by Reese Rivers
I shrug one shoulder and shoot her a wink. “Take your best shot.”
I know antagonizing her isn’t the best strategy but as Sebastian taught me, rage makes people lose focus and control. It makes them make mistakes and all I need is one little opening and I can take this chick down.
Her hands wrap around the bars above mine and I bite down hard on my tongue not to react when her eyes flare red and she grins so that her fangs show. Instead, I lean closer to her and fake shudder.
“Eeeeewwww, scary!” I say mockingly with an over-exaggerated scared voice before stepping back and waving my hand in dismissal. “Yeah, sorry to disappoint you but been there, done that. You’re just a basic bitch at this point.”
The red eyes and fangs disappear and I swear I can see a hint of respect in her eyes before she throws her head back and roars with laughter. When she finally gets it under control she has a wide smile on her face and she leans even closer to the bars and speaks in a friendly tone.
“I like you! I think we are going to be friends. After I pull all the pain that I can from your body, of course.”
I give her a tight smile right back. “Of course,” I say sarcastically, wanting to punch her right in her chick dick.
“KK, where are you my dove?” Rings out from somewhere deeper in the dark and I snort a laugh, causing her to raise an eyebrow at me in question.
“I’m sorry but KK? Really? Doesn’t exactly fit the whole villainous thing you’ve got going on, does it?”
She rolls her eyes like a champ and shrugs one shoulder before talking to me like we are girlfriends gossiping about a boy.
“Yes, well - he’s not the brightest sunbeam, if you take my meaning, but he does have his uses.”
The Marquis in question steps into the light and claps his hands in delight when he sees me behind bars.
“Oh, goodie! I’m so glad you haven’t broken her yet! Now don’t forget, you promised me you would compel her to play all my favorite games with me,” he gushes.
I feel the bile rise in my throat as his eyes lock on to my breasts. My eyes flash to hers as I feel the first real stirrings of fear at being compelled to act out this sick fuck’s sexual fantasies but she merely shrugs again with a “what are you going to do” look and turns to him.
“Of course I haven’t forgotten, my sweet but I also said that you get yours after I get mine.” She ends with a snap in her tone.
The Marquis grasps her hand and dots her knuckles with kisses.
“That’s why I was looking for you! His Majesty has just sent word that he will grant you a royal audience. We must make haste to the palace. One does not leave the King waiting!”
Her expression beams approval at him before she turns back to me.
“Excellent! Can you imagine how disappointed I was to learn that Bastian has had the King’s ear all this time and has done nothing of substance with that power? Then again, Bastian has never lived up to his full potential. He’s a complete disappointment to me. So ungrateful! I went to all that trouble to turn him and then train him through his savage years only to have him run away and desert me the first chance he got. You can be sure we will be discussing that once I’ve made him pay for his disloyalty.” She harrumphs in annoyance before shaking her head.
“Very well, I will leave you for now to enjoy your last hours of peace while I claim my place beside the Sun King. Do try and get some more rest, darling. You will desperately need your strength when I return.”
I back further away from the bars until I’m standing in the shadows as the happy couple leaves arm in arm. This is bad. This is so fucking bad. Luca told me Bas was turned by an Original. I can’t even wrap my head around how powerful that bitch must be. More powerful than my Alpha, that’s for sure. I need to get out of here and find my guys. I can’t even think about how fucked up things will be if she gets control of the King. History as I know it will be completely altered with her in control. I need to do something to stop it and that starts with freeing my men.
Once I hear a door slam closed in the distance, I move back into the light and listen closely for any sounds of guards nearby. When I guess five minutes have passed in silence, I dig my phone out of the side band of my bra and tap on the flashlight feature.
Only days ago I was complaining about these gowns not having any pockets and now I’m eternally grateful they don’t or I wouldn’t have my phone secreted away to use now. I drop to my knees in front of the bars and use the flashlight to search for the lock that has to be on it. When I find it closer to the wall I crawl over and tuck my phone into my cleavage so that the light shines on the lock plate and my hands will be free. I reach up and yank the two ruby-encrusted stiletto daggers from my hair and take a deep breath sending the light bouncing for a second. I lean closer to the lock plate and hold one of the daggers in one hand and use my fingers on the other to explore the lock hole on the other side of the plate by touch. This can go super, stupid fast, or take forever.
