Page 64 of Caged

He held me at fucking gunpoint.

Jace called me Kieren’s trophy.

He put me in a fucking dog cage.

The hidden room within a room.

He threatened to duct tape my mouth shut.

The putrid smell of decay.

He made me sleep in a FUCKING DOG CAGE.

Just as I want to scream, metal shower curtain rings scrape across the rod. I startle but don’t turn around. The loofa I keep here hangs around the shower knob. I unhook it and hold it under the container of body wash while I pump out enough soap to wash an elephant. I start rage-cleaning every inch of my skin, summoning the same vigor I found when brushing my teeth. Frothy, white foam slides down my shoulders, my back, my breasts. I scrub at my ass and vagina, not caring that Kieren is naked beside me, because I hope he’s doing the same with his parts after whatever he did in that hidden room last night. After sleeping with his dried cum residue on my skin, I need it gone.My face is last to be cleansed, although I cried off all my makeup, and my eyes are still puffy and red.

The second I’m finished with my shower routine, I reach for the curtain, ready to towel dry and get the hell out of this place, when Kieren grabs my upper arm.

“Stop,” he says with chilling firmness.

I stumble until I feel the cool tile of the shower wall against my back. Kieren’s body presses into mine, shielding me from the cascading water. His forearms are on either side of my head; his groin is flush with my stomach. Droplets cling to his long, dark lashes. Rivulets stream down his tattooed chest, his defined abdomen, catching in the pubic hair around his cock.

My gaze flicks up to his. Hot tears sting my eyes, clouding my vision.

“You put me in a cage,” I finally whimper. I can barely get the words out. My chest heaves in tight, rapid bursts as I try to clamp down my pain.

“You broke my trust,” he grits.

“That’s bullshit Kieren. You held a gun to my fucking head and made me sleep in there the entire night. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Wrong withme? I woke up and you were gone, Monroe. I thought you had been taken. You have no idea what these heathens are capable of, especially on a night like last. But to find you snooping around in the fucking basement? Are you kidding me? Don’t ever let me catch you down there again, do you understand? You don’t know the pressure I’m under. You don’t know the sacrifices I have to make for my future.”

“Then tell me,” I plead. My fingertips skim the stubble on his cheek.

“I can’t,” he says with a heavy hang of his head.

“I’m losing you again,” I cry. “Just like sophomore year. I’m losing you.”

He shakes his head. Water runs down his face, but he makes no attempt to wipe it away. Steam envelopes us in stifling heat, and I start to feel like I’m suffocating.

“I’m right here, Monroe. But I need you to understand something.” He lifts his head and his dark brown eyes stare directly into mine. “You are part of this now. You are Sigma. More than that, you’re mine. As I’ve already told you, if you try to run, I’ll catch you. If you hide, I'll find you. But most importantly, if you try to fuck up what I’ve worked so hard to achieve, if you get in the way, I will be forced to choose, and I fear it won’t be you.”

I suck in a ragged breath at his words. Suddenly, the shower feels too hot, my head too light. I push him off me and scramble over the tub ledge. I don’t even bother with a towel.

My knuckles turn white as I grip the sink, struggling to breathe; struggling to make sense of what apparently is my new reality.

The tap squeals shut, and the water stops. Kieren steps out of the shower with ease. A soft terry cloth towel is wrapped around my torso, encasing my wet skin from my breasts to my thighs. Gooseflesh blankets my entire body, and my sopping wet hair has left a generous puddle at my feet.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” I growl, whirling around to see him true. “Whatever is going on with you, since these Ceremonies started, scares me. You’re different.”

“I’m not,” he says insistently, kissing my damp forehead. “I’m the same person I’ve always been. The same person I thought you loved.”

My face quivers with unleashed emotions.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I croak.

“Doing what? Protecting you? Loving you?”

I shake my head as crocodile tears fall. “You don’t. You don’t put someone you love in a fucking cage at gunpoint!”