Page 77 of Kissed By Shadows

He hands the switchblade off to one of his men, who swaps it for a circle of black leather.

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Rowan’s slurred words are a harsh whisper, like a knife as it slides into flesh, but Sergi doesn’t even spare him a glance, placing the fucking collar around my wife’s neck and buckling it up.

It’s an abomination. If anyone should collar her, it’s us, not this cunt. I watch as her eyes slide shut, defeat rounding her shoulders as his fingers gently trace the collar like she really does belong to him. Then he reaches out, still fucking ignoring the three Shadows promising him murder, and a low growl leaves my lips when he’s handed a chain, the sharpsnickof it being attached to the collar loud in the silence.

“You will come to heel,” he whispers, wrapping the chain around his fist until it’s pulled taut and her eyes pop open. It takes everything in me not to fight the hold that grips me tightly, but I can’t do anything to put her in any more danger. Sergi twists so that he’s facing us, his dark gaze locking with mine. “Or I will send her to you in pieces. Then I will kill everyone you’ve ever loved. Your sister in that American academy. Your crew turned to dust. The men who stand beside you, carved up like animals for slaughter.” He steps closer to me, dragging Iris along until he’s looming over me, speaking my deepest fears as she shudders, naked beside him. “And you, Hunter Anderson, will be the last to die. You will watch as they all fall, knowing that you could have saved them if only you’d submitted.”

I swallow hard, drowning in the horrific picture he’s painted, holding his gaze and frozen to my very bones. There is no way out of this, not right now anyway, and the smirk that slowlyspreads over his lips tells me that he knows this. He’s won. For now at least.

And so with the taste of ashes filling my mouth, I lower my gaze, dipping my head in submission as I do the only thing I can to save everyone, to keep us all breathing, just for the moment.

My heart shatters, my soul flickering out as the light leaves my world when he drags her away, her soft sobs ringing in my ears as I continue to kneel long after all of Sergi’s men have left.

Forgive me, Peaches.