Page 25 of Eat Me

Holding up my hands placatingly, "Not at all. I'm simply pointing out that we need to tread carefully with her. Push too hard too fast, and we risk breaking her completely or driving her away for good."

Elijah was silent for a moment, while considering my words. Finally, he gives me a small nod. "You may be right, but she needs to learn her place eventually. Better to start that process sooner rather than later."

Sighing, as I run a hand through my hair. "I agree…I guess, I just don’t want this change to be ruined. We’ve never found someone we all could agree on that’s interesting and strong enough to pass the first test, let alone two.”

“That’s true. Though she’s been meeting us head on, even when talking to us. She isn’t cowering…is she?” Elijah smirks at this, eyes dancing with satisfaction on how Victoria has been doing in the tests and when interacting with us.

As I’m shaking my head, I choose my words carefully. "No, she hasn’t…but if we're not careful, we could extinguish that spark that drew us to her in the first place."

Elijah's eyes narrow, and I know he didn’t like my words…or me second-guessing his decisions, "What exactly are you suggesting?"

"That we take our time," I say. "Let her come to us willingly. The tests will push her, yes, but we shouldn't force things outside of that. Let her curiosity and desire build naturally."

Elijah’s quiet for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Finally, he gives a curt nod, knowing that my way of thinking istrue. "Perhaps you have a point. We'll see how the next test goes. I’ll have us hold back until she has a ring on her finger.”

His decision helps me relax slightly, relieved in the fact he’s willing to listen, but when I see his attention flashback to me, assessing me, I know I’m going to get some sort of teasing comment back.

Elijah's eyes narrow, a smirk on his face. "You seem awfully concerned about her feelings, brother. Are you getting soft?"

"Not at all," I reply coolly, before pausing, “Just a bit…but I'm thinking strategically.” I do have a soft spot for her. She’s crawled her way under my skin, just as she had done to the rest of my brothers. It’s obvious that they’re affected in a similar way.

Elijah releases a laugh, “I see all of us owe Grandfather a favor for his choice. He really did pick a good one. Our choices were never satisfactory.” He trails off and I give a snort at this.

“If we tell grandfather we owe him one, we’ll never hear the end of it.” We really wouldn’t. I can see his smug smirk now. He’s always one only to be happy to rub in one-upping someone…even if it was family.

“You’re right about that.” Elijah mutters, shaking his head as he motions me to follow. After glancing at the cell one last time, I follow my brother.

“I know our cousins aren’t having any luck with this batch and are debating on letting Grandfather pick the next batch of girls, since they can see how well Victoria is doing.” Elijah told me and I’m not surprised. The girls our cousins picked out are not ones I’d want in our family. A couple of them have already gotten on my nerves and I’d rather kill them than listen to them crying anymore.

“It may become a trend then,” I grin, as we walk into the side room where the cell cameras are located. They show each cell the girls are or were in. Our cousins are in front of the cameras, but the one Jasper and Marcus are watching holds Victoria.

“She won’t wake for a little bit,” Elijah tells them, as our younger brothers turn to us. I move to take a seat on the couch against the wall.

“How strong of a dose did you give her?” Jasper asks, amusement clear in his voice as he plops down on the seat next to me, crossing one leg under him as he sits there.

“Not a strong one, she should be up in an hour or two tops.” Elijah tells him, eyes glancing over to Victoria’s screen before looking at the other girls' cameras.

"We should discuss the next test," Marcus says, his eyes still on Victoria's sleeping form on the monitor. "How soon do we want to start it?"

Elijah considers for a moment. "Let's give her at least twelve hours to recover. Twenty-four hours would be better. That will give the drug time to fully clear her system and time to rest.”

I nod in agreement, "Good idea. We don’t want to push her to exhaustion."

Jasper’s grin is wicked, along with the bloodthirsty gleam in his eyes. "Speak for yourself. I can't wait to see how she handles the next one."

"Patience Jasper." Elijah chides, though there is a glint of anticipation in his eyes as well. "We don’t need you to break her like you did the last ones.”

Jasper shakes his head, “I won’t break her. Iactually likeher. I just want to see her reactions. They’re very amusing.” He leans his head back on the couch a sigh leaving him.

“I know we aren’t going with the normal tests we do this time around…. what do you have planned?” I ask, curious what Elijah could be planning.

Elijah's lips curve into a cold smile. "Something that will push her, and it will also show us how strong she is.”

I give a hum, wondering what could be going on in his head. I glance back at the screen with a sleeping Victoria, and I reallyhope she’s going to make it through the tests. I can see a future with her as our wife.

Chapter Twenty-One

Victoria

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