Page 7

SETH | EKEZ

F uck, she’s perfect.

Thanatos, bless you, Savior.

Her gaze falls on Khalil first. No surprise there. He’s not just the biggest physically but also has the biggest presence.

Picture a live wire—untamed and exposed—with untapped frenetic energy and nowhere to go, so he charges the air and everyone around him until they’re as miserable as he is.

Khalil Poverly equals pretty plus an insufferable ass.

I try to see him through her eyes as if he isn’t Zeke’s best friend, and I haven’t suffered his company for far too long.

Khalil is Black with semi-dark brown skin, warm brown eyes, and shoulder-length hair braided into plaits. At the moment, the top half of his braids are pulled up in a ponytail, showing off the sharp angles of his cheekbones and jaw and letting his full beard steal the show. Inevitably, though, the girl notices that a pretty face isn’t all he’s packing.

His broad shoulders and massive pecs are straining against his gray thermal. Zeke told me once that Khalil went pro right after high school and retired early as an undefeated champion. He’d also spent some time working for his dad’s construction company. Needless to say, Khalil’s body has been honed into a lethal weapon of mass distraction.

Despite the fact that Khalil wants to fuck her, his game face is on as he scowls at her. That lasts until her attention shifts to his arms. I nearly face-palm when that narcissist notices and flexes a little.

The girl doesn’t seem intimidated by his brute strength. Instead, she nods once as if telling herself something or giving her approval.

Who is this girl?

She looks barely twenty but purports herself like a queen.

Fuck. Is she? Do I kneel? Call her majesty? Swear a vow of eternal knighthood?

When her gaze travels to Thorin, I panic a little, knowing I’m next. I chuckle under my breath when she looks Thor over and moves on, dismissing him a lot faster than she did Khalil.

Thor’s gaze narrows to slits, and despite the fact that he wants to murder her something bad, he’s jealous too.

It’s not that he isn’t hot.

He looks like a Nordic god, for fuck’s sake—flowing blond hair, blue eyes, a straight nose, high cheekbones, thin lips, pointed ears, and a prominent forehead. He’s also the tallest and almost as big as Khalil. Thor’s a real-life dreamboat with the personality of a wild boar.

Unlike the egomaniac, Thorin was a little too successful in scaring her. I can tell by the way her brown cheeks warm, and she subtly clutches her dress hem a little tighter.

I can’t stop myself from standing a little taller when our gazes finally connect. She’s everything to me, and I don’t even know her name. I want her to like me. We could have so much fun together. Thorin and Khalil are so boring.

What does she see when she looks at me?

Or rather, Zeke.

He has olive skin, courtesy of his Portuguese mother, dark-brown hair, and green eyes, courtesy of his Italian father. On his right bicep is a tattoo of a skeleton hand holding a new moon between the pointer and thumb and two smaller half-moons on either side.

Zeke’s gained more muscle tone in the years since he defected, and as much as I don’t care for Thorin or Khalil, I can’t deny how much they care for him.

Despite my attempts to please the Savior, Zeke’s punishments came often, and Isaac’s favorite was starvation. Zeke had nearly withered away to nothing when Thorin and Khalil showed up and rescued him from the compound.

The memories of that place fade away when the sun speaks and I hear her voice for the first time.

“You’re here,” she says while tucking a loose curl behind her ear. “It’s about time. I’ve been waiting.”

If she’s a spy for Isaac, then she’s really bad at it. Khalil and Thor move closer to me while I move closer to her .

“Thanatos sent you?”

She gives me a slow, unimpressed blink. “Who?”

“Death.”

“Riiight,” she draws out slowly.

Ah, hell. I’ve freaked her out.

“He allowed you to escape him and find us,” I can’t help but say. “You must be very special.”

Reaching for her hair, she casually frees it from the ponytail at the top of her head before tucking the tie between her teeth. “That’s what they tell me,” she retorts around it dryly.

Her golden curls, which have seen better days, fall around her shoulders and down her back. She shakes them out and makes a face when she brings a strand to her nose and sniffs. Glowering her displeasure, she grumbles to herself before starting the process of tying her hair up again.

“So then, you’re here for me?”

“Uh-huh,” she absently answers when she’s finished gathering the huge mass of curls in her small fist and grabs the hair tie from her mouth with the other.

