Chapter 6

Things fell into a strange new routine that Devin couldn’t begin to fathom.

Clothes appeared on hangers every morning, most of them new, but some of her old clothing. He cleared drawers out, making room for underwear, lacy bras, and various other pieces. She had limited choices, but they existed.

Sheets and blankets came in the paler shades she preferred, though they all paired with some vibrant color Rey already owned. Devin supposed he tried, and she had mumbled a terse thanks when he added a bevy of pillows that she could surround herself with when he let her.

Not that it was often. Rey still plied her body every day, sometimes for hours at a time. Devastating her with every ragged scream he wrenched from her. Devin told herself it was just sex and meant nothing, but in the small hours of the morning, when his knot bound them together, it was difficult to remember that as they inhaled one another’s ragged breaths.

Rousing from her thoughts, Devin flipped the pancake before checking on the bacon sizzling away in the oven. Another concession made. As much as Devin loved takeout, she’d grown tired of eating it every meal of every day. Rey seemed as enthusiastic about the idea as she’d been about having underwear again. He ate everything she prepared with gusto, acting as if he’d never had a home cooked meal. Of course, every pan, pot, and casserole dish was new, and the prices never divulged to her.

“Gods, these are good,” Rey said between one massive mouthful and the next.

“It’s the cinnamon and nutmeg.” Devin turned back to the pan and blamed the definite flush warming her cheeks on the heat. “Slow down. The bacon is almost ready.”

“I’m plenty hungry.”

Something in his tone had her turning with a curious tilt of her head as she met the smoldering umber of his eyes head on. Cheeks on fire, Devin ducked her head to hide the furious blush. She didn’t like it when he said things like that. They made her uncomfortable with his attention, the compliments sitting heavy on her shoulders. It was easier when he just took what he wanted, keeping his mouth shut about how beautiful he found her.

“Whatever,” Devin whispered to the stove, sliding the pancake onto her plate. She pulled the bacon from the oven, setting the flat, crispy pieces on another plate. After arranging it all on the island, she went to sit beside Rey.

At least he was letting her eat on her own more often than not.

“I have to go into the club today.”

Devin almost toppled back off the stool when she swung around to face him, something far too close to hope daring to rear its dreadful head. Rey ground it beneath his heel without even looking at her, stabbing his stack of pancakes.

“Wear something comfortable. We’ll be there a while.”

Devin’s shoulders crumpled. Hunched over her plate, she added an unseemly amount of butter and syrup. She bared her teeth at her food when Rey made a sound of admonishment, her fork spearing the sodden layers before he could think to do something about it.

While she’d had time to reconsider her suicidal thoughts, Rey still didn’t trust her. Even if she didn’t try to kill herself, she would try to run. That much they both knew. So, she still tagged along, a little bitch at his heels wherever he went. Meetings, errands, the club, and once to a massive mansion far outside the city, though he’d made her wait in the car. It would have been the perfect moment had a large black man not stood sentry at the door, looking down his nose at Devin as she squirmed under his scrutiny.

Two bites into her breakfast, Devin sighed and let her fork clatter against the plate, her appetite lost at the prospect of being dragged around the city. Dropping from the stool, her leaden steps carried her to the bedroom, where she pulled on a pair of leggings and a loose t-shirt. Shoving her feet into the comfortable new shoes, she shuffled her way back. Pointedly ignoring Rey as she cleaned up the few dishes she’d used, her lip curled as she scraped her plate clean.

Rey sighed but said nothing as he shrugged his way into his coat before tugging Devin into his side. Arm slung low on her hips, he led them from the apartment to his waiting car.

* * *

Devin blew a raspberry at her reflection in the bathroom mirror as she washed her hands. It was difficult to align the fresh-faced woman, who looked in the prime of health, with the miserable ache residing in her chest. She was alone and lonely, afraid of what came next, all while under the thumb of an Alpha who professed his care.

Coming out of the bathroom, Devin collapsed into a chair opposite Rey’s new desk. She stifled her yawn only because he pulled his dark brows down in warning. Turning his attention back to his conversation on the phone, he ignored her.

