Page 104 of Mask and the Magnolia

Camden smells them in here and on me. He can probably even smell them in me, and considering what he said to me a while ago, the bit about owning me, this changes things.

If it was just getting spotted out with Isaak, he might have let that go unaddressed but this? This is entirely different for him. Whether he sucks or not, he is still an alpha and he thinks I belong to him. His territory was invaded and that is all he’s going to see.

And now Camden is going to go to war just to prove it’s still his.

SEVENTEEN

FIVE ALARM

MAGNOLIA

“After everything I’ve done for you, after everything your father has done for you.” Camden’s grip on my bicep turns vise-like as he unlocks my apartment door and shoves me through before he slams it. I hear the locks click into place as the terror I’ve been trying to hide begins to push its way to the surface but that can’t happen. I need to keep a clear head right now. I have to be able to think on my feet. The second he dragged me out of the office, I started preparing for the worst.

“You are an ungrateful, disgusting whore.” I stumble over the rug as Camden pushes me again, growling low in his throat when I manage to keep myself upright. “A whore, Magnolia. That’s what you are, and do you know why?”

My lip quivers but I try to hold my head high, refusing to speak or give him the satisfaction of seeing me cower in fear.

I can’t do that.

If I can keep things at this level for a while longer, he’ll be here when Eve gets home from work and she’ll get rid of him. She has no trouble throwing him out of our place and my best friend’s big brass lady balls have to be my silver lining right now.

Camden takes a few steps toward me, grinning like the goddamn devil when I flinch. “You let goddamn prisoners fuck you and didn’t even bother to cover it up.”

I fall to the floor as pain radiates on the right side of my face, the taste of blood quickly filling my mouth while I try to figure out what happened. It doesn’t take me long, though. My face hurts, my hands sting and knees throb because this monster hit me so hard, so fast I didn’t see it coming, and I had no time to react. I probably wouldn’t have been able to stop him if I had seen it coming.

”Murderers. The criminally fucking insane.” Camden kicks me in the ribs, my body lifting off the ground before I go down with a thud. He squats in front of me, grabbing a handful of the hair at the back of my head to force my eyes on him. “You allowed the lowest form of life to walk the planet, to defile your body, to take what is rightfully mine from me. The only reason I’m not going to kill you for such an exteme level of betrayal and disrespect is because I want that fucking hospital and I can’t get it without you.”

Yanking me up by my hair, Camden doesn’t bother setting me on my feet, instead he drags me down the hallway, my hands flying to his wrist in an attempt to keep him from ripping out a chunk. I claw at his skin, digging my nails in deep enough to draw blood but he still won’t let go.

Not until he kicks open our bathroom door then throws me into the shower stall, the fiberglass shattering as I go right through it before crashing into the wall behind the door.

“You stink like the mangy dogs you let slobber all over you, the ones you let fuck you like the stupid, nastybitchwhoreyou are.”

He leans in and reaches for the faucet, turning it all the way to scorching and I try to pull myself away from the water as it pelts me with droplets that feel like razor blades that are on fire.

Camden disappears from my line of sight briefly and I hear him throw open my door across the hall before he stomps into my bedroom.

My arms shake as I try to sit up, desperately trying to get out while he’s preoccupied but I can’t. There are pieces of fiberglass embedded in my skin that start at my shoulder and go all the way to my hand, my sweater shredded from the way the door broke when I fell through. I watch thin streams of red swirl below me, the water mixing with my blood as it continues to hit my skin in an increasingly painful way. What’s left of my clothing is not enough to protect me from the ungodly heat, or anything else for that matter. Camden started hispunishmentin the elevator of my building, tearing my sweater as he trapped me in there with him then losing his shit without any warning by choking me with the wide collar of my pullover until it ripped almost completely.

He saw my mate marks when that happened.

Not all of them but he saw Des and Korvin’s and that was more than enough to send the already unstable narcissist straight into homicidal psychopath territory.

Which is why I have to get out of here.

After a few failed attempts, I finally get myself into a seated position, holding my arm against my body as I lean away from the shower’s stream, shielding my face the best I can and that’s when I realize there’s fiberglass there, too. Littering the side of my face and neck. It’s in my hair and god knows where else. I’m just grateful I don’t seem to have any in my eyes.

”Fucking bitch,” Camden bellows as he comes back into the bathroom, his arms full of clothes that he drops into the sink. “How fucked up are you?”

All I can do is blink in response. Everything already hurts and I’m sure he’s only just begun delivering hispunishmentfor my behavior. Not to mention, he’s called me stupid aboutfifty times already so I don’t know why he’s bothering with the questions. It’s not like he gives a shit about the answers, anyway.

He dry heaves before he narrows his eyes, producing a lighter from his pocket while he stares daggers at me.

“This is why you doubled up on your suppressants, isn’t it?” he growls as my heart starts thundering in my chest. “So you didn’t go into heat around those sick bastards.” Camden gags as he holds his lighter out and clicks it, pulling a sock from the pile that he holds over the flame. ”Or was it so you didn’t go into heat aroundme?”

The cotton singes and pops at the toe before it fully ignites, the mostly white fabric quickly turning back and gray.

Camden drops it on top of the rest of the clothing, watching for a moment before he snarls, “You added their shit to your goddamn nest, Magnolia. Clothing and blankets from the fucking institution that smell like those goddamn worthless mutts.” He faces me again, the crazed alpha almost vibrating with rage. “It doesn’t matter, I have all the info I need to make you regret the day you decided to fuck with me but I’ll review it for you since you’re too goddamn stupid to keep track yourself.” He kicks his shoes off and whips his jacket at the wall before he begins unbuttoning his shirt. “You intentionally delayed your heat, let a handful of Blackhurst Ridge’s worst prisoners turn you into a fuck toy and, adding insult to injury, youbondedwith them.“

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