails into her palms to stop her from fidgeting like the nervous wreck she was.
Slade said nothing to her.
She’d seen them three different times, and each time, they grew deadlier. She stepped back as her mind started to reel as the shock of seeing them diluted and reality returned.
How had they gotten in? Where were the guards—her parents?
Oh god.
They were here to take her. Had they killed everyone in the house? No, no, no. She thought about Melle before she thought about her parents. Were they all dead? Because how else had they gotten in? After succeeding in escaping with Cara, Rhea, and their prisoners, the councilmen had upped their security exponentially. All parts of the dungeon that led out were closed off. The only way out of the dungeon was through the front door of the house upstairs.
They’d have had to walk into the house to get here…
Here.
For her.
“Please. No,” she said. Slade cocked a brow at her as if she had no right to make any kind of pleading command to them.
He slid the steel bars open. Alexandria fled to the back of the cell.
“No. You don’t need to take me. I’m a prisoner here. Please, don’t do this.” If she left this cell with them, her life would be over. She would never be able to find her way back to any degree of normalcy.
That would be entirely true, considering she would be dead soon anyway.
Lachlan moved with such speed that he took her breath away. Coming out of nowhere, he stepped into the cell, grabbed her around her waist, and flung her over his shoulder.
Her pleas turned to angry threats as she pummeled her useless fists in the backs of his thighs, wriggling with all her might to be set free. He held her as if she were a lifeless doll that weighed nothing.
Slade walked in front of them, and behind her, she caught Cian, giving the hourglass one last look before he toppled it over and followed them out. The sound of shattering glass echoed in the dank chamber, grains of sand scattering all over the stone floor.
Swan House’s time was up.
She didn’t know how to process the symbolism of Cian’s action. It wouldn’t matter where she was going.
Her threats faded away, and her efforts to be released died down as they reached the ground floor of the house where she had grown up. Everywhere she looked, she saw their guards knocked off their feet, unconscious, some in the process of drawing their weapons, before they were taken out instead.
Oh god.
Melle.
They passed the great dining hall. Slade slowed his step, and so did Lachlan and Cian. Her parents must have been in the process of serving dinner to the councilmen. There were other faces she didn’t recognize in person but knew from nefarious newspaper articles. They were crime lords and mob bosses. Had Swan House resorted to the most dangerous men on the planet to help them with their centenary problem?
She wanted to throw up but something else stayed her breath. Every person seated around the table, including her parents, was bound to their chairs, their napkins, clean or dirty, stuffed into their mouths. Their eyes were bulging with either fury or fear. In the corner, on one of the chairs, sat Melle. She was unbound, sipping her favorite Earl Grey tea.
They had left her unbound.
Thank you.
Before she could lock her gaze with Melle’s, Slade picked up the pace, and she soon found herself out in the night sky, the stars twinkling and the scent of roses misting the air around her.
She made a startling revelation.
There was only one reason they had kept her parents and the councilmen alive. They were going to use her against them the way her family had used Cara against them.
She wasn’t going to survive this.
Chapter Fourteen
Alexandria’s head turned to mush. All her thoughts flatlined, leaving her with a dull headache and tiredness that enveloped her in its embrace, and she refused to let go.
She didn’t know if she should be bargaining with them for her life, swearing allegiance, or just jumping out of the moving helicopter.
Yes, she was in a helicopter.
While her stress had muted her thoughts, her words, and her fight, she was taken from her home, in their car, then to a helicopter pad. Destination unknown. Would it matter where they were taking her? It would be better if she didn’t know.
She hadn’t meant to put her head against the soft, plush leather cushion behind her head. She had seen what the insides of helicopters looked like, and this was definitely a high-end, custom-designed luxury. After nights on a hard stone bed, the softness of the seat under her bottom felt sinful.
She also hadn’t meant to close her eyes and fall into such a deep sleep that her head dropped to the side and rested on a wide, warm shoulder. The scent of rich and woodsy cologne cocooned her in an ambiance she didn’t want to leave.
After what felt like a second of the best sleep she’d had in forever, the pilot’s voice brought her straight back to reality, she jerked upright, blood red with embarrassment that she’d fallen asleep, and then used Slade’s shoulder as a pillow, of all people.
She bowed her head, at once reminded that she was still clad in a dress that looked as if it had been made from a potato sack. At least she was clean underneath it, grateful for the shower—actually a hose that blasted out ice-cold water and the soap was harsh and smelled too sweet—she’d had that morning. She’d tried to finger-comb the knots out of her hair, but her arms got tired, and she gave up, not caring in the least.
Did she care how she looked now? The resounding answer was yes, and it made zero sense to her at all.
