Chapter 23
Cat
I paced the length of my dark apartment like a zoo animal that had recently been snatched from the wild and caged. In my head, I kept replaying my discussion with Kane and Ace.
Despite how long I’d been mulling it over, I didn’t know what to do.
It wasn’t like I could just call the police and report that my sort-of boyfriend thought I was a werewolf, and that I knew this, not because he’d told me, but because my stalker had tattled on him.
Yeah, I was aware. It sounded batshit crazy, and I had lived it.
I wanted to call Anna, but I didn’t want to drag my friend into this mess. Besides being incredibly weird and embarrassing, it wasn’t a good idea to involve her. Ace might not be as crazy as Kane, but he was equally as dangerous.
Then there was the matter of Sliver. The kid never tried to return to my apartment after I’d sent him on a wild goose chase for my purse. I can only assume that Ace had intercepted him and informed him about what was going on after I’d blocked his number.
The later the hour grew, and the more I paced, the warmer I became. I’m not sure if it was my nerves or that the AC was on the fritz again, but my skin prickled like a burgeoning rash after I’d used the wrong kind of detergent.
Needing a drink of water, I walked from the living room to the kitchen, trying to avoid passing by any windows.
Not that it should matter, as I’d kept all the lights off so that no one could see into my apartment.
As I moved, I lamented my cheap nature and the fact that I’d foregone buying curtains for my apartment because my budget didn’t allow for such superfluous purchases.
After guzzling an entire glass of water, I realized I needed to pee.
Like a ninja, I sprinted into the bathroom, locked the door, and relieved my overburdened bladder.
As I washed my hands, I splashed cold water on my face, trying to cool my burning skin.
It worked momentarily, but not for nearly long enough.
Sighing, I decided I was being ridiculous. I needed to change out of my slinky dress into some sensible clothes and figure out my next course of action.
Opening the bathroom door, I turned off the light and stepped out into the dark hallway. The moment I did, the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood up on end. A moment after that, an enormous hand clapped over my mouth, silencing any attempt at screaming.
Once my panicked brain smelled his skin, it naturally relaxed, and I stopped fighting.
“Shhh, Cat, it’s me,” Ace whispered, gently kissing the side of my neck.
I hated myself for it, but my body immediately began to respond to his. My muscles released, my heart rate slowed to a normal rate of speed, and the space between my legs began to get embarrassingly slippery and damp.
What the fuck was wrong with me? How could the man’s scent do all that?
Make me slavishly fall into line without a single effort on his part?
The biker was an absolute terror, breaking into my apartment like this, and I still wanted to screw his brains out.
I must be broken. There was no other explanation for it.
“We have to talk,” Ace soothed, his hand slackening over my mouth, as the other cinched protectively around my waist.
I could feel his raging erection poking into my back then and I got a sick sense of satisfaction knowing I wasn’t the only one suffering from this degrading obsession.
“God, you smell so good,” he rasped, as the bulge began to lengthen and extend further up my back.
Whatever spell was falling over him, was weaving just as fast over me. Shivering, I bit my bottom lip and squeezed my thighs together hard to quench the ache there, but it didn’t go away. It only grew stronger and more demanding with each breath I took.
“Fucking hell, Cat, I missed you,” he divulged, though we’d only been apart for mere hours.
Ace’s hand slid around my neck, roughly collaring it as his tongue snaked out and licked the dark, tender bruise there. His bruise. The one he’d made while fucking me last night. My pussy clenched and I moaned, unable to ignore the magnetism between us.
“You like that, babe?” he breathed, nipping the skin just shy of leaving another mark. “You want more? I can give you as much as you want, as much as you can take. Would you like that?”
A strangled moan was my only response, and he chuckled at the deviant sound. That’s when he noticed my dress.
“What’s this you’re wearing? Is this for me?” Running his hands down the sleek material, he groaned. “Fuck me, you look good. I bet if I was to pull this naughty dress up, I’d find out you were soaked clean through your lacy little panties. I bet that pussy tastes even better than it smells, too.”
His fingers meandered down my stomach and rubbed in slow circles against my mound.
My head lolled in ecstasy against his chest. I should yell, fight back, but this felt too good.
My body no longer was my own. It now belonged to somebody else.
Somebody lewd and lascivious. Somebody who liked to get fucked by dirty- talking bikers who broke into their apartment in the dead of night.
Snagging his fingers in the tight fabric around my thighs, Ace jerked the material up around my waist. “Look at these tiny thong panties. I can’t wait to rip them off this hot body of yours and pound into that sweet pussy.”
I damn near creamed myself at the thought. Hearing Ace inhale deeply only caused more of that traitorous slick heat to drip out of me. His fingers slipped between my lower lips, and he hummed with instant approval.
“Do you feel how wet you are, Cat? How ready you are for me? Yeah, you do. I bet if I bent you over right now, I’d be able to free my cock and shove it all the way inside your tight cunt hole without a fight.
Mmmm, maybe a little fight. But I think you’d like it, wouldn’t you?
The burn. The stretch. The screaming. You’d like it all. Wouldn’t you, my little cum slut?”
I would. Because I was his. His to do with whatever he wanted. His to smell, touch, taste and fuck. His little cum slut. His… mate. The word came unbidden to my mind then, though I didn’t know where it had even come from.
The sound of my phone ringing in my bedroom caught my attention then. Was that Anna? Was she trying to get a hold of me for some reason? What if it was important? Life or death even. What if someone, like that giant biker Domino, had showed up at her house and was threatening her like Ace was me?
Reminding myself this freak had broken into my apartment, I pushed past my debilitating desire and sucked in a breath of fresh air. I belted the first note of a scream before he realized what I was doing.
Cursing, Ace clamped his palm back over my mouth. Shamefully, I could smell my pussy on his fingers as he held them firmly against my lips. The thought of flicking out my tongue and tasting myself on his skin skittered across my mind, but I dismissed the crazy notion faster than it appeared.
“Fuck, I wish you hadn’t done that, Cat,” Ace ground out, holding me tightly against his rock-hard chest.
What did that mean? Was he going to harm me? Kill me, even? All over some weird, misguided belief that I was his wolf-mate!
Kissing the top of my head after silencing me for a second time that night, Ace growled low, “I guess we’re going to have to do this the hard way. But if I’m being honest, that’s how we both like it best. Isn’t it, babe?”
I didn’t respond. Besides being gagged, I was too afraid. My fear didn’t abate any when my powerful captor led me, not to the front door, but toward my bedroom. My breath hitched in my throat when I thought about what he was going to do to me there.
Keeping me easily in check, even after I started thrashing for my life, Ace dragged me into the corner of the room. Pressing me up against the wall, he forced my head to the side.
“This is for your own good, Cat,” he told me, before biting down on my neck so hard his teeth broke skin and blood poured down my shoulder in hot rivulets.
The last thing that I remember before passing out was the searing pain and Ace tossing me onto the mattress as he stepped closer.