Page 20 of The Demon's Pet

That’s when I made the biggest mistake of my life.

I kneed the alpha’s son right in the crotch. Unlike Zane, he hadn’t been my sparring partner before I was forced to quit, and he didn’t know how to dodge quickly enough.

I felt my knee hit soft but firm flesh, sort of like a small, hard plum that smashed against me, and then Bran let out a howl and crashed to the ground.

“She’s ruined me!” he yelled, tears streaming down his face as he held his crotch and rolled back and forth on the lawn. I could have done a lot worse to him.

“I’m castrated!” Bran howled as the pack medics ran over to him.

I was hauled out of the line by one of the alphas, but my eyes were on Bran, and I couldn’t help feeling guilty, if he really was ruined.

We were all part of this fucked-up system.

He was crying now, sobbing, which wasn’t very alpha of him.

The medics nodded to his father, signaling that he would be fine, and I wondered how such a high-ranking alpha could be such a baby about pain.

I’d been hit so many times I barely reacted now.

“The stocks,” the priest yelled, and the next thing I knew, I was frog-marched over to the town square, across the dirt road in front of the chapel, and locked in a pair of lonely stocks in the middle of the town park where everyone could see me.

Then everyone went back to the ceremony, leaving me in the lamplight of the square, my hands caught in holes to my sides, my head hanging down in the middle, resting on the bottom of the main hole.

My hands rubbed against the rough wood as I tried to escape, and it only led to painful splinters cutting into my skin.

In the background, about a hundred yards away, the ceremony continued, punctuated with cheers.

When they were done, they were probably going to stone me.

“Fuck.”

“That’s not very celestial,” a voice said sardonically. The voice was smooth, deep, laconic. Like melted chocolate and brandy to my ears.

I tried to look up and see, but the stocks prevented me from looking up very far.

All I saw were black robes until the person talking knelt in front of me.

I gasped when I recognized dark eyes and golden-brown hair, Sam’s face so close I could make out the tiny pores on his perfect nose.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, shocked to see him. “Weren’t you supposed to leave with the other celestials?”

He didn’t answer me, just studied me with those beautiful eyes and then looked over the stocks.

“What did you do to deserve this?” he asked.

I ignored him and let my head fall limply forward. At this point, I could be sassy, but why bother? I had probably already earned myself death with my actions.

“I didn’t leave because they told me they might need an executioner,” he said, answering my question. “They didn’t say why.”

My head flew up, as much as it could at least. “An executioner?”

He nodded slowly. Silently.

Suddenly, the black wings made sense. I’d heard rumors of an angel that had joined the others. Black wings. The angel of death.

Yeah, he probably wasn’t going to help me.

“Can you get me out of here?” I begged. Couldn’t blame a girl for asking.

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