RILEY
“This your last chance to submit, Riley,” Trevor was smiling down at her. “You can make this easy for yourself. Just give me one more chance with you. I can make it worth your time, remind you of how good we used to be together.”
She shook her head slowly. She was weak, beaten and in a lot of pain. She couldn’t stand anymore, not without a lot of pain lancing through her.
“I could just take you,” he chuckled. “But I want you to submit nice and pretty like you used to.”
She knew he could. She didn’t have the strength to fight him off anymore. But that didn’t fit with his game. He wanted her to give up first and she wouldn’t give him that. He wanted her to submit more then he ever wanted her body.
“No,” she croaked at him.
He shocked her and she screamed. She bucked from the pain, which caused all the other bruises to hurt as well.
“I don’t like hurting you, Riley,” he whispered down at her. “You just need to listen to me. You listened to your Alpha right?”
She said nothing because there was nothing to say. She did listen to Brenton. He didn’t torture her. He wanted her happy even if that meant he never got to be with her. She respected him for it. She cared about him for it. She wanted to go home, back to bossy Brenton. Back to temperamental Zachary, back to goofy Troy and Gabe. Back to her sweet Andrew. She bit back the tears before they could fall.
Trevor would never earn her willing participation in this. He had never deserved it and it took her years to realize it. If he needed to do this for a woman to fuck him, then he was nothing. She would never fall for this again. He had once convinced that he was all she would ever have. Now she knew in her heart that he was wrong and nothing he could do would take the away from her.
“Go to hell,” she whispered at him. This time he kicked her ribs and she couldn’t stop the tears of pain falling from her eyes.
She wished she knew why she was here. She knew someone put out a contract to capture her alive but she had no idea why. Was it someone trying to get back at her guys? It had to be. She had no idea who would want to do this to her for anything she’d ever done.
Trevor was just one of the guys who captured her. That was just unlucky for her and she needed to survive him until she was rescued or traded away like a sack of potatoes.
“Riley, I’m out of patience,” he snarled. “Fine. Maybe after this, you’ll remember who you belong to.”
She sobbed and shook her head as Trevor undid his belt.
Gun fire shocked them both. Roars and screams echoed in the small house, right in the living room. Trevor cursed and grabbed her arm, pulling her up front of him. He pulled his handgun and placed it to her temple, glaring at the door.
“Move and I shoot you,” Trevor hissed in her ear.
It was only a minute for all the sound to stop. The silence after was more deafening then the battle they had heard.
It was another thirty seconds before the door swung open. Riley cried out at the sight of Andrew, who aimed an assault rifle into the room. Brenton was right there with him, a massive male lion covered in blood snarling towards her and Trevor.
“Attack and she dies,” Trevor snarled, pressing the gun into her head harder. She winced and tried to keep her eyes on Brenton. He took a step back, shaking his mane with the action.
“Kill her and you don’t see another day,’ Andrew whispered softly. “Let her go and we’ll let you walk away.”
“You’re going to let me take her out of the building. You are going to let me get in a car and drive away. I’ll drop her off at the end of the drive way.” Trevor snarled at Andrew. Riley realized that Trevor was holding them against the wall.
“No. You let her go now and we all walk out. You can leave whenever you please after that.” Andrew was calm, his rifle still pointed at them.
“We have other problems,’ Troy called. It made Trevor stiffen and jam the gun into her again. “Two vehicles just rolled up. I’ve got them in my sights.”
“Now look,” Andrew smiled to Trevor. “We aren’t letting those guys take her. You aren’t getting your money. You might want to leave alive since they will be furious that we are taking her and not them. Just listen to me.”
Riley stood quietly and felt Trevor relax just a little. The gun was pointed up a little. She could do this. If she fell to the ground, Andrew could take the shot.
She collapsed and gun fire went off over her head. She scrambled to Brenton as Andrew put Trevor down. Brenton let her grab hold his mane and cry while Andrew searched through Trevor’s pockets.
When Andrew got back to her, he was holding a key.
“Let’s get this off of you, darling,” his voice was thick from emotion and she nodded to him.
