by T. L Smith
Swimming up for air, it was then I saw it, the hatchet that was in Syler’s hand was now in the dude’s head as he floated. The pool was filled with blood and I was dripping in it. Turning to look at him, I blinked, but everything was blurry. Lifting my hands up from the water, I saw the blood, and it was all over me—through my hair, on my skin—and the small pool was now a light shade of red.
Gazing up, I saw Syler staring at me.
Turning, I saw Toska’s smirk.
“Syler.” His name dripped from my lips as I blinked the crimson water from my eyes.
“He doesn’t like people touching his things,” Toska said as the doorbell chimed.
We all turned to check it out.
Syler reached down, offering me his hand, and helped me out of the pool. My body slammed into his, and my breathing was hard.
“Am I yours?” I asked Syler.
Wrong place.
Wrong time.
I knew this, but he didn’t give me much, and I still hung around for any amount he would toss my way, like a lost Mouse.
“You’ll always be mine, Mouse, even when you aren’t.”
My breath hitched at his words.
“You were mine first, though, Jaya. Have you forgotten?” Toska stepped up behind me. My body was already against Syler’s, and now hers was pressed into my back. She moved my hair from my shoulder. “We haven’t played much. We really should play. Soon.”
My eyes stayed on Syler, his eyes watched me. He didn’t stop her from touching me or say anything about her hands skimming down my back. I could feel her fingers through my wet clothes. My head turned to the water which was now a lighter red from the blood going through the filters. My eyes skimmed down to my previous white Converse which were now stained pink, while Toska’s hand played on my ass.
The doorbell chime was heard again.
Toska circled me, waving at her brother to step back. He did so, but reluctantly. She came around full circle, and now her green eyes were in front of me, darker than her brother’s. Her lips were puckered as she leaned forward. “Don’t you want to share, Jaya? Don’t you want us both?”
My eyes fell over her shoulder, his eyes were no longer on us. My eyes fell back to her as another doorbell chime resounded throughout the house, only this time it was louder and followed by banging and a yell.
“Police! Open up!”
My body froze, and my eyes went wide. I noticed the body floating in the water. It was still. Turning back, I saw them already in action, grabbing any evidence of them and pushing it into a bag. Watching them, I wondered how many times they had done this—ten, twenty, fifty? Shaking my head, the door rattled again with the force of the banging, and my eyes found him. They always found him.
He was helping her.
He always helped her.
She was an adult, though.
Why must he do everything she asked of him? It was an unhealthy dynamic.
I laughed despite myself, and it bubbled up from my lips. Shaking my head, I looked back to him, and he was watching me while she was sliding on her pair of boots.
“Mouse.” They were walking toward the back door. His hand was outstretched, but I just shook my head at him. Distance was what I needed, from him, to breathe. I wanted to breathe again.
Turning around, I noticed a door. I walked back toward it. They slipped out, and he glanced back one more time before the back door shut behind him, leaving me in the pool area with a dead body, my heart unsure, and my hands shaking.
Slipping through the door, it opened into a bedroom. Looking around, I saw there was a fancy bed with four posts. It was all black, with black bedding and a television hung on the wall with a few drawers below it. It was large, but it felt empty, like a man’s room.
“You have blood all over you.” My head turned and in the corner there was a man sitting on a chair. As I searched around with my eyes, I noticed all the red stains that covered me. My body was still wet, and my hair was sticking to my neck.
“I fell in the pool.”
He stood tall and brooding. I could hardly see him in the dark corner, but his presence was everywhere.
“That would be a lie. I saw her push you.”
My breath hitched, and my head swung back to the door that I came through then back to him.
“You should be running.”
My mouth opened but then I closed it again. He opened the door that led outside. I saw him more clearly then, from the moonlight that trickled in through the opening. He took my breath away, just about as much as Syler did. However, he seemed the type that would only play with me, then get rid of me just as quickly and simply as a toy that bored him. Whereas Syler kept me, but told me numerous times not to stay.
“Thank you....” I left it open for him to tell me his name.
“Taj. It’s my house your friends came to play in. Next time, I won’t let them play. Tell them that.”
I gave him a curt nod, reaching for a large jacket, and walked out of that door while feeling his eyes on me the whole time. Walking down the street, I checked my phone to see if it was still working. It flickered a few times, but thankfully it sprung to life. So, I called a taxi, only checking back once to see him still watching me.
He saw it all, yet he let me go.
Chapter 8
Pull Me Back
One Year Ago
Staying away from work and them was my only option right now. Space from them was what I needed and space was what I got. They left the other night, leaving me in that house covered in the blood of someone they had killed. Even if Syler wanted me to go with them, he didn’t force me to or even ask me to. Instead, I watched as they both left, leaving me in that spot, along with a dead body.
I’d expected him to come to me, he usually did, sneaking through my bedroom window like a villain at night time. He hadn’t for the last three nights, and I’d missed work every day, so I didn’t have to deal with any of it.
