Hayden’s gut rolled and a chill of fear, heavier and colder than the wind outside, blew across his skin. He shivered, sucked in air and got a lungful of that smell. Bitter, infectious, and as powerful as it was unavoidable. The scent coated his tongue, settled across his molars and made him salivate deep in the back of his mouth.
Rachelle slid her feet to her ass, then dropped her legs open, exposing her more of her pussy. The slick curves of her nether lips glistened, her opening a welcome sheath. She was telling Hayden to fuck her, right there on the floor while Matthew shoved his dick in and out of her mouth. Hayden hated himself for wanting to. Needing to impale her. Jam his cock into her. Shatter her.
The nasty truth came from the back of his mind. If Rachelle hadn’t insisted on following that damn map, they wouldn’t have been there, stranded in the woods, captive. Lust, resentment, and self-hatred exploded inside him, then fought up from the black depths of his soul. He ground his teeth, trying to get the acrid taste from his mouth.
“Now you’re getting the idea, Hayden.” Matthew moved his hips back, pulling his cock out to dangle it above Rachelle’s mouth. She licked his glistening shaft, her tongue looking small as she carefully stroked the underside as though tasting his dick was her ultimate pleasure.
Her pleasure, her decision.
That’s what this was all about. What she’d wanted—following the map, coming here.
Rachelle reached up and took Matthew’s cock in both hands, gently guiding it in to her mouth as she tipped her head back to get it deep in her throat until she had to struggle to take more.
Hayden’s lip curled in disgust. For her. For himself.
“Something on your mind, Hayden?” Matthew asked, spreading his legs so his hips were closer to Rachelle’s mouth. The man’s gaze zeroed in on Hayden’s rigid cock. “Because this isn’t the time for talking.”
Hayden was going to fuck Rachelle, and he was going to like it. He knew it. Matthew knew it.
“There’s more where this came from, Hayden. I have enough for you, enough to keep you fucking all night. Women, men, whoever you want, however you want it.”
“Fuck off.”
Matthew’s laughter made Hayden clench his jaw.
Once the howls subsided, Matthew forced his cock into Rachelle’s mouth so deeply that his sac pressed against her temple. She choked then moved her head to get air. He rocked into her, jerking his hips back and forth, driving himself into her mouth. She continued gagging, her eyes wide, salvia running down from the corner of her mouth, but her mouth stayed open as though she welcomed the challenging punishment.
“Do whatever you want,” he said. “She won’t remember this, not any little second.”
Hayden watched Matthew fuck his girlfriend’s mouth, mesmerized by the rhythm of the man’s body, swaying back and forth, rocking into her while she struggled. Each time he drew out, she gasped for air then sucked him back in, more spit streaming down the sides of her mouth and dripping onto the fur. Scorching curls of anger and disgust rose inside him, turning and twisting, silencing the last voices of his decency, giving space to the bleak fire of lust that flickered higher and higher.
Hayden stared down at Rachelle, his body stiff, tense and simmering with a low rage he hadn’t known he possessed. The anger rose like steam, coming slowly then thickening, finding its own way, its own path. The sensation gurgled through him, filling his veins with new, wilder blood. Even the air he pulled into his lungs was different. “It’s a well-crafted tea,” Matthew said, taking his dick from Rachelle’s mouth. She continued the licking motions for a few seconds, until her brain understood the cock was gone. “It dulls the mind just enough to quell the conscience shut down memory.”
Rachelle lifted her chin and tried to connect her gaze with his, but the effects of the tea must have been too much because she gave up, turned away, began stroking her breasts then pinching her nipples as she rolled her hips in inviting circles. Hayden ground his teeth, let out a hot breath and looked upward. Unlike Rachelle’s, Matthew’s gaze was sharp. Brewing behind the awareness was an unquenchable evil that was as compelling as it was repulsive.
“If you ever wondered what she’s really like,” Matthew said, “you know, the person under whatever careful side she always shows you and everyone else, wonder no more. Here’s the real girl under the mask.”
