Chapter 12
JARED
This pain is a sort of hurt I haven’t felt before. And I’ve felt pain. Fuck, have I…
This is new. Because it’s her pain I’m feeling.
Beyond an ache, it’s like she’s bleeding out inside me.
This beautiful, vivacious female knows Fate tied her to a guy who’s broken, who can’t give her anything.
And I already know by what I’ve seen and what I feel that she deserves it all.
All the joy a life with someone should bring.
While my injuries are slightly better, I need at least one more shift.
I woke up relieved I’m still restrained and the muzzle is still on, though the muzzle was clawed at.
And not only do I need one more shift for lacerations I’ve still got, I need to escape her emotions, which painfully pulse in my chest.
So, I let the biting cold bear down on me and surrender to the monster, yielding to it so I can heal physically, even though I know healing emotionally isn’t in the cards for me.
***
My eyes open to daylight, the scent of food, and to others right here in the bunker with me.
Her scent is first and foremost as she’s here, but so are Greyson and some of his female relatives including Riley’s mate.
I smell that Riley is nearby, but he’s not in sight.
My eyes find Cicely’s and I feel sorrow from her, but I only see anger.
I also see everything I want and can’t have.
I’m weak and suspect the monster fought through the rest of the night against the muzzle and restraints and hopefully with how many times I shifted yesterday, it won’t try to push in again now.
“Want to take the muzzle off so you can get some food and drink into you before we get started, bro?” Linc asks. “Ronnie, Vivica, and Erica here will be working together on this.”
“Ronnie is gonna lay hands on you and see what she reads,” the one who I know by the hair color and the scent of Riley is Erica speaks. “Psychometry is her skill. She might see some history and defining events in your life.”
There’s a plate on the floor beside me. A plate of mine from the trailer. And it’s filled with slices of crispy bacon, perfectly peppered over-easy eggs, crispy fried potatoes, and buttered toast – smells like sourdough bread.
“I’ll only talk to you and my coven about those facts unless given permission from you to share with the council,” the shorter of the two brunettes says.
The taller of the two, obviously Vivica, adds, “We’ll give you some privacy to eat and maybe… dress.”
Riley’s mate and her two sisters leave.
“You’re part of that coven and also part of the council,” I point out to Greyson before he gets out the door. “Are you tryin’ to say you’re not gonna know everything they see?”
“We’re here to help more than pry,” he says. “Does it matter if we know what she sees?”
“Guess not.”
“Go ahead and eat. You lead on all this, Jared. If anything’s happening at any point that you want us to stop, say the word.”
Linc stays. Cicely also stays, leaned against the wall beside the door.
She’s wearing frayed black denim shorts today with a red tank top. Both are skintight and her tits look incredible. She’s got flip flops on her feet and her hair is pulled up into a high ponytail. There’s no hiding my mark on her throat with her hair like this.
She looks as self-conscious as I feel right now.
She grips her neck with one hand and startles, shuffling uncomfortably, but now her nipples are straining against that fabric and I’m nude so there’s no hiding that what’s between my legs is now awake.
Her arousal smells even better than the breakfast in front of me.
She just touched her mate mark, and it sparked that much of a reaction.
I’m aware the mate mark is an erogenous zone, but she’s clearly wound up from recently being mated and only being mated the once.
Newly mated couples tend to go at it for days.
She wants more. So do I. But I can’t give in.
And Linc is here, smelling her arousal and recognizing it from firsthand experience.
I don’t have the energy to fight a shift, so I really need to not have to fight that right now.
I should stop thinking about sucking on that mark on her neck before sucking on her beautiful tits.
“Need you to go,” I say, not looking up, reaching back to unbuckle the leather and steel fasteners at the back of my head. It’s like a straitjacket for my face and I’m sweating under it.
After the three buckles are undone, I set it down beside myself, noting more new grooves in it.
He tried to claw it off again. Thankfully it’s still fully together.
I’m doing this preparing to keep it in arms reach in case I need to get it back on fast. It’s a little looser than it was when I put it on yesterday.
My wolf’s muzzle is evidently bigger than that of the alpha this was made for.
Linc tosses a pair of my sweatpants to me and without speaking, steps outside.
I get them on while she continues to stand there.
“You, too,” I say. “Out.”
She scoffs and folds her arms over her chest, highlighting her tits.
“Fuck, woman,” I mutter, instead of voicing another command that’ll lead to her disobeying, making me want to bring her to submission.
And at that notion, instead of imagining her leaving as I asked, I have flashes of slamming my hard dick into her up against that wall, followed by images of when I fucked her outside the trailer, of her perfect skin.
I can almost feel how tight she was now, how incredible she felt clamping around me repeatedly until her sweet walls milked me dry.
I haven’t tasted her pussy. And at that thought, I growl and she startles, but she doesn’t leave.
She stares straight at me with challenge in her eyes.
“Have you got zero survival instinct whatsoever?” I ask.
She stares, unblinking until I look away, muttering, “Fuckin’ brat.”
It was fucking with me, all those people in here, particularly Linc as at least the others carry the scent of their mates, but now that they’re all gone, even though I know they’re close, I’m fucking famished, so I reach for the fork and dig in.
Three bites in, I open the two thermoses beside the plate. One contains coffee and the other has orange juice. I guzzle the entire contents of the orange juice before going after the potatoes.
I catch her doing something from the corner of my eye and as my gaze moves, she moves too and before I know it, she’s in a squat beside me, too close. I grab her wrist to halt her, and she squeaks with surprise and maybe a little pain.
I loosen my grip.
