3. Weston
Chapter 3
Fuck!
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
What the fuck did I just do?
“You know what you just did,” my wolf said, pushed up near the surface.
I shook my head to block out the words as I hurried away from the path. When I was far enough, I stepped behind a tree, my back scratched by the rough bark. My body still shook with that sweet release. Everything about what just happened was incredibly intoxicating; her smell lingered on my flesh, her touch.
Fuck!
Why now? Why here? Why her?
She was the enemy. A monster, making products that tore families apart, whether because of addiction or death or poverty. She was trash. Worse than trash, she was a creature to eradicate. That’s exactly why I was here. To take her back to the dragon royalty to face her punishment, which would almost certainly be death. No one could wreak the sort of havoc she had and live to tell the tale. Not from the dragons.
I closed my eyes, breathing deeply.
I’d completely lost my head. My control had fled the very moment I’d caught her scent. My will had frayed the second I saw her beautiful face, looking sightlessly up at me. Long black hair framed her oval visage with high arching brows and exquisite hazel eyes, like a burst of sunshine between dense black lashes. Her lithe little body strained for me, her entire person eager to please. The feel of her skin, of her plump, heart-shaped lips as they wrapped around the head of my cock, weakened my knees.
But why?
“You know why,” my wolf sang within me.
“Shut up,” I said out loud, pushing off the trunk and walking fast.
I’d put my team in jeopardy. That was inexcusable. I’d walked onto that trail and fucked the enemy in clear view. If I’d been seen, this territory would’ve known they’d been breached. Their defenses would’ve gone active and my people would’ve been scrambling. We were the best at what we did, but being caught unawares would’ve thrown even us off kilter. I’d been reckless. Stupid. I was a bad excuse for an alpha.
“You acted exactly how an alpha would have,” my wolf argued. “Except you should’ve knotted her and pumped our seed deep inside of her.”
My legs turned to jelly and I staggered, bending to rest my hands on my knees and dropping my head. I was painfully hard again just thinking about doing that. I’d barely stopped myself earlier, preventing myself from pushing deep into her tight little pussy and locking her to me. I’d wanted to. Oh, heavens how I’d wanted to. It had taken all my will to resist.
I’d lost control. That couldn’t be argued. I’d lost control and it could not happen again, regardless of the situation. I had a job to do. A duty I would follow to the end. I owed my allegiance to the dragons. They’d given me a home, a title, a great life, riches, and power. I led a huge faction of that kingdom, and I would not jeopardize their trust in me. I would not.
I had to push past this. I had to ignore her effect on me. It couldn’t change my feelings about what I was doing. It couldn’t make me veer off course.
Gods help me, though, she’d felt so good. Unbelievably good, unlike anyone I’d ever touched. Like a piece of me I hadn’t known I’d been missing. An important part of the whole.
“You know why she felt that way,” my animal pushed. “Like air to a suffocating man.”
Yes I fucking did. In this forgotten, out of the way village I’d found something so incredibly rare, so absolutely precious, it was almost a myth. Very few people ever found theirs. Most people only dreamed of it. I’d known it when I’d seen her outside of that work shed; I’d felt her calling to me even from the distance. I’d been sure of it as I beheld her on the path, unable to keep from stepping out to meet her.
That woman was my true mate.
And she was my enemy. My target.
Fuck!
I blew out a long breath, straightening up slowly.
It didn’t matter. I was stronger than this. I had worked my whole life on developing my iron-clad will. She’d taken me by surprise—fine. Now I knew. Now I could prepare. I could get my head in order. She would not derail me.
“And if she runs like you advised?” my animal asked.
Oh. That.
I grimaced and nearly shouted out my frustration.
I definitely shouldn’t have told her to run. That had been one slip-up of many. She was the one we were sent here to find, there was no doubt.
I’d just been so thoroughly in the moment that my primal sense had kicked in—my need to protect what was mine. Because she was mine. There could be no denying that fact, as shitty as this situation was.
Fuck, why me? Why her? Of all the people in the entire world, why her?
Time to do damage control.
In halting steps, I headed for the little cottage far removed from the village and all its people. Granny, they called the owner. Just a lovely, sweet older lady who baked pies and hooked people on drugs. Killed them, sometimes. Ruined them, other times. If it wasn’t for Finley, the dragon queen, we would’ve lost a great many in our kingdom. Others already had. It was inexcusable, what was coming out of this village. Unconscionable. For anyone to be okay with it...
My resolve hardened, remembering who we’d lost.
True mates didn’t matter; she needed to be taken down. It was my duty to see this through, and I would fulfill my task regardless of the obstacles. Maybe I was being punished for past wrongs, maybe I was being challenged by the Gods, but whatever it was, I would not stray again.
“We’ll hunt her down if she runs,” I told my wolf. “Just like we hunted her and Granny to this hidden village. She will not escape me.”
I rolled my shoulders, taking another moment to collect myself. I’d need to shift and connect with my pack. If the woman got to Granny’s cottage and sounded the alarm, we’d need to move in fast.
