Page 92 of The Dark Rising
I drop the book and stagger back, my heart racing, hands clammy. No, no, no. I stare at the black book on the floor, thewhooshingof my heartbeat filling my ears. The page is still open, my body trembling like something is going to come out and attack me. Darius rushes over to me, his mouth moving but all I hear is mumbling. He follows my widened gaze to the book on the floor and he takes a step toward it. That’s what snaps me out of myself.
I rush forward and collect the book off the floor and hold it to my chest. “No,” I tell him, my breaths coming out faster as I step back and away from him.
He pauses mid step and watches me with a frown. His eyes go to the book clenched tightly to my chest, then to the book scattered on the floor until his eyes meet mine again. “What’s in that book, Rhea?”
I shake my head, not wanting him to read what’s inside. “No,” I repeat, trying to stop the wavering in my voice.
He takes a step toward me, and I take another one back. “Give me the book, Rhea,” he demands, eyes hard.
“It doesn’t concern you.”
“Of course it concerns me, it was in my father’s fucked up experiment basement. Give it to me.”
I clutch the book even tighter to me, shaking. “Not this one,” I say, my voice cracking, my lips trembling. “Not this one, Dar.”
He stops abruptly at the shortening of his name, and tilts his head at me curiously. His eyes roam over my shaking form, to the white knuckles I have on the book, to the fear I’m sure he sees in my eyes. “What is in there that you don’t want me to see?” I just stare at him, my eyes pleading not to push this, damn near begging. “If you do not tell me what is putting that fear in your eyes, little wolf, I cannot get rid of it.” My eyes water, shaking my head again. He takes a step closer, grinding his teeth before exhaling. “I will drop it, for now.”
I let my head fall forward in relief and nod. It’s enough for now, though I doubt he will let me have this small reprieve for long. I’ll need to read it and then get rid of it. I need to know everything that’s inside, even though the thought of it turns my stomach to stone. I lift my eyes and quickly search the floor to see if there are any more books with the symbol of Zahariss. I find none.
“Let’s gather some things and port back,” Darius mumbles after a tense silence. “I’ll bring the Elites back here to gather the rest for all of us to go through.”
I nod and step toward him, unable to look him in the eye. He reaches out and pulls me close, tracing a finger down my cheek as I still tremble. I breathe in his scent deeply, letting it fill my lungs and we port back to the Elite’s Keep.
Thirty Three
Darius
Iwalkintomycloset, blindly grabbing a t-shirt and shoving it on. I spent the morning training with my Elites and making them squirm with just my presence. Then I made sure the men that came back from taking care of some rogures had been assigned to another mission after they rested. It never ends, a constant circle of sleep, go out and fight, come back and sleep. Again and again. The Higher’s witches are sending over information of more power bursts daily.
It just keeps getting worse.
I head to my office and throw the last stack of papers onto the large table. My brothers are seated around the table here, going through what we brought back from my father’s house. I take a seat and scan through the notes on what he recorded in his hidden basement.
It’s a shit show, one I never saw coming. My father kept females and rogures in the basement below my feet and I never knew. Just like I never knew Rhea was caged in her basement when I visited her pack. I knew her scent was familiar and now I know why. I scented her in her house when I visited with my father. I realized it when we got Sarah.
Was she bleeding below my feet as I listened to my father speak to Alpha Paul? Was she starving whilst her Aunt Selena made us a meal? Was she about to be abused as my father sent me away to talk with the pack?
I growl at that thought, my insides violent as Drax peels his lips back and snarls, snapping my brother’s heads in my direction.
“You good, brother?” Leo asks, his eyes cautious when I look up at him.
I grind my teeth. “This has been happening for who knows how long and we didn’t get a sniff of it. How is it possible? And how the fuck did I not know about my own father?”
It disgusts me to know my father did nothing to help Rhea, to know that I come from a man like that. When we went down into that hidden room, it just cemented it for me, and I couldn’t control my reaction. The rage I felt in that moment was nothing like I have ever felt in my entire life, my control was at a tipping point, and I didn’t care what felt my wrath until pretty, blue eyes looked into mine.
If it wasn’t for my brave little wolf coming to me, calming me in a way I’m sure only she could have, we would be buried beneath rubble.
Though we both didn’t expect her to end up on my cock, she ended up there nonetheless, just like I said she would. I couldn’t control it, couldn’t think of anything other than being buried inside of her in that moment as soon as she uttered that word.
A word we both know what it means, yet she pretends otherwise.
My little liar.
“None of us knew,” Damian says, flipping through the pages of the journal, bringing me out of the memory of her heat wrapping around me. His words crush the thought. “We all feel guilty for that.” His jaw ticks. “Rhea was right.”
Jerrod leans back in his seat. “Right about what?”
“There is no honor in being an Elite.” Silence follows after that statement.