“The fuck are you doing?” I demand, not letting go.
She’s holding an open bottle of peroxide and a bandage.
“There’s a wound on your back. I wanted to–”
“Do not approach me without warning,” I demand.
“And if I’d warned you, you’d have let me come closer?
” she retorts snottily, setting the bottle down.
The way her mouth moves when she speaks, I’m completely focused on those lips.
I can’t seem to pry my eyes off them. They get closer until her blue eyes drift shut.
I back up, but I can’t go far. And since she’s already this close, she climbs onto my lap, legs wrapping around me.
Fuck, I’m hard.
Fuck, she feels good.
Without realizing it, I’ve gotten her ponytail into my fist. The cutlery has fallen to the ground beside the plate and now our tongues are in a duel with my other hand holding her ass cheek.
She tastes amazing. And she’s winning the duel because I’m harder.
And she’s wet. She pulls back just slightly, heated gaze coasting over my face.
Now my focus is on her neck. Magnets pull me in until my mouth is around her mate mark.
I taste it, taste her, smell her, feel her.
Our mouths connect again as she’s whimpering and I’m swallowing it down so it’s mine, part of me.
Fuck, I want her. All of her. Here and now. Later. Forever. But I can’t. It’s too dangerous. I won’t risk her life for my own selfish desires.
Damn. We have an audience. Greyson moves to block us, giving us his back outside the door.
I stop kissing her and gruffly mutter, “Back up.”
Anger flares in her eyes. She doesn’t move.
“Off me, woman,” I order.
More anger flares in her eyes before she loses her cool and pulls back, about to punch me in the face.
I catch her fist.
“Hey,” I warn. “No. Do not! You wanna unleash the monster while you’re straddling it?” I let her fist go and gesture for her to move.
Her lip curls and she shoves me with both hands before backing up, knocking the thermos of coffee over. I right it as I watch her stomp to the wall beside the door. She folds her arms over her chest and levels me with a glare while she waits.
Fuck, this woman…
Half the coffee is spilled, and my eggs have slid halfway off the plate, but I don’t give a shit. I’m starved. I gather them back onto the plate and begin shoveling.
She cooked it for me; I know it. And it’s the best-tasting breakfast that’s ever landed in my gullet. It’s all perfectly seasoned and beyond that, tastes even better with the taste of her on my tongue.
She’s not leaving. She’s pissed at me. I see it and feel it, but she hasn’t left and that’s got me twisted up inside because she should stay away, get as far away from me as she can get. But the fact that she hasn’t left stirs something deep. Something that wishes it could be different.
Consuming the food is me not only feeding my stomach but it’s also me trying to ignore her, trying to push away the desperate need to have her back on my lap, riding me, vibrating with my knot, getting filled with my seed.
My seed.
Shit. Baby monsters, just like me.
And with that notion, I can’t stomach another bite.
I shove the plate back, grab the peroxide and pour it over my shoulder.
Bloody fizz runs down my back and arm. I grab the first aid kit from just inches away and root around until she tosses over a roll of paper towel, which I catch. I mop up the mess and drop the spent paper towels on the plate, shoving it further away.
She grabs the plate and cutlery and mercifully leaves.
I heave out a long sigh and pull in clean air and the lingering fragrance of her hair.
Grey and Linc have eyes on me out there. Linc approaches, stopping just inside the door.
“Ready for Ronnie to lay her hands on you?”
“Don’t know how it’ll help.”
I also don’t know that I want some witch to see all my secrets. I don’t even know all my dirty secrets.
“Wait for me!” Cicely shouts.
I crane my neck and see she’s pointing at Linc with warning from the Airstream, where Riley stands with a hose, connecting it to a four-hundred-gallon water container that’s now on the ground behind the truck he must have brought it with.
Shit. She’s sleeping here. A hundred feet away, filling every inch of my trailer with her scent. Did she sleep in my fucking bed last night? I’ll never get that scent out. I’ll never get it out of my head, either. I groan and rake my hand through my hair.
“She’s in it for the long haul, bro,” Linc comes in, talking, reading my reaction.
“I don’t want this for her.”
“Don’t seem like you’ve got a choice.”
“I should’ve made the choice to fuck off far away from here the minute I smelled her.”
He gives me a look of understanding. “You can’t help your biology any more than she can. She’s a good woman. A strong one.”
“Why couldn’t my mate be someone who’s afraid of me? Somebody smart enough to get as far away from me as she can.”
Erica Savage along with her two sisters step in. Erica says, “Cicely is smart. She’s smart and strong and she’s doing what you should be doing. Whatever it takes to fix this.”
Riley’s now just outside. He’s heard this by the smile on his face, the pride there.
He’s proud of his woman. And he should be.
She’s a formidable witch. It’s good he’s got that after what he’s been through.
And from what the other guys have said, a sweet female who showers everyone around her with kindness.
And what she just said to me was delivered with kindness.
“I’m glad you’re here, Erica,” I say to her. “Want you to pull out whatever stops it takes to keep everyone safe during this, if something goes sideways and I wind up shifting.”
“Not a problem. I’ll zap the big bad wolf if I need to.” She winks. “Have a little faith. Riley and I overcame some big challenges. So have the other couples before us as well as Greyson and Stacy after us.”
“Yeah, but I’m not on the council. I’m not even a member of this pack.”
“Maybe you should be,” Vivica says. “And maybe that’s why all this is happening, to bring you in the fold. Fate works in mysterious ways.”
“Gotta take a piss,” I mutter. “Can you women give me a minute? Wanna pass me that bucket then shut the door, Linc?”