Page 35 of Claimed

Jordan shrugged.

For the second time in her life, Trish found herself in the scary, small room she’d first woken up in when she’d been kidnapped. It wasn’t so scary anymore, though.

This time she saw it from the other way around as the soldiers set Lisa and Ken down in sitting positions and cuffed their wrists to the poles in the center of the room.

Lisa was already coming around, her head lolling back and forth, her blonde-streaked, light-brown hair swaying as she moved and slowly woke up. Ken was still out of it, although he’d started making little moaning noises as the soldiers moved him around. Bruno rubbed some healing cream on the bruise onKen’s chin, where Jordan had punched him, before leaving the room.

Jordan had settled Trish down on a chair, off to the side, unwilling to let her out of his sight.

He’d been like that the past few days; she’d spent quite a bit of time by his side with her tablet, rather than alone in their room. Not that she’d ever spent alotof time by herself in their room, but now that she spent almost no time there, Trish could see the difference. Jordan stood beside her and leaned against the wall for support, his hand on the back of her throat, his thumb stroking the nape of her neck absentmindedly.

Trish’s feelings as she studied the two naked captives were not something she was proud of.

She had the strangest sense of superiority. Of disgust—not for the situation the two found themselves in, but disgust forthem. It was something weirdly close to justification. What was the word? Oh, yes:schadenfreude. An ancient term for taking pleasure in someone else’s misery.

Some part of Trish felt like Ken and Lisa deserved what they were getting. Not only had they cheated on Alex and Bella, but they’d used Alex and Bella’s predicament to garner sympathy and attention for themselves. They’d constantly been on the news vids, soaking up the attention. And, from the way they’d been together at the museum, it was obvious they hadn’t stopped seeing each other in a more-than-friendly way, despite their protestations of love for Alex and Bella.

Seeing them now, stuck in the same predicament as their exes, and knowing what was coming…

Trish felt satisfaction.

Was this how the Earthers felt about all Moonies when they were taken?

Probably. It certainly seemed that way. Trish hadn’t expected to ever feel the same. She hadn’t expected the savagery of thesatisfaction or how justified she would feel in it. Then again, it wasn’t as if those taken captive by the Wolf had bothered her before. She’d been indifferent to them.

Now … looking at these two …

Yeah. Trish wasn’t proud of her feelings but didn’t know how to change them, either.

As Lisa came to, a look of terror on her face, she sat upright, pulling at her bonds. “Help!”

A twinge of sympathy pushed at Trish, as she remembered how frightened she’d been when she’d first woken up.

Lisa blinked rapidly and swung her head around, her gaze coming to focus on Trish and Jordan. She looked between the two of them, lips trembling, and identified Jordan as the one in charge.

“Please, please let me go,” Lisa begged.

Her distress when she’d been on camera had been faked; Jordan and Trish now had a good picture of what Lisa looked and sounded like when she was actually distressed. She wasn’t nearly as pretty a crier, and her voice was high and thin, rather than throaty with false emotion.

When Jordan and Trish remained silent, Lisa’s head swiveled around again, as if looking for someone else to appeal to. She glanced at Ken before dismissing him easily and looking away again. Lisa spread her legs and practically presented her pussy as she looked back up at Jordan. “Please, I’ll do anything, just let me go!”

Disgust rolled back through Trish, along with a bit of possessiveness she tried to ignore. She couldn’t believe Lisa had just looked at Ken and then dismissed him. When Alex had woken up, his first thoughts had been to protect Trish and Bella. How had he ever dated Lisa?

Trish glanced up at Jordan, whose expression was blank. But he still looked at Lisa, with her provocatively spread legs.

A sick feeling slid through Trish’s stomach.

As if sensing her unhappiness, Jordan turned his head to look down at her. She tried to keep her expression as blank as his but must not have succeeded because his lips quirked up in a smile, then he bundled her up into his arms and sat down in the chair she’d recently occupied to hold her on his lap.

The sick feeling receded as the warmth of his body surrounded her. She tried to call it back because shouldn’t she feel sick over her jealous reaction? But all Trish felt was smug satisfaction.

Then pity, as Lisa slumped against the pole, her legs falling closed as she started crying. She might have been kind of a terrible person, but she was also terrified. It was hard not to feel at least a little sorry for her.

Although, by the time Ken had woken up, and Jordan had led the new captives to the shower room, Trish’s sympathy started to dry up again as Lisa did her best to pose and thrust her body parts at Jordan to tempt him. Not that he seemed tempted at all, to Trish’s uncomfortable relief. He briskly showered off both Ken and Lisa with the same indifferent motions, ignoring everything they said.

And then it was time to bring them to the Wolf.

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