9

Asher

Present

The players stare at Blair while the crowd goes wild around us.

We’ve all climbed down from the scaffolding, and now the players are being led into a side room until the next dare begins.

The guys keep looking at Blair, disbelief in their eyes. They’re wondering how this petite girl, straight out of an American Apparel catalog, managed to survive the first round.

Hell, I’m surprised too.

The remaining players stand in tense silence. Blair has slipped down against the wall, her knees drawn to her chest. Her face holds a strange look—it’s not simple fear anymore, it’s something between shock and twisted pride.

A stretcher passes, carrying Axel’s lifeless body. I watch him go without remorse. He’s not the first guy I’ve taken down at one of these events, and he probably won’t be the last.

Axel’s words flash through my mind: She’ll be the first one I take down. Or maybe the last. Doesn’t matter, as long as I get to fuck her before the night’s over.

I don’t care about protecting Blair, not anymore.

“I don’t fucking care,” I mutter, not realizing I’ve said it out loud until the guy next to me turns to stare. I shake it off, though.

Axel knew the rules. You play, you gamble with your life.

Which is exactly why Blair shouldn’t have shown up tonight.

But after the first dare, Blair is the one who’s caught the attention of the Mortalis Collective. I know it’s just a fluke that she got through. The likelihood of her getting further is damn near zero.

Then again, I remember that Blair used to crave adrenaline just like I did. I used to tease her about all that ballet crap—little Miss Prima fuckin’ Ballerina—until I saw the strength it gave her. That studio training made her stronger than half the burnout dudes I used to hang out with.

Forget that. It’s the past. Kids’ games. This is real life now.

“Lex.”

I turn to see Lex watching me. Tall, gray-haired, with silver rings on his fingers and a scar down one side of his face, he looks like some twisted god of this place.

“Are you staring at that girl ‘cause she’s a hot piece of ass, or because you know her?” he murmurs.

I shrug, not wanting to give anything away. “I knew her back then.”

“That’s… Blair?”

I flinch. Yeah, I guess I mentioned her once or twice to Lex. “That’s her.”

“She made it through the first challenge,” he says. “The crowd loves her.”

I grit my teeth. “Yeah, well. Whatever.”

He raises an eyebrow. “She still has a hold on you, doesn’t she?”

Realization hits me like a punch. It was obvious.

“You invited her,” I accuse. “Because of me.”

Lex’s cold smile confirms it.

“Why would you do that?” I growl. “She doesn’t belong here. And she doesn’t need the money.”

“This isn’t about money,” Lex replies. “It’s about freedom. About chasing something real, facing down your fears until you know who you are. Be your own master, Asher. Don’t let your past—or this girl—control you.”

I want that. I want to let it all go. I want to never think about money or safety

I want the only danger I face to be the danger I choose for myself.

“This is your chance, Asher. Free yourself from her grip. Play with your food if you want, but do whatever it takes to destroy her.”

Lex walks off, leaving me with my pulse pounding. He’s right. I need to let go. I don’t know where Blair’s life has gone, but mine’s finally better than it was at fifteen. I found my world—the Mortalis Society, where people live to make money off risking their lives.

“Next dare in five. Get back out there.”

We reassemble in the circle around the firepit. The crowd near Blair is whispering, their eyes trained on her.

Blair is oblivious, her eyes fluttering open and closed in concentration.

The speakers crackle. “Attention, Players. We dare you to collect the pendants. In each of your hands is a pendant. Half show a lamb, half a wolf.”

I glance down. A wolf stares back at me, its teeth bared as it howls at the moon.

“Wolves, you have twenty minutes to take a pendant from a lamb. Lambs, survive without losing your pendant and you make it through to the next round.

A thrill races through me. This night’s fucked up, but I can’t deny that I enjoy it.

My gaze sweeps the room until it lands on Blair. Her brow furrows as she stares down at the pendant in her hand, and I already know what it is: the symbol of a lamb.

I hear the guy next to me, Max, cursing under his breath. Sounds like that’s another lamb for the taking.

This twisted game of hide-and-seek is about to start. The digital screen counts down from five. The lights blink out, one by one, until we’re nearly plunged into total darkness. The crowd oohs in anticipation.

Shit. It’ll be harder to hunt in the dark.

Two…one…

The klaxon screams the starting gun.

I launch myself forward, running full tilt into the darkness. I feel myself collide with other players, ricocheting off them before I can grab at any of them.

