Vivianna
Holding Darius against the wall, I extracted myself from him as he fought to keep me close. I stepped back, still breathing heavy after our bought of the best angry sex I’d ever had. Rik and Tav walked over to flank me and keep him from acting on his need to finish our mating.
“What have you done to me?” Darius asked, eyes frenzied with fear once he caught on to what happened.
Man, this guy sure takes stubbornness to a whole new level. He’s still standing strong after getting his ass handed to him twice.
Somehow I don’t think he’ll ever stop being the problem child in our family.
Ha, well guess we should be glad the others are so tame; he’ll sure keep things interesting.
“You know exactly what I’ve done,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “I even have witnesses that saw you submit to me in human and wolf form in case you ever need a reminder.”
“You would withhold your side of our mating as punishment?” Darius demanded, his body rigid with anger.
I let out a snort at his indignation. “The sooner you learn that you’re not the boss of me, the easier things will be between us, babe.
I want you to be my partner, my confidant, the person who helps me make the hard choices.
What I don’t need is another controlling asshole—I’ve had far too many of those in my life. ”
This seemed to take some of the wind out of his sails, and he relaxed slightly, his eyes becoming clearer.
“You can mark me as your mate when you prove you can handle being my equal and can support me with your insight and skills,” I said.
“How do you intend to have me prove that?” Darius asked, too smart for his own good.
“Knowing that we have only scratched the surface of what is going on with the pack here, we need more help we can trust. I want you to travel to Rik’s pack and your own to collect the men you think would be good guards.
Once we have them here and start their training, it will be a giant leap in the right direction for us. ”
The smile that grew on Darius’s lips caught me off guard. Why was he happy about this? I’d done the bitchiest thing I possibly could have to an alpha like him. If he had done this to me, I would have torn off his balls, not smile like a Cheshire cat.
Darius took two steps forward so we were almost touching, cupped my face in his hands, and kissed the ever-loving shit out of me. “There is the Dama I knew was hiding in you.” He kissed the tip of my nose and winked as he stepped back. “That was hot as hell.”
Frowning, I looked over at Rik and Tav to ask what he was talking about, only to see their wolves shining through their eyes.
What the fuck?
Oh, come on, seriously? To werewolves, a powerful woman is the biggest turn on. Remember, men only took over because there weren’t any more female alphas.
But I’m punishing him.
Hey, it could be a kink of his—alpha in the boardroom, omega in the bedroom. Don’t kink shame, that’s not cool.
I could see a thought flash through Darius’s brain, and he frowned. “I don’t feel comfortable leaving you here with the mate prospects. We don’t have enough dominant betas to keep you safe.”
Leaning in, I brushed my hand across his smooth, muscular chest and kissed his mating mark, making him shudder. “Then you better hurry.”
Darius growled, clenching his hands to keep from grabbing me and going another round. He ghosted a kiss across my lips and left the room without another word.
Rik’s thick arms wrapped around me as I leaned back and breathed in his fresh pine scent. “We should get you cleaned up. Seeing you covered in blood from a battle won is torture.”
Tav appeared in front of me, placing his hands on my hips, capturing me between their bodies and kissing up my neck where his own mate mark was. “You did well, my love. Handled it like a true Dama of old.”
I couldn’t keep the grin off my face seeing my mates so affected by something that most men would have found cruel.
Maybe being a werewolf wasn’t all bad. Eventually, we made our way to the large shower, and they showed me just how much they appreciated me and my body.
Once we were all clean and sated, I dressed in comfortable clothes and headed for my office, asking one of the stewards to send Dr. Price my way.
My desk was covered in the files that we took from the secret lab, and there was also a laptop I hadn’t seen before with a note saying it had all the computer files on it. They had cloned the computers and decrypted everything so I could go through it. Technology was amazing.
Sometime later, a knock came at the door. “Come in,” I called, not looking up from the file I was making notes on.
“You asked to see me, Dama?” Bentley said, pulling me from my thoughts because of the tone it carried.
He was standing in the room, arms crossed, causing his button-down shirt to stretch tightly against his chest. His light green eyes were guarded, as if he was worried I was going to yell at him.
“Did I pull you away from something important?” I asked, raising a brow at him.
“I’m not a pet to be summoned. Having The Collective holding my leash is more than enough for one man to handle. I don’t need two masters—pardon, mistress,” Bentley snapped.
I sat back in my chair and looked him over from head to toe. It seemed that the past three days had been the professional face of dear Dr. Price. Now I was getting to see the real alpha under the white coat.
We can only handle one alpha asshole for a mate. I say we cut our losses on this guy.
