'Are you just gonna stand there all day or thank me?" He asked with an amused expression on his face. I stepped back away from him a little.

"Thank you? For what?"

"Saving you." He replied with a big toothy grin and took a big step forward so we were once again very close. I didn't like it. It meant I was within grabbing distance. I mentally slapped myself. If he wanted to hurt me, he could and I wouldn't have to be within grabbing distance for him to do it either.

"Saving me from who? Alex?" Biting his lip with his fang, he tilted his head to the side but remained silent. "Alex was going to hurt me?"

"Not in the sense of causing any danger."

"Meaning?"

As his grin grew his eyes sparkled, he grabbed my upper arms and pulled me to him. My breathing caught in my throat and I froze, leaning his head forward he whispered . . .

"He was going to take you to his bed and fuck you until you passed out." I felt my face heat up as soon as the word 'fuck' left his mouth. How could he know that?

"I wouldn't have let him" I whispered back and tried to move away, but his hands had a death grip on me so I couldn't.

"You wouldn't have had a choice. He was planning on tying you up and fucking you whether you liked it or not." My stomach went cold.

"How do you know that?" My voice was barely audible. There was silence for a few minutes. The only sounds heard was those of birds in the trees far away tweeting. That was until Kane suddenly turned me around in his arms and pulled me against him so my back was slammed against his front. Then all you could hear was my heavy breathing.

What was he going to do?

"He thought it." He hushed in my ear before he slowly ran the very tip of his tongue from my ear down to the point where my shoulder met my neck and then across my collarbone. My breathing hitched as I tried to move but it was impossible.

"thought it?"

"hmmm." His licks turned into nibbles and I was caught between two feelings. Being incredibly terrified and incredibly turned on.

"Can you read minds too?"

"Only Alex's"

"Why?"

"You ask too many questions." I attempted to turn my head but the second his face got within my eyesight, my body met the bark of the tree trunk behind him.

"And you don't answer them."

Groaning in frustration, he pulled his lips from my skin and turned me around, but kept me pressed tight up against the tree.

"Alex made me, so I have his ability to read minds, but because I wasn't meant to have that ability, I can only read his and his alone."

"What because he's your maker?"

"Yes, now shut up."

I couldn't explain why my body listened to him but it did, and my lips closed tight. I don't like Kane. I liked Alex, at least I did before I found him with Cinders. Then my mind started wondering . . . has he been sleeping around since I got here? Would it matter if he had? He was the 'Master'. He could do whatever he wanted. And I had to just sit there and be okay with it because there was nothing else I could do about it.

"Want to get back at Alex?" His question caught me by surprise a little bit. But what surprised me more was the fact that I was actually considering it.

"How?" How could it be 'getting back at him' if he didn't even care in the first place?

"Come with me." Without another word, he grabbed my hand and started tugging me through the woods, back to the house . . .

When we got back to the mansion, there was oddly . . . no one around. Where was everyone? They can't all be setting up for Alex's party in the main hall, could they?

Luckily Alex himself wasn't around anywhere. I was again caught between two feelings. Wanting him to see us together and getting jealous and NOT wanting him to see us.

"Where are we going?" I asked as he carried on pulling me through corridors and up staircases. I still wasn't too familiar with the house, and considering he was going a way that I never took, I had no idea where he was going.

"Back to my bedroom."

As soon as he said those words, excitement flared up inside me, but I decided to act innocent.

"What for?" Stopping in his tracks, he pulled me by the wrists and spun me around to face him.

"What do you think?" I shrugged. "Don't pretend you're all innocent. It doesn't suit you, especially when I know exactly what you and Alex have done." I felt my face heat up again.

"Ummm . . . and what exactly would that be?" Once again he played the silent card, looking away and started walking. Pulling me along like a puppy on a lead.

"Like I said, don't pretend to be innocent. I heard it in his thoughts the second I walked through the door. I know absolutely everything you two have done."

"Everything?"

"Everything. Now it's my turn to have fun with you." I stopped walking, luckily he did too otherwise I'd have fallen over.

"I'm not a toy!" He suddenly realized he offended me and smiled sweetly. Sweetly? That's not a word to describe a monster!

"Course you're not, I didn't mean it like that, come on." Tugging on my hand again, I gave in and followed him back up to the top floor of the mansion . . . to his bedroom . . .