Chapter 6: Beau

“Do you want it?” Teague whispered, his fingers lifting Eve’s chin to look at him. “Do you want to suck my cock, sweet girl?”

Eve said nothing to this, only continued to stare boldly at him, her expression never wavering. Damn, this girl was a firecracker. Keane had force-fed her our blood in the wine bottle, but she’d spat most of it out into his face the first opportunity she had. Now, she was on her feet, trapped between Keane and Teague, but she hadn’t even come close to cracking.

Yet.

“I’d rather choke on bile,” she said finally. The response was so unexpected that I laughed out loud, pulling an irritated glance from Teague as he dropped Eve’s chin and shook his head.

“You have a smart mouth,” he said to Eve with a wink. “Maybe your brain should catch up.”

“Fuck you.”

“Don’t tempt me with a good time.”

Eve recoiled as Teague reached out for her again, trapped in place by Keane. As I watched her, an overwhelming sensation of want and desire crawled up my throat. I wanted to tangle my fingers in her hair and hold her captive as I kissed her, tasted her, and made her moan with pleasure before screaming my name into the empty void of nothingness. I ached for her in the same way a drug addict ached for their fix. Being with her, I now understood Keane’s current fixation.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.” I stepped up to caress the soft skin of her cheek with the back of my fingers. “You don’t have to be afraid of us.”

Eve pulled her lip between her teeth to chew on it, looking anything but convinced. I couldn’t blame her. The three of us were a force to be reckoned with, and we hadn’t exactly treated her like a princess since her arrival.

“Here’s a quick tip.” Eve pulled back and away from me. “If you’re going to lie, at least make it convincing.”

I chuckled, drawing my hand back. “The boys are right,” I confirmed. “You are a little firecracker, aren’t you?”

“I just don’t take anyone’s shit,” she hissed. “Especially not some over-inflated, egotistical, arrogant band of guys who decided their mission in life is to make me miserable.”

Keane met my eyes and chuckled. “I told you she’d be worth it.”

“Let me go,” Eve said. “You made me drink that crap, so now let me go. The game is over. We’re done.”

Keane chuckled darkly. “We’re done when I say we’re done.”

“Fuck you,” Eve spat. “So much power, yet you can’t even stick to your word.”

This made both Teague and Keane pause as if they hadn’t considered that. I looked between them, silently hoping they’d let Eve go. She’d had enough for tonight. If we wanted her, we couldn’t destroy her first. But Keane was walking a tight line between monster and man, and we all knew it.

After a moment of silence, he released Eve. She toppled to the ground, bruised and scratched legs bucking beneath her as she hit the deck. She scrambled to her feet in a second, terrified to be vulnerable again.

“I’m reporting you,” she hissed, turning to bolt. I grabbed her from behind and pushed her against the rotted railing, holding her captive so she couldn’t move.

“Don’t,” I whispered in her ear, taking the opportunity to breathe in her deep scent. “They’ll let you go, but if you go running to John Carter and his staff, we might just have to capture you again. And next time, clothes won’t stay on.”

She glowered at me, still furious despite the situation she was in. It was oddly endearing.

“I hate you,” she whispered, and I released my grasp on her.

“Run along, sweetheart,” I said. “You won’t get many opportunities.”

Eve didn’t have to be told twice. With a parting look of absolute disgust, she bolted in the direction of the school, racing through the trees like she was on fire. Keane, Teague, and I stood on the boat’s deck for a moment, listening to her frantic footsteps fade into the bitter dark. I looked at Keane, who was leaning up against the railing, his eyes still pinned on where she last stood.

“Feel better?” I asked. “You wanted to catch her, and we did.”

Keane said nothing for a long moment, but Teague spoke up.

“I see your obsession with her, man.” He whistled between his teeth. “Those fucking legs go on for days.”

“She’s a beauty,” I agreed, imagining running my hands through that dark, color-streaked brown hair. “A fighter, too. Why is she here?”

“Dunno,” Keane said finally. “Since that last nurse bitch Malorie got fired, I haven’t been able to get into student files.”

“She’s fucked up,” said Teague. “That much is obvious. I really want to know what her problem is.”

“She thought you were going to rape her.” I straightened up and looked at Keane, who met my gaze, his thick brows furrowing.

“Did I?” he said. It wasn’t a question.

“Of course not, man,” Teague cut in, shooting me a look. “You wouldn’t do that.”

Teague nodded, and so did I because we knew it was true. Keane would never rape someone—but when he was manic and fixating, well—he wasn’t himself. And that’s when we worried.

“I can’t lie, though,” Keane continued. “I wanted to fuck her. I wanted to fuck her bad, right here on this godforsaken boat.”

I said nothing to this because I felt the same way. All three of us did. Having Eve captive tonight had been a rush, not just physically but emotionally. I felt as if I’d taken a big fucking hit of something good, and the lingering high felt fucking fantastic.

“Let’s shut down the party and head to bed,” Teague said, surprising me. “I’m no longer in the mood to entertain.”

“Do you think she made it back?” Keane asked, but before either of us could answer, he shrugged his shoulders. “Fuck that. Like it matters. Maybe a little scare lost in the woods is just what she needs.”

“Whatever,” I said, silently hoping that wasn’t the case. We wanted to fuck with Eve, not kill her. At least, that wasn’t my plan, but I couldn’t speak for the other two.

“Don’t get soft on me, man.” Teague shot Keane a look as we started our hike back to the school. On other initiation nights, it had been customary to drag the hunted recruit back to the party, forcing him or her to drink the wine blood in front of the crowd, humiliating them. It was a power flex, something we occasionally did to remind current and future students that we ran the academy. Not them, and not ever. But tonight, that hadn’t happened. None of us had brought it up, even though I wanted to. But I felt like we were all feeling the same way. We didn’t want to share Eve with the crowd. Tonight, we’d wanted her all to ourselves.

And tonight…well, this was just the beginning of our new, fun little game.