Page 26 of Bonds of Pain
“You missed,” I say quietly, keeping my voice neutral despite my surprise.
“Did I?” Maya turns to me with a feral smile. “You know, I imagined doing something like this to you after you came to the rooming house.”
Cock torture has never been a particular kink of mine, but in this moment, I’m willing to let her try almost anything. “If I let you tie me up and take a knife to me, does that mean you’ll forgive me for all my sins.”
Surprise lights her eyes as she studies me with a bemused expression. “I’m surprised you’d want my forgiveness, at all.”
The impulse is just as confusing for me, if I’m being honest. Maybe it’s the faint scent of the bond that marks her as pack. Maybe it’s the sexy way she handles that knife. Maybe it’s that she doesn’t act like any other Omega I’ve ever met.
But knives and chains don’t feel like as much of a threat as a promise, where she is concerned.
“I’m still asking for it.”
She blinks once. “Okay.”
I come up behind her, just short of touching but close enough to feel the heat of her body through the rough cloth of her oversized shirt. Seeing her in men’s clothing shouldn’t do it for me either, but I think a lot of new things are awakening in me today.
Damn, she smells good.
My fingers touch the back of her hand, gently so she doesn’t startle, and angle the knife so it rests just under the weight of Darius’s likely withered ball sack.
“The penis’s major artery runs along the top.” I whisper the words of advice against her ear like they’re sexy pillow-talk. “If you’re going to cut, do it from the underside so he doesn’t bleed out too fast.”
“Like this?”
She twists the knife, so it pokes through the thick fabric of his pants.
Darius jumps like he’s been shocked, pulling at the restraints. No blood bleeds through, so she gave him a minor scrape at most. The pussy.
“What the fuck, you bitch!” he screeches. Then sees the look on her face and changes his tone to something more pleading. “Just stop this okay. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
I raise an eyebrow at that. I thought I’d gotten any actionable information out of Darius already, which is the reason it seemed like a good idea to let Maya at him as an outlet for her aggression.
If she manages to get something new, I’ll be really impressed.
“I want answers,” Maya says, leaning forward so that her backside presses hard against my front. “And as you can see, I don’t have Poe’s patience.”
Well, if I wasn’t rock hard already, then I certainly am now. I wonder if she even realizes just how much of Logan’s personality already seeps out of her through the bond.
Darius’s breathing comes in ragged gasps. Sweat pours down his face as he stares at the knife handle protruding between his thighs. “Yeah, okay. I get it.”
“The Alphas who attacked the palace. Who were they? Mercenaries?”
“I don’t know,” he protests, voice cracking. “They paid me to change the guard schedule so the south gate would be left unattended. That’s it.”
“Who paid you?” Maya asks, twisting the knife handle just enough to make him flinch.
“I never saw his face under the hood. Dark hair. Medium-build. A beta, I think. He paid in untraceable credits.”
None of this is new information for me, but I realize there is something I don’t already know. I don’t want to take the wind out of Maya’s sails, not when she’s on such a roll. I murmura question against the shell of her ear, soft enough that Darius can’t hear it.
She repeats the words in a voice almost as commanding as my own, making my heart flutter. “How were you initially contacted?”
Darius’s eyes dart between us, clearly calculating whether Maya or I present the greater threat. “A note in my quarters. Said they knew about my gambling debts.”
Which confirms my suspicion that whoever masterminded this attack already has access to the palace.
Our real enemy is already here.
