Page 14 of Feral Monsters
“Go away,” I mumbled.
When he remained silent, no doubt trying to figure out if I was serious or not, I lifted my head. He was staring at me, his head cocked slightly to the side. Sighing, I wrapped my body around his hip and wound my arms around him. “Not literally,” I mumbled. Some days, Ike was able to read me, and other days, it was particularly noticeable that he lacked basic human functions… like today. Normal social cues just weren’t his thing. It was honestly a little endearing.
His fingers stroked through my hair. There was a stiffness to his movements, like a robot trying to remember how to do things most of humanity did on instinct. I relaxed into his touch anyway. I loved Ike just as he was, lack of humanity and all. He wouldn’t be my Ike otherwise. Besides, it was cute when he tried to comfort me, even if it wasn’t really something he was all that capable of.
“Is this one of those you say something, but you actually mean the opposite things?” Ike asked.
I nodded. “Yes. I’m very tired, but I never actually want you to go away, Ike.” I looked up at him. “Okay?”
He frowned like I wasn’t making any sense, but he finally nodded. “Okay.”
Wraith entered our room at that moment. His curly brown hair, which was in need of a haircut, flopped over onto his forehead, and his dark eyes locked onto me with laser-like focus. “How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Like I entered some other world overnight where I was an omega in heat and you two were alphas in rut,” I answered. Wraith chuckled. Ike just looked like I’d lost him all over again. I rested my head on Ike’s thigh. My poor, lost little Ike. “Where were you two this morning?”
“Got the okay on your mother,” Wraith said. “Ike and I went to fetch her this morning. She’s at our parents’ place, just waiting on you to show up.”
For almost a year now, Ike and Wraith had been tracking down every person who’d ever owned me or touched me without my consent, and one by one, they brought them to their parents’ place, where I got to take their lives and take back pieces of me they’d stolen.
My mother and father were the last ones on the list. My father was missing—like an actual missing person kind of missing—and while it’d taken a little while to find my mother, there was only so much running she could do. I knew without a shred of doubt that Wraith and Ike would find him, too—whether he was dead or alive.
“You two spoil me,” I muttered.
Ike blinked at me. “How?”
“By finding everyone who wronged you?” Wraith asked.
I nodded. Ike’s jeans so worn, they were soft as they rubbed against my cheek when I did so. “Yeah. Who the fuck else would ever just go around, kidnapping people who hurt me, and practically lay them I’m at my feet like some kind of sacrificial offering to their god? So many victims don’t get this kind of revenge, and yet you two are doing all the hard work so I can have it.”
Ike snorted. “I do it for purely selfish reasons. Seeing you covered in blood makes my dick hard.”
My lips twitched in amusement. Wraith rolled his eyes. “Ike, shut the fuck up.” He looked at me. “We need you to get dressed. I’ll make breakfast.”
“With bacon?” I asked, pushing myself into a sitting position. Ike grunted in dismay but let me go, nonetheless.
“With extra bacon,” Wraith promised, making me feel all warm and fuzzy. Bacon was my favorite breakfast food. “Get a move on, little killer. We need to be out the door in fifteen minutes. I’ll pack your breakfast to go. Ike, come help me. If you stay in here, you’ll only distract him.”
Ike huffed but got off the bed. “What are you—my mother?” Ike griped as he followed Wraith out the room.
“Even if we had a mom, she probably wouldn’t want you,” Wraith retorted. I snickered and slid off the bed, heading for the shower. I had greasy bacon to eat and a wretched woman to murder, which meant I needed to get a move on.
She looked a lot worse than I remembered. I’d thought maybe my hatred of her had turned her ugly in my mind, but my imagination had actually been better than what she looked like. It was clear she was strung out on something. Her skin was sunken in, and sores covered her face. Her once luscious blonde hair was now stringy and thin, making her pale scalp visible.
“You look like shit,” I mused as I came to a stop in front of her.
She spat at my feet but missed by a good two feet. Poor fucking aim. I shook my head in dismay. “They told me you’d be coming to see me.” She tugged against her bindings, but I knew she wouldn’t get free. Ike was a master with rope. I would know from the numerous times he’d tied me to the bed and used me like a toy.
A shiver raced down my spine at the memories, and my dick thickened.
“Was the money you got from me worth it?” I asked as I strode over to the toolbox. It was my personal one that Winston had put together for me. He’d given it to me as a ‘welcome to the family’ gift a few days after my very first kill. It now stayed down in the basement of his house, and every time I opened it, I usually saw a new toy from Ike and Wraith inside of it.
I was more excited to see what they’d gifted me this time than I was to cut my mother open like the pig she was.
The latches clanked as I opened them, and when I opened the lid, I blinked in surprise at the gleaming, bone-handled knife resting on top. Grabbing it, I turned to face my men. “Bone?” I asked, holding it up.
Ike nodded. “Had it made from Michael’s arm,” he told me. “You like it?”
My chest tightened. Like it? I fucking loved it. For two men who didn’t feel everything I did, they sure did get shit right a lot. They always claimed they couldn’t love me, but honestly, who needed to be loved when they cared about me so deeply?