The only good news was that there didn’t seem to be any of Granny’s people roaming the internal territory. The perimeter had been well fortified. Granny had a very thorough setup, with an alert sentry line and a well-scheduled patrol. They couldn’t be everywhere at once, of course, so Granny had applied faerie spells and potions to the vulnerable areas, blocking admittance. In one space she’d even set up a demon gate requiring a magical key of demon origins to get through. They were the best systems criminal gold could buy.
Too bad for her I had connections to more powerful faeries and demons than she did. There wasn’t a door I couldn’t get through, and when Granny’s people came after us, I’d steal their will and render them immobile. She had no idea the caliber of enemy she’d made, and I wasn’t even talking about the dragons.
I’d been blindsided just now, but soon it would be them who’d get a helluva shock. I’d make sure of it.
“We will not engage with that woman again,” I told my wolf, restless within me. “She is the enemy. She has done terrible things and she must stand in judgment for her sins, as must we all. Do you understand?”
He did the equivalent of pacing. “You won’t be able to ignore her.”
“We can and we must. Promise me before I give you back control.”
He didn’t answer for a moment. In the past, he would’ve outright refused. He would’ve thought that he knew best. It was just such a judgment that had landed us in a demon dungeon, separated from each other for countless years. He’d been absent for the misery and degradation I’d endured in that place, only knowing the devastation and pain second-hand when we’d reconnected and he’d been privy to my memories. I’d thought I’d die there, the demon magic drugging me to accept the abuse. To like it, most times. But the magic did nothing to stop me from retching when I remembered it all the next day. I’d been powerless. Used for pleasure against my will.
Bile rose in the back of my throat and my hands shook as I fought to shove those memories down, locking them away and harnessing the misery to sharpen my resolve.
It had been a sort of drug to make all that possible—demon-made and administered through magic. It hadn’t been my choice, just like the drugs being slipped into people’s drinks and food now weren’t their choice, nor the ones sold to them under false pretenses. Granny had no boundaries. She had no reservations. The faster she could get people hooked, the better. She didn’t care what happened to people along the way.
I’d wasted no time in signing up for this detail. I hated everything these people stood for.
Now, thankfully, my wolf was a bit more cautious. Or maybe I was just that much harder, having grown brittle in that dungeon. Having lost my humor and sometimes my will to keep going.
Knowing my head space, he relented.
“For now,” he said, a good enough compromise. I had no doubt he’d soon see that I was right. This whole place was vile. The things they did were beyond excuse.
I gave up control and my wolf instigated the shift. His four paws touched down onto the ground and he started forward.
We could feel everyone’s location through the pack bond as they scouted the area undetected. Granny’s cottage wasn’t much to look at, just a small dwelling with a curling trail of smoke winding from the chimney. It was nothing like her huge estate near the castle where she made her connections and paid off guards and royals. The village was equally humble, showing none of the extravagance she was known for outside of this rural place. She clearly hadn’t distributed the gold these people had helped her accrue.
I worked with my wolf to feed emotions, scents, and various other information through those bonds to the pack while willing them instructions, indicating which direction they needed to go or where they should stop. It was a complex magical system that I naturally excelled at, my alpha magic stronger than any other I’d yet met. It would ensure Granny’s people were rendered ineffective when they realized our presence. It meant she would be snared by me the moment she shifted into her wolf form.
It was why it was so important for me to walk in the light. To stay on the side of steadfast morality. I had the power to enslave people to my will. If I veered or wavered, I had the power to be the biggest tyrant any wolf shifter had ever known, something the royals in this kingdom had once hoped to use to their advantage. Had used, actually, for too many years, by capturing people and tethering them to the crown.
“I would rather never have met her than to meet her and have to give her away,” my wolf whined. “Especially if we have to deliver her directly into danger.”
“She delivered herself into danger,” I said, hardening myself to the idea. I knew well I’d need to do it over and over again. I couldn’t let desire win; for this insatiable need for her to win.
“Our duty is to protect her.”
“Our duty is to protect our kingdom. She, unfortunately, chose to put our people in danger.”
“She is also incredibly rare. They say most people never meet theirs. Ever. And here she is, stashed away for safe keeping, waiting for us to find her. And we did find her, against all odds. Why would it happen if it wasn’t meant to be?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly, suddenly incredibly tired. “A cruel joke by the gods? Karma? Take your pick. It seems like this life is bringing us one nightmare after another. Maybe if we can get through this one last trial, we’ll finally find some peace.”
He responded with a sardonic laugh and I appreciated him not sharing whatever comment he thought. Even now, I longed to go back to her. To revel in her beauty and free her of her troubles. To learn about her, detail by detail, patiently studying each curve and savoring each breath.
It was crazy to feel this way about a person I’d never met, but even so, I just wanted to hold her. To lose myself in her. To find an equal I couldn’t control with my will and didn’t have to stay so damn rigid with all the time. My role meant I constantly had to walk a fine line of dominance. I had to constantly prove I was trustworthy, and that I was a good guy. That I wasn’t asserting my will in an unethical manner, even with sexual partners.
It was exhausting.
Occasionally I just wanted to break free. I wanted to exult in my darkness and fuck like the world was burning around me.
But because of my past, I could not waver in my duty. Not even for something as incredibly rare as finding my true mate.