Monsters of Durnbone

3. The Diary

“Why don’t we play Truth or Dare?” Thayer said, glancing at the guys. “You guys do remember that it was our favorite game to play in high school, don’t you? We can play the adult version since we’re all grown up.”

“The adult version?” I asked, arching a brow and feeling the warmth grow between my legs. Our Truth or Dare games in high school had gotten a bit freaky, though not as much as I had hoped at the time. “What does the adult version of Truth or Dare entail?”

“Anything we didn’t do in high school, Pretty Bird.”

Which translated to anything rated R because we had done almost everything with each other in high school, like grinding against each other at school dances, making out underneath the bleachers, and even getting close to third base.

Close.

CloseIt never happened. Dad had forced me to leave town before it could ever happen. He didn’t understand the connection that a human girl like me had with these four beasts. He told me that they would destroy me from the inside out.

He hadn’t known that I wanted them to do that to me all along.

“Anything rated R,” I clarified, “huh?”

“If that’s what you want”—Darius curled his lips into a smirk—“then that’s what you’ll get.”

“Fine,” I said, trying desperately to suppress a smile. “Let’s play.”

Darius must’ve taken that as the go-ahead to get right into it because as soon as I told the guys I wanted a truth to start off the game, he asked, “What’s your deepest, darkest secret?” instead of an innocent warm-up question, like, What is your favorite color?

What is your favorite color?I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. “Before I left, I stole my dad’s most prized possession.”

What I left out though… was that Dad’s most prized possession was me.

“Lame,” Gaian shouted. “You have to have something dirtier than that, Pretty Bird.”

“Don’t forget that we grew up together,” Thayer said. “We know you better than to believe something like that is your darkest secret.”

that My lips curled into a smile, as I desperately tried to fabricate a wild lie that they would believe so I wouldn’t have to tell them the truth. “Would you believe me if I said I burned my dad’s house to ashes?”

Calder didn’t smile, but the right corner of his lip curled up ever so slightly. Then, he gave me a cold, hard, “No. Now, spill, Pretty Bird.”

Truthfully, I didn’t have many secrets.

But I did have one.

Just the thought of speaking it out loud made my cheeks flush. I glanced at each of them, then to my lap, fumbling with my fingers and swallowing hard. Out of all the times we had moved, all the housekeepers that had come and cleaned my room, nobody had ever figured it out either.

“She has something,” Calder said, his dark gaze focused on me. Though he was the alpha, he wasn’t as loud as the other guys. He had a darkness inside of him, one that lurked just below the surface, but one that I had never seen completely, just glimpses of. He growled, “What is it?”

“Can we not?” I whispered. “Please, I’ll answer any other question.”

“You agreed to the rules. You have to abide by them,” Thayer said.

Fuck.

Fuck.I ran a hand through my hair and cut off all eye contact with them because the more they stared at me, like predators did with their prey, the hotter my body became. This secret wasn’t just anything …

This secret involved these four wolves in front of me.

“Come on,” Darius said impatiently. “It can’t be that bad.”

that “Okay, okay,” I started, taking a deep breath and lowering my voice to a mere whisper. “I have a diary with all my s****l fantasies written within the pages.”

My four werewolf best friends watched me intensely from the middle of the pack house’s living room. I nervously rubbed my sweaty palms together and stared at the wooden floorboards. This wasn’t how I had imagined our reunion.

I hadn’t seen these guys for four years, since after high school. Now that I was back in Durnbone, we thought we’d play the infamous Truth or Dare game, which had led to so many stolen kisses four years ago.

Oh, how I should’ve known they’d want me to reveal my deepest, darkest secrets this time around.

“It’s filled with unspeakable acts, fantasies that I haven’t told anyone about, not even my incubus ex-boyfriend,” I continued, not daring to look up at the guys. Nerves fluttered in my stomach, my cheeks flaming red. “Every time I have a new fantasy, I write it down.”

“Where do you hide it?” Calder asked.

“Under my pillow,” I whispered.

Calder looked at Thayer, who then stood. “Go get it,” Calder said to him.

My eyes widened slightly, and I went to stand, but Gaian caught my wrist and tugged me back onto the living room floor. I sucked in a deep breath, knowing this Truth or Dare game might’ve been all innocent four years ago, but we were maturer now.

And I could already feel the tension in the air.

They wanted to know what kind of fantasies I had. I just wasn’t sure if they were ready to learn that all those dreams were about them, that these past four years had been filled with nothing but thoughts of what I’d let this pack do to me if I ever saw them again.

