My courtesy should’ve stopped the moment I carried her to the house. But no, I went to further lengths.
I have no fucking clue what came over me when I warmed water and wiped her from head to toe. I massaged her muscles, too, especially when I felt her turning catatonic.
I shouldn’t know that state is possible, even during sleep, but I do.
Very fucking well.
So I massaged her cunt with my tongue, partly because I wanted to, and partly because I figured it could loosen her muscles.
And it did.
She was slowly relaxing and releasing low, pleasure-filled sounds that hardened my cock and toyed with the beast inside me.
I was so ready to claim her again, strap my mark on her, and forbid her from leaving.
But she did something.
Something that I nearly killed her for.
She called me by that fucker’s name.
She was probably dreaming about him and wishing he was the one who chased and fucked her like an animal, per her initial plan.
I can still feel the quickening of her pulse and the quivering of her flesh beneath my fingers when I choked the fuck out of her.
It’s a miracle I managed not to kill her at that moment.
Or any of the other moments that followed.
“What are your orders?” Ilya asks when I remain silent. “Should I continue to keep an eye on her?”
“For now.” I glide my forefinger along the side of my sweatpants.
The wisest thing to do under the circumstances is to drop the subject, ignore her as I’ve been attempting to the past couple of days, but the fucker of a beast who has been craving her since that first taste refuses to let go.
I meet Ilya’s gaze. “What else did she say?”
“She refused to leave until we told her about your state, and when I did, she complied and got off the property without incident.”
She wasn’t supposed to be here in the first fucking place. What does she want after the ‘Lan’ episode?
My fist clenches with the need to find the fucker and erase his features. She won’t be thinking about him if I somehow transform him into an ugly monster.
How are you any different from him?
I internally shut down that voice and start walking again. Ilya falls in step beside me, vehemently refusing to leave me unguarded, despite the fact that I told him I prefer to do this solo.
He also said I could have complications since I refuse to rest, so he’s here in case he has to take me to a doctor.
“Boss.”
“Hmm?”
The sound of birds and other small forest creatures swirl in the pause Ilya takes to speak up.
So I throw him a glance.
He clears his throat. “She looked worried and had tears in her eyes. Miss Knight, I mean.”
I slide my finger against my thigh, back and forth, back and forth. Like a cryptic language.
Fuck if I care.
That’s what I should say, and mean it, but I don’t.
This is the part that didn’t go according to plan. The part where I could’ve and should’ve been able to cut ties with her the moment we were done on that deck.
The part where I should’ve erased her from my life as if she were never there in the first place.
But it took my beast one taste to develop an obsession with her.
Or maybe the obsession has been there for some time now and it only just grew.
“She was most likely worried about Annika,” I say.
“I don’t think so.”
“That’s not important right now.” We walk for a few more silent beats. “We need to plot payback for last night’s fire.”
Our security team was able to gather footage of some men in masks who managed to infiltrate the property.
And while we couldn’t get identities, Ilya was able to pinpoint one of them as an ex-colleague from the Serpents by his tattoos.
The part that caught my attention, however, isn’t foolish painted masks or tattoos. It’s not the audacity of those fucking snakes to come to our property, breach our security, and set us on fire.
It’s how they got here.
Through the forest.
We’ve had a few infiltration attempts in the past, but they all came through the gate or over the walls.
No one would even consider coming through the forest, considering its thick and mystic nature, not to mention the cameras.
Which brings me to suspicion number two. How the fuck did they manage not to get caught by our cameras?
Only one got a shot of them, and that was newly installed.
It’s as if they knew exactly where the cameras are. And that’s impossible unless there’s a traitor in our ranks.