Studying the man, she traced the hard line of his jaw with her eyes. The fullness of his lips moving with words she didn’t listen to, only the deep timbre of them as they resonated through the room. It was a powerful voice, and not just when he used it against her. Devin could admit he was attractive. All rippling muscle, smooth ochre skin, inky hair. It was the rest of him she had an issue with. The overbearing refusal to give Devin her life back, professing his… what? Love?

Devin almost snorted at the very idea. He didn’t love her.

He knew nothing about her, but thought he knew what was best for her. It rankled, scraping her nerves raw with each day that passed.

Lip curling in disgust, Devin readied for another argument that would serve to change absolutely nothing. As she leaned forward, mouth open to bite off some sarcastic remark, the door opened and slammed into the opposite wall. Sounds filtered in, the roar of a male gone mad, the crash and boom of the club being ripped apart.

“Fight. Downstairs,” Beau shouted, though he was already racing down the hall.

Rey slammed the phone down, vaulting over the desk as if it was nothing. He spared Devin a single glance before he grabbed her up and tossed her over his shoulder. Bouncing down the hall hanging down his back, Devin silenced her shrieks of outrage as the vicious sounds became clearer. Rey couldn’t be bringing her downstairs with him. Devin refused to believe it, even as he took the stairs two at a time with her balanced with his arm over her thighs.

Watching the world fly by at a dizzying speed, she couldn’t hold back the scream when he tossed her through a doorway. It didn’t matter, the sound buried under the multicolored layers of several other women’s sounds of fear, though theirs didn’t come to a hard stop as they crashed into a male body.

Jackson. His herbal and clean scent washed over her at the same moment his arms caught her. Careful, gentle, he set Devin on her feet and urged her to the back of the crowd. An expression laden with guilt cast over his shoulder at the terrified dancers, he backed Devin deep into a corner.

“You need to stay here no matter what.” Earnest gaze striving for the stern command Rey would have given her, Jackson became a living wall between her and the chaos beyond.

“What’s going on? Who’s out there?” Devin tried to break free, but Jackson sidestepped to keep her there.

“Is it Kahler again,” one of the dancers asked in a plaintive whine.

“It can’t be,” someone else insisted.

“It’s going to be okay,” Jackson said, raising his voice for the benefit of all the women locked in the room, though he kept his gaze centered on Devin.

“That’s not an answer,” Devin hissed, shoving at Jackson’s broad chest.

Devin cringed and flinched as shouting dissolved into roars of challenge. Even from this distance, she could hear bodies hitting walls, the crash of anything not bolted down ripped apart. It seemed to go on forever, never winding down, never seeming to slack off as it had with Beau and Rey during their last brawl. Whoever was out there had no intentions of stopping.

The timbre of one particular rage filled shout shot straight through her. Slamming around her skull, it clawed at her spine until Devin shivered. An unconscious step taken forward, Jackson’s hand driving her back snagged her attention for the briefest moment. When a bellow spiraled into a scream of pain, nothing could stop her.

Devin ducked beneath Jackson’s arm, bulldozing her way through the tight knot of dancers to the door. Amid their screams of denial, she wrenched the locked door open and stumbled out into the hall. Choking on the scents of smoke and darkness, she didn’t pause. Feet turning her towards the garbled yelling, she fell into a sprint. Dodging grabbing hands with ease, men she didn’t recognize swarmed the narrow space.

She bit back the instinctual scream, clenching her teeth over the suffocating terror as she ricocheted from one side to the other in her efforts to evade. She was small, far weaker than anyone else even now, but she was fast. Feet pounding against the forever sticky floor, Devin burst from the dark hall onto the dance floor. She couldn’t make sense of it all for a moment, though some instinct knew where to take her. Across the dance floor littered with broken glass and twisted lights, dodging more men in dark clothing similar enough to be a uniform. Past the bar with its lighted glass shelves in ruin and the stench of all the alcohol they once held seeping across the wood planks.