It was so wrong. So dirty.

A couple of moments later, Thayer emerged from the other room with my diary in his hand. He tossed it into my lap, then took his seat beside me. I gripped it against my chest, eyeing my Midnight Moon brew that they had given me earlier, and wondered if I should down it all now.

“Flip to your favorite one and read it to us,” Darius said.

“That wasn’t part of the truth,” I said.

“I don’t care,” Calder said. “Read us your favorite.”

“You guys are going to be the f*****g death of me,” I said between gritted teeth, my heart pounding.

I really didn’t want to do this, but that drink was really getting to me. I had already finished one entire glass after I put my belongings away.

I sucked in a deep breath and stared at the leather journal in my lap, my fingers wrapped around its thick spine. This wasn’t how I had expected my first night back to go. After taking another sip of my drink, I opened to the first page and stared at the stupid Table of Contents that I had made.

What a waste of time.

What a waste of time.I knew exactly what page I needed to flip to. I had read it multiple times a week and touched myself to it, unable to stop myself from imagining the darkest of fantasies finally coming to life one day.

“Favorite. Page.” Calder’s voice was stern this time, his alpha tone slowly appearing.

“f**k it,” I whispered to myself, flipping to page fourteen. “Don’t judge me for this. Please.”

The guys all watched me carefully, all ears and eyes on me.

“Entry number fourteen: I want masked men to use my holes for their pleasure.” I stared down at the leather-bound journal in my hands and swallowed hard. My heart pounded inside my chest as I felt the four intense stares from my best friends around me, the mere tension rising in the room by the second. “I want to be their little fucktoy—slapped, degraded, and choked until I’m begging for air.”

Entry number fourteen: I want masked men to use my holes for their pleasureI want to be their little fucktoy—slapped, degraded, and choked until I’m begging for airI rested a hand over my throat, feeling my pulse race underneath it. This might’ve been my fourteenth journal entry, but that was only because I hadn’t had the courage before this one to write down something this intense. I’d had this fantasy four years ago, before my dad dragged me away from this town, but I hadn’t written it down until much, much later.

And these masked men that I spoke about were my best friends.

“Spit on,” I whispered. “My throat, p***y, and ass all filled at the same time.” I pressed my thighs together, unable to believe I was saying this out loud. “I want to struggle against and be overpowered by four wolves much stronger than me.”

Spit onMy throat, p***y, and ass all filled at the same timeI want to struggle against and be overpowered by four wolves much stronger than meOnce I finished reading the journal entry, I snapped the diary shut and grabbed my glass of brew. I downed it in one go, needing to at least be a little more buzzed before I glanced up and looked into their wolfish eyes.

They had to know that I was talking about them. That last bit had been a clear giveaway.

“You’re being really brave tonight, Pretty Bird,” Thayer said with a whistle. “Actually reading an entry aloud after admitting you had a little f**k me book stowed away in your room with notes so f*****g dirty that your little mouth got nervous to speak them aloud.”

fuck meWarmth rushed to my core, and I pressed my thighs together, not daring to look up.

“Give me the journal,” Calder said.

My eyes widened. “Give you the journal?”

He held out his large, callous palm. “The journal.”

“Are you going to keep it?” I asked.

“For what it’s worth, Pretty Bird, I plan to read every last page of it.”

Because I had already screwed myself over by reading my favorite journal entry and because I might’ve been a bit too drunk to think straight, I found myself handing over my most precious piece of property. If it fell into the wrong hands, then I would be called Durnbone’s newest w***e.

Being the good girl that I had aimed to be for years, I didn’t want that happening.

“Don’t give it to anyone else,” I said. “Please.”

“Oh, listen to you beg, Pretty Bird,” Darius cooed.

I nervously rubbed my hands together and watched Calder place the book beside him before taking another sip of his Midnight Moon. He looked at Gaian, who looked at Darius, who looked at Thayer.

Their eyes glazed over the way they always did while they were talking through the mind link, and then, finally, Thayer turned toward me with a smirk so devilish that I knew something terrible would come out of his mouth.

“You got so tense just now,” he said to me, handing me a blanket from the couch behind us. “Your cunt smells like you haven’t touched yourself in weeks, Pretty Bird. Why don’t you relieve some of that pressure between your legs and show us how loudly you’ll scream for us when we make that little fantasy of yours come true one day?”