Werewulf Journals 3: Hungry Pleasures (32 page)

Ice slithered up my spine as two of the

r

football playe s, black boys I knew well,

grabbed my arms and hauled me up. Our families worshipped at the same church. How

could they do this to me?

My feet dragged as they pulled me to the front of the low-slung car, forcing me down

upon the sloping hood of Michael

r

Montgome y’s silver Maserati. Holding my wrists in a

n

unbreakable grasp, they pressed me back to the warm hood, avoiding my accusing glare.

Dread coiled in my belly. My

t

mou h dried out as my breathing escalated, chest rising

and falling as panic climbed up my throat. “What are you doing? Let me go!”

Face implacable, Maury stood beside the car, swigging whiskey straight from the

bottle, spilling some as he chugged it down in long swallows.

“Strip her.”

I tugged against the boys’ hold. “Please…!” My voice broke, terror stealing my control, t

“Please don’ do this! What have I ever done to you?”

“How about showed us up every chance you got, bitch?”

“Yeah,” another of the boys drawled, shoving in to stare coldly over his teammate’s

shoulder, hard eyes glaring into mine. “How about messing up the bell curve in Mr. Tanner’s class so three of us got knocked off the football team?”

They were angry because I got A’s? The only thing I excelled at was the cause of this

”

horror? “I didn’t mean to! I’m sorry!

Hard hands ripped at my dress, not even trying to find the fastenings. As the fragile fabric gave way, I sobbed in fear, hearing the devastation of my life in the destruction of my antique finery.

“You’ll be good and sorry soon, fat bitch.”

“Yeah, you fat, ugly bitch!”

“Hurry up and fuck her, Maury. We ain’t got all night.”

Maury finished the bottle and started on another, still refusing to meet my eyes. “Don’t rush me. I’m not near drunk enough to touch her.”

Dean, the black fullback, stared down at me. “If she wasn’t so damn fat, I’d fuck her myself. Tell you what, fat-ass, lose some weight and I’ll come back and do you up good.”

“Get busy, Maury. Deputy Breek drives by here every night around eleven and you

don’t have much time.”

“Make her suck your dick, that’ll get your juices flowing.”

Werewulf Journals 3: Hungry Pleasures

177

My stomach roiled as my dinner threatened to come back up. They really planned to

rape my. “Please, Maury, oh, God, please don’t rape me! Let me go home. I won’t tell anyone, I promise!”

“Tell whoever you like, bitch. That’s why we’re here. We’ll all swear you gave it up

voluntarily, and then offered to do all of us.”

His words only made me cry harder, my e

t ars threatened to overwhelm me as I

struggled against them. Breath ragged and harsh, I sobbed for Maury to have pity. “Oh, please, oh, please, ohpleaseohpleaseohplease…”

“Someone shut her the fuck up! I can’t stand that caterwauling.”

“Get it over with, man. You lost the draw; now do it! This bitch is strong. We can’t

hold her all night.”

“All right,” Maury snarled, tugging on the snap

s

of his slack . His pants loosened and he

pushed them down his hips, let them fall around his knees. He didn’t take off his boxers, just reached in and pulled out his penis. Already semi hard, it swelled and grew as he stood between my legs, stroki

r

ng himself and sta ing down at my exposed body.

Frantic, I continued to plead with him from behind the makeshift gag of hands, begged him to let me go, to not do this. Little whimpe

s

rs e caped around the rough fingers several of

the boys pressed over my mouth, keeping any louder cries trapped.

For a moment, I thought his eyes softened. An instant later, I watched them harden,

jaw clench. Despair and hopelessness filled me.

“You brought this on yourself, Kaila. Always the one with the answers, always messing us guys up,” he said, talking himself into anger, working himself up to hurting me.

-

His alcohol laden breath gusted in my face while he fought to pry my thighs open.

Two more players helped, taking my legs and spreading them wide. “Yeah,” one grunted, holding on as I bucked and fought, “what’s your answer for this, bitch?”

Wedging his erection at the entrance of my vagina, Maury pushed into me, tearing

through my hymen without tenderness, intent

on giving as much pain and humiliation as

possible.

