Page 57

THERON

Kane and Nyx took the most time in the infirmary. Kane had multiple gunshot wounds, several life threatening and once Nyx was deposited back with us, we were informed Kane would need to be kept sedated overnight to finish repairs.

The guards stood at the door. “Vetticus is requesting one of you. You choose or we make the choice for you.”

I didn’t think it was possible for Nyx to grow paler, but he did as I stepped forward.

“T—”

he protested, but I held up a hand.

“We talked about this,” I said.

Without another word the guards cuffed me and escorted me out of our building and across the large expanse of land towards the estate. We entered through the front doors and walked down a dimly lit hallway.

The guards led me into a sitting room and into a corner where they stretched each arm out and chained it to either wall. The guards cut my clothing from me, leaving me naked, then left the room to reveal Vetticus sitting in a high-back chair, ankle crossed over knee, with a glass of whiskey dangling from his hand.

“Ah, this is unexpected. I didn’t take you for a sacrificial lamb, Kraven,”

he said easily. “Little selfless of you don’t you think?”

I didn’t reply.

“Your team had quite the game today,”

he went on. “I thought you guys had it for a minute there.”

Vetticus swirled his glass and threw back the rest of it. He stood up and walked over to stand in front of me.

“All of you have grown very close, haven’t you...”

He shoved his hands into his pockets. “When that happens I get a little—antsy. Of course you remember what happened last time you showed me a similar weakness.”

He chuckled. “Of course, I doubt you’d forget something like that.”

I glared at him but kept my mouth shut.

“Although, maybe this isn’t about feelings or being selfless.”

He studied me and tilted his head slightly. “Maybe this is about ownership. You think those men are yours, not mine, and that you’d rather do the suffering than have me destroy your possessions. It’s more of a control thing.”

He seemed satisfied with that assessment and leaned closer with a smile. “We’re really not that different—you and I.”

“I know,” I said.

That seemed to surprise him. He straightened and cocked one eyebrow.

“Most people would deny it.”

“I know what I am,”

I growled.

“And what are you?”

He purred.

“A monster,”

I said. “But unlike me, you think you can make people like you through control. Or I should say your perceived power.”

Vetticus scoffed. “There’s nothing perceived about my power.”

“Maybe.”

“And why can’t my power influence my popularity?”

He smirked. “Changing someone’s perception to obtain redemption—it’s all about manipulation, baby.”

I laughed, a harsh bitter sound. “Redemption? You deal in fear and someone who fears you will never give you their true self. We are purveyors of death, you and I…birthed from destruction. We break people. There is no rise out of the darkness—no redemption for people like us.”

I knew what I was—a broken man who viewed people as possessions because it was safer than actual affection. And I now saw Vetticus for what he was—a lonely man who thought he could buy love with power.

“You say we break people?”

Vetticus repeated quietly.

His hand ran down my face. I refused to flinch as his touch traveled across my jaw and his thumb pressed against my lower lip.

“Do you think because you’re broken, you’re unbreakable?”

He murmured.

He dragged his thumb across my lip and his hand dropped and drifted over my cock. I gritted my teeth and watched as the fire of desire flared in his eyes.

“Do what you brought me here to do, but just know, one day, you will feel the consequences of the monster you helped create. You don’t know the darkness you’ve awoken in me.”

I leaned in closer. “I will kill you. But not before I show you the true meaning of what it is to break.”

Vetticus tightened his grip on my cock, stroking the length. I wasn't hard, but he did it again and I knew he was going to force me down that road.

“Game on”

he said gruffly. He ran his thumb over the head of my cock. “We’ll just have to see who breaks first.”

He pulled a syringe from his pocket and jabbed me in the neck. He ran his nose along my jaw to whisper in my ear. “Either way, you’re mine now.”

The room spun as the guards dropped me back into the cell.

I saw shapes rush me and heard Atlas and Nyx murmuring. Hands grabbed me but they felt foreign and unwanted. Vetticus tried his best to prove he could break me and a small voice in my head said he’d come close—too damn close.

He’d drugged me with a drug that made me nearly immobile but heightened every touch and sensation. Taking a scalpel, he’d painted small strokes all over my body, edging me with his hand at the same time until I was burning up, consumed by pain and unwanted arousal. But it wasn’t the pain or pleasure he was pulling from me that almost broke me, it was how he spoke of my family during the entire thing until I wanted to rage at him to shut the fuck up.

My body did what it needed to do and when he made me come, I felt nothing but the empty feeling of being used. The psychological torture on the other hand was what had caused tears to stream down my face and my hands to ball into fists in fury and despair.

“Theron—”

Nyx was shoving a sweatshirt over my head.

As the room came into focus, I saw Nyx’s face solidify in front of me.

“Help me up—”

My voice was rough.

They helped me over to the bed and I shoved sweatpants on then sat down and put my head in my hands, willing the room to stop spinning. My head was pounding and my mind was mentally exhausted from the torment Vetticus had inflicted.

I’d said I was unbreakable—but maybe I was wrong.

I caught a glimpse of Nyx’s face as he went to walk away and I grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t you dare feel guilty,”

I growled at him, looking up at his haunted face. “Make no mistake—there is nothing I won’t do to survive this,”

I said fiercely, my composure cracking. “He can try to break me—fuck, he might even succeed at some point—but his greatest regret will be keeping me alive, because when I get out of here, I’m going to take it all down.”