They both jumbled up my thoughts and emotions when I was near them. My head spun, and I started seeing things the way they wanted to view the world, which wasn’t healthy. Lying on my bed staring up at the ceiling, I thought back to that first night.
Should I have just walked away, disappeared and left the way I’d planned?
Instead, I got sucked down into the Mouse trap just the way they had hoped. Now I was locked in and unsure of how I would ever escape it all.
Toska didn’t let many people in, only her brother, so for me to become someone so close to her was highly unusual. I doubted she would be happy if I said I was leaving. No, I’m afraid she’d have her brother slice me with his hatchet with a blow straight through my heart.
My cell beeped, and I didn’t even bother checking it. I knew it would be her, it was always her messaging or calling me. Soon, I knew she’d come looking for me once she’d grown impatient of waiting.
Walking out of my room, I went in hunt for some food. My father had left for his night shift without saying goodbye, even though he knew I was in the house. Sometimes I thought we were just two roommates sharing the same house.
Did we even know each other anymore?
Grabbing an apple, I headed back to my room intending to watch some Netflix, but as I got to my door my light was off, and my television was on, and it wasn’t on when I left. Pushing the door open, my eyes found the window, the sash fully open, and standing in the dark with only the light from the poorly lit television shining on him. His hands were in his pockets, his eyes hooded as he watched me.
“Syler.”
Stepping into my room, my hand stayed on the door, too afraid to step too close to him. If I let him touch me my resolve would break, and I’d be putty in his hands. He owned me, and for some strange reason, I allowed it.
“Mouse, you’ve been avoiding me.” He stepped forward, and I hurried back to the doorway. His head inclined to the side in amusement as he watched me.
“I’ve been busy.”
His eyes circ
led the room then came back to me. I looked too. There was rubbish everywhere, and it was apparent what I’d been doing. Nothing.
“Avoiding, Mouse... I told you once never to run.”
My back straightened.
“I didn’t run.”
He shook his head, stepped even closer. He was pacing around me, taking his time until he finally reached me and I knew I’d melt into him.
“Come back to me, Mouse.”
Now he was in front of me. My breathing picked up, and his smell suffocated me. I was fast becoming his because that was the way he had me trained.
I was his.
He’d drummed this fact into my brain.
No one else’s.
The Mouse didn’t stray from the Wolf. No, she stayed with the Wolf.
His hand reached up, and he touched my hip. The apple that was in my hand dropped to the floor. Both of us stared down at it as it bounced once and rolled over to the corner. And that was when I felt it, a tear slip free all on its own without my consent.
He leaned in and kissed it.
My body found its way to him, touching his with mine, as my hands stayed at my sides. More tears fell, and he kissed them away in the same manner as before. The door behind me closed, and my back was pushed up against it, his body on mine, his cock grinding between my legs, making me want him more than I wanted life itself.
“Always mine, Mouse.” He pressed into me. Even with the clothes between us, I was wet and ready for him. My body needed him just as much as my mind did. My brain went fuzzy as his next words left his mouth. “Tell me now, Mouse, tell me you’re only mine.”
“Yours.”
Syler nodded his head, then leaned in, nipping at my lips. His hand skimmed my bare stomach under my crop top, and dipped down into my boxer briefs where he could feel how wet I was for him.
“All of this is mine, even if you think otherwise. Remember that, Mouse.”
I nodded relentlessly against his lips as he kissed me. He fucked my pussy with his fingers as he kissed me, claiming my mouth. It tasted sweet and bitter. My tears were what I could taste—that salty bitterness of my distress.
Lifting my hand, I swiped at my eyes. The tears hadn’t stopped, they were still coming, and they didn’t seem to be slowing down.
“I like them, Mouse. It’s just you that needs to catch up to the fact that you love me.”
I gasped against his mouth. I thought I knew it, but hearing him say those words and the fact that he knew was a whole different story.
He was like the pages of an explicit novel.
It was real now, and the tears were streaming down my cheeks because I knew I didn’t want it to be true. He didn’t deserve my love. The only thing he earned was my fucks. Yet, I couldn’t help but give him everything. All of it. Everything that was me, so I replied with, “Shut up and fuck me.”
He shook his head, pulling his hand out then lifting me up, so my hands had to touch his shoulders. He didn’t tell me to remove them, he just laid me on the bed, standing over me to pull his clothes free. I watched him as I had always done, fascinated by the man that stood above me and wondered, why me? He could have had almost anyone—he was that fucking irresistible. But here he was looking down at me like I was all he saw. Maybe that was why my heart fell for him. Because all it saw was him as well.
“Tell me, Mouse, I want to hear the words.”
He reached down, his hand skimming my leg as he reached the hem of my boxers, pulling them down my legs. I shook my head, but he leaned down, biting my inner thigh. Then he kissed it, taking all my resolve with him.
“Tell me, just this once...”
My head shook again—saying it and thinking it were two different things.
His mouth came up higher as he licked my pussy. My legs spread wide for him while his tongue circled my clit. Then a finger dipped into me. His hot breath on already hot skin.
