God of Pain (Legacy of Gods #2) by Rina Kent

“Hear that, Dad? I’m bad. Probably worse than you, huh?”

“Not even close.” Dad tilts his head to look at me. “Look who we have here.”

“Hi, Dad.”

“Is everything okay with you, son?”

I nod, and Mum tells him that I’ve been getting perfect scores, completely omitting the part about how I sleep in most classes and don’t attend the other half.

That’s what mothers do. They play the role of a bridge, a mediator.

An anchor.

Or at least, Mum does.

That can’t be said about my other mother.

“I’m glad you could pop in, Creigh,” Dad says. “You, too, Eli.”

My brother points a thumb at himself. “Creighton’s rare appearance is all thanks to me. Besides, we both miss Mum.”

“And Dad,” I finish, earning a rare smile from my father.

He completely ignores Eli’s attempts to rile him. After a few more minutes of catching up, he decides we’ve had enough of Mum’s time and ends the call.

As soon as the screen goes black, I kick Eli in the ribs, sending him flying to the other side of the bed.

Once I have enough room, I lie back down with a palm beneath my nape and close my eyes.

A petite brunette with an infuriating mouth barges into my mind.

Or more like the images of the red handprints I left on her arse do. All bright against that pale skin that’s begging to be marked and bruised and owned.

That was two days ago.

And she’s tactfully avoided me for as long. Always making sure we’re in a group, as if she’s scared I’ll pounce on her.

I would.

Thing is, Annika tests my control, edging it to limits I didn’t think were possible.

And the more she tests it, the more my beast screeches with the need to own her.

That’s what started it all.

After she defied me despite my clear warnings, I had to teach her a lesson.

When I shoved her against those shelves, I had every intention to punish the fuck out of her, but what I received was way past my expectations.

Her submission.

I thought I’d glimpsed the secret submissive in her whenever my tone turned authoritative, but I never thought she was a natural.

Annika not only took my lashes of pain, but she reveled in them as well. The moment she came apart all over my fingers, it took every ounce of control I had not to ram my cock into her sweet heat.

I would’ve broken her. No doubt about it.

So I gave her and myself a temporary reprieve. I simply can’t predict what I’m capable of when it comes to that girl.

The mattress dips beside me.

I expected Eli to bugger off, but he kicks me in the side and stretches out next to me. “Seriously, the fuck is wrong with you and sleeping? Pretty sure the doctor Mum took you to said there were no hormonal imbalances. Open your eyes.”

“Sleeping is better than peopling. Sod off.”

He nudges my side again. “Your big brother is bestowing you with a rare bonding moment, peasant. Wake the fuck up.”

“Go to Lan or Bran.”

“I don’t like Lan sometimes and Bran doesn’t like me sometimes.”

“Remi.”

“Shagging two blondes as we speak. Also, the fuck? You’d throw me at them instead of entertaining me?”

“I’m not a bloody clown.”

“No, but you’re my cute little brother.” He wiggles his fingers under my chin like he used to do when we were kids.

I shove his hand away. “If you’re so bored, go to Ava.”

Sweet silence fills the air and I think I’ve managed to finally get rid of the sod, but then his voice echoes in the silence. It’s lower, deadlier, and has lost the nonchalance from earlier.

“If I go to her, I’ll fucking kill her.” The darkness vanishes as fast as it appeared. “But this is neither the time nor the place. Wake up before I drench you with water.”

He goes back to tapping his fingers beneath my chin and I’m so close to punching him to the next planet.

Eli is detached, Machiavellian, and downright psychopathic, but ever since I accidentally became the sidekick of his destructive energy, he weirdly dotes on me.

He fought my battles, taught me how to fight my own—by knocking me down a few times, and turned psycho on anyone who attempted to bully me.

And by psycho, I don’t mean violent. But conniving. He hid stashes of drugs in their closet, made them doubt their own existence, and even drove them to change schools.

He’s always been discreet but highly effective.

That reputation has given him a lone wolf status. No matter how many people surround him, I know that, deep down, Eli is as lonely as me.

Probably worse.

So I let him play with my chin. Maybe then he’ll leave me alone.

“Jesus. You sleep like the mummies, did you know that?”

I don’t reply, hoping he’ll think I’m already asleep.

“Maybe I should’ve tagged along with Lan. He’s got an up-close location to watch the Heathens fall in their own compound.”

My eyes fly open and clash with Eli’s muted ones. He slowly grins, fingers pausing at my chin. “Finally. I was so close to kicking you in the nuts.”

“The Elites are going against the Heathens?”

“No, I think the Serpents are raiding their mansion. Lan grabbed the popcorn to watch the internal war unfold after he probably instigated it. He made sure Glyn was at the dorm and not with Killian first, though.”