Bryce, page 17
part #2 of Anarock Shifters Series
Before she could stop him, he put out his hand and trailed his fingertips along her cheek and under her jaw. He left a hot path of contact down her neck to her chest. She erupted in alarm and slapped his hand away. “You bastard! Don’t you dare touch me!”
Quicker than thought, he lunged and grabbed her. He caught a fistful of her hair and yanked her in hard. He bared his rotten teeth in her face and spittle popped between them when he hissed. “You don’t tell me what to do, you hear, you treacherous little bitch. You do what I say. Understand? You’re mine. You’re gonna do what I say and you’re gonna like it. You hear? Now get on your knees and open your mouth.”
She struggled against his hold, but he turned out to be a lot stronger than she ever imagined. He gave her neck a brutal twist and tried to wrench her down. She never imagined he would want her like that. The thought turned her stomach, but maybe that was his aim all along. Maybe this was just another way to control her and Bryce.
She hauled back her leg and kicked, but she missed him. He thrust his bony fingers between her legs and crushed her pussy. “You like that, don’t you, you fucking bitch whore? You like it hard. I know you do.”
Bryce shot across the room and crammed his arms between her and McCain. “Get off her, you fucker! Don’t you dare….”
McCain spun around and smashed Alexa into him so hard it made her head spin. McCain used her head to club Bryce away. Bryce stumbled back and hit the mantel shelf.
McCain jerked Alexa’s head again. He shoved her forward and snapped her neck until she screamed. “You see this?” he bellowed at Bryce. “You see this little piece of trash of yours? She’s mine now. She’s gonna stay here and bend over for me every night like she likes it. She’s gonna be my whore now until I’m finished with her. If you so much as open your mouth about it, I’ll tell every motherfucking monster in this camp how you fought against us in the battle. They’ll string up the pair of you before the hour’s out. Understand?”
Bryce checked himself. His eyes darted to Alexa taking in the truth. If McCain told anyone what he knew, they were both as good as dead.
McCain spun around and hauled Alexa near him again. He whispered low and his foul breath stung her sinuses. “Spread your legs for me, bitch. Come on. I know you like it.”
She had to do something. She couldn’t let this piece of shit touch her, much less take her for himself. She had to stop him. It was now or never.
She didn’t have time to think about it before he whipped her around again. He twirled her away, but he didn’t let go of her hair. She had to break his hold somehow or she was finished.
He shoved her into the couch. He wrestled her down and bent her over the wooden back. He bumped into her from behind and she felt him hard and throbbing inside his pants. She barely had time to think, No. Not now. Not like this.
He locked her head back so she couldn’t move. His other hand grabbed her pants from behind to pull them down. He snarled deep in his throat and his prick dug into her ass.
Just then, Bryce leaped across the room. He collided with McCain. “Motherfucker! I’ll kill you!”
He hurled one strapping arm around McCain’s neck and jerked him backward. He pulled McCain off his feet, but McCain still didn’t loosen his grip on Alexa’s hair. The force of Bryce’s attack yanked her upright.
Bryce got McCain a few inches away. Alexa feared he would fail to break McCain’s hold, but instead of trying to fight McCain, Bryce swung around sideways. He dove in and smashed his folded elbow against McCain’s bicep. McCain’s fingers unwound.
In a flash, McCain rounded on Bryce letting both fists fly. He punched Bryce with a square hit across the jaw and Bryce staggered. McCain took a single step to follow up his advantage. Alexa wanted to fly between them, but she couldn’t get there in time.
All her hatred and fear and disgust for McCain burst out of her at once. She didn’t bother to think it over first. She released the dragon and whomped out to fill the room with her fuming rage. In the blink of an eye, her spine flattened against the ceiling. She couldn’t unfold her wings. She was too damned big.
McCain wheeled to face her. His lips curled back from his teeth and he braced himself to fight. The same silent certainty seized her. No. Not now. Not like this.
