Her Brother, Her Mate

Simone POV

Screaming is the first thing that breaks through the fog in my head. Gut-wrenching screaming and sinister laughter. There is wet concrete beneath me, cold and smelling like iron and mildew.

My head is pounding, like it has a pulse of its own. My veins feel like they have acid flowing through them, making it hard to move or even open my eyes. When I do, the sight before me leaves me horrified.

Mary is strung up and hanging from a large hook in the ceiling, her clothes ripped and hanging off her body in bloody rags. Her feet are barely touching the ground and her face is contorted in agony.

A vampire I don’t recognize is standing behind her with a b***d-soaked whip, curved barbs at the end of several leather strips. He rears back and brings the whip down on her frail body, the hooks implanting themselves in her broken flesh before ripping it into tattered shreds, as another ear-piercing scream leaves her.

Her eyes are swollen and bruised, along with her jaw. Her leg looks broken as it hangs at an awkward angle, purple and twice the size of her other. It makes her cry out more when she pushes off that leg to get traction off the bloody floor beneath her.

A broken sob leaves me as I watch the vampire whip her again. I try to spring forward to stop him but am quickly jerked back by my hair, a mangled cry escaping from my lips.

“Uh, uh, uh, Simone,” Aiden’s sickening drawl turns the acid in my veins to ice as fear grips me. He is sitting in a chair right behind me, gripping my hair in his fist. “My men haven’t had their fill of her yet.”

I’m confused as to what he means until the vampire who was just whipping her drops the whip and starts licking the b***d off her broken body. She whimpers and cries as his tongue moves over her torn flash, slurping at her open wounds. His eyes glow from the bloodlust that rushes over him . His nails elongate into needle sharp points, then pierce her skin at her ribcage as he holds her steady.

“Let her go,” I pleaded with Aiden, “You have me. I’ll stay if you let her go,” I begged.

“Oh, Mona. You will be staying no matter what. Your game is finished. I won,” he leans down, running his nose down my cheek. His silver hair curtains around us. “This show is my gift to you, Mona. I heard the rumors. I know how you feel about that woman. I know what she did to your friend. She is paying for her sins, just like you wanted.”

“You don’t know what I want,” I sneered, trying to hold back the tears in my eyes, “I would never want something this sick.”

“Don’t worry, baby,” his breath washes over my face, a sickening smile playing on his lips, “It will be your turn soon. Since you like playing with vampires so much, I’ll let you get your fill before we are through here today. After I kill that bastard you have been playing house with, you will never be allowed to see another man, let alone another vampire again.”

Oh goddess. He’s going to let them do that to me too? “Vincent” I try to mind link but I can’t find the connection. Aiden must recognize the glean in my eyes for what it is I’m trying to do because he backhands me, then drags me back to him by my hair.

“You will not be able to use your mind to communicate. Not now, or ever again. I had you injected with a cocktail you will be getting daily for the rest of your life. You will be solely dependent on me. You have proven I can’t trust you with your freedom, so you will no longer have it. Once you carry my seal, we will be connected for the rest of our lives,” he brushes his lips over my face, inhaling my scent. His eyes are crazed as they roam my body. “I will break your will to fight me today, Mona. You can be sure of that.”

He sits back in his chair, crossing his legs at the ankles and pulling my phone from his pocket.

“Next! We have a long line of you gentlemen. You each need your fill of the disgraced luna before our friend gets here,” Aiden calls out to the vampire, who is not only still licking at Mary’s torn flesh, he is rubbing himself against her now, coating the front of his pants in her b***d. The vampire hisses at Aiden, but still releases her as the next vampire enters the room, eyes gleaming as he takes in Mary’s bloody body.

“No! Please! Leave her alone!” I cried out, watching in horror as he went to bite her, his fangs grazing over her exposed chest.

“No!” Aiden stops him, “Your venom will kill her before we can finish our game. Do not pierce her body with your fangs. That right is saved for your boss. He is only allowing you to torture her with the whip, just like her mate did to your old boss’s sister all those years ago.”

The vampire g****s, groping Mary’s chest in his palms a few times before walking to where the whip is and picking it up to torture her b***d from her body some more. He turns her so her front is facing him, as I cry out, begging him to stop.

