Chapter 27
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
Rowan moved under the blanket Lena had laid over him. There were times when he cursed his enhanced hearing.
It’s just over a week since he raped me, Lena.
He rolled onto his back, wincing at the pain from the injuries there. He rubbed at his eyes, brushing away the moisture. Good news and bad news all in two short lines. He was going to be a father, and the vampire had raped his mate. He sat up suddenly and blinked at the sudden pull of the scabs.
“Damn,” he muttered.
He knew he would have to get the wounds looked at. If he could shift, then the transition to his wolf form would heal most injuries, but he wanted to understand what they were first.
Then he needed to visit Le Sang.
The pack house felt like home again.
Summer stood at the kitchen window, watching the November sunlight paint the bayou in gold and amber.
Pack members moved through the compound with renewed purpose—children playing without the tension prevalent under Axel’s leadership, adults working together to repair the damage of the past weeks, everyone settling into the rhythm of a functional community again.
“Coffee?” Rowan appeared beside her, two steaming mugs in his hands and a smile that still made her heart skip.
“Perfect.” Summer accepted the mug, noting how his fingers lingered against hers—seeking contact, reassurance, the simple comfort of touch between people who’d nearly lost each other forever.
They’d been back for a couple of days now, most of the time spent in meetings with pack members, reviewing Axel’s disastrous decisions, and beginning the process of rebuilding.
But finally, finally, they had time alone to simply exist in the same space without crisis or emergency demanding their attention.
“How are you feeling?” Summer asked, studying his face with the conscientious attention of both doctor and mate. “Really feeling, not the diplomatic answers you’ve been giving everyone else.”
Rowan’s smile softened. “Grateful. Relieved. Still processing we’re actually free.” He moved closer, his free arm sliding around her waist. “How are you? You’ve been taking care of everyone else, but you went through hell too.”
“I’m good. Better than good.” Summer leaned into his warmth. She set the coffee down, ignoring how queasy it was making her. “I know who I am now. What I’m capable of. What I want from life.”
“And what’s that?”
“This. Building something together.” She looked up at him, seeing love and relief in his amber eyes but there was a careful control, too, He’d been acting strangely since the rescue. “Rowan, about what happened in the facility…”
“Is over,” he said firmly, his arm tightening around her. “Whatever they did, whatever they tried to accomplish—it failed. We’re together, we’re free, and we have our whole future ahead of us.”
Summer wanted to accept his reassurance, but her training wouldn’t let her ignore the signs. The subtle changes in his behavior, careful responses, and worse he sometimes seemed to be performing emotions rather than feeling them.
He kissed her cheek, and she held her shudder in check. This was her mate. She loved him and she wanted to make love to him. It would be the first step to putting the vampire’s violation behind her.
“Take me to bed,” she whispered, and Rowan bent down and lifted her from the floor.
He carried her to their bedroom and sat on the edge of their bed allowing her to straddle him.
Summer unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it down his strong arms. She leaned forward to nibble the base of his neck in an imitation of the claiming bite now flaming on her own neck.
Rowan’s hand trembled as he undid her blouse. He squeezed the bra fastening together and slid it from her body.
Summer twisted off his lap as if to lie on the bed and pull him to her, but he held her in place.
“I’m supposed to be resting, remember?”
“Of course,” she replied. “How rude of me.” She rose, and undid the buttons on his jeans, tugging them down his thick thighs. She dropped her own jeans and panties in one quick movement and stood naked before him.
Rowan scooched up and pulled his cock free from his briefs. The head was coated in pre-cum and he looked from it to her face.
Summer read his mind, wrapped her hand around the base and licked him, taking his head into her mouth. He was so warm. She hesitated for a moment. No, you’re not going to think about cold cock, she told herself and moaned as Rowan’s hot hands laced in her hair pulling her closer.
He groaned at her moans vibrating on him he pulled her onto his lap, spreading her legs.
He wanted to plunge into her but held back pressing himself into her stomach.
He eased a hand between them both and reached her clit.
He ran two fingers along the length of the slit pressing one and then the second finger inside her.
It had been so long, but he still remembered what she liked.
“Oh, Rowan, I want you. I want you now.” She raised herself and sheafed him inside her in one thrust. She gulped and opened her eyes wide. “Oh baby,” she said.
Rowan scooted further back on the bed holding her ass tightly. “You feel so good,” he told her. He rolled his hips, thrusting into her feeling her tightening around him.
Summer reached around to put her arms around him, but Rowan laid back on the bed.
He rolled his hips again to distract her and dropped his head to suck her nipples.
As they hardened under his attention, he thrust harder into her, harder, faster.
Bucking underneath her, until he felt her juices coating his groin.
Then with a last hard thrust he shuddered inside her, pulling her to him.
For several moments they lay together in each other’s arms.
Summer ran her hand over his chest. Tracing her fingertips lightly over a healing wound. She reached up and caressed his face, winding her fingers into his hair and down the back of his neck. When her hand touched his spine, Rowan stiffened.
“Sit up,” she said.
Rowan shook his head.
Summer pushed herself upward and on to her knees in one swift movement. “Rowan Calder, I asked you to sit up.”
He closed his eyes and sighed. Then he opened them and tilted his head. “I can’t show you.”
“Sit up.” Summer’s tits bounced as she placed her fists on her hips. “Am I going to have to make you. I want to see what you’re hiding.” She jumped off the bed and naked she sat beside him with her medical bag open.
With a sigh, Rowan rolled onto his stomach. Between his shoulder blades, were marks she’d never seen before. The marks were deliberately carved into his skin. The design was complex—interwoven symbols which shifted and blurred under her gaze.
“Rowan,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “What are these?”
“I don’t know.” He hung his head.
Summer traced the mark with one finger, she immediately recoiled from the design. It wasn’t just scarring—it was active and pulsed with its own malevolent energy.
“This mark. These symbols.” She moved her hands lower, finding more symbols etched all over his back. “How long have you had these?”
“Summer—”
“Rowan, these aren’t just torture. These are deliberate modifications. Surgical alterations.”
She continued her examination with growing horror, finding symbol after symbol carved into his skin. Each mark pulsed with the same energy, and she sobbed as she recognized the pattern they were forming.
“Rowan, these are control marks. Behavior modification symbols. These are used to alter personality, suppress natural instincts, or implant artificial compulsions.”
Rowan turned to face her. “Summer, please. Let me explain.”
“Explain what? That you’ve been walking around with Vatican control marks carved into your body? These marks mean everything you’ve said and done since we escaped might not be your choice!” Summer’s voice cracked, her eyes wide with terror. “How could you not tell me?”
“Because I was afraid you’d look at me exactly the way you’re looking at me now.”
Summer stared at the man she’d fought hell to save, seeing for the first time the full cost of their victory.
The Vatican hunters hadn’t just tortured him. They’d altered him, marked him, possibly programmed him with compulsions and artificial behaviors which made it impossible to know where Rowan ended and their manipulation of him began.
“Get dressed,” she said. “I. Am. Going. To. Fucking. Kill. Him!”
To be continued in Book Three…