Matthew jerked his hips, once again jamming his dick in and out of Rachelle’s mouth. Each time she coughed, his mouth twisted into a snarling grin until she once again opened her mouth to rounded her lips around his shaft, diligently sucking, desperately working to give in to even the fiercest thrusts. “Good girl,” he said, stroking the side of her head. “I know you’d die for me, to give me what I need.”
“Watch this, Hayden,” he said, shifting forward to put his cock into Rachelle’s mouth, then holding it there. She struggled, a slick trail of saliva rolled down from the corner of her mouth as her eyes flickered shut. Matthew tilted her head back, adjusting better for several deep, belligerent thrusts. Hayden’s own dick stiffened more, lifting until it jutted forward.
Hayden moved forward, feeling the weight of the chain on his hipbones and across his back as he knelt between Rachelle’s legs. She showed none of the hungry urgency that had turned him on the night before. Now she was nothing more than a willing vessel for his lust, a place to shove his cock, a body to receive his pent up fury.
He unlooped the chain from his waist, let it hang from his neck to the ground.
“It’s what’s good for you, Hayden.” Matthew paused. “Trust me, I know. Do it.” Then he began again.
Hayden’s own world hung on the fringes of his awareness, that place where right and wrong existed. He reeled back and soaked in the corruption, inhaled it in. Once the last of his consciousness faded into the wretched haze of his mind, he placed his cock at Rachelle’s slick opening and impaled her. She bucked, the movement of her hips acknowledging his entry, inviting him to fuck her.
And he did.
He fell into the simmering fury, newly churning within him and drove into her. The chain swung beside him. He reached for it, but Matthew was quicker, snatching the end. It swayed above Rachelle, connecting them. Hayden threw himself back, trying to break the other man’s grip on the chain. Again, the other man was ready, laughing with a tight grip. Hayden tried again anyway. The edge of the neck ring cut into his already deeply scratched flesh, a thin stream of blood ran down his chest. The red line hit the hair of his lower abdomen, snaking a path to where his body connected to Rachelle’s.
Matthew held the chain taut, the swing of his hips becoming sharper, wilder, his face a mask of sexual tension and fierce pleasure. There was no humanity in his eyes, only bottomless carnal hunger. Hayden joined him, pumping into Rachelle.
Her breasts bounced as he worked his dick into her, her whole body in motion. Hooks of darkness came to him and pulled him in, guiding him into the empty place of his soul where only he existed. He clung on the edge of awareness, then tumbled in. The fall was sweet torture, but even then he knew the scars would be with him forever. The rings of tension circled his shaft and gripped his sac, squeezing harder, tighter, pulling on the last threads of his humanity. A shiver ran down Hayden’s back, igniting a ring of release that started at the base of his cock.
Across from him, Matthew’s groans filled the air, the vibrations creating a raw wave of shivers that ran across Hayden’s skin made his muscles knot and his teeth chatter. The rings of tension gripped him for long seconds, then began a slow, torturous release. Inch by inch, the circles widened, held then let go. The sensation crept across him, slowing time, taking pieces of his humanity.
After the last spasm of his ejaculation, Hayden dropped back onto his heels and swiped away the trail of blood on his torso. But that wouldn’t erase what he’d done or how he’d felt doing it. Rachelle had faded into complete unconsciousness, her eyes closed and her entire body slack.
“Good work, Hayden. You fucked her
out of her mind.” Matthew, green glimmer gone from his eyes, tossed the chain down, then began caressing his softened cock as he got to his feet.
Matthew tugged the cloak out from under Rachelle, making her tumble across the straw. Her only response was a murmur. He wrapped it around himself, then braced his palms in the cage doorway. “Got to get going sooner than later, Mattie. Meeting in an hour. The lodge. Be there.” He glanced at the floor then looked to Hayden. “Come alone.” He leaned forward, stretched his back, the line of ink running down his spine twisting with the motion, then exited.
Rachelle’s eyes were finally open but barely focusing.
Mattie had put on her cloak and was waiting by the door, hands by her sides, face blank.
