Chapter Nine #2
Alright, let me think . . . She wouldn’t eat the pheasant I brought her. But she’ll eat fruit and bread. But she can’t survive on that only . . . I decide to go with premade boiled eggs, bread and fruit. At least I know she’ll eat those. This still isn’t enough—she needs a vegetable.
I sift through the fridge and find a cucumber.
We have a personal chef, but most of the time, I prefer to cook for myself.
My mother always had me cook in the kitchen with her growing up.
But then the student became the teacher, and my abilities surpassed hers.
Lately, I hate that I haven’t had time to make my own food.
It felt right having the knife in my hand, slicing the cucumber and making a meal for someone else.
Cooking is soothing for me, but it’s always better when you’re making something for someone else aside from yourself.
I scoop the contents on a plate and head back to the dungeon. When I return, Jay is on the mattress, and her eyes are puffy.
Has she been crying?
I drop the plate of food and slide it under the small crack between the cell and the floor.
She lifts an eyebrow as if to question why I would still feed her after she assaulted my men and tried to stab me.
Fair question.
“I don’t need you fainting on me again if I need to move you.”
She starts with the bread and then slides the plate back to me.
Note to self: Bacon is out.
“If you know what I did, why don’t you just kill me?” She sniffles.
“Why were you crying?”
Curse this incessant mate bond. I hate that it makes me even remotely curious about how this monster is feeling. I still hate her.
Against my better judgment, I move closer to the bars of her cell to check on her.
“Fuck you,” she says.
At her curse, a pinch stabs my side.
Grunting, I look down and see her arm extended through the metal bars. My gaze slides along her arm to the location of my pain. The same knife I had tucked away is now lodged into my ribs.
Did this bitch just pickpocket me?
Blood trickles from my insides, down the knife, then drips onto the floor.
First, spilled my father’s blood. Now she’s spilled mine.
My wolf surfaces.
I lift my eyes to meet hers.
Her eyes widen, and her mouth parts. Her lips quiver.
I drink in her fear when she realizes she missed a major artery, and I’m still standing.
I snatch her through the bars with one hand, pulling her into me until her breasts are squished against the door.
She grunts as she’s slammed into the cold metal. The blade, still in her hand, sinks itself deeper into me.
I grab the handle and slide it out of my flesh, careful not to cut anything vital. The last thing I need is for her to kill the last generation in my family. With Jay still in my grasp, I inspect the knife.
Holding the knife up to her, I command, “Lick it.”
“What? No.” Her face, although smushed into the metal bars, contorts into disgust.
“No?” I narrow my eyes. “You’ve been gunning for my blood, and now that I offer it to you, you don’t want it?”
She jerks against my hold on her, trying to move away from me, but my vise-like grip doesn’t falter.
“Tell me, Jay. Is that why you don’t want it?
You enjoy taking it more?” I chuckle. “Yeah, that’s exactly the kind of person you are.
Someone who wants everything handed to them.
Jay’s taken so much and had little to no consequences.
But that ends now. If it’s blood you’re after, fine.
” My tongue drags up the cold metal, lapping up crimson.
The metallic taste assaults my taste buds. “Open your mouth.”
Her lips disappear into her mouth as she purses them tightly shut.
I pinch her cheeks together with such force she has no choice, but to open them.
Once I pry her lips apart, I spit my blood into her mouth and clamp her nose and mouth shut.
“Swallow. There you go. That’s it.” A spine-chilling chuckle leaves my throat when it goes down and let go of her nose. “Good girl.”
She is so frail. I could toss her around like a twig. She doesn’t stand a chance against me. How could she have managed to kill my father?
She is brave—I’ll give her that. But stupidly so. Which only worries me further. If someone kills her, our severed bond will kill me as well.
“You took everything from me.” My voice doesn’t quiver. “Now it’s my turn to take something from you.”
I stab her own shank into her flesh.
She winces.
My wolf practically claws my insides, but my cock hardens at her pain.
“Go to hell,” Jay grits out.
“Trust me, every second I spend in your presence, I’m living it,” I spit.
“I’m going to destroy you, Jay. For what you took from me, I’m going to take everything and more from you.
Every tear. Every scream. Every bit of hope, it’s mine.
Your pleasure? Mine. Your will to live? Mine.
You’ll withstand a thousand different versions of hell in my grasp, and I’m going to enjoy every second of it.
” I withdraw the shank and push her backward.
She falls to the floor.
I chuck the clean pair of clothes Tyler brought her. Then I leave her to mull over the consequences of her actions in the agony she deserves.