There.

Rey standing over a man on his back, face a bloodied ruin, though he spoke with measured tones. She heard none of it. Not the shouted warnings or the threatening growls. Devin skidded to a stop a few feet away, eyes wide as fear spiraled into something else altogether. A riptide of emotions she didn’t want to name as something vicious and blood soaked raised its head within her heart. It tinged her vision in shades of old blood as she took a step forward.

Rey’s hand came up, the one not bent at odd angles against his chest. A staying palm held out to Devin as he faced the Alpha scrambling to his feet. The blue-eyed monster growled, reaching for that other perfect arm. His intent clear enough as he hissed some question at Rey.

“If you think this ends any other way than your head on a pike, you’re dead wrong,” Rey said, calm as a summer day, though his dark gaze flicked to Devin as he tracked her slow step forward.

“You’re going to get him killed,” Beau growled at her ear, pitching his voice for her ears alone. His hand landed on her shoulder, giving her a glimpse of gruesome tears across his knuckles, the flesh of his fingers hanging in gory ribbons.

“Let go of me,” Devin said through a growl of her own, eyes never leaving Rey.

“Shut up and be a good bitch or I’ll make sure you wished you were dead,” Beau whispered, and if not for the evil brutality, they could have been the words shared between lovers for all the rich promise they held.

“Too late.”

“Don’t do anything stu—”

“No,” Devin screamed and lurched forward, somehow breaking Beau’s strangling grip on her shoulder as she rushed towards Rey’s side. Knees slamming into the hard planks, she slid at the last to throw herself around his waist. Protecting such vital organs as the other male threw his head back with a sound of rage personified.

Devin waited for the crushing blow. Beyond surprised when it didn’t come. A sickening crunch followed by the deafening rapid-fire pops of guns unloading made her think she had been though. Until Rey’s wheezing breaths became too loud in her ears to hear anything else as she wrapped her body tighter around his when he thought to dislodge her. Something within her chest eased at the low rumble of his voice against her wet cheek.

“What were you thinking,” Rey demanded, the heat of his question diminished as he gathered her closer. Nose buried at her neck, he cradled Devin’s trembling body.

“Wasn’t really,” Devin mumbled through numb lips, unable to believe what had just happened.

“You stupid—”

“What did I tell you, Beau,” Rey yelled, managing to be intimidating through the wet gurgle of blood and with a quivering female climbing up him.

Ignoring them all, Devin’s fingers picked apart the rips in his clothing, gasping and whining at every deep cut and oozing wound littering his body. Tears streaked her cheeks in scalding rivulets as she ghosted her fingertips over the swollen, raw flesh of his cheek.

How could she be so upset? Devin swayed as Rey guided her to stand, though she still reached out to help him as he rose from the floor. He’d crush her if he fell, but she acted as if she could take on the weight of the world. Arm tight around his lower back, she followed his slow pace to a chair that somehow made it through the demolition.

“I’ll call Marco,” Beau ground out as he pulled his cellphone from his pocket. The cracked screen came to life, letting him stab out the number. He barked orders at the milling crowd of bruised and broken men to clean up as he waited for someone to pick up on the other end of the line.

“I’m okay, sweetheart,” Rey murmured against Devin’s hair, neither caring that he smeared fresh blood all over her as he held her close.

“No, you’re not.” She sniffled back the inexplicable tears, curling tighter around his torso. A protective shield as large bodies crowded around them.

“I am, but I need you to go with Jackson right now. He’s going to take you upstairs.”

“No!”

“Yes, sweetheart, because if Beau touches you again, I don’t think I can stop myself.” Rey dragged in a slow breath, arm clenching tight around Devin’s back. “I’m right behind you.”

“No,” Devin said through a quiet growl, though she took a careful step back. Eyeing the men she’d seen around the club, her gaze settled on Jackson. The only face she trusted in all this mayhem. Chin lifting, she issued the airy command, acting as if she had some authority. “Help me get him upstairs.”

