Page 17 of The Breeding Cave

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

YEOSIN

Luciano had disappeared into a meeting room, and I shot up to my feet. My stomach was growling, but I hadn’t dared to take my lunch break yet because the thought of him punishing me kept me here.

My core was pulsing and warm, desperate to be filled by him.

I swallowed hard and pushed the thought to the back of my mind. I needed food.

So, once the coast was clear, I slipped into the elevator and pressed the Ground Floor button. I bounced on my toes, my heart racing at the thought of earlier, when Luciano had called me into his office.

All that talk of punishment had really gotten me going. My pussy had been pulsing all morning at the thought of that grumpy man bending me over his desk and having his way with me until he was satisfied.

But maybe I was reading this all wrong. The girls up front had said that Luciano had a thing for Ella, and we looked absolutely nothing alike. And he was my boss, so it wasn’t like anything could actually happen between us.

It was my imagination making things up.

Besides, even if things were to happen and then the beast got me pregnant, how the hell would I explain that to him?

Oh, sorry, Mr. Bates, but I’m carrying another man’s baby—but I’m just a surrogate, and the man is actually a monster. No, really, he’s a monster , monster.

The elevator doors opened. I blew my bangs off my forehead and stepped out, looking from side to side so the beast couldn’t surprise fuck me here again today. I couldn’t let that happen again. Luciano was onto me.

After examining the foyer, I headed toward one of the exits. My stomach growled, and I desperately needed to shove something into my mouth. I had run out of the bedroom before I had time to eat this morning.

Once I decided to grab some ramen, I pulled my purse to my chest and smiled to myself.

Was Luciano really flirting with me? Maybe, but ? —

Suddenly, someone snapped their hand around my shoulder from behind, dragged me into an alleyway, then slammed me against the side of a brick building.

“Where were you last night?!” the man hissed into my ear.

I glanced to my right to see a black SUV with tinted windows at the corner.

The Dragon Clan.

“I-I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I … I was out.”

“We need our fucking money,” he said, grabbing my arm as tightly as he could and shoving me out of the alleyway and toward the nearest ATM. “And you’re going to fucking get it for us.”

Heart pounding, I did as I had been told because I felt something hot poke me in my lower back, and I really didn’t want to die today. I pushed my tears away and scrambled to get my card out of my wallet. When I did, I slipped it into the ATM.

What I didn’t understand was why they hadn’t taken my card. They could steal it and use it every day to get as much money out of the ATM as they wanted. Why hadn’t they … done that? Why did they have to harass me for it?

Was it a tormenting thing? Torture thing?

“We don’t have all fucking day,” the man growled. “Get it now.”

The ATM spit my card out of the machine, and then hundred-dollar bills flooded out behind it. I grabbed them all in a shaky hand and counted them three times to make sure it was enough.

But it wasn’t.

So, I pushed the card into it again and hoped that it’d let me withdraw more this time. The Dragon Clan wanted more money than they had last week, and I hadn’t been convincing enough for the beast.

He didn’t understand that he wasn’t the only person with enemies. I had them too.

“Hurry up,” the man growled, shoving something warm against my lower back.

I wasn’t sure what it was, but it stung. Badly.

“I-I’m sorry,” I whispered, keeping my head down so nobody would see me here with them. Not many people knew who the Dragon Clan was, but everyone in my family did, and they had stopped talking to me after Alvin betrayed them. “I-it’s not letting me take out much at a time.”

I could only imagine how much my family would talk if they saw me out here with them.

After typing in the most amount of money that it would let me take out, I waited for the machine to spit out my card and the cash like it had moments ago. But the loading circle on the screen continued to spin and spin and spin.

And all I wanted to do was cry harder.

“Come on,” I whispered. “Please.”

Why do I have terrible luck with technology every time I use it?!

A moment later, a message popped up on the screen.

Request denied. Daily withdrawal limit met.

Eyes wide with trembling tears, I hit all the buttons on the screen, hoping it would try again. The loading circle spun once more, and the same message popped up on the screen, followed by the machine spitting out my card.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, gathering the cash in hand. “This is all I have right now.”

The man snatched the cash from me and counted it twice, and then he looked over his shoulder at the driver in the black SUV and shook his head. I gulped and made myself as small as possible.

“I can get more tomorrow,” I whispered. “Please, don’t hurt me.”

“Alvin needs the money now.”

My brows furrowed together. “Wh-what do you mean, Alvin needs it? I thought …”

“Alvin, our boss,” he growled. “He said that you’d have the money.”

“Your boss is Alvin?” I whispered. “I thought you were from the Dragon Clan?”

“We are.”

“B-but …” I said, confused because Alvin wasn’t part of the Dragon Clan.

I thought … I …

What is going on? Alvin is their boss?!

“Can I talk to him?” I asked. “Surely, this is some kind of mistake. I don’t have money.”

As far as I knew, they were after me because of Alvin. But maybe … maybe I had misunderstood them this entire time. I thought Alvin had gotten us into trouble. I didn’t think that Alvin had told them to come after me.

The man slammed me into the ATM and snarled into my ear, the heat on my back getting even hotter. Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, and I bit my lip to hold back the sobs that I so desperately wanted to spill out of my mouth.

“Same time. Same place. Same amount of money. Tomorrow.”

The man shoved me away and stormed back to the black SUV sitting at the corner of the street. After he slipped into the passenger seat, they drove away, leaving me at the ATM without any dignity left.

With tears welling in my eyes because my back was still burning, I walked back to work. The dried-up gum on the sidewalk seemed to fly by me, but I was too much in a daze to care or pay attention to anything right now.

My back felt like it was on fire, but I must’ve been … imagining that.

Maybe they cut it with a knife, and the sting was blood seeping out of the wound. I sucked in a breath and tried to figure out how I would explain a bloody shirt to Luciano when I returned. I didn’t have another pair of clothes to change into.

I grabbed the handle of the door and yanked it open, stepping into the warm building and hoping that it wasn’t blood at all. After hissing to myself, I hit the elevator button, and the elevator doors popped open.

Two nice leather shoes stopped a foot away from me, and I stepped out of the way so they’d have room to get by and so I could get into the elevator, but they followed me. I peered up to see Luciano glaring down at me.

“Where have you been?”

I pushed away my tears and stood up taller. “Getting lunch!”

My stomach growled, and he narrowed his eyes, and then they softened.

“You’re crying.”

“N-no, I’m not!” I exclaimed. “I just had something super spicy, and I …”

Luciano stepped closer to me and took my chin in his hand. “Lying will get you in trouble, Miss Cho. And you know what getting in trouble means, don’t you?”

“Th-that I’ll be punished.”

He lifted my chin, so I stared into those dangerous eyes. “Do you want me to punish you?”

“I, um …” I sucked in a breath, and warmth gathered between my legs. “Yes.”