Page 74 of Griffin Undone
Arik’s shrug sent a shaft of ice through my body. “So? You’re not human anymore, remember?”
“What?”
“You’re not human anymore. It doesn’t really matter how hard I grab you or shove you or even punch you. It won’t have any true lasting effects.”
“How can— I didn’t— Are you threatening me?” Full-blown panic had me throwing a punch straight at his heart. He caught it easily, but not in time to protect his knee from my follow-up roundhouse. He didn’t even flinch, just dragged me harder against him. “You certainly scratch like a cat.”
Arrogance and anger shone from the eyes inches from my own. The amber glow flashed a warning as his teeth elongated, a hiss escaping his curled-back lips. My heartbeat hit the heart-attack range.
This was so far from the male I’d known. My recklessness had pushed him way too far. There was no control here, none of the discipline I’d come to expect from Arik. This was the animal, pure and simple, and he wasn’t in the mood to take my crap.
My gaze dropped on instinct as he stared me down, but Arik was having none of it. His claws dug deep into my arm as his free hand rose to grip my chin, yanking my head back up.
“Scared? Take a good, long look, babe.” He slid one foot forward, right between mine, shoving our hips into intimate contact. “Take a good look. I may have fucked you, but I’m not human. I don’t really give a shit if you like me or not, if you want to leave, hell, even if you think I’m a sick motherfucker. I. Don’t. Care. My animal doesn’t care.” The words came out a growl, proving the griffin was just under the surface. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to make sure Maddox pays for the lives he’s ruined. If that means hurting you, then so be it. Whatever it takes, I’m gonna make him pay. And I’ll make you pay if you don’t cooperate.”
Opening his mouth as if to kiss me again, he caught my lower lip with a fang, slicing a shallow cut across the sensitive center. I gasped at the sting of pain. And I got the message; hurting me was nothing. Tears welled, but I refused to let them fall.
Whether Arik saw them or not, I didn’t know. I hoped not. I couldn’t bear to reveal more weakness before him.
He leaned in one final time, a single swipe of his tongue stealing the drop of blood from my lip. “Whatever it takes,” he whispered, mouth to mouth, before leaning back. I wondered if he could see how much I hated having him this close, how badly I wanted to stop the contact between us. Maybe he could, because his gaze dropped to my shirt, the deep V allowing him to strip even more of my dignity. But he wasn’t done. Placing a claw there, he ripped, opening my shirt farther.
My hands trembled so badly I almost couldn’t close my grip around the material, but I managed it somehow. Arik smirked down at me, his eyes frigid steel. “I’ve seen it before, remember?”
My voice came out low and thready, but I was proud of the anger in it. “You might have seen it before; you might have seen all of me before. But I’ll decide if you live to see it again. My power might not be controlled”—I managed a shrug, the action rubbing my breast against his heavy chest, pulling at the claws still embedded in my biceps—“but it would just do more damage that way. Remember that.”
“You don’t want me playing hardball, Kat.”
“No, I don’t. But this is off limits. Rape makes you just as bad as he is.”
A dismissive glance fell on the spot where my hands clutched my shirt. “Really? You think it would be rape? I doubt you could resist that far, but even if it was, I could never be as evil as that bastard.” He shook his head. “This is about more than you or me, Kat.”
“Right. It’s about an old grudge I had no part of and certainly don’t intend to help you settle.”
“Whatdoyou intend to do?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
Arik pressed against me until the door at my back bruised my shoulder blades. “Do you know how many shifters—no, how many females, women just like you, with a life and freedom and dreams and desires—will die if you refuse?”
How could I be that important? There were thousands of shifters, all of them bigger and more muscular and more capable of fighting than me, and he wanted me to believe lives hung in the balance if I didn’t get myself killed avenging him? Arik didn’t care about those lives or mine; all he cared about was retribution. “This is not my war.”
Arik’s eyes narrowed to snakelike slits, and for a moment I thought he might put me out of his misery and kill me right there. “Not your war, huh? Is that what you believe, even after your triggering, after Sun and Grim healed you, after living here, in the home of an Archai, for weeks?”
No, it wasn’t how I felt, but I couldn’t give him a foothold. I had to protect myself first before I could help anyone else. I had to control some small part of this twisted fate I’d been forced into. And if I was totally honest, I wanted to get back at him for what he was doing to me—what he’d done. So I gave him a blank look and unconcerned shrug.
Arik’s face reddened all the way up to his short-shaven hair, giving me exactly what I’d thought I wanted. Angry veins popped up at his temples. I jerked fruitlessly in his hold.
“So this isn’t your war, Kat.” A thick coat of cruelty painted his words. “Fine. Let’s see what you think about the enemy’s response to that.”
ChapterThirty-Two
Kat
Iwas hauled without sympathy into Arik’s study, the one room that had remained locked my entire time in the lair. No protest, no amount of twisting or pulling at Arik’s hand or kicking his steel-like shins stopped him. When I dropped my weight completely, he grabbed my free arm and used them both to drag me. The growl that escaped me as he forced me onto my feet inside the room rivaled the ones Arik occasionally produced, but he didn’t growl now. He didn’t say anything as he leaned over me to palm a mouse, moving and clicking it until a paused black-and-white video appeared on a wide monitor hanging opposite his desk.
“What—”
Arik jerked me around and got right in my face, his grip bruising my biceps, silencing me with one vicious look. “Not. One. Word. Nothing. Just watch, got it?”