Jackson glanced at Rey the once, startled when Devin snarled at him, repeating her demand on a savage sound that had no right to be so vicious coming from something so small. With Devin reprimanding the Beta and Alpha both, they made their way to the elevator. Rey grunted, indicating his pocket when Devin went to press the button for the second floor. After fishing the ring from his pocket, Jackson took the keys from Devin’s slack fingers and inserted one into the slot below the round buttons. The elevator didn’t go up, but down.

Devin wanted to be surprised, but nothing about her time at Wicked had been normal, or as expected. Shoulders twitching in a shrug, she held Rey steady as Jackson went through the open doors to flip switches, flooding the space with stark white light.

Stacked along one wall were a wide variety of illegal items, banks of shelving units packed with boxes with foreign symbols stamped on them in the far corner. She paid little attention as Jackson helped her get Rey to a metal slab.

Rey wasn’t happy with the proceedings, but he let Devin fuss over him. He glowered at Jackson until the Beta mumbled a weak excuse and fled the basement, leaving them alone. Waiting until Devin’s adrenaline subsided, her hands shaking too much to do more than clutch at the side of the long metal table, Rey sat up. Waving away her squeaking protests, he dragged Devin up over his legs with his good arm until she perched on his thighs.

“Listen to me now, Devin,” he said in a measured tone that set her on edge, cupping her cheek and wiping his thumb over the trails of blood and tears. “Don’t you ever do something like that again. You do not ever put yourself between two Alphas, hear me?”

“He didn’t hurt me,” she whispered, though the delayed reaction to far too much fear coursed through her veins. Shock turned her skin icy, ragged breaths searing her throat. She found herself leaning into the solid strength of him, even in this weakened state. Some instinct knowing he’d keep her safe and warm while she fell apart.

“He could have done a lot more than that, sweetheart,” Rey rasped at her ear, voice tight and thick as he tugged Devin even closer. Wrapping both arms around her despite the odd angle of his left arm, Rey crushed her against his warmth and the low rumble of his voice.

“Maybe,” she admitted on a weary sigh.

“Why?”

“Why what? I put myself in the way of his next strike, of course he could have done worse than hit me.”

“No, sweetheart. Why’d you do it?” Rey cradled her chin, tipping Devin’s head back to meet her gaze. “That was a very brave, albeit foolish, thing to do for someone you claim to care nothing about.”

The elevator rumbling open saved Devin from answering. A harassed looking older man, Beau, and Jackson appeared. Disengaging from Rey’s hold, she stood off to the side and out of everyone’s way, feeling small and unimportant though Rey’s eyes never left her. Bracketed by crates of heavy artillery, she crossed her arms over her chest and refused to acknowledge his attention.

She could lie to him, but not to herself. There was no denying the strange pull she had towards him, the way he made her entire body light up, even outside of the sex. She refused to consider it mating, nothing as sweet as making love, but even in the throes of passion he made her feel incredible. In those quiet moments, even without the purr, she could relax against him. The disconcerting feeling of safety and warmth never far behind the strength of his embraces.

It changed nothing.

She could never forgive him for allowing what Beau had done to her. If he felt even a fraction of what he claimed, then how could he stand by and watch that? He had to have known the twisted cruelty of the man. They shared far more than a friendship. There was no way Beau could hide such violence for that long.

Sighing as the older man finished stitching Rey up and setting his arm, she stepped forward when Rey crooked a finger at her. They both pretended it didn’t hurt him to wrap his arm around her, that she didn’t hear his faint hiss of pain as the elevator lurched into motion. Devin remained stoic, unwilling to give his secret away. More than fear of what another Alpha would do sensing any weakness, she felt the ridiculous urge to soothe Rey’s pride.

An Alpha had caught him off guard and beaten him senseless in front of all his people before he’d gotten the upper hand. Wicked was Rey’s domain. To be brought low within its walls must have been humiliating.

