Epilogue
Kaylee
One Week Later
“You have to send him back to the pack, you know,” I said, trailing my fingers lightly over Rook’s pecs.
“Now?” he snarled. “You want to speak about that pup now?”
“Yes,” I answered, smiling serenely as I walked my fingers south, across his stomach, and teased the flesh a fraction below his hips. “Because now is the only time you let me have my own way.”
He rumbled with amusement, then caught my hand and lifted it to his lips. “You weren’t complaining about that last night.”
I pouted, because he had me there. In part because in these moments, I could barely remember my own name—and those lips of his were the exact reason.
There was no justice in the world that he could use his mouth like that.
But right now, I was the one with the power.
The power to turn him into a wreck, this powerful, lethal man who for some reason I’d never be able to fathom worshipped me.
But this wasn’t the moment to get distracted. “It’s been a week. If you don’t send him back, the pack will come looking for him.”
Him being the wolf shifter Rook had proudly presented me with.
Dean. The boy who’d once been my life, before I met the man I was destined for.
No surprise that Rook didn’t like talking about him when we were both naked.
I’d never considered taking a man prisoner a romantic gesture before, but here we were.
Dean had told me a lot in that week. Things he’d learned from his father about my father—an ancient dragon shifter who’d mated my mother.
He’d died before I was born, and she’d come back to the pack, the baby in her stomach the only reason she’d survived the heartbreak of losing a mate. For a while.
But Dean couldn’t stay locked up in Rook’s dungeon forever. Well, our dungeon, I supposed it was now… and I didn’t want to share our home with anyone else. Least of all the pack who might come for their dead alpha’s third son at any moment.
“Let them come.” Rook bared his teeth, and I pressed one finger to his lips, slowly trailing the fingers of the other hand around the base of his cock. He sucked in a sharp gasp.
“Firstly,” I said, “the only coming here will be you and I.” I arched a brow and flicked a finger over his stiffening shaft.
“And secondly?” he grunted.
“What?”
“Usually, firstly is followed by secondly.”
“Fine. Secondly, if you don’t agree,” I held his eye as I rubbed my thumb over his tip. “I’m going to stop doing this.”
“Gods, woman, you’re going to be the death of me.”
“That’s a yes, then?” I asked sweetly.
“I will send him back,” he agreed, a dark gleam in his eye.
“O…kay?”
“After all,” he added, sounding very casual for a man whose rock-hard cock was in my hand at this very moment, “I need to choose a new servant.”
I froze and he chuckled, moving his lips to my ear.
“You didn’t think I planned to have my mate cook and clean?”
“I…”
“Besides,” he added, “I don’t think I could survive many more of your meals.”
I slapped his stomach in reprimand and he caught my wrist. I pulled my hand back, but he held on tight.
“Uh-uh, I think that’s enough of you being in control.”
“I disagree.”
He shrugged, then tossed me onto my back, straddling my hips in a blur of motion. “We’ll see how long you continue to object, little mate.”
And with that, he lowered his lips to my neck, and nipped at my throat.
My dragon preened under his attention and my breaths started to come faster.
Heat pooled between my legs, and I clamped my lips around a groan—because it was much too early in the night to let him know what his barest touch did to me.
As if the fucker didn’t know already, and use it mercilessly to reduce me to a mewling wreck.
He nipped again, and this time I couldn’t keep still, arching my neck into him, silently begging to be touched, taken. Claimed.
“Now,” he breathed in my ear, “we’re done talking about other men in my bed.”
His hand slipped between my legs and teased my wetness. I arched my back and tried to remember what I’d been objecting to a moment ago.
“No more slaves,” I gasped.
His teeth grazed my earlobe. “Was I not clear?”
“You said…stop talking about other men,” I said in between gasps. “Your slaves are female.”
“Servants,” he growled.
“Slaves,” I retorted. “Unless you hoard wage slips as well as books?”
“You do not feel adequately compensated, Dhoca?” he asked, flashing his tongue over the hollow of my throat. I snarled in response.
“You said you didn’t fuck the others.”
