Claimed (Bound Mates #2)

Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

A nya

Being the captive of a vampire is not as terrible as some might imagine. The worst thing about it is the long hours of missing Alexei and worrying about what he is doing. I know he will be trying to come for me. The question is what is happening to him as a result?

I wonder sometimes about trying to escape. The vampire stronghold is practically inescapable. I don’t like being in contact with Dom much, but I like encountering the other vampires even less. They look upon me as a pet of sorts, I think.

When Dom refers to me as his child, they smirk in the way normal people sometimes do when a person calls their dog their child, with either an air of ‘not really,’ or ‘how dare you.’ They don’t dare contradict him, because he’s their equivalent of an alpha. What Dom wants, Dom gets.

I miss Alexei terribly. I want to try to call him. Dom said he had been in touch, so I assume there must be a way to do that myself. If I can just get into his vampire office, and use the vampire telephone…

It’s not really a matter of sneaking around. I have free run of the place, and Dom’s office isn’t locked. He is too confident in his complete and total dominance to take precautions. Nobody here dares cross him.

I try to stay out of sight as I go up to the room where the vampire does his business. Not his actual business, of course, because vampires don’t do that. Their bodies are frozen in time. There’s a bathroom adjacent to my room because they realize that plumbing is essential for people. It’s what passes for care in a place like this.

Nobody is trying to hurt me here. I am being kept like a hostage, but not a hostage anybody is particularly worried about. So there’s no resistance as I get into the office, which contains, among other things, a phone.

I don’t know Alexei’s number. I’ve never had to call him. I wonder if the castle is in the phone book. I suppose I could try to look it up.

“What are you doing?” The smooth, indulgent, and eternally amused tones of Dom float behind me. I have the sudden feeling that nothing I planned was a surprise to him.

“Nothing,” I lie in the way everybody lies when they’re definitely doing something.

Turning around, I face him, looking up at his gaunt but keen features. This might be the most dangerous creature I have ever encountered, or will ever encounter. But he does what he always does when I am in his presence. He soothes me with his mind, and he makes acting out too much of an impossibility.

He smiles at me. “You’re trying to get in contact with your mate, aren’t you? Unfortunately he is yet to come to his senses and submit to me as I have requested. He is choosing his pride over you, Anya. Even if you were to call him, I would not let him take you. He is yet to learn his lesson.”

“What’s his lesson?”

“He has a place in the order of things. Wolf leaders call themselves alphas. It gives them airs and graces. It makes them think of themselves as apex predators. But we are the true apex predators, and we will be respected.”

“This is all because he insulted you?”

“This is because no wolf will be safe in a vampire’s world unless he or she is subjugated. You will submit, or you will die. Here. Let me show you.”

The vampire reaches out to me and I close the distance between us because I have no choice. He wraps an arm around my shoulders and draws me to him, my back to his chest. I feel his icy breath on my neck and I know what is going to happen next.

I don’t want to be bitten. I want to resist. But I am still as a stone as the vampire’s lip curls up and his fangs make a terrible descent into my neck, puncturing skin and finding my blood supply.

This is perverse, but there is nothing I can do to stop it. I am helpless against his power. The sensation of being penetrated by those needle-sharp teeth is not pleasant. I hiss as I feel him do as he pleases with me, using me, draining me, not caring whether I want to give him what he is taking or not.

Fortunately for me, Dom is not truly hungry. He is simply doing this to prove a point, to make his power over me felt and known. He takes just a mouthful or two. I feel him swallow as he imbibes my essence.

“Drinking you is a delight, dear daughter,” he says. “And an absolute requirement. It is, after all, the only true way to know your mind. Your rebellion gives your blood quite the kick. I can taste my progeny in you. I miss him, you know.”

He relaxes his control on my mind just enough to allow me to respond to his comments. I am like a human puppet in his hands, occasionally given enough free will to do something he finds amusing.

“He was filth, and so are you. Let me go.”

My blood makes his lips red as they turn up in a smirk.

“You aren’t ready. More to the point, he is not ready. You both have lessons to learn in humility and obedience. I do not want the next generation of whelps to be as headstrong as you. No. You will both have to continue to suffer the absence of the other. I hear that is rather painful for a bonded wolf pair.”

But that is the point. He wants to hurt us. He wants to punish us. He wants to turn us into a slave class of paranormal beasts, serving him and his kind, and he wants us to be grateful for the opportunity.