Chapter Nine #2
Dakota tried to scream again, but Bennett’s hand pressed harder, cutting off the sound. His lungs burned. His shoulder throbbed. Every muscle in his body strained against Bennett’s hold, but it was like fighting granite. Immovable. Inescapable.
“I just want to talk.” Bennett’s tone stayed reasonable, conversational. “That’s all. But you need to stop screaming first. Can you do that for me?”
Dakota’s response was to try biting the hand over his mouth. His teeth found flesh, and he bit down hard, tasting blood. Bennett’s expression finally shifted, irritation flickering across his features.
“That was rude.” The vampire's grip tightened, and pain bloomed sharp and immediate. “I’m trying to be civil here. The least you could do is return the courtesy.”
Tears pricked at the corners of Dakota’s eyes, from pain or fear or sheer frustration that his body refused to do what he needed it to do. He was trapped. Completely trapped.
Bennett leaned closer, his face filling Dakota’s vision. “I’m going to move my hand now. If you scream, I’ll hurt you. If you stay quiet, we can have a nice chat and I’ll leave. Do you understand?”
Dakota’s mind raced, trying to find an escape route that didn’t exist. If he screamed the moment Bennett moved his hand, would Kivani hear? Would anyone hear? Or would Bennett just hurt him like he’d promised and Dakota would have accomplished nothing except making this worse?
His body made the decision for him. Dakota nodded, the movement tiny and jerky against Bennett’s restraining hand.
“Good boy.” Bennett’s smile returned, and something about the expression made Dakota’s stomach turn. “I knew you could be reasonable.”
The hand moved away from Dakota’s mouth slowly, ready to clamp back down if needed. Dakota sucked in air, his lungs grateful for the full breath. His mind screamed at him to yell for help, to make noise, to do anything except lie here passive and afraid.
But the fear won. The memory of Bennett’s strength, the casual way he’d overpowered Dakota, the promise of pain if Dakota didn’t comply. But Bennett didn’t want to talk. The deeper threat was written in his cold, flat eyes. He wanted pain. Dakota’s pain.
He stayed silent.
Bennett shifted his weight, settling more comfortably on top of Dakota’s body. The casual nature of it made everything worse somehow, like this was normal for him. Like pinning someone to their floor and threatening them was just a way to pass the time.
“You know what I’ve realized?” Bennett’s free hand came up to stroke Dakota’s hair, the gesture almost tender. “You never really belonged to yourself. Not from the moment we met. You were always looking for someone to tell you what to do, how to feel, who to be.”
The words hit too close to truths Dakota didn’t want to examine. His throat worked, trying to swallow past the dryness there.
“I don’t belong to anyone.” His voice came out rough.
“Oh, but you do.” Bennett’s fingers tightened in Dakota’s hair, not quite painful but getting there. “You belonged to me first. Before that tiger ever laid eyes on you, you were mine. Do you know how that feels? To have something taken from you by someone who thinks they have more right to it?”
Dakota’s mind scrambled for the right response, the words that would de-escalate this situation. But every thought felt slippery, impossible to hold on to while Bennett’s weight pressed him into the floor and his shoulder screamed in protest.
“Kivani didn’t take anything.” Dakota forced the words out, tried to make them sound stronger than he felt. “I’m not a possession. I’m a person who makes my own choices.”
Bennett’s laugh was cold, empty of genuine humor. “Is that what you tell yourself? That you chose him? Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like he manipulated you. Fed you some story about destiny and mates and you ate it up like the desperate thing you are.”
The accusation wormed its way into Dakota’s thoughts, finding the doubts already living there.
What if Bennett was right? What if the mate bond was just manipulation dressed up as fate?
What if everything Kivani had said was designed to trap Dakota into something he would never have chosen on his own?
No. He shoved the thoughts away with everything he had.
Kivani had been nothing but patient. Nothing but kind.
Had given Dakota space to process, time to decide, freedom to walk away if that was what he wanted.
That wasn't manipulation. That was the opposite of what Bennett had done, was still doing.
