Consumed (Blood Ties Book 9)

“Again.” Hunter grunted behind me.

I shoved off the ground, wincing at the stab of pain in my side. It’d been days since we escaped Coulter’s mansion of hell and I was still recovering. I looked over at Thomas, at his black eye and the way he still favored his leg. We were all recovering. But that made no difference here…not when there was a war to finish and those we loved to protect.

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My thighs tensed, driving my boots into the rocky ground as I lunged forward. Thomas was a heartbeat behind, but it didn’t take him long to surge ahead. His strong shoulders tensed, hands fisted, pumping through the air as we tore along the side of the mountain house and around to the steep incline.

Hunter called this training.

I called it pure, goddamn torture.

“FASTER!” He bellowed behind us. “LIKE YOUR DAMN LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!”

My damn life, huh? How…about…yours?

My pulse was booming, my breaths a billowing blast from the furnace in my chest. Still, I drove myself upwards, crying out when my foot slipped on the rocky surface, pitching me forward.

But Thomas was there, grasping my arm before I plunged off the rock face to my death. He held me steady until I gave a nod, meeting his gaze. A tremor raced with the connection. For a single heartbeat, the world seemed to stop. His lips parted. That hard rush of breath caught before he glanced at the fall behind me.

Then the magic was shattered, leaving Thomas to lunge, digging his sneakers into the slick surface and driving his muscular body upwards.

And I followed.

My heart was racing, trapped between fear and lust—living with these men. Both were sure to kill me.

He slowed at the incline, and it wasn’t the first time. I looked upwards, to where Riven waited, his bare chest heaving, sweat glistening on his skin. But those dark eyes were all for me, gripping me in that ravenous stare.

I drove myself upwards, digging my toes into the shale surface and pushed forward. They were what I ran for…what I bled for…what I sacrificed everything for.

Thomas matched my strides, his thick thighs bulging under his cut-off sweats as we made it a quarter of the way, then pushed to half. I couldn’t do it…I couldn’t⁠—

Riven lifted his hand, leaving it outstretched in the air toward me.

Fuck.

I pushed harder, unleashing a roar as I raced toward him until he wrapped his arms around me, stopping me cold on the small rise.

“Easy, Trouble.” He murmured, holding me against his chest.

“TIME!” Hunter roared below.

“You…made…it.” Thomas braced his hands on his knees, then looked up at me, that same hunger burning in his eyes.

I had to force myself to look away. My damn knees were shaking hard enough as it was. “Barely.” I gasped and lifted a shaking finger to point down the mountain. “He…he’s going to kill me.”

Riven straightened, his chest heaving. “No, he won’t, Trouble. He loves you.”

I looked back down to the bottom of the mountain, to where the towering outline of one of the biggest men I’d ever seen in my life cast a long shadow across the ground. He loved me. They all did. I glanced around, that fear still trembling inside me. I wasn’t sure why they loved me…or how.

But I was learning.

I licked my lips, wetting my mouth. “Again?”

Thomas shook his head. “Not for me. I’m about to have a damn heart attack.”

Riven jerked his head toward the house. “You guys go ahead. I’m going to grab my gun and hit the range with Hunter.”

He wiped the sweat from his palms on the back of his pants. Tight, ribbed stomach muscles drew my focus. He was leaner now, harder on himself in the days since the attack. Almost punishing himself when he barely ate and ran almost all the time. Unless he was shooting with his brother.

He gripped the back of my neck and pulled me closer before he kissed me. Salty lips smashed against mine. I opened my mouth, dropped my guard, and gave myself to the sensation.

The sharp breeze snatched at my hair, cooling the sweat on my skin. My nipples tightened, that heady rush brewing like a storm inside me, until he broke away, staring into my eyes.

“You okay?”

I took a second to search my thoughts before I answered. “Yeah.”

“Good.” He hinted a smile, then stepped away. “I’ll see you later.”

“I’ll see you later.” I repeated.

But he was already gone, striding away along the edge of the ridge as Hunter headed in the same direction from the base.

Thomas watched me for a second, then turned, moving slow enough down the ridge for me to catch up. My foot slipped, leaving me to skid and run until I reached the bottom.

“Showers?” I asked, but I didn’t wait for him to answer, just strode toward the house.

