Chapter 23

“Rachel? Are you all right? Rachel, talk to me!”

I came back to consciousness slowly, to the sound of an urgent familiar voice in my ear and a gentle hand patting my cheek. I blinked slowly, trying to focus. It was Richard holding me in his arms and looking at me with a worried expression. But where was I? And why was I naked?

“Richard?” I murmured uncertainly. At the sound of my voice, his face was filled with relief.

“Oh, thank God! Are you all right?”

“I…think so.” I moved my arms and legs experimentally. Everything seemed to work fine except that I had a deep, almost pleasurable ache between my legs. I pressed my thighs together, wondering where ~that~ had come from when suddenly images began flooding my memory. Richard changing, becoming the beast. The beast coming toward me, sniffing at Genevieve. The way I had been forced to distract it…what I had let it do to me…and how much I had wanted it even though it was disgusting and wrong.

I let out an involuntary cry as my memory returned completely and tried to jerk out of Richard’s arms. But he wasn’t about to let me go.

“Don’t,” he said softly. “I…I can imagine what must have happened between us even though I don’t remember any of it. All I know is the bond is sealed—I can feel it. Did…did I hurt you?”

“What do you think?” I avoided his eyes, avoided thinking about the pain and pleasure he had put me through in his beast form. Of the way my body had reacted against my will—the worst kind of betrayal.

“I think I want you to tell me what happened and how you feel about it,” he said patiently.

“I’m not exactly overjoyed,” I said stiffly. “But you must be happy. Now that the bond is ~sealed~, as you put it.”

He ran a hand through his hair, and a look of abject shame crossed his handsome features. “Of course I’m not happy. I hurt you. I never wanted that. I’m sorry. So Goddamn sorry, Rache.”

“Sorry can’t take back what happened,” I whispered. “It can’t help you undo the past. Can’t make me forget…” I trailed off, shaking my head. No way in hell was I going to tell him what I had felt when he bred me. I didn’t even want to admit it to myself.

“I don’t know what to say to you. How to make this up to you.” Richard took one of my hands and looked into my eyes. “But I swear to you, I ~swear~ that nothing like that will ever happen to you again. Now that the bond between us is sealed, I’ll never have to change again if I don’t want to. And even if I do change, I won’t lose my ability to think or have to kill anyone to come back to my human form. You cured me of all that, Rachel, and for that, I’ll be forever grateful.”

“You’re right,” I said, pulling my hand out of his. “It’s never going to happen again because you and I are finished, Richard. Completely finished. As brother and sister and as…whatever else we were to each other. After tonight, I don’t want anything else to do with you.”

“What?” He looked at me in disbelief. “But we’re bonded now, Rachel. We belong together—we need each other. You don’t mean that.”

“Yes,” I said. “I do.” I struggled to sit up and get away from him, away from the constant pull of my body towards his. There was no way I should want him again, not after what I had just been through. But I did, despite the ache between my thighs, I still did. I was sick and not just physically. I looked away from him, looked around the warehouse to keep from meeting his eyes.

We were still in the large iron cage, but now there was a gaping hole between two of the bars. It looked like a creature with immense strength had bent and broken its way through the side of the cage. Richard hadn’t been kidding when he said sealing the bond with me would give him ten times his normal strength, apparently. But the damage to the cage didn’t concern me nearly as much as what I saw outside it.

Lying in grotesque heaps like piles of dirty laundry, lifeless bodies littered the warehouse floor. It was still very dark, but my night vision told me that Tampa was now less six or seven wiseguys. Along with Gravel Voice and a few others I didn’t recognize, I saw the sharp features of Momo the shark Andretti. I couldn’t believe he’d done so much damage while I was passed out.

“Oh, my God, Richard!” I turned to him and noticed for the first time that there was blood drying on his broad bare chest. “What did you do?”

“I had to.” His green eyes were pleading. “It was either that or let them kill us both. That’s what they came here for, Rachel, to see me put on a show and then to shoot us and get rid of the bodies. What was I supposed to do?”

“I...I don’t know.” The sight of so much blood sickened me, and I found myself longing for the familiar if boring existence I had been leading before Richard came back. I had disobeyed my mother’s dying wish and let him into my life, and look where it had gotten me. Not content with incest and bestiality, I could now include mass murder in the list of delightful life experiences my adopted brother had subjected me to. Suddenly, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I knew I had to get out of there, out of the cage and the warehouse where I had seen and endured so much, and away from Richard who was the cause of it or I would scream.