Her head darted out. Her long neck uncoiled and she opened her mouth. With one devastating snap, she bit that cocksucker in half. Her teeth closed in his chest and his spine parted. Her awareness dwindled to a speck where her fangs met between his heart and lungs. His shoulders, neck, and head broke off in her mouth. Blood gurgled down her throat and his abdomen, arms, pelvis, and legs crumpled to the floor.
Bryce blinked at her across the room. Deathly silence fell over the house, but Alexa knew only the blistering ferocity of the kill. McCain’s blood tasted sweet and fresh and good on her tongue. It tasted so much better than she ever dreamed. It tasted better than he ever looked or smelled in life. That was for damn sure.
She gave a low rumble of satisfaction that vibrated the floor under her enormous feet. Slowly, deliberately, she spat out the top half of him. The head bounced on the wooden floorboards. The white eyes stared up at nothing. Gore and exposed organs flopped from the underside.
Then, even more slowly, even more deliberately, she took two measured steps. She stomped her left foot on the body and smashed it flat. Then she picked up her right. She judged the distance down to the inch and stepped on top of that hideous, revolting face of his. She felt the beautiful, luscious wet squish of bloody flesh squeezing between her toes. She experienced the sudden, delicious pop of the skull cracking and the gelatinous ooze of brain. She twisted her heel and ground that fucker to pulp.
Bryce winced, but Alexa enjoyed all those sensations too much to ever recoil from them. She waited too long to see the end of McCain. Nothing that came afterward could ever rob her of the delight of destroying him down to the last scrap of bone.
21
Bryce gawked at the huge dragon standing on top of the remains of McCain. Bryce never could have foreseen this outcome. McCain was dead. He hardly knew how to act.
In front of his eyes, the dragon folded in on itself. It collapsed and became Alexa again—his Alexa. He blinked at her in amazement. She did it. She killed McCain, just like that.
Blood ran down her chin and neck. She gazed down at the puddle of gore and wiped her wrist across her mouth. Bryce choked. “Holy fucking shit!”
She licked her lips. “His blood tastes good.
At that moment, the door flew open and Susie rushed in. She started to call out and stopped. Her eyes darted around the room. She skipped over Bryce and Alexa. Then she lowered her gaze to the floor and blinked.
For one terrible second, the three of them stared at each other. Now what would they do? McCain said the Battalion would string up Bryce and Alexa if they knew they fought against the Battalion. What would they do when they found out Alexa killed their illustrious leader?
The thought crossed Bryce’s mind to explain that McCain tried to attack Alexa, but he discarded that notion just as fast. None of the Battalion gave a shit what McCain did. His word was law to them. He could take any woman he wanted. No one would question. Shit, they probably lined up to get used by him. Maybe they considered it some kind of fucking sacrament. Bryce wouldn’t be surprised.
That wouldn’t work. The next instant, a wicked, evil, hateful idea entered his head. He almost rejected that, too. It was too diabolically fiendish even for him.
Then he saw Susie opening her mouth. He couldn’t let her say anything. He couldn’t let her scream. He had to seize this moment or he could kiss his future and Alexa’s goodbye.
He dove for the girl. Lightning quick, he grabbed her arm and whirled her around. He shoved her out the door and down the steps. Susie screamed again, but Bryce didn’t release her. He manhandled her to the middle of the compound and jerked her to a stop.
People turned around to stare. Some looked out of their houses to see what was going on. Bryce gave Susie a rough shake. “Tell them! Go on. Tell them!”
She yelped every time he yanked her arm. She cried and moaned, but he only kept bellowing at her. “Tell them! Tell them now!”
“They killed McCain!” she wailed. She wilted in his cruel grip. “They killed McCain! McCain’s dead.”
Bryce flashed a glance around to make sure everyone saw and heard. “I killed McCain! Do you hear me, all you fucking freaks? I killed McCain! I challenged him for leadership of the Battalion and I won. Do you understand? I’m leader of this Battalion now. If anyone here has a problem with that, you step out right now and we’ll settle it man to man in front of everyone.” He jerked back the other way to glare anyone behind him. “Huh? Who wants to try it?”
