Total pages in book: 16
Estimated words: 14994 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 75(@200wpm)___ 60(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 14994 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 75(@200wpm)___ 60(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
After a few moments, Damien yanked me up from the ground, his body shielding mine. He shoved me into the passenger side of his car, forcing me to keep my head down. Once we were on the highway, I lifted my head, tears streaming down my cheeks.
“Take me home,” I ordered, my voice rough. My throat hurt. I guess I’d found the will to scream at some point.
“Not a fucking chance in hell of that, darlin’,” Damien said, glancing in his rearview mirror.
“Take me home!” I screeched, more tears sliding down my cheeks. I slammed my fists onto my bare thighs, a sob ripping from my chest. “I don’t want any part of this! I want to go home!”
He suddenly veered off the road. I screeched when he came to a stop in a dark alleyway. Traffic passed by on both ends—a blur of red taillights and white and yellow headlights.
“It’s too fucking late for that, Hayley!” he shouted at me. I flinched back from him. He roughly shoved his hands through his hair before slamming them down to the steering wheel. I bit back a whimper. “You think I fucking wanted this for you?! I fucking didn’t! But it’s too goddamn late now!”
“No, it’s not!” I cried, my shoulders shaking. “All you have to do is just forget about me!”
He laughed, but it lacked humor. Instead, it sounded cold, making my insides feel like ice. “Forget about you?” he seethed. “Even if I wanted to do that, Hayley, they won’t forget about you. You’ve been seen with me. That means I fucking feel something for you, and they’ll fucking use you against me.”
More tears slid down my cheeks. I sobbed. Damien unbuckled me and dragged me into his lap, his lips slanting across mine. His hands ran over my body. “I’ll fix this,” he promised, dragging his lips over my jaw. “I’ll make them pay, darlin’. I swear I will.”
I grabbed his face in my hands and kissed him again, my tears salty on our lips. But he kissed me harder, driving the fear from my mind as he dragged his hands up the hem of my dress before he pulled it over my head.
A guy that looked similar to Damien was standing in front of Damien’s front door when we pulled into the drive. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a plain black long-sleeve shirt that was pulled taut over his broad chest and thick arms.
“Who’s he?” I croaked, blinking my sleepy, tired eyes.
“That’s Miles,” Damien informed me. “I need to go deal with this. You’ll be safe with him.”
I swung my eyes to Damien, my heart lurching into my throat. “Damien—”
He sighed, closing his eyes, agitation flashing over his features. I swallowed down the rest of what I was going to say. “Hayley, don’t,” he warned me. “I dragged you into this. Let me protect you while I fucking take care of it.”
More tears blurred my vision. I was so tired of crying, but I was exhausted, and my brain didn’t know what to make of everything happening.
“And how long does this protection have to last?” I croaked, almost fearful of the answer.
Damien brushed a tear off my cheek. “The rest of your life,” he said softly.
I closed my eyes, more tears sliding down my cheeks. The wolf had swallowed the rabbit, dragged her into his dark wolf. I sort of felt like Alice in Wonderland, but I knew I wasn’t getting out of this hole.
I was stuck in Damien’s insane, crazy world with no way out.
Damien got out of the car, and a moment later, he pulled open my door and helped me out. His hand wrapped around my upper arm in a vice-like grip. He gently thrust me in Miles’s direction. “Something happens to her, and you’re dead,” Damien told his cousin, a chilly edge to his voice that made goosebumps rise on my arms.
“She’ll be safe,” Miles assured him, not the least bit bothered by Damien’s threat.
Damien didn’t cast me a second glance as he turned and headed back for his car. He was already pulling out of the drive by the time Miles got me into the house.
That night, I cried myself to sleep, mourning the death of the naïve girl who had never known of a world like this one.
6
Damien didn’t even have the respect to take me home the next morning. In fact, he never even made it back home. Miles instead woke me up at seven that morning with a fresh cup of coffee and an apologetic smile, telling me that Damien told him to take me back to campus so I could get ready for class.
As if I could go to class after what happened the night before.
My eyes were sore and puffy. I felt exhausted and dehydrated from all the crying I’d done.