Claimed (Bound Mates #2)

Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

A lexei

“Are you angry with me?”

Anya asks the question in the morning, when we both wake after a very long night. I cannot believe we have both survived this long, and that I have the pleasure of feeling her in my arms. She is such a beautiful, precious creature, and I intend to choose her every day of my life—including the days where I have to deal with her.

“I’m not pleased with you,” I tell her. “I am not pleased with any of us, but yes, you are in trouble, if that is what you are asking. The display last night was reckless and could have—should have—gotten you killed.”

She looks at me with a certain guilty expression. “Well, everybody else was being killed. I thought I might join in.”

“Not funny, Anya.”

She giggles, probably to relieve the tension of the whole horrible affair. I know the memories of last night and the days and nights that have gone before will not soon fade. We will both be haunted by them for a very long time to come. I intend to ensure that better decisions are made in the future. There is a limit to how many funerals Anya and I can attend.

Anya’s laughter only increases under my strict stare.

“I’ve just realized something,” she giggles hysterically.

“And what is that?”

“We are so furious at him for killing two of our number, but when we were at his place, we killed everybody. He could have slaughtered the pack if he wanted. You know he could’ve. Everybody was at his mercy. But he killed Elena to heal, and he killed Vlad… maybe because he knew he’d taken his mate. Maybe it was an act of mercy.”

She wipes her eyes. “I don’t really think this is funny. It’s just, I don’t know that we’ve been any better than them.”

“Of course we have. We haven’t murdered half the countryside the way they have. We haven’t infected anybody’s mate’s mind and used her as a puppet. Yes, we have killed, but the ones who died when I was searching for you and where you were kept captive, they… well…”

“Exactly. We’re as bad as each other. We’re all monsters, doing monstrous things, and having the nerve to be offended when there are consequences for our… monstrosities.” She snorts. “And it turns out my dad was part vampire to begin with, or at least slightly cursed. Isn’t this all just so stupid?”

“All wars have some element of stupidity to them,” I tell her. “There’s not a conflict on this earth that ends in violence that could not and should not have been solved with diplomacy. Now come here and put yourself over my knee.”

Anya pouts at me prettily. “Can’t we solve this with diplomacy?”

She is in good spirits and using my words against me. Her mood elevates mine, and reminds me that this is indeed, over. Peace is going to reign from here on out. There will be no more vampire attacks, and there will certainly be no more reason to go hunting the fanged things.

I tap my thigh. “Come here, little girl.”

She blushes brightly. “You’ve never called me that before. Well. Except for the time you called me spoiled. But I guess that was different.”

“Spoiled or not, you’re my little girl, that’s what you are. Now, come here.”

She is still so sweet, even after all that has happened. I am having a very hard time getting the vision of her hanging off the vampire’s throat out of my mind, the sheer terror I felt when I realized she was absolutely out of control.

“From now on, I need you to obey me,” I tell her. “I know that’s asking a lot of you, probably too much, but all of this trouble has been made worse in one way or another by your many acts of disobedience. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she squeaks. “I understand.”

She’s not trying to argue. How could she? She has had all the same experiences I have. She knows what a bad girl she has been. And she knows what is going to happen as a result.

“Get out of bed and strip,” I order her. “Your ass is going to pay for this.”

She does as she is told, looking at me under her lashes with a certain kind of shyness as she sheds her lacy night dress. She has a beautiful body, and of course I become aroused at the sight of it. I don’t know that she’s going to enjoy my erection as much as she usually does.

She expects me to spank her, but we’re past spanking. Even a good, long, hard spanking is not enough, and I’m not of the mind or mood to beat my mate. There are other ways to teach a wayward she-wolf a lesson.

“Bend over,” I order, pointing to the side of the bed.

I get up and stand behind her as she obeys me, putting herself into perfect position for me. She truly is gorgeous, and her curves are going to be the encouragement I need to make sure she’s very well punished. The idea of anything happening to her… the idea of losing her the way I have already lost Vlad and Elena is unacceptable.

“I am tired of the miseries of your disobedience,” I tell her. “I am tired of speaking and not being listened to because one or another of my pack thinks they know better. From here on out, I will be maintaining order.”

She stays in position, her pretty ass lifted to me. I reach for the bedside table, and I pick up lube. She’s going to need a lot of this for what I have planned. I drizzle a long stream of it between her cheeks, letting it pool around her pretty little asshole.

Yet she’s surprised when she feels my thumb pressing at that same hole. She makes little uncomfortable noises as I press into her butt, stretching her just a little, finding that hot interior that has gone unused so far.

“What are you…”

“Quiet,” I growl. “Every part of you is mine, Anya. I am going to show you that today.”

I push my thumb in and out of that tight hole, giving her a little warning warm-up of what is about to come.

“Please, Alexei…”

“Relax,” I tell her. “I am taking your ass today. And you are going to learn to love it, because the way you behave tells me you are likely never going to be the good, submissive, obedient mate a pack master should have.”

My words are harsh, but she deserves them. I still remember watching her rush headlong to the vampire and then turning and fighting him. Dom’s patience with her is the only reason I still have a mate. Just thinking about him, about the danger, the death, the way the females under my command have made repeated mistakes leading to terrible outcomes, makes me pull my thumb free of her rear and replace it with a part of my anatomy that will take pleasure in this punishment.

“Breathe,” I remind her, pushing my cock into her ass in a firm stroke. I go slowly, but I do not stop until I am inside her hot little hole, listening to her whimper and complain.

“It hurts,” she gasps.

