I let the reality of his role sink in. Transferring his slim wrists in one hand, I used the other to grip his chin and forced him to look up at me. “Are we clear? Tell me you understand.”
“I understand,” he whispered. Frowning, I looked at Chase. Fortunately, he seemed to understand what I wanted. “Master.”
Satisfied, I slung him casually over my shoulder, feeling him slump against me.
“Tell my brother I’m retiring for the evening,” I told Henderson.
His eyes flicked to the young man over my shoulder, and I could almost see the gears in his head turning. Being reckless and impulsive wasn’t in my DNA and stealing a boy toy from a dangerous dealer was high on that list.
Except for a few curious looks, the party resumed as if nothing happened. Marco and his men vacated the premises, and Keith gave me a sharp, strange look from the other side of the room. Fuck him. I had other better things to do.
Chapter Two
Chase
The darkness behind my eyelids felt like heaven. I didn’t know where I was or who the hell Marco gave me to for the evening. The dark, at least, was a constant companion. This sweet in-between moment, this limbo where I didn’t need to face reality, was the only solace I had left. It helped me think clearly, past the tempting haze of the drugs Marco fed me on a normal basis and the drugs I’d grown terrifyingly reliant on.
Alone and hidden in the eyes of the world, I mentally recited the mantra I made myself memorize.
My name is Chase Hudson. Chase. Not pet, slave, hole, and a hundred other names that rendered me an object.
Chase.
“Are you awake?” a voice asked, interrupting my train of thought.
It wasn’t a voice I recognized. Not Marco or any of his crew. I groaned in protest, sinking my head into surprising softness. A pillow. I experimentally moved my limbs, testing the surface I was lying on. Soft sheets. A bed. Not the floor or some other hard surface, and, God forbid, not a human-sized cage, but an actual bed. I almost wept in relief.
Sometimes I wondered if I was always this weak and pathetic. I didn’t think I was—impressionable and ignorant maybe, but not weak.
Before Marco and the Reaper Brotherhood, my old life hadn’t been perfect, but it was decent. The neighborhood I grew up in was rough, but not the worst. After growing up in a tiny and crowded apartment, I looked forward to getting the hell out of the space that had encompassed my entire world.
A caged bird suddenly offered freedom doesn’t know the first thing about control or taking small steps. All it’s eager to do is teeter over the edge and hope its wings would do the rest. It soon learns the world out there is a greedy one, eager to see it fall and devour it whole.
I met Marco at one of the parties hosted by a guy in my college dorm. Marco introduced me to my poison. R911, more popularly known as Rapture or simply ‘R,’ was the drug the Brotherhood exclusively manufactured and distributed. They pushed other drugs, of course—meth, cocaine, and heroin—but R was their exclusive label. Parties hosted by the Brotherhood are private and hard to get into, so an invite to one was like winning a golden ticket.
Later, I learned it’s what made the Brotherhood different from the other drug gangs. They streamlined and ran their operation like any good business, covered their tracks well from the DEA and the local authorities, and, on paper, the illegal aspects of their business are covered up by their legal fronts.
They pick young men and women who just reached their majority, those who won’t be missed, who had no one to turn to, or whose families wouldn’t give a shit if they disappeared from the fate of the world.
I fought Marco at first, fought his ownership with a vehemence I didn’t know existed in me, but he broke me in the end. Beaten, violated, and tied down, I truly understood I was no longer free, let alone a real person, when he inked his name on my skin. I’d been rendered his conquest. His object. That confident, overbearing, and naïve man who was eager to spread his wings was no longer me. I just had to look at Marco’s name to remind me.
“You’re awake, are you? If you don’t answer me, slave, I’m going to become very displeased.” There was deep rumble to that strangely familiar voice, but the authority in it had been unmistakable.
There was warning there that implied, if I didn’t answer, I was about to be punished. Large and rough hands touched my left upper thigh, and I opened my eyes, breathing hard. Seeing who was with me in the bed, the instinct to flee rose inside me.
