Marius chuckled darkly, running his hand along the girl’s pale neck. He could snap her head off in the blink of an eye, and Graeme knew it. “What’s the meaning of this, Graeme?” Marius asked. “She’s pack property.”

“She’s no one’s property,” Graeme snarled.

“Well she’s certainly not yours, I see,” Marius scoffed, yanking her hair again to rattle some helpless cries out of her.

“Let her go, and we can talk about it downstairs,” Graeme replied. He put up his hands calmly, “I won’t fight you. I give you my word.”

“Why would we talk about it downstairs when we can just settle it right here?” Marius ran his tongue along his teeth tauntingly.

Graeme paused. He looked at August who was now staring back at him, her hair still pulled taut in the maniac’s hands and her neck dangerously exposed. A fierce burning that had started low in his abdomen grew furiously, but he reigned it back, clenching his teeth with the effort.

“Look, she’s already been through enough. She doesn’t have to be in the middle of this. This is about you and me.”

“She’s already in the middle of this,” Marius replied coldly. “You brought her here.” He yanked August backwards out of the bed and grabbed her around the waist against him.

“Enough!” Graeme rumbled so low the glasses on the side table and tray shook violently. Marius froze in disbelief. “Let go,” Graeme spat as he stalked further forward, clenching his hands at his sides.

Marius let out a hysterical, high-pitched laugh and pushed August roughly toward the bed. “This human!” He cried shrilly, pointing at her. “You were too good for us before, but now you dare to use an Alpha command for her?”

Graeme watched August scramble back onto the bed, hair falling over her shoulders. He moved to pull her to safety when Marius quickly added, “She’s unmarked. Does she even know what you are? You’re more terrifying than the university’s pathetic little field experiment.” Graeme stopped abruptly as he saw August’s confused eyes looking back at him in terror.

“She doesn’t know, does she?” Marius laughed, amused that he had guessed right. Now this could work further in his favor. “They say humans don’t feel the mate pull like we do. She can’t possibly want a monster,” he added. Mate pull? Monster? August gulped at hearing these words. Was this why Marius kept referring to her as human?

Marius was skillfully using August’s ignorance as a weapon. A vague monster label should keep her hanging perilously between them long enough for Marius to take advantage. “You should have let her die in the forest, Graeme. Because now I can kill her and end you both.”

“You know the rule about mates, Marius,” Greta quickly interrupted.

“He’s not a member of any pack, Greta. The rules don’t apply.”

“He’s an advisor, Marius. The elders should be the ones to decide,” she tried again.

“It’s been decided!” Marius barked. “He rejected us! And he hasn’t even marked her—what claim does he have?”

August was dumbfounded. She couldn’t follow what anyone was saying, but she knew she was trapped and in just as much trouble as when she was running from Jonathan. This terrifying Marius person had just unleashed a torrent of vile thoughts into her mind when he touched her. She saw—no worse, felt—the sickening ways he imagined torturing her. The way he had done to others. He was like a demon who craved their suffering.

A familiar, terrifying pain suddenly ignited itself behind August’s eyes and began etching itself on her skin. She was back in the forest again, back in the dark, with the panic of an unfamiliar pain rising to consume her. It was like someone had lit a match for her to be engulfed in its flames again.

She tried pushing it away. ‘No, no. Not here. Not now.’ But the pain was intent on burning her alive once again, and now it was the only thing she could focus on.

Scrambling in an attempt to get away from it, away from herself, and away from the nightmare unfolding before her eyes in this room, she stumbled off the bed near Marius, pulling the sheets with her before curling up into herself on the floor.

“No no no, not again. Make it stop,” she groaned desperately, clawing at herself. Greta ran to help her, but Marius blocked her with one arm, giving her a threatening glare while scooping August up around her waist and straightening her against him. She squirmed and tried pushing his arm away from her, but it was no use and she was in so much pain. He wrapped his other arm around her chest, gripping her under the chin with a rough hand as she whimpered at being forced to move out of the protective ball she had curled into.

“I can make it stop, child. It will all go away for good,” he shushed her, “Would you like that?” August whimpered again, nodding instinctively as tears slid down her face.

Her strength was nothing compared to his. She should be crumpled on the floor, but Marius had immobilized her against him. She recoiled at the feeling of his rigid body that felt like stone against hers—of his hand caressing her hair and face. He was whispering in her ear. She had seen the depths of his depravity when he touched her face the first time. ‘No, don’t show me any more!’ This made her even more panicked, and she tried struggling harder against his arms, but it was no use. If only he could just end it quickly, but she had seen how he enjoyed suffering, and he would draw hers out for as long as possible.

Marius brushed the girl’s hair back away from her face while glaring at Graeme over her shoulder, and she started trembling uncontrollably. “Weak little mouse, I wish I could let you run free in the woods and hunt you like the prey animal you are. I bet you would squeal delightfully in my mouth,” his whispers were hot against her neck, dripping like venom on her skin as he pulled her roughly against him again.

August saw herself running in the woods as he said, and she could feel his excitement as he toyed with her—letting her slip away to maintain that thrilling shred of hope that there was more to her story after this… a way out just over that hill, just around this tree, ‘run harder, run faster, make your heart beat quicker for me’… She sobbed as the voice echoed murderously in her mind, reminding her of the previous night when she was fleeing something unknown.

Graeme snarled across the room. ‘Fucking bastard—how did this happen?’ He knew Marius was ruthless—that was his reputation, that’s what made him such an effective enforcer for the council. People were terrified of him. But this?

“Shhh… there, there little one,” Marius mockingly comforted the girl without breaking eye contact with Graeme. August continued trembling and writhing in pain against him.

Seemingly thrilled by the torment she was in, Marius ran his thumb over her bottom lip and smirked at the helpless man across from him. He could see the girl’s agony reflected in Graeme’s expression, and Marius was just daring Graeme to move. In less than a second, his human mate would be dead on the floor. That loss would be enough to destroy the pack-less Alpha’s son for good—there was no doubt about it. Marius would be able to escape unscathed before Graeme was even able to register the enormity of the loss.

Everyone knew that losing a mate was a sentence harsher than death, which is why there were rules governing it. If that happened to Graeme, the rebellious fire in him would surely be snuffed out forever, reducing him to a shell of what he was. On top of that, the threat of a successful subject from Eliade would be gone. Marius’s mouth watered at the beautiful simplicity of it, seeing it all play out.

Reveling in the opportunity he had stumbled upon, Marius bent August’s head to one side, nipping her ear. She squirmed and whimpered, but she couldn’t move.

“Whimpers turn me on, love,” Marius whispered. “Everyone leave but Graeme,” he calmly ordered the others while continuing to watch the man he loathed across from him.

Lucas shot another shocked look at Graeme before turning to leave, but Greta didn’t move. She looked helplessly at her brother who was in an impossible situation. She ached for him and for a way to help him.

Graeme nodded for her to go. There was nothing Greta could do now that Marius had August.. The door clicked behind her after she hesitantly tore her eyes away from them.