Chapter 9 #2
Oh, I counted on it. I’d been watching her this whole semester, the wards on her dorm telling me each time she stepped past their threshold.
I tracked her every trip to and from the bus depot, the calculated hikes through the forest, and I knew which cars in the student lot she’d likely hit first if she planned to hotwire one and leave that way.
There was no escape. My little bond was just going to have to get used to me being around. She ensnared me, enchanted me with her wild curls and soft mouth. I'd had a taste, and I wanted more. A lifetime more.
Eryn
No, no, no.
I flew out of that basement with the kind of speed one only accomplished in times of true fear. Literally running for my life, my worn boots ate the distance between the library and my dorm like there wasn’t nearly a mile separating them. Hunters and my bond? How had I messed this up so badly?
Grisly images of the hunter’s contorted, frozen body mixed with the sounds of his screams courtesy of Ezra—not just your average manwhore, but my bond’s cousin.
Fuck. Here I thought I was being so careful–not using my magick, laying low, finally living my life—and I was playing right into his hands.
“I’m such an idiot.”
The sharp turn around the back of Midnight Hall nearly wiped me out, but I skidded across the gravel and straightened in time to slam into the front doors.
The night monitor at the desk stared at me through the glass in shock.
I scanned my ID and made for the stairs before he could say a word.
Once again, I cursed not having a room on the first floor.
Living among the humans didn’t hide me as I thought it would.
Kaiden found me easily enough, and his cousin was over here often to harass my roommate.
How much of that was planned? Did Ezra even like Rani, or was he using her to keep an eye on me?
My throat tightened enough to make me gasp as I thought through every interaction this semester.
Kaiden knew who I was from the moment he knocked me over at the animal hospital.
He’d known as I sat there and drooled over him, and he’d known later that night at the party when he insisted on walking me home. I thought it was him being kind, but he was just trying to see where I lived.
“Great job, Eryn. Way to play it smart.” I cursed myself as I changed into my warmest clothes and dug under my bed for the duffel I kept packed with emergency supplies in case I had to run.
After a moment’s hesitation, I ripped off Kai’s hoodie and threw it at the window.
The soft cotton was a comfort to me, but just the sight of it made me want to throw up now.
Kaiden must have laughed at me every time I wore it, seeing me flaunting his ownership with no clue.
A final glance was all I allowed of all the things I’d have to leave behind and the memories I’d built with my first real friend.
I thanked the gods Rani wasn’t home tonight but hated to leave her with no explanation.
It was easier this way. Dawn was still a few hours off when I made my way across campus for the second time.
My head was on a swivel, turning this way and that at every small sound.
Kaiden wasn’t going to let me go, and I refused to be caught again.
The student parking lot was stagnant; empty cars lined up as far back as I could see.
I quickly scanned the rows for the few older models I kept an eye on, knowing they were less likely to have an alarm.
I found one of them tucked in the corner only two spots away from where it normally was.
I’d just reached the sedan, my hand curling around the driver’s side handle to check if it was locked when a voice came out of the darkness.
“I told him you were going to run.” Ezra casually strolled up from somewhere to my left and sat on the hood like it was a sunny afternoon, and this was an everyday conversation. “Surprisingly, my cousin wasn’t upset at the idea. He seems eager for the chase.”
I ripped my hand away in case he got any ideas about freezing the door and took a few steps back. There would be no outrunning him, but I’d be damned if I let him drag me back to his cousin.
“I told him you’d likely steal a car since the buses didn’t run for another few hours and…” he spread his arms wide. “Here I am.”
Was this a game to him? I snorted. Of course, it was.
If I hadn’t seen him torture and murder a hunter myself, I’d argue he never took anything seriously in his life.
He watched me sidestep my way between the cars, like a cat enjoying how its prey panicked before it fled.
I was going to have to use my power again. Somehow.
Without skin contact, I doubted I’d be strong enough to break through his mental barriers.
But I also didn’t want to get close enough to touch him.
A quick peek down at his hands. They were relaxed against the hood of the car, but that could change at any second.
Maybe I could trip into him and use the distraction to slip past his defenses?
“I see you plotting, and it's not going to go how you think it will,” Ezra smirked, and the temperature dropped a few degrees. “But I dare you to try.”
Dammit. At my obvious distress, the blond warlock took pity on me. At least, I hoped it was pity and not some sick game. He hopped off the car and held an arm out to his side, inviting me back toward campus.
“Go back to your dorm,” he ordered with a smile. “Neither of us wants to chase you all night. Well, I don’t, but my cousin has no plans to whisk you away and lock you in a tower. In case you were worried about that.”
Yeah right.
“Why should I believe you?” I asked, still staying out of reach as I squeezed past him.
“Do you have any other choice?”
Good point. Still, I let him think I’d obey.
I’d go back to the dorms, he could even follow if he wanted, but there was a back door that led to the walking paths behind Midnight Hall, which connected to the hiking trails in the National Forest that bordered that side of campus. I had more than one way to disappear.
Ezra did follow me for a bit but stopped in the courtyard when he saw me badge into the dorm.
I ignored the night monitor’s annoyed frown and ducked past the elevators to the service hall.
There were a few doors back here, mainly to the janitor’s closet and a storage room, but the last one at the end led outside.
A gentle crack of the door, a swift look around to make sure Ezra wasn’t lurking, and then I bolted. I didn’t get far. It wasn’t Ezra standing in the middle of the path, arms crossed, and face set in a scowl. My heart gave a heavy thump at the sight of Kaiden bearing down on me. I froze.
