I’m not hungry.
I feel odd.
Queasy.
Nervous.
It’s not like me. I don’t get nervous. Not really.
“You’re not hungry?” Jasper asks.
“I just want this time with you to be over.” I sit back and cross my arms.
“You should eat,” he says coolly. “You’ll need the energy.”
“For fucksake, does your cock never tire?”
“Are you telling me you don’t want it?”
There it is, the tell-tale throb between my legs. “Fuck you, Jasper. This is some twisted shit. I mean, why are you doing this?”
“We had a deal.”
“A deal for seven days of fucking. We could do that back at the quarters. Why here with the fucking silk sheets and the dinners, and the,” I make a disgusted face, “conversation.”
He looks momentarily confused, a slight frown marring his forehead. “You don’t like this?”
Like? “What the fuck, Jasper? What I would like is to go home. To be with Fee and my friends and people I actually want to spend time with.”
It’s harsh, I know, but being here with him like this is making me feel off, and odd, and urgh. I need to get away from him. From all this…honeymoon shit.
My stomach flips and quivers as if something awful is about to happen.
Jasper leans across the table, his eyes blazing with malice. “You’ll do as I fucking please. You’re mine, Cora, and don’t you—”
I hold up my hand to cut him off. Oh god… I know this feeling. It’s muted, but I’d recognize it anywhere.
I look up and meet Jasper’s eyes.
“Fee’s in danger.”
“No.” He sits back and picks up his glass.
“No?” I push back my seat and stand. “What the fuck do you mean, no?”
“Sit. Down.” His tone is glacial. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Listen here, you trumped-up Casper wannabe. I agreed to this deal to save Fee. I’m not going to sit here and eat overcooked steak with you while she’s in danger.”
He cuts into the steak and examines it. “It’s not overcooked.”
Oh, my god. I’m going to kill him. “Fee is in danger. I have to go. I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you.”
I jump.
Nothing happens.
Jasper tips his head to the side and arches a brow.
“What the fuck?”
He cuts a sliver of steak, pops it into his mouth and chews deliberately before swallowing. “It’s good, you should try it.”
Panic threatens to bloom in my chest. “What did you do?”
“Just a little enchantment to keep things in, and other things out.”
Oh shit. Was this why my connection to Fee was muted? He was doing this? And still I’d picked up on something, which meant… “Damn you Jasper. Lift it. Lift it now. It’s bad. It’s real bad. I have to go.”
He explodes out of his seat and rushes me. I have no time to run before his hand is around my throat and his mouth is inches from mine.
“When will you start living for you?” he asks, his tone a lethally soft almost caress.
My eyes burned with tears of rage. “When I can find a way to get you off my fucking back!”
His eyes flinch, and I swear something akin to pain lances across his face. But this is Jasper. Unfeeling, malevolent Jasper.
He releases me suddenly and I stagger back.
He flicks his wrist and turns away from me. “Go,” he says.
Panic and fear course through me.
Fee!
He’s lifted the barrier.
I make to jump then stop, guilt clawing at my chest for some inexplicable reason. ”I’ll be back.”
“Don’t bother,” he says. “I won’t be here.”
I make the jump to Fee.
Chapter Fourteen
Fee
The rogues jeered at me and cheered for Ulrich as we circled each other. My heart was racing, adrenaline flooding my system as I allowed the Loup to take over. My vision sharpened and every sense heightened. The smell of blood and sweat, fear and excitement, all mingled to create a heady cocktail.
Ulrich’s body tightened, shoulders tensing, thighs bunching.
He was about to charge.
I evaded his grapple, and he turned to face me with a grin. He was playing. This was a game to him.
But not to me.
Every instinct in me wanted to attack, but with an opponent much bigger than me, that would be foolish. I needed to move fast and wait for the right moment to get in the jabs to his delicate areas—eyes, throat, crotch, the backs of his knees.
I knew the score. Azazel and Grayson had trained me well.
I channeled my mates now, body coiled and ready to strike. Ulrich charged again, but I side-stepped and leapt, bringing my arm up to connect with his throat.
He made a gargling sound and clutched at his neck. I wanted to do more damage, but he was too quick to recover, so I put distance between us.
His smile was gone now. Dead eyes filled with the need to do harm. He growled and charged me. I made to dodge, ducking in anticipation of his swipe, but he moved at the last minute to block me and body slammed me into the ground.
The air rushed out of my lungs, and my vision blurred
“Move!” Hunter shouted.
I rolled in time to avoid a fist to the chest and scrambled to my feet, putting space between us, but he wasn’t letting up. I was winded and he was coming for me.
Focus, Fee.
I dropped and jabbed him in the stomach. Fuck it was as hard as rock. I jabbed again, aimed for his crotch this time, but he blocked. Shit. I slipped under his arm, but I didn’t make it far before he had a grip on my hair. He hauled me to him. Crushing my back to his chest, he wrapped his tank arms around me and squeezed.
There was a sharp crack and then fire lanced through me. My scream lit up the room. Gunfire rained. Growls and snarls of rage drifted to my ears.
My ribs. He’d broken my—
Ulrich squeezed again
Another crack.
I screamed high-pitched and furious. Bastard. I bucked and threw back my head trying to connect with his face, needing to be free. I couldn’t breathe.
“You want to submit?” His breath was hot on my ear.
“Never.” My body was healing, knitting the bone.
He squeezed again and several cracks punctuated the air. My vision went black as unconsciousness tugged at me.
No. I had to fight, I had to—
He dropped me on my front and then his boot connected with my side. Nausea rolled through me and copper filled my mouth. I spat out the blood, trying to pull myself up as my bones knit.
“Submit,” Ulrich said.
“Fuck you.”
Another kick, this one so hard it lifted me off the ground and propelled me several feet across the ring.
For a moment I was paralysed by white hot pain. Blood rushed in my ears and my heartbeat pumped an erratic rhythm. The pain was a weighted blanket, pressing me into the earth, holding me there and tearing me asunder.
I was distantly aware of my mates calling my name. I needed to see them. I needed them. I lifted my head and the movement sent fire racing down my spine. There they were, grappling and fighting to get past a barrier of rogue Loup. Bullets pinged off the ground as a warning, but my guys were past caring. They wanted to get to me because this was it.