Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
FRANKIE
Cassie is bound in metal, and I now own her for one entire semester. It’s easy to pursue someone when you know where they are heading. All around me the other players are crawling through tunnels, attempting to find one another, which buys me some time. I say nothing as I haul Cassie along with me, back the way we came, and as I retrace the route, my victim is silent. She will be hating every second of this as much as I am loving it. Cassie is mine, and it was never going to be any different. I planned accordingly and held all the cards and now she must face the consequences of that.
We reach the stone opening and as I crawl through, I maintain a firm grip on her handcuffs as I drag her behind me, her efforts to escape futile but amusing. She is fighting me even now when the rules of the game are clear. Once you are claimed, you have lost and become the property of the centurion who claimed you.
God, I love my imagination because this has worked out very well for me and now Cassie is mine there is nothing she can do about that.
We are the first ones home which will add salt to her wound and as I drag her into the chamber, Santi is waiting and says with a deep command.
“Kneel.”
I push Cassie to her knees and stand behind her, holding her bound wrists in my hand. Santi unfastens the hood from her face and she gasps and coughs the dirt from her lungs.
She is now flanked by two centurions, one behind her and one in front, and I can’t see her expression but know she will be furious.
“Cassandra King, you have been claimed. You are now the property of the centurion who captured you.”
She says nothing, but the angry set to her shoulders tells me she’s furious with herself and I wallow in her defeat. I relish every second of it as Santi states, “For the entire semester, you will belong to him and it works both ways. You are a couple in the eyes of Rockwell Academy, and if you betray that, you will be punished by imprisonment.”
“Fuck you.” She snarls, causing a flicker of delight to light my soul.
“Centurion. Do you promise to be faithful to Cassandra King and protect her as your property? Care for her and guide her with her best interests in mind.”
“I do.” My husky voice echoes through the chamber and her bound figure stiffens at the sound of my voice.
“Remove your mask and kneel before me.”
I do as he says and as I kneel beside her, she slides her gaze my way and her eyes flash with anger as she hisses, “You’re a fucking cheat, Frankie Majerio. You never said anything about a hood.”
“You never asked.”
Amusement flares across my lips as Santi says with a sinister smile.
“You may now claim your girl.”
Cassie’s eyes gleam in the darkness as I reach out and grasp her face, pinching her chin between my fingers.
She shakes her head, furious at how defenseless she is and as she attempts to resist me, I tighten my hold. Then I claim her lips with brutal force, loving how she turns her head to shake me. I grip her ponytail hard with my other hand and, as I angle her lips to mine, I deepen the kiss.
It was worth the wait.
She bites my lip and the blood trickles into my mouth, mixing with her saliva, joining us in a far more depraved way. I bite her lip in response and her grunt of pain bathes my twisted soul in delight as our blood mingles together as the perfect end to a text book claiming.
I am relentless as I claim her lips like a devil feeding off an innocent soul and she fights me as hard as possible with both hands tied around her back and her ankles chained together. She is trussed up and defenseless and I’ll admit I don’t fight fair, but when the prize is as sweet as the one in front of me now, I’ll not apologize for that.
I pull away as another couple enters the chamber and I stifle a grin when I notice Kennedy handcuffed to one of my fellow centurions. As soon as she sees me unmasked, her face falls and her eyes flash with disappointment as she notes who is by my side.
I pull Cassie to her feet and anchor her to my side as they take our place and for once Cassie is silent as we watch The Claiming ceremony as spectators this time.
As the centurion reveals his face, Cassie is spellbound as he drops down beside Kennedy, who cries out, “Fuck, you have got to be kidding me.”
I catch Cassie’s eye and despite her anger, her lips quiver with amusement as Kennedy groans. “Isn’t there anyone else? I mean, Amos Sams! Fuck, this is a disaster.”
“Silent!” Santi roars, causing Kennedy to stare at him in shock and he snarls, “You will respect your centurion.”
He sneers. “You accepted the risks when you signed up and if you give us cause to declare you in violation of your contract, you will spend the semester behind bars in the dungeon until you learn respect.”
I smirk at Santi because this is unscripted, and he is settling into his role as the grand master of ceremonies with surprising enthusiasm.
Only we know that he’s making it up as he goes along, but I’m enjoying myself way too much to care.
Kennedy’s comeuppance is the sweetest by product of victory and as Amos claims her lips, she tries everything to get away. Like Cassie, she is immobilized and has to endure the degradation of kissing the one student who sets everyone’s teeth on edge.
Another participant enters the chamber and Amos and Kennedy fall beside us in a line to face Autumn Cavill, tearful and disheveled, as she enters the chamber over the shoulder of her centurion. Her fashion choice is coming back to bite her as her ass is on display, courtesy of the short skirt she was wearing and as they reach Santi, the centurion slaps her ass hard, causing her to squeak in surprised panic before he lowers her to the floor and growls, “On your knees.”
Kennedy gasps and Cassie growls beside me as Santi repeats the same words he used for us and as the centurion reveals himself, I chuckle to myself when River Callahan drops down beside her and crushes his lips to hers in a show of ownership even I’m impressed by. He didn’t even wait for permission before he claimed his victim and as Santi delivers the rest of his speech, a lone figure enters the chamber and says in confusion. “If she’s here, I can’t find her. I think Abigail must have made it to the river.”
“What about Siri?” Santi asks him and he shrugs.
“I never saw her, or the other centurion. They weren’t in any of the tunnels I searched, so they must have made it outside.”
“Did you check?” I ask and he turns to me, confusion etched on his expression.
“I stood at the entrance and saw two figures in the river. One must have been the centurion because his robe and mask were left on the river bank.”
“Siri was injured.”
Cassie speaks up and I snap, “What do you mean, injured?”
“She hurt herself in the tunnel and it sounded kind of bad. I’m not sure if she could navigate the river, so Jack may have helped her.”
“Jack was a centurion?”
Kennedy’s gasp echoes around the chamber. “Are you fucking kidding me? He was here all the time, and I ended up with him ?” She jabs her finger at Amos in dismay.
“Silence!” Santi yells and then growls, “Centurions, lock up your captives while we search the tunnels.”
“I want to help.” Cassie argues and with a wicked grin, I shake my head.
“You will wait for your own safety.”
“Asshole.” She glares at me and I love how her anger washes over my soul like sweet balm on a burn.
As I pull her along with me, she says in a low voice, “I’ll get you back for this. Don’t think you’ve won.”
I say nothing and as I reach the prison where I stood watching her pass a short while ago, I push her inside and bolt the door. I stare at her furious face through the metal bars and whisper, “I always play to win, baby girl, and you will soon realize that.”
Her angry scream follows me back to the chamber and I couldn’t be happier about how things have turned out this evening, except for my cousin’s injury. Plus there is the humiliation of two challengers making it to freedom, so for the next Claiming, I’ll have to learn from it and adjust things a little to make it even more difficult.