My heart races from excitement. If this girl is here, she must be a gift from him.

Thanatos hasn’t forsaken me after all. Death is coming for me.

“Who are you?” Thorin demands when she doesn’t say more.

I don’t think any of us expected her to answer so quickly and without a fight.

“Aurelia.” She waits expectantly as if anticipating some recognition or reaction. It’s quiet and awkward for several moments. When she doesn’t get the response she’s expecting, she repeats slowly, “Au-re-li-a.”

I think I hear an owl hooting in the distance.

“Are you suggesting we’ve met before?” Khalil inquires with a grimace.

It’s Aurelia’s turn to frown. “Surely, you’ve heard of me. ‘You, Me, and Heartbreak’? ‘Flowers in February’? ‘The Lovescape’?”

I swing my gaze to Khalil, hoping he knows and can clue me in, but he bucks his eyes at me, silently telling me he’s as lost as I am. Even Thorin has stopped scowling to stare at her like she has two heads.

“Are you…having a seizure?” Thorin questions.

“No.” Thoroughly put off and confused, Aurelia starts fussing with her appearance again as if that would somehow help us recognize her.

“You said you were here for him.” Khalil points at me instead of saying my name, and I know it’s intentional. He doesn’t want to confirm who we are until we know for sure that she’s one of Isaac’s. “Who sent you?”

“My uncle.”

“Aurelia…” Thorin sighs impatiently. “Stop fucking around and tell us who your uncle is. You’ve got five seconds.”

She looks amused, leaning back on her hands and tapping her feet together as she smirks at him. “Or what?”

I smile a little at her bratty response.

I have no idea if Aurelia is who she says, but one thing she can’t fake is that she is a c-u-n-t.

I like her even more because I know she’ll piss off Thorin and Khalil to no end.

Thorin leans forward to plant his hands on the foot of the bed while holding her gaze. “We show why you picked the wrong cabin, Au-re-li-a.”

Her nostrils flare as she stares down the length of the bed at him. “If I picked the wrong cabin, it’s because I thought civilized people lived here. Was I mistaken?”

“Very,” Khalil answers.

“It will be your biggest yet,” Thorin promises.

Growing bored now, I yawn but don’t chime in. If those two idiots want to piss off Thanatos, I won’t stand in their way. They’re Zeke’s friends, not mine.

“Is he Isaac?”

“Who?

“The so-called Savior,” Thorin chews out. I don’t think he’s buying her wide-eyed confusion for a second.

The sheep in Isaac’s cult would never dare call him or acknowledge his real name. I was one of those sheep. I didn’t care much for Ezekiel’s half-brother, nor did I buy what he was selling about living forever, but I did find the idea of dying rather satisfying.

“Uhhh, I don’t know who that is either. I’m Aurelia ,” she tells us again. “As in the singer? America’s sweetheart? The girl with the golden voice? I have twenty-three Grammys. Are you guys like…okay?”

Khalil steps forward, drawing her gaze. For the first time, she has the sense to look nervous as he curls his lip sarcastically. “You’re humble, too.”

Aurelia returns Khalil’s withering look. “Humble is for basic bitches who only have being liked going for them. I’m the shit, and I know it. Fuck you if that bothers you.”

Damn.

“Okay, Aurelia, the singer, why are you here?”

“I’m in need of assistance,” she says primly.

Something tells me she’s used to getting her way. I sneak a glance at Khalil and Thorin, who are both watching her like they can’t wait to tear her apart with their teeth.

I want the same but for different reasons.

Aurelia scares them, but she excites me. She makes me want to live, at least for a little while.

This Aurelia…something…I feel a bone-deep need to ravage her soul as well as her body.

“I own some property not far from here. I think. A ranch near some hovel called Hearth. I was flying there for a little R and R when my plane crashed on this mountain. I don’t remember most of it. Just the plane coming apart mid-air and then waking up in a tree.”

“Were there other survivors?”

She pauses and then shakes her head slowly, almost reluctantly. I get the sense that she’s neither being truthful nor deceptive. She doesn’t know that Khalil, Zeke, and Thorin have been tracking her since the crash.

“I tried,” she says brokenly but doesn’t explain further. What had she tried? To find them? To help them? “We—I, um, looked for the tail, hoping to find the emergency transmitter, but I ended up here instead.” Aurelia wrinkles her nose as if she finds the accommodations more inconvenient than the crash.