“Go back to your room,” he demanded, stopping a hair's breadth from me.
I had to look up to meet his gaze and wished that I hadn’t.
Why did he have to look so good? Gods, it was an effort not to wrap myself around him despite knowing who he was.
I wanted to kiss him and punch him in the same breath.
Instead, I trembled in silence, trapped between emotions with my mind too scrambled to act.
He gently nudged me with a shadow, and I jumped at the feel of it. It felt like him, but…colder.
“Inside, princess. Enough has happened tonight. We can talk tomorrow.”
Talk? He thought I wanted to talk? Stab, yes. Scream, yes. Run as far away as I could and hide until he couldn’t find me? With every fiber of my being.
“You don’t tell me what to do, Kaiden.” I balled my fists at my sides to keep from touching him. He already proved he was immune to my magick, anyway.
“Wanna bet?” he mocked, and a single shadow left his hand to wind around my waist. “I’m responsible for your safety, and there are djinn scouring this campus for you as we speak.”
More hunters? Fuck, that complicated things but it didn’t make it impossible.
“We’re not bonded, Kaiden—”
“Kai,” he demanded. “It’s Kai to you.”
I glared. “Kaiden. I rejected the bond. You have no hold over me, so let me go.”
His answering chuckle was dark, and he certainly didn’t let me go.
He and his shadows backed me up against the brick building and pressed forward until I thought I’d drown in his scent.
My knees trembled at the close contact, and I felt his dick twitch against my belly, but he kept his hands to himself.
His arms bracketed either side of my head as he leaned in close.
“You act unaffected, but I know you’re attracted to me. I can tell.” I scoffed and his grin grew. “You quiver whenever I touch you.”
“It’s from disgust,” I said through clenched teeth.
His eyes narrowed, and his fingertips were like a ghost’s touch on my chin as he tilted my head back to meet his gaze. I fought off the reactions he accused me of, but I couldn't hide it all. His satisfied smirk made the muscles in my tummy clench.
“I don’t think it is, princess,” he whispered. One hand left the wall to graze my side on its way down to my hip. His fingers flexed and squeezed. “Tell me, are you wet for me right now? I bet you are.”
I locked my jaw with a stubborn glare. My body may have betrayed me, but that didn't mean I would give in.
His other hand left the wall to wrap around the back of my thigh.
Before I even registered what was happening, he lifted me and tucked his hips between my legs.
The hard length of him now pressed against my most intimate place, and he groaned into my ear.
My fists clutched at his shoulders, simultaneously pulling him in and weakly pushing him away.
“I’ve got you,” he promised, pressing even closer. “I won’t let you fall.”
I bit my lip against a yelp as he rolled his hips.
Slow, calculated motions meant to torture and tease.
His chin tilted down so he could watch me, but he didn’t try to kiss me, didn’t allow our skin to touch at all.
The fight slowly left my limbs as sparks of pleasure radiated from between my thighs.
He spread my legs wider, allowing a more solid connection, and I threw my head back with a cry. Gods, how was he able to do this so easily? My entire body vibrated with the need for him to touch me when only minutes ago, I wanted to get as far from him as possible.
“I could take you right here, like this.” My thighs tightened at his absolute confidence.
“I could slide my cock so deep inside you, you wouldn’t be able to climb off.
I could lean you back and slow-fuck you until your eyes roll back, and your voice goes hoarse from screaming, until your juices drip between us to soak the ground, until our bond snaps into place so hard you’d never even think of leaving me again.
Because guess what?” Both his hands moved down to grab my ass, squeezing and kneading me closer as he increased the strength of his thrusts. “You didn’t reject the bond.”
My eyes flared wide, but only a whimper escaped my mouth. There was a tingling starting in my toes that warned of the pleasure to come. I shook my head to deny his words, the only argument I could put up right now with my release so close.
“Oh, you denied it, princess, buried it down so far you didn’t even recognize me, but you didn’t reject it.
” My legs shook, and he gripped my ass even harder.
His thrusts sent my shirt up my back, and the rough brick scratched my newly-exposed skin.
I didn't care. “That’s it,” he crooned. “Feels good, doesn’t it? ”
His hips froze, and I cried out at the sudden stop. He dropped one of my legs and held me tight while I settled on one foot. I was still open to him, but those powerful hips didn’t push against me anymore, and I glared. I was right there. He had to know how close I was.
“I won’t force you to complete the bond, and I don’t have time tonight to argue for you to believe it. I could have taken you, but I didn’t. I’m not the bad guy you think I am.”
“I’d say working me up and leaving me like this is the opposite of good,” I panted.
His grin turned downright wicked. “Do you need to finish, princess? Let’s see what we can do about that.” The hand on my hip stretched and reached until his thumb pressed right on my clit. “I couldn’t make you feel like this if you rejected the bond.”
His thumb rubbed in hard circles; one, two…
and I fell into my release. Shockwaves of electricity stemmed from his hand and spread down each of my limbs.
The muscles in my stomach tightened until almost painful, and still, it kept going.
When it finally eased, Kaiden held me close to his chest and carried me back inside, all the way up to my room.
He left a soft kiss on my forehead, the only touch on my skin he allowed tonight, and stepped away.
“We have a lot to discuss,” he said, taking another step back from where he set me on my bed. “Don’t leave this dorm until class on Monday. I’ll know if you do.”
I glared, some of my attitude coming back now that we had some distance. “And what if I choose to ignore your orders?”
His smile dared me to try. “My hand on your ass won’t feel as pleasurable as what I just did to you. That I promise.”