Page 5 of Ravaged Saints (BloodHawks Duet #1)

“Animals are fed,”

Dante says, as we both come in just as Max and Ryker come up the stairs.

Ethan looks at us, and Max leans in, his expression softening as he reaches his hand out. “Sorry, brother.”

His tone is sincere, his eyes locked with Ethan’s.

Ethan’s lips curl into a small smile as he takes Max’s hand, the tension easing between them.

“No problem, Max.”

Ethan claps on Max’s shoulder.

Let’s hope things calm down now…

Bryn walks in, tears streaming down her face, and it stops me in my tracks. “What happened?”

I step toward her, Dante right beside me. Her eyes are red, her hands trembling, and I glance behind her, expecting to see Aspen.

“Bryn.”

My words harden, the weight of them pressing down on the air. “What the fuck happened?”

She takes a step back, her body tense, and Dante moves closer, his presence steady as his hand lightly brushes her arm.

“You fought with Aspen?”

he asks gently, a contrast to the tension hanging in the room.

She shakes her head, and an icy chill runs down my spine.

“Bryn!”

My temper flares, and I’m barely holding it together.

She flinches. “Aspen—”

She sniffs, and my entire body stiffens. “She left.”

Ryker doesn’t hesitate. He’s already moving, his boots pounding against the floor as he sprints for the stairs, taking them two at a time. Max steps in close, his hands flexing like he wants to reach for her but doesn’t, and Ethan shoves off the couch, tension rippling through his shoulders as he straightens, his jaw locking tight.

“Left?”

Dante towers over her, his tone sharp.

Bryn nods, and panic surges through me.

There’s no way she could have left; the base is locked down. Fuck.

“She isn’t here!”

Ryker calls out from the bottom floor.

“Max, Recon, with me!”

I bark. “Dante, Ethan, outside.”

It’s pitch black outside, and that little brat slipped away right under our noses.

Fucking hell.

Ryker and Max are already behind me, and I glance at both exit doors, my mind racing. We need to pick one, but if we choose the wrong path…

“The back gate,”

Dante says, pointing. “I left it open when I went to feed the animals. She probably saw it.”

Without hesitation, we move. Our combat boots dig into the dirt as we break into a steady pace. Ryker takes the lead, his sharp eyes scanning the terrain.

She’s smart. She wouldn’t just run in a straight line.

My breathing stays controlled, but my thoughts are in chaos. When I get my hands on her, she’s going to wish she’d never fucking deceived me!

Ryker kneels, grabbing some twigs. He smirks. “She’s playing us. Changed routes away from the path.”

I scan the ground. The snapped branches are deliberate, meant to lead us one way while she veered off another. Clever. But not clever enough.

“She’s trying to throw us off.”

Max moves left, Ryker and I keep center, cutting through the underbrush. The further we move, the more the moonlight disappears, swallowed by thick tree limbs. The night is silent except for our footfalls and the occasional rustle of leaves in the wind.

Then—a sound.

A misstep, too sharp, too unnatural.

I still, hand raised.

She’s close.

Max glances at me, eyes narrowing. He hears it too. A hitched breath and an almost silent curse.

This kind of hunt is the primal thrill I haven’t felt in years. Chasing her through the woods under the cover of night is intoxicating. The air is thick with the scent of damp earth and her fear. I roll my shoulders, tension coiling tight.

“She’s mine.” I growl.

Max leans against a tree, smirking. “Go get her, Reaper.”

I don’t lunge—I stalk. Slow steps through the trees, drawing it out, savoring every second. The chase is just as delicious as the catch. She’s running on fumes, her breath ragged, each stride slower than the last.

She thinks she’s close to freedom. Poor little thing.

I stay just out of reach, letting her hear me. Letting her know I’m coming. I hear her sharp inhale, then she stumbles, her body is betraying her, exhaustion dragging her down. I close the distance in a heartbeat, boots crunching on leaves as I cut left. She veers right. Good girl. Keep fighting. Keep making me work for it.

Then I see it, her bad ankle gives. A sharp cry rips from her throat as she stumbles, her body lurching forward. That’s all I need.

I pounce.

My fingers tangle in her hair, yanking her back against my chest. A gasp, a little whimper, and I drink it in. My grip tightens as I twist us, her body slamming into the dirt, but my hand cushions her head before impact.

I press my weight over her, trapping her beneath me. She writhes, fights, but it’s useless. She’s caught.

“Did you really think I’d let you leave, pet?”

I rasp, thick with possession.

She’s panting, her nails digging into the dirt beneath her.

She struggles, swinging at me, but I capture her wrists, pinning them above her head with one hand. A sharp kick from her legs almost hits me in the balls, so I shift, using my knee to nudge her thighs apart, settling between her legs, and my hard cock pressed against her. She freezes.

