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Prologue

Sutton

The Chemist slicedinto me again.I screamed until I tasted blood.The twisted monster cut deeper into my flesh as I thrashed.Something gave inside my abdomen as he tore one of my organs from my body.A wet thud sounded as he dropped it into the dish beside him.

I didn’t know how long I’d been here.My only reprieve was blessed unconsciousness, at least until he healed me, bringing me back so he could start his “experiments” all over again.

He’d broken through our coven’s wards, invading our home, then had singled me out.I needed this to end.I’d rather he kill me now than suffer another moment of this horror.Shadows creeped in at the edges of my vision, and I thanked the goddess that the terror and the agony would finally stop, even if it was only for a little while.

Numbness slowly traveled through my body, and I let darkness take me away.

A low, deep voice reached out, wrapping around me, pulling me back from the murky depths.My eyelids were weighted, my body bound tight from terror, but as that voice called to me again, warmth spread through my veins, and the terror slipped away.

I was okay.

The comforting scent surrounding me told me that everything would be okay now.

My skin tingled, heating where the monster had sliced into me.Still, my eyelids, my limbs, were deadweights, and there was no talking past my raw, swollen throat.

More voices reached me now, but the one closest still murmured to me, and every time it stopped, there was another wave of those warm tingles.

“Fucking wake up, Sutton.”

Actual words.I could make them out now.Woo-hoo.Go me.

“Come on.Open your eyes.”

I recognized that growly voice.If only I could open my eyes, or better yet, my mouth, and tell him I was awake.

More tingles, more warmth.

Prince Charming.The arrogant hellhound who had snatched me from the street and taken me to see Fern when she’d been hurt.Yeah, that voice.His scent.That was definitely Jagger.

As the numbness slowly thawed, I realized what was causing the tingles.The hound was gently licking my wounds to get them to start healing.He was growling low as well, almost constantly now.

I tried to open my mouth again, but my lungs were being crushed and my heart was in a vise.I desperately struggled to drag in a breath.

“Sutton needs a healer,” Jagger growled.

Then everything went dark again.

Two weeks later

The darkness of my room closed in, and I struggled to draw breath.The Chemist’s face, those black latex gloves, the scalpel, it was all flashing through my mind on repeat, and I couldn’t make it stop—like a twisted Ferris wheel that I couldn’t get off.

Snatching up my phone, I hit Fern’s number.She understood.My friend knew what I was going through.He’d hurt her first.He’d hurt her so many times.

“Sutton?”Her voice was calm, gentle.“Breathe, babe, slow and steady.You’re okay.He’s gone.He’s dead.You’re safe now.”

I didn’t reply, I couldn’t, only managing a pitiful whimper before I hissed.It pissed me the hell off that he was still here in my head, even though I knew I was safe.Having Fern right there on the phone helped me slow my breathing and pull it together enough to finally speak.

“Th-thanks,” I whispered down the line, then squeezed my eyes closed.“Fuck…sorry.”She’d been through far worse than me, for far longer.She was also newly mated, and here I was waking her in the middle of the night to drag her back into Hell with me, like some walking, talking, physical embodiment of her trauma, forcing her to relive it all over again.

“I’m here for you, day or night.You don’t need to apologize to me, not ever.”She was silent for a moment.“If I hadn’t?—”

“Don’t,” I said, feeling even worse now.I had to stop doing this.It wasn’t fair to her.“Don’t you dare blame yourself.You did nothing wrong, and neither did I.That twisted fucker did this.This is all on him.”

“Yeah,” she whispered after a beat of silence.