Trying to tuck her unruly hair behind her ear and failing, Alexandria gave up.
Nothing matters.
Maintaining her silence, she bit back, asking if she could see Cara. She so desperately wanted to see a familiar face. Someone she loved.
Her heart missed a beat when the helicopter landed in a lush forest in an area she couldn’t name. Her eyes widened as she took in the sight before her. Crumbling down with age and beaten by the elements of the weather, there was no mistaking that the boulders in front of them were molded in the shape of three giant dragon heads. Was this their altar? She’d never paid much attention to the history of the four families under the umbrella of The Console. But she did know that dragons were not part of it.
What were they going to do to her here? Sacrifice her blood. As far-fetched as the thought was, given her luck, it would probably be exactly what happened.
Without a word, Cian picked her up and swung her over his shoulder.
“I can walk,” she seethed. Dammit. Couldn’t she have maintained her silence for a bit longer?
“You’re bare feet. You’ll hurt your pretty feet,” Cian said as if he were telling her something about the weather. In the end, she was grateful. The stone flooring in the dungeon had been bad, but the bed of sharp rock, thorns, thistles, and prickly sticks, not to mention a multitude of forest creepy crawlies would be unforgivable on her feet.
They entered the door under the dragon’s heads. Cian set her down carefully, her feet immediately sinking into the thick, fluffy, cashmere-soft carpet.
“Alex.”
The sound of Cara’s voice as she rushed down a staircase obliterated everything else from Alexandria’s mind.
Cara.
Cara, her cheeks bright red and her eyes full of love and happiness, charged toward Alexandria and crushed her in a hug.
“I can’t believe you’re here. Oh my gosh, I have so much to tell you. Look, I can go everywhere now,” Cara said, twirling around the room. “I finally feel safe again,” she whispered, grabbed Cara’s hand, and dragged her upstairs.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let her be late for dinner,” she called to her brothers as they bounced up the staircase.
This was not what Alexandria had expected. They were allowing her to see Cara freely. Was she their prisoner or not?
But Cara didn’t give her a chance to mull over the status of her abduction.
“This is your room, and look, it has an interconnecting door. There’s one on the other side for when Rhea comes to visit as well, and we’ll have PJ parties the whole night long.”
Alexandria glanced suspiciously at the enormous room that Cara had said was hers.
She knew enough about luxury to know that everything in the room, from the carpet to the furniture to the chandeliers, cost an exorbitant sum of money, the kind only billionaires could afford.
Who were these men?
“And look,” Cara said, opening a walk-in closet. “My brothers told me I had the task of buying you everything you needed. It took me days. Jacques, the pilot, had to make several trips to bring everything. Please tell me you like them.”
Alexandria soothed her hand over the designer clothes. Even with having rich parents, she couldn’t afford some of the labels. “
“I don’t understand. All these clothes cost so much—”
“They gave me a limitless budget and had their PA send over a list of designers whose clothes I could choose from because they were the best.”
The frown on Alexandria’s face deepened. What was going on?
After Cara showed her all the clothes, shoes, makeup, perfume, purses, and bags, she drew Alexandria a luxury bubble bath and had a glass of coconut water brought up in the room for her, which she sipped while in the bathtub, her skin burning after she had scrubbed it off with a sugar body scrub in the shower. She’d also washed her hair in the shower, glad the detangling conditioner meant she wouldn’t lose too much hair trying to comb out the knots after being imprisoned. By her family.
She brushed aside the thought. It would weaken her and throw her over the edge, and while she knew that was the inevitable end to her life, she wanted to know that Rhea was safe first.
While Alexandria soaked her body in the pool of milky hot water, Cara talked nonstop about how she’d been helping to get the castle together. It had been just rock and dust, and now it would be taken back to its former glory.
“Do you know there’s an actual treasure in a cave that belonged to the dragons? Not that my brothers need it. They're already billionaires and told me they had more money than the richest men in the world put together.”
“Cara, who are they?” Alexandria asked, wrapping a towel around her and blotting the water out of the ends of her hair.
“They own Dragons Peak Enterprises. Have you heard of them?”
Dragons Peak Enterprises? One of the richest companies in the world? How was this possible?
“Do you know they were eleven years old when they found me? I was about a year old. My mom said she didn’t want me, and they have taken care of me since then. I would be a ghost without them, Alexandria. They had nothing for themselves, growing up in a trailer park, but they gave me the best.
Tears flickered in Alexandria’s eyes. She wrapped her arms around Cara so tight that she never wanted to let go.
Somehow, knowing all this about them made them more dangerous to Alexandria. She’d been a part of the people who had hurt their family. Their vengeance on her was bound to break her to pieces.