Chapter Thirty-Three
Alaina
C adence said it’s different for every survivor. Some can’t stand to be touched, while others don’t find an aversion to touch as long as it’s consensual. In other extremes, some may experience hypersexual needs.
I’m finding my desire for Dax’s touch hasn’t been taken from me after the gynecologist finishes her exam and gives me a positive review. Dirty thoughts of Dax come flooding into my mind. A growl from my hybrid mate in the corner tells me he’s thinking the same.
“Leave,” Dax orders.
The doctor smiles at me, the sexual tension hard to miss.
I leap from the bed and wrap my legs around Dax’s waist when he rushes toward me. Our tongues entangle, clothing torn and strewn about the room in our desperate need for each other. Before the door has closed, Dax has me pinned against the wall, pressing my nipples hard against his chest.
We’d had too much time, space, and clothes between us until this moment, and he wastes no further second tearing the lace panties from my ass as he lifts me into him.
Dax claims me, thrusting deep inside my pussy, taking as fervently as I give. Clinging to his shoulders, I dig my claws into flesh I thought I’d never see again. Scorching heat floods my system as each stroke he makes strikes higher flames within my soul.
We collide, leaving destruction in our wake as the fervor of our mating builds. Paintings crash down, flowers scatter across the floor and glass vases smash in thousands of pieces when Dax throws me on to the counter. His fangs descend, and claws emerge, piercing soft skin and leaving his marks as he sinks into my left breast above my heart. The fingers of his other hand expertly draw an orgasm out of my body in the way only he can, my screams echoing his growls.
Gasps and groans escape my panting breath, my need for him unsatiated, desperation and greed fueling my actions.
My wolf, desperate for her own claim, crashes Dax into the bed. The sturdy structure snaps from the force of my hybrid strength, and the weight of muscle pins me beneath him. The vampire blood coursing through our veins only adds to the strength and need built between us as his order reverberates through the room.
Our fucking is rapid, and I’m overcome by urgency as my need to mark him overrides all sense of a passionate reunion. Savoring and exploring will come later. For now, an animalistic and carnal need drives us. Dax’s rigid cock strokes deeply inside of my pussy, my fangs sinking deep in his left pec as he buries himself to the hilt. Our wolves howl, and in the speed and destruction only known to hybrids, we mate each other, leaving shattered surroundings in the wake of our hurried passion.
My king,” I pant.
“My queen.”
Our orgasms collide in as we each claim the other. Fangs descend into flesh as I become his, and he mine for eternity, marking each other for the world to witness our bond.
Tangled with Dax, I know no other existence feels possible, his mate mark glistening in the moonlight as he licks and tends his mark upon my neck. Shivers of pleasure rolls down my spine with each lap of his tongue. My own mark bears claim to the king kneeling above me, my wolf preening at finally staking her claim for the word to see.
I am his, and he is mine... My hybrid mate.
Shattered joy fills me as guilt overtakes my newfound happiness. Laying in the broken bed, the destruction of our mating surrounding us, all I can recall is my betrayal. He gave me everything, including his life, and I had slept with Colin.
My lip parts, shame turning my once elated heart heavy, as I go to tell him... My voice breaks, ready to ruin the blissful content between us, but I am stopped as he orders me silently with one shake of his head.
“Don’t. I already know,” Dax says, the pain on his face evident.
“How?”
“I could smell him on you. Your scents... mixed.”
Oh.
“You’re angry.”
“There are no words strong enough to describe what I’m feeling. But yes. I’m angry,” he says.
Does he hate me? Resent me? His rage is boiling underneath the surface.
He rolls to his side, facing me. Cupping my cheek and massaging it with his thumb. “But I am not angry at you for doing what you needed to do to survive.” He brushes the hair from my face. “You do whatever it takes to hold on until I can come for you.” He sighs his eyes darting back and forth between mine. “Fuck everyone else if you’re not still breathing for me.” Dax nuzzles his face into my neck, then rests his forehead against mine.
A sob escapes me. How could he be so understanding? So wonderful?
“Darling, please. Don’t cry.” He wipes my tears.
“You just seemed so mad.”
“I’m mad at myself.” He shushes me. “That I wasn’t here to save you, and that my absence caused you pain.” He sighs. “I’m mad that he’s no longer mine to kill.”
“What do you mean?” Since when did he need permission to kill anyone?
Since the victim is our rapist , my wolf reminds me.
“I want to kill him and any man who ever lays a hand on you. And after what he did to you... He’s yours to kill. And I’ll enjoy every second of torturing him alongside you until you’re ready to do so.”
Since when did torturing side-by-side sound so... thrilling and erotic?
But I knew the answer. Since I encountered true evil.
He posts up slightly to adjust himself at my entrance, pumping himself hard.
“I’m not a selfless man, Alaina. Don’t think I’ll ever want you to move on even in my absence... You’re mine in death just as much as you are in life. I will always come for you in this life and the next. Haunting and possessing you for the rest of eternity.”
I gasp as Dax sinks his teeth into my mark, and my body heats with fever from his devotion to me. Dax slides himself into me and my legs wrap around him.
