Page 36

twenty-five

Dry breaths form in my open mouth while I pant, looking around for a place to hide or run. Do these passages lead in a circle? Can I get back to where more people are?

I shed my mask so I can see better and toss the wig to the side. My brunette hair flows down my back as I race toward the end of the next hall. If only I could find a weapon…

Shattering my thoughts, his sing-song voice cracks from behind me. “What big eyes you have… The kind that drive boys mad…”

Lamps along the walls flicker off and on for only a moment, escalating my terror when my eyes meet the pitch black. When the dim red glow resumes, I make it to the end, relieved that it turns left, just as I suspected. If I keep going, surely, I’ll make it back to the landing.

“What full lips you have… The kind to lure someone bad…”

His steps behind me are steady, not filled with any haste, but enough so that he’s too close for my comfort. As I make a turn, I grab a console table that holds a large mirror and flip it over to block his path or slow him down.

Clearly, this was the wrong move. He speeds up to a sprint and leaps over the pile of furniture while howling madly.

“What a big heart I have. The better to love you with…”

Love? He’s talking about love now? Is he crazy?

Yes. I’ve established that.

Keep moving!

The end of the hall approaches as if I’m running in sand. Visions of the window before the next turn crawl closer and closer. My heels aren’t helping me grip the floor at all and make me question why I even wore them.

I should never have come here. What was I thinking? Of course, Ryan would be here. This isn’t how I thought things would go.

You can make it! Hurry!

Perhaps my body confuses all the adrenaline rushing through it with wanton need, but as my heart pounds harder, part of my brain wants him to catch me. That’s why I came tonight, right? To give myself up to someone…

He’s closer than ever when I near the velvety curtains. Instead of turning in the direction I suspected, the terminal of this one splits into two directions, but a tall archway and a set of closed double doors blocks the left side.

Frantic, I grab the golden handles with shaky hands and pull, grunting in frustration as I see the wolf approaching in my periphery. It won’t budge!

“Little red riding hood, even bad wolves can be good…”

Bracing myself for an impact, he reaches for me, but I grip his wrists to prevent him from grabbing around my waist. Slipping between his legs, I flip him over me, and he rolls expertly. Fuck ! My dad taught him too well.

He crawls closer, his throat erupting in a low growl that vibrates through my body. I spring to a stand and race down the hall in the opposite direction. While I check out his position over my shoulder, my foot catches on the corner of the rug, and the ground surges up to meet me.

I catch myself on all fours as he continues to clamber behind me. Sobs rip from my lungs as I attempt to rise, but he grasps my calf with a tight squeeze, pulling my ankle toward him. My fingers rake through the plush carpet, looking for anything I can grab onto.

He stands and drags me, but as we pass the console table, I clutch the wooden leg and turn it over. In doing so, he releases me, and I kick my shoes into his face, then tear off down the other hall, the one not blocked by my predator.

When I reach the turn of this one, there’s only a single pathway I can take on my left. A solid door at the end holds a glowing exit sign above it. My chest expands with relief. I’m almost free.

Could I hurt him? Yes. I really could. So why don’t I?

With a yell of victory, I throw open the door, then sprint down the concrete stairs to the floor below.

Two paths greet me on the landing: one to outside and another to the party.

I choose the one through the crowds, hoping that being around everyone else will save me.

Perhaps I can even find Amelia and get the fuck out of here before Ryan sees.

While deciding, the door above me flings open, and the howling echo haunts my brain. “ Awoooo !” he calls out, his steps shuffling down the stairs.

I bust through into the kitchen, where several Thetas are taking shots. Slapping some away, I scream, “Help me! He’s chasing me!”

“Good for him,” some guy in a devil’s mask says with sarcasm, and the rest laugh riotously, then chug their drinks, sloshing alcohol all over the slick floor as they pour refills.

These guys are not going to offer me any assistance. That much is obvious.

I rush through the swinging door just as Ryan emerges from the back stairs. A line of women stands waiting for the bathroom just outside, and I wildly search for Amelia, but I don’t recognize anyone. “Help! There’s someone chasing me!”

