8. Tara #3
“It’s okay, Tara. My wolf likes you. We will be a good pairing. I promise you …” Jacob said, his voice soothing even as he forcibly pulled me into the cage.
“No, no … I don’t want this. Please!” My screams had turned into sobs as the pack alpha pushed the door closed on the cage. He locked it with a climatic metallic thunk that I would never—no matter how far away I ran or how much time passed—be able to unhear.
“What are your grounds for severing a mateship?” I asked Magnus, cutting off whatever he’d planned to say next.
Magnus responded with a dangerous look. “You cannot sever our mateship.”
“Yes, I can. Your mother did and she’s a foreigner.”
Magnus went very, very still, his eyes flaring in a way that let me know I’d hit a nerve.
I might have felt bad under any other circumstance, but this was my life, my future, and I forced myself to be relentless as I continued, “Tell me how your mom got out of this. Did she serve your father with papers? Cut off a hand?”
Magnus clenched his jaw. His gray eyes were nearly glowing with fury. Nonetheless, he answered, “If a she-wolf goes a year without having sex with her mate, or if he lies with another, then she has grounds for divorce. And it is as binding as if she served her male with divorce papers.”
“Awesome. I hate you, so not sleeping with you will be easy,” I replied with absolute certainty. “All I have to do is sit back and wait for you to cheat on me. Shouldn’t take long. According to my boss, you’re a player in more ways than one.”
Magnus snorted. “Whatever your boss or those mangy gossip sites would have people believe, I’m telling you now, banrigh, I would never be with another once I have committed myself to someone. I am an honorable wolf and we Scottish wolves, my parents withstanding, mate for life.”
I could see from the resolute set of his jaw underneath his beard that he meant every word. Which was stupid. Couldn’t he see what a train wreck we’d be together?
“Fine,” I answered with an annoyed shake of my head. “I hope you’re looking forward to your year without sex.”
Magnus slit his eyes at me. “Aye, right. And I hope you love being the incubator you said you didn’t want to become. I would have been fine bedding you, Tara, sharing my kingdom and life with ye. But if you’d rather be my breeding cow, by all means …”
This time I didn’t just think about hitting him, I lunged at him, wolf first, intending to inflict the kind of bodily damage that comes with comparing a woman to a cow.
But unlike last time, Magnus saw this punch coming. Instead of taking the hit, he caught both my wrists in one hand and deftly turned me around, so I was trapped against his body. Trapped … Trapped …
My mind blanked, and my breathing became shallow as that metallic thunk from long ago echoed in my head.
“Let me go!” I screamed.
“Tara, you are not a child,” he answered. His voice was now next to my ear. “You need not hit me every time something you don’t like comes out of my mouth.”
That wasn’t the most unreasonable request I’d ever received—or the first time I’d ever been told to rethink my hit first, talk it out later policy.
But I had never been trapped before. Not like this. Not since …
“Let me go!” I wheezed. I was beginning to hyperventilate. “Let me go! Please!”
Magnus immediately released me, giving me the freedom I’d demanded.
And I immediately whipped around, twisting my body into a fighting stance. I was prepared to punch, scratch, and scream—anything to keep him from trapping me again.
But Magnus just stood there, eyeing me quizzically as if I’d lost my mind. “You’re the mother of my bairn. I will not fight you, banrigh. And I am not a monster. There’s nae danger of me grabbing you again so long as you keep your fists to yourself.”
His tone implied I should have known all of this, and I lowered my arms feeling completely embarrassed. For my defensive stance … and my outsized reaction to him trying to stop me from punching him. Again.
“I …I …” I trailed off with no idea what to say next.
But as it turned out, I didn’t have to say a thing. Without warning, a new scent suddenly filled the air between us. Screaming louder than either of us ever could.
We both froze in place, staring at one another wide-eyed.
I had lived exclusively among humans for a very long time. But this particular smell wasn’t the sort of thing you forgot. It was distinct and pungent. A slap in the face disguised as a smell.
Heat.
Someone was in heat. And that someone was me. But … how could that be?
I stood there, confused. I was already pregnant, and wouldn’t Iain have told me if there was another wolf living in his building?
Magnus growled in a way that made him sound more animal than man. And instead of cowering in fear, my whole body warmed.
No, warmed was the wrong word for it.
My body heated. Despite being furious with him, despite being pregnant, right then and there my whole body heated with a single thought. Mate.
Mate, my wolf growled inside me as the space between my legs began to tingle.
However, the word wasn’t meant as a noun. It was most definitely a verb. And a command at that.
Mate, mate, mate, my wolf chanted. Right now.