belonged to me first. I’m taking you back, and then I’m going to shift you back into your rat form,” he says, a slow cruel smile spreading across his lips. “Maybe...ten years this time?”
Ten years.
Ten years.
Ten years.
The words pound in my head like a hammer against a wooden board. I can feel the reverberations sink into my spine, little nails immobilizing the bone.
I won’t survive that. I barely survived the first five years. If he does it to me again...I can’t. I can’t come back from that.
Tears fill my eyes, my body shakes, and Sid gleams with victory. Because he knows. He knows that me being forced into my animal, caged and totally helpless, will kill me. He doesn’t even have to commit the killing blow. Something inside of me will snap, and I’ll just...waste away.
My rat backs away inside of me, like she’s trying to find someplace to hide where he can’t find her. A tear slips down my cheek.
“Good. I see you’re paying attention to what’s happening now, Reese. Let’s get started.” He digs a hand into his pocket and pulls out a knife.
He pushes a hand into my hair and yanks my head to the side and then shoves his finger into my mouth. The salty taste of his blood hits my tongue, and I try to wrench back, but he has a solid hold on my hair.
I shove at his finger with my tongue, trying to push him the fuck out, but that just makes him laugh. “No use in fighting it.”
Pulling his finger out of my mouth, he pinches my nostrils closed and holds my mouth shut so that I can’t spit or breathe.
“Swallow. I’m sure you’re good at that by now since you’ve been with Pack Aberrant. You probably opened all your holes for them to use so they’d try to keep you safe from me.” He leans down, his fingers crushing my injured jaw. “News flash: Nobody is safe from me.”
I can’t breathe. I can’t fling him off. His hold on me is too strong. His thumb digs into my throat. Despite how hard I try not to, I feel my throat involuntarily jerk, his blood sliding down like a sinister rain.
He releases me with victory. “There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
I glare at him. “You taste the same way you look. Like shit.”
He reaches up and pinches my cheek so hard that I yelp. Sid crushes the slip of skin between his fingers so hard that it feels like he’s going to try to rip my face right off. I scream as he continues to pinch and pull, and then he shoves my head to the side and slams his teeth into my neck.
Pain hits me with the piercing of his sharp teeth, and I struggle against him, but without the ability to shift or move, I can’t friggen stop him.
My head swims. I feel that familiar alpha tug inside of me. The spot where Hugo took my blood thrums.
It’s not lost on me that Sid forced me to ingest his blood too. Hugo didn’t have to do that. But it’s like Sid is taking no chances. He’s going to force Hugo out of me and take me over again, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
I wait for the sensation of my alpha bond with Hugo to snap. I tense as Sid steps back and licks his bloodied lips with arrogant glee. I don’t want to feel that thread connecting me to him. My whole body spurns the thought, while Sid watches on, delighted to own me again.
Except...Hugo’s bond doesn’t break. Like a parachute opening, it catches me before I can fall into Sid’s control.
My neck throbs, but my body doesn’t bow to him. I realize with astonished relief that Sid can’t do it. He can’t break my bond with Alpha Hugo. Sid isn’t strong enough.
So I do what any rational, mentally stable kidnapee would do.
I start laughing.
Hysterically.
I start laughing so hard that the tears that were in my eyes for pain and fear, are now falling down from mirth and unconfined glee. Because Sid just lost. He lost, and I friggen love it. My stomach hurts, my jaw and cheek ache like a motherfucker, but my body just keeps wracking with laughter.
“Shut up!” Sid yells at me, his face turning purple with rage.
I just laugh harder.
The only thing that gets me to stop is when he steps forward and slaps me on the face with the back