Page 48 of Owned By Shadows

“Sheis crying because apparentlysheis not allowed anywhere near the man who rapedherfor three fucking weeks even thoughshehas just as much right to cut his balls off, if not more than any of you,” she snarls, and I flinch back, my eyes widening.

“Of course you can cut off his balls, Lamb,” Rowan says casually from the doorway. He stalks over to the bed, getting on his hands and knees and crawling up Iris’s body until he’s face-to-face with her. “I’ll even hold him down for you like a proper gentleman and you can use my favourite knife.”

“Rowan!” I hiss, and he turns his head, but his amber eyes are full of a darkness that has a shudder running up my spine.

“What? I made our girl a promise. That I would help her kill our enemies and fuck her in their blood.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal, and red coats the edges of my vision.

“You say the sweetest things, Roo,” she purrs, and I throw my hands up, looking at Hunter.

“Tell me you’re against this?” I beg, and he huffs out a breath.

“She deserves revenge, and with all of us there, we can incapacitate him first so there is no chance of her getting hurt.One of us will need to keep her safe until that happens, but afterwards, I don’t see why she can’t join us.”

I stare at him wide-eyed. “I thought you’d be the voice of reason!” I shout, getting up and striding over to him, poking his chest. “Or don’t you care? She could fucking die!”

My mother’s face flashes before my eyes, my father standing over her broken body, her blood staining his hands as I was forced to stand there. Unable to stop it, to do anything but watch as the light faded from her eyes.

Hands cup my face, and blinking, I’m back in our room, the sound of the gentle waves in the background contrasting with my thundering heartbeat. “Where did you go just then, Sweetheart?”

I take a shuddering inhale, something inside my chest fracturing just as the first tear burns a path down my cheek. “He killed her, Hunt.” My voice is broken, rasping as the hour of that night bleeds into it. “He had his men hold me back and watch as he beat her, raped her, and then killed her.”

“Who, darling? Who did he kill?” His voice is so soft, so gentle as he holds my face and wipes away my tears with the pad of his thumbs that a sob slips from my lips.

“My mother, the only light in my life until I met Iris.”

“I’m so fucking sorry, Sweetheart,” Hunt rasps, pulling me forward and kissing the tears from my skin. “And you’re worried the same thing will happen to Iris.”

It’s not a question, it’s a statement, and the thing that smashes through the box I keep that night locked in, destroying what little control I keep over my emotions. My hands grab his vest as I drop to my knees, but he stops me from falling, gently lowering us down to the ground as he pulls me into his powerful embrace and holds me as I sob.

I cry for my mother, for the pain I watched her go through when I was so young, not able to help. I cry for the boy whosaw the evil in the world and had to live with him day after day, unable to stop the agony of knowing I stood by while the light faded from her eyes.

A warm cheek rests on my back, delicate arms coming around to hug me from behind.

“We’ve got you, Nik,” Iris whispers and holds me tight.

Another set of arms wraps around me from the side; Roman,Moy Lev, placing kisses on my damp cheek as he, too, holds me. Arms hug me from the other side, Rowan joining in, and I cry harder, the knowledge that I’m no longer alone, that I have a family who will help hold me up too much.

“We’ll save you one of his balls, if it means that much to you,” Rowan states, completely deadpan after my cries have quietened, and I huff a laugh. Then I twist my head, still resting it on Hunt’s chest, and look into bright amber eyes that are full of a mischief that is more often on his twin’s face.

“Very generous of you,” I say, my voice thick with the tears I’ve just shed, though my soul feels lighter than it has in a long time.

“I thought so too,” the bastard says, placing a kiss on the top of my head. “I’ll go see what the others have made for dinner.”

Then he gets up and saunters out, the others moving, each of us helping one another to get to our feet.

“We’ll keep her safe, Sweetheart, I swear it,” Hunt promises, leaning in, and my eyes close as he places a gentle kiss on my lips. “And we will keep you safe too.”

I swallow past the lump in my throat, not wanting to shed any more tears. Sergi Petrov has had enough of them, and I don’t intend to give him any more.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“BAD DREAM” BY RUELLE

IRIS

The next two weeks pass in relative bliss, you know, aside from the looming threat of being discovered by Sergi. Our new identities arrive, courtesy of Alexei, and more plans are made and completed for New Year’s Eve while Nik works on gaining more allies and stacking the odds against his father.

I feel that plotting another person’s murder is wrong; taking a life should be avoided at all costs. But then, Sergi is so evil, has always been so evil, that he no longer deserves the life he’s got.

---