Chapter 33 #2
I certainly haven’t. The appeal process for my dampener is a fucking nightmare. The paperwork alone could keep me busy for a year. But with enough money and two murders solved on their behalf, the inquisition doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
I rub my neck at the memory of the collar. I don’t miss it, but sometimes it feels strange not having the heavy leather weighing me down. I keep expecting to wake up and find it wrapped around my throat, choking me into submission. But so far, nothing.
“You need to handle that?” Dame asks, disrupting my musings.
He gestures with his cup in Iris’s direction.
She’s standing on her toes, jutting her finger in the face of a troll who’s still standing too close, with Kitty playing back up as she nods aggressively.
My wolf stirs, and my dick grows stiff as I watch her.
Mine.
Yes, mine. All mine.
I can feel her drawing from me, gorging herself on my power as she prepares for a showdown with the hefty troll, and it swells as she shoves him back a step.
Behind her, Kitty starts to apologize, but does nothing to intervene as Iris steps forward, causing him to stumble.
He looks off-put as he rights himself, and I smile.
Good girl.
“Nah,” I say, shrugging. ”Why ruin her fun? She’ll call me if she needs me.”
Dame nods as he sips his drink, but I’m not sure he’s listening. He’s too busy staring at Elsie.
She’s made her way onto the dancefloor along with Kitty and Iris, the three of them giggling as they take turns shaking their asses for each other.
I shake my head as I watch Kitty and Elsie pretend to throw money at Iris, and we both laugh as they trade places, showering Elsie in imaginary drac.
“What are we gonna do with them, bro?” Dame asks. “They’re gonna kill us.”
I shrug.
“I find if you keep them well fed, they listen better.”
In my periphery, I think I see a blush on Dame’s face.
“Oi, what’re you to sad fucks doing standing in the corner?”
Dred’s arm comes around my shoulder as he wedges his head in between us.
“Dame’s in denial,” I say.
“Still?” Dred asks.
“It’s not denial,” Dame asserts, clearly in denial. “I can’t. You know I can’t.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said,” I mutter.
“Believe me, I would if I could,” he says. “Even if just to get rid of the ringing in my ears.”
“Ringing?” I ask.
“Yeah.” Dame shrugs. “My dad said that’s what happens when you reject a mate bond. First, your ears start ringing, and eventually it feels like your head is going to split open, until one day, it just stops.” Dame frowns, rubbing at his temple. “I’m just hoping that day comes soon.”
I shake my head, but I don’t try to convince him otherwise. Dame’s already made up his mind, and I have a feeling there’s only one person who can change it.
“What are you going to do?” he asks. “For the moon?”
I laugh a little as I think back to Iris threatening to kill me if I ever set foot in the cage again.
She was practically sick when I told her how I spend the full moon, insistent that she would sit beside me from now on.
I tried to disuade her, but she wouldn’t hear of the dangers. We’ll be testing her theory tomorrow night. But I’ve insisted that Elsie remain on call just to be certain. Iris has high hopes.
“I’m spending it with Iris.”
Dame nods, patting me on the back.
“Good, I don’t want you to be alone.”
I don’t bother telling him I could never be alone. Not anymore. He’ll understand in time.
“Ah, you lot are boring. I’m going to go find something to eat.”
Dred breaks away, stalking forward to join the girls. He twirls Kitty and Elsie, but knows better than to touch Iris, before he, too, receives the money shower. Feeling left out, Iris turns, looking for me.
“Babe!” she calls, waving me over with a bright smile, and I’m already stepping toward her before she drops her hand.
“Just so you know,” I whisper, patting Dame on the back. “It’s starting to get obvious.”
He jerks as if I’ve stung him, and I shake my head.
Maybe he hasn’t noticed the way he looks at her. But I have.
Even now, I can see his mind drifting. It doesn’t take a genius to know where it’s gone.
I’ve only seen Dame break his perfect exterior twice in my life.
Once when we were kids. Some idiot called Kitty out of her name, and Dame practically carved the guy’s grave, just by pummeling him into the ground.
The second time was a few weeks ago, in the woods, when Covington made the same mistake with Elsie.
He hasn’t looked the same since.
“It feels good,” I say. “Better than I ever imagined it could.”
Dame’s eyes find the floor, and I lean forward until our foreheads are touching. Nothing passes between us now that the pack bonds have been severed, but his shoulders relax all the same.
“It’s complicated,” he says.
“I gave up everything for her,” I say. “I’m sure it can’t be worse than that.”
On cue, a hum starts up in my chest, the bond singing as Iris’s power calls out to me.
It prickles all over, like static, and I can’t help but smile.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me. I need to go feed my monster.”
With another pat on his back, I utter a brief “Love you” and dive into the crowd.
“You know you don’t have to keep telling us all that,” Dame calls out. “Once was enough.”
“Naaah…” I shout back over my shoulder, laughing.
I leave him to his sulking, making my way through the slew of gyrating bodies.
I contemplate dragging my feet as I draw closer, just feel the little tingle of our mate bond calling to me, but Iris is already swaying back and forth, a hungry look in her eyes.
My wolf is hopeless against it. Always has been.
She spins as I draw closer, and I stand there a moment just to look at her.
Her long, bronzed legs, thick hips, gorgeous ass, and it’s all mine.
Her skirt flares around her hips as she twirls, flashing just enough that I can no longer stand here with my hands in my pockets.
I snatch her up, and she squeals, an innocent girlish sound I’ve never heard before.
It devolves into soft giggles as my hands cup her ass.
“Look at that,” I whisper. “One little mate bond and she melts.”
She laughs much too sweetly and presses a kiss to my neck.
“Don’t get used to it,” she says.
“I don’t know…seems like the ‘fuck you’ is gone.”
I lick my thumb and rub the imaginary ink off her forehead, and she swats at me as I demonstrate that it comes away clean.
“Shut up or I’m going on a hunger strike,” she sasses.
I smile. There’s my girl.
She doesn’t fight me as I reel her in, pinning her to my chest.
It feels like standing in the sun after spending years in the dark.
I wonder how long it’s been there, lying dormant, bound by my curse.
Days? Months? Years?
Were we orbiting each other all this time? Circling the drain?
When had my wolf decided she was ours?
A part of me feels guilty not knowing. Sick at the thought that we may have never noticed if not for that night in the grove.
Would I have gone an entire lifetime never being able to breathe?
The possibility makes my stomach churn. But every new sensation feels too sweet to let go. So instead of trying to shrug it off, I let it run its course.
I let the feeling swallow me, and I hold tight to her to keep from drowning in it.
“I’m sorry,” I say, when it starts to ease.
“For what?” she asks.
“For taking so long.”
She smiles that sweet smile, the one that she only gives to me, and shakes her head.
“Just because you couldn’t feel it, doesn’t mean I didn’t. There’s not a day since that night that I haven’t felt loved by you. Whether you believe me or not, it would have been enough. You were always enough.”
“I know, but—”
“Elliot.” She cuts me off. “Just be quiet and let me love you.”
* * *
THE E…
Wait…You didn’t think I forgot about the Dr. Pepper, did you?