Claimed by the Devils

Chapter 19

Elliot POV

I always imagined the girl we picked being easy. Her excitement was nothing more than a headache but at least we’d get some willing p***y out of it. Aria acted like she was going to her death.

Lucian called us ten minutes ago to come and gather her things so we could take them back to the dorm. First off, she didn’t have many belongings. Second, she looked so f*****g miserable. I thought out of everything, that was what bothered me the most. This wasn’t a death sentence.

We walked across the school path, heading back to our dorm, and just like I expected on a Saturday evening, we had company. Several students had come to witness Aria’s claims. Not that they’d see everything. Just her being led across the school to our dorm. This was the only exception the school made. Every other student had to accept the rules of separate dorms. Male and female. We got our own piece of ass, but with how Aria carried herself, this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.

She was pissed. I wanted to know what went down with her parents.

There was a part of her that no longer seemed like herself. It was like she was broken, and I hated it. Gone was the carefree girl in the library and who stood in her place was a shell. Don’t get me wrong, there was fire in her eyes, and the passion was still there, but something was missing and I couldn’t stand it. I didn’t want a shell. I liked going toe to toe with Aria, mainly because I knew she’d eventually lose.

Now that we had her close, the real games could begin. She didn’t stand a chance of winning against us. I especially looked forward to drawing her.

After entering our dorm, I went straight to the spare bedroom. Previously, this room had been used to bring the girls we didn’t want in our bed. We banged them here and sent them on their way. Before Aria’s arrival, we made sure to change the mattress and remove all the sheets. The room was a decent size. It wasn’t the king size Lucian had, but it was certainly comfortable.

It was bigger than what Heather had.

Aria dropped her suitcase onto the mattress.

“Thank you for helping me, I can take it from here,” she said, unzipping her case. Even that single action sounded f*****g dead. I hated it.

I refused to leave even as Sebastian, Rowan, and Lucian gave her space. I refused.

Opening the box of books, I saw instantly they were in author order, and started to line the shelf with each copy, being careful not to dent one.

“What are you doing?”

“Helping you.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“Aria, you’ve got this martyr thing going and I accept it, but you’re not going to do this alone. You’re not going to make this worse for yourself. I’m happy to help, and if you actually asked, the guys would be in here to help.”

“Don’t you get it? I just want some space.”

I sighed.

“Don’t we all? But that doesn’t mean we get it.”

“Is this how it’s going to be, you guys telling me what to do?”

“Of course. It’s how we’re all going to survive this.”

I quickly averted my gaze and went back to putting the books on the shelf, one after the other.

“Survive what?”

I needed to learn to keep my f*****g mouth shut.

“You know this doesn’t have to be hard, don’t you?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Are we back to the usual crap of how I should be grateful that you’ve picked me rather than some other girl?”

I finished with the last book and walked to her, closing the distance with real f*****g ease.

Standing right in front of her, I stared into her eyes. They were a dark brown, almost sinful. I wanted to see her staring at me as I f****d her hard. Even more than watching her, I wanted to capture the moment I entered her, feeling her hot p***y wrap around my c**k. It would be the best feeling in the world.

Her virginity would make her even tighter.

Lucian would get her cherry, but me, I couldn’t wait to feel her naked heat surround me.

“If you stopped being so stubborn and gave this a chance, you’d see there is a benefit to belonging to us.”

“This is where you’re wrong. I don’t see any benefit to any of this. You always get what you want. I bet there hasn’t been a single day you haven’t won.”

I smiled.

“You see, that’s right. We get what we want because we don’t give up. By belonging to us, Aria, think about what you desire. What do you want most in this world? If you think long and hard, I can imagine there are things you wish for more than anything. Your needs are so deep that you’ve found yourself hoping, if not praying to get them.”

I was so close, but I didn’t touch her.

“You can’t give me anything.”

“Aria, we’re four of the most powerful families in the world. What we want, we take.”

“And you don’t care who you hurt?”

“We don’t think about that.”

“No. You just pretend everything belongs to you and that it’s supposed to be okay. It’s not. People get hurt, Elliot.”

“What are you willing to do to make sure it doesn’t happen?” I asked.

“There’s nothing I can do.”

“You’ve just been selected. The most powerful girl in this school. Believe me, Aria, there’s nothing you can’t have.”

She took a step away from me and I hated it. Her hand was clenched into a fist. Was she afraid? I didn’t like the thought of her being scared of us. This wasn’t about terrifying her.

“Powerful? Since the selection, Chloe has been on my case. Do you have any idea what she could have done to me if I’d fallen wrong?”

“Chloe is being taken care of.”

“Is this another porn video?”

“No. Her stepping out of line like that calls for a bigger punishment.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Good. You’re not supposed to.”