Of course, Thorin and Khalil don’t miss the slight and bristle at her impudence.

I snort, and the sound draws her attention. When I smile and wink, she looks me up and down and then dismisses me just as quickly.

My gaze drops, and I rub at the tight feeling in my chest. I’m no stranger to pain, but this kind is a novelty. It feels like my—Zeke’s—heart is breaking.

I wonder what they call it?

“So, you’re alone?” I ask.

She stares straight ahead but doesn’t look at me when she responds. “Yes.”

“That must have been scary.”

Aurelia gives me her attention once more, and this time, she doesn’t look away. “It was.”

“If you’re alone, then whose coat did we find upstairs by the fire?”

“Harrison’s.”

Harrison? My brows dip. And just who in the hell is he? Her boyfriend?

Not for much longer.

I’ll skin him alive if she so much as whispers his name again.

She’s mine . Death spared her for me.

“He’s my bodyguard.”

Oh.

Well then, in that case, I guess I’ll kill him quickly.

“He’s dead,” she clarifies.

“Thanatos has him then. He’s making his final journey to the underworld.”

Aurelia casts a bewildered look around the room. “Is there someone sane here, or do I need to find another cabin?”

“You could try,” Thorin answers, “but we’re the only ones who live in these mountains.”

She doesn’t look happy finding out that we’re her only option.

Tough.

She’s lucky she made it this far dressed like that. If the wolves didn’t get her, exposure should have. Unfortunately, her luck ran out when she found our cabin.

Something else Aurelia mentioned pulls at me to act on it, and it sends blood rushing to my dick as I think about chaining her to that bed.

My gaze meets Thorin’s and Khalil’s, and I know we’re all thinking the same.

Aurelia doesn’t realize how far she’s wandered. She doesn’t know that she’s not on the same mountain or that she knocked on the wrong door looking for rescue. She doesn’t know that she gave three drowning men a life raft, and we’d be fools to let go.

“What are you doing this far north?”

“Reflecting and thinking,” she responds with a sneer.

Thorin shifts uncomfortably. Nothing this girl does brings her any closer to him, believing she isn’t an agent of Isaac’s. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means I’m supposed to stay out of sight until no one cares that I pissed in their cornflakes. Because of who I am, I had to go really fucking far.”

Clearly, it was a good plan because I still have no idea who this girl is. We’re completely off the grid here. No WiFi. No phones. No people.

It’s perfect.

We tried normal for a time after Zeke was rescued, but it did not go well. I had no knowledge of the world beyond the Savior’s sadism. Bane and I caused problems faster than Thorin and Khalil could solve them, so they brought us out here where we couldn’t be a danger to anyone.

“So, what did you do?” Khalil prods like a gossiping whore. He sits on the side of the bed and leans back on his elbow. Aurelia tenses at his proximity, but when he makes no move to touch her, she relaxes.

Her instincts are shit.

Aurelia’s smile is back, but it isn’t a nice one. It’s wrapped in barbed wire, just like the woman herself. And yet, all I can think to feel is jealousy. She’s already smiling at Thor and Khalil but not me.

“I put a dumb bitch in her place.”

That causes Khalil to raise a skeptic brow. “And that upset everyone?”

Aurelia scoffs and crosses her legs, meticulously arranging her ruined dress like she’s about to take a photo. “I’d say it comes with the territory, but you can be an absolute nobody and still find yourself on the business end of a microscope these days. Everyone’s either miserable, scheming, nosy, dramatic, or all of the above. I barely notice anymore.”

Thorin starts to pace as he continues his interrogation. “So you had a disagreement with someone—”

“A private disagreement,” she corrects.

“You had a private disagreement with someone, and it stirred enough outrage that you had to flee the country?”

She shifts guiltily. “Well, that’s how it started, but then it escalated.”

“How did it escalate?” Thorin demands like he really gives a shit. He’s just looking for holes in her story—something to prove she’s tied to Isaac.

“Wellllll…”

Khalil tickles the bottom of her foot like they’ve known each other forever. “Don’t be shy,” he urges when she jerks.

“I fucked her fiancé.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And her brother.”

