14

Jack

November 2nd, 2019

“A bathroom in a bedroom,” Malachi mused as he took his jacket off and rolled his sleeves up. “It doesn’t make sense if you have guests.”

I pulled up the cameras for the building, rewinding them to just before we got here. Something happened to her, and I wanted to know what. Why was she acting so strange? Why was she crying? Why did that pretty little neck of hers have a bruise around it that I didn’t fucking put there?

I watched the hallway outside her door. Seconds ticked by before Max finally walked out, shutting the door behind him. Licking his fingers.

A calm, cool rage washed over me. I suppose Zo was right. I was going to break the laws.

“We can’t kill him yet,” Malachi stated as the grip around my phone forced a groan from it. “He’s pertinent to this case, now more than ever. So, whatever he did, whatever the reason for him being here is, he needs to remain alive.”

My teeth grinded together. “You knew?”

He had already washed his hands and was now pulling out food from the fridge. “I had my suspicions on who she was.” He set the things on the counter and found my eyes. “They look nearly identical, she and her mother. This world isn’t as large as most want to believe. but you’ve made your intentions clear, so the assignment is off anyway.” He sighed, but even I could tell the remorse was forced. “I had no idea Marla had died.”

I snarled, turning away from him, pacing. He was still lying about something, I knew he was, but I also knew he wouldn’t tell me. Not unless he had too.

Malachi had known Marla well. They had worked together for years. Longer than the program had been a thing. Was this some sort of game for whoever ordered us to kill her daughter? Did they know that Malachi and Marla had known each other? Was this just another way to try and tear him from his throne? Was Rae a weapon or a civilian in his demise?

Or was this completely separate from us? A coincidence?

“She said her name was Rae Bennett, the paper we got had that name down,” I reminded him, finding his eyes again.

Malachi was cutting up veggies with the motions of a world-renowned chef. “Either she has slipped into this role as well as she was trained, or she has no idea who she really is.”

It was hard to know with all of the masks she wore. “You knew Marla and you never met her daughter?”

“She spoke of Charlotte often,” he mused. “Every time we met she spoke of her. Of her husband. I never met her, not until the masquerade.”

A deal gone wrong then? But then what about Rae? Either she was the greatest liar I had ever encountered, or her mother had kept her in the dark her entire life and she truly had no idea who her mom was.

“So, what now?” I asked, lifting my chin.

Malachi shrugged. “You’ve made your claim, Jack, that’s it for her. We protect her at all costs unless you decide she’s not worth the trouble, and we solve the mystery around her as best we can.”

“But I can’t kill Max,” I clarified, staring at her bedroom door.

“No, not yet. Marla never had a second child, but I’m sure you’ve guessed that by now.”

I lifted my phone to my ear, staring at that door.

“I’m dealing with something,” Zo grunted.

“Deal with it faster. I need you to do something.”

Zo was quiet a moment before a shot finally rang out. “Alright,” she panted. “I wanted to drag that out but it’s fine. What do you need?”

“Max finger-fucked my girl, choked her.”

Zo was quiet a moment. “Parameters?”

“He needs to stay alive and talking. Mentally sound.”

She sighed. “That’s a lot for the sin he committed.” She thought about it. “Fine, mugging gone wrong?”

I sneered, my lip curling. I’d rather him be turned into ground beef. “Make it good.”

I hung up and turned back to Malachi who was engrossed in his cooking. He loved to cook.

The first man who touched my girl and I couldn’t even fucking kill him. God must have been laughing at us. Mocking us. Karma for a life of doing what we did, I supposed, but even God had no idea the boundaries we would push if we were brought to it.

With a sneer, I walked over and grabbed one of her monster-porn’s from the shelf and fell into the couch. Bit of light reading then. Anything to take my mind off the rage simmering under my skin.

It took an hour and a half for that door to open again.

When she walked out, her hair was done, falling in soft waves around her face, which was also done. Makeup covered her so thoroughly, that I could see no signs of bruising.