I got to my feet, ducking away from Richard when he would have lent me a hand, and began gathering my scattered clothing. I didn’t bother with the panties, nylons, or bra. I just shrugged back into my shirt and pulled my work skirt back up over my trembling, sticky thighs. There was blood on my skin—my blood—and other substances I didn’t want to think about. I wanted to take a bath in the worst way or at least a very hot shower, but I had a lot to do before I could sink into a hot tub filled with bubbles.

“What are you doing?” Richard asked reasonably. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“First of all, I’m going to take Genevieve to the ER,” I said. As I said the words, I had a sudden surge of panic. “She’s still breathing, isn’t she?”

Richard nodded slowly. “Yes. She never regained consciousness through the entire thing.”

“Thank God for that.” The idea of my friend seeing what had happened to me was unthinkable. I didn’t want Genevieve to have any permanent damage, but I was grateful beyond belief that she hadn’t seen my shameful submission to Richard’s beast.

“You’re ashamed of it. Ashamed of what we did, aren’t you?” Richard asked in a low voice.

“What do you think?” I snapped. “And don’t you mean I’m ashamed of what ~you~ did to me?”

He faced me, his big body tense. “Rachel, tell me now if I raped you. I don’t believe I would have taken you completely against your will—even in beast form—~especially~ in beast form. I can tell by your scent whether you want me or not. If your body is ready for mine.”

“I…” I blushed hard, looking away.

“What did I do?” Richard demanded, his deep voice insistent. “I need to know, Rachel. Did I force you down on the ground? Did I?”

I thought of the way I had faced the bars and spread my legs. The way I had offered myself to him, dipping into my wet sex to tempt him with my scent. But what other choice had I had? I shook my head.

“Well?” Richard sounded more and more upset and I could see I wasn’t going anywhere until he got an answer.

“No,” I almost shouted. “No, I…” My voice dropped to a whisper. “You were going to kill Genevieve—to eat her. I had to distract you some way so I…so I let you do what you did. I had to.”

“So you didn’t want me at all? Your body didn’t react to mine in the least?” He was probing now, looking for answers I didn’t want to give. He stepped closer to me and lifted my chin to look in my eyes. “Were you wet, Rachel?” he murmured. “Did you come?”

“That’s none of your business!” I jerked away from him and pointed at Genevieve’s sprawled form. “Help me get her out to the car so I can take her to the ER. And after that, you need to clean up this mess. Bury the bodies or dispose of them some other way—I don’t care. Just don’t tell me about it.”

I knew that was wrong, knew that I ought to be calling the police right now and letting them handle the bloody crime scene the empty warehouse had become and the old me would have done just that. But when I tried to care, I just couldn’t. The old me—the me that cared about truth and justice and due process—was dead. There was a new woman in her place. A woman who had been forged in blood and fire and pain and pleasure and all she cared about—all I cared about—was getting out of here and forgetting everything that had happened in this God-forsaken place.

Richard was still naked, his jeans ripped to shreds, but he didn’t seem to mind it or maybe he was just concentrating on what he could say to change my mind. He was smart enough not to speak a word until Genevieve was deposited safely in my car and strapped in, but obviously he wasn’t about to let me go without a struggle. Before I could start the engine he came around to the driver’s side and grabbed my hands.

“Rachel, don’t go. Not like this.” There was desperation in his deep voice and need too, as if he could never get enough of me. I felt the pull of his body once more, the tingling between my thighs and at the sensitive tips of my breasts. Despite the ordeal I had been through tonight, or maybe because of it, my body still wanted him. But I refused to give in.

“I have to go,” I told him. “I have to get Genevieve to the ER. And you have to clean up this mess.” I thought of the last time he’d ‘cleaned up a mess,’ of his rough tongue between my legs, licking the last of his essence from my sex and had to suppress a shiver of desire. ~I don’t want him anymore,~ I told myself sternly. ~Not like that. Never again.~

“We’re bonded now, Rachel,” he said, still looking intently into my eyes. “That means neither one of us is complete without the other. Don’t break our bond so soon. I need you and you need me. We’ll never be happy apart, either one of us.”

“Forget happy,” I said frowning. “I’d settle for ~sane~ at this point. Richard, I just want things in my life to go back to normal. To go back to the way things were before…before you came back to me.”

“Fine.” He released my hands and folded his arms across his broad, bloody chest. “I’ll see you later.”

“I hope not,” I said shortly. I slammed the door and drove away, leaving him standing in the darkness.