Thorin swears, and Khalil snorts while my dick perks with interest. She’s mesmerizing. Thorin snaps out of our mutual astonishment first and shakes his head. “Jesus, Aurelia.”

“It gets worse.”

“ Do tell,” he invites dryly.

“She called me a whore because her fiancé can’t keep his dick where it belongs, even after choosing to stay with him. Can you believe that?” Without waiting for an answer, she plows on. “So I fucked him again for the hell of it and sent the recording to her before I leaked it. Anonymously, of course.”

“Of course.”

“So I guess a good old-fashioned catfight is old news, huh?”

She wrinkles her nose. “Old fashioned would be the key phrase there, Ragnar.”

Thorin stops pacing at the odd name. “What?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Meanwhile, I stare in awe at this vengeful delight. “Wow…imagine if you’d stabbed her.”

Aurelia stares into the distance like she wishes she had. “I know, right?” Sighing, Aurelia shrugs like she wasn’t just imagining drawing blood.

“You still can,” I whisper when she pouts over the missed opportunity. “I have a knife you can borrow…or I can do it for you?”

Aurelia cuts her gaze to me like I’m insane for offering.

I guess I am.

I’m also completely serious, too.

“Can’t.” She releases a long sigh. “Apparently, being mean is out of character for me.”

“They must not have met you,” Thorin can’t help but say.

She glowers at him but doesn’t bother defending herself. Aurelia may be a ruthless bitch, but at least she owns it. It’s quiet for a few moments as we think about the state of the world we left behind almost a decade ago. I was just getting to know it when Thorin, Khalil, and Ezekiel snatched it from under me.

“Anyway.” She dismisses his commentary about her character with a roll of her eyes. We’ve no room to judge, nor would we. Thorin just likes to give people a hard time. I should know. “You got a phone or something? I need to call my uncle and let him know I’m okay.” Tension fills the room again as the three of us stare back at her. “Helloooo?” She snaps her fingers when none of us jump to do her bidding.

Instinctively, my gaze flies to Thorin, and I can see it on his face. Aurelia is begging for a hard lesson in manners, and he’s dying to be the one to teach it to her.

An idea starts to take shape in my already twisted mind, and I try to push it down. I don’t want to break my new toy so soon, but then her torn sleeve falls further off her shoulder, and my eyes are drawn to the curve of her breast.

Aurelia inhales deeply at that moment, unintentionally making her tits more prominent, and then she scrambles to fix her sleeve.

“What are you willing to do for our help?” Khalil asks before I can.

Fucker’s always copying me.

Thorin doesn’t try to stop him from setting his trap, either. He gave into his darker urges the moment Aurelia challenged him. He just isn’t ready to admit it yet.

“Fine,” Aurelia says with a huff. “I’ll sign whatever you want. Now, can I use your phone?”

“Sure.” We don’t have a fucking phone. Only a radio for emergencies that she’ll never get those dainty little hands on. “But you have to do something for us,” I say as I step away from the window and closer to the bed.

“And it’s not your fucking autograph,” Khalil clarifies. He’s growing impatient, waiting to end this interrogation so he can be balls deep inside her already.

Aurelia looks at us all in bewilderment. “I have to give you something just to make a phone call? Don’t you have an international calling plan?”

Khalil opens his mouth, but Thorin beats him to it just in case he tries to pussyfoot around it. Khalil has a weakness for the opposite sex, while Thorin is all brute strength and no finesse. He acts like women are God’s greatest insult to mankind. In my very limited experience, I’ve found them to be a bit tedious and wishy-washy myself, but I don’t hate them like Thorin does.

Besides, Aurelia’s different.

Her soul is as wonderfully grotesque as mine.

“Our help doesn’t come free.” Thorin lays it out sternly. “If you want to stay, you’ll have to earn your keep.”

“Who says I want to stay?”

“Oh, you’ll stay,” Thorin says. Aurelia withdraws, and rightfully so. It sounds more like a threat than the prediction he probably intended it to be.

Aurelia narrows her gaze, and Thorin returns the silent “fuck you.”

Khalil clears his throat, easing the tension a little. “So, check this out. Even if we could get the word out, the storm that took down your plane is just the first. We’ll be buried up to our eyeballs in snow for the next few weeks, long after whoever gives a shit about you gives up.”

Aurelia really looks nervous now, and I feel my lips curve as she says, “So, what are you saying?”

