Page 10 of Ravaged Saints (BloodHawks Duet #1)

Those fuckers better keep an eye on Bryn—and especially on Aspen. Last night, I heard Dante and Aspen. Her moans and whimpers drove me insane.

Who knew she’d bend to him that fast? Little brat. Part of me thinks she did it to gain more freedom so she can try to escape again, but on the other hand, I saw the desire in her eyes when Dante pushed her leg open for me that afternoon before she tried to run.

“, this way?”

Ethan’s calls out.

We’re heading to the town closest to the base to pick up supplies. With women among us now, we need different stuff. Ethan, Max, and I traveled for a day to get here.

“Remind me again what the fuck we’re looking for?”

I ask Max as we enter the town through the main road. This side of town is usually empty, but a group inhabits the north side. I don’t know if they’re friendly, and I don’t want to find out. They’ve occupied an old factory; it’s not a big group, but still, I’d rather not get into a shooting battle.

We reached an old market; even though it’s been closed for years, it still has a lot of supplies, especially women’s items, since, after the plague and the hunters, few were left behind.

“Pads, tampons, razors,”

Max says, his gun searching the grounds.

“Pads and tampons we might find, but razors? I doubt it,”

I say, entering the market with my gun raised. Max takes the left side while I stick to the right, with Ethan behind me.

There’s no one here that we can see, so Max heads down an aisle and reaches for the pads and tampons, picking dozens of boxes and tossing them into the bag. No razors, of course.

“Hey!”

Ethan tosses me a box, and I catch it, raising an eyebrow.

“Condoms!”

He grins, and I roll my fucking eyes.

He grabs a dozen boxes and stuffs them into Max’s bag. We already have hundreds back at the base, but if we all start fucking the girls, we’ll need all we can get.

“I’m going to check the store across the street and see if there’s more clothing for the girls.”

Ethan heads out, scanning the road with his rifle.

“Be careful, kid,”

I warn as he heads out.

We stay in the market, searching for anything else useful.

“Did Dante tell you about Aspen?”

Max asks, yanking some electric cables from the wall. It’s always good to have spares in case we need to swap them out.

“He didn’t need to. I heard it.”

I snarl, shaking my head.

“She kissed me,”

Max adds, and I stop, turning to face him. I sling my gun behind my back and cross my arms.

“She did?”

I lean against the shelves.

“She kissed us both—Dante and me.”

He shrugs with a smirk.

I shake my head. “Fucking hell.”

“I don’t know what made her change her mind,”

Max continues, opening my bag on the floor to add more things for the girls.

“I’ll find out,”

I say. There’s no way Aspen just had a change of heart out of nowhere. Something happened, or she has a plan.

“Just don’t fuck this up,”

Max warns, his face turning serious.

I ignore him and glance toward the door. “Why is that shithead taking so long?”

“If any of us are going to fuck them, we need to know what protections to use, mate,”

Max says, closing his backpack.

“Well, we have condoms.”

I point to the bag.

“Remember that women’s clinic we raided months ago?”

Max asks, a grin spreading across his face.

I shake my head. This is the last subject I want to talk about right now. “Yeah,”

I say, raising an eyebrow.

We went on a four-day trip—Max and I—to another town to look for medical supplies. There was a women’s clinic there, too, and I know he took some stuff, just in case.

“I got some IUDs. Dante knows some medical stuff; I’m sure he can manage to place them in the girls.”

He shrugs.

“For fuck’s sake,”

I grunt and change the subject. I’ll let him and Dante deal with that.

Ethan’s been gone too long, and my grip tightens on my rifle as I move toward the entrance, whistling as I kneel near the door.

Nothing.

The hairs on the back of my neck rise as I exchange a look with Max, and I can see the worry in his eyes.

“Fuck,”

I mutter, stepping into the street, ready to take out whoever got to Ethan, but then we hear a whistle, and Ethan appears two stores down.

“What took you so long?” I snap.

“Relax, man, I was just taking a leak.”

Ethan shrugs.

My eyes narrow as I notice the faint smell of smoke clinging to Ethan’s jacket.

“And what? Had a fucking smoke?” I frown.

“What?”

He chuckles and shakes his jacket.

I sigh. This is why I hate bringing him with us. He doesn’t stick to the plan and always wanders off. This is the fourth time we’ve brought him along, and he still can’t follow orders. One day, he’s going to get a fucking bullet to the head.

Stupid kid.

“Find anything?”

Max asks, preparing to leave.

“No, nothing.”

Ethan starts walking ahead, not waiting for us.

I smack him on the back of the head.

“Shit! Sorry!”

He stops, falling in next to Max while I take the lead.

It’s a long way back to the base, with only a few stops to rest. No sleep until we’re home, and it will still take us a full day.

I used to enjoy these trips into town—the adrenaline, the freedom from the base—but now my head’s elsewhere with Aspen.

I let out a breath.