No one moved. No one breathed. He pushed Susie away and she ran screaming for the nearest building. Bryce cast a withering scowl around him. No one budged. Alexa watched him from McCain’s door. Blood still crusted her shirt collar. No one bothered to look to see which of the pair actually killed McCain. If someone was going down for this murder, it would be Bryce.
He strode a few paces down the compound. People shrank from him. “This is my Battalion now. Understand? I make the rules. I decide what we do and where we go and who we attack. Me! McCain is dead and so will be anybody who raises a hand against me. Understand?”
No one answered and no one protested. McCain trained them all too well to ever stick their necks out. Now they would fear and avoid Bryce the way they feared and avoided McCain.
The sight of them cringing in submission fired his blood. He drank in their fear like a fine wine. It intoxicated him with power. That power broke forth and he transformed in front of everyone. He reared back as a seething, invincible dragon. He rose on his hind legs and beat his wings. He screeched his challenge to the wide world. Nothing could ever defeat him again.
When he dropped onto all fours, he shifted. He confronted his new people on two feet and his brain returned to its regular human train of thought. He stormed to McCain’s house and halted at the steps to look back. Every pair of eyes in the Battalion watched him go. He climbed up and took Alexa’s arm. He guided her inside and shut the door.
The minute they got in, Alexa collapsed. She sank into a chair and cradled her head in her hands. Seething rage and power foamed in Bryce’s soul. He could barely think from the onslaught. It took him a minute to realize she was looking down at the squashed remains of her victim.
Bryce stomped to the door and whipped it open. He called out to the first person he saw, which happened to be Forsythia. “Hey! Get in here.”
Her upside-down eyes gaped up at him in startled horror. The next minute, she raced up the steps. He waved toward McCain. “Get him out of here and clean this place up.”
Forsythia gulped, but she hopped to it without a moment’s hesitation. She scooped up a wad of muck in both hands and ran outside. She came back with two more people. They raked up the mess and wiped down the floor.
Alexa stared at them until they left for the final time. The door closed, but Alexa still didn’t snap out of it. She stared at the floor like she still saw McCain’s body in front of her.
Bryce studied her. What could he say to her to sooth the shock? He did what he could to soften the blow by taking the blame. He told the Battalion that he killed McCain. She wouldn’t contradict him. No one beyond the two of them would ever know the truth.
She didn’t soften. She sat and stared. He couldn’t allow her to dwell in that lonely place. He rotated around the seat and stood in front of her. Now she stared at his crotch. She hardly blinked.
He cupped her chin and lifted her angelic face. Her eyes met his. He loved her beyond words. He would do anything for her. Her pupils dilated. She loved him. He never doubted that. The words hung on her lips just waiting to be spoken.
Her eyelids drifted half-closed and she tilted forward. Her forehead came to rest against his stomach and the tension drained from her shoulders. She melted into him.
He hugged her behind the neck. He wanted her more than ever. This power surging through him needed an outlet. It needed to act on someone. He wanted to fuck her, but he couldn’t take her like this, not after what just happened. She couldn’t tolerate it and he cherished her too much to push it on her. He would have all the time in the world for that later.
All at once, she pried back her head and looked up at him. “Bryce?”
He stroked her cheeks. “What is it, baby?”
She swallowed hard. “Do we have to stay here—in this house?”
He had to smile. God, she was so beautiful even in her pain and shock. “Only for a little while, baby. Then we’ll go home to our own house.”
She leaned into him one more time and her voice came muffled against his shirt. “Don’t make me sleep in this house, all right, Bryce? Don’t make me sleep here.”
He massaged her neck and shoulders hugging her to him. “All right, baby. We won’t sleep here.”
22
Alexa watched Bryce across McCain’s living room. Not even spending the last several hours in this house could make it anything else to her. To her, it would always be McCain’s house.
