Page 13 of Wraith
Leena puts out her hand. “Aww, hey girl. Are you feeling better after a bath?”
Jesus. If my body wasn’t ridiculously drawn to this woman before, now those long dormant soft spots, the damn squishy parts of my chest, are starting to cave in too. What the hell is she doing to me? How can one woman be forced into my life and already have more of an impact than anyone else before her? It scares me shitless. And not much has the power to terrify me after the life I’ve already lived.
Abby rolls forward and sniffs at Leena’s outstretched palm for a second before she slowly extends her big pink tongue and licks it. Leena’s face is transformed into a thing of absolute radiant joy. She looks like a fucking angel and I’m done. Gutted by the absolute love I see filling up those hazel irises. The gold flecks glow an even brighter gold and the green shines like emeralds in their dark velvet blanket of brown.
Honestly, I’m standing there, my heart bleeding all over the floor because this woman loves my dog, and my dog, who is scared of ninety-nine percent of the world, seems to love her too, when a rough knock at the door sends it all to hell.
Abby goes skittering away to hide in the kitchen under the table, like she usually does, and Leena straightens. The change that sweeps over her is dramatic. She loses all her innocent, unguarded sweetness and instead, that steel rod is back in her spine. Her shoulders hunch forward and I can literally watch as her jaw sets into a hard tic.
This girl has more defiance and vinegar in her than most men three times her size.
My cock strains the endurance of the stupid slacks that I really want to get off, douse with gasoline, and dispatch to the tux afterlife.
I tear my eyes from Leena and stride towards the door. I rip it open, already furious that someone had the nerve to interrupt that special moment of bonding for my dog, and for a woman that I can already see was forced to grow up far before her time. I can tell, one fellow survivor to another. All the hallmark signs are there. Never mind that her piece of shit father just sold her off to better himself. There are other marks, rendered all over her body like invisible strikes, bruises that Ican’t see. It makes the animal in me want to crawl out from under my civilized skin and tear apart anyone who left those marks there, imprinted on her soul.
Because whatever the circumstances, she’sminenow.
It’s a lucky thing that I find two bastards on my doorstep, enough to distract me from the base, alpha fucking chant ripping through my bloodstream. I stare down a big fucker with a cropped head of dark hair. He’s probably almost seven feet tall and over three hundred pounds, but looks slow as fuck with all that bulk and probably has the brainpower to match.
The family resemblance is unmistakable and I’m guessing Rent-A-Thug is one of Viking’s many sons that he’s brought along for added muscle—which doesn’t bode well for me. I glance away from the son and give my new father-in-law a broad grin.
“Evening, Viking.”
“I came to check on my daughter,” Viking snarls. “You left with her before we could say goodbye or give her the things she has packed.”
“Right. Like you care enough to actually wish her well. You basically sold her to the highest bidder.”
Viking shakes his head, a greasy, knowing smile forming on his disgusting face. His daughter looks nothing like him, thank god. She inherited nothing, but the misfortune of his last name. It strikes me like a lightning bolt from a wrathful god up there, that I now have the power to offer her a way to change even that.
“It’s done. No use crying over it. You and your Prez agreed.”
“He’s your Prez now too,” I grind out, realizing I’ve launched myself into a corner. This is basically gonna turn into a pissing contest of who was a member of The Riders first, and I’m about to switch tactics, when the thug at the older man’s side steps forward.
“I brought my sister’s shit. You gonna let us in to give it to her or not?”
“Of course. By all fucking means. Let me be at your service. Don’t worry about lifting one of those pretty fingers, darling. You might break a nail. Let me do it and give me a tip after.”
The big bastard snarls, showing a set of mismatched, yellowed teeth that make me want to vomit all over again, even though I’ve definitely had enough of that for one day. I barely resist the urge to plow my fist into those ugly teeth and give him the need for the trip to the dentist he’s obviously been shelving.
I’m about to step out, civilized, and go get Leena’s things, when she creeps up behind me, a silent shadow that catches me off guard when she speaks.
“Thank you for bringing my stuff. I didn’t think you’d get here until tomorrow. I’m fine, Dad. Thank you for your concern.” She’s so damn meek, all the fire in her eyes gone, that it banks the flames of rage burning high in my gut. She lowers her eyes to the floor in a gesture of subservience that I can’t stand. “I’ll do my best to be happy here.”
The thought that it was him, this fucking piece of shit, who put those marks on Leena’s soul, that it was him who tried to break what is mine is like a fucking container of gas heaped onto those flames of rage.
I might have been able to keep it under control. Maybe. If that fucking meathead beside Viking, didn’t open his stupid fucking trap.
“Your dress is ruined,” he states flatly. “And stained. Congrats, little sister. Already fucked and cleaning the house, like a good fucking wife. Maybe you’ll make something of yourself after all.”
Seeing red is an understatement. The rage that infiltrates my vision isn’t just red. It’s every shade of scarlet that exists on the damn prism. Adrenaline rockets through my veins, surging like a lethal combination of deadly drugs.
I let out a roar and charge, catching the bastard right in the middle. As I expected, he’s slow and dumb and I definitely have the upper hand. I drive him off the porch with my forward momentum, tumble him down the three stairs to the grass below. I wish it was concrete and rocks, but hell, the landscaping is on my damn to-do list.
I don’t give Mr. Big and Asshole time to get his fists up before mine start flying. Instead of giving him my own version of dentistry, I decide his thick, bulbous nose makes for a better target. It gives way with a sickening sounding crunch that is so completely satisfying I nearly let out a little girl scream of delight.
Turns out, Mr. Tough Shit ain’t so fucking tough either. He’s the one who screams like a little girl, clutching at his nose and rolling around on the grass after I jump off of him. Blood geysers between his hands as he curses and moans and does some more rolling. Really, the guy should have tried out for Hollywood. I resist the urge to kick him when he’s down,though a well-timed shit-kicker to the gut would be exactly what he deserves.
“Insult my wife again,” I seethe. “And it’ll be more than your nose I break.” I whirl on the father, who stands staring at us, a disgusted look on his face as his eyes swivel downwards to his pansy-ass son. “Now. Show me where her things are and I’ll get them myself. After that, she’s no longer your concern.”
