Maisie

(Trigger warning: Almost-rape situation)

Kisten grabbed me from behind and slammed me down onto my stomach in the dirt. His massive body came down on top of me, crushing me into the ground. One huge hand pinned my wrists above my head while the other yanked my hips up, forcing me onto my knees in a mounting position.

Horror flooded me.

"No!" I thrashed wildly.

I twisted, cracking my wrists in a bid to throw dirt and sand into his eyes. He snarled but didn’t stop. I clawed backward, raking my nails across his face, aiming for his eyes. I bit the hand that caught my wrists again, hard enough to draw blood.

Kisten growled, but it was a more husky than angry sound. I felt him thick and heavy, pressed against my entrance through my jeans.

"No!" I cried, pushing, fighting.

"Fight me," he panted, voice thick with lust. "It only makes me want to rut you harder."

He ripped my jeans down in one brutal motion, exposing me to himself. He grunted sound of approval. "Your hips have expanded well enough to carry offspring."

His hips surged forward and my limbs began to lock as I felt the blunt head of him graze my skin, and I understood what was about to happen to me.

Bitter tears ran down my face as I fought the paralysis taking my motor functions bit by bit and struggled.

Why did my life constantly have to be like this? Was I cursed to always find myself at the mercy of every man in my life? What use was there, training all this time if it still didn’t matter in the face of a real predator?

I felt him grip himself behind me, his mouth grazing my neck. "Our females always squirm at first. They do it because they know it makes the rut better. Your body knows who you truly belong to. You’ve gotten me excited enough."

The thick length of him ran up my thigh as he tried to find my entrance while I thrashed desperately. "Now be still and let me take what is mine—"

Something slammed into us from the side, displacing Kisten from me, and a warm hand clasped around my waist, threw me back. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

I crashed into the dirt, shaking, sobbing, curling into myself as I held the shreds of my clothes to my chest.

Soren stood over me like death incarnate.

His he’d out his hand in a protective stance and I saw claws. I watched his back curve in and snap. I watched his fancy dress shirt begin to rip as he filled it out. And began to grow. Taller. Broader. Larger.

"Ah. It’s you," I heard Kisten say. "We have to stop running into each other like this, princeling."

"I warned you," Soren said, though his voice came out wrong. It was deeply layered, emitting a resonance that rumbled the ground under my feet. "That I would kill you if you touched what belonged to me."

I heard the icy displeasure in Kisten’s tone. "You are in my territory. The girl was mine first. She is still mine. There are no laws existent in which she will ever be considered yours."

Soren was still growing. He was monstrously larger than Kisten, stretching as far as nine foot, and I understood that this was why it was a sound rule that nobody messed around with a Lycan.

His hair grew thicker and longer, rippling over dense muscle. He spoke again and his voice was still that strange, silent roar. "Why don’t you come a little closer and say that to my face, Cur?"

Kisten slammed into Soren with cataclysmic force, and they collided with raw violence taking out a large span of trees in their wake.

One of such was right beside me, the huge oak keeling over, aimed for me.

My limbs had finally given out on me. And I couldn’t tell if it was the drugs or the shock.

Right before it hit, Quinlan appeared by my side, catching the brunt of the hit with his back. He inhaled sharply with a grunt, blue eyes flicking to where Soren and Kisten were moving in a blur to fast to follow.

"Can you move?" he asked softly, taking note of my nakedness as he shrugged off the trunk.

He was injured. There was a deep gash of four claw marks running down his chest. It was healing, but I suspected it had previously been deeper, considering the amount of blood that stained his pants. His golden hair was bloody and if I looked close enough, I thought I saw skin... entrails... in them.

I must’ve been messed up in the head, because I felt an immense sense of safety crash into me at the sight of him, covered in gore and blood, so much so tears began leaking down my cheeks again. "N-no."

He crouched in front of me. "They have reinforcements coming. Jer’s holding them off alone, but we need to leave now." His jaw clenched with anger as his noticed my cracked wrist. "I’m going to have to lift you."

I understood what he was asking.

Having nearly been torn open by another man, he thought I was traumatized enough to be asked first before he touched me at all.

I couldn’t stop shivering as I nodded.

He scooped me up gently but urgently, cradling me against his chest as he sprinted away from the battle.

"Mercer," I murmured, feeling my bones turn to lead, my eyelashes growing heavier by the second.

"It takes more than a few rebels to take one of us down," Quinlan said. "He’ll be fine. Don’t worry."

I was still shivering. "Was... not worried." My brain felt tired. "Mercer... pain in my ass. Don’t... care about Mercer."

Quinlan chuckled. "I’ll be sure to let him know." He shifted me gently and I felt the wind ruffle my hair as he said, "Close your eyes, Adams."

I despised the feeling of weakness and numbness I felt in that moment. "I... couldn’t... do anything."

It came out as a sob.

Quinlan’s lips brushed my brow. "It was no fault of yours. Not even our best fighters could’ve beaten Kisten. Even if you had shifted, Kisten is not a battle you could ever win. Considering, you just began training weeks ago, and Kisten has been a warrior since he could walk."

I knew he was saying it to make me feel better, but it didn’t. I was tired of being rescued. Tired of being at the mercy of other people. Tired of being a damsel in distress.

But those were too many words to say when even my tongue had begun to go numb.

As consciousness drifted from me, I slurred, "He said... he was my brother."

I waited, but I must have passed out immediately because I didn’t think Quinlan responded.