Since inheriting Adera’s house, I’ve been forced to become something of a master at antique lock picking. The woman had at least twenty locked chests and cupboards that I had to find a way to open as I cleared each room of junk. All thanks to the YouTube Gods for conveniently posting hundreds of lock picking videos for armatures like me to learn from. I was getting so into the whole thing for a while there that I even learned how to open modern padlocks and door locks. When I started watching videos on how to hotwire cars, I shook myself out of it and gave myself a thirty-day ban from YouTube. I close my eyes and shake my head at how shitty my life was before I came here but…silver lining, I guess.
I wedge myself as close to the bars as I can and tap off the flashlight. I can’t see shit on this side of the door so I don’t need it anyway. This will all be done by feel. I place my ear against the plate and slide one of the daggers into the hole slowly until I feel resistance. Turning the blade carefully I hear the slight scrape of the tumbler bar moving and a small smile tugs at my lips until the blade screeches sideways and I have to start again. By my fourth attempt, sweat is starting to trickle down my back and my lip throbs from biting on it so hard. I’m just about to try and see if I can get the second dagger into the hole with the first when I go flying forward and smack into the cold stone floor of the passageway outside of my cell. I push myself back up to my knees and hold a hand to my ear where one of the lock plates bolts has scratched it as I flew forwards. I wince when my fingers come away wet with blood but it’s not a mortal wound so I use the bars to pull myself up onto my feet. I close the cell door as quietly as possible hoping it will buy me a few extra seconds if I’m discovered missing and make my way down to the right hoping I’m going in the right direction.
I pause at each cell door as I go and find them all empty. I’m desperate to find the guys as every minute ticks past and I end up getting sloppy when I rush around a corner and almost plow into a guard’s back. A scream is locked in my throat as I backpedal as silently as I can and duck down into dark shadows between torches. My heart is roaring in my ears as I wait to be discovered but time passes with no one yelling out an alarm. Once my breathing is under control and I can no longer hear my pounding heart, I tiptoe back to the corner and strain to hear any movement from the guard. The minutes pass and I’ve almost worked myself up to take a peek around the wall when I finally hear a harsh laugh that is quickly followed by an animal’s vicious snarl.
My body goes still as a statue while I pray to God that was from one of my wolves and not some rabid beast they have down here guarding prisoners. An ugly curse rings out followed by a thud and then heavy steps stomp my way causing me to scurry back into the shadows. I see the guard pass across the opening of the passageway I’m in and disappear, followed quickly by a slamming door. I wait for three beats and then dash back to the opening and peek around to find an empty intersection that has four passageways leading into it and no guard.
I race across the open space and dart down the way I think th
e noises came from, quickly tapping the flashlight back on and holding the phone out at each cell. The fifth one down has my men in it. The cocky guard is so sure of the silver shackles holding my guys in place that he left the cell door wide open. I grab the two nearest torches and bring them in with me so I can have as much light as possible to work with as I pick the locks that hold them in place.
Sebastian is front and center. He’s been crucified to a cross-shaped post with a wide silver band around his throat and two bands holding his arms suspended to either side. Luca is in a similar state against one of the walls and both Cade and Finn are still in their wolf forms with thick silver collars that connect to silver chains attached to rings in the stone wall.
All of their eyes are on me as my face crumples in relief at seeing them alive. I hold a shaking finger to my lips to tell them to be quiet as I send each one a trembling smile full of love. I move to Bas first and get to work on his arm shackles with the hope he will be able to use the second stiletto to free one of the others while I work on the other two. The hole in the silver clasp is much smaller and I end up mangling the lock more so than picking it to the point that I can pull it open when I hang my weight from it. When his arm comes free, I see an angry red blistered welt that encircles his wrist from where the silver burned his flesh on contact. His hand wraps around the back of my head and pulls me to his chest for a brief moment and then tips my head back so he can look into my tear-streaked face.
The love and relief I see shining from his eyes are all I need to wipe away the horror of his lifeless eyes staring back at me when the arrows took him down. My head bobs a few times as I try and silently convey all that I feel but time isn’t on our side and the guard could come back at any moment so I dash the tears from my face and get to work on freeing his other arm. I whisper Keket’s plan to compel the King and seize power as I work. I tell him we have to go and stop her before it’s too late and she changes history. Once it’s done, I work carefully on the lock of his collar, terrified that the blade will slip and I’ll stab him in the throat. His eyes never leave my face and it helps steady my hand so when the lock clicks open, I step back a few feet with a huge smile on my face to give him room to step out of the collar.
I did it. I fucking rescued my own ass and rescued my men too. A silent laugh bubbles in my chest at all the ways I’m going to tease Bas about being rescued by a girl in the future.