“I like it when you get jealous.” His lips teased my flesh, sending a fresh wave of possessive heat through me. “I didn’t fuck the others. Your beast called to mine. I resisted. At first.”
“Good.” I pouted, and then he flicked a thumb over my clit, all but driving my objections—along with any form of coherent thought—from my mind. “That’s cheating.”
He chuckled, his lips pressed to my flesh, and my breath spiked at the vibrations. My need surged inside me, every touch sending delicious electric torment through me. I felt his eyes on me, devouring me, calling to me. I swallowed, imagining him inside me, possessing me, dominating me.
“No slaves,” he purred, moving between my legs. “So what do you propose?”
“Fuck me,” I gasped.
“Now that,” he murmured, “is the first sensible thing you’ve said all night.”
He thrust inside me and my back arched up off the bed as I stretched to accommodate his delicious thickness. He rode me until all other thoughts left my mind, until there was nothing left but him and me, this room and this bed. Us.
We fucked like we fought, matching blow for blow, touch for touch, neither willing to yield to the other as we raced toward our climax.
He buried himself deep as I met his thrust and the sensation flung me over the edge into the abyss.
I threw my head back and came with a scream as Rook emptied himself inside me, and we both collapsed onto the bed, spent.
*
“I am here under protest,” Rook murmured in my ear.
“I know,” I said with a bright grin. At our feet, Dean squirmed and said nothing—on account of the fact Rook had insisted on gagging him for the flight here.
I crouched down, shifted one finger into a sharp claw, and cut the ropes binding his hands and feet, then plucked the gag from his mouth.
I straightened to find Rook watching me with a mix of awe and lust on his face.
Well, okay, mostly lust.
“Very impressive, my Dhoca,” he said.
“Thanks.” I grinned again, shifting my hand back into its human form.
I’d been working hard on shifting, and partial shifting had proved to be even harder.
But I was getting there, and Rook’s praise was enough to send a pink flush of pleasure across my cheeks.
I caught Dean rolling his eyes in my periphery and I scowled down at him, but Rook beat me to it, prodding him with his foot.
“Get up, pup. Summon your pack. And don’t keep me waiting, or you may find my merciful side begins to regret my earlier clemency.”
Dean stared at him, and I rolled my eyes and translated.
“Get the pack before he gets pissed off and kills you.”
Dean blinked, scrambled to his feet, and made towards the cluster of buildings.
“What did you ever see in him?” Rook asked, his eyes locked onto the gaps in the trees where he’d disappeared. It was a good question, and I still didn’t have an answer as the rest of the pack began to filter into the clearing, Dean leading them.
“Where’s your alpha, pup?” Rook demanded, scanning the gathered faces.
I turned a questioning look on him, a trickle of panic stirring in my gut, because he’d promised me Landon was dead—that he’d killed him—and even though my dragon form was stronger than his wolf, every cell of my body had been conditioned to fear every cell in his, and I didn’t know that I was ready to face him. Would ever be ready to face him.
“Landon’s replacement, love,” he murmured.
Right. Of course. Landon had said himself that he’d been driven out of the pack. It was just weird to think of someone else leading them.
“You’re looking at him,” Dean said, notching his chin.
Rook barked a laugh, but Dean didn’t drop his eyes, and a stillness settled between the two. A very tense stillness. Crap. This wasn’t going to work if they got into a fight.
“You didn’t feel like sharing that with us over the last week?” I asked lightly, arching a brow.
“When I was chained up in your new boyfriend’s basement? Surprisingly enough, no.”
I snorted. Yeah, I didn’t think I’d have been bragging about status in that position, either.
“Her mate,” Rook snarled, and Dean inclined his head.
“Right. Mate. That’s gonna take some getting used to.” He shook his head and turned his attention back to me. “It’s not like I wanted the title in the first place.” His gaze wandered to the gathering pack, and his expression softened. “But someone had to step up after…my father. They needed me.”
Rook narrowed his eyes. “You were not Landon’s first heir.”
“No,” Dean agreed, his voice growing solemn in a way I’d never seen from him before.
