Page 153 of Specter Bred

Three.

Movement stirred at the edge of the clearing, and Nathan Long stepped from the shadows. The three of them spread out around me, deliberately closing off every path back toward the outpost.

Redwood glanced toward Long, his grin turning uglier. “Hear that, Long? Apparently Archer doesn’t want us calling her Teacup until we’ve earned it by fucking her.”

Long gave a low, humorless laugh. “Then maybe we ought to fix that.”

A brief moment of fear set in, but I refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing it.

“You three pathetic excuses for alphas still don’t add up to one man I’d willingly let touch me,” I said, letting every ounce of disgust bleed into my voice. "You could put all your one-inch dicks together and still only come up with three disappointing inches.”

Teller’s expression darkened. I smiled anyway. I wasn’t about to give any of them the satisfaction of seeing me afraid. Instead, I kept playing dumb, stretching the conversation out while I searched for an opening. If I could just get between two of them, I could make it back toward base before they had time to react.

“Well, Hayes is supposed to be meeting Graves and me, so...” I shifted my shoulders and started toward the gap between Long and Teller.

Teller moved with me, stepping directly into my path and forcing me to stop.

Redwood chuckled behind me. “Funny. I just saw Hayes too. Sitting in the mess hall, playing cards. Didn’t look like he was going anywhere.”

Whatever this was, it was about to get worse.

I moved before any of them could close in further, dropping low and trying to slip past Teller. I almost made it.

Then something cracked behind me.

Blinding pain tore through my back, locking every muscle in my body at once. My knees buckled as violent spasms ripped through me, and I hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.

I knew that sound.

A fucking taser.

Redwood had actually tased me!

Of course the pussy had.

Apparently three pathetic alphas still weren’t brave enough to take me on without one.

“Tie the bitch up,” Redwood barked at one of his lackeys.

A hand reached for me, and I forced my body to move through the lingering spasms. Every muscle protested, but I caught Teller’s hand between my teeth and bit down hard before driving my knee upward with everything I had left.

He howled as my teeth sank into flesh, then folded over when my knee connected with his stomach. A second later, Teller lay crumpled beside me, clutching himself and cursing.

I might have been on the ground, but I wasn’t finished fighting.

“Fucking bitch!” Redwood shouted.

His boot connected with the side of my head before I could brace for it. Pain exploded across my skull, and the ground tilted violently beneath me.

Then everything went black.

◆◆◆

My vision blurred as I came to. For one disorienting second, I had no idea where I was. Then Redwood’s face swam into focus above me, dragging me straight from darkness into a nightmare.

“Teacuppp,” he crooned with mock sweetness. “Wake up.”

My throat felt like sandpaper, but I scraped together enough saliva to spit directly in his face.