Chained (Caged Book 2) (6 page)

It was time to decide.

The nothing?

Or everything?

T
HE HOUSE HAD BEEN QUIET
for way too long. I was starting to think I would go crazy. There was nothing to focus on but my thoughts and the admission of what was.

Pregnant.

Once again that solitary word brought my hands to my belly, my heart stuttering to fit in the extra beat it now catered to. I held a child, an innocent living being that solely depended on me - my child. Anderson’s child.

Red shoved her nose into my hand, trying to gain my attention. She felt my joy. And she felt my hope. But what was one without the other? Without hope I couldn’t allow the joy. And the joy gave me nothing but hope.

I wanted nothing more than a child of my own. A baby that shared my soul and my essence. It was a gift. But would he/she be ripped from me? I had to have faith that Anderson would give in to the man I knew waited beneath the darkness that had taken his core hostage. I still saw the real Anderson beneath all the hatred and destruction, the gentle and broken man that wanted more from me than he would ever accept.

Everything was different now. In a way I had accepted the end, and that Anderson would be the one to give it to me. I had even consented to it, to death. Yet there had still been a part of me that had refused it, fought it.

There was nothing but darkness left inside me. Samantha Rowan had left the fragments of her shattered soul within me. And they had festered, taken root and spread like raging ivy throughout my blood stream, corrupting and blackening me little by little until nothing but rotten flesh remained.

I was already dead, whether Anderson killed me or not.

Red’s ears pricked as the bolt shifted from its housing on the door to the basement. Once again I was contained in the depths of Anderson’s hell. However, what he thought was punishment, wasn’t. Strangely, I felt at home in the lower floor. The cold seeped into my bones, numbing all the pain that threatened to drive me insane. The familiarity of the tools Anderson pleasured himself with made me feel close to him, honoured to be privy to his deep, dark secrets. And the bed I sat on brought me nothing but content memories.

Yes, I was sick. Maybe a little insane. But it was what it was.

He looked straight at me as he slowly descended, his heavy footfalls on the wooden steps ricocheting through the quiet of the room. I tried to gauge his mood, work out which Anderson joined me, but it was an impossible task until he allowed me the privilege.

“Kloe.”

The way my name rolled off his tongue gave me goosebumps, the unknown catching my breath as he strode across the concrete towards me. The light was dim but it granted me the sight of a black eye and a deep wound on his cheekbone that had been stitched haphazardly.

“You fought,” I murmured. My neck hurt to look up at him when he came to hover over me.

“I did.”

“I’m pleased you won.”

Neither of us were sure whether I was being sarcastic or not, but Anderson still grinned. “So am I.”

“Are you?”

He blinked. “Today I am.”

“Why today?”

I didn’t flinch when he reached out and his hand encompassed the side of my head. His touch was warm and soft, but not as tender as the way he looked at me. My heart softened when the gentle Anderson smiled affectionately at me. “Because you’re here.”

I lifted my hand and rested it over the top of his. “You don’t need to lock the door, Anderson. You know I will always be here.”

His eyes narrowed, and he inhaled deeply. “Yet not hours ago you wanted to put a bullet through me.”

I laughed, finding humour in what I shouldn’t have. That was the state of my mind. “And you would have just let me, would you?”

He smiled, that cocky smile that made hot blood spread to my belly. “So you only wanted to shoot me because you knew I wouldn’t let you?”

I shrugged, unsure of my intentions. “Maybe.”

“And if I had let you?”

Lowering my eyes, I frowned at the unanswered question in my head. “Who knows?”

I jumped when he suddenly dropped to his haunches in front of me. His beautiful face was level with mine and I wanted nothing more than to lean forward and drag the tip of my tongue across his sinful lips. I wanted to pull his bottom lip between my teeth and bite down, and take his blood into my system and ride high on it.

Sorrow covered his face, and appearing to struggle with himself for a moment, he swallowed. “What the hell are we doing, Kloe?”

A chill spread across my skin and I shivered. Giving into my needs, I softly ran my thumb across his lip, watching the flesh plump under my touch. “Living. Before we die.”

He sucked in a sharp breath. The hand that held my face shot into my hair and his fingers snatched a handful. He dragged my face to him, forcing my mouth to his. His tongue pushed through my lips and angrily whipped at mine. A growl full of rage broke from him as both of his hands crushed the sides of my head and he deepened the kiss. The force was bruising, merciless, and my soul soared with pleasure at the pain he gifted me. Because it was a gift, an offering that gave me so much more than I ever thought possible. And deep down Anderson knew that, and he gave it to me.

“You know I give myself to you, Anderson,” I whispered against his lips when I pulled back for breath. “I would die for you. I want you to offer me to your father. Because I want you to have the peace you need.”

He stared at me, shocked, horrified, and tortured by my confession. I think I even shocked myself. But only because I had finally accepted who I was, and why I had been given a life from the ravaged spirit of Samantha. Kloe Grant had just been an incubator for Samantha. To nurture her and protect her, ready for when she was needed again.

And her fate. It had always been this. To give life back to Judd Asher. Our lives had been intertwined from the very day Terry and Janice exchanged what should have been their most treasured possession for something as meagre as a few tatty quid.

“But I now have a gift for you other than my own sacrifice. Our child.”