She opted for a pair of high-waisted straight jeans and a black tank top with a wool knit, off-white sweater over it that had been slightly tucked in at her waist.

Her expression was cool, empty, and when her eyes flicked to mine, they hardened, such hatred flaming in their depths, I fought the urge to pick her up and throw her back in that bedroom. She blamed me for this? For what he had done to her? Why? Because I didn’t protect her? Because I wasn’t here? Because I made her vulnerable? What excuse would she give me?

But maybe it was my fault. I had yet to officially claim her as mine, but even so, I had spoke the words to Malachi. It was my job to take care of her. I suppose I had failed, but that didn’t give her a right to look at me like I had been the one to do it against her will because God knew she would have liked it. She would have begged for more had it been me.

Despite my own irritation, I let her be, watching as she walked. Her back wasn’t as straight as it usually was, her shoulders curved in a bit, her gait stiff.

I met her glare with one of my own. “Couldn’t get off in the shower without me, Princess?” I asked in a clipped tone.

She shook her head, heading for the kitchen, uncaring that there were two of us here now. That we could kill her without trying. “No, just realizing how ugly you must look under that mask if you constantly keep it on. Unsightly, some might say.”

I snarled under my breath. I knew she was angry, on edge, but I also knew she loved pressing buttons.

“I made everyone a meal,” Malachi announced as I pushed up from the couch, set the book down, and turned towards the kitchen.

He had spent the entire hour and a half making a beautiful meal from scratch. It was too bad the only meal I wanted sat between the legs of a woman overflowing with fucking attitude at the moment.

Rae walked up to the counter and sat down in front of the plate Malachi presented her with. Homemade pasta, chicken, and veggies, all tossed with a homemade sauce.

She picked up a fork and took a bite, her spine rigid as she chewed, Malachi watching her intently, studying her, probably asking the same questions I was.

Do you know the truth, Rae?

She had to know the truth. Those scars across her body, there was no way she didn’t remember getting those.

Seconds passed before she swallowed. “Is this poisoned?” she finally asked.

I pressed my lips into a thin line. “You weren’t sure if it was poisoned, and you still took a bite?”

“It seemed like a great last meal,” she replied, her tone dripping in sarcasm.

I joined her as she stabbed into a piece of chicken. Her eyes locked with mine as she lifted her fork to her mouth and slid it in, chewing it slowly. “Is it poisoned?” she asked again.

She was being reckless on purpose. I was sure what Max had done didn’t give her a death wish, but maybe she was trying to make a point to herself. That it wouldn’t bother her, that she wouldn’t allow it to bother her, and she was overcompensating because of it.

“No,” Malachi answered as my eyes narrowed to slits. “How does it fare?” he asked, angling his head. “I regret to admit that I haven’t cooked a meal for my family in quite some time. I might be out of practice.”

Quite a long time. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time all of us were in the same place at the same time. There was always one or more of us off on assignment. I didn’t care for ‘family dinners’, but I knew he liked them. Maybe one day we could all get together again, have a real family dinner.

Although I truly didn’t see that happening any time soon.

She watched me until she swallowed before turning back to Malachi. “Best thing I ever tasted.”

She was testing me.

He beamed. “Good! Now, I suppose introductions are in order, hmm? I am Malachi Adler, you may call me as such, and this is my son.”

Rae held out her hand, careful not to bend her spine, taking Malachi’s hand firmly. “Nice to meet you, Malachi.” She took her hand back and found my eyes. “Son.”

My lip curled. I was going to fuck this attitude right out of her. “What’s wrong with your back?” One chance to tell the truth. Just one.

“Threw it out fucking some random last night,” she answered cooly. “Big dick energy sometimes delivers. Especially when that big dick energy is coming from a lady. And we did. Cum, I mean,” she went on, sliding another fork full of food into her mouth.

I swear to fucking God.