Oh, I didn’t realize we were actually thinking of adding more men to our plate. Did you have a particular number of mates you wanted?
Don’t you get sassy with me, missy. We both know that we didn’t want to write off the possibility.
“Allow me to put you at ease then, Dr. Price,” I drawled, letting out my alpha energy, which caused him to flinch.
“I have no need to hold your leash, as you called it. I’m mistress of no one, but I expect respect between alphas.
I called you here to ask for your assistance.
I have all these files from the lab and felt your expertise would be of use.
If you feel this is an abuse of power or beneath you, then by all means, you can leave.
I’m sure we can find you a flight back to your masters if you miss them so much. ”
Damn. You need ice for that burn?
Bentley seemed to be totally blindsided by my blunt approach. He also seemed a little stunned that I was so willing to just send him on his way. “You would send me back just like that?”
“Why would I want to keep someone here who clearly has no interest in me or in being a team player? If you had someone you were interested in tell you straight up they aren’t interested but were forced to go on a date with you, how would you handle that?
” I asked, leaning forward on my desk, resting my chin in my hand.
Bentley blinked at me a few times, then cleared his throat, shaking himself out of whatever trance he was in. “I apologize. It seems that I have misjudged the situation. I would very much like to help you with this project while I am here.”
I gave him a bright smile and pushed away from my desk so I could join him at one of the armchairs with a stack of files.
“We know that Dr. Faulk started this research, but what I really want to know is if there were any results from his work. It would seem odd that there was such a lethal failsafe if there wasn’t anything of value in these files. ”
I’d decided that I wasn’t ready to share that I was the end product of the mad doctor’s life’s work. What I was more interested to see was if there were any other successes.
I began reading, but as interesting as this was, I hadn’t gone into research for a reason. My eyes started to blur, and I kept reading the same two sentences over and over again.
“Dama,” Bentley said, resting his hand on my knee.
“Hmm?” I said before I let out a huge yawn.
Bentley gave me a small half-smile, a knowing look in his gaze. “We aren’t in med school cramming for a test. I think it’s time we gave ourselves a break.”
I laughed. “It’s nice to have someone understand that unhealthy need to absorb as much information as you can as quickly as possible. Most of the time I don’t even realize I’m doing it. They keep having to send someone in to get me because I’ve skipped on too many meals for their liking.”
“You’re lucky you have people to look after you. I only have my neighbor, who is an ancient wolf, fussing at me that I need to eat more. She keeps dropping by, saying that she’s made too much food and I should eat the leftovers because they won’t be good the next day.” Bentley chuckled.
“Ha, does she really think that trick works? Although who turns down free home-cooked meals?” I said, leaning back in the chair, grinning.
“If I had been human, I would be three hundred pounds by now. Thank god for a high metabolism.”
“Does your wolf ever get mad at you for skipping meals?” I asked, curious.
Bentley paused a moment to think before shaking his head.
“No, my wolf is not vocal about much, but that could be because I spend most of my time at the hospital and not really around the pack. I was scratched by a patient while I was working at a hospital when I’d just turned twenty-five.
That was twenty years ago. I’d just finished med school a month earlier.
My patient was an old alpha’s mate, and he wanted a private doctor, so he purposefully decided to infect me so I could attend to his wife. ”
I was hit with so many emotions at once that I didn’t even know where to start.
“That wasn’t even the worst part of it. Because I survived and became an alpha, he tried to get me to mate his daughter.
When I refused, he locked me away and let his daughter abuse me.
The Collective found out and rescued me, but it came with strings attached.
I had to become the leading expert on werewolves and work for them, giving up all my research so they could claim the credit,” Bentley shared, his head hanging in shame.
I bet it was fucking Able who came up with that deal. If I ever meet that man in real life, I’m gonna bite his dick off.
I couldn’t agree more.
I reached out and took Bentley’s hand, careful to make sure he knew he could pull away at any moment.
“As a fellow healer, I am appalled at how you’ve been treated and what you’ve been through.
There is no way I can relate, but what I can promise you is that for however long you stay here in my home, you will be treated with respect.
My whole life I had to fight tooth and nail to have any kind of freedom from my father.
I could never knowingly do that to another person.
I would love your help for as long as you want to give it, and if there is some way that I can help you with The Collective, please let me know. ”
Bentley looked up at me with tears welling up in his eyes. “Thank you, Dama.”
“Let’s get something to eat,” I said, giving his hand a squeeze before I let go. “I don’t know about you, but studying always makes me hungrier than a bear.”
“It’s the same for me, which never makes sense since we just sit around the whole time,” Bentley said, following me out the door.
“A mystery we may never solve,” I said dramatically.