“You’re wrong.” Dakota met Bennett’s eyes, tried to channel conviction he was still building. “Kivani respects me. Actually cares about what I want. You never did that. You just took and took and made me feel like I should be grateful you even looked at me.”
Something dangerous flickered across Bennett’s expression. His hand in Dakota’s hair yanked hard enough to make Dakota’s eyes water, forcing his head back at an angle that exposed his throat.
“Careful.” The word came out soft, deadly. “You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”
Dakota’s pulse jumped. He could feel it hammering, too fast and hard. Bennett’s eyes tracked the movement, fixating on the vulnerable skin stretched taut.
“I came here to remind you of something important.” Bennett’s voice had taken on a quality Dakota recognized from their relationship.
The tone that preceded demands Dakota couldn’t refuse without consequences.
“You can pretend all you want that you've moved on, that you've found something better. But your body remembers who you belong to.”
The words made Dakota’s stomach clench with nausea. He tried to twist away, but Bennett’s grip was absolute. His wrists throbbed where Bennett held them, his shoulder ached, and his scalp burned where hair pulled against roots.
“Let me go.” Dakota hated how his voice shook, how the fear bled through despite his attempts to sound brave. “Just let me go and leave. I won’t tell anyone you were here.”
“But that would defeat the purpose.” Bennett leaned closer, his mouth hovering just above Dakota’s throat. “I need the tiger to understand that you’re marked. That you’ll always carry my claim, no matter what cosmic bond he thinks you share.”
The words took a moment to register, and when they did, cold horror flooded through Dakota’s system. Marked. Claimed. Bennett was going to bite him. Was going to sink those fangs into Dakota’s throat and leave a permanent reminder of this violation.
“No.” The word came out strangled, desperate. “Please don’t. Please.”
“Begging is a good look on you.” Bennett’s breath was cold against Dakota’s skin, wrong in a way that made every instinct scream danger. “I always liked it when you begged.”
Dakota’s body bucked with renewed terror, fighting with strength born of pure panic. His legs kicked out, trying to find purchase, trying to throw Bennett off balance. His hands twisted in Bennett’s grip, nails digging into his own palms because he couldn’t reach anything else to claw.
It made no difference. Bennett held him like he weighed nothing, like all of Dakota’s struggling was just an amusing interlude before the inevitable.
“The more you fight, the more it’s going to hurt.” Bennett’s mouth pressed against Dakota’s throat, his lips tracing the line of the artery. “But maybe you like it when it hurts. You certainly never complained before.”
The implication made bile rise in Dakota’s throat. He hadn't complained before because complaining had consequences, because Bennett had made it clear that Dakota’s comfort was always secondary to his own desires.
And he’d never used fangs or his strength against Dakota, keeping what he was a secret.
But this was different. This was assault, pure and simple, and Dakota’s mind couldn’t reconcile how someone he’d once trusted could be doing this to him.
“Please.” The word came out broken, all of Dakota’s pride dissolving in the face of genuine terror. “Please don’t do this.”
“Too late for please.” Bennett’s fangs extended, and Dakota felt the sharp points press against his skin. “You should have thought about consequences before you ran away. Before you let that tiger put his hands on what’s mine.”
The pressure increased. Those fangs beginning to pierce skin. Dakota’s scream built in his throat, his entire body going rigid with the anticipation of pain.
And then Bennett’s mouth opened wider, and the fangs sank in.
The sensation was fire and ice and violation all at once.
Dakota felt the sharp pierce of entry, felt something foreign invading his body, felt his blood being pulled from his veins by a mouth that had once kissed him with false tenderness.
The pain was immediate and overwhelming, white-hot agony that radiated from the puncture wounds through his entire system.
Dakota screamed. The sound tore from his throat raw and animal, beyond words or thought. Just pure terror and pain given voice. His body convulsed, every muscle contracting in a useless attempt to escape what was already happening.
Bennett made a satisfied sound against Dakota’s throat, the vibration of it obscene.
His mouth worked at the wound, drawing blood, and Dakota could feel each pull like a hook dragging through his insides.
His vision blurred with tears. His hearing went distant, muffled, like his head was underwater.