I feel full of adrenaline. All my nerves are on edge in the greatest way possible, the way that makes me feel so fucking alive. I’m primed to take down anyone who gets in my way. I feel more like a wolf than a man. Now I just need the blood of a lamb in my jaws.

I catch a flash of white. Blair . Only she would be clueless enough to wear white in a place like this, where you’re guaranteed to leave covered in dirt and blood, if you leave at all.

“Come out, come out…” I call into the darkness.

I’m going to win this round. And I’m going to knock Blair out of the running while I’m at it.

It’s like Lex said. I need to set my past on fire if I ever want to be free of it.

After a few more minutes, my eyes are adjusting to the dark. I reach a wall, feeling along its length, listening out for a sound in the darkness.

I catch a flash of white dart past me.

I lunge forward, my hands closing around the unmistakable feel of Blair’s body. Through the darkness, I can just make out her look of shock before I slam her back up against the wall. She gasps.

“Caught you,” I mutter.

“Asher,” she whispers.

I plant my fingers on the soft flesh of her neck, dragging them down between her breasts to where the pendant lies against her tight white shirt. I grab it in my fist and my eyes lock on the lamb symbol.

“How fitting. An innocent little lamb,” I sneer. “Just like you, right? Wouldn’t hurt a fly. Wouldn’t be caught dead in a place like this.”

“Fine,” she snaps, her voice steely. “Congratulations. You beat me. Just take it and let me go home.”

I should. I should rip it off and walk away, never to see her again. But something is holding me back. Fuck . Once again, I’m all torn up inside over Blair. I want her out of my damn competition. I want this distraction gone. But I also want revenge, and I can’t think of a sweeter way to deliver it than this.

“Not so fast,” I murmur, pinning her by the shoulder, savoring how breakable and small her lithe body feels. “We still have ten minutes on the clock. And you’re not going anywhere.”

She lifts her chin. “What do you want from me? Isn’t winning enough?”

“Payback,” I growl.

“Payback?” she echoes. “If anyone deserves payback, it’s me.”

What the fuck is she talking about? She’s the one who tossed me aside, who got bored and decided she was too good for me.

“Tell yourself whatever sweet little lies you need to sleep at night, Blair,” I say coldly. “But now you’re on my territory and I can do whatever the fuck I like with you.”

Her big doe eyes flicker with fear. Fuck, she looks so needy.

Her plump lips are just inches from mine. We haven’t kissed since we were teenagers. Just kids. What would it feel like to kiss Blair now she’s a woman?

Never did anything more than kiss and fool around, either.

I drag my thumb across her lips. She stifles a moan, cheeks flushed red. I laugh, soft and cruel.

“Were you curious back then, Blair? Did you ever wonder how it would’ve felt to have my cock buried deep inside you?”

“W-what?” She shakes her head wildly. “No… I never wondered. Never.”

I laugh again, harsher this time. She’s protesting too much.

“I don’t fucking believe you,” I mutter inches from her lips.

Right now, all I can think of is Blair’s body. That, and all the months I spent not touching her. All the men out there who do know what it feels like to fuck Blair Bennett, and how I’m not one of them.

But I don’t kiss her. She doesn’t deserve that. I don’t want her to think there’s still a scrap of romance left in how I feel about her. Instead, my lips run over the skin of her jaw, nipping at her.

She moans and I nip at her harder, down the soft, vulnerable skin of her neck. She’s going to be a mess by the time I’m finished with her tonight.

“Fine,” she breathes, voice tight. “I thought about it. Back then, but…”

Her words trail off as my tongue traces against her neck. My right hand kneads her breast. My left is on the pendant chain around her throat, pulling her into me, savoring how her breath hitches as the chain constricts her.

My cock is rock hard. I press against her, enjoying her moan as she feels my length through my jeans. I want to cut to the chase and sink my cock into her right this second, but I’m enjoying playing with her too much.

My fingers slide down her perfect body, slipping under her skirt and cupping up against her. She squirms as I knead against her clit through her panties.

“You could stop wondering,” I say. “You could find out how it feels right… fucking… now .”

I pinch her clit through the fabric, and she yelps.

“Would you like that? Would you like me to make you my little slut right here in the dark where no one can see us? Would you like to be punished for all the promises you broke like they were nothing?”

She whimpers harder. “Asher, please… ”

“Begging for more already?”