Turmoil seeped into his eyes and he shook his head. “Stop it. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I love you, Anderson Cain. I love you, Judd Asher. Samantha Rowan has always loved you. Just as Kloe Grant always will.”

“Stop it!” His breathing shortened to sharp gasps and his head shook from side to side. But I saw it. Behind the storm in his wild eyes. I saw the hope, and the need - the desire and the devotion. To both of us. To me, and to our baby.

“I was created to serve you, Anderson. I was made from the very horrors of hell that birthed you. We were cast from the same mould. But which gift will you take?”

My blood surged when he gripped the tops of my arms and yanked me off the bed. “You think I can’t have both, little wolf?”

My chest heaved against his, my hard, aroused nipples scraping against the thin cotton of my top with the firm touch of his solid body against me.

“You think I can’t wait until the child is born? I’ve waited thirty years for retribution. Another nine months is not going to seem like that long.”

I nodded, holding his gaze. “You lost your parents at such a young age. Are you telling me you would snatch that away from your own son or daughter? That you would take away her mother?”

Anger poured from him, suffocating me as his hold on me grew more painful. “You don’t know me very well, Kloe. I’d have thought by now that you’d understand who –
what
- I am.”

A smile brushed my lips. “Oh, I do.” Reaching up on my toes, I placed a soft kiss over his lips, my body shivering at the faint touch. “You’re my master. And I am only here to serve you. That’s what I understand. And to be honest, I don’t think there’s anything else to know.”

He froze, his eyes wide and fixed on me. He couldn’t control the emotion pouring through him and his eyes hooded over when I pressed my hips into him. The hardness of his cock made my knees buckle.

“I am here to fuck you. To take whatever depraved act you want to enact. I am here to feed from your merciless lust, and to quench the undying thirst for degradation you have.”

Snapping out of his shock, he laughed. It wasn’t humorous and happy, it was cold and cruel, his eyes dripping with the same maliciousness as his laughter. “Then let’s find out, shall we?”

As if he had conjured him, Robbie walked down the stairs. He held the same harsh grin that Anderson did and my bones creaked.

But I wasn’t scared. Far from it. It was liberating to free what had been hidden beneath the artificial Kloe for so long. Excitement flowed quickly, and Anderson frowned when he saw it tremble through my body.

My breath hitched when I was abruptly pulled across the room and my wrists were quickly snapped into the same cuffs Robbie had secured Anderson with.

My cunt throbbed, the hot blood that raced through me almost as torturous as the anticipation that made my mouth dry.

My ankles were fixed into more metal cuffs and Anderson yanked on a lever until the chains moved and coaxed my body into an ‘X’ shape. I was left helpless, the tightness of the restraints not allowing any give at all.

Robbie smirked as he spun a long, thin knife in between his fingers. It wasn’t until I recognised the steel glinting under the soft light that I realised I had maybe bitten off more than I could chew.

But when he gently pressed the tip of the blade against my skin, a serenity trickled within the marrow of my bones and I sagged in the chains that provided the support my bones no longer could.

My jaw dropped and I shivered when, very delicately, he drew the edge down the side of my throat. My skin split. But it didn’t just give freedom to my blood, it gave the very essence of me space to breathe. As if someone had performed a tracheotomy after I had struggled to breathe for hours, my clogged lungs rushed with air and the tightness of my skin relaxed in bliss. My whole core sighed in relief and my mind let go.

A rapturous moan rushed from me and my head fell back as pleasure spiralled into my veins. Each tiny capillary filled with a narcotic that made my heart rate slow down to a placid pace, and my eyes rolled at the high.

“Anderson?” I only just managed to recognise the confusion in Robbie’s voice.

Fingers snatched at my chin and I forced my eyes open. Anderson’s curious gaze stole the serenity that floored me. “What happened?”

I frowned, shaking my head. “What?”

“What changed?” he demanded as he pressed his palm against the slice Robbie had drawn across my skin.

I smiled, still drugged with ecstasy. “My mind changed.”

He gnashed his teeth together, but what I thought was fury was lust. He tore at my t-shirt, ripping it from my body in one powerful wrench. Grabbing the knife from Robbie he hacked at my jeans like they were made of paper, shedding them from my legs quickly and efficiently until I stood in just my underwear.

I watched in delicious delight when Anderson pulled his cock free from his trousers. He wrapped his fist around himself and slid his hand up and down slowly. My mouth watered as I watched him masturbate, his smooth length so utterly beautiful that I couldn’t help but stare in awe.

His cock was so hard that each one of his strokes looked painful. Pre-cum glistened on the swollen head and I licked my lips greedily.

Anderson flicked his head then stood back when Robbie came to stand in front of me. “Fuck her!”

My eyes widened and snapped to Anderson. He smirked and chuckled. “Fuck her arse ‘til she bleeds.”

Robbie grabbed my hair, tilting my head back until I was looking at him and him only. “You hear that, Kloe? He wants me to make you bleed.”

I nodded. “Do it.”

They both looked confused when Robbie shot a glance towards Anderson.

“You think this is a lie?” I questioned them both. “Well, it’s not. I told you. This is me. The real me. You wanted me to set her free, Anderson. Well, here she is.”

“You have no idea what you’re saying!” he growled, angered by my surrender.

“Yes.” I nodded. “Yes I do. I just ask that whatever pain you inflict on me that you don’t harm my baby –
our
baby.”