Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
~Leon~
Warmth surrounds me, and I know I’m in bed. The heavy weight of the comforter covers me, and Thane's scent envelopes me as I wake, so I know we are in his room. We all have our own rooms, yet mostly we tend to sleep in here. We don’t enjoy being apart unless Thane is in one of his moods.
My head is pounding to its own beat as I groan, sitting up.
I rub my eyes and yawn sleepily, trying to remember how I got here.
The last thing I remember is receiving a scolding from Thane in the living room and the gate alarm sounding.
As I yawn, my eyes squint at the lamp on the bedside table, making my jaw ache, feeling like it had been dislocated.
"You're fine. Lay back down," Thane says, and I blink, peering over at him. His aura is potent, and I can instantly tell he is in a bad mood, which means I am in for yet another scolding when flashbacks of his fist swinging at my face return. Why was I outside?
Thane pats his chest, and I roll my eyes at him. "One!" he counts. My face is sore enough, I don't want my ass beat too, so I quickly lie back down.
"What are you reading?" I ask while stretching out and tugging the blanket up. He doesn't answer but sets the book down.
"Do you remember what happened?" he asks, sitting up and adjusting the pillow behind him. I lick my lips, which are overly dry, when the taste of blood reminds me that I fed on Z.
Z! That was not Z, yet there is no doubt in my mind, it… Could Zara be Z? That startling epiphany smashes me harder than Thane's fist did. Everything floods back to me. She was here. So, where is she now? I fed on her; that is why Thane attacked me.
"I am booking you back into the Parksville rehab," Thanes says, and I sit up, ripped from my pondering thoughts and smashed heavily into reality by his words. No, I can't go back. They can't make me go back there.
"Wait, no. I have it under control, Thane. It won't happen again," I panic. I am not going back there. I am not leaving my mates. I can't go through that again. I hate being away from them; it nearly drove me insane last time.
"You attacked Zara, Leon. A member of our staff. I had to command her to keep quiet," Thane snarls.
"No, I will behave. I will be more careful, I- I slipped up; it won't happen again."
"Thane is right, Leon. You have become too much of a risk," Rhen says, and my head turns to find him sitting by the fireplace in the room. Tears burn my eyes.
"And Raidon?" I ask hopefully, yet he isn't here, and I can't smell his scent as strongly, so it’s clear he isn't home.
Thane growls, and I know Raidon would stick up for me. "He isn't Alpha. What I say goes, you are going, Leon, whether you like it or not," Thane says, leaving no room for argument. Yet an argument is what he will get. I am not going back.
"No!" I growl.
Thane's returning growl is thunderous, and his attack is faster than I can track. Thane's hand wraps around my throat, and before I can even register the change in positions, I find myself pinned to the bed beneath him. His towering, muscular body looms over me.
"Thane!" Rhen panics.
"No, he risked everything tonight. He needs to learn," Thane growls, and tears prick my eyes as I shake my head. His grip isn't tight enough to cut off my air but more a show of how easily he could put me in my place if he so chose it.
"Please, I don't want to go back there," I beg him, clutching his hand. Thane's eyes soften. He knows how much that place destroys me, how much it almost destroyed our bond.
"It's for your own good, Leon. I don't know how else to help you," he breathes, and I can feel it kills him as much as it kills me.
"I'll be good; I will control it, please, Thane," I beg him, and he sighs, climbing off me.
"Leon—"
I move, climbing onto his lap and straddling his waist. Leaning forward, I kiss him, cutting off whatever words he was about to speak. He may be big and grizzly on the outside, but I know he hates the thought of me leaving just as much as I don't want to go. Mates aren't supposed to be apart.
"I know what you're doing," Thane mumbles against the lips that are assaulting his. I hear Rhen chuckle behind us before feeling the bed dip as he climbs on it.
"Is it working?" I purr back at Thane. He growls, the noise turning to a purr as my lips travel down his neck and my fangs graze his mark.
I may be blood-crazed, but I know how much Thane loves it when I feed on him.
He loves the high of the bite as much as any feeder does.
When my fangs pierce his neck, he groans, his hand cupping the back of my neck.
"You're still going," he growls as I feed on him. His taste is as potent as his scent to me, yet Z’s—no Zara's—is so sickly sweet it makes my fangs ache, and I crave her. Yet, as I feed on Thane, for some reason the underlying taste of his blood reminds me of her sweet, addictive blood, something pure and just as addictive, yet I can’t explain why.
I retract my fangs and run my tongue over his neck, licking up the last remnants; I will have to heal him in the morning.
Thane won't go to work with my bites on his neck, even though I love the sight of them on him.
He would never allow anyone to believe he is my feeder.
Feeders are seen as addicts, addicted vamps and hybrids as much as we are addicted to their blood.
It occurs to me then that maybe I do have a source after all. Because one thing I do know; I am now the only thing preventing Zara from being fired. If Thane found out that she works at Tal's, he would fire her on the spot.
Now I just have to convince Thane not to send me away. "One more chance, please. If I slip up, I will sign myself back in," I tell him.
Thane growls and looks over my shoulder at Rhen. Rhen shuffles closer, wrapping his arms around my waist and tugging me off Thane just as Raidon walks in. The sigh of his relief is loud when his eyes meet mine.
"Zara?" I ask him since no one had mentioned her.
"You gave her a scare, but I think she will keep quiet. She is okay, Leon. You didn't kill her."
"She better keep quiet, or I will fucking end her," Thane growls, tearing my attention back to him.
"You drop her home?" Rhen asks him, and Raidon nods, falling heavily beside us on the bed. Thane's bed reminds me of the one in the Den. It is easily the size of two super kings. It needs to be to fit all of us in it.
By the looks of it, Thane wants us all close tonight because Raidon starts stripping his clothes off before climbing under the sheets.
He pats his chest for me, but I wait for Thane, knowing he has the last say on whether I get to sleep in here with them or if he would send me to my room as punishment.
Thane sighs and nods to Raidon, who smiles wickedly as he beams with excitement.
I know he has been waiting to get his hands on me all day.
He loves that I am the smallest; it drives me nuts because I am just as fast, if not faster, yet still, their auras will always outweigh mine, seeing as they are pure-blood werewolves while I am the mutt of the lot, but I also love their affections.
"One chance, Leon, one!" Thane says as I slip under the sheets with Raidon, who is already tugging at his boxer briefs.