The chain pulled on Hayden’s neck ring, causing it to rub against the raw places where it had been cutting into his skin. He lifted the links to release some of the physical pain, but the shock of what he’d just done, been part of, lingered, settling into him, becoming part of him.
The first rays of the morning sun sliced through the window, illuminating the dust rising from the straw as Rachelle stirred. She moaned softly, then tucked her legs tightly to her chest and looked over her knees.
“I did what you wanted, Hayden. Brought you to your sweet Rachelle, so you could make sure she’s all right. Being taken care of. Don’t you want to thank me?”
Rachelle untucked herself, rolled onto her side, and tucked her hands under her cheek. “You wanted to come see me Hayden? That’s so sweet.”
Doubt and confusion he had expected, but shame and regret, those were two things he had not been expecting from his request to see his girlfriend. Disgust, another.
Mattie rapped on one of the slats of the cage. “Come. Get your cloak.”
Hayden turned away from Rachelle, exited the cage, and handed the chain to Mattie. He put his boots on, then she led him from the room, back down the hall, through the room lit with square lanterns and out through the door. The two guards were still outside, one on each side, but the third on the pony was gone.
Streaks of morning sun sliced through the trees, making the snow heaped branches shine. Hayden stepped into Mattie’s tracks, using her footprints to guide him through the snow. They walked between some shrubs but left on a different route than they’d come. After rounding a corner, Hayden spotted soft gray rings of smoke rising from a longhouse, the sort of building scout camps used for meals. He trudged on, his feet rising and falling in the snow, the faint scent of smoke surrounding him.
Low voices floated on the wind, but he couldn’t tell what direction they were coming from. When he slowed to look around, the chain lifted then pinched his neck.
“What?” Mattie asked, holding the chain taut.
Hayden turned, listening for the sound but pretended to look at the yard. Soon he was studying it in earnest. Fresh tracks ran in every direction, circling the longhouse and an extremely wide-trunked tree. Probably a maple, judging by the arch of the branches and the overall shape. But it wasn’t the type of tree he was most interested in, it was the trunk, scarred by a circle of tattered bark about three feet from the base.
“What are you looking at?” she asked, loosening the chain.
The circle of torn and broken bark was fresh. “Did you bring me this way to see if I’d notice the tree?”
Her mouth stayed shut.
He squinted against the sunlight reflecting off the fresh snow as he tipped his head toward the tree. “They do the rituals outside, even in the winter?”
Mattie pointed to the branches, some weighted with snow, others blown bare by the wind. “They think the tree adds power, vitality, to the ritual. The bigger the tree, the more energy it possesses. This tree gets a lot of use.”
“ They?” Hayden repeated the word, forcing her to recognize that she hadn’t included herself with them.
She turned her back on him, spoke over her shoulder. “I could’ve brought you here last night instead of doing what you wanted, taking you to Rachelle.”
“This isn’t about what I want. It hasn’t been ever since the start.”
She shrugged, then shoved aside the edge of her cloak, exposing her pale thigh. A stream of melted snow ran down the inside of her leg and rolled down the curve of her calf. The trail of moisture disappeared into her boot, and he looked up, connecting with her gaze. She lifted an eyebrow. The memory of her perched on the library table and him shoving his cock into her tight pussy exploded in his mind.
Had he really wanted that? Really?
Her gaze moved from the tree to the longhouse. “Not everything’s about sex.”
Hayden laughed, a rough, dry bark. “Tell that to Matthew.”
She winced, stepped back, and tugged the chain.
He jogged forward to release the sharp tension. “What’s going on with you two?”
“It wasn’t always like this.” She lowered her hand, giving the chain some slack. “Things changed. He changed.”
Overhead, a hawk screeched, cutting through the spiral of smoke rising from the chimney. Another swooped down to snatch something from a shady patch beneath a narrow pine. A third dove low, calling as it neared the ground but swept back up, claws empty.
They’d been standing long enough that the chill was beginning to make Hayden shiver. He tugged the cloak around himself. “What about Rachelle?”
Mattie scoffed. “What about her?”
Hayden gazed into the sky, watching for another bird as he repeated her question to himself. No answer came to mind.