He steps out from the collar and a smile begins to form when his eyes widen at something behind me. I frown at a sharp pinch in my back and my head rocks forward as I cough involuntarily, spraying wetness over my lips and chin. My eyes focus on the blade of a sword protruding from in between my breasts and I lift my gaze and arms up to reach for Sebastian as sadness fills my slowing heart. My wolves begin to howl mournfully and Luca is raging and thrashing against his shackles but my eyes are locked onto Bas’s. I see the despair fill his eyes and his lips are moving but I can’t hear his words as a roar begins to fill my ears. A flickering has my eyes dropping down to look at my hands that are still held out, reaching for him and I frown in confusion as my fingers start to turn transparent and then disappear. My arms are next and I realize in an instant that I’m going back. Back to my own time.
I try and tell him that I love him one last time but whiteness blanks out my vision and then I’m tumbling end over end until my back hits something solid. I gasp in a deep breath to fill my empty lungs and my hands go straight to my chest to try and pull the blade free but it’s gone and so is the wound it caused. I frantically pat at my chest and then my lips but there is no blood on me at all. My stomach heaves and I roll quickly to my hands and knees to empty the contents onto the floor. When the last bit of it has been expelled from my body, I crawl away from the puddle and grab the nearest piece of furniture to help pull me to my feet. A keening noise is escaping my mouth with every exhale as my eyes scan the room where this all started. When they land on the mirror, I stagger toward it and clutch the jeweled frame.
“Send me back!” I scream. “Please, let me go back!”
I beg and plead but the mirror is dead and dark with not even my reflection showing in it. My knees give out and I crumple into a heap in front of it sobbing my loss. Sometime later when the tears have stopped and my mind has cleared, I breathe out and close my eyes as I make a vow. Someway, somehow, I will find a way to fix the mirror and I will go back.
Back to my men, my loves - and I will never leave them again.
Book 2 in Time After Time – Before I Fall can be found here!
Before I Fall on Amazon
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Afterword
Hey, so that happened…sorry! Cliffies are my jam so not sorry? lol. Really, it was kind of insta-love for our harem and that just doesn’t seem right so I’m going to make them work for it and then work some more to finally get their HEA…it’s going to be a rollercoaster of a ride. I mean, what could possibly go wrong when you start fucking with time, right?
I have to give a HUGE thank you to all you readers that took a chance on my debut standalone, Dying to Love, and then raved about it to anyone who would listen. You posted screenshots of the funny bits, blogged about it, TikTok’d it and those reviews? OMG they just made me melt with all the love you threw my way. Thank you SO much for loving Kelsey and her guys as much as I did!
I hope you will stick with Eden through the next 3 books in this series as she makes her way through different eras chasing her happy ever after.
Xoxo - Reese
Pre-Order Book 2 – Before I Fall
Available Soon
Also by Reese Rivers
Dying To Love
662 – Days since the dead rose up
413 – Days since I’ve spoken to another living human
4 – Men who have climbed my fence looking for safety
1 – Last chance for Love
Kelsey survived the start of the apocalypse and thrived in the new world with help from her friends but now they’re gone. Alone for over a year and mentally broken with high anxiety, she pushes through every day trying to find the will to keep going. Until three sweet, sexy men and one hot a**hole climbs her fence looking for sanctuary.
With her best friend, Tara, haunting her with outrageous antics, she needs to decide if she wants to keep dying a little bit day by day or if she can grab on to what these sexy men offer her and maybe find love.
Also, zombies make a few cameos.
This isn’t a blood and gore zombie novel. It’s full of comedy, over protective men that just want to take care of her and a ton of sexy steam that happens behind a set of double fences.
YA Post Apocalyptic Titles Written as Theresa Shaver
The Stranded Series
Land – A Stranded Novel, Book One
Sea – A Stranded Novel, Book Two
Home - A Stranded Novel, Book Three
City Escape – A Stranded Novel, Book Four
Frozen – A Stranded Novel Book Five
The Endless Winter Series
Snow & Ash – An Endless Winter Novel, Book One
Rain & Ruin – An Endless Winter Novel, Book Two
Sun & Smoke – An Endless Winter Novel, Book Three
Fire & Fury – An Endless Winter Novel, Book Four
Scorched – A Dry Earth Novel
The Flare Series
The Journey – A Flare Novel, Book One
The Line – A Flare Novel, Book Two
The Bridge – A Flare Novel, Book Three
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