Page 9 of The Butcher

A second needle pierces my flesh and muscle, more of the liquid fire being shot into my body and I can’t quiet the yelp of pain that escapes me as it’s emptied then pulled free.

“No choice, red,” the herder says as he slaps my ass right over where they gave me the shots, laughing a little when I whimper. “This is your last chance and if you don’t produce any results this time.” He tisks as one finger traces my ass then barely pushes inside my vagina before sliding to my clit. “Well, you know what happens.” The herder presses down on it, and I gag, the man laughing again as he pulls his hand away. “And I would absolutely hate to see such a perfect specimen end up just like her mommy.”

One single tear rolls down my cheek at his words, at the memory they bring racing to the forefront of my mind and as he finishes dictating hisfindingsto the counter, a wave of doom crashes into me and steals my breath.

My breath I pray never comes back because I’d rather suffocate right here, right now than experience what my mother went through.

Somehow, I know I’m not that lucky.

Chapter Two

COLD CUTS

Nash

He’s got another one.

Setting down Thunder’s shoeless hoof, I slowly straighten up, push my glasses up my nose, and turn toward the direction of the shop.

I can smell the smoker as it fires up, the propane faint underneath the growing scent of hickory that’s filling the air while the big hunk of metal begins heating.

If Bram is using that in the middle of a fucking blizzard, he definitely got another one.

Or more.

That also means Zeke is leaving again if he hasn’t already, and Tus has probably started slinking back to his goddamn cave.

I shake my head and glance at the clock as I use my forearm to wipe the sweat from my brow.

Jesus, that was fast.

The brothers Ambrose left the day before yesterday, the three of them on their merry way to whatever location Zeke had pinned and we didn’t hear from Bramley until he climbed into bed with me and Clay sometime last night after 2a.m.

Not that it’s unheard of for him to go radio silent when they’re hunting, but I figured he’d touch base at some point since this seemed to be a bigger group than usual. I thought it meant he’d be gone a little longer than overnight.

Definitely didn’t expect him to already be doing his thing so fucking early but nothing should surprise me anymore when it comes to Bramley.

He’s nothing if not determined.

With a half grunt, half chuckle, I grab Thunder’s leg and pull it back between my knees, smoothing and filing his hoof so I can shoe this last one and be done with the grumpy stallion until I need to float his teeth.

Thunder woke up in a shit mood today, we both did, and when my horse acts like an ass, I tend to do the same. He’s gonna need the break in hisspa treatmentbefore I get to his teeth, though, because I’m not really looking to lose a finger during a routine exam.

Which has been hard to avoid already since Kaboom—Bram’s big ass mare—randomly went into heat, and the only thing my jackass of a horse wants to do is knock her up. We even had to move Clay’s mare, Sloth, and our other stallion, Tiny, because Thunder is so laser focused on Kaboom that he’s gunning to fight anything that gets between them. The last thing I’m trying to do is give him more reasons to want to kick the shit out of me for keeping him away from who he seems to view as his girl.

But my horse has proven to be a bigger distraction than I was hoping he’d be.

I purposely left early as hell to knock out what I needed to with the ornery dickhead, hoping it would calm me down and I’d be able to stop worrying about Bram but all it’s done is worsen my mood.

Maybe if I wasn’t surrounded by living things in bad moods I’d be in a better one. It’s not likely since I happened to find myself in a relationship with the king of shitty attitudes, but still.

My alpha is temperamental as fuck.

He’s moody.

A realcrab ass, as his dads say but I’m used to that.

Honestly, one of the things that first drew me to Bramley was how much of an asshole he can be and still be so goddamn attractive. Generally, I clash with people like that because of my ownwinning personalitybut it was different with him. So much so that we started banging that same night and were living together about a week later. Clay moved to Obsidian Falls not long after that, maybe six months give or take, and it’s been the three of us ever since.

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