Chapter Thirteen #3
I pulled Latoya’s hand as the werewolves all crowded around dejected-looking Vince and the two crying women, giving them fake condolences. “Dinner? What’s for dinner?” I whispered.
Latoya glanced around the room, ensuring no one heard my question. “Joey, don’t—”
“I never said anything about staying, so you can forget that shit right now.”
“Are you sure, Joey?” Silas’s deep voice behind me made my heart plummet to my stomach. “I didn’t intend to pick favorites today, but you’re the only one I’m looking forward to spending time with. You wouldn’t want to disappoint your host, would you?”
“That depends. Why do I need the festival when this party has already been so wonderful?”
Silas smirked, running his tongue along his canines. “That would spoil the fun.”
Although I battled the urge to recoil and won, my face must’ve cost me the battle of pretending to like the piece of shit, because his smile slipped.
“Well, it seems like our new friend Marcus would also love to have you there.” Silas noticed my eyes leave his face to scan the room for Marcus. “Oh, he ran out for some fresh air. He didn’t look too good… But he admitted that secret to me before he left, I promise you.”
I nodded tightly. “Then it looks like I’m disappointing both of you, doesn’t it?”
Silas chuckled, his sinister voice reverberating through my entire body. “We’ll see.”
“Sis, can you grab my weed from upstairs, please?” We both turned to Latoya. “It’s in the bathroom, all the way down the hall by the aloe plant.”
I glanced at Silas. He’d focused his terrifying gaze on my sister and did not break it as I removed Marcus’s sweater from around my shoulders and placed it in Latoya’s hands.
She tried to drop her arm, but I hadn’t released my hold on the sweater. She read the apprehension in my eyes and smiled.
“Aloe plant,” she repeated. “You can’t miss it.” So, she wasn’t worried.
As I walked away, Silas spoke again, but his low words were not for me. “We’re heading down to the lake to get dinner started. I hope you’ll have your sister in check by then.”
“Alpha, she doesn’t know me,” Latoya replied in a hushed voice.
“She thinks you’re a cult leader.” She paused, for what I guessed was Silas’s facial reaction.
“How else was she going to explain me abandoning her? I begged her to come because I wanted her to see how much I love it here. How much she’d love it here with me. But I need more time to convince her.”
“You’re family. That means she is, too. Humans need to make a choice, Latoya. And I would prefer if your sister made the right one. But I protect my family… even if it means protecting them from themselves. Remember that.”
I nearly crashed into the damn aloe plant.
I hurried into the massive bathroom and closed the door behind me. As the door shut, the room removed all sounds of the wolves’ shuffling downstairs. I no longer heard them leaving for the lake. I no longer sensed my sister waiting for me.
All I had for company was an eerie silence, and I didn’t like it at all.
Against my better judgment, I cracked open the door.
I rushed to the sink and placed my palms flat on the cold marble vanity top, my pinky grazing the bag of weed.
Did Latoya realize I could still hear them? What the hell did Silas mean by protecting me? And why the fuck was I acting so scared?
I paced the length of the massive room, trying to calm my nerves and failing. I was feeling too much all at once. Affirmations weren’t gonna cut it. Something had to be wrong with me. It was the only plausible explanation for all my shit.
“Fuck it.” I ran back to the sink and pulled a joint out of the bag. When I placed it between my lips, I slammed down on the counter in frustration. No lighter, idiot.
“Well, hot damn.”
I froze. The drawl coming from behind me was familiar but hard to place.
“If it ain’t the Nubian Goddess.”
I gasped, and air froze in my lungs as I heard the bathroom door close.
Seconds later, a large hand pressed against the small of my back. Damn it, he was fast. But his hand dragged slowly up the length of my spine.
The pit of my stomach dropped, and I had to remind myself to breathe. I set the breath free but dragged in a few more, trying to steady myself.
“I think you’re mistaking me for someone else,” I whispered, my eyes still glued to the joint in my hand. “But the bathroom’s all yours.”
I turned to leave when his hand left my back and wrapped around my arm.
He pulled me toward him, and my eyes darted up to his face.
Shit.
He looked the same as he had the night he approached me at Club Luna—his red hair as wild as the gleam in his eyes.
“I’m just curious why you and that motherfucker are pretending y’all don’t know each other,” he said as his gaze traveled down and lingered on my lips.
“But something tells me you don’t want me asking him. ”
I swallowed hard when he cocked his head to the side with a smirk on his face.
“I’m sure everyone here would get a kick out of the whole thing, actually.
” He chuckled, his hand trailing up my arm.
