he asked. His pretty azure eyes smiled while he watched me moving closer. At my nod, he beamed wider, revealing handsome dimples. “Have you ever been kissed?”
I shook my head, scrunching up my nose. As if Mother would let me leave the woods to know what it was like to be kissed. My experience with romance was from chapter books and bad reality TV. I tilted my head, touching his naked chest, feeling him tense beneath my fingers. My eyes slid to his, and he smiled, swallowing hard.
“Let me kiss you,” he stated firmly. “If I am to die, I would die happily, having tasted your lips, Remington.”
I blushed deeply, pushing my hair away from my face, considering my path. I didn’t want him to be here tomorrow. I didn’t want to murder him or anyone else, and if he remained here, they would force me to end his life. I stepped on my tiptoes and reached for the arrow. He whispered encouragements, leaning his forehead against my shoulder, which had caused heat to pool in my stomach.
The moment he was free, he slammed me against the ground, stomping on my face. I cried out in shock, sobbing at the red-hot pain that ripped through me while he assaulted me. I turned, curling into a ball as he attacked.
“You actually think I’d kiss your poisonous lips? Ugly little bitch. You are nothing. You’re less than nothing. Your kind deserves to die, and when I bring your head back to my alpha, he will praise me for my bravery, facing off against a monster like you.” He reached down, yanking my head up by my hair. He ripped my shirt open, squeezing my breast while laughing cruelly. “I may take you back whole, and use you for sport,” he chuckled.
I couldn’t see past the blood in my eyes. I didn’t see what hit him, or who landed a kill shot to his forehead. Only that he released me and hit the ground with a bullet through his head, and pink brain matter sprinkled on the forest floor. Blood from both of us covered my face, and I shoved him away from me, righting my torn shirt.
“You are such a disappointment, daughter,” my mother’s distorted voice filled the forest, and yet I couldn’t see her or pinpoint her position. “Get up, Remington.” I didn’t move. I couldn’t.
Sauer grabbed my hair, yanking me to my feet. I sobbed in pain as my bones cracked and a rib pushed through my chest as he snorted. He held me in front of him, and our mother stepped out of the shadows, covered in dark robes.
She shook her head before she slapped me. “You are nothing if you cannot do what I created you to do! If you cannot become what is needed, I will remove your heart from your chest and try again. Do you understand me, Remington?” she asked. I continued to cry and scream. “Stop acting like a child!”
“She is a child, mother,” Winchester whispered, her eyes pleading for me not to say something stupid.
“She’s a waste of resources if we cannot train her to kill, Winchester. Her age doesn’t matter. None of you held back when required to handle an enemy. Remington has failed me and will be punished. Place her in the armory. She will spend six months there, and when she gets out, we will hunt another young Van Helsing for her to murder. The younger, the better, so that she knows no emotional influence can prevent her from our course. Do not heal her, do you understand me?”
“She’s your daughter, mother. Not some criminal in need of a lesson,” Winchester hissed, and Sauer slapped her, causing her head to slam against the tree. She whipped it back, baring her teeth at him.
“Do not speak to our mother that way, Winchester.”
“Meet me in the meadow, Sauer. Any time, any day, asshole,” Winnie snapped, her eyes flashing silver as she glared at him in challenge. He stepped back, the only sign of fear he’d ever shown before our mom. “Come on, Remington.”
Winchester helped me toward the shed that led down into the armory. Once inside, she turned, peering down at my exposed ribs. I looked over her shoulder as Rhys watched us, his jaw hammering wildly, anger pouring from him at the dark memory. It was one of the few times my mother had harmed me, but I’d let a Van Helsing go, one who had intended to rape me, according