COMING SOON!
Annoyed with what he perceived was her continued obstinance, Koe let all the authority he held lash through his words like the crack of a whip when he snarled, “Get in the goddamn water, Jury.”
Glare for glare, their gazes held until Jury, helpless to stop it, buckled under the command.
Eyes still on Koe’s she reached down and unfastened her jeans as she toed off her sneakers. Shoving the denim down her thighs, her furious gaze stayed locked on Koe’s. Stepping out of the jeans, her socks tangled and were removed too as she stepped free of the pile of clothes. Hands gripping the hem of both her t-shirt and the thermal shirt beneath, she finally broke Koe’s gaze as the shirts were ripped over her head.
Entranced by both the sight of Jury stripping and the challenging glint in her eyes, it took Koe a moment to register the shocked gasps that came from beside him. Tearing himself from his rapt attention on Jury, it took a moment for him to register what had surprised Thrall and Daemon.
“He tried to drown me in the river.” Jury’s words registered the same time the sight of her marred flesh did. “He didn’t try,” she snorted disdainfully. “Bragga did drown me. He killed me.”
Koe’s eyes tracked down Jury’s legs, and his stomach tightened at the
sight of the myriad of crisscrossing scars along the entire length of both legs. Eyes snapping up, they found similar scars on both arms, and her torso. Even her chest wasn’t free of harm.
“He dragged me into the river and held me under until I stopped breathing. Then left me there.” Jury slowly stalked forward in just her bra and matching black panties until her feet hit the water. “But not before he pissed on my drowned lifeless body. Then he walked casually back to the compound to tell people I was missing. But my sister was there. She hid on the riverbank and was forced to watch him kill me lest he kill her too. Seba pulled me from the river as soon as Bragga was gone. She worked to resuscitate me for what she claims was twenty minutes.” Quietly to herself, Jury muttered, “Impossible.” Lifting her chin higher, she turned and presented her back, her hand reaching up behind her to unfasten her bra before that same hand grabbed the fall of long black hair that hung down her back and pulled it over one shoulder to give Koe, Thrall, and Daemon the full view of the damage she’d endured.
Koe hunched involuntarily with the need to wretch. The destruction to Jury’s back was unbelievable, worse than the rest of her body. Like she’d been whipped on many occasions. The devastation to her body was incredibly severe, the likes of which Koe had never seen before, not even on the most hardened of Alpha’s or Enforcers. Not even on Daemon.
Turning to face them again, Jury’s hands covered her breasts as she held Koe’s gaze. Chin dipping, Jury’s eyes went hard as she growled, “If you want me in the river, Alpha Koe.” She paused a beat, her jaw ticking with an unleashed fury, the scent of which whipped on the wind and was carried to Koe, Thrall, and Daemon. “You’ll have to drag me.”
Swallowing hard, Koe instantly released the mental hold he held on Jury with his Alpha command. Her fury carried to him on the wind, but strong as it was, it couldn’t mask the acrid scent of her fear. She was terrified, which gutted him because he’d put that fear there. He’d tried forcing her into something she didn’t want, something that had traumatized her. Fuck! It was something that had killed her. It had him wondering if Bragga had done as he just had when he’d ordered Jury into the water. She wouldn’t have been able to fight Bragga’s command just like she hadn’t been able to do now with his command. Had she been commanded to acquiesce to her own demise? The very thought had a wave of nausea crashing over Koe.
When he released his mental hold, Jury staggered, her mouth falling open. It was a sign of two things. One, his command was the only thing that had brought Jury to the water’s edge, and two, Jury’s ability to fight an Alpha command was incomparable. No female, whether Omega, Beta, or Alpha should be able to deny an Alpha command. And while technically, Jury hadn’t because her feet had touched the flowing water, she had challenged it. And it was so goddamn impressive that Koe would have reveled in it, questioned it, were he not too swamped with the need for vengeance. Beside him, Daemon unleashed a furious sound that had the hair rising on Koe’s arms. In a beat, Daemon sloshed out of the river with Thrall on his heels. Out of respect, they gave Jury a wide berth. Koe knew where they were going. He felt it too. He wanted Bragga’s blood; he wanted to fucking bathe in it. Daemon and Thrall were going to make that happen. Good.