“Jace split the pack, took a bunch of the strongest, fastest wolves, and headed out to stake a claim somewhere new. Said he didn’t want to be part of the rebuild, not in this territory.
And Travis, well, after Landon’s betrayal, he didn’t want anything else to do with pack.
He’s on his own—for now, anyway. I hope he’ll be back when he finds whatever he’s looking for out there.
” He cast another look over the pack, a little over half the size of the one I remembered and gave a resigned shrug. “We’re what’s left.”
“You’re young for an alpha,” Rook said, eyeing him critically. “Especially for one who was never groomed to lead.”
“You want someone leading this pack who was raised to be like Landon?” Dean countered, and I saw a hint of a smile curve the edge of Rook’s mouth. My mate had a grudging respect for Dean, though I was absolutely certain he’d never admit it.
“Fair point.”
“I am young,” Dean agreed. “But I’m what we’ve got, and I refuse to let my father’s actions bury us.
I won’t let us be what we were under his rule again.
And I’m sorry, Kaylee, for what we did to you before.
What I did to you before. The way we treated you—the way I treated you—was unforgivable.
So I’m not asking for your forgiveness. I’m asking for a chance to grow into a man who’s worthy of it. ”
“It sounds like you’re well on your way,” I allowed. “I guess I’m not the only one who’s changed over the last few weeks.”
“Oh, I think you’ve got us all beat in the changing department,” he said, amusement dancing in his eyes. He flicked a glance at Rook’s scowling face, then quickly back to me. “I’m going to try to be the alpha this pack deserves.”
“You’ve got a long way to go,” Rook rumbled, and Dean ducked his head in acknowledgement.
“I know. I was weak. And stupid. But I will do whatever it takes to keep this pack safe.”
Rook looked out over the rest of the pack, who were watching on in silence. “And this is the alpha you have chosen? He speaks for you?”
One by one, the pack started to nod.
“He is our alpha,” someone called from the back. “We will follow him.”
Murmurs of agreement sprung up all around, and Rook dipped his chin curtly. “So be it. Then your first job, as alpha, is to renegotiate our deal.”
“Renegotiate?”
“That’s right,” I said. “No more Tributes.”
“O…kay?”
He frowned, like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I decided to put him out of his misery.
“But we do still need a servant. As in, paid. And willing. And girl or guy.” Rook rumbled at my back but I ignored him.
He hadn’t been thrilled about that particular concession, but I had my ways of persuading him.
I swept my eyes over the gathered pack. “It will pay better than anything you’ll find round here, and you get the option to quit and come back here whenever you want.
Serve for a month, a year, ten. It’s your choice. ”
“What if none of us want to work for you?” Madison sneered. Rook tensed, but I just shrugged.
“That’s no skin off my nose. There are other packs out there who would be more than willing to earn the exorbitant amounts we’re paying. Well, you’re paying, since it’ll be your taxes compensating our servant.”
“Taxes?”
“Well, Rook is a dragon, after all. I couldn’t persuade him to part with his hoard. But after everything this pack has put me and my predecessors through, an annual tax is the least you can do.”
I cocked my head at Dean, and he opened his mouth, then snapped it shut again. Smart choice.
Rook closed the gap between him and the wolf shifter, his voice dropping to a low rumble.
“Understand this, pup. The only reason I’m not burning your entire pack to the ground is because my mate harbors some illogical soft spot for you all. I highly suggest finding some way of making yourselves indispensable to me before her compassion wears off.”
Dean swallowed, but to his credit, didn’t step back. Perhaps he’d make a better leader than his father. Time would tell, I supposed.
And time was the one thing I had in abundance: dragon shifters lived for centuries.
Longer. And I would have more years than I could even imagine beside my mate.
The rest? That didn’t matter quite so much anymore.
The pack was my past, but he was my future.
He was cold, and arrogant, and a real bastard…
and everything I never knew I wanted in a mate. Best of all, he was mine. Forever.
I slipped my hand into Rook’s, and lifted my lips to his ear.
“Take me home.”
Jess’s half-human side has always made her an outsider, but now it’s threatening her life. In a new pack, where meeting her fated mate could mean her death…
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