He was going to die. The thought crystallized with terrible clarity.
Bennett was going to drain him right here on his apartment floor, and no one would know until it was too late.
Kivani would find him tomorrow, cold and empty, and Dakota would never get to tell him that the mate bond was real, that what they’d started to build was real, that Dakota had been falling just as hard.
The world started to gray at the edges. Dakota’s screaming had turned to whimpers, his body too depleted to maintain that level of sound. His struggling had weakened to pathetic twitches that Bennett ignored completely.
Then suddenly there was a new presence in the room. Dakota felt it before he saw it, a rush of heat and fury that made the air crackle.
Dakota’s vision cleared just enough to see Kivani.
His face was transformed into something terrifying, his eyes glowing amber in the dim light and his features twisted with rage Dakota had never seen before.
One hand gripped Bennett’s jaw, forcing the vampire's head back at an angle that should have broken his neck.
“Get. Off. Him.” Each word was a growl, barely human, and Bennett’s eyes went wide with something that might have been actual fear.
Kivani’s hand on Bennett’s jaw tightened, and Dakota heard something crack. Bennett’s fangs retracted with a wet sound, blood coating them. Dakota’s blood. The sight made his stomach heave, but he couldn’t look away.
“Now.” Kivani’s voice had dropped into a register that made Dakota’s bones vibrate. The tiger was right there, barely contained under human skin.
Bennett tried to speak, but Kivani’s grip made it impossible. The vampire's hands released Dakota’s wrists, coming up instead to claw at Kivani’s arm. His nails left furrows in skin, drawing blood, but Kivani didn’t even flinch.
With a motion too fast for Dakota’s pain-fogged brain to track, Kivani yanked Bennett backward.
The vampire's weight lifted off Dakota’s body, and Dakota sucked in air that felt like knives in his lungs.
He tried to sit up, to move, but his body refused to cooperate.
All he could do was lie there and watch as Kivani dragged Bennett across the room like he weighed nothing.
The shift happened mid-motion. One second Kivani was human, the next a massive tiger occupied the space where he’d been standing. The transformation was seamless, terrifying in its efficiency. Four hundred pounds of muscle and fury, all of it focused on Bennett.
Bennett didn’t even have time to scream before the tiger's jaws closed around his throat.
The sounds that followed would haunt Dakota’s nightmares. Wet tearing. Breaking bone. Bennett’s gurgling attempts at speech that cut off abruptly. The tiger shook its head like a dog with a toy, and Dakota heard something in Bennett’s body snap with a sound like a tree branch breaking.
Dakota’s hands came up to cover his ears, trying to block out the sounds, but they were already embedded in his memory.
His entire body shook, tremors that started deep and worked their way to the surface.
Blood ran hot down his throat, soaking into his sweater, and the wound Bennett had left throbbed in time with his racing heart.
The tiger released Bennett’s body, which crumpled to the floor in a way that made it clear there would be no getting back up. No regeneration. No supernatural healing. Just death, final and absolute.
Then Kivani was human again, naked and splattered with blood that wasn't his own. His eyes found Dakota immediately, the rage draining from his expression to be replaced by something that looked like anguish.
“Dakota.” He crossed the room in three strides, dropping to his knees beside where Dakota still lay sprawled on the floor. “God, Dakota, I’m so sorry. I heard you scream, and I came as fast as I could.”
His hands hovered over Dakota’s body, like he wanted to touch but was afraid of causing more damage. Dakota tried to speak, to tell Kivani it was okay, that he was here now, but his voice had abandoned him completely. All that came out was a whimper that made Kivani’s face crumple further.
“Your throat.” Kivani’s attention fixed on the wound, his jaw clenching. “He bit you. That bastard actually bit you.”
Dakota’s hand came up to touch the puncture wounds, but Kivani caught his wrist gently before he could make contact.
“Don’t touch it yet.” Kivani’s voice was soft now, careful, like he was talking to something fragile. “I need to seal it. It’s going to feel strange, but I promise it will help. Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
Kivani lapped at the wound, and Dakota felt it closing. He clung to Kivani, never wanting to let him go.