Chasing Scarlett: A Breeder Romance

18. Cillian's POV

Cillian

No woman walks into our dungeon and leaves without getting f****d. Imagine my surprise, wrapped around the hottest, tightest cunt I’ve had in a while and my brother flying across the room, shattering the full-proof glass walls, and my—our mate walking away angrily, her ass tight in that leather dress. Absolutely not.

It takes half a thought to shove my d**k back in my pants and block the door before she can leave.

Her blue eyes are stormy with anger, hate and desire as she meets my gaze. “Move.”

Ah. That f*****g accent. It messes with me, goes all the way to my groin.

“You can’t leave,” I tell her truthfully, even if I’m not a very honest man. “It’s against the rules. You step in here and you give something in turn before you leave. So, which of us is it going to be?”

Her eyes burn, bleeding from blue to black and it is all the warning I get before she grips my collar and smashes my back into the wall. My spine shudders and I blink, not from the pain cramping my muscles, but out of sheer surprise. Picking up a lycan thrice her weight like that is one thing. Inflicting pain on us is another. Doing it twice in one night is positively startling.

It’s the bond, but I can’t tell to what extent it changed her. She pins me against the wall with one hand. Her hold is strong, but I could break away if I wanted. But I don’t, because from this angle, her breasts look rather inviting. “Try telling me what to do when I didn’t just find you balls deep in another woman and I won’t rip your stupid d**k off.”

“f**k, you’re hot when you’re mad,” I say because it’s the truth.

Her nostril flares and I snap my head left, barely dodging a hell of a right hook. The wall where my head had been a few seconds ago cracks and I chuckle, grabbing her arm that rests on my chest. “Jealous? It was you who ran, after all.”

She lets out a startled scream when I twist her hand behind her back and turn her with it, so that her face is now pressed against the wall and my groin presses against her ass. Why do I do that? Because Riordan is here. More than the rest of us, he has a soft spot for her. I’d like to see how deep that spot goes, how far I can toy with it to break the fucker’s forever calm resolve; his notoriously coolheaded judgement.

“Let her go,” he says somewhere behind me.

“Why? She likes it,” I croon, tugging her closer. She fights against me, unwittingly making me harder. She has no idea how much of a hard-on we all have for fights like this, especially when it’s pretty clear she’s having a hard time resisting us because of the bond. She arches her ass against my hard d**k, even if she’s clawing my hands off in wild panic.

Fucking amusing, this one.

Riordan’s hand lands on my shoulder and his voice is low and lethal as he says, “I won’t f*****g tell you again, Cillian.”

I flash him a venomous stare and rock my hip into her ass, hard. She moans—or sobs—I can’t be sure and I am suddenly yanked off her, Riordan’s fist slamming through skin and cracking my bone. He holds me by my collar as he punches me, again and again, his face a cold mask, hiding all of that anger he is well known for.

I despise the fucker, and it goes beyond him f*****g my girlfriend when we were younger. Cheers erupt from either sides of us, and I suddenly realize we have an audience betting on who’s going to win. No one ever bets on me, not when Riordan has all of that monstrous energy. One would think it would stop me from picking fights I’ll never win, but we’ve been at this for centuries. I’m used to having him pummel me like this. Anything to show him just how much of a hypocrite and monster he is deep down, just like us.

I catch sight of Scarlett’s figure as she darts past the door, escaping in the middle of the chaos. Riordan stiffens when he notices as well and he dumps me, his fist dripping with my blood as he runs after her. I groan, licking my split lip with a sadistic grin forming on my lips. It’s the first time I’ve seen him this rattled since his mother’s death. Lorcan is an i***t for bringing her here, but it’s worked for the best.

As if hearing my thoughts, Lorcan nudges me with his boot, extending an arm to help me up. “You look like shit.”

Grunting, I take his arm and my vision blurs with a steady constant ache from all the broken bones in my face. “Don’t I always?” I murmur, pinching the bridge of my broken nose and set it back in place without so much as a flinch.

***********

Scarlett

“Let me drive you home,” Riordan says as I fumble with my car keys, vision still tinged red.