My eyes lifted to Malachi’s, finding that his had hardened. He wasn’t angry at Rae, in fact, he was incredibly understanding of most people. He had been around the world several times, seen things nobody should ever have to see. His understanding of life was immeasurable, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t exactly like us in every way.

He’s the one that built us, created us. While he may not outwardly show it, he was the worst of us all.

She wanted to see my face, hear my name, then fine.

I wrapped my hand into her hair and jerked her off the stool, a scream belting from her lips.

Her hands wrapped around my wrist as I dragged her back towards the bedroom, my heart slamming, cock hardening. I truly hadn’t planned on fucking her before the meeting, but Hell, if she wanted to act like a brat, I’d treat her like one.

I pulled her into the room and tossed her to the floor, slamming the door behind me.

She cried out, moving herself in a way that avoided whatever was wrong with her spine.

Her tear-filled eyes shot to mine, rage burning in their depths as I tore off the mask and stormed up to her. “We have a law,” I told her, wrapping a hand around her arm and jerking her up. “My brothers and I. It started with Malachi’s law. ‘Don’t bring a girl into this world unless you’re willing to kill her’. We expanded from there because in our mind,” I went on, throwing her to the bed, “if a woman is strong enough to truly capture our attention, something we thought would never happen, then we needed something more in depth to truly capture the essence of what it meant to be ours.”

She was panting, scrambling back to the other side of the bed, her cheeks red, tears streaming down her face.

I grabbed her ankle and jerked her back towards me, easily flipping her onto her stomach.

“Azrael suggested taking a sort of vow, branding our girl so they know who they belong to until the day they inevitably betray us, but I wasn’t that cruel, not then. That was years ago. Over a decade. I’ve grown, we all have. I’ve changed. Shifted mindsets.”

The panic she was feeling was clear as she clawed at the bed, her breathing labored, whimpers leaving her lips with each exhale.

I crawled on top of her, straddling her ass, my cock so hard, it fucking ached. “Our law is simple. If we choose a girl to bring into this world, one we would be willing to kill if things go south, then we’ve claimed her. We don’t share her like the others. We don’t fuck her and forget about her. We use her up until she’s got nothing left to give, and then we keep going.”

I felt her relax under me a bit, her hands shifting from clawing to get away to just holding onto the bed for dear life.

I ripped her sweater off and her tank top up, revealing what she was hiding under them.

Among the fading cuts and scratches from the shrubs, there was a long scrape dusted in prickles of blood up her spine from her lower back to her should blades. Around that scrape a large bruise was already forming.

That piece of shit shoved her down. God, Zo better make it fucking hurt because it was an effort to remain here. To let that piece of shit live while my girl suffered.

I ran a finger down the center of her back gently, pulling a whimper from her lips as her head fell to the mattress, hair curtaining her face. The shower must have helped some, but she was going to be sore for a while.

“You’re going to kill me anyway,” she said, her voice muffled. “You just said as much, so what’s the point in claiming me?”

My eyes lifted to the back of her head, studying the tangle of hair I had already caused. “Because I want to, Princess. Because it’s fun.”

“You’re fucking psychotic,” she panted, the tears thick in her voice.

I slid my hand up into her hair again, gripping it at the base of her skull, pulling another whimper from her lips. “You’re telling me that you don’t want to be claimed?” I asked, sitting back on her thighs just enough to grind against her ass.

Her body tightened as she felt my cock press against her.

I leaned over her, pushing her into the soft covers. “You don’t want me to own you?” I growled softly.

She shifted under me, pushing her ass up ever so slightly as her nails dug into the covers. “How can I agree to something like that?” she questioned. “To someone like you? I don’t even know your name.”

Her body wanted to be fucked, I could feel it. The way she was pushing back against me. She was desperate. “So concerned with names,” I purred and straightened, taking in the curve of her back, the way her tits spilled to either side of her.

Fuck, I could cum by this image alone.

“Have you fucked anyone since we met?”

She shook under me but ignored me.

I shoved her face into the covers, and she bucked against me, fighting for air that I wouldn’t give her.