I was aware of him, his steps crunching behind me, his breaths at my back as I opened the back door and headed inside. I yanked my shirt over my head as I kicked off my sneakers, pushed them aside, and headed for the front of the house and the stairs.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

I climbed, stopping at the top of the stairs before I turned around. “Thomas…I…”

He grabbed me and his powerful hands gripped my chin as he stared into my eyes. I could melt in them, searching the glistening soft brown for the sparks that ignited. My lips parted as I waited for him to lean close and press his soft lips to mine.

But he didn’t. He just waited, like he always did, hovering in the corner of the room or in the doorway, watching me with Hunter or me with Riven and Kane. He was always watching, always waiting…always…yearning.

“I’ll go shower.” He said carefully, lowered his hand, then slowly stepped away.

The pang in my chest was instant, watching him walk away like that…like he…deserved the pain. I opened my mouth to speak, but he was gone, stepping into the room at the far end of the hall, the hiss of the shower coming seconds later.

I made for Riven’s room, working the hooks of my bra, then shoved down my shorts and peeled off my socks. The hot water was soothing, running over my shoulders and my hair. I washed and shampooed, then switched the water off.

I ached for him.

I looked toward the door, knowing he was in there feeling the same for me. So why the fuck won’t he give in? My pulse raced and my breaths deepened. I licked my lips, telling myself my hunger had been sated with the others. I ran my fingers through my damp hair, then dropped them to my breasts, remembering last night.

God, they’d sated me.

Still, The Priest.

The Priest wouldn’t give in.

He lingered at the edges of my subconscious, like a tiny burr in my shoe. I needed this burr, desperate to pluck it free from where it was nestled deep in the soft padding of my mind. These were my favorite shoes, ones I’d longed for my entire life.

“That’s it.” I dropped my hands and strode out of the bathroom, naked.

Until I stopped.

On the floor next to the bed were the cuffs Riven had used on me when he’d chained my ankles as well, until they’d spread my knees wide, leaving me exposed. I couldn’t get out of them, and if I couldn’t, maybe they were perfect for…

“Him.” I whispered. My pulse raced as the image of him bound filled me.

I snatched them from the floor and walked into Thomas’ room, watching him step out of the bathroom as he toweled his hair dry, with one wrapped around his waist. A quick glance around his room and I grabbed the hard-backed chair pushed out from behind his desk.

“Helene.” He murmured. “What are you⁠—”

I dragged the chair with me, stopping in the middle of his room. “Sit.” I commanded.

His confusion shifted as his gaze met my stare, and in that instant, a desperate longing gave way between us. His lips parted, a rush of breath escaping. I left the chair, carrying the cuffs with me. My fingers trembled as I ran them along the chain to the cuffs. One snap and I closed one around his wrist.

A deep, shuddering moan rumbled in the back of his throat. I moved to his other hand, pulled them behind him, and snapped the cuff shut.

“Sit.” My demand was breathless.

I hadn’t realized how exhilarating this would be. To have a powerful man like Thomas so…controlled. He took a step, barely needing me to guide him, and sat on the chair, the towel parting to expose those strong thighs as he did. I looked down at the soft hair there as I bent to one side of the chair and grasped the other end of the chain with its own pair of cuffs.

He jerked as I pulled, bowing his shoulders back to clasp the other pair around his ankles. “Your brother used these on me once. Did you know that?”

He met my stare as I rose, those amber eyes brighter than I’d ever seen them. One shake of his head and I knew…he wanted this. I’m not like the others. His own words echoing in my head. We’d shared a moment in hell trapped in the tunnel under Coulter’s mansion. A moment when he’d revealed how he couldn’t handle a feather-light touch.

But this—I looked down to where the outline of his cock grew bolder under the parted towel—this he liked a lot.

“You want to pray for me now, Thomas?” I murmured as I moved around the front of the chair to the other side and knelt. “Or do you want to pray for yourself?”

His eyes fluttered closed.

“After all, it’s what you do best.”

I’d heard him at night, spending hours on his knees, desperate for whoever he believed in to protect those he loved. My name was repeated…often.

He flinched as my breath brushed his thigh.

That sound came again, wounded and desperate, rumbling in the back of his throat. Half a whimper…and half a purr.

I reached down and slid my fingers along the taut muscles of his stomach until I grasped his hard cock. “Go on, Priest, pray.”

“Please.” He whispered and opened his eyes. “Please…”