I wipe a tear from the corner of my eyes. “I’m fine. It’s fine. Just…leave me alone. Please.” I hate the sniffle that escapes me as I turn the key in its hole. It’s not that I’m jealous or mad about finding him that way. I mean, I’ve made it awfully clear that I don’t want either of them like that, but I hurt so bad inside. The lycan in me hurts so bad, it’s messing with my heart and head.

And Lorcan was right. Cillian is the worst of the four, but my body didn’t care. I acted like a stupid slut, arching my ass against the sweet hard length of his poking through my dress, moaned even as I sobbed and said I didn’t want it.

Riordan’s hand closes around the door’s handle, grazing mine slightly and I tense, snatching my hand back. His scent clouds my nostrils as he makes my space his. “Talk to me, Scarlett.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” I breathe, another tear wetting the corner of my eyes. “I’m fine. It’s the bond.” He’s still wearing the black duster, and the customized shirt underneath. He came here straight from my house and knowing that makes my chest feel like daggers are stabbing into it.

“The keys.” It’s not a request anymore and the demand makes my resolve fissure and crack. I dump the key in his hand and walk around, getting into the side seat and slamming the door shut. He gets in beside me and the engine flares to life.

His gaze burns into the size of my face as I stare out the window, urging me to turn and look at him. But I feel so f*****g vulnerable and I can’t look him in the eye without seeing him in that room, f*****g that woman’s mouth. I can’t live with myself knowing that for a split second, I wanted to be her. And then, there is Lorcan’s words. His insinuation that Riordan is Wren’s father. There’s no way of knowing that. The only thing that sets her apart is the pointed tip of her ears, both sharp like razors, and Riordan’s are round, much like every lycan.

I don’t put it past Lorcan to hold this little information against me. I won’t give him what he wants. I need to reach Maisie quickly. Get her and Wren far away from all of this madness. I was lucky enough that she had accepted to take Wren and hide her. She’d looked at Wren’s ears and she didn’t ask me questions. I had a homebirth and Maisie had been with me through it all. Long enough to see my eyes flash black as I pushed, my claws dig into the bath and rip it.

And she hadn’t run.

I feel terrible for using her this way without reciprocating her feelings but I had no other choice. I couldn’t—can’t—bring Wren into my life just yet.

“Try not to take Cillian’s actions to heart. He did it to piss me off. He’s not always so crass,” Riordan says, breaking the silence. He grips my steering wheel like it is his and drives my car like he owns it, like he’s been doing this for years. I don’t want to look at him, but my head turns anyway. My heart jolts when I find him already staring at me and I look away first.

“You should keep your eyes on the road.”

“Maybe I just can’t take my eyes off you.”

I snort, wiping the last of the tears from my eyes. “Only you would say that after just being inside another woman.”

He laughs a little, turning the corner. “You sure know how to hold a grudge. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you sounded jealous.”

“Thank Dieu you know better.”

Riordan looks away from me sharply, like I’ve said something that stung him. His fingers tighten around the steering wheel and his entire body goes rigid. But his next words are tender. “What was it like? Your first shift?”

I bite my tongue, trying to prevent myself from falling into simple conversation with this man I barely know, but it’s almost too easy. I’ve never had anyone to speak about these things with and Riordan has an aura that while it scares the s**t out of me sometimes, its easy to relax around him. “I might have killed someone,” I blurt, fiddling with the hem of my dress nervously. “I don’t remember it, much like every other time. It just happens and I lose time. Wake up in my room with…” I swallow and shake my head. “Does it get any better?”

His eyes are on the road this time. “It will, eventually.” He adds after a time, “It took me two months to fully control it, which is longer by lycan standards. My father was mad and impatient, but my mother would sit out at the mountains with me with food and she’d tell me stories that calmed me enough to induce the shifts back.” His eyes are distant, cold, but there’s affection as he speaks of her.

I don’t respond because the thought of knowing Riordan on a more personal level frightens me. So, I sit tight and try not to breathe in too deeply.

The car smells like him, even if he’s only been in here for a few minutes. I almost want to breach the gap between us and find out if his skin tastes like he smells. I shake off the thought and resume my observations outside the window. It’ll be 5 a.m soon. I can already tell it’s going to be a long day.