43. The Peppered Night Stalker #2
Screams of pain shatter the night as she thrashes underneath me and sends me crashing into the grass below. Rolling onto my belly, I slow my breathing and lift onto all fours before freezing in place.
A few voices and shouts can be heard in the direction of the camp, and I swear, if this woman just woke up my family, I’m really going to be pissed.
‘Rezzi-bear, where are you? Who do I need to kill? Why aren’t you naked and cuddling with me?’ Lynx asks, only a little worried about me.
‘I’m fine, just thought I would deal with a psycho leather-faced kitty that wanted one of my men. So, I’m teaching her a lesson she won’t forget,’ I explain as another frustrating scream rings out while tentacles swipe through the grass, raking for my body.
‘You bitch,’ Knox’s psycho mate wannabe screams. ‘Do you know what you’ve just done?’
I don’t have to see her to know that she’s overreacting; it’s not like I scalped her, even though I easily could have. I bet she only has a little blood trickling down her face from where I sliced through her yellow-tipped ears.
‘Oh, so the typical night then?’ Lynx chuckles.
‘Yep. Just passing the time,’ I concur.
‘Well, I guess we’ll pass it with you because we’re joining the party,’ he explains as I hear them all heading our way. They aren’t subtle at all.
‘Figured that.’ I roll my eyes.
‘I will rip the skin from your body and use it to floss after feasting on your carcass,’ she promises as she stalks past me.
I watch as she prowls by, and when I see her yellow-tipped tail come into view, I pounce, stumbling slightly as I slice off the tip of her tail.
She turns and swipes her paw at me along with a tentacle, but before it reaches me, there are black and white tentacles holding back her death appendages.
‘Pepper, Enough,’ Devinyx demands, her voice thunderous.
“Pepper? Her attitude is more like Puddle. A puddle of mud. Can we change her name to that?” Moni asks, holding Chester’s hand as they stand off to the side in the field at a safe distance.
Pepper turns and hisses at Moni, but Devinyx lets out a clinking noise from her throat that has Pepper cowering, lowering her belly to the grass.
What the hell is going on? I back up and bump into a hard chest. Firm arms circle my waist, and a wave of love and calm filters down my link, which makes me immediately relax.
Knox.
‘You’ve secured our bond and completely rendered Pepper incapable of ever picking a mate,’ Slayer explains.
“What?” I shriek and pull away from Knox.
Glancing at the wounded netherwraith, I take in her injuries.
Blood trickles from her ears and tail, and where they once glowed yellow in the night, now they no longer glow nor will they ever.
Didn’t Slayer tell me that the ears and tail allowed them to use their pheromones to lure mates to them or something like that?
I stare at Devinyx in horror. What did I do? I mean, I was all for getting my revenge and teaching Pepper a lesson, but to force her into a life without love or a chance to find it… What kind of life is that?
I feel all the blood drain from my face as the world starts to spin.
“Oh no, you don’t,” Knox says, grabbing my shoulders and spinning me around, pressing me against his chest. “No passing out,” he says, before pressing his lips against mine.
The man doesn’t know the effect he has on me because now I’m lightheaded for another reason.
He deepens the kiss, and my world tilts, and I realize it’s because he’s bent me backward.
He has the smuggest look on his face after he sets me upright, but I’m too overwhelmed to set him straight when Devinyx comes over to me.
‘You’re a strong mate for the Magna Mortalitas. I approve.’ She nods and looks back at Pepper.
“Are you nuts?” I get in her face and wave my arms. “How is that a good thing?”
There’s a deep chuckle in my head before I even see Axton slink his way into the moonlight.
‘You nonshifters don’t understand,’ he comments as he lazily wanders up to our gathering.
Watching the lazy prince meander our way, I cross my arms and lean back on one leg, popping out a hip. This might take a while.
“Well, are you going to tell us or just mock us all night?” I spit out, not at all liking the idea that he’d rather ridicule us to hog the spotlight than to pass on the knowledge and move on.
‘For shifters, it works both ways. We can either initiate the mating or accept. For instance, it looks like you accepted your marking, yet you haven’t marked your mate.
Yet you are mated, am I to assume that is correct?
’ He sits down in front of me, and I suddenly blush as I drop my arms and touch my shoulder where Fluffer’s bite mark is.
“Yes.”
‘What you did to Pepper, slicing into her powered tips, just made it so that she can’t pick her mate.
You took away her power. She will have to wait for someone to pick her first, and then she will have to accept them,’ Devinyx explains, still beating around the bush.
‘Or die alone if she’s too fucking picky about who she wants.
’ Axton’s snide comment also seems personal, and I look at Pepper a little more closely.
Did something go down between them? Or did Axton want something to go down between them?
Shit. I wanted to teach her, but I didn’t want to affect her life this much. Am I a horrible person? Doubt washes over me for a moment until a brief thought hits me.
Stand by your actions.
Right. I need to stop second-guessing myself. She asked for it by fucking with my man.
"You'll be lucky if someone wants you, so I wouldn’t be too picky if someone’s unfortunate enough to choose you.”
Avoiding Knox at all costs, Pepper lowers her eyes and turns to sulk away in shame, hopefully to lick her physical and emotional wounds.
I turn to look at everyone, and they all seem wide awake.
“I’m sorry for waking everyone,” I apologize.
“It’s okay, bestie.” Moni smiles and gives me a big squeeze. “I was kinda already awake. I needed heaven!” She holds up a to-go cup of Sparks.
Figures.
“If everyone is okay, we might as well head out,” Knots suggests.
“I’m down,” I cheer, raising my hand like I’m back in school—anything to get away from the prickly kitty with a bad attitude.