Page 81 of Hell Kissed
“Mom,” I whisper on a cutting breath.
She shakes her head against me and holds on to me like she’s afraid I might disappear.
“You shouldn’t have come here.” Her voice wavers and the tears that soak her cheeks seep into her breathy confession. Her arms tighten around me, belying her words as she refuses to let me go.
An emotion I don’t understand—and don’t know if I ever will—comes over me: I missed her. I missed her and I didn’t even know I missed her until I had her.
My fingers dig into my mother’s thin brown shirt, and the sensation that I’m being watched tingles through me. My gaze lifts, and the kindest eyes I’ve ever known peer into mine. Latham’s happiness shines in the depths of those frost-kissed pools. But he wears no smile. That aloof amusement isn’t in his handsome features now. In the shadows of the cavernous room, he looks haunted. More tragically beautiful than ever before.
Sad. Fuck, he looks sad.
I pull away from my mother just slightly, and the moment I do, a man with pale features and even paler, white blond hair saunters up to Latham, Aric, and Torben. The man’s smile reveals sharp white teeth. Latham’s jaw twitches as he glares up at the strange man.
“Enjoy your freedom?” he asks in a slithering tone with that large, creepy smile stretching further across his face.
His hands lift and come down fast and hard. Metal clanks loudly, and Latham falls to his knees. Sparks fly from his wrists as shining black chains link one hand to the other.
My round, wide eyes stare at the horrible scene, my protests clawing their way up my throat. My heart thunders, my wolf snarls, and I’m in that asshole’s face in an instant.
“What the fuck are you doing to him?” I stand firmly within the small space between the eerie man and Latham. The beast inside of me presses to get out with gnashing teeth and snarling lips, but a pressure fights back against it. It feels heavy. Contained. Some form of magic is restraining the animal inside of me, and it only sends more molten hot anger lashing through my chest.
The man’s smile turns into a wicked snarl as he lowers his head and runs his nose from my collarbone to my ear.
My skin crawls with the feeling of skittering cockroaches everywhere he dares to touch me.
“Well, aren’t you pretty?” he hisses against my flesh, and the rise of vomit scalds my throat.
A warm palm slides around my arm, and Aric slips me behind him as he steps forward with his head held high.
“Don’t ever fucking touch her again if you want to keep your fucking tongue, Serpan,” he grits out from tightly clenched teeth. His wild, fiery eyes burn into the other man’s silver orbs, promising wicked torture before death.
That smile eats up the sharpness of the stranger’s features.
“Know your place,” the slender man hisses.
Latham’s head is bowed, and all I can see is the sharp angle of his jaw as it pulses with rage. I turn to Torben, and there’s shame in green eyes. He can’t even look at me.
“Fucking fix this!” I shove at his broad chest, but he only exhales a heavy breath, and everything feels like it’s fucking falling apart all around me.
“Let’s go, pets.” A flash of fiery embers burn around Serpan’s long fingers. He flings that magic at Aric, and an iron collar falls heavily against the dragon shifter’s throat.
My fingers tangle with Aric’s, and he squeezes hard before trailing after the asshole like all of this is fucking normal. His hand falls away as he looks back at me just once.
And then my composure fucking shatters.
I’m not that quiet girl anymore. I don’t need my wolf to nudge me into sticking up for myself or my friends.
Her rage and mine are now one and the same.
And it all comes lashing out.
My boots echo over the rocky ground furiously. I shoulder past Aric and Latham. My knees bend and I leap into the shadows. My chest collides with a bony spine, and the man crumples beneath me.
“Get—get off of me!” Serpan grunts, but my arm is already fully around his scrawny neck.
“How fucking dare you?” I growl into his ear as I tighten my hold.
Hands claw at my arms, voices call out to me with urgency and warning. A choking noise gargles from Serpan’s thin lips, but I refuse to stop.