Kade Michaels. The man in charge of cleaning up the messes in the Reaper Brotherhood, and the monster everyone feared.
“The only two things you need to know about Kade Michaels is this,” I remembered Marco telling his new recruit while he made me suck his cock. “When someone needed to be tortured for information, you called Kade. When someone needed killing, you called Kade. So stay the fuck out of the bastard’s way.”
The moment I looked at Kade, I knew something wasn’t right in him. Something in him had been broken and remade into harder and harsher things, made him more monster than human. Being the deluded fool, I’d clung onto his leg, hoping he’d saved me.
I wasn’t sure why I turned to him, only that when Marco first bought and introduced me as his boy to one of the Brotherhood’s parties, Kade’s smile melted me. Back then, I didn’t know what Kade and Marco were, or the shit they were dealing with.
God. Thinking back, I’d been so stupid.
I mentally prepared myself to run. To where, I had no fucking clue. Any place was fine with me as long as it got me as far away as possible from Kade. I was about to flee when I felt the rope looped securely around my left ankle. I jerked, but it was too secure. Fisting my hands, I readied myself to punch him, to deliver some damage. I found, to my chagrin, he bound both of my wrists together with same rope, too.
Kade laughed softly, and the sound of his laughter made me shiver. A man who thought with his cock and fists, I could work with. But Kade also possessed hidden cunning and the ability to turn reward into punishment and vice versa.
Tread carefully, a small voice inside my head reminded me.
Caution warred with anger. Useless defiance won over smart preservation.
“It’s not funny, you fucking bastard,” I rasped.
“Are you certain?” he asked, green eyes amused.
God. Kade might be a killer and a monster, but he was a beautiful one.
He hadn’t bothered dressing from the night before, but he’d taken off his leather jacket. Despite him wearing only a pair of faded jeans and a worn black shirt, I could see the defined and hard lines of his body.
Ink curled around his neck, and both his arms were sleeved with tattoos. The Reaper Brotherhood’s symbol, Death holding a thorny scythe, was inked across the right hand stroking my thigh. His touch wasn’t bruising or hurting. It was playful almost, but I knew better. I’d been used by enough men, men who came in all sorts of flavors, and was wise enough to not be deceived by appearances.
“Try waking up, chained to some stranger’s bed, without a clue to what happened to you the night before,” I retorted. I instantly regretted my words the moment they came out of my mouth.
“Don’t take the ropes too personally, pup. I needed to tie you up to prevent you from hurting yourself,” Kade continued.
“Fuck you.”
Kade’s grip didn’t tighten on my thigh. Not touching my cock, he traced his way up, past my belly, up my ribs, my chest, the column of my throat, and to my lips. His touches were brief, impersonal, but they were still capable of making my body quiver like a plucked bowstring.
Finally, he spoke. “You have a mouth on you, don’t you, pup?”
“I’m not your pup.” Oh, fuck. What was wrong with me? I winced, expecting a blow that never came.
Kade traced my bottom lip, his expression frighteningly calm and thoughtful. Then he spoke, his voice low. “Let’s get this straight. Marco transferred his ownership rights to me last night, so you belong to me. Every
part of you, beginning with this.”
His other hand found its way to the base of my cock. He began tracing the veined length, balls to tip. To my chagrin, each touch sent a jolt right through my core. Vainly, I wanted my hands free to cover my throbbing erection. The intensity of Kade’s gaze made me feel exposed and vulnerable.
Did one look tell him my secret? That underneath it all, I remained partly a virgin?
“Stop struggling, or you’ll force me to really punish you.” The tight anger there made me freeze and obey.
For the first time, I realized, with shame, why I reacted like this. I never wanted to be someone else’s toy, never wanted to have strangers touching me and making use of my body, but I wanted Kade to touch me.
Did that make me sick? I didn’t know. All I knew was that his touches up until then were impersonal and curious, but not now. His big hand was like a glowing brand against my prick. To my shame, I began to thicken underneath him.
