Tall, Dark & Furious (Pyte/Sentinel 6)

“What should we do with you?” Mary murmured thoughtfully, dragging his attention to the small woman who he hadn’t seen in over two weeks.

He’d been painfully aware of her absence for every fucking second that they’d kept her from him. For the past two and a half weeks, he’d been forced to listen to her panicked heartbeats, scent her fear, and it had damn near killed him. He could have handled anything that they threw at him, but being forced to listen as they’d hurt her…

He hadn’t been able to handle that.

The first time he’d heard them strike her, he’d lost it. He’d fought against his chains to get to her, screamed at the top of his lungs with every broken sob and whimper that came out of her cell only to realize that he’d given away too much. It had taken everything that he had, but he’d forced himself to stop reacting every time he heard her cell door open.

“What do you think, Ethan?

Should we put her in here with you?” Mary asked, watching him as he kept his gaze locked on his son.

“I don’t fucking care what you do with her,” Ethan said, making sure to sound bored.

“But you went through so much trouble to get her,” Mary pointed out only to sigh before she added, “I guess we could finish her punishment now that we have some time.”

Grinding his jaw, Ethan kept his eyes locked on his son, telling himself that the only thing that mattered was getting his son out of here before it was too late and-

“You can choose someone else to finish your punishment, Mistake,” Mary explained in a tauntingly sweet voice, but that’s not what had him turning his head to look at Indie.

It was the name.

They’d called her Mistake.

“All you have to do is look at someone and they’ll take your place,” Mary said, sounding bored while Indie stood there, staring straight ahead as a shifter picked up a flat board and-

Utterly fucking destroyed him.

*-*-*-*

“Fucking look at me!” Trace heard someone scream as he slowly opened his eyes and frowned, wondering what he was doing in the cellar as he turned his head and felt the air rush out of his lungs.

“Samantha?” he said, trying not to panic as he sat up only to growl in frustration when he found his arms shackled to the wall when he reached for her. She was pale, so damn pale, he thought as terror tore through him while the scent of her blood saturated his lungs and he realized that her breaths were shallow.

“Wife?” Trace said, reaching for her again only to have his arms pulled up short. “Samantha?” he bit out, ignoring everything else around him as he focused on her.

Why the hell wasn’t she moving?

“Samantha?”

“Samantha!” he snarled as everything went red and he struggled to break the chains, but they wouldn’t fucking break. “Samantha!” he screamed, trying to get to her, but he couldn’t reach her.

He couldn’t fucking reach her!

“Did you miss me?” the voice that had haunted every single minute that he’d spent in that tomb said, drawing his attention to find a beautiful woman with flawless pale skin, perfect hair and cold blue eyes that he’d once foolishly convinced himself were filled with warmth watching him.

He’d been such a fool.

“Fucking bitch,” Trace bit out, keeping his eyes locked on her even as he continued struggling to get to his wife.

“Is that really any way to greet an old friend?” Mary asked with what he’d once thought was an adorable pout as Trace focused his attention back on his wife, trying not to panic as he searched for the source of the blood pooling around her and felt his stomach drop when he found it.

Oh, god…

He ignored the terror threatening to tear him apart as he slowly inhaled, taking in her scent and praying that they hadn’t-

“Don’t worry. We didn’t give her any blood. We just needed her to give you a reason to leave the house. Besides, we have something else planned for her,” Mary said as Trace ignored her, knowing better than to trust the bitch in front of him. He closed his eyes and slowly inhaled, taking in her scent and did it again, needing to be sure and once he was, he opened his eyes and stared down at his beautiful wife.

Swallowing hard, he looked to his left to find Kale and a shifter that he didn’t know chained to the wall in another cell with Nathan barely hanging onto consciousness next to them, his eyes locked on his sister before his gaze shifted to Trace.