I bit through the fingers covering my mouth. With a curse, the hand let go and I

screamed and cried, cringing against Maury’s invading body as he humped his hips into me, driving his penis in and out of my dry channel, bruising my flesh while he destroyed my innocence.

Sometime during the ordeal, I passed out.

When I came to I was back in the front seat

s

of the Ma erati, my ta

s

ttered dres slung

about my shoulders, panties gone. Body aching, hurting in places I’d never explored, I huddled close to the door.

“I’m calling the police as soon as I get home,” I warned him through my tears, my

anguish deep and soul destroying.

178

Camille Anthony

“Go ahead. I dare you. All my teammates will swear they had you, too. They’ll tell

everyone you put out to all of them. Now get the hell out of my car.”

Scared to death, I stood on the porch as he roared away, knowing I couldn’t go inside like this. My father would take on the entire town in my defense, and only end up ruining our family. My brothers didn’t de e

s rve that.

I thought of Miss Martha and ran all the way to her house. I banged on her door,

sobbing like a wild woman until she rushed to let me in. I fell into her arms and told her everything that had happened.

She wanted me to call the police, but I refused, reminding her of Maury’s family

money and the influence of his rich and famous football celebrity father. Reluctantly, but seeing how upset -- hysterical, really -- I was, she helped me come up with a plan.

I left while she called my father to ask if I could stay with her a few days since she was feeling ill. Our only phone was in the kitchen. I heard him talking with her as I sneaked in the front door. Calling out a rushed greeting, I flew down the hall to my room.

Once in my bedroom, I stripped out of the now hated dress and rushed into the

bathroom. I had to get clean, couldn’t wait to scrub the feel of those boys’ hands off every inch of my bruised skin. I kept scrubbing, kept heating up the water, trying to boil the shame and pain out of my body. All the while, I screamed inside, railed at the bitter reality of my life that let a beast like Maury get away with what he’d done to me. I believed his boast, knowing he and his friends’ words would sway any jury against a poor black girl from the wrong side of town…

Werewulf Journals 3: Hungry Pleasures

179

A Dish Served Cold

Kaila lay against Pavel’s chest, feeling oddly light and empty inside. He crooned soft nothings in her ear…only the strength of his trembling hands, the clutch of his arms holding her tightly, his chin resting atop her head revealed his emotional turmoil.

“I never went to the police. I stayed with Miss Martha, and for two horrendous weeks, we waited anxiously for my period to come. I cried through a whole box of Kleenex the day it finally started.”

“You never confronted those males again?” Pavel asked, clearing his throat to erase the gruffness. “They didn’t taunt you about it?”

She shifted languidly, nestled closer to his chest. “I didn’t remember any of this until just now. Once my menses started, I must have blanked out the entire episode. Miss Martha really had been feeling ill. She died a week later, and everyone -- I most of all -- was shocked to find she’d left me her house and the entire contents.”

“Oh, god, I didn’t even remember her funeral, don’t recall laying flowers on her grave.”

Tears started as the feelings of loss for that gentle woman swept over her, feelings her mind hadn’t allowed her to access for almost twenty years. “She kept me sane…as sane as I could be, during those days and I…” She shook her head, dashing at the tears streaming down her cheeks. “I didn’t remember her!”

Pavel’s thumbs soothed over her cheeks, chasing the moisture. “Hush, now. Your

subconscious mind knew best back then, and you remember now, which is all that counts. I promise you we’ll go there together one day…honor her memory with flowers --” His voice grew hard, implacable. “-- and the knowledge that justice was done, though belated.”

Kaila sat up and pulled away, eyes wide on the burning green pupils staring down on

her. “Pavel, what --?”

180

Camille Anthony

His mouth, tight with anger, didn’t move. I will not allow those males to remain

unpunished. Even were you not my true-bond mate would I allow such injustice!

Kaila stared at him in awe. It’s been so long…

You have a twenty-year reunion coming up. We will attend!

Dipping her head, Kaila pressed a kiss on the skin of his chest, rubbed her face back and forth in the lush mat of hair. “I love you so much, Pavel Andreiavich Janecek. How I wish you had been my first, my only.”

