Traded (Blood Ties Book 5)

The doc stepped into the side door of the new house and glanced around before he saw me with my arms crossed, standing against the wall. His eyes widened for a second before he gave a slight nod. But I didn’t return the greeting, just stared at him until he flinched and strode away to follow my brother to the east wing and the daughter.

I glanced at Colt, then back to the doctor.

Fuck him.

Fuck all of them.

I shoved off the wall. I needed to hunt. To fight, to do anything but watch day turn to night in this fucking prison. The goddamn walls were closing in even in this monstrosity of a house. What the fuck kind of place was this, anyway? Everything was black…and grotesque. Everything was so…confining.

I headed along the empty halls, the air ringing with silence after the last of the workmen had finished. London’s guttural growl echoed from the door along the hall, so I slowed.

“Look harder,” he demanded. “I want every fucking rock turned over. I want to know everything there is to know about that asshole, Daniels, and I want it within the hour.”

My gut clenched at the name.

Maybe that’s why I was so fucking savage.

Daniels didn’t deserve to live. Yet, there he was…living. My jaw tightened as I slowed my steps and took in the bare study. London’s stuff was still in boxes, the towering black shelves still empty. But he was working, pacing the floor as I passed, that commanding growl following me.

An ache came at the nape of my neck. I worked my head from side to side and massaged the muscles, trying to work the knot free. But it wasn’t budging. If anything, it was sinking deeper, triggering paranoia. I made my way through the massive kitchen. Guild was there, loading supplies into the refrigerator. He turned as I headed through, but there was no greeting now. Just a stony stare as though he finally, after all these years, saw what I was.

Good…

I was tired of pretending.

My breathing deepened as I swung my focus back to the endless fucking hallways and headed for the rear of the house, then to the mudroom, where the steel grate covered the back door. I punched in the code, and watched it open automatically. Movement came from the hedges at my left. Two of the additional guards London had hired came my way as they scanned the back area of the property. Only, their guns were holstered.

I scowled at their empty hands. “Guns out, we don’t pay you for a leisurely fucking stroll.”

One asshole scowled and opened his mouth like he wanted to say something. His buddy, on the other hand, was smart, watching me as I strode toward them, hate seething in my veins.

I couldn’t help it. Rage didn’t just live inside me.

It was created there.

Spawned like some fetid rot.

And he sensed it somehow.

The asshole moved his hand to his holster and drew his gun. I didn’t turn away, just held the motherfucker’s stare as I passed. Those goddamn chumps were gonna get us all fucking killed, I just knew it. I moved to the outside doors and the new grates that had been installed, yanked the metal bars to test the locks, then made my way around the house, checking every damn window.

Her face pushed into my mind, freckled and fucking beautiful.

The daughter.

Wildcat.

My pulse sped with the thought.

I goddamn resented her, even after she’d protected Colt with her own life. None of that mattered now. She was a goddamn liability, one I was tired of defending. They all belong to me. I clenched my jaw and that muscle in the back of my neck throbbed as the hairs rose.

I stilled, sensing…scanning…

Those words resounded in my head.

As I turned around, I scanned the darkness along the side of the house and the garage. The four-wheel drives were there, as well as the doctor’s Range Rover, but there was something else. Something that reminded me of the Son’s words. I scanned the grounds further out before I shifted my focus to the front of the house, and that feeling of being watched grew stronger.

Instantly, I lifted my Sig and moved. My boots were silent, my breaths shallow, if only my goddamn pulse would quieten, but it seemed deafening as a low moan came from somewhere ahead of me. I stilled and cocked my head, listening.

And that wounded groan came once more, only this time it was louder.

What the fuck?

I lunged and tore around the corner of the house, scanned the front and caught movement at the edge of the bushes. A hand reached out and clawed the grass as a guard crawled out from underneath them.

The side of his head was a dark, bloody mess. I stared at the sight, then jerked my gaze to the dark street, to the streetlights further along the block.

Beneath their glow was a man. My gut clenched in warning as he raised his head. My senses were a fucking siren in my head. I didn’t have to linger to know who it was…

It was him.

The Son.

“Get the fuck up now!” I screamed at the guard, who rocked on his hands and knees.

But I didn’t have time to care about him. I swung back around, but the asshole was gone from under the streetlight. A car’s engine started and brake lights flared neon red in the night as I turned and lunged for the side of the house. Her face was all I saw. Her screams howled in my mind. I drove my body harder, and barreled toward the side door as the doctor stepped out and jerked his gaze toward me.

Panic flared in his eyes as he glanced behind me. “Everything okay?”

“Get the fuck out of the way.” I grabbed his shirt and yanked him forward.

The dude was strong, and resisted for a second until I tore him out of my goddamn way and shoved past.

The daughter belongs to me…

The daughter belongs. To. Me.

I lengthened my stride, heading for the east wing. Black doors were a blur. I didn’t stop, didn’t slow. Just bore down on the handle of her bedroom door and threw it open to the sound of the shower in the bathroom.

And a guttural grunt of my brother.

I stepped forward, drawn by the sounds and the need to see. Through the steam and the drops on the glass, I saw them. Her ass was pressed against the glass as my brother thrust deep into her cunt. My heart thundered as I watched them.

I flicked my gaze to him and stepped into the doorway, my gun in my hand. The slap…slap…slap…of flesh on flesh resounded, making my cock twitch. I wanted her and hated her all at the same time.

“Oh, God…Colt,” she moaned.

But my brother stopped mid thrust and his head turned. Through the blurred glass, his blue eyes found mine. “Brother?”

