Dark Vow (Blackwoods College)

My brothers did enough of that for me.

But this Latvian deal was a warning shot, and they’d hear it, loud and clear.

I was coming for them.

No more sitting idly by.

I leaned back on my couch. Smoke from a joint curled into the air. I took a small hit and released the acrid weed into the air, watching it plume and curl in the sunlight as it slanted through my windows. This was my space, but it wasn’t all my own.

Smoking took the edge off. It helped tame my demons. It quieted my anger, made it easier to think.

And I needed to think now more than ever.

Matthias was back home near the manor preparing my next move. He’d see to the fallout as best he could and he’d give me a heads-up if there were any problems. So far, it’d been quiet.

I didn’t like quiet.

A pounding at my door pulled my attention from my problems. I sat up, frowning. Not many people knew where I lived. Jarrod, Des, and Addler, but nobody else. I stood and went to the blinds, peeking out.

Robyn stood on my porch, glaring at my front door like she might explode it into splinters.

I smiled, stubbed out the joint. I pushed it aside. She’d smell it, but I didn’t care.

I opened the door and smiled. “Hello, my darling. I was wondering when you’d—”

She slapped me across the face with enough force to turn my chin.

I stepped back in surprise. My skin tingled as I touched it with my fingertips. Her hands were balled into fists and her jaw was clenched hard.

Her throat was covered in bruises.

The slap was forgotten. I stepped toward her. “Who did that to you?”

She tried to hit me again. I caught her wrist and yanked her violently inside. I slammed the door behind me and growled as I approached. She backed off toward the couch, face determined and angry, and she tried to hit me again, and again.

I stopped her, wrestled her down, and pinned her to the cushions.

“Who did it?” I said as she struggled.

“Let go of me, you fucking prick. You deserve so much worse than one stupid slap, do you hear me? You’re going to get me killed, you selfish asshole.”

“Who?” I said, leaning down to stare into her eyes. “Tell me who did that to you.”

I knew those bruises. I’d seen them before. Felt them on my body. Those were from human hands. They were what happened when a big man tried to choke the life out of a smaller one. Burst capillaries, subcutaneous bleeding. I imagined how she’d felt: vision dimming, head pounding, pain lancing all along her core, and the panic, the sheer panic of not being able to breathe.

Rage flowed like water along my skin.

Whoever did that to her would die.

Whoever made her feel that way would have to pay.

“I’m tired of your sadistic games,” she said, still trying to get free. If I weren’t so angry and ready to murder, I’d find it unreasonably arousing. The way she twisted and writhed beneath me. How easily I could crush her. “I don’t want anything to do with you ever again. Do you hear me?”

I got right in her face. I stared into her eyes.

“Who. Touched. You?”

She sneered. “I bet you can guess. Go ahead. I’ll give you three tries.”

I didn’t want to play this game. I bit her bottom lip and she gasped, arching her back. I shoved a knee between her legs, pressing it against her warm spot, and as she moved forward, she ground against it. Another gasp, this time half in surprise and half in pleasure. I kept my leg there as she tried to get away and my cock began to stiffen.

“I’m not playing. Tell me.”

“This whole thing’s a game to you, Calvin. All you think about is what you want and what you need. You don’t give a damn about me. I’m just some pretty little toy, isn’t that right?”

“You’re a beautiful toy, Robyn. But I care about you more than you know.”

“Then leave me the hell alone.”

I moved my leg, grinding against her pussy. “You don’t want that.”

“You don’t know what I want.” But her lips fell open.

I held her down as her hips began to move.

Fuck, she was grinding her cunt along my leg.

“I’ve been watching you for a long time. Studying you. Learning you. I know you better than anyone.”

“You think I’m a piece of candy to carry around in your pocket.” She moved slow in long arcs of her hips, mouth open, panting softly.

I wanted to rip her clothes off. I wanted the taste of her flesh on my lips as I fucked her into submission.

But I had to know who did this first.

“You’re so wrong about that. You’re one of the few people I know that understands me.”