Suffering & Salvation Read Free Page B

at the edge of the tub in the wake of her exit. The cat crept forward, nose scenting, processing, cataloguing—everything. The air conditioner kicked on, and it didn’t take long before the smells contained in the room wafted to her keen nose. Then it was there…she caught the scent, the source of the sound.
    “Well, my dear. It seems as though you’ve fucked up here, doesn’t it?” the voice she despised with all of her heart and soul preceded the man who now stood at the bathroom doorway.
    Cougar growled low, eyes narrowed, fangs bared. Malcolm. He’d found them, and now that he had, she wondered if he were there to kill them or to take them back to their hellhole. But how in the hell did he get in here? It really didn’t matter now, because the fact of the matter was…she knew this day would come. She also knew that if nothing else, Malcolm was a driven man. Fueled by rage and hate. So, did she really expect something like a door and a lock to keep her safe from him?
    Knowing their time on the run might be ending, Simi and Cougar both began to mourn. Grieve the lost chance to get to know the stranger with a kind heart. Brand. And what about Wolfie? Suddenly, Simi realized what she’d been pushing away all evening. The freedom of choice. And with that, she chose to fight, to stay where she was and be a slave no longer. She’d be damned if she was just going to roll over and submit. Or run away again, for that matter. Especially not for Malcolm.
    “You’ll have to be punished, bitch. ”
    The derogatory name, the way he said it with such animosity, laced with unmatched bitterness, sent goose bumps rising along her skin. So unlike Brand. Not even close. Brand was gentle— his words were full of promise. Malcolm was nothing but a threat, like the devil incarnate, born of anger and hate.
    Cougar pounced, using her weight to push through to the bedroom, shoving him flat on his ass. Bounding for the living room in search of more space to better fight, she squared off against Malcolm, claws digging into the cheap carpet, readying herself for combat, a battle to the death if need be. She’d do her damnedest…fight him tooth and claw. Cougar wanted to roll in Malcolm’s blood when he was dead, show everyone that she’d defeated this evil man, once and for all. Simi tried to reason with her, told her to focus, not wanting her to get too ahead of herself.
    “This way, is it, cunt?” The man smirked. And now Simi, who was supposed to be the rational one, wanted more than anything to rip his face off with her bare hands. Control shifting back to Cougar, their buried anger came boiling to the surface. And now, beast and human wanted not just to hurt him, but kill him for what he’d done to them.
    Malcolm jerked the tails of his shirt out of his jeans and tugged the pale blue button-down up and over his head, tossing it aside. He kicked his shoes off next, the snooty leather loafers she’d always hated. Animals weren’t meant to wear animals. Would he want to make a cougar rug out of her next?
    His pants and the rest soon followed, leaving him naked and exposed. Cougar braced for combat. Prepared herself to pounce, to rip him to shreds with her claws, to break his neck with her strong jaws. Cougar was free, and Malcolm didn’t have the control over her as he did over Simi. Cougar and she could be long gone before anyone would be the wiser. But what about Brand? She’d be on the road again, hungry and alone. Though, no longer afraid…and the man who defiled her no longer alive.
    Malcolm couldn’t search for her—stalk her—if he were dead. Cougar had the urge to strike the man down. Hostility gnawing at her, driving her mad. Still, Simi wanted only to defeat, possibly maim, but not to end his life. Not for Malcolm, but for her and Simi, to stay and claim Brand for their own and make him theirs.
    After having listened to Simi’s reasoning, though it pained her to do so, deep down, in the recesses of Cougar’s