I turned back to helping her unpack, taking my time. She had very few belongings, and when I got to two photographs, I couldn’t help but linger. One was of her and Heather. The two were so close. I had to wonder if Aria was aware of Heather’s feelings. Something told me she didn’t have a clue.

Her aversion to being touched … I had to wonder why. Was she used to touching? What made her always take that step back? She was always telling us to stop touching her. Why?

There was so much I didn’t know about her, and I wanted to delve deep, to figure her out.

Putting the picture beside her bed, I stared intently at the other one. This had Aria with an older woman. The woman stood behind Aria, and it looked like a really badly taken selfie. Was this Drew?

We were in the process of finding out as much information about Aria Vales as possible without alerting anyone else to our search. Everything we knew so far had been given to us by our fathers, and other than date of birth, general likes and interests, it told us f**k all about the girl who was meant to be ours.

I hated doing homework, but when it came to Aria, nothing seemed too difficult.

When there were only her clothes to finish putting away, I decided to give her some privacy and head back into the main room. Rowan played on his cell phone. Sebastian sat at the table, working from a book. He’d gotten a low grade in math and was having to do the necessary homework to catch up. Lucian wasn’t anywhere to be found.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“The gym,” Rowan answered.

“Now?”

“Yep. What better time to work off his blue balls than when a beautiful girl is living with us?”

He didn’t look up from his cell phone.

“Make sure to order some pizza,” I said.

“Already done it.”

“Don’t do anything f*****g stupid.”

“Like she is going to let us do something stupid,” Rowan said.

“Will you two shut up? I’ve got to do this.”

I left the dorm and headed across campus, taking a slow jog to get to the building with the gym.

Coach Bilson was lifting some weights as I entered, and he nodded at me. I didn’t like him, and there was something about him I didn’t gel with. Like there was a piece of a puzzle I missed.

I found Lucian at the punching bag. He’d changed into his workout clothes, and his naked fists were pummeling the bag.

I walked over and grabbed either side to stop it from moving.

“You think this is the answer?”

“I think it’s the only thing I can do right now,” Lucian said.

“You could have helped her move in.”

“I carried her s**t, didn’t I?”

Three consecutive punches landed. I braced for the impact, holding the bag firm.

“You’re pissed off. This is a win for us.”

Lucian lowered his hands and laughed.

“A win. You think this is a win for us?”

“You don’t?”

“Hell, no. Aria hasn’t caved. She was manipulated. Her parents did this.”

“And you’re pissed.”

“You know this is strike one, don’t you?” Lucian asked.

I tensed up.

“What?”

“You know the drill. Three strikes and it’s over for us.”

These messed-up f*****g rules.

“What happens to her if we mess up?”

Lucian shrugged.

“I don’t know. I never thought we’d get a single strike so I didn’t ask.”

He ran a hand down his face.

“Two strikes left and we’re only into our second week. You know we’ve got ’til Halloween night, right?”

I hated this.

“Let’s not talk about it.”

“Elliot, that’s not that far away.”

“We didn’t care about the deadline when we came back to school, Gid. We’re going to make it.”

Lucian hit the bag, but there was no more fire in it. The guy was f*****g ripped. I could only imagine having a dad like Lucas Crowe and being the only son came with a s**t ton of problems. Lucian was a mess. There was no denying it. His dad had made him the privileged heir. The one expected for greatness. I knew without a doubt it took a toll on him. There was so much expected of him.

“We’ve got this,” I said.

“I don’t think we do.”

He stepped away from the bag.

I was the only one he allowed himself to be vulnerable with.

“She’s living with us now. Part of the problem has been erased. We completely surround her. She will be ours in no time.”

Lucian opened his bottle of water and took a long swig.

“Dad has told me if she doesn’t come willingly that night, we will take her by force.”

I tensed up.

“Yeah, that’s how messed up this s**t is.”

He shook his head.

“Everything is riding on it. You know it.”

“Dude, we’ve got this.”

I went to him and slapped him on the back.

“We can win this s**t if you come and help us win her over.”

“Aria hates us.”

“Where is all this defeated crap coming from? I’m getting bored of hearing it.”

I slapped him on the back again.

“We’ve got pizza. Come on. Stop being a damn party pooper and be the leader we all expect you to be.”

Another slap on the back and rather than linger, I got to my feet and made my way back to the dorm.

Everything was f*****g s**t and I didn’t know why I continued to deny it.

We were screwed if we didn’t fix this. I’d never heard of a selection not being successful. We would be the first if we didn’t get Aria to submit to us.

Entering the dorm, I saw the pizzas had arrived and Aria was nowhere in sight.

After picking up her pizza box, I went to her room. There was no room in my book to mess up. I wasn’t going to allow us to fail.