“Okay. What do you want me to do about it?” one of the tall women deadpans, and the others shift uncomfortably, as if I just forced them to take a pop quiz in the middle of a party.

“Enjoy it, girl. It’s Red Night .”

“Yeah…like you can say no .”

The girls chuckle and huff out sighs like I’m the stupidest woman alive. And maybe I am for even thinking this predator would stop his hunt. What if I don’t want him to?

No, Pippi. You’re letting him drive you mad.

When he explodes through the kitchen door, his mask lowers as he pants out a breath. “There’s my girl!”

“Oh my. You can chase me around!” another woman says as I take a few slow steps backward.

“Or me. She seems like a prude… Probably Iota who sneaked in.”

Doom cuts me like a knife to my back.

No one will save me.

I’m truly on my own.

A psychotic laugh bubbles up from my belly. Isn’t that what I always wanted? To be independent and take care of myself?

Shoving my shoulders through the students gathered near a riveting game of flip cup, I dart to the entryway, then divert through the patio. Maybe I can break into Amelia’s car. The valets leave the keys with it, right?

I sprint past the people still fucking in and around the pool, slipping through the iron gate and dashing into the back fields toward the garages. An acre of lawn and trees lies between me and a possible escape.

Ryan seems to have lost me. It’s quiet. Pitch black out here. Occasionally, I stumble upon a large oak or a maple, but I keep pressing on, my strides slower as I attempt to catch a breath.

My heart still pounds hard in my chest as I take a rest against a rugged tree trunk.

While I huff air in and out, white clouds form from my open mouth.

It’s chilly, but I can’t feel it, the fear making me single focused on getting out of this situation.

Every pulse of blood through my arteries gushes until I spook myself into hearing things, whipping my head around at tiny sounds.

With a hand on my side, I stroll closer to the garage as a tight stitch develops beneath my rib cage. I wasn’t expecting to be sprinting tonight… Outside… Without shoes… In the crisp October air.

No worries. I did it. I think I might be in the clear.

As I pass the last tree near the building, Ryan pops out directly from behind it and stands like a wall in front of me.

“D-don’t!” I bark as my body jolts, taking a step back, but he follows me.

“Before you get to grandma’s place, I think I ought to walk with you for a ways…”

“Ryan, I’m serious… I-I?—”

He lunges at me and ensnares my waist, but I raise my legs up and flip him over, then strike at his mask, pressing the heels of my hands into the eyes. The padding of it protects him enough so that he attempts to roll us until he’s in guard position.

With a swivel of my hips, I get a leg out and kick his snout, then set a foot on the sopping ground.

Fingers grasping at the mud beneath us, I pull myself up with a frustrated groan and sprint back toward the house.

It doesn’t take long for him to follow, and he falls on my back, taking us both down, with him landing on top of me.

A visceral scream erupts from my lungs as I scramble against the wet grass, gripping at it for any hold, kicking my legs and squirming. Anything to get him to let me go. Instead, he lifts my dress up and spanks the shit out of my ass as I wail from shock more than pain.

In my fight to get away, he snags both of my wrists, then locks them with a set of handcuffs, holding them together above my head.

His knees pry mine apart as he digs a finger up to my panties, then rips them off as I try to buck him off, to no avail.

With my butt, I press back against him, nearly freeing myself as the weight of him releases.

Only for his arm to tuck over the front of my waist with a tighter grip, tugging me up to him.

One hand wrapped around my throat, he nestles the wolf mask on my shoulder and whispers, “No more fighting, little red ridin’ hood.”

Using my locked hands, I dig my nails into his forearms.

“You want to keep going? We can, but I’m going to win,” he says.

“No, you won’t.” It’s not a very powerful statement with his grip tightening to cut off my words.

“It would have hurt a lot less if you’d let me take you upstairs.”

Rapid breaths huff through my nose as I consider him. The realization hits my stomach so hard it flips like I’ve jumped off a cliff. There’s no going back.