“How you rejected me. How you watched as I fought for you. How that fucker claimed you as his own.” He cupped my face before his fingers slid to the nape of my neck.
“How you’re all I’ve been able to think about for weeks. ”
I cried out as he grabbed my hair.
He used his other hand to cover my mouth, as if the bathroom wasn’t soundproofed. He brought his lips to my ear. “You’re not as strong as I remember, kitten,” he groaned as I struggled against him.
I hated when Ethan used to call me that…
It was so much worse hearing it now.
“I decided you were a witch, but now I’ll have to make changes to how I planned to break you. But trust me, I’m fixin’ to make the most of it.”
Don’t take the bracelet off, Joanna, I inwardly pleaded with myself.
The alpha dropped his nose into my hair and inhaled. “No woman has ever turned me down.” He scanned my face, his erection pressing against my thigh. “So, imagine how embarrassing it was for a fucking human to think she’s better than me.”
I began talking into his hand, my mumbled voice causing him to pause.
He looked into my eyes and smirked. “I’m going to move my hand to hear what those pretty lips have to say. But scream, and I'll break your neck.”
You can get out of this, I told myself. Do not take the bracelet off.
I nodded instead.
When the alpha removed his hand from my mouth, I pulled my head away. “I didn’t think I was better than you,” I rushed.
A corner of his mouth rose. “Oh?”
I jerked my head as much as I could with his grip still on my hair.
“You weren’t the only guy who approached me that night.
I was having a shit time and just wanted to be left alone, but the man who attacked you tried to convince me to dance earlier, and I told him to fuck off. I think he was jealous.”
The alpha released my hair. “Then why are y’all pretending y’all don’t know each other?”
I took a small step back, using my peripheral vision to scan for something to use as a weapon. But if I attacked him, I’d lose my chances of leaving the estate.
I shrugged. “We were all drunk that night. I guess we’re both embarrassed about what happened. But I swear, I don’t know that man. Hell, I’m sure it shocked him as much as it shocked me that he knows my sister.”
The alpha crossed his arms as he searched my eyes for deceit. “He claimed you.”
“Claimed me?” I scoffed. “What the fuck does that mean? You realize I’m Black, right? That shit ain’t attractive. Especially in that cute accent of yours.”
I fought down a shudder as the alpha approached me, placing both hands on my waist.
“You think I’m cute?” he asked, like an idiot.
I forced a smile. “You would’ve found that out sooner if you’d let me explain.”
“You were acting shady as hell.”
“I don’t know you, big guy. I was afraid you’d hurt me. You admitted you were going to.”
He shook his head. “I was only fooling around,” he quipped. “But to be honest…” He took another step forward. “You look like you like it rough anyway.”
For fuck’s sake, Joanna. Keep the damn bracelet on.
“Joey, what’s taking so…” Latoya stood in the open doorway, her hand still on the knob. Her eyes left my face and dropped to the alpha’s hands on my waist.
She entered the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
“Uh-oh, am I intruding?” She played with one of her hoop earrings. “Brody, right? Heather’s alpha…?” She paused, leaning against the door with her foot propped up and her arms crossed. “How’s your wife?”
Brody rolled his eyes, irritated by my sister’s interruption, whereas I wanted to cry in relief. “What do you want?” he asked through clenched teeth. “We’re busy.”
“Well,” Latoya began, “I wanted to get high.” She pointed to the joint, that I didn’t remember dropping, under Brody’s heel. “Now I’ll settle for your fucking hands off my sister.”
Brody forced me around and pulled me hard, my back slamming against his chest. He gathered my braids to one side, leaving my neck exposed. “Is that what you want, my little kitten?”
I glanced up at Latoya. Her eyes flickered to where my hands fidgeted with my bracelet, and she gave her head a furtive shake.
“I really would like to get back to the party,” I all but pleaded.
Brody snickered, running a finger down the side of my neck. My body betrayed me, and I shuddered, prompting him to moan in response. “No,” he breathed. “I don’t think so.”
“Brody—”
He glared at my sister. “That’s Alpha Brody to you, you filthy runt. Now, get the fuck out.” He kissed my exposed skin. “The kitten and I have to make up for lost time.”
Latoya pushed herself off the door. “Wouldn’t you prefer two Sullivans for the price of one, Alpha?”
Brody’s hands traveled back down to my waist with a lazy hunger. “Anything with a nose can tell y’all are related, you know? Your innate smells are different, but”—he faced Latoya—“both so very mouth-watering. I bet your cunt would feel just as good around my cock.”