Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Karsyn
“As much as I want to go see Jazmine for myself, I think I’ll stay right here,” Big Daddy remarks, watching Corbin closely.
“You go put that little girl in bed and come back here. We’ve got things to discuss here.
” Those dark eyes of his shift to mine, and it’s all I can do not to whimper or flinch under his stare.
The shifter, though he’s been nice enough, spoke to me, I feel his reluctance about me.
Especially after what I did earlier right in front of him and Sage.
The vision, evidently, I spoke the words as I thought them. It’s not uncommon for a seer or someone with the gift to do so, but I’ve never done it. Death demanded I tell him what I saw, what I felt. When I refused to give him what he wanted, he’d inflict pain on me.
“Big Daddy, I don’t have time for whatever it is you want to discuss.
It can wait,” Corbin remarks, the gruff, harsh tone in his voice catches my attention.
“Karsyn, go back to my room and wait for me there.” The order causes me to jerk my gaze to his, and I meet his eerie dark eyes, seeing more there than I ever expected.
They are not just the color I’ve seen him to have.
I can feel the wolf inside him looking out.
The glow of gold circles the dark orbs, making him much more scary-looking, but it doesn’t scare me as it should. As it did when I first saw him.
This leaves me rattled because I had only just met him the day before, and yet it seems so much has happened. My heart races, the blood in my veins heats, and a part of my body that’s never ached before aches with a need I’ve never felt.
“Corbin, we need to talk,” Big Daddy grunts.
“It can fuckin’ wait,” Corbin snaps, not taking his gaze from mine. “Come on.”
I nod at the demand and slowly get to my feet, surprised they don’t collapse beneath me.
My stomach tightens as I follow Corbin, staring at his back as I do so, my body rioting with nerves.
I don’t know what’s about to happen. Will he leave me alone in his room again?
Will he join me? The little bit of time I was in there the night before, I could think of nothing else but him.
Visions of him over me, inside me. Oh, God, the thoughts alone are enough to leave me aching, and I don’t know what I’m doing.
I still hold on to my virtue in a lot of ways.
That part of me still remains in tack, but that doesn’t mean Death didn’t take his pleasure out on me in other ways.
I cringe at the very memories wanting to wash over me.
Would Corbin be the same? Taking me . . .
hurting me as a monster would as Death would force himself on my body.
I’m sure if he could have, he’d have taken my virtue as well, but he was unable to do so.
Any time his . . . his erection came near the entrance to my core, something would happen that ended with him taking his rage out on me by using my .
. . I suck in a breath, unable to finish the thought.
I don’t want to think about that. It’s not pleasant. None of this is pleasant in any way.
I’m not sure if I can handle any of this. The very idea of Corbin and the fact we’re mates scares me. I don’t know what it means. For me. For him.
My mother used to tell me stories about mates and how they’re supposed to be special.
There’s no way that can be true for me, though.
I’m a witch, and I felt Corbin’s distaste for me.
His anger that he would have been mated to a witch.
No matter the fact, I’m not a blood witch or evil in any way.
It really shouldn’t even matter to me, but it does.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, my hands clasped between my thighs, I wait. Corbin hasn’t come in here, and time has passed. Maybe he didn’t like the fact I was out of this room earlier. Or Sage could have woken, and he needed to see to her.
When it comes to his little girl, I saw it in him . . . the way he picked the little girl up into his big arms. His warmth surrounding the beautiful girl was one of pure love. There was no denying the truth in the aura he has when holding Sage to him.
Never in my life, no matter the knowledge of my mother loving me, did I feel the safety I know without a doubt Sage feels in her father’s arms. Corbin is a shifter.
An Alpha. A man who carries the burden of those around him.
He shoulders the weight and doesn’t let it bother him. If it does, he doesn’t let it show.
Sucking in a breath, I get up, wrap my arms around myself, and start pacing around the room, uncertainty clawing at me.
Earlier, while sitting next to Daniel, I tried to eat.
The food tasted amazing, but it wasn’t easy.
My hearing picked up the conversation, I’m sure both Daniel and Big Daddy both heard as well.
A couple of the women I saw in the other room, I heard them talking about me being an abomination and that it wasn’t right for me to be here.
Maybe they’re right. I can’t even shift into a wolf. I only have a few aspects to prove I’m a hybrid.
The door creaks open, and I nearly jump out of my skin, whirling around to face the shifter stepping into the room. As the door closes behind him, tension thickens, and I know what’s coming. Rejection. It’s in his gaze.
“Um.” It’s all I manage to get out before I find myself captured in his embrace and pulled against his chest.
“You’re mine,” he growls, the words harsh, nostrils flaring.
“I’m not,” I breathe, pressing my hands against his chest, holding myself back with the little bit of space between the two of us.
“You damn well are, Karsyn.” My eyes widen at the animalistic tone in his voice. It’s as if wolf and man have merged together while speaking. “You’re my mate. My Syn. Fuckin’ mine.”
My lips part in protest, but Corbin’s mouth presses to mine, silencing me.
His tongue slides in and strokes against mine.
It’s a shock to my system, and my heart races.
I don’t know what I’m doing. For that matter, what he’s doing.
My only guess would be from the way he spoke, he’s not rejecting me, but rather claiming me.
His hands slide down, curve over my rear, and lift me until I’ve no other choice but to wrap my legs around his waist. I can feel his thickness through the material of the sweatpants he’d given me last night.
Even encased in the denim clenched at his waist, it’s enough to scare me.
Yet there’s a thrill that rushes to my most intimate parts.
My nipples harden, brushing against the shirt I’m wearing, rasping against his chest. Moisture gathers between my legs as it’s never done before.
Corbin moves without taking his mouth away from mine. He lowers me to the mattress and braces himself over me.
“Mine,” he declares, ripping his lips away from mine. “Say it.”
“What?” I whisper, confused by what he’s saying. My mind is completely a mess with what I’m feeling. It’s not easy to process anything else.
“Tell me you’re mine, Syn,” The demand in his voice startles me and arouses me at the same time. Something about him calling me Syn feels good. What I don’t understand is why he wants me to tell him I’m his. “Because you damn well are mine. Just as you’re my Syn.”
“How?” I breathe not understanding how he could know —
“I don’t understand it either, Syn, but I can hear your thoughts. Almost like shifters of a pack can mind link with each other when we shift,” he explains, coming to lie on his side and rolling me to face him. His hand stays low on my rear.
“What all did you hear?” I ask nervously, unsure if I can handle any of this.
“Doesn’t matter what all I heard, just that I did, and I know the nerves that are rushing through your mind and body.”
Closing my eyes, I stare up at him in surprise, definitely not understanding him. How could he hear my thoughts? I didn’t think that it was possible.
“Syn, you gotta stop with the loud thoughts. It’s like you’re projecting them in my head, and the thoughts are starting to piss me off more than they already have.” He growls, his wolf sharing his eyes.
Only the Goddess herself knows why, but the sight of his eyes is remarkable, especially when man and wolf are together.
The growl that rumbles in Corbin’s chest startles me. It’s different from when he talks, and I don’t know why, but still I like the sound of it.
“Karsyn,” the rumble in his chest goes with the way he says my name in warning, and I know I need to heed it. Something deep inside me warns me to listen and submit to him as his mate.
If I do that, though, would he end up hurting me as I’ve been hurt so many times before?