He’s going to fuck me.

And it’s going to be painful.

But fighting it will only make it worse.

I blink once and my hands relax. “O-okay,” I whisper—not because I want to necessarily, but because I know he’s already won. Or maybe…maybe it’s because I do.

I feel his lips creep into a smile as he places them on my neck. “Okay…” he echoes, quieter.

In one swift motion, he grabs me and flings my body over his shoulder as he stands. My handcuffed arms bounce behind him as he takes off in a slight sprint, just as the heavens open up and fat drops of frigid rain pour down upon us.

He shakes his hair, shirking off the wetness that now soaks his clothes and my dress, which suctions to my skin like plastic wrap. When he enters the back door, I squirm in protest, knowing that everything underneath my skirt must be on display for everyone to see.

Ryan tosses open a door to a conservatory, where the distinct sounds of skin slapping skin and moans ring through as several people engage in scandalous acts. His palm hurriedly cups my pussy and stays there, covering me as he carries me into the manor.

In the crowded games room, the smells of sweat and beer fill the space.

“Fuck yeah, Cardell! Got you one!”

“Oh shit. Who is that?”

“Chained up like a bitch, I see. Good game, Cardell!”

The guys yell their encouragement, and when we pass through, I lift my head enough to see all of them pausing in their keg stands to give envious stares at Ryan’s back.

Ryan hurries up the stairs and the noise of muffled speech dies out as he dips down a dark hallway, my heart pounding even harder as we approach ornate double closed doors at the end of a twisted path.

This is it… I guess it’s now or never. Virginity stolen by my stalker.

He slams the doors behind us with a kick, then hoists me onto a bed, a gasp leaving my lungs as I take in the space.

The room is lit with golden tea lights. Vases overflowing with crimson roses line every surface, with their petals spilling over the floor, creating aromatic carpets. A red curtain hangs heavily from the ceiling over the black four-poster bed, which is rich with velvety fabric.

“Did you set this all up?” I ask breathily.

Ryan returns from locking the door and flips off his mask, the look on his face making my stomach do a somersault. He seems predatory, but also hopeful?

“Yes.”

“Getting me to the party, upstairs, the chase… Everything?”

His fingers slip underneath one of my handcuffs and release it with the push of a button before he slides my body up the bed, then clips it again so I’m attached to the rail of the headboard. “How else would I get my girl here?”

Shirking off his wet clothes, he strips bare, his cock firm and ready for me. I tug on the metal surrounding my hands, sliding up farther until the pile of pillows supports my back.

“Do I need to lock down your legs? It’ll hurt worse if I do,” he says, casually stroking his veiny girth at the end of the bed.

Shallow breaths cause my breasts to rise in my dress, which has pulled down and reveals the top crescents of my hard nipples.

Shaking my head, I tell him honestly. “No.”

When he slips onto the bed, his thighs slide underneath mine as he rakes his granite length through my pussy lips to line himself up.

Serious eyes meet my face as he considers me for a moment, hesitating.

I brace myself for impact, but he only hovers there, slipping the bulbous head a few inches inside.

“Fucking soaked , pink cheeks.”

One of his thumbs glides over my neck as he holds me in place. Tensing, I squeeze my eyes shut, resisting the instinct to relax beneath him. The longer he cradles himself there, the more desperate and anxious I feel. If only he would move…

“Just…just take it,” I whisper.

“Open your eyes, then, Pen. Look at me.”

As soon as I do, they heat with emotion, threatening to spill tears over my face at the way Ryan Cardell peers back at me.

It’s as if he’s seen god.

It terrifies me how much I want to be seen like that. Like I’m a miracle he’s about to worship—then destroy. And I want him to. Completely.

What if this is all he was in it for? To take me and conquer me like he said he would. The way he’s staring at me now makes that seem impossible. But I’ve been a fool before.

Without a second’s hesitation, he shifts his hips up and pierces into me with a shocking thrust.

“Oh, fuck…”