Page 65 of Claimed By the Damned

Patrons of the bar screamed and scattered as the fight began. Fists were flying through the air, tables were broken, and Knox had stopped trying to keep track of who was who anymore because he didn’t really give a shit. He had been holding back his bloodlust for a while now, and he was jumping at the chance to let it out again.

Brad sending these pricks to their place of business to try and take Amara back had been a huge mistake on his part because he would be getting at least one of them back in several different pieces. But it also meant that Knox now had an outlet for all of his pent-up emotions, and he accepted it graciously.

Knox only paused his attacks once he came to the sudden realization that he had lost track of Amara. He had been so lost in the fight, in the need to draw blood, that he had become hyper-focused on that feeling alone. After a quick scan of the bar though, he spotted her ushering the last of the patrons out of the door and out of harm's way before she took cover behind the bar herself. Because he had been focused on her, he almost didn’t see the chair that had been thrown in his direction. Thankfully, he managed to duck at the last minute.

The chair shattered when it hit the ground, and he snatched up one of the broken legs and smacked one of Brad’s guys square in the face with it. The man’s head snapped to the side, and blood gushed from the massive gash it left behind. He then whirled and stabbed another in the thigh with the sharp end, that one’s scream of agony filling his ears.

The scent of blood permeated the air and only fueled him further. His vision had gone red, and he didn’t feel the pain in his knuckles when he tackled the guy with the gash on his face and straddled him, punching repeatedly. Over and over again, his fist flew through the air and slammed into the man’s skull. Skin hitting skin, bones cracking and crunching beneath the force of his blows, the splatter of blood as it covered him and the floor around them. He loved it, lived for it.

His eyes blazed, his canines fully emerged, as he gave himself over to the beast inside of him. Because his only thought was to make it hurt as much as possible, he hadn’t realized that the man had stopped moving until a small hand wrapped around his arm, stopping his next strike, and a familiar voice called his name.

“Knox,” Amara said gently over the roaring in his ears. “Knox, it’s over.”

He continued to stare at the guy beneath him and the mess he had made of his face. His body was shaking with adrenaline, his chest heaving with every sharp breath he took. His arm was still poised for another attack, but a tiny hand covered his bloody fist as Amara shifted around him and came into view. Her other hand went to the side of his neck, gently turning his face to look at her instead of the carnage he had caused before him.

“It’s done,” she repeated when his eyes finally met hers. “You got him.”

With a snarl, Knox grabbed her face with his bloody hands and crushed his mouth against hers, smearing blood all over her cheeks. Relief mixed with his adrenaline. He protected her and sent a message to her prick of a father at the same time. Amara was theirs, and they would kill to protect her.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Amara

Because Amara was feeling antsy, anxious, and a little off, she decided to take another day off of work. She had been taking a lot of those lately, and it was starting to upset her. She loved the shop, and she wanted to be able to devote herself to it, but she was currently not in any position to do so. Not with everything else going on.

Amara had officially moved in with the guys a few days ago. Because she had only let them buy her the basics in the beginning, they kept coming home with more and more things for her. Zeke would bring her books, Drake would bring her clothes, and Knox, being the kinky bastard that he was, had a thing for bringing her lingerie. At this rate, she was going to run out of places to put everything. Already, she had to split all of her clothes between the guys’ closets and dressers.

The guys had taken the first few days off of work to help make sure that she got settled in. At least, that was what they had said. They had mainly spent the majority of the time in bed, leading her to believe that they’d had ulterior motives for staying home.

That morning, however, they told her that they needed to go back to work. They had to do inventory and payroll, which meant that she was left in the apartment alone for the first time.

Amara still had a lot on her mind, and whenever that happened, she cleaned. Cleaning helped her figure things out. She didn’t know how or why it worked that way, but it did.

After changing into some shorts and a t-shirt, she set about cleaning the apartment, hoping that she wasn’t overstepping by doing so.

Zeke and Drake’s rooms hadn’t taken much time. They were fairly neat people. Especially Drake. And over the last few days, Amara had made sure that the kitchen and living room stayed livable, so that didn’t take much time either. Knox’s room, on the other hand, had been an absolute disaster and had taken her the longest, which made her smile because it fit his personality perfectly.

Once she finished with Knox’s room, she moved on to the bathrooms. Each guy had his own bathroom, and she did everything from cleaning the mirrors and the showers to wiping down the baseboards. Every room smelled so much better now because of it, and she had three giant trash bags full of trash to take out when she was done.

Amara squatted down to grab a roll of toilet paper in order to change the roll in Drake’s bathroom. As she did, she stopped when she spotted a box of tampons. A smile crept to her lips, knowing that he had thought of that. Not many guys would have.

She blinked rapidly as she whispered, “Wait.”

She suddenly realized that she couldn’t remember the last time she had her period.

Swallowing hard, she rushed into Knox’s room where she had spent the night before and snatched her cell phone off of the nightstand. She scrolled through her apps until she found the one she used to track her periods and pulled it up. She was late, and by over a week.

Amara’s stomach dropped as a sudden wave of nausea rolled over her and panic began to blossom in her chest. She should have known this was a possibility. She wasn’t on birth control, and all three of her mates had some kind of aversion to condoms. She had just been so preoccupied with worrying about her father that she hadn’t had the time to think about it.

Clenching her fists at her sides, she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. There was no point in freaking out until she knew for sure what was going on.

Her feet padded against the floor as she rushed from the room. She made her way to the living room and grabbed her keys and purse off of the entry table. The lock clicked ominously when she locked the door behind her with the key that Zeke had made more for her and exited to the side stairs. She didn’t want or need the guys to see her leave because that would raise too many questions. Questions she just wasn’t ready to answer yet.

Amara reached the pharmacy in record time even though it was right down the street. She made her way to the correct aisle and grabbed a box of pregnancy tests off of the shelf. As she began heading toward the pharmacist to check out, she paused and went back to the shelf to grab a couple more. Just to be sure.

Besides, unless she managed to convince the guys to start using condoms or allow her to go on birth control, this might become a common occurrence.

Her face was flushed as she paid for the tests. She wasn’t sure why she was embarrassed, but she was, especially when the pharmacist smiled at her knowingly. It was as if she knew that she had been with three guys.

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