“Even your cock knows who it belongs to, pup,” Kade said. He was right.
I strained to keep my legs closed, but he easily pried them apart again. His fingers wandered down to the pucker of my asshole.
“Please. Please not there,” I cried. “It’s going to hurt if you take me there.”
“Not here?” Kade raised an eyebrow. “But it’s mine as much as you’re mine. I’m sure other men have made used of this hole as well.”
“They haven’t. Marco has been saving…” I trailed off, unable to finish as a frightening glint appeared in his eyes.
Shut up, Chase. Stop giving him more ammunition to work with.
“At least one part of you remains intact, but you’re not going to remain an anal virgin for long.”
Kade’s words made me flinch. I wasn’t sure about being taken there. I had only been penetrated with fingers and small plugs because Marco had been saving me for a particularly nasty client.
Kade gathered the pre-cum from my tip, wet his fingers, and began circling the little ring of flesh. Relief filled me when he took his hand away, but relief became short-lived. He delivered a sudden and open-handed smack to my cock. It jolted my entire body. I twisted to avoid the blow, but he kept one firm hand on my thigh.
“Stop. It hurts. Please.”
“Are you sure it hurts, Chase? The way you’re getting hard forces me to believe otherwise. Stop crying and take the blows like a good boy. You’re fortunate I’m not using a crop on your dirty little cock.”
Wet slapping sounds filled the room as I bit on my lip, but Kade was right. Heat began filling my body, radiating from my cock, my chest, and to the rest of me. By the time he finished, I practically writhed and thrusted myself at him.
“Look at you. You’re really such a slutty boy who enjoys this.”
There was no nastiness, no hint of malice in Kade’s words, and that made it worse. My entire body felt flushed, wanting, but Kade denied me relief.
“I hate you,” I whispered, instantly regretting my words. I prepared myself for violence
Kade watched me, his eyes bottomless pools of darkness. Unfathomable, immovable, and lacking mercy. I realized, not for the first time since my captivity was transferred to another, that I was way out of my league with this man. I told myself everything I’m doing is for the sake of my survival. My body reacted in strange ways because it knew from experience that it had to.
Marco’s leering face loomed in my mind again, transporting me momentarily to the little cage he kept me in. He’d placed me on my knees over the cage, and the metal bit into my belly and legs. He’d rammed a vibrator into my ass. “You like that, don’t you, hole? Even after I’ve used you as a punching bag, all I need is to drug you. Your sweet little body will do the rest.”
I pulled myself from the awful memories to glare at Kade. Eventually, the monster in front of me would let his guard down after he noticed I became compliant to his demands. Obedient. When he did, I made the plans for my escape.
My name is Chase Hudson. Chase.
Survivor.
Chapter Three
Chase
“Hate me while you can because it may be the last luxury you can afford. I’m not the kind of Master who will beat his slave into submission. I’m going to make you crave your submission,” Kade said in the same flat voice.
I looked back at him, suddenly terrified. The courage I’d summoned faltered. I’d screamed, cursed, and fought Marco tooth and nail. Even though I caved in to his promises of drug-filled hours of bliss, I retained and preserved some measure of my former self.
With Kade, I became uncertain. One look at him told me he was not just capable of destroying me. He was certain to disentangle me piece by piece until there was nothing of me to salvage.
He got up and opened one of the drawers of the dresser beside the bed.
“I’m sorry, Master.” The words, so hard to say before, easily flowed out of me now.
“Every mistake earns you a punishment. It’s a basic rule I expected you to learn by now, Chase,” Kade said with obvious disappointment.
My heart painfully thumped against my chest as he leisurely took his time looking through his drawer of horrors. Remembering the awful night Marco inked his name on my skin nearly made me hyperventilate.
I didn’t want to disappoint Kade because his disappointment meant he’d return me to Marco. I didn’t want to find out what Marco would do to second-hand goods.
“You’ll be wearing this during your training, and you’ll only be allowed to take it off when I say you can.” Kade held out something silver for me to see.