“I want to go.” Mattie turned, stepping through the snow with a long stride, soon quickening her pace, speeding up to a jog as she pulled him across the snow, toward her cabin.
Chapter Seven
“Don’t try to play me.”
The fire had burned down and the cabin was cold.
After locking the chain to the ring embedded in the bed, Mattie crossed to the cabinet beside the wood stove. Her shoulders jerked as she pulled out two cans of corned beef hash and set them on the table. She set the teakettle on the corner of the stove then stood with her back to him, arms crossed across her chest. “Since you didn’t reply I’m going to ask again. Are you satisfied Rachelle is okay?”
Hayden kicked off his boots and, still wearing the cloak, pulled the bed cover over himself. “That’s not why we went over there,” he said, stiffening his muscles to ward off a round of shivers.
She spun on her heels so sharply she had to grab the edge of the table to keep from falling. The telling green gaze glimmered in her eyes. “You see, Hayden, that’s why I need you. You’re smart. You think.”
“Fine, I get it. I think. What is it you want me to think about? It’s not Rachelle. It’s sure as hell not Matthew, either.”
Still holding the edge of the table, she laughed, the sound sharp and humorless. “So far, so good.”
She swayed, the green glimmer lingering in the depths of her gaze. Sex she could get from any man, but there was something else she believed only he could deliver.
“How often do you need it?” he asked, sitting up and leaning back on both hands. The bed cover fell, the fur cloak, opened and dropped away from his shoulders. He ignored the chill in the air and held still as emerald gaze swept over his chest then lowered to the shadow between his legs.
“It varies.” She leaned back heavily on the table and continued staring at him, the morning sun coming in from the window behind her streaking across her shoulders and the tangles of her hair. “We don’t have any way to regulate. It can be hours, minutes, sometimes days.”
For a fleeting second he wondered what she’d been like before. He brushed the idea aside. “Come here, I’ll take care of you,” Hayden said, so ready to find a way to take advantage of her weakness.
She disregarded him and started moving around the cabin, getting ready to start a fire in the wood stove. He watched her in silence, knowing sooner or later she’d take what she needed. Still ignoring him, she opened the cans of h
ash, put the contents into a pot and set it on the stove. Flames had started flicker behind the glass, and Hayden’s stomach growled at the thought of hot food. After stirring the hash, she put a bucket near him, told him he could use it when he needed, then stacked more blankets on the other side of the bed. She went back to the stove to rearrange the wood. Her movements were automatic, practiced, like a hotel housekeeper arranging a room the in same way, no matter the guest. He was one of many. If he didn’t figure out what else she wanted from him specifically he’d be dead or around somewhere.
The room had continued to brighten with morning light and the temperature was rising as flames ate up the wood. Weariness started to get the better of Hayden, his eyes grew heavy and he weary, he welcomed the temporary release of sleep. He lay back and started to pull the cloak over him, but Mattie stopped him as she climbed onto the bed and straddled him. That familiar metallic taste moved across his tongue,
She grabbed his dick and began stroking, gripping lightly, her hand moving slowly, carefully, gradually making his cock hard enough. “After I fuck you, you need to eat. You can reach the stove with the chain on. Then sleep.”
Hayden closed his eyes.
“Don’t try to play me, Hayden. I don’t care if you enjoy it or not,” she said, stroking him tenderly, putting more pressure on his shaft.
He turned his head, feeling the damp fur of the cloak on his cheek as she opened one eye. She was staring at his cock, her green gaze hungry.
Still fondling him, she continued speaking, the rhythm of her words matching the motion of her hand. “I could have made you drink the tea.”
He nodded, remembering the cup he’d thrown, the second one Rachelle had so willingly drunk and Matthew’s words. If you ever wondered what she’s really like, wonder no more, here’s the real girl under the mask.
Mattie caught him looking at her. She stared back, the sheen in her gaze bright. Her lips curled as she glared down at him and positioned herself above him. Once she had the opening between her legs directly above his dick, she said, “Don’t make the mistake of thinking I like you.” Then she dropped down on him, covering his cock with her cool, tight pussy, and fucked him.
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