The Initiation (Darkness Within Duet 1)

Pulling away from her house, he set off toward the group’s private meeting area.

It wasn’t in the woods, or even at any of their usual places. The place they met was an abandoned factory. It had been condemned years ago, but they still broke in. Only assholes would even try to spend time in the falling-down building. For the most part, they had gotten away unscathed from any damage to the crumbling building. They liked to live dangerously.

Axel, Buck, and Jett were not inside when he pulled up but were in fact leaning against Axel’s car.

“It’s about time you showed up. Are you fucking her already?”

“You sound jealous, Axel.”

“I’m not, and you know it. I want to know what the deal is. We don’t start fights like that, especially not with so many fucking witnesses. What the fuck?”

“He was touching her,” he said. “No one touches what belongs to us.”

“Belongs to us?” Buck asked.

“Just last week you were picking on her. We stuffed dirt in her locker and now you’re saying she’s part of us? Part of our group?”

“You really think she can be fearless?” Jett asked.

“Or even a banger?” Buck did some weird thrusting hip action. “You know, to have one you to have to have us all.”

“You can’t tell me that when you look at her, you don’t see,” Draven said. “She has a place right here.”

“It has been the four of us since the beginning. We have each other’s backs, and we agreed any chick that comes between us has to belong to all of us,” Axel said.

Silence fell between them, and Draven stared at Axel.

They had rules.

They’d seen men, strong men, torn apart because of a woman’s pussy. They had all agreed to be above that, and part of their initiation, was to fuck them all. To be one of them, they had to fuck them all.

So far, no woman had ever met up to their expectation.

Sure, they had fucked their way through their share of women, but they’d all been willing and none of them would take a hit for any of them.

“I don’t care what you say, Harper’s the one.”

“This has to be a vote we all agree on,” Axel said. “I don’t think she’s the one.”

“You don’t.”

“The way she looks at us, she wants to hurt us,” Buck said.

“Scared she’d bite your dick off?”

“She’s too good,” Jett said. “We can’t have a law-abiding citizen in this group. You know that. We need each other, and we’re always there for one another. If she’s part of us, then she has to be willing to lie, cheat, and steal.”

“Otherwise your dad will put her on the cutting block,” Axel said. “You know that. You’ve got to be prepared to train her. It’s not just us. Our folks will deal with any problems they don’t think we can handle.”

Chapter Five

Harper sat at her desk, flicking the pen she’d been using between her fingers, trying not to think about Draven, or about any of them. Her body kept on remembering how good it felt to have him so close, to feel his body next to hers.

Draven, Axel, Buck, and Jett.

Four guys.

She couldn’t remember a time when they weren’t a group, a gang. The moment they were in school, no one was willing to tear them apart. Boys had tried to get between them, had tried to become part of their crowd. No one had ever succeeded.

Even girls had wanted to be with them.

So many people had tried and failed.

No one knew how to become one of them, and she didn’t even have a clue as to why she was thinking about it now.

Being trapped against Draven with him holding her in place, letting go, screaming, it had felt rather liberating. Twirling the pen around her hair, she stared out the window.

She spun around as Ian cleared his throat. He stood in her doorway, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up.

“Evening,” he said.

“Hey.” She stood up to face him.

Had Draven told him?

He entered her bedroom, and she waited as he reached out, picking up a picture that had been placed on her wall.

The only photograph she had of her mother was inside her drawer beside the bed. Every single item that reminded them of her mother, she’d gotten rid of or had been taken from her.

She hated the way they both seemed to just pretend she didn’t exist. Her mother was part of her. There were times she looked in the mirror and saw her.

“We’ve not had much time to talk, Harper. I’ve been so busy with work. I feel we should talk.”

Staring at him as he took a seat on the edge of the bed, she made no move to join him. Why talk? Why do anything?

“Hannah wanted me to talk to you.”

“About what?” She folded her arms across her chest, hating that he started a conversation with her.