* * *
There’s a knock on the door, and my instincts kick into gear as I growl at the vampire’s stench at the door.
Already awake, Dax rests a hand on my back, encouraging me to calm slightly. Dax tosses the covers off of him and stomps toward the door.
“I thought we agreed we were going to wait,” Dax grits.
“I couldn’t wait anymore. I need to see her.” It’s Ash.
What was he doing here?
“Now is not the time.” Dax goes to shut the door and Ash’s foot stops it from closing completely.
And if you could see the look on Dax’s face when he does...
Dax throws open the door and bursts through, pinning Ash in the hallway against the wall, causing paintings to fall to the floor.
I scurry from the bed and into the hallway.
“She needs to know,” Ash rasps in Dax’s grip.
Dax’s face is inches from Ash’s when he hisses, “I said not now.”
“What do I need to know?” I say quietly.
Ash stares at Dax, waiting for him to let go, but he doesn’t. His fury is simmering, and it doesn’t take a genius to know that Dax is burning holes in Ash’s head with his glare.
Dax pauses, his shoulders slumping. He exhales loudly in Ash’s face.
He lets go of Ash. Rubbing the back of his neck, he walks to my side. He places a hand on my back.
“What?”
I’m growing impatient. Is Colin back? Is there something wrong with me? What is it?
“And why is he here?” I say to Dax.
“If I thought he was a threat to you, do you think he would’ve made it even an inch into this room?” Dax nods for Ash to come closer.
I gape at Ash with his hands behind his back. “I’m your father.”
* * *
I didn’t faint, but I came to all the same. Ash’s and Dax’s discourse fade into murmurs as I dissociate.
“Alaina, are you okay?” Dax asks.
Everything snaps into place. I hadn’t questioned why my eyes were violet, why my mother wouldn’t tell anyone who my father was. Why I’ve always been unnaturally faster than the others in my pack. Those are answers I’ve been searching for, and I had to die to discover them and answer my own question.
Except I wouldn’t have known because I thought I was only a vampire because Colin turned me. I was too elated to question it then and assumed if I was bonded to Colin, the bond hadn’t kicked in because I hadn’t seen him yet. I figured I would think of how to run from him for the rest of my life to ensure the bond never happened.
The defeat of Colin would have to come later. For now, I have more pressing questions.
“If this is true, then why did my mom leave you?”
He grimaces. The memory pains him. “Back then, the council would’ve never entertained the idea of an interspecies, especially between vampires and werewolves. Our species were more at odds then. They believed my powers to be too powerful, more powerful than Colin’s line, and they wanted to maintain those powers in the vampire lineage. I had seen so much destruction between our kinds, that I understood,” Ash says. “But there were a lot of things we still didn’t understand. No one had heard of mates from other species before. And vampires didn’t recognize the idea of mates. Instead, we have eternal bonds from turning someone; just as strong but not always of a romantic nature.”
“Like Colin tried to do with me,” I say.
Ash nods. “Dax and I weren’t sure if he succeeded or not. Dax had drunk the blood of a vampire prior to his death. All we could do was wait until you woke up to see if you recognized Dax or Colin as your mate.” Ash looks around the room at the destruction Dax and I created through our... festivities. “Clearly, it was Dax.” I feel myself getting red. “Which means, through utero, you were bound to your mother and me.”
“The council didn’t understand who your mother was to me and tried to assure me that finding another vampire to bond with would be no different. They dismissed what I had with your mother, as if it was the equivalent of a teenage fling. But I knew she was my mate, and I should’ve fought harder for us.”
Ash tells me everything about my mother. How they met, what she was like. I tell him the stories I’ve heard about her from the pack growing up and places I feel most connected to her, especially the tree. Ash asks about me, and we promise to go for a run. His competitive nature is something we have in common.
Ash tells me he never bonded with another, but he always tried to locate her. This took him from his duties as king of the vampires. Ash’s powers were also dwindling, so the council was ready to replace him. Ash was more than happy to step down, freeing him to find my mother.
Colin’s sister was to replace him. Colin was marked insane, and Olivia was an easier target to create uniformity. The ruler of the council ultimately wanted to see. A puppet.
Olivia was a pawn to everyone.
“Why did you go along with everything Colin and Olivia were doing?” I ask.
Ash always seemed bored, however compliant, but always detached.
“I made a deal with the council that if I helped the transition of them coming into power and denounced the throne completely, I would be free to find your mother and mate her if I pleased. I wanted out as soon as possible. That was until she died. Then I just wanted out of the politics. But I was growing weaker, and I still needed their protection,” he says, his voice filled with regret. “When I came to Dax’s pack, I was eager and wanted to do everything I could to make sure things went smoothly with their union. So, I insisted on coming along as Olivia’s royal advisor. But when I saw your necklace at dinner... It was the same necklace I gave your mother. Everything changed.”
“Whose side are you on now?” I ask.
Ash snorts. “If Dax thought I was on any other side, but his and yours, do you think he would let me near you? Let alone live?”
Fair point.
“So, how do we stop him?”