Page 22 of Crucible
Wanting his thoughts, I look to Khalil. Feeling my attention, he finally tears his gaze away from the girl’s tits long enough to shrug noncommittally before going right back to ogling her.
I’m pretty sure he’s already worked out what position he wants her in first. As for how much he’ll take before he’s satisfied, there’s no telling.
“All right. Well, whatever. We need to get rid of her,” I announce firmly.
Both of their gazes snap to mine, and the sheer panic in them tells me that getting Khalil and Seth to see reason will be an uphill battle. And whenever it’s two against one, blood is almost always shed.
“Why the fuck would we do that?” Khalil barks. “She looks so…so fuckingripe.”
Ripe for fucking, he means.
And he will, even if she doesn’t spread her legs on her own. He’s too hungry for it.
We’re not the men we used to be. On this mountain, the rules are what we say, and in return for that power and safe asylum,the wilds severed the chains of societal law—and our morality with it.
“She’s a gift,” Seth whispers from my right. I turn my head toward him to see that he’s inched a little closer to the bed.Fuck.“She’s ours.” He reaches a hand out for her, but my voice stops him.
“No.” He looks at me and tilts his head in question. I shake mine and sigh. “We can’t keep her, buddy. I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
My lips part, but when no words come, I look to Khalil for help. He only cocks a brow at me and doesn’t step in to help.
Asshole.
Khalil’s better at getting through to Zeke and his alters because while I’m more disciplined than him, Khalil is far more nurturing.
“She might be one of them,” I remind these idiots. “She could be a spy for Isaac.”
Seth stiffens and then backs away a step. I hate myself for it—using Zeke’s trauma against him when Seth himself is a product of the horrors Zeke faced at his brother’s hands. Seth being there for Zeke when we couldn’t and taking his pain is the only reason we let him stick around.
At least for a little while.
“All the more reason to keep her here,” Khalil retorts. “She can’t tell him what she knows with my dick in her mouth.”
My anger surges as I whirl on him. “Can you think about anything else?” I snap.
Khalil blinks at me and, with absolutely no fucks in his tone, says, “No.”
“Try. And in case you didn’t notice, she’s a problem, not a plaything, Poverly.”
“I can smell her pussy from here,” Seth says rabidly.
The sheer hunger in his voice has me spinning around in time to see him climbing on the bed, his hand unzipping his snowsuit, and his gaze intent on the girl still sleeping soundly and blissfully unaware of the danger she’s in.
I’m no one’s goddamn white knight, and frankly, I don’t give a shit what happens to this bitch. I’m trying to shield my brothers from the fallout of biting into forbidden fruit.
I grab Seth’s nape with one hand and his jaw with my other, and I don’t bother with being gentle when I haul him back off the bed.
“I said no, Ezekiel.”
“Not Ezekiel!” he yells. “Seth!”
“Fine,” I concede, silently cursing my slip. “Seth.”
“To reject this gift is to defy Death,” he immediately babbles. “The Savior won’t like this. He’ll punish us. He’ll—”
I’ve heard enough. “Keep that murdering nutcase out of your head and take your meds!” I roar.