The terror in her eyes is shot through with pure, black hunger, wide in her pupils. I tear her panties down and savor the touch of her delicate, sensitive cunt. God, every bit of her is so pretty. It’ll look even prettier around my cock.

She shivers as I run a finger along her slit. Fuck , she’s soaked already.

I laugh. “Cornered, in the dark, pinned up against the wall by a man you say you hate. And your pussy is so fucking wet from it.”

She gasps as I grab a fistful of her chestnut hair with one hand, knocking the bow in her hair askew as I push her head hard up against the wall. My other hand settles on her pussy, driving two fingers past her wet, needy folds until I’m inside her.

Fucking finally. My cock aches with just how good it feels to be inside pretty little Blair.

She moans, her pussy tightening around my fingers like she’ll die if I remove them.

“You act like such a good girl, Blair. But you’re really fucking not. Maybe I can fuck you into being good for me. After I fuck you so hard you can’t speak, you’ll be good and obedient.”

“You don’t know me, Asher—”

Anger flashes in me. I bring my fingers from her pussy up to her mouth, pushing up against those soft, cherry-pink lips.

“I know you Blair. I know that fear turns you on. I know you like it when I tell you exactly what to do. So be a good girl, stick out your tongue, and taste yourself on my fingers.”

Her eyes go wide. She obeys. In the darkness, I can still see the pinkness of her tongue as she obediently opens her mouth and I shove my fingers into her mouth, still coated with her arousal, pushing her jaw shut with my other hand.

“Suck,” I command. She obediently sucks at me, her tongue soft and wet against my fingers as her cheeks hollow like she was born to please me. Jesus, this is almost too much; I’m half a second from bending her over and plunging my cock into her tight little hole. But I want to see her unraveled first, humiliated by coming in front of me while I watch her.

“Good girl.” I bring my fingers back to her clit, kneading and teasing before sliding back inside her tight walls and fucking hard and deep inside her. “Now you’ve earned this.”

She whines and her eyes go tight shut. Tears are springing up in her eyes, but they’re tears of pleasure, because she’s rocking up and down, meeting my fingers as they plunge further into her in a building rhythm.

I feel her tightening, growing wetter and more desperate with each twitch of her body.

“Come for me.” It’s an order. Something about that seems to break something in Blair, and her breathing quickens.

I yank her hair harder, and she whimpers. “Say it. Say the words out loud so you know you can never deny being the little slut that came on my fingers.”

She nods through the gasps of dark pleasure. “Yes. Yes. I’m coming for you, Asher.”

Her words devolve into a beautiful fucking moan as her head rolls back, her body convulsing in filthy pleasure as she orgasms, my fingers still fucking her at a punishing rhythm.

The siren screams, breaking my concentration, signally one minute to go.

Fuck, I need more than this. I need hours alone with Blair desperate and gasping kneeling in front of me, hours to punish her in any way I choose. Feeling her cunt tighten with the orgasm around my fingers drove me crazy, but I need more: I need to make her scream, make her take my cock until she’s full of my cum and regrets the day she ever walked away from me.

My brain vaguely clocks a sound to my left. Someone stumbling through the darkness. Another competitor. Blair is still coming on my fingers and I want to concentrate on the feeling of her needily clamping around me, not the game.

My eyes have adjusted to the darkness just enough to see the blood-red flash of Max’s shirt. I see his figure crouch down, thinking he’s alone, the glint of the pendant hanging around on his chest.

Blair’s body slowly stops convulsing in pleasure, and she softly whimpers as I slide my fingers out of her. Her only movement is the heavy rise and fall of her chest as her breathing slows.

My fingers close around the chain on Blair’s neck. Her eyelashes flutter.

“Time to leave the competition, little lamb,” I whisper into her ear.

Ten seconds left.

I’m about to rip the pendant from her neck.

But then, something happens.

She moans my name against my cheek. “ Asher… ”

The sound is soft, hot, and needy. It sets me on fire.

But the sound also feels like… coming home.

Something shifts in me.

Fuck .

My brain doesn’t know what my body is doing as I push Blair back against the wall, and dive to my right, tackling Max to the ground.

I slam my fist into his face, and he whimpers. I rip the pendant from his neck and hold it up.

The lamb stares back at me.

I turn, my wild eyes meeting Blair’s terrified gaze in the half-darkness as the siren echoes through the warehouse one final time.

End of fucking game.