When her body started to go slack, I pulled her head up. Rae inhaled deeply, coughing. “Fuck, yes. Yes.”

I leaned over her. “Was it willing?”

Her body trembled for an entirely different reason this time. She breathed in a ragged, tear-filled breath as she shook her head, her defeat palpable. She buried her head, her hands gripping into her blanket. “I came,” she said, her words muffled. “I shouldn’t have cum.”

The rage caused my hand to tighten, my teeth to grind. “It was a response, baby, nothing more. Don’t worry, we’re taking care of it.”

Her breath caught and she tried to look back. “What?”

I grinded my hips into her ass again, feeling her ass press back against my cock. She needed me as much as I needed her. Good.

I released her and sat up on my knees. “Roll over.”

And she did. She shifted and wriggled under me until she was laying on her back, wincing, trying to get comfortable despite the pain it caused her.

Her eyes were watering, tears streaking down her face, her makeup ruined by the covers. Fuck, she looked beautiful.

I settled back on her thighs and studied her. She was doing the same. I could see it in the way her eyes took me in. She was trying to memorize me, to understand me. I wondered when she would figure out that she never would. I wouldn’t allow it.

I pulled my knife out of my back pocket and flicked it open, finding her eyes again, her chest heaving. “We can’t kill him yet, but it’s being handled.”

I leaned over, pressing my hand right over her collarbone, pushing down to hold her in place, feeling her heart race as I poised the tip of the knife right above her heart. “I claim you. From now until death finds us,” I recited easily. “Repeat it back to me.”

Her eyes searched mine, pupils blown, and I wondered if she was going through the possible ramifications of what she was about to do.

But my girl was reckless, looking for a high she wouldn’t find anywhere but with me. She needed this. She needed it more than she needed air to breathe.

Her throat bobbed, her eyes wincing as I pressed the tip of the knife into her soft skin, the blood boiling around it. “Fuck,” she mumbled, trying to move her hips up only for more tears to fall as the pain erupted across her back.

Fuck, I wanted to kill him.

“I claim you,” she finally said as I dragged that knife down. “From now until death finds us.”

I lifted the tip and went back to the top of the ‘J’, dragging the tip across it to finish the letter off.

I leaned back and unbuttoned my own shirt, shifting the clothes to the side until she could see my chest. Right above my heart, I carved an ‘R’, the blood dripping down my chest as it dripped down hers.

When I was done, I found her eyes and licked the blood off the knife, her lips parting in desire. “You’re mine now. You won’t ever escape me. Not even in death.”

She nodded, her lip trembling, her eyes glistening, relief and pain reflecting back at me. “Okay.”

Normally I would have fucked her until she couldn’t move, but Malachi and I were here for a reason, so it would have to wait until later. Until I could erase everything Max had done to her thoroughly. “Good,” I replied and slid off the bed. I folded the knife up and slid it into my pocket before buttoning up my shirt, the red spreading across the white like an ink stain. “Now, you’re going to go out there and listen to what Malachi has to say, do you understand me?”

She nodded but didn’t move. her eyes closed as she breathed carefully.

“Rae,” I bit. Did she have a thing about blood? I’d have to break her of that—

“Just give me a second,” she snapped, the tears slipping through her eyes. “Please,” she added weakly.

My glare softened as I watched her, studied the way she was laying, stiff, her muscles tense. She was trying to work up the strength to stand, I realized. It wasn’t just a bruise, it wasn’t just surface level, she was in true pain. A pinched nerve, a pulled muscle. Perhaps more than that. I would have to watch her, make sure she hadn’t done any real damage to her bones. Call one of our doctors to look at her and make sure there wasn’t any permanent damage.

I wanted to fuck her after Malachi left, after she heard everything he had to say so she could rest afterwards, but now I was wondering if that would even be possible. I had claimed her as mine, and although I wanted to drain her of any will to survive, I wanted her healthy too. She was my toy, but a toy was only good to play with if they were healthy enough to play.