Her gaze snapped to mine as he slipped free of her body and lowered her feet to the shower floor. Water dripped from his body as he stepped out, those blue eyes saying far more than words ever could. I scanned the familiar scars across his chest and along his hard stomach before my gaze stopped at his cock.

There was blood.

Blood on his cock.

I jerked my gaze to her as Vivienne stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. “Is everything okay?”

No. I wanted to tell her. No, it wasn’t anywhere near okay.

But that boom…boom…boom was a freight train in my head.

“Carven?” she murmured.

“What?” I snapped as she wrapped a black towel around her body and stepped closer.

“Is everything okay?”

I couldn’t answer. I was riveted by the strands of her hair stuck against her neck and my cock was harder than it’d ever been before, so fucking hard it ached.

“Do you need me?” she asked, her tone soft, her movements slow as she carefully approached.

I took a step backwards, staring as the light bounced off her bare shoulders.

“If you need me, Carven, I’m right here.” She slowly lowered the towel from around her body.

I froze, staring at her body with my cock throbbing in both need and anger. She looked at the gun in my hand, her voice strained and desperate. “You think I don’t know you have my life in your hands here?”

I clenched my jaw, unable to look away.

“You don’t think I see how you battle yourself?” She slowly rounded the foot of the bed to stand dripping on the plush bedroom carpet. “How you want me.” She lifted her hand and placed her palm against the thunder in my chest.

I was sure she could catch lightning, because that’s what ripped through my veins. A bead of water dropped from the end of her nose to catch on her lip. Christ, I’d never seen anything so goddamn beautiful. She splayed her hand wider over my chest, turning the thunder in my head into a deafening roar.

“What are you so afraid of?” She pressed her body against me.

I lashed out and grasped her wrist. “You don’t know a goddamn thing, daughter.”

“No?” Her eyes widened. “Then kiss me.”

Kiss me?

Desperation collided with rage. I grabbed her other hand despite the gun in my hand and shoved her backwards as I kicked her feet out from under her. She had no choice but to fall…against the bed. That savage part of my nature reared its head.

All I saw was gray.

Gray where her face should’ve been.

Gray where there should’ve been blinding light.

I yanked her upwards, listened as her teeth gnashed, and flipped her over, driving her facefirst into the mattress. “You want me to fucking kiss you?”

She didn’t fight, didn’t buck, just lay there as I dragged my gaze over the yellowing bruise on her fucking side, knowing I was no better than the fucking animals who’d done that.

No better than a…

Son.

I drove my body against her, my hips thrusting to meet the curve of her ass. “This is what you fucking want? Because this is all you’ll get from me.”

My brother was a blur, driving his fist against my shoulder, those dark blue eyes blazing with rage as he snarled, “Get the fuck off her.”

I stared at him.

At the man who was part of me.

The man who knew me better than anyone.

The man who’d die for me.

But the way he looked at me in that moment wasn’t one of love, or sadness.

No, this was a man who looked like someone who’d take me out if I hurt her.

I eased my hold, leaving her to jerk her face from the soft comforter to gasp for air. I tore my gaze from my brother to her as she twisted and turned over.

I sucked in a harsh breath as I looked down at her. “Be careful what you wish for, Wildcat, and do yourself a favor. Stick with my brother. He’s a far better man than I could ever be. You don’t want this.”

Her chest heaved, but her eyes didn’t waver as I eased back, the gun still in my hand.

“I do,” she said, and licked her lips as she answered. “I do want this. I want you. Carven, I’ll take whatever you give me. However, you give it, too. You think I can’t take the pain, then you’re wrong. I know what that darkness looks like. I saw it when they took me.” Her eyes blazed as they connected with mine. “So, if that’s all you can give me, then I’ll take it.”

I flinched at the words and took a step backwards, staring at her as she turned on the bed, naked.

A sickening wave of revulsion swept through me.

She thought I was…like them, like those sick fucks who’d taken her. I took another step backwards from the bed as I stared at that sick desperation in her stare. She’d let me do that to her. I knew that now. She’d let me fuck her the cold, callous way I fucked, and I was betting she wouldn’t whimper, either. No, I bet she’d swallow every fucking cry along with my cum. Then I turned and headed for the open door.

The daughter is mine.

The daughter is mine.

The daughter…is…mine.

My footsteps punctuated the words as I pushed into a run and tore along the hallway of the east wing.

Beep.

My phone beeped as I hit the side door of the house and stumbled out into the night. I stopped, grabbed my phone, and stared at the message from London.

I’m out, will be home as soon as I can. Protect her.

Protect her?

Protect her?

I clenched my fists, one around the phone and the other around the gun as that fucking message blazed in my mind. Protect her…I sucked in hard breaths as I stared at the gun in my hand. If we weren’t in the middle of a fucking war, I’d end it right here and now. Because, in this very second, the only thing I needed to protect her from was me.

But without me, they were dead, and I knew it.

It wasn’t a stroke of ego. It was a cold, hard fact. They needed a machine. They needed a Son. One to hunt. One to kill. One to keep them safe. If that was all I could be for her, then that’s what I’d give.

My balls clenched and my dick ached. But I ignored the hunger, swallowed it down, and glanced at the garage, to see that the doctor’s Range Rover and London’s car were gone. I needed to get out of here. I needed to hunt…I turned my head to where that piece of shit had stood under the streetlight. The guard hadn’t been an attack; it was a warning. One I heard loud and fucking clear.

The daughter is mine.

His words resounded.

Almost as deafening as the sound of my heart.

She was all I saw. All I craved.

“I don’t fucking think so, asshole,” I whispered. “This time, I’m coming for you.”