“You’re stuck with us, Goldilocks.”

“There must be some way—”

“There isn’t.” It’s not until Khalil and Thorin both look back at me in surprise that I realize how harshly I spoke. My carefree nature is slipping with each reminder that she wants to leave. I can’t help it. It’s pissing me off .

Leave?

No, she just got here.

She can never leave.

Ever.

I feel myself becoming a little manic, but I don’t realize how visible it is until Aurelia’s expression shifts, and she starts looking around for an escape route.

“Seth.” Hearing my name, I drag my burning gaze away from my heartless obsession and see Thorin and Khalil watching me warily. “Do you need a nap?” Khalil warns me on the low.

“No.” My jaw tightens as I turn my head, looking away from them…and her.

Aurelia’s watching me curiously now. She looks confused, but if we do keep her, she won’t be for much longer. I’ll have to share her with Bane and Zeke as well as these two assholes, whom I hate the most.

“Getting you down won’t be possible until spring,” Khalil bullshits her. I clench my teeth but force myself to remain silent. I’m all for trapping her here with us, but I know all too well what it’s like to be controlled with lies. It sucks . “The mountain is too volatile this time of year. We can keep you alive until then, but—”

“Spring?” Aurelia sputters. “That’s weeks away! I can’t stay here with some creeps in a hovel until then. You could be murderers.” Definitely so. “Serial killers.” Not enough motivation . “Rapists.” Not yet. “No, you need to do better. I have to get out of here. I have a life . I don’t belong here.”

I swear this spoiled, gorgeous, infuriating fucking girl…

“You’re welcome to leave anytime you want,” I lie. “But you won’t get far. Not dressed like that and not without knowing where you’re going.”

“I got this far,” she shoots back.

I can’t argue with her there.

Unless…

She’s not one of Isaac’s, that’s for fucking sure. Aurelia’s no sheep. She’s too headstrong.

But there are some missing parts of her story that could hit us between the eyes later.

While it’s not impossible that she survived that crash, she did with barely more than a few scratches. And then she crossed the Cold Peaks and all of its unforgiving wilds to find us. If Aurelia is who she says, then this pampered princess couldn’t have done it alone.

“And you probably almost died, right?” Khalil points out. “A few times, I’m willing to bet. The only access road into town is already closed off for the season, which means the only way down is on foot or by air, sweetheart.”

“Okay? And?”

Thorin rolls his eyes. “You made a mistake coming this far south. You were closer to town where you crashed. It’s too far to hike in this weather, Aurelia. You’ll die from exposure before you even make it halfway.”

“That’s if the wolves don’t get you first,” I add with no pleasure.

Okay, maybe a little. Anything that binds her to us gives me a sickening amount of gratification. The tighter her shackles become, the more euphoria I feel.

Aurelia’s brown complexion turns a sickly gray at the mention of wolves. She actually looks like she’s going to cry for a moment, but then something happens that feels uncomfortably familiar.

Aurelia rallies, and then her woe is gone in a blink. She’s poised and looking nothing more than put off once more, but the mask doesn’t quite fit.

Yeah, this girl is definitely off her rocker. It’s breathtaking.

“Fine,” she agrees with her nose back in the air. I watch her look around the room and can see the gears turning in her head. “I’ll take this room. I saw the others, and this is the least objectionable.”

My stomach turns as I wonder if the carnage Bane and I left of Zeke’s room is still there.

Thorin cocks his head to the side. “We haven’t decided you can stay yet.”

“But you said—”

“That you need to earn your keep,” Khalil interjects. “Starting now.”

“Fine. So what do you want? Picture?”

“Will you be naked in them?”

“Only in your wildest dreams, pervert.” An uncertain pause follows, and then she asks, “Money?”

“We’re in the middle of nowhere, and unlike you, that’s on purpose,” Thorin points out. “Does it look like we care about money?”

The string of tension between us grows taut, and then Aurelia snaps. “Well, that was a fun game, but I’m over it now, so tell me what the fuck you want already.”

Stepping up to the plate, I ask, “Can you cook?”

Aurelia perks up. “I make an amazing cocktail.”

Thorin sighs like he’s exhausted with her already. “Clean?”

“You’re joking, right? That’s what the help is for.”

