Page 86 of Scapegoat

“My place is here.”

Daryl disguised his fatalism with a weak smile, but I fought the urge to take a step back from him, as if that hopelessness was contagious.

“And yours is with us,” I told Kai the minute we got outside. I stopped beside the truck, tossing the keys to Jay. “Don’t come here without one of us.”

“Why?” I saw that familiar defiant tilt of her head and shook my head. “I’m stronger than him and Anna.”

“You are.” I knew it and I loved that she was starting to see it too, but still. “You took out a grown man who was trying to kill you, and your family is nothing compared to that, but…” I rubbed my hand up and down her arm, as if to soothe her, but it seemed more for me. “I don’t want you to have to exercise that strength.”

I saw Ned, Anna, Kai’s father and Abby all at once then and when I did, my brothers and I stood between her and them.

“Let us take care of that shit. What’s the fucking point of having alphas if it’s not to use us to keep you safe?”

I meant that desperately, intently, but somehow that had her smiling. I both thanked my lucky stars and wondered how the hell I’d made that happen. But she was happy, just for this second, and right now that was enough.

“Take me to the forest then, big strong alpha dude,” she said with a wicked gleam in her eyes. “It’s been a long time since we went for a swim in the old swimming hole.”

My brothers and I groaned. We remembered the pain of watching her dip into the water, whatever thin clothes sticking to her body, our cocks aching as we tried to deny the bond that pulsed between us. But we weren’t kids anymore. The moment I realised that, I recognised that her eyes glittered in the darkness. So I helped her into the back seat and wedged her between Atlas and me as we drove away from the house.

The minute she stepped out of the truck, all available moonlight seemed to bathe her form. Her body absorbed the cool light and seemed to reflect it back twice as bright.

“Kai,” I said, as she stripped off her shirt and left it to fall on the beds of pine needles. “Kai, maybe we should—”

“I want to feel.” Her hands went to her jeans and she undid the top button, the three of us following her every move. She smiled slightly as she kicked off her boots and then eased the jeans down. “I want to feel something other than the crunch of Ned’s throat beneath my fangs, his blood flooding my mouth. I want to feel something other than the same Stanthorpe shit. ‘Anna is your mate. She’s the precious one.’”

She did a fair imitation of Elsie’s nasal drawl as she said those words.

“I want you. I want us. I want to be Kai again—”

“Does that involve getting dunked?” Jay sprinted forward, throwing our mate over his shoulder, then jumping with her into the water.

My shout froze in my throat. The swimming hole might be shallower now. Rocks could have fallen in or tree trunks. But Jay emerged out of the water with a whoop, then Kai popped up, kicking and spluttering.

But my mate recovered quickly.

“Come in,” she ordered, as seductive as any siren luring sailors to their death, and we were helpless to do anything other than do as she bade. We stripped off and then dived into the cold water, the sting of it just what the doctor ordered. And as soon as I was in, Kai threw herself into my arms, her skin so fucking hot, it drove the chill from my bones.

“I want to feel,” she told me in a low, hungry voice, right before she kissed me. “Make me feel you.”

Chapter 49

This, this was what I needed.

When I kissed Xavier, when I felt Jay and Atlas’ hands on me, stroking my body, touching my hair, it drove everything else out. Elsie, Anna, even Dad. Ned. The Campbell boys were always my escape from the shit of everyday life and that was just as true now. None of that could exist when I was kissing them, touching them, breaking away from Xavier, but feeling him hold me up, offering me to his brothers. I kissed each one of them until our lips stung, and then went back for more.

They wanted me.

I could smell the heavy scent of their arousal, hanging thick, like incense. The water didn’t wash that away, just transmitted those pheromones further, driving me wild.

“Fuck, if you knew how often I dreamed of this…” Jay groaned as he pulled away.

“What did you dream of?” I asked. “What would you have done if you thought you could get away with it?”

Xavier held me up from the water, lowering me backwards, presenting me to his brothers, as my legs were locked back around his waist.

“What…?” Jayden snorted, then his eyes dropped down to where water dripped from my breasts. “Well, if you really want to know. How about we show you?”

His hands rose from the water, sliding down my sides, tracing long lines along my body until they got to his destination. I sucked in a breath as those hands cupped the undersides of my breasts. They felt curiously sensitive right now, this slow approach so different to the way he’d been on the farm.

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