The place made her skin crawl. She still tasted that delirious ambrosia of his blood. She thirsted for that taste, but she would never taste it again because McCain was dead. She killed him. She bit that asshole in half and stomped him flat underfoot.
Holy fuck, killing him felt so good! She never thought of herself as a cold-blooded killer. Sure, she killed her enemies, but never like this. She never lusted after it like this before.
Now she knew exactly how Bryce felt. Just look at him over there. He towered over all those cowering idiots around the table talking about Anarock and studying a bunch of maps. Those morons didn’t even know Bryce was their enemy. They followed him bowing and scraping the same way they followed McCain. Bryce was their leader now. They were all too scared of him to peep.
They didn’t even know Alexa was the one who killed McCain. They didn’t know she was the one they should be afraid of. They didn’t know she was the one who would sooner bite them in half as look at them.
If any one of these nutcase mutants so much as looked sideways at Bryce, she would tear them limb from limb. No one would ever fuck with either of them again. She would never be afraid of anyone or anything ever again.
The most beautiful part of the whole thing was that Bryce knew. He understood because he experienced the same magnetic surge of power and it didn’t frighten him one bit. He saw it in her and he liked it. It made him want her and it made her want him. They were equally matched in their dark, deadly power.
Even now, he moved among the leading personages of the Omega Battalion—McCain’s old team. Bryce propped his arms on the table and listened to their talk. He turned from one person to the next hearing all they had to say, but he never bowed to them. He controlled them with his presence exactly the way McCain used to.
“We planned for over five years before we crossed the portal.” Maurice’s three heads took turns bobbing forward to speak. The huge black ogre loomed over the others, but not even he could stand up to Bryce. “McCain said we had to make sure we could win and we did.”
“Did you send out scouts to see where your targets were?” Bryce asked.
Francois spoke up the side. Since the Battalion returned to the Honeycomb, he took Jamison’s place in Bryce’s inner circle. “He said we didn’t have to. He said Boris’s windows would show us where to find anybody we wanted to hit. He said no one could see us watching them, but….” Francois cast a sidelong glance at Boris. “He may have made a mistake about that.”
“So what did he tell you about Anarock?” Bryce scanned the whole group. “Did he tell you anything about his long term plans or did he just come up with the idea for an extended campaign after we lost the first battle?”
“He never told anybody anything,” Susie murmured in her high, lilting voice. “He always kept his plans to himself. None of us knew anything about Anarock until you came along and told us about it. I’m not even sure if he….” She bit off the end of her sentence.
Bryce waited for her to finish. “Go ahead and say it. He isn’t here and he isn’t coming back. Whatever you have to say about him, you can say it out loud in front of us. I need to know everything he did and didn’t do. I need to know everything you know.”
She shuffled her feet and looked around. “Well, I don’t like to say anything against him, but it seems like he didn’t even know Anarock existed before you told him about it. In fact, I know he didn’t know it existed. If he did know, he would have come up with a plan to attack it before we found you. He…..He didn’t know about…. about…..”
She waved her hand. The others hung on her word, but she didn’t finish. “Do you mean cities?” Bryce asked. “He didn’t know about cities?”
She nodded down at the floor. “I don’t guess he knew much about what we would find over there. It seems like he thought that world would be like this one…you know, empty.”
Bryce nodded. “I see what you mean. His early success made him cocky. He didn’t realize he would come up against populations so much larger than the Battalion.”
“So how are we going to take Anarock?” Maurice asked. “Maybe we could use magic to disguise ourselves and get inside without anyone seeing us. We could attack their NightRage people and take out as many as we could before we launch an assault from outside.”
“How can we do that?” Susie asked. “NightRage has five thousand magic-users and that’s not even counting the other house Crests. We would need to do a lot more than that to defeat them.”
“Well, we have to defeat them,” Maurice countered. “We can’t just sit here in safety. We have a job to do. We can’t let losing McCain stop us.”
“What makes you think you have to take Anarock?” Bryce asked. “You don’t have to take it just because McCain told you to.”
