Animals ✔

Chapter 22

I fall to my knees, my own screams joining my brother's. "No! Stop this! Please, stop it! Please, I'll do anything!"

But my cries fall on deaf ears. He waits to turn it off, watching me hungrily as I cry on the ground.

When I make a move toward Callum—to do what, I'm not even sure—two sets of hands hold me back in a biting grip. I struggle against them, watching as my brother's body thrashes helplessly against the floor.

"Please," I croak out, my voice barely a whisper now. "Please, you'll kill him."

My eyes don't leave my brother. As suddenly as it started, his body falls limp.

The hands holding my arms finally release me and I stumble toward Callum, immediately checking him for a pulse.

His face is covered in a thin sheen of cold sweat and his body seems thin, too thin.

But he's still breathing.

I wrap my arms around him, sobbing into his chest.

I tried so hard to spare you, I want to tell him. How did it come to this?

When he starts to stir, the hands lock around my arms once more. They haul me up and back me away from my brother, as Callum slowly comes around.

Ira steps in between us, blocking my view of him, and smiles down at me. "Are you ready to submit to me?"

I stare into his eyes, my own full of unshed tears, before forcing myself to look away, staring at the floor. "Yes."

He takes a step closer, so close his chest is practically touching mine. I can feel his hot breath on my face when he speaks again. "Yes, what?"

The hands on my arms tighten when I don't answer him immediately. I close my eyes, willing myself to be strong. "Yes," I have to force the word out through my clenched jaw as my entire body protests it, "alpha."

I'm not sure it's what he was looking for, but it's all I can give him. He seems satisfied enough, as the men gripping my arms step away from me.

Immediately, I turn toward Callum, who's now sitting up and staring at Ira like he's seen the devil itself—which, really, I suppose he has. But Ira stops me with a single look.

I hate myself for letting him control me like this. I hate myself for not fighting him. But what else can I do? He has my brother. My baby brother.

As my adrenaline begins to wear off, I feel the cold settle back into my bones. All of my clothing and my hair is damp, and my legs shake with the effort it takes to keep myself standing.

Ira's hand comes to rest on the small of my back and I flinch away from it.

Instead of hitting me, he chuckles quietly and lifts his hand to squeeze my already bruised shoulder. He's trying to show me that he's in control.

But as long as that collar is around my brother's neck, I don't need the reminder. Even if I were strong enough to call the fire—my fire—I wouldn't. I can't risk Callum.

I won't let history repeat itself.

Ira's grip tightens on my shoulder. He pushes against me, not angry but firm. At the same time, I watch as two of the men in the room grab my brother, hauling him up and pulling him in the opposite direction.