I don’t move. My eyes are locked on hers. Her beautiful round breasts rise and fall in uneven breaths, and her eyes darken. The brat is into this.

“I told you there was no escape, Aspen,”

I whisper in her ear, her sweet scent shooting straight to my cock.

Her lips part, “Get off me!”

She screams. There is fear in her eyes, but something else that I recognize too well.

I won’t fuck her if that’s what she’s afraid of, not like this; it’s not my style to force a woman, but I am pressing my cock into her to see her reaction. When Dante held her leg and parted them for me, she looked like she was enjoying it, and this now just proves it. Her eyes are dilated as fuck, and I can feel her nipples pressing under my chest. My muscles tighten, heat surging through me, but I release her wrists and pull myself back.

When I rise, I drag her to her feet with me as Ryker emerges from the shadows. “Nice catch, Reaper,”

he chuckles, and Max storms toward us, his face a thundercloud of anger.

“That wasn’t very nice, Aspen,”

Max snaps, stopping in front of her, caging her between us, but Aspen doesn’t flinch. She stands eye to eye with him, and I can see the lust in his eyes.

He presses his body against hers, and she stiffens between us. “I told all of you I didn’t want to come here!”

She says sharply, her breathing ragged.

“Too bad.”

Max’s eyes are on her, my hand gripping her hips, keeping her in place.

“This was the most fun I’ve had in years,”

Ryker says, leaning casually against a tree, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. His posture is relaxed, but his eyes gleam with a hint of mischief, clearly enjoying himself.

“You’re fucking ours, Aspen, whether you like it or not.”

Max groans in her ear, and she tries to back away from him, her lower back pressing on my cock, her fucking scent burning through me, my heart pounding in my ears.

I lean to her ear, “You better stop grinding your ass on my cock, pet.”

She shivers.

“I hate you both.”

She hisses.

I laugh, but it’s guttural, vibrating through my chest.

Max grabs her arm. “Let’s go, Aspen.”

He pulls her, but she murmurs something under her breath, her eyes now locked on Ryker.

“Why would you do this? You know how dangerous it is out here!”

Max snaps, his grip firm as she twists and thrashes to break free.

“And in the base? Five men?! No women for years!”

she shouts, shoving him hard enough that he stumbles back. But she keeps going. “I know how this works! You’re all sweet and kind at first, but then one night you throw one of us into a bed and…”

She stops, sucking in a ragged breath as her hands shake. “Until we’re bleeding.”

Her words hit like a bullet, freezing us all in place. Max lets go of her arm, his jaw tightening, and Ryker steps forward, his tone low and tense. “Bleeding?”

Aspen’s eyes squeeze shut as tears well up under her lashes, but she shakes her head quickly, brushing them away before they can fall.

I glance at Max, then Ryker, so Bryn wasn’t the only one assaulted by men.

“Let’s keep moving,”

I growl, turning forward. This conversation isn’t over, not by a long shot. She needs to understand that we aren’t those men, and when I said no one was to touch them, I fucking meant it.

“Come on, Aspen,”

Max says, his tone softer now, his hands staying to himself, but she doesn’t move. Her eyes fill with defiance. Ryker steps up beside me, muttering under his breath.

“Reaper,”

he says, his eyes flicking to Max. “He won’t touch her again after what she said.”

“Fuck this.”

I groan, striding toward her. Her defiance, fear, and stubbornness are all slowing us down, and time’s running out.

Leaning in, I grab her under the ass and hoist her up over my shoulder like she weighs nothing and her body folds like a sack, and she lets out a sharp yell, fists pounding against my back.

“Put me down!”

She screams, wriggling, but I don’t have time for her tantrum.

The moonlight is fading fast. It’s too dark now, and we didn’t bring any guns. If someone, or something, attacks us out here, we’re as good as dead.

“.”

Max’s tone is sharp, pissed that I’ve manhandled her like this.

Too bad, I keep my stride steady as her fists thud against me. I’ll deal with him later. He’s always had a weakness for damsels in distress, but right now, I’ve got one priority: getting us the hell out of this forest in one piece.

We keep moving, nearing the base. Ryker whistles sharply, and moments later, a whistle echoes back. The gate creaks open, and Dante is waiting, arms crossed, a smirk playing on his lips.

“Welcome back, Aspen,”

he chuckles, his eyes flicking to her disheveled state over my shoulder.

Inside, Bryn stands by the couch, her face streaked with tears. The moment she sees us, her eyes widen.

“Aspen!”

she cries, darting forward, but Max steps in, catching her by the arm before she can reach her.

“Not now,”

he mutters, his tone firm but not unkind. Bryn struggles against him, tears threatening to spill again, but I don’t stop to watch.

I head down the stairs to the spare room, my boots echoing against the walls. “Ryker,”

I bark, and he moves ahead, unlocking the door.

I step inside, dropping Aspen onto the floor. She lands on her feet, stumbling slightly before steadying herself against the bed, her defiance glaring back at me.

