A Shadow's Embrace by Cara Carnes

on Conver’s face as he wielded the whip on the backs of the two women.  
    Whoever operated the camera moved, angling to get a close-up of their ravaged backs. Conver halted the brutality to scrape his fingers along the bleeding wounds on their skin. Both women gasped, but neither screamed.  
    “Swear your allegiance. Plead for my forgiveness.” Arousal flared hot across Conver’s features as he regarded the twins, their hands manacled above their heads, their bodies stripped bare.  
    Both remained silent even though they trembled. Conver’s maniacal laughter, the same sickening sound that haunted Dagan’s nightmares every night, echoed through the room. Angry curses filled the room, useless screams from back then, when they’d hoped their pleas would work—when they hoped obedience would keep the two women safe.  
    They had no idea how twisted Conver was. The zipper. Fucking shit, Dagan could hear the sound so easily thanks to the camera’s audio.  
    “Turn it off.” Dare’s voice punctuated the nightmare they found themselves reliving. “No good comes from watching that fucked-up shit.”  
    Ace complied quickly, the determination in Dare’s voice offering a bit of normalcy within the hellacious memories still engulfing his mind. He could still hear their outraged screams as Conver violated them, one and then the other.  
    It had taken twenty-four men to hold Dagan and his team back. Collared and unable to use their powers, they’d had no choice but to stand there and watch while the only pure things in their lives were violated by evil.  
    “Who were they to you all?”  
    “Family,” Rex stated.  
    “Everything,” Trent growled as he halted his pacing and stared at the screen.  
    Kaeden’s face remained grim, his mind destroyed as he regarded the frozen image of the two women with a longing that made everything in Dagan ache for the man.  
    Dagan took a few breaths before responding. “Nevada and Sage were our Devyn in a lot of ways. They were Trent’s and Kaeden’s women. We tried to keep that part under wraps, but Conver figured it out. Whenever we fucked up or didn’t comply with his orders, they suffered.”  
    “This was the last day they lived,” Cash whispered. He collapsed into a chair.  
    “Please, for the love of all that is holy, tell me what went down after this isn’t in the stuff she found. I can’t watch that shit again, relive it.” Corbin ran his hands through his hair and began pacing the room in agitation. Dagan tried to reach out and wrap him in the same calming net he had Trent and Kaeden locked in.  
    Dare settled his arm on his shoulder. “I don’t know you, man, but I know my man Rider had limits. There’s not enough power in the world to make this sit calm. Don’t run dry trying.”  
    Dagan nodded and eased his hold off on Trent and Kaeden. They glared their disdain for life, for everything, for nothing. The lack of control, once again, scraped along their thoughts. Dagan tasted their regret, their anguish. It mirrored his.  
    “Dagan?”  
    The soft inquiry drew his attention and reignited the brushfire of need in him. Devyn shuffled into the room, wearing nothing but one of his shirts. He inhaled, his gaze memorizing the naked legs, the bare feet, the soft swish of fabric along her upper thighs as she made her way to him.  
    “Everything okay?” she asked.  
    “We’re reviewing some of the other footage and ran across something unexpected.” Dagan tried to soften the blow but knew there’d be no way to accurately describe what she’d found. “You uncovered some footage from our past.”  
    “Oh.” Her gaze softened as she regarded the screen. Licking her lips, she looked around. “It was really bad.”  
    “Yeah.”  
    “Okay, so maybe that’s what Conver didn’t want you all to see, why he came after me.”  
    “We were there to see this.”  
    “It could be related though,” Dare added. “We need to keep going.