It was a small anal plug. I swallowed, nodding. This wasn’t so hard, I thought, until he began laying out more plugs on the bed, five in all, growing longer and thicker in size.
“I’ll be fitting you with these until you’re ready to take me,” Kade said, stroking my inner thigh. Then he applied a generous amount of lube over my hole and slid one thick finger in, stopping at his knuckle. “Tell me how you feel.”
“It feels odd, but not entirely unpleasant,” I confessed, gasping when he slid the entire finger and included another.
“Stay still,” he chided. I struggled to obey as he scissored his fingers. Kade withdrew and slathered more lube over my hole and his toy. “Relax for me, Chase. I’m not going to hurt you. There’s going to be a burn, but that’s all.”
I relaxed, and he was right. It didn’t hurt at all, although I was uncomfortably aware of the plug between my legs. Kade pressed one firm hand on my belly, his eyes searching mine.
“Are you going to defy me, or you going to be obedient, pup?”
I shook my head furiously.
“Good.”
Then he shocked the hell out of me by untying my ankle and my hands. Uncertainly, I sat up. I told myself not to show surprise, to show much of anything really. I had a feeling Kade was good at reading expressions.
“Remember this, Chase. I reward good behavior and punish bad ones. You understand?” He stroked me, my ribs, abs, thigh as he spoke.
I wondered why I hadn’t been entirely repulsed by his touch. I was disgusted at myself for liking his gentle touches, but being touched like a treasured pet was better than being manhandled in my book. With Marco, everything was scripted. He and his men handled me roughly, like an animal incapable of obeying even the simple commands unless I was drugged.
“Answer me, Chase.”
“Yes, Master.”
He picked up several more items from the drawer. Seeing the metal bands and the metal rings attached to them made me nervous. Reflex made me kick at Kade’s hand when he drew out my ankle. Kade easily caught my foot, and the strength of his grip was a gentle reminder he could easily overpower me.
“I’m sorry, Master,” I whispered, forcing my legs to grow still.
He thoughtfully stroked my ankle before fastening the band around it. I didn’t fight when he clipped similar bands over my other ankle and both my wrists.
“No need to be frightened of these,
Chase. They’re just waterproof platinum bands. I simply like the option of attaching or positioning you whenever I want,” he said, stroking my wrists.
I examined them. They weren’t heavy or restrictive as I expected. From an outsider’s point-of-view, they could even pass as bracelets. He then reached out for the simple box on the dresser, and I wearily watched him open it. Kade once again held it out for me to see, as if he was mockingly saying ‘no harm.’
I blinked to process what I was seeing. A collar to match the wrist and ankle bands—a slim platinum band that could have passed for jewelry with a little lock. Marco’s thick leather collar seemed crude in comparison. Remembering the crude leather band, my hand crept to my neck, finding it bare. No wonder I slept so well. I loathed that thing with a passion. It felt like I was always choking on it.
I let Kade gather my hair aside and fasten the collar. Kade’s collar didn’t feel oppressive, but the opposite. The weight reminded me of the comfort of Kade’s protection. Wearing this collar would tell the world I belonged to Kade now. I didn’t know whether I should feel relief or horror that I was coming to terms with the conditions of my new captivity.
Trading one collar for another and trading a new cage for another is nothing to be proud of, Chase.
“It suits you. Stay still.” Kade’s large hands touched my shoulders. I tensed, relaxing when he began massaging them until all the tension ebbed away. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it, pup?” Kade asked. I shivered when I felt his lips on the side of my neck.
“It wasn’t so bad, Master,” I agreed.
“Good. I’m sure you’re hungry.” He stood, and I followed.
Kade frowned and pointed to the floor. Bad memories of Marco repeatedly hitting me and telling me I was a worthless piece of shit made me drop to all fours. Kade’s unpredictability confused me because he could be cold and heartless one moment and gentle the next. I didn’t know how to act around him yet.
Rapture Page 2