“Hunt?” Khalil inquires with a grunt.

“Sorry. Cassie does the fetching.” Aurelia’s lips flatten, and then she grumbles, “At least she did until she went and got herself killed.” No one bothers to ask who Cassie is as her gaze falls on the scarf Khalil absently left on the bed. She reaches for it and pulls it into her lap, where she cradles it.

“Well, what can you do?” Khalil asks impatiently.

That infuriating nose of hers goes back in the air again. “I told you already. I sing.”

“What do you sing, Aurelia?”

“Seriously, you don’t know who I am? Princess of Pop? Empress of R&B?” She huffs when we all give her blank looks. “The girl with the golden voice?”

My brows shoot up. “They call you that?”

“Yup.”

“Well then,” Khalil says, “there’s really only one thing left that you can offer us.”

“Tell you you’re pretty?” She gasps a second later, backing away when Khalil trails a finger over her knee, only to realize that I’m already taking up space on the other side of the bed.

Khalil’s lounging on his side, and when she backs away from me—already forgetting he’s there—Khalil curves his hand possessively around her bare thigh.

Aurelia stiffens when his grip tightens.

Jesus, how the fuck did she make it all the way here dressed like that? It had to be sheer will or dumb luck alone.

Aurelia starts scooting away from us both—toward the headboard. She doesn’t see the cuffs and thick chain hanging from it.

“Mmm…that might help,” Khalil purrs.

Instead of going for the rope to subdue her, he grabs her ankle and yanks . Aurelia’s forced onto her back once more while Khalil sits up.

The promise of her pussy is already clouding his head.

I’m not much better.

Aurelia shoots up onto her hands, her gaze bouncing between us as she tries to find the weakest link.

An ally.

Her fearful gaze travels to where Thorin is still in the same spot—in front of the dresser by the window where he’d moved to at some point to be within arm’s reach of me.

“What’s your name?”

His brows rise. “Excuse me?”

“Your name. None of you told me your names.”

Thorin smiles as he crosses his arms and leans against the dresser. She’s trying to stall, but he’ll play along.

“Thorin,” he offers.

“Khalil.”

“Seth.” I watch her lick her lips and feel my pants grow tighter around the crotch.

“Okay. Thorin,” she says, testing his name. “I’m feeling very uncomfortable.”

“Oh?” he says, and Aurelia nods quickly. “Well, imagine how we felt finding a stranger making herself at home in our cabin.”

“Okay. Okay, that was wrong, but that doesn’t mean you should hurt me.” She snatches her arm away when I trail a finger down it.

I sigh. “It doesn’t have to hurt, Sunshine, but that’s up to you.”

“Just be a good girl for us, and we won’t have to,” Khalil coos. He slips a hand under her dress and glowers when Aurelia shoves it away.

“But you will…hurt me?”

Aurelia’s mask is gone, and her eyes are filling with fear. The air is sweet with it. I bet her tears taste delicious. Her blood was certainly divine.

My gaze drops to her breasts, and I smirk when I see her hard nipples pushing against the bodice. “Do you want us to?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course not!”

Khalil reaches out and places a hand around her neck. He’s not squeezing, but there’s a flare of panic in her eyes anyway —especially when he applies pressure, forcing her to lie back onto the mattress again. “Cabin rule number one, show us some fucking respect .”

“Get your mongrel hands off of me!”

“Cabin rule number two,” I say as I shed my shirt, “we own you, Sunshine. And no, we will not be keeping our hands to ourselves.”

“Stop it!” she screams when Khalil starts tearing free the laces holding her dress together. She tries to fight him off, but she’s no match. She can’t stop us from doing anything we like to her body.

“Don’t be afraid,” I plead gently.

“Don’t fight us, and we’ll be nice,” Khalil just has to say.

I don’t see Aurelia’s fight response kick in, and neither does Khalil. The moment her dress falls open and her gorgeous tits are exposed, the three of us are transfixed by the sight of her brown nipples puckered and ready for our attention.

Unfortunately, we’re a little too mesmerized.

Aurelia uses our distraction to slap the shit out of Khalil and scramble past me. I snap out of it first and grab for her, but I swear my hard cock is weighing me down. I’m too slow.

Aurelia tumbles onto the floor, but she’s back on her feet in a flash, holding her dress together as she makes a break for the window.