Chapter Four

Colette

I’ve been watching Hudson train for the last few hours. This man is incredible. He moves with such grace, but each hit he makes to the bag is powerful. I feel sorry for whoever he is fighting against.

I changed into a yellow sundress with no panties. When he wins, I want to be his prize. I am finding myself wanting him so damn badly all the time now. I thought there would be more awkwardness, but there isn’t. He’s just Hudson.

“You look beautiful,” Hudson says as he leans down and kisses me. “Good enough to eat.”

“Mmm. I’ll do you one better,” I grin. “You win, I’m your prize.”

“Girl, I will fuck you in front of every person here. Don’t play,” he says.

“Win, and you can do whatever you want!” I say happily.

“Deal,” he smirks. “Almost time for me to go up.”

“I’ll be here,” I say.

“Stick close to the guys, please,” he says. I nod happily and he kisses me once more before going to the center. I stand so I can see better. Everyone seems to be placing bets against the guy that Hudson is going to fight. I’m very nervous, but no one else seems to be. It’s like everyone is watching a rerun of a fight on TV. It’s still exciting, but they know who wins.

The fight starts and the man is keeping his distance. Hudson looks amused but stays focused. I take a few steps back to let someone walk past me and hands catch my waist.

“Oh, I’m sor—” I turn to apologize to whoever I just ran into but fear immediately stabs through me when I see Vlad smirking at me. His face is one of three burned into my mind. This exact smile is what haunts me. Immediately, I rush away and grab Dallas by the arm to get his attention.

“What’s wrong?” Dallas asks, as they all turn to me.

“Vlad. He’s here. He was behind me. I backed up and he was there. He’s watching me. They both are,” I ramble. Dallas immediately grabs me and pulls me to his other side and all five men surround me, but leave room for me to see Hudson.

“They won’t hurt you here,” Dallas says softly. “They’re just being intimidating.”

“It’s working,” I mutter.

I try to focus my attention back on Hudson just in time to see him punch the guy hard enough that he stumbles back and goes down to the ground. He takes his mouth guard out and turns to me.

“Go,” Dallas nudges me with a smile.

When I get close, he grabs the back of my thighs and lifts me so I can wrap my arms around him. He kisses me hard and nothing else around us matters. There are nearly seventy people watching, but I don’t give a shit.

“They’re here,” I say quietly. He raises an eyebrow at me, so I clarify. “Vlad and Dima.”

“Trust me?” he asks with a smile.

“Always. I’m your prize,” I confirm.

Hudson sets me to my feet and kisses me again before turning me around. “I want everyone to meet my beautiful fiancée, Colette. We’ve been together for ages but wanted to finally announce that we are getting married in a week!”

Everyone claps and cheers when Hudson pulls my head back and kisses me again. He steps me forward a few steps before bending me at the waist. He lays my hands on the table the other guys are sitting at.

“So much for being an introvert,” I joke as Hudson pulls my dress up to my waist.

“You’re mine, Colette,” Hudson says with sincerity in his voice. “Forever.”

“Forev— Oh, fuck!” I gasp when he abruptly surges into me. Everyone is watching us, but I still don’t notice any of them. None of them matter. He fucks me hard and fast, making me cry out with each stroke. I reach a point where all I can think about is how deep he is. I push my hips back to meet his thrusts and throw myself into an orgasm that makes my eyes roll back. I pull him down with me and he groans as he pushes deep inside of me to come.

When he pulls out of me, and I am turned to face him. “I love you,” I say breathlessly.

“I love you too, Cole,” Hudson says as he kisses me.

We hang out for a little while before people start to leave. Vlad and Dima stare me down for a while longer, until they also leave. Once Hudson has been cleaned up, we join the others.

“Can we talk about how similar you look to Vlad and Dima?” Colton says.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you could be family,” Doug says.

“I don’t know who my birth family is,” I say. “I was surrendered to a hospital the day I was born. I spent nine traumatic years before I was eventually adopted.”

“Uh… I think it would be a good idea to figure out who your birth family is, because that’s creepy,” Andrew adds.

“I agree,” Hudson says. “I’ve seen them before but seeing you all in the same room is weird.”

“Mom and Dad know more than I do about my birth family. It was a closed adoption, obviously, but I think that they were given at least a little bit of information,” I say.

“Let’s go see them,” he says, kissing me.

We pull into Hudson’s parents' driveway, and our parents meet us outside. They were not expecting us to show up this late, so they are understandably worried.

“What’s wrong?” Mom asks as soon as Hudson sets me on the ground.

“We just need to ask y’all something,” I say. “Sorry for coming by so late.”

“It’s fine, sweetie,” Tammy says, hugging me. “Let’s go inside.”

When we get inside, Hudson pulls me into his lap to sit again while the others join us. “So… two of the three men who raped me were at the fight tonight,” I say.

“Oh, honey,” mom says.

“I look scarily similar to them,” I say.

“Here is a still shot of earlier tonight,” Hudson says, handing his phone to our parents.

“Oh wow,” Dad says. “That’s… weird.”

“Do you guys know anything about my birth family?” I ask. “Because I’m seriously wondering if I’m related to them.”

“What we were told was you were surrendered the moment you were born. It was a voluntary surrender, but we were informed that you were connected to a dangerous family. Your biological mother’s life was in danger, so they did not put her any of her information down,” my mom says. “There was a clause in your adoption that said that we couldn’t publicize you in any way. You weren’t allowed to be on TV until you were 18 years old. You couldn’t be in big programs like pageants or televised sports. We couldn’t really put you on social media, either.”

“So, they could be her family, is what you are saying?” Hudson asks.

“It’s possible. I know that Colette had a heart arrhythmia when she was born. She stayed in the NICU four weeks for monitoring. I was always under the assumption that her mother surrendered her because she didn’t have a choice. From the sounds of it, she would not have lived a safe life if she hadn’t given her up, especially with her having health issues.”

“So, we need to find Vlad and Dina’s parents,” I say.

“Their father is dead. He had a heart attack last year. That is why Vlad is leading,” Hudson says. “We can certainly go pay their mother a visit.”

“If she surrendered me because she had no other choice, I don’t want to go to her angry. It sounds like she was forced to make that decision,” I say.

“I agree,” Hudson says. “We will just need the guys to make sure that we can talk to her without her sons around. She won’t open up if they are. No one would.”

“Are you guys going to be upset if I find her?” I ask my parents.

“No, honey. She is your family. If she cares about you as much as I think she does, I think it would be good for you to know where you came from,” Dad says.

“Did you guys ever have any issues with me potentially having heart problems?” I ask.

“No. Not at all,” mom says. “They told us, but it didn’t matter. We always made sure that you went for the yearly checks to make sure the arrhythmia never came back, but even if it did, we would’ve stuck by you.”

“You never had any issues, did you?” Hudson asks.

“No. My doctor has all my medical records. They said it wasn’t anything genetic, and it cleared up on its own. Since I was released, I’ve never had any issues. Everything has always come back perfect,” I say. “I was actually at the cardiologist a few weeks ago for the yearly EKG.”

“Well, let’s go home. We can locate her tomorrow,” Hudson says.

“Let’s hope they got their cruelty from their father, and not her,” I say.