Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 62782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
I don’t.
“Put these on,” he instructs. “Now, Rem.”
Shaking my head, I scowl at him and sign, I’ll pass.
Green eyes flicker with anger. “It wasn’t a request.”
“Sit your ass down, kid,” Finnick growls. “You heard him. He doesn’t want to wear your shit. Plus, Cy won’t like that.”
“Your Alpha can fuck off,” Cash snaps.
Finnick and I both tense at his words.
Alpha?
Cash knows about…
Before I can process that thought, Finnick pounces on Cash. I expect Cash to cry out or get hurt. Not easily slide an arm around Finnick’s neck—the same arm that was just in a sling—and pull him into a headlock. His efforts don’t even make him grimace or break a sweat. I’m mind blown because Finnick’s strong as fuck. I’ve wrestled with him plenty of times before to know that he’s stronger than both Cash and me combined.
Or so I thought.
Cash looks seconds from either suffocating Finnick or breaking his neck. This was planned. He’s eager to take this life. Almost hungry for it.
We’ve been duped.
By Cash and his brothers.
I can feel it. Anger swells up inside of me, and the desire to kill him is so instinctual, I nearly throw myself at him like a savage beast. I will kill him. Kill them all.
Stop, I sign, stomping my foot hard on the wood floor to get Cash’s attention.
He doesn’t release Finnick but tosses me the dogtags. “I’ll let him go once you put those on.”
I don’t bother arguing and yank them over my head. Despite the metal being small and insignificant, it weighs heavily against my skin. It feels dirty and wrong—like it’s cutting me off from the world around me. I shudder in confusion, ready to rip it back off, but then I feel it.
Cash.
Reaching forward. Not physically. Mentally. Penetrating my mind, his presence easing its tentacles inside me.
What’s happening?
His grin is vicious and cruel as he unapologetically attempts to enter me against my own will, all while sitting on the floor with Finnick passed out in his grip.
Kill.
Kill.
Kill.
I will kill them all.
“Fucking finally,” Cash hisses out, excitement in his voice as he slithers through my cracks.
Before he can get fully inside, I close myself off just like I always do when I don’t want anyone or anything to reach me. Wrap myself up in steel and brick and cement. I bury deep into that place that keeps everyone out.
It’s not easy like it usually is, and I’m fighting against Cash as he bellows both inside and out of my mind.
I ignore him, and everything goes black.
Remy. Remy. Remy.
Words so soft they feel more like a caress than a whisper have been on repeat inside my mind. Begging. Pleading. Calling. Cy.
I want to reach for him, but the evil that’s waiting for me is ready to pounce. I can feel it. So thick and heavy around me, probing and picking at any weak spots. I’m unable to reach out for Cy, so instead, I shove out a burst of reassuring warmth toward him.
He’ll know I’m alive.
So brave. So strong. So fucking resilient.
Despite the wall around me, I hear it. The sound of Cy’s voice. The deep, gritty sound of it soothes the parts of me that are rapidly fraying. I can feel the split of my psyche. As though I’ve been loosely stitched together, but now the threads are popping one by one. I desperately hold it together.
I’m vaguely aware of hands on me. Hoisting me. Carrying me. The urge to fight off the offender is strong, but since Cash so clearly wants inside my head, I use every ounce of willpower to keep him out.
But Cy?
I don’t just hear him…I feel him.
Inside the black void with me.
My only safe place. My only escape. My lonely darkness.
He’s here.
While keeping my mental walls up, I reach for him in the shadowed haven. I want to call out to him, but it’s useless because I have no voice.
Remy. Remy. Remy.
“Come to me.” The words leaving my mouth in the inky blackness are deep and sound sinister to my own ears. “Cy, come to me.”
I can sense a struggle. He’s fighting against the shadows, screaming and tossing out obscenities. Threats that if that motherfucker hurts his mate, he’ll destroy them.
Mate?
Who the fuck is his mate?
Jealousy sears through me, lighting up my darkness with red-hot flames. It burns my skin and my mind and my fucking heart.
I will kill them.
I’ll kill his mate.
He’s begging me not to. Pleading to let him live. Because he loves him and needs him.
Rage, unlike anything I’ve felt before, consumes me. I want to shred his mate. Is it Finnick? I almost let go of the iron-clad hold I have on my walls to go after Finnick, but Cy’s voice stops me.
“Kill me instead of Remy. Let my mate live.”
The fires quell as I consider his words.