Devin couldn’t understand why she cared so much, but she still twisted her upper body into his as the doors opened on the main floor. Curling around his torso, she acted the docile pet as Rey waded through the piles of rubble, his commanding orders sending his people into a flurry of motion. The illusion of an Alpha untouched by the violence wreaked within the four walls. She kept the act up as he led her outside to his car, waiting until they were pulling out onto the street before she leaned over to latch his seatbelt for him. A thinning of her lips her only concession to his thanks.

Back in his apartment, she dropped the farce.

“You need to lie down,” Devin grumbled as she veered around his bulk to block his path to the low couch.

“I’m fine.”

“You are not! And you’re bleeding again. Did you tear your stitches already?”

“Calm down,” Rey growled as he tried to go around her. He sighed when she quick stepped to block him again. “Kahler’s going to want answers. I have calls to make, people to contact, sweetheart. Get out of my way.”

“Let Beau earn his keep for once,” Devin snarled, placing her palms flat against his chest. Careful of the wounds she could see and the memory of those she couldn’t, she gave a gentle push.

“Enough,” Rey shouted, shoving Devin into the nearby chair. “I have work to do, and you cannot interfere like this, hear me? Either sit down and be quiet or I’ll make other arrangements for you while I get this shit figured out.”

Snarling when the stupid male wouldn’t listen to reason, Devin latched onto the careless statement with greedy claws. Swinging around to face him as she jumped up from the chair, it was easy to let the lie slip free.

“What do you mean by other arrangements?” Letting a watery tremble invade her words, she looked up at him with shimmering eyes that showed too much white. It wasn’t a difficult stretch. The thought of Rey unloading her onto to some unsuspecting male, even if it was just Jackson, was enough to have the acrid bite of fear swamping the expansive room.

The icing on the cake was skittering away from his outstretched hand. Clutching her chest as if her trembling palm was the only thing that could keep her heart from hammering its way free.

“No, sweetheart.” Rey began to purr, but thought better of it as Devin’s low whine spiraled to a shrill pitch. “Come here. Everything is okay.”

“N-no it’s not! Where are you taking me?”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

Devin didn’t know when the lie became truth, but her panic was a real and tangible thing now. Slimy tendrils wrapping around her body, dragging her down into the murky haze of terror. Her heart slammed against her palm, pounding its way through her ribs and threatening to split her open.

“I never know when you’re lying to me,” she gasped out between wrenching sobs that burst from her chest out of nowhere.

“I have never lied to you.” Rey was affronted by the very idea. So much so, he rushed her. Stooping to grab her around the thighs, he hauled Devin up so their eyes were level. “Whatever else you believe about me, you need to understand that. I will never lie to you, Devin.”

There it was. The warm blanket of safety wrapping tight around her, easing the tension from her shoulders until Devin’s cheek met his shoulder. Nose tucked tight against his neck, she breathed in his scent by the desperate lungful. It eased the tight knot in her stomach, tension washing away with every breath until she melted against him. It wasn’t fair, wasn’t right, but she wound her arms tight around him and gave a quiet hum swollen with unshed tears.

“Just for a little while,” Rey said through a purr, shoving away even the thought of fear on the driving edge of that subterranean rumble. He was already entering the bedroom, movements stiff despite Devin’s quiet murmurs to put her down, not to hurt himself as he walked on his knees to the center of the bed.

He was staining the pale blue sheets with blood and grime, but Devin didn’t care as she wrapped her limbs tighter around him. She wasn’t tired enough to sleep, but she dutifully closed her eyes and rested her cheek against the steady thunder emanating from his chest. It didn’t seem to take long at all for his breaths to slow and even out.

Careful not to wake him, Devin twisted around, sliding up to lean against the headboard. Cradling the back of his head, she brought him down against her. He nuzzled the space between her breasts with a low sound of pleasure before resting his head against her stomach. Devin ran her fingers through his hair, restoring order to the mussed strands before ruffling them with measured passes.

Devin decided she’d wake him in an hour. He’d give her that much. In the meantime, she lost herself in thought and allowed herself to enjoy this moment. So picture perfect it ached, she hummed low in her throat and caressed the man who she couldn’t understand her reaction to.