The Kidnapping of Roan Sinclair

by Ashlyn Drewek

He was equally silent, watching me with a blank expression on his face. Every so often his jaw shifted to the side, the dark stubble drawing attention to how sharp his features were. If he wasn’t a fucking kidnapper, I would have said he was hot. Lie. He was hot, even if he was a kidnapper. But he lost major points for being a criminal.

Tall, dark, and murdery were not admirable traits. He wasn’t even nice. Nice to look at, but not a nice person.

If it wasn’t me he was waiting for, then that meant he was expecting Ivan. He was excited at the thought it was Ivan and disappointed when it wasn’t.

“You think you know what I need, hmm?” We were nose-to-nose, so close I could feel his heartbeat pick up beneath my fist. “You don’t know shit about me, boy.” “I know whenever you get close to me, you can’t keep your hands off of me. I bet you’re hard right now.”

“You can’t help who you love any more than you can help how tall you are or what color your skin is. It’s not a fucking choice, it just is.”

I wasn’t kissing him so much as being kissed, with anger and need and desperation. The hand on my throat slipped around to the back, threading through my hair to cradle the back of my head.

“Who the fuck is this?” The question was more of a growl, Sasha’s pupils narrowed to pinpricks. “None of your business!” “Should I kill him?” “No!” My indignation turned to real fear since I knew Sasha gave zero fucks about doing it. “Let him go! Now!”

The fact we were out in public made my heart stutter, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. He was like a drug I couldn’t kick. I tried, and failed. I didn’t want to try anymore. I didn’t care if I went straight to Hell. Roan was the first good thing in my life and I wasn’t going to give him up. As much as it pained me, I broke away from his mouth to give my lungs the oxygen they needed. Resting my forehead against his, I closed my eyes, keeping my hands on either side of his face. “I’m not going anywhere, Solnyshko.”

“You’re mine, Solnyshko,” Sasha said, tearing his mouth from mine and fixing me with one of his piercing looks, the kind that saw straight to my soul. “Yes?” I blinked and nodded, despite the fact I was still trying to work out what, exactly, he was saying. “From now on, you are mine,” he repeated in a growl. The words reverberated from his chest into mine, solidifying that they were real and not just my imagination. “No one else’s. Do you understand?”

From the moment it started, I stopped praying for Sasha. I stopped hoping for a miracle. Instead, I prayed for death.

It was nighttime already. Already? I’d been out for hours. Brought in unconscious by the ambulance, kept unconscious by the doctors. Time passed. The world moved on. But I was suspended between that alley and the death that had been denied to me. Once again, I was fucking helpless. Weak. Powerless. Pathetic. I couldn’t fight back. I couldn’t die.

“Yuri is going to cut your fucking balls off, you fucking queer!” With a smirk, I raised my gun and shot him in the head. Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I turned and walked out of the house. Two dead, two left.

My breath caught in the back of my throat. In the time we’d spent together, Sasha never said please. Never. Not to me, not to anyone. He might as well have been begging me.

It wasn’t until Sasha’s arms wrapped around me that I knew I’d fallen. I buried my face into his shoulder, trying to muffle my sobbing against him. He stood up, holding me upright with one arm around my torso. His other hand alternated between holding the back of my head and running his fingers through my hair.

Taking hold of his face, I yanked him down to me, pressing my lips to his. After what happened, I needed to know how he really felt. I needed to know everything he would never say out loud. I needed to know if he still wanted me, even though I was damaged beyond repair.

The Wolf was off the leash and those motherfuckers had no idea what hell was coming for them.

Grabbing his chin and squeezing, I brought my face closer to his. “I’m going to take you apart, piece by fucking piece, you spineless little shit.”

If he thought taunting me would make me kill him faster, he was sorely mistaken. Roan wanted it to hurt — I was going to make it fucking hurt. Lowering the hose, I pointed the steam at his pathetic cock. Yuri screamed and writhed like a worm on a hook until I turned the hose away from him.

Circling around behind him, I clamped a hand on his shoulder, speaking into his ear. “And you should have known better than to fuck with what’s mine.” “Sasha…” The plea for mercy was evident in his voice, but all it did was fuel my fury.

I dropped to one knee and then the other, facing him and him alone. The ultimate position of submission, the sacrifice of my pride, and the loudest declaration of my feelings for the boy in front of me. If I was going to die, at least it would be on my terms. “I kneel for no one,” I repeated, gazing up at Roan, “except the one I love.”

Was this really fucking happening right now? Not only were we both alive, miraculously, but Roan used our near-death experience to fucking network?!

A smile spread over his face slowly and he glanced away. “I already told you — I’m a wolf too. It’s easier to survive when you have a pack.” His bright gaze returned to mine, looking pleased with himself.

“You said you loved me,” Roan said in a breathless rush, searching my face.

I loved his smart mouth, his reckless bravery, and the way he made me fucking ache to touch him, to just be near him. It was crazy, but for once I saw something in my future beyond pain and death — life. Because of him. For me, Roan was the sun, the center of my universe, the thing that gave me life. Without it, without him, I’d surely wither away and die. “I told you, you’re mine, Solnyshko. I’m never letting you go.”

“If he dies, you die,” I said matter-of-factly. “If he’s hurt, you die. If he comes home with so much as a scratch on him, you die. Understood?” “Understood.”