Another few seconds passed, and she finally opened her eyes, shame filling them. “Can you help me up, please?” she asked, refusing to meet my eyes.

I was already at her bedside. To me, claiming wasn’t just to have a permanent fuck toy. That was part of it, but it wasn’t everything. Now I had to take care of her. I had to make sure her life was good. The only way she could serve me the way I wanted was if she was happy the way she needed.

I took her hands in mine. “Inhale in three…two…one,” I pulled her up.

She cried out, falling into me. “Fuck,” she snarled, panting through her teeth as she tried to push away from me.

I allowed it this once, but sooner or later, she would need to get used to me. The physicality of this was incredibly important to me so it would be important to her too.

But despite her efforts to push away, she still clawed into my arm, my chest, her eyes closing as she breathed through the pain.

“Do you have any pain medications?” I asked, glancing to her bathroom.

“You’ve stalked me for a month, and you don’t know the answer to that?” she bit.

My eyes fell back to hers to find her glaring up at me.

I frowned deeply. “Don’t test your luck right now, Rae. I don’t care how badly you hurt, I’ll fuck you despite it, do you understand me?”

“Then why don’t you?” she challenged, forcing herself to step away.

I released a controlled breath as she headed for the bathroom, limping now. “Because when I fuck you, you always pass out, and Malachi has some important things to discuss with you. Not to mention that I have no idea what he did to your back. Can’t have you paralyzed so soon, Princess. That’s for me to control, not some shit who attacked you in your own home.”

She disappeared into her bathroom, a bottle of pills shaking a moment later. “How noble.”

I swear to God, this woman is going to try every nerve I’ve ever had. “How did he get into your place?”

The water ran. A minute later, she came walking back out, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth. “He got himself a key made, just like you, I assume.”

My brows furrowed, her eyes as hard as ice. “When?” She took a drink of water but had made no move to clean up the blood that now dripped between her tits. Fuck, I loved that.

“You’re a terrible stalker, you know that?” she snipped, limping past me.

I grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop. “You were not the be all and end all of my life, Princess,” I told her, looking down at her. “I will always have other missions, other assignments, you need to understand that.”

“Guy with a job, I get it.” She ripped her arm out of my grasp only because I let her, and winced when it pained her. “As far as I know, it was the first time he used it,” she replied, heading for the door. She slowed as she reached it though, and I could feel the weight on her shoulders as if it were mine.

“Rae, it was natural,” I told her. “You can’t control something like that, not as much as you think. It wasn’t your fault.”

She stared at the handle for a long time before she reached for it. “I hope it never happens to you.” She pulled it open. “Come on, I suppose we have a lot to discuss.”

And her mood shifted again.

Her anger was suddenly gone for this…numb state. She had ripped one mask off for another, and that was when I remembered what Greyson had once said to me.

We could wipe women out physically without trying, fracturing their mental state in the process. They always needed time to heal after long, difficult sessions. But it wasn’t just sex that did it.

Today, she had called a number and realized that her mom wasn’t who she thought she was. Then her brother, who wasn’t actually her brother, came into her home and attacked her. After that, we showed up, clearly connected to her mother, and then I carved my initial into her chest, telling her that she was mine, that she had no choice in it.

She was drained, I couldn’t expect her to give anymore without giving something back in return.

There were many reasons Malachi kept Greyson around. He was one of us in the deepest kind of way, but he was soft too. There were lessons he could still teach us, and if we were willing to learn, those lessons could greatly help us become better men, which was why he was often referred to as the Teacher.

I suppose this was one of those times.

God, fuck him.

“Jack,” I finally told her. “My name is Jack Ashrin.” I walked up behind her, her body melting as much as it could in the state she was in.

“Ashrin,” she repeated softly back to me.

I smiled as I slid a hand over her waist and leaned in until my lips grazed the shell of her ear. “I’d get used to that last name if I were you, Princess because soon it’ll be yours.”