Page 23 of Prey for Me

“Haaah!” I wake up startled by a voice that sounds so much like my sister’s, only to be greeted by a disorienting rush of hot, damp darkness.

Again!

Just like when I woke up on the beach in this living nightmare. I flail, suffocating under the weight of my erratic breathing. The events of the last few days come back to me in fits and starts. Father’s bodyguards in my bedroom, dragging me out. The flashing of the paparazzi’s cameras. Parting with Hoku and Faith at the port before I boarded my private jet. Her screams over the phone as she was crushed under a stampede. Her yacht on fire. The pilot’s severed head. The crash. Raphels’ fucking cock choking me while his pack watched. The chase. And…

The leader of the fox-masked alphas claimed me. And now, I’m his de facto pack queen, mate, and wife.

The last thought causes me to scream, clawing my neck where the pack leader sank his fangs into me during my heat.

“Ssssh! Not so loud, princess. Or the whole island will know we’re here.”

A hand shoots out and claps my mouth shut. It’s large, pale, brutally scarred, and oh so warm. I try to fight, but it’s no use as the stranger easily pins me down onto a… Bed? Not quite. It’s like a bundle of furs shaped like a bed should be, with some regular pillows pillowing my head.

“Don’t tell her not to scream. That’ll just make her scream harder,” a voice of reason says, attached to a man I hate.

Great, I’m alone with jackass and stabby.

Slowly, my eyes adjust as I hear sparks, and I know just outside my line of vision a pile of wood is being set on fire. Even a city girl like me can distinguish the scent of a campfire burning so close beside me. An orange-red glow illuminates half of Leo’s face, freckles distorted. The fiery light matches his long hair that falls over his shoulders and down his back as he peers down at me. Raphael is standing behind Leo, mostly veiled in shadows, and Leo is still clamping my mouth shut. So hard I can’t breathe.

“Will you scream? No screaming,” he asks, speech stunted, awkward, like some caveman, his green eyes sparkling like emeralds in the dim light.

I nod, and he releases me, and I don’t scream. I remember our deal. I remember how Nakoa stopped Leo’s mating frenzy, too. I was so far gone, partially floating outside my body. But I do remember the predatory glint in his gaze. Those dripping fangs wet with saliva and the enzyme that distinguishes a bitemark from a mating mark, since one doesn’t heal and last a lifetime. And then, Nakoa stopped him from biting me, marking me.

Nakoa upheld his half of our bargain. At least partially. And that gives me a small amount of hope he’ll honor the rest. It’sflimsy, maybe even false, but I can only cling to hope now that I’m being held captive by them.

Leo relaxes, sitting criss-cross beside my head. Raphael is moving around the cave–at least, I think it’s a cave–we’re camped out in. I look down at my body, and once again I’ve been washed, to my embarrassment. Most of my bandages are gone, and even stranger, the cuts and bruises that should still be there. At the very least, a scar or two. However, there are fresh bandages around my neck and my snake-bitten hand. I test my left ankle, and by the way it doesn’t five, I have something bigger and sturdy wrapped around it. Maybe a splint? There’s a light tingling near my thumb, greenish salve smeared beneath the coverings as I open and close my fist. Another poultice, I guess.

I have to hand it to them, they do know how to patch a girl. I just wish they hadn’t all conspired to break me before they decided to heal me.

“What!?” I shout in surprise as Leo reaches out to squeeze my tits like he’s honking a horn. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Raphael sends a swift kick to his back before I even notice he’s near us. Leo growls, and is kicked in the jaw next.

“Knock it off and take another suppressant, dumbass. We can’t fuck her right now. Not without our alpha present,” he says, digging his boot into Leo’s bare chest.

He’s back in his full army fatigues, his pants not rolled down to reveal that impress…

No, damn it, focus! I just got groped by Leo. And what’s this about suppresants? They have them? I grumble, now wondering if they purposely didn’t bring them along to corner me like a rat, and if so, did I fall into a trap.

“I did! Don’t pretend you can’t smell her! Nakoa–” Raphel takes his foot off Leo’s chest long enough to put it on his neck.

“Shut up! I told him so many times to stop babying you. You need to hold rank, always, even if he’s not here. And I say no,as your second-in-command. We don’t know what’s wrong with her and if it might be contagious.”

“Contagious!?” I squeak, voice scratchy from a lack of water it seems.

They turn to me, and I no longer find the clown show funny, nor can I pretend they’re just bullheaded pack brother’s duking it out.

Raphael moves to speak, then clamps up. He turns away, black hair cascading down to shield his face. I’m doing my best not to freak out but the silent routine isn’t helping.

“Off!” Leo croaks out and Raphel finally stops applying pressure,

He rubs his throat at the same time Raphael rubs his, his skull tattoo now partially hidden by a black bandana he has tied there. And on front is a crude sketch of a white fox with blood-red eyes.

“Shut up, Leo. My patience isn’t growing thin, it’s gone. I don’t have time to babysit the both of you,” he grumbles as Leo finally stands up.

They rep their pack more than sports fanatics,I think as the fox logo disappears in the darkness as the flame flicks away from Raphael to Leo, who looks irate.

I can’t keep watching this, so I sit up, ready to get up and demand the truth, when suddenly, the two bickering alphas stiffen, and this time, Raphael takes a knee alongside Leo. Guess he’s in trouble with Nakoa.

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