Mary’s eyes are closed, probably passed out from the pain and b***d loss, but she g****s as he jostles her body.

Aiden lifts my phone to his ear right when the vampire starts his abuse. I cried uncontrollably as I watched him tear through her flesh, waking her and drawing out raw screams as the whip lashed her already beaten body. I couldn’t focus on anything else but the terror and agony on her face, her screams filling my ears and mixing with my own.

The whip’s barbs catch in her throat, a sickening gargled scream leaves her as it tears off a chunk of her flesh.

“Stop! STOP!” I yell. I need to save her. I need to help her somehow. What can I do?

The vampire drops the whip and starts lapping at the b***d gushing from the open wound on her neck. He takes it further than the former guy. He pulls himself from his pants and starts working his member in his fist while drinking her b***d. His other hand is gripping her butt, nails tearing through the last of the fabric hanging from her waist.

Aiden crouches down beside me as I scream and cry for my former luna. He yanks my hair to the side, forcing me to move my eyes towards him.

“You don’t seem to be enjoying my show. I set this up just for you.”

I grip his shirt, pulling him closer to me as delight dances in his maddened eyes. “Please. I’ll do whatever you want. Just stop this. Please. Let her go.”

Aiden clicks his tongue at me, shaking his head, “There are still a couple more of them waiting for their turn. How could I deny my new friends their reward for helping me to get to you?”

“Please?” I begged, tears streaming down my face. I fought back my repulsion, wiped the tears from my cheeks and scooted my body closer to his, “Aiden, please. I’ll do what you want. Please just make them stop. If you really love me like you said, then you will make them stop.”

His eyes roam down to my breasts, a wanting g***n builds in his chest as he ponders over my words.

“I will already be taking everything I want from you soon enough. No need to rush. You should be begging for yourself, not her, because you will be getting a taste of this soon yourself,” he leans down and whispers in my ear, “Only your mate will be here to watch as you get truly violated by each and every one of those men. When that’s over, I will make him watch as I burn my seal on your neck with my magic where he was too incompetent to place a mark of his own. He will watch as I claim every part of your body once again, then I will make you watch as I kill him, slowly, just as you have slowly crushed my heart with your betrayal over the last several months.”

“Aiden,” I begged again, turning my head enough so I could see the vampire finish with her limp body. Mary looks dead. The only indication that she isn’t is the strained breaths gurgling in her lungs.

Aiden throws his head back, closes his eyes and g****s in a way that makes my stomach turn. “I can’t wait to hear you begging me like this in my bed for the rest of your life.”

Another vampire enters the room. This one is much older and has a look so sinister on his face it sends chills down my spine.

“Ah, is it finally your turn, Miguel?” Aiden calls over to him with a friendly smile.

Miguel’s eyes flash at Aiden with excitement, then go back to roaming Mary’s exposed body as it hangs limply on the hook. “I’m the last. Don’t worry. I’ll make this last a long time,” he says, cracking his neck before lifting Mary off the hook and dumping her broken body on the cold, wet concrete.

The man turns her unconscious frame so she is lying on her back. He starts to unbuckle his pants, pushing them down his fat thighs when his ears twitch and his body freezes. His sick excitement is replaced with a horror-struck expression.

“I thought you said you would bring Vincent to me?” he asks in a voice full of fear.

“I did. He should be coming here soon,” Aiden tells him, hand still gripped in my hair as he forces me to stand with him.

“You have him coming here himself?! Are you crazy? I thought you would bring him here already restrained?”

Aiden furrowed his brows in confusion, “He is a lowly vampire coming alone. I think with our numbers we can restrain him rather easily.”

“You fool!” Miguel stands, zipping his pants back in place, “He isn’t a lowly anything. He’s one of the highest ranked in the city. He’s second generation you fool!”

“What does that mean?” Aiden asked with concern.

Suddenly, screams of terror echo through the open door and panic fills the air.

“Delilah too?” Miguel murmurs in a voice so low it is barely audible. He goes to run, but before he can make it out the door, a black mist incases him, then the lights go out and I’m left there helpless in the dark at the mercy of Aiden and whatever terror just overtook and killed Miguel.