“Does it?”

“Mhm.”

“Does it hurt as much as being killed?”

“No,” she whines. “But…”

“Then count yourself fortunate that you’re experiencing this pain and not the other.”

I fuck my mate long and deep and hard, teaching her tight little ass the lesson she most needs to learn. The sounds she makes as my cock stretches that resistant ring of muscle are incredibly gratifying.

Anya

My ass hurts terribly, but I know I deserve this, and there is something about that knowledge that makes the pain of being punished more like a filthy pleasure. I might be taking an ass-fucking, but this is still a fucking. I reach down and I rub my clit, sparking that pleasure higher and higher.

“You’re going to be a good girl for me, aren’t you,” he snarls in my ear.

“Yes,” I whimper, though I do not know if it will be true or not. It’s true enough in this moment. I want to be good for him. I want to be good for myself. I want nice things to happen for once. I want to not spark a paranormal civil war. Just girl things.

I feel his teeth on the back of my neck, biting, gripping, demanding. I know I have pushed Alexei to his limits. He is an alpha through and through, one of the most powerful in the entire country. And I am nothing but the bastard daughter of a serving girl. It should be the most natural thing in the world to submit to him—and it is.

I draw in a deep, ragged breath, taking in his pheromones and letting myself sink into submission. I let him take control of me completely. I know he will know if my surrender is not real. I want it to be real. I want to let him take complete charge of me. God knows I need it. There is so little hope for me in my own impulses. Better to give myself over entirely by choice as well as by flesh and blood and curses and everything else that binds me to this man.

“I love you,” I whisper as his cock sinks deep inside me again and again.

“I love you too,” he growls. I can feel his cock throbbing in my ass as he pauses for a moment. “Marry me.”

It’s not a request. It is a command.

“Yes,” I answer. He didn’t ask me a question, but like many of his carnal commands, my acquiescence is instinctive.

My agreement spurs him to fuck me deeper, longer, harder. It makes him breed my ass, a part of my anatomy that no baby can ever come from, but he doesn’t care. He fucks me like he’s fucking my pussy, taking me like he quite legally owns me.

The truth is there’s no part of me that doesn’t belong to him. I am his entirely, and always will be. I was his before I knew who he was, and I will be his until death and beyond.

“You’re going to be my sweet little bride,” he snarls, pumping my ass hard. “You’re going to be my well-fucked, well-bred, entirely owned, and sometimes even obedient wife.”

“Yes!” I cry out as he snarls and growls and fucks me to completion, sliding my hand underneath my body to rub my clit desperately so I can come with him as he lets out a roar of dominance and fills me up, his cock making that fist-sized knot inside my poor ass.

We are trapped together in the aftermath of my anal punishment. Alexei cradles me close, kissing the back of my neck where he bit me, showing me tenderness after the rough ravaging. I curl back against him, my ass aching and my heart feeling full.

Slowly, he slips from me as the knot subsides. Only then am I able to roll around and face him.

I look at Alexei with more than a little curiosity. I feel much better. I feel absolved of whatever guilt was lingering in my body for my actions in the whole affair. I wonder if he feels the same. No. An alpha can never truly be absolved of responsibility. His position means he must bear guilt for everything forever. He is the shield standing between us all and the world at large.

I want to make things easier for him from now on. He doesn’t need more trouble. He never has. And he is still feeling the loss of his brother and Elena. They may not be gone forever, but they are still gone in a sense.

That was the result of their own actions, but their actions were a result of my actions, and really life is just a series of consequences, isn’t it? I wish they were all as enjoyable as the bedroom repercussions.

“What is it, Anya?”

“Are we really getting married, or did you just say that during sex?”

“We are really getting married.”

“Dom will be pleased.”

“I will be pleased,” he growls. “And that is all that matters. We are going to put all of this behind us, Anya. We are going to live good, sane, sensible lives going forward. We are going to get married and have babies, and we are going to grow old…”

“You’ve already done quite a bit of that,” I point out encouragingly.

He lifts a brow at me. “Attitude, now?”

“I mean…” I try to hide my smile, but quite fail. “I was just teasing.”

“This is a serious matter, Anya. We will have whelps of our own, an entire litter, and we will raise them to be good and true.”

I listen to Alexei talk, and I know he means what he is saying. I know all he wants for me, for himself, and for the pack is a happy, full life replete with family.

But I know darkness lingers in me. I know I am touched by a curse that will never entirely leave me. And I know that Alexei will forever be helping me resist it. I am not good as he is. I am not upright and proper. I am a problem.

“Why do you not look happy, Anya? Do you not want to get married?”

“Of course I want to get married. Everybody wants to get married,” I say with a smile.

Alexei comes to me, goes down on his knee, and looks me very seriously in the eye. He is a big, strong, serious man and I find myself appreciating that very much in the moment.

“If you do not want to be married, you do not have to be. You are my mate. That is enough for me. But I think we should do everything we can to…”

“Be more normal?” I finish his thought with a guess.

“Be more stable,” he says. “I do not know that a ceremony will change anything, but it is celebration, and we need one of those. You should be celebrated, Anya. I love you, you are mine. And everybody should know it.”

I know who he truly means should know it. A certain tall blood-eyed creature of the night. Dom’s shadow falls over us from time to time, a chill that does not come from the external temperature or the internal drafts of the castle.

“I love you, Alexei. And I am yours. As you are mine.”

He wraps his hand in my hair and kisses me deeply, thoroughly, with animal possession that will brook no interference from anybody, living or dead.