“Say it,” he coaxed, licking me again from base to clit.
His finger pressed in, then pumped back out as he repeated it. My head shook, unable to form words. Then he pulled away, climbed over top of me, and slid straight into me with my legs wrapped around his waist.
He kissed my neck as he moved.
Kisses, not bites.
His movements were slow and steady like... almost like.... he was making love to me. He wasn’t fucking me like he always did. Syler was slow in his actions and cautious of everything he was doing. He brought me to the point of almost orgasming, then pulled away. Then he was making my hips thrust to meet his as he slid in and out of me. His head lifted away from my neck, and he stared at me. My tears still there, blurring my vision.
“Tell me, Jaya. Tell me.”
It fell from my lips like water trickles over a waterfall. “I love you, Syler Hunter.”
His eyes closed, and my tears fell heavier. Syler hastened his movements, his lips touching mine with sweet kisses as he fucked me, or should I say, made love to me.
I’d just given my soul to my own devil, and he took it with a kiss from my lips. Then he whispered words that would haunt me forever.
“You loving me will destroy us both...”
HE FELL ASLEEP NEXT to me, pulling my body to his and trapping me as he always did. I stayed awake and didn’t move an inch.
Those words were not something that I used lightly. He was the first person to have those words from me since I was five years old. The aftermath of me saying those words hurt me to my very soul, only he just didn’t realize it.
He’d stolen them from me without my consent. Tore them out without my approval, and slept next to me like it hadn’t happened. It did, and it hurt. I dreamed one day of loving someone, anyone. Hoping it was a man who loved me back with the same passion—that was my main dream, though. A man that didn’t fuck with my head, and loved me with his heart was something I hoped for.
Instead, I fell for my Wolf.
The one man I shouldn’t have fallen in love with.
Part 2
Chapter 9
Steel Sea-Green Eyes
Now
My hand is stuck, and my eyes are heavy. I don’t understand it, and I have no idea why.
I try again.
Move, I command my arm.
Open, I command my eyes.
My hips are aching. My body stiff. My mouth dry. My tongue sneaks out. I lick my lips, and taste nothing but dirt and muddy water. That doesn’t feel right, so I lick them again. And again. Still the same disarming taste. My mind’s racing, trying to work out where I am and why my eyes feel so heavy. I can’t seem to work it out, so I will my eyes to open, beg them to unfold. And they do. Just.
It’s dark, I can see the moon shining brightly up in the sky. With the way I’m lying, I manage to shift my head just the slightest, so I can look around. I have to see what’s happening, where exactly I am, because I don’t know.
There’s a river right in front of me, and I’m lying on the banks of it. My hand reaches out, and it feels like a dead weight, but it still manages to move. My finger touches the surface of the water that’s streaming along the river.
Pulling my hand back, I struggle to sit up.
I have to sit up.
And a yelp leaves my mouth.
He’s sitting on the other side of the water. Not the river as such, no that’s directly in front of us, the water that bleeds into the river. He’s opposite to where I am. If he stood and took one step into the water, he could reach me if he pleased.
“S...” I try to say his name, but nothing leaves my mouth. The beautiful flowers that surround me also surround him. It makes him that much more stunning, and that’s a bad combination because Syler’s deadly, even more so than his sister.
One of Syler’s hands picks at the flowers, the other plays with his hatchet. The blade is dark and razor sharp. I know if he threw that at me right now, one, it wouldn’t miss because Syler never misses, and two, he wouldn’t even blink if he killed me. I’ve watched him kill before,
and he’s ruthless. He gazes up at me when I try to stand, his steel sea-green eyes penetrate my dark ones.
Standing on two bare feet my eyes stay on him, but the problem is something’s still in my system, and standing isn’t my friend because the moment I go to take a step toward him, I fall down to my knees. He doesn’t offer to help, he just watches on, doing nothing. I’m naked and helpless.
“Syler.” The word is weak when it leaves my mouth. I wait for something from him, anything. But as usual, I get nothing. Breathing out a rapid breath, I avert my eyes down to the muddy ground, trying to control my breathing so he doesn’t see my panic, and just as I’m about to say something to him, I look back up. Ready to talk. Except...
He’s gone.
I can’t remember exactly how I got here, but I remember why I’m here. And Syler’s a huge reason for that, and I’m betting he was told to kill me.
I wonder why he didn’t?
I sit back down, my ass landing in the mud. I stay here, lost, and waiting for all my limbs to come back to life so I can move. If I don’t run, I realize Toska will come next, and I know that she won’t walk away like Syler did.
No. She will kill me.
If I don’t kill her first.
Chapter 10
Lost
My body is cold, this much I know. My teeth are chattering as I gain back my mobility. I can now stand without falling over, and move my hands to cover my freezing body. I remember what happened leading up to this, the way his hands touched my body, the way he whispered dirty words into my ear when he fucked me, hard. And I remember watching as she watched us, jealousy slowly creeping its way in.
