Page 77 of Her Dark Promise

Bastian turned and was about to charge at me when I yelled, “Leave! I told you from the moment your brother came that I didn’t need you. He will take your place.”

I kneeled down next to Soren as Bastian walked over to us.

“Do not touch him.”

I cocked my head to the side and gently swiped my finger over Soren’s injured head, remnants of his bloody nose still prevalent as well as the new welt from his brother. He needed to be healed soon. I was not a doctor, but even I knew that all of these hits to the head couldn’t be good for his health.

I bit into my palm and was about to give him more of my blood when Bastian moved, and grabbed my wrists, pinning them behind me.

My chest pressed against his, back arched.

“Stop.” Bastian’s hot breath fanned my face. “Please, just stop.”

“Oh, the neanderthal knows how to use manners. Who knew?” I paused for a few moments, staring up at him, our faces inches apart.

“What do I need to do for you to grant my brother his freedom?”

“What makes you think he wants to leave? Actually, he has communicated quite clearly with me that he wants nothing more than to get to know me.” Rather my history, but that was neither here nor there.

“I don’t give a fuck what he thinks he wants with his life. I am the eldest, and I know what is best for him. So, I ask you one more time: What. Do. I. Need. To. Do?”

“If I told you that you had to be on your hands and knees every single day without complaint, would you?”

“Yes,” he said without hesitation.

“You would become my whore to save your brother?”

He gripped my hands tighter behind me and leaned down to growl in my ear: “I would lick your pussy until my jaw numbed, from sun up to sun down. I would let you chain me to your bed so that you could have your way with me whenever the fuck you wanted. Whatever twisted, fucked up fantasy was in your mind, I would gladly oblige if you let him go.”

I looked up to the sky to ponder; pretending that the growl didn’t make my toes curl and then met his eyes once more.

“No.”

He hissed. “I will find a way to get out of this hell with my brother.”

My lips thinned into a hard line.

“I promise if you ever attempt to escape again, I will make sure that when your sister is sent into the forest she never finds her way out again.” He didn’t have to know I was bluffing—I just couldn’t think of another way to keep him here.

He was staring at me so intently and for so long that I thought he would call my bluff when he roared, “Fuck!”

He was doomed and he knew it. Soren would never leave willingly, and if he took Soren by force, he would only come back on his own. And even if he did leave with a willing Soren, he would never be able to convince his father to abandon his belief and secretly save his daughter. There was no situation in which he came out on top.

Except staying here—with me.

“You are stuck with me, hunter. Now and forever.” I taunted, “Tell me who owns you.”

I closed the distance between our faces and brushed my tongue lightly against his lips before drawing back enough to catch his reaction.

His eyes narrowed, the words turning over in his mind.

I knew he didn’t want to say it, but he surprised me when he answered: “You own me.”

The light in his eyes dimmed; the thread of hope that he was holding onto had finally snapped. I couldn’t focus on that; the sooner he realized he needed to stop thinking that he could leave, the better off he would be. As much as I didn’t want him here either, there was no other choice.

“That’s right. I fucking own every inch of you.”

We were interrupted by a rustling sound behind us. Soren groaned as he reached up and felt the place where Bastian had hit him.

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