“Please.” Her voice was just hoarse and nearly gone.
The collar fell off and she touched her neck. It hurt. Andrew hissed at the sight and Brenton growled, low and deep in his chest.
“You three done? Riley secured?” Troy again. “These guys are losing patience with us. They didn’t like hearing gunfire.”
Brenton spun out and Andrew told Riley to shift in case she needed to run for it. She did and everything ached. She could limp in cat form better then she could run in human form, thankfully.
She followed Andrew and Brenton into the living room and saw Zachary and Gabe, in feline form as well. Troy was holding a gun trained on the front door, which was broken open.
She rubbed into Zachary, pushing herself nearly between his front legs and waited for what was next.
“We’re here to pay for and pick up a package,” a guy to them.
“We know,” Troy called back. “That package was stolen from us. So I recommend you turn around and leave with your money.”
“We can’t do that, our boss wants it.” The guy was silent for a moment. “We’ll give you the money if you just turn it over.”
“Do you know who we are?” Andrew yelled out to them.
“No, should I?” She noted the confusion in the guy’s voice.
“We’re the Kingson Pride, mother fucker. So unless you want to die today, turn the fuck around and leave,” Troy jerked his gun, motioning at something Riley couldn’t see. “Maybe you should also quit your jobs. Because after we secure our female, we’re fucking taking your God damn pride down, starting from the fucking top. Tell that to your fucking boss!”
There was mumbling outside she couldn’t hear.
“We’ll go,” the voice called out. “We’ll tell our boss that the group we were trading with was already dead and you had her back before we got here.”
“Good.” Andrew snarled. “Fucking move out, dick heads.”
It took a couple minutes but vehicles turned and she heard them leave. None of the shifters had spoken for the entire thing. It was just comforting to lean on Zachary. It was all she needed.
*We need to get back to the car, shift back to human and have Andrew carry you.* Brenton’s tone offered no space for argument. *I don’t want you pushing yourself until we know your injuries.*
She shifted and told Andrew when Brenton said. He handed his gun to Troy, who swung it on his back, Andrew carried her like a baby.
“T-Thank you,” she finally mumbled to them. “I’m s-s-so sorry!” She burst into tears and Andrew shhed her, kissing her forehead.
“None of this if your fault,” Andrew whispered. “None of it.”
She wanted to believe him, she really did. Held on to that for the entire slow walk back to the two SUVs they brought and parked on a small dirt road off the highway. Andrew place her carefully in the passenger seat of one and jumped into the backseat. Troy and Gabe climbed into the other one in front of her after giving her a shirt to cover herself. They would be heading straight home to put all the weapons away. Brenton was dressed when he climbed into the driver’s seat and so was Zachary in the back with Andrew. None of them were covered in blood anymore and Brenton sported damp hair.
“Why?” She asked them softly, her throat hurt. “Why me?”
“I’ll tell you after you see a doctor,” Brenton told her frankly, looking straight ahead as they drove away from the hell she had been in.
“If you know, I want to know,” she bit back for more tears and put as much force in her voice as she could, even with the rawness of her throat. “T-T-They wouldn’t t-t-tell me.”
“They didn’t know why other then there was a two million dollar contract on you,” Brenton sighed. “It has to do with your mother and I’ll explain everything when we get home after you see a doctor.”
“Brenton,” she croaked angrily. “I think I deserve to know now.”
“I don’t want to hurt you more!” He roared at her. “I want you worried about your health. Let me worry about the rest until we know you aren’t going to have any permanent harm! Until we know you aren’t going to fucking die in a day from injuries we don’t know about!”
She shrank back and Brenton cursed. Andrew and Zachary were both completely silent in the back. She wondered how they felt about this.
“Riley, I’m sorry,” he took a shuddered breath. “I just can’t get into this right now. You need to see a doctor and that’s all I really want to care about right now.”
She nodded slowly and curled in her seat. She hurt so bad, physically and emotionally. She wondered what any of this had to do with her mother. Lily Stern had been dead for nearly eighteen years. Riley was so confused and they wouldn’t tell her anything.