Page 173 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

Chapter 34

Mason

The timing couldn’t have been better. I mean, me and Knoxliterallyjust pulled up to the Galanti house, got out of the car, and the next thing I see is Nim running naked through the trees.

If she’d made it all the way...

The Galantis were evicted from their frat house—big fucking scandal—but from what I heard they’re taking their sweet time getting their shit out. Someone from the Eta Theta Kappa fraternity could still be inside, and they’re just the type to make trouble for us.

Good thing they’re leaving the Academy, else we might just have had a war on our hands. And I get the feeling Nim’s going to be keeping us real fucking busy.

“Let me go, you fucking monster!” Nim yells, and loud enough that if thereissomeone left in the Galanti house, they’d hear her.

“Shut her up,” Knox says, his shoes crunching over the dead shit layered beneath us as he comes closer.

Silas is leaning against a tree, trying to get his breath back. Told the idiot he shouldn’t have given up swimming. He’ll neverget back to that same level of fitness he had when he was doing 50-yard freestyle races back in high school.

I clap my hand over Nim’s mouth. She immediately starts struggling, and I grin when her squirming little body grinds into my crotch. God, but she looks good in the nude with those perky breasts of hers jiggling around, her tight nipples, her plump ass.

“Silas, go check if anyone’s home,” Knox says. Then he beckons for me to stand with a flick of his fingers. “Cover her up.”

“Such a waste,” I mutter, even though I agree with him. I don’t want anyone else to see her delicious little body. Although, weirdly, I’m not fazed when Knox gives her a lingering once-over as I get up.

“Belt,” I tell him.

He doesn’t even ask what the fuck for, but he’s smart like that. Nim start to tremble when he tugs at his buckle, huddling into me when that strip of leather slithers out of his jean’s belt loops.

She probably thinks he’s going to belt her. And fuck knows why that gets me hard, but it does.

Knox walks up to her with his belt looped and dangling in one hand, a faint smile on his mouth. When she tries to move away, he clucks at her like she’s one of his fucking polo ponies.

In a flash, he has his belt between her teeth and the buckle tight against the back of her head. She screams…but I doubt the sound carries more than a yard. She lets out a furious huff through her nose when he tugs it to make sure it’s tight.

Without taking his eyes off her, Knox pushes her body to the side and grabs my buckle, yanking it open in one quick move. If I didn’t trust him as much as I do, he’d be flat on his back with blood streaming out his fucking nose for daring to touch me. But I let him take off my belt while I hold Nim still, and help him tie her wrists together.

I hand her off to Knox as I shrug out of my letterman’s jacket, draping it over her shoulders. Silas walks up to us then and shakes his head. He looks angrier than usual.

“Five of them still in there, clearing out their stuff.”

Knox looks around. Then he looks up. “Miserable weather,” he says, turning those black eyes down to Nim. She backs up into me again, and for once doesn’t immediately move forward, as if she thinks I’ll protect her.

Unlikely, baby girl. If anything, I’ll be the one holding you down.

“Have you been to Hart Falls, Miss Winters?” Knox asks, smiling cruelly. “It’s not particularly nice this time of year.”

Chapter 35

Knox

I lied about Hart Falls. Even in the middle of winter, the desolation of this place takes my breath away. Fuck it—I don’t think there’s any time of year it’s not fucking awe-inspiring and that’s coming from someone who wouldn’t appreciate natural beauty if it slapped him on the ass and called him Sally.

We have a myth about Hart Falls and it goes hand in hand with the one about Scarstone Lake. I don’t believe a word of it, of course—monsters and magical creatures aren’t my thing—but I get where their inspiration comes from.

I’m not interested in any of that right now.

Nim Winters fucked up. She did the one thing she wasn’t supposed to, and I’ve had to call in a favor from someone I despise owinganything. It’s becoming a habit with her, fucking shit up. I swear she does it on purpose, like she’s punishing us for what we did.

As if we aren’t being punished enough.

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