Pavel rested both palms on her cheeks, raised her face to meet his lips. His kiss was gentle and soft, cherishing. “But I was your first lover. On our first night, I spoke with Rickard later, after you’d fallen asleep. I told him I had received the gift of your innocence.”

He kissed her. “I have treasured it ever since.”

“Oh, Pavel!” She threw her arms about him, squeezing as close as she could. “I never

dated since then, but I wanted to. More than anything, deep down, I wanted to have a true date where the man hadn’t lost the pull of the straw or had to get drunk in order to fuck me.

I perpetually dieted, driven by their unrecalled slurs, yet each time I’d lose significant weight, I’d binge, never knowing it was because of what Dean had said to me.”

A frown creased Pavel’s brow. “Dean. Not the one who physically raped you?”

“He said if I ever lost enough weight, he’d come ‘do’ me.” Kaila sighed. “Somewhere

deep inside, I took his words as a threat. I didn’t want him or any of that crew coming anywhere near me and I guess my subconscious took care of it the only way it could by keeping me fat.”

His voice cold and calm, Pavel asked, “Do you want me to kill them?”

The idea startled her. Kaila relaxed back in her warm cradle, used mind-talk to tell him to put his arms back around her. He did, drawing her close and dropping kisses on the top of her head.

He’d do it, too. She knew he had no qualms about killing if he thought the cause just.

Kaila had never thought about it, but once introduced, the idea wouldn’t dissipate. Did she want them dead? The boys -- now men -- who’d violently destroyed her innocence and her self-esteem? Maury, who’d brutally ripped from her something that was hers alone to give?

“I want them to suffer. I want them to feel the helplessness I felt as I struggled under them, pleading for the mercy they withheld. I want them to watch all their hopes die --” Her voice rose in passionate outcry. “-- just as mine did! I want their dreams dead!”

“Done.”

Visions of Pavel taking fur form and attacking her enemies had her backpedaling. She’d best clarify that statement. “Um…you do know I meant financially and socially dead, not physically, right?”

Werewulf Journals 3: Hungry Pleasures

181

Above her head, Pavel sighed, the depth of it raising her cheek where it rested on his chest. “I do not know if I can promise Maury and Dean will remain among the living. The others --” He shook his head. “-- perhaps.”

What had she done? “Pavel, I really don’t need you to go that far…”

“No, Kaila. In this, you will not rule me. Those men committed the most heinous crime against womankind and got away clean. Perhaps, having suffered no consequences, they

have done the same to other misfortunate girls.

“Nor do you rule me. I want their names and the years they attended your high

school,” a cold voice demanded from across the room. They turned to find Rickard standing in the open door of their bedroom. Cold fury etched his pale face; the expression chilled Kaila to her marrow. She shrank back into Pavel’s warm embrace. The prince was not a man she would want as her enemy.

“I will orchestrate their financial and social ruination.” The prince bared his teeth in a fierce grin. “I leave the physical and mental torture to you, my brother wulf.”

Pavel smiled grimly, nodding in agreement, and Kaila slumped, sighing. “Both of you

are too bloodthirsty. What am I going to do with the two of you?”

Love me! Pavel suggested on their private channel.

Rickard sauntered over and dropped a kiss on her cheek. “Ah, my sweet chocolate

confection, love me, too…though after today, only from afar.” He put his open lips over hers and kissed her hard, laughing against her mouth at the involuntary rumbling snarl coming from Pavel.

On the public bond they’d shared for years, the one she now had access to, she heard

Rickard tease, Down, boy! Then the feel of his mind grew somber. I acknowledge she’s all yours, but Pavel, I love her almost as much as I do you. My brother, will you honor our pact?

Pavel quirked a brow at Kaila, silently offering her an out even now.

She had to admit she’d been shocked when Pavel had told her about the pact between

the royal family and his wulf pack. She hadn’t had much time to ponder all the ramifications but she couldn’t deny she was tempted.

What woman wouldn’t want to be the focus of two beautiful men, determined to elicit

every drop of sexual pleasure, every ounce of erotic sensation from her?

She’d never done this before, been part of a threesome, and she was nervous. Hell, her pudgy body was bare-butt naked before two men who could rival the world’s sexiest models.