“This is your new room,”

I growl, closing the distance between us. “You’ll stay here until I say otherwise.”

Her lips part to protest, but I lean closer. “And Aspen, if you try anything, I will fucking tie you to this bed.”

Her eyes narrow, her chest rising and falling rapidly. She’s angry, furious even.

I don’t give her the chance to snap back. Turning on my heel, I step out and slam the door shut, locking it with a click.

She doesn’t take it quietly, and her fists hammer against the wood, her voice muffled but loud enough to make her fury clear.

“Let me out!”

She screams, the words raw and desperate.

I pause for a second, smirking to myself.

When I get back upstairs, the guys are sprawled on the couches. Max hands me a glass as I drop onto the seat beside him.

“Bryn?”

I ask, taking a sip.

Ryker nods, leaning back. “She’s in her room. I locked it.”

“Good.”

I settle in, trying to let the burn of the drink dull my thoughts, but it doesn’t work. Aspen’s defiance, her fire, it’s going to be a challenge keeping her in line, but damn if I’m not starting to enjoy it.

It’s been almost ten years since the plague, and it’s been just us, the same routine, and now that little brunette is making me lose my shit in a way that is stirring something dark inside of me that I haven’t felt for too fucking long.

“We need to talk about what she said,”

Max’s words cuts through my thoughts, pulling me back.

I inhale sharply, leaning back in my chair.

“What?”

Dante straightens, his forearms resting on his knees, his gaze locked on me.

Max doesn’t sugarcoat it. “She said we were going to rape them until they bled.”

The room goes silent, heavier than it was in the woods. Dante’s jaw tightens, his knuckles whitening as he grips the edge of the couch.

“She didn’t say it like that,”

Ryker adds quickly, his hand raking through his hair, “but that’s what she meant.”

“What the fuck?”

Dante snaps, standing to pace the room. “You told her we’re not like that, right?”

“Of course we did!”

Max spits with frustration “But she doesn’t believe it. You saw how she looked at us.”

The room falls into uneasy quiet again. We all thought Bryn had been through the worst, but it’s clear Aspen’s past wasn’t any kinder. Hell, it explains why she’s so desperate to leave, even if it means going out there alone.

I take another sip of my drink, the liquid burning its way down but doing nothing to dull the tension coiled in my chest.

“For now, Aspen stays in her room,”

I say. “Dante, you’ll be in charge of bringing her food and anything else she needs, bathroom trips included. I want someone there every fucking time.”

The guys exchange uneasy looks, but I don’t care.

“She ran once,”

I continue. “And she’ll do it again if we give her a chance. I could see it in her eyes: the defiance and the hate. She’ll bolt at the first chance she gets.”

The room falls silent again; it’s like a fucking storm brewing. I grip my glass tighter, the amber liquid swirling as I lean forward.

“She doesn’t trust us,”

I murmur, more to myself than anyone else. “And until she does, we don’t let her out of our sight.”

The guys nod, “And Bryn?”

Ethan asks.

“She won’t try to leave. If she wanted to leave, she would’ve gone with Aspen.”

I say, rising from the couch, “But keep an eye on her too.”

I glance at Max, and he nods.

I head to my room, entering and closing the door. I feel the edge creeping on me, my cock still hard as fuck. I take my shirt off and lie in bed, closing my eyes, trying to calm my racing mind, but all I see is Aspen, her breasts moving up and down under me.

Fuck!

I slide my hand down, unbuttoning my jeans and pulling my zipper down. My breath increases as I pull my hard cock out, pre-cum already dripping. I stroke the base and bite my lip, trying to keep the sound down.

Her legs opened to me as Dante caressed her leg, her blushed cheeks, that defiance mixed with fear. I stroke my cock faster, gripping it harder. Fuck, the image of her lips sucking my cock, on her knees, tears falling from her beautiful eyes.

I tilt my head back, her under me, my body pressing her to the dirt. The way her eyes dilated when she felt my hard cock.

I move my hand fast, gripping it tighter, my balls tightening as I feel a shiver of heat coming down my spine.

The things I would do to that cunt of hers, the image of fucking her with Dante… the ways we would make her scream in pleasure.

Fuck!

The heat shoots straight to my cock, my muscles tightening like I’m running a marathon.

Her lips, those beautiful, perfect small lips licking my cock, the thought is enough to push me over the edge, and my cum spills all over my hand and stomach. I’m panting, my head snaps back, and I milk every drop for her, just for her!

I lean my head to the headboard, trying to catch my breath as my eyes open, and I swear I see fucking stars.

This woman is pure sin without even trying, and it will be hell not to touch her.

I close my eyes, taking a moment to collect myself. It’s been ages since I’ve felt like this and come this hard.

I smirk to myself. Aspen will be mine, ours. She just doesn’t know it yet.