“You okay there, Reaper?”

Max steps up next to me.

“Yeah, just a lot on my mind.”

I keep walking, my eyes focused on the path.

“Aspen, or…?”

He doesn’t finish the sentence because we hear footsteps behind us—the sound of cracking wood and leaves.

We dive into the bushes. Max takes the right side while I kneel to the left, under a branch, and Ethan lies flat on the ground, covering himself under a bush.

Rifles up, we spot two men, young, early twenties. They stop and look around; they’re searching for us.

Their jackets bear an insignia: a skull with two crow heads perched on top. This isn’t good; usually only Hunters wear insignias.

They nod toward the side where Max is hiding, and I get my rifle ready to shoot. It’s a fucked-up situation I’ve been trying to avoid. If we kill them, their group will know someone else is around, and even though the base is hidden deep in the forest, they might find it. If we don’t kill them and they get to Max…

I can’t let that happen as I’m about to step in; they snap their heads around, a voice calling out behind them.

“Coming!”

one of them replies, and they walk away. I let out a sigh of relief.

That was close.

“You saw that insignia?”

Max asks, coming from behind the tree.

Ethan barely glances at it. “Probably just some wannabe gang. Don’t sweat it.”

“You don’t seem worried.”

I swing my rifle to my back.

Ethan shrugs. “Why would I be? They’re gone, and nothing happened.”

My eyes narrow. There is something about Ethan that isn’t sitting right lately, but now’s not the time to press it.

It’s been hours; the sun is setting, and we stop to eat and rest.

“So, you and Bryn?”

Max asks, biting into an apple as Ethan shrugs off his backpack and sits on the ground, a grin on his face.

“Yeah.”

He shrugs, turning to face me. “She wanted it. I didn’t force anything.”

I smirk. “I know, Kid. Don’t worry.”

I wink at him. Ethan might be a dick, but he’s not an abuser, and I know Bryn wasn’t forced into anything. She was into him the moment she laid her eyes on him. He’s got that Prince Charming look—blond hair, blue eyes, lean build, babyface, and full of tattoos, a modern-day Prince Charming.

It’s funny, though. Aspen, the innocent-looking one, didn’t give him the time of day. How fucking ironic. The vixen goes for the kid, and the sweet one gravitates toward Dante and Max.

Her moans still echo in my head. Fuck, she sounded like an angel, and all I want is to drag her to hell with me and make her scream my name.

“What about Aspen?”

Ethan asks, his eyes darting between me and Max. “Are any of you into her?”

The answer is obvious. Apparently, we all are, except for Ethan and maybe Ryker.

“It’s pussy.”

I shrug, trying to sound unbothered. “And she’s playing hard to get.”

She was playing hard to get—until Dante.

“Yeah, well, Bryn said Aspen isn’t that into sex,”

Ethan mocks, a smirk tugging at his lips.

“And what else did Bryn say?”

Max leans back against a tree, spreading his legs to give them some rest before we move on, and I do the same.

We are as in shape as we were before all went to hell; we train almost every day and keep in shape. We never know what tomorrow will bring, but walking for twenty-four hours still gets the best of us.

“Not much, just that Aspen lost her virginity to some group leader. He was rough with her, and since then, she’s stayed away from men and sex.”

Ethan shrugs, his tone dismissive, but Max and I exchange a look.

We’d figured something had happened, but knowing Aspen’s first time was a rape—it changes things, and it explains why she’s so guarded.

“But who knows?”

Ethan continues, lying back and closing his eyes. “Maybe she’ll come around one day.”

“One day,”

Max chuckles, a knowing smirk tugging at his lips. His eyes gleam with something Ethan doesn’t catch.

I wonder how things will play out. Will Bryn and Ethan become exclusive? How will that even work in the long run? And Aspen… will she be exclusive with Dante?

I push the thoughts away and get to my feet. “Let’s move,” I order.

Max stands, but Ethan stays sprawled on the ground for a moment longer.

“Come on, sloth. We gotta move.”

Max kicks Ethan’s boot, earning a grunt as the kid finally drags himself up.

We arrive after one in the morning, and I’m tired as fuck. All I want is a shower and some goddamn sleep, but the second I step inside, I freeze.

Aspen and Bryn are in the middle of the room, dancing to Whore by In This Moment like two goddesses. Dante and Ryker are playing pool, barely glancing up.

Max walks in behind me and whistles low, but the girls don’t turn around.

“They drunk?”

I ask, my voice rough from exhaustion.

“Yup,”

Ryker chuckles, lining up his shot.

“Even Aspen?”

Max drops his backpack with a heavy thud and cracks his neck, and I do the same, rolling my shoulders to work out the tension.

“Even me!”

Aspen squeals, spinning toward us, and her hips sway in a way that has me forgetting how fucking tired I am.

