Page 45 of Intense
I can hear his new baby, Noah, crying in the background.
“I’ve got a meeting set with Theo and his brothers. Looks like next month we can go to London and fix this Bowen issue.”
I swallow.
“Next month? My Trials?”
Every year, we each host our own Decadence games. Our own spin on it. Mine is the Decadence Trials.
A science experiment in human limits and kink exploration.
How much pain can a person endure and still get off?
How far will the body go for freedom?
It’s fascinating.
My Trials are kept under lock and key. Only Reggie assists me—he’s the only one with a stomach tough enough.
My brothers? They’ve distanced themselves from the games. Hell, they’ve abandoned them completely since they found love.
Me? I use mine.
Because while we’re weeding out the disgusting fuckers in society, the ones willing to sacrifice a woman to us, to make her property?—
We free them.
After probably fucking with their heads. But I like to think of it as freeing them from evil.
They just have to earn it.
Just like we all have had to do to get somewhere in life. There is always a sacrifice.
My brothers aren’t bad. They’re not villains.
I, however, have always been the one called to do the shit no one else can.
I’m numb from it.
After having your humanity stripped from you at ten...
After witnessing what I did.
A child used for the gratification of adults.
I can’t say I possess the same humanity Declan and Conan do.
They have good hearts. Mom always said so.
Mine got cut out, stomped on, and buried with my abusers.
The real Finn Quinn died twenty-five years ago.
What’s left is the shell.
So no, my Trials don’t have the same level of grace.
Sexually—consent is always there. That’s non-negotiable.
