Secret Heart: Other Realm, Frost Family Series, Book 3

Lock 28

"Christ, Nick. You have your new toy for less than a day and now look at her," Jason shook his head tiredly. "You do realize the more physical damage you cause, the harder it is for her to do her job as the Mother, right?" he grumbled. "Darvey, come over here," Jason waved Darvey over from the open doorway of Nick's bedroom. "You might as well start learning now," Jason sighed. "Nick pulled her arm out of socket last night, so we're going to have to reset the bone."

Nodding his head, Darvey drew closer, observing with a cold, calculating eye. Jason began to explain to him the way to identify a bone out of socket and the proper technique to set the bone correctly.

Sitting down on the other side of the bed, Nick was holding Melody's limp hand. Her eyes were open, but all she was staring up at was the ceiling fan. Her black eyes were glazed over with extreme pain, but she never made a sound. Not when the sickening sound of her bone being reset echoed in the room and not when Jason put on sterile gloves and knelt between her legs, pulling her limp body further down the bed so he could examine her better by her ankles.

Swallowing, feeling a mixture of smug pride, satisfaction, and regretful horror, Nick just kept holding her hand. He honestly had no idea what else to do in that moment. Not after all he'd done last night...

"Holy fuck," Darvey breathed out in shock, holding a small flashlight, standing behind his uncle.

Jason's eyes were grave as he lifted his gaze to his nephew's over the girl's body that only had a small blanket laid out over it as a form of coverage. He pulled his finger out from inside her, throwing off the glove that was splattered with blood here and there. "How many times?"

"S-six," Nick admitted in a very quiet voice. Even Darvey raised a brow at that, his face stricken with sympathizing pain.

"No more. Not for at least a month. Her body needs quite awhile to heal. Did you forget you're almost three times her size, Nick? Christ!" Jason's voice made it clear his words were the same as a full-on curse.

"She didn't seem to mind," he half-lied, in an effort to make himself feel better. "In fact, she kept egging me on," he muttered.

Jason shook his head. "She's a goddamn succubus, Nick. She feeds off of sex, idiot. Why would she protest when she's never had a meal before, so to speak, and you suddenly show up with a goddamn feast?"

Nick opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't find any words to throw at his uncle in that moment. So instead he returned his gaze to Melody's hand in his. Jason rose to his feet and Darvey straightened, clicking off the flashlight. "What's her name?"

"Melody," he answered in a harsh exhale of pain.

Jason eyed him for a moment before nodding. "Well, Cedric should be here soon to start the tattooing."

"Thank you," Nick nodded, slowly rising to his feet. He released his hold on Melody's hand. He was the new Head. He couldn't look weak, not among his own family. He had to push back this choking, overwhelming guilt and sorrow over how he'd handled his Initiation and his small, delicate wife's body. As the Head, he couldn't be flinching, sniveling, and hesitant. He had to be strong, firm, sure and confident at all times. As the Head, it was his job to make all the tough choices, to have the final say in all matters.

As the light of determined indifference entered Nick's brown eyes, both Jason and Darvey bowed slightly to show they recognize the change in him and his change in status. "You can leave us now," Nick nodded toward the door. The other two bowed once again before doing as he'd instructed.

Turning his head, he gazed down at Melody. Another voice from the doorway made him glance toward it. Shannon was leaning against the door jam, his black eyes unreadable. For a second, another moment of clarity bubbled up from the pit of madness inside Nick. I wonder how it feels to look at his little girl, his daughter, and realized I raped her last night...I suppose, years from now, I'll find out.