She’s mesmerizing. Her cargo pants hang low on her hips, her shirt tied in a knot to show off her stomach—and a small butterfly with a skull tattoo peeks just above her hip bone. Her dark hair tumbles down her back almost to her ass, a few strands clinging to her flushed face, and her rosy cheeks and dilated pupils tell me she’s way past tipsy.

“Wanna dance?”

Ethan asks, stepping toward her, but she waves him off without even glancing his way.

“Not with you.”

She points straight at me, her lips curling into a teasing grin. “I want to see if G.I. Joe over there can dance.”

The guys laugh. Max steps back to lean against the wall, crossing his arms like he’s settling in for a show.

I raise an eyebrow at her. Fucking brat is testing me, but two can play that game.

Slowly, I peel off my jacket; my shirt pulls tight over my shoulders as I toss it aside, the fabric stretching across my muscles. Her eyes follow every movement as I take a long stride toward her, my boots heavy on the floor, and grab her waist.

She gasps as I spin her around, pressing her back against my chest. My hand slides to her hip, holding her firmly, while the other splays over her stomach, pulling her flush against me.

“Don’t play games with me, pet,”

I whisper into her ear, low and rough. I start to move my hips to the beat, rolling them slowly, letting her feel every inch of me. Her ass grinds against my cock, and I make sure she knows exactly what she’s doing to me.

“Is this dancing, army boy?”

She chuckles, breathless, and I bite back a grin. Fuck, she’s wasted.

I spin her around to face me, leaning down so our faces are inches apart. At six feet six and two hundred and fifty pounds, I tower over her. She’s maybe five-four, curvy in all the right places, and I swear her body was made to drive me insane.

My arm snakes around her waist, pulling her closer, and her hands press flat against my chest, and I feel her take a shaky breath. I flex my chest muscles on purpose, letting her feel the strength beneath her fingers.

I sway her to the side, sliding my thigh between hers, pressing just enough to make her breath hitch, tilting her slightly. I guide her movements, her body rolling with mine. Then I push her down and pull her back up, my grip firm, controlling every motion.

“Fuck, he can move,”

Bryn says with a laugh, and the corner of her lips twitches.

Aspen’s wide eyes stay locked on mine, her lips slightly parted, her flushed face making her look almost innocent if not for the heat in her gaze.

“Is this dancing, pet?”

I murmur, smirking as I lean closer, my lips brushing the shell of her ear. I breathe her in—her sweet scent, the warmth radiating off her skin—and let my fingers dig into her waist, knowing I will leave a mark.

She gasps, my name tumbling from her lips like a plea, her wide eyes locked on mine before they drop to my mouth. That’s it. She wants this—wants me. Fuck, I’ve waited long enough.

My fingers thread through her hair, gripping tight as I tilt her head back, forcing her to look at me. Her body shivers under my touch, and I can feel her pulse thrumming against my skin. “Fuck it,”

I murmur, right before I crush my mouth to hers.

The room fades into nothing, silence hanging thick around us as if the whole world knows this moment belongs to me. To her. To hell with the audience, she kissed Max and almost fucked Dante. My jaw tightens at the thought, and my teeth graze her lower lip.

My tongue sweeps past her lips, claiming her, tasting her—vodka and lemon.

Gripping on her scalp tight, I pull her flush against me, and she gasps into my mouth. Her nails dig into my chest, sharp enough that I know they will leave small half-moons on my skin, and I welcome the sting.

Grabbing her ass, I haul her closer, swallowing the soft moan that slips from her lips. The sound goes straight to my blood, feeding the inferno inside me, and somewhere behind me, I hear a gasp from one of the guys; let them watch.

“Don’t!”

A yell cuts through the haze, and suddenly my hand is yanked away.

Bryn shoves between us, her hands on Aspen, pulling her away from me. My lip curls, a snarl ripping from my throat as Aspen stumbles back, her wide eyes flicking between us.

“What the fuck?”

I bark, barely holding myself back as I glare at Bryn.

“She’s drunk, you asshole,”

Bryn snaps her tone like nails on glass as she wraps an arm around Aspen, but her gaze stays fixed on me.

“She’s not that drunk,”

I growl dangerously. “She knows what she’s doing.”

Bryn’s death glare could cut steel, but I don’t miss the way Aspen looks back at me as she’s dragged toward the stairs, her soft gaze burning into mine.

I can feel my pulse hammering. Every muscle in my body is ready to snap as I take a step forward. “I’m going to fucking kill her,”

I mutter, already moving, but Max’s hand clamps down on my arm, slamming me back against the wall.

“Easy, Reaper,”

he says, steady but firm, and I see the flicker of caution in his eyes, but it’s not enough to pull me back.

“She doesn’t get to interfere,”

I bite out, shrugging him off. “If she wants to play games with me and Aspen, fine, but she’d better be ready to pay for it.”

I watch as Bryn leads Aspen down the stairs, her figure disappearing.

Bryn just moved to the top of my shit list.