Chapter Six #3
“I was shut down, and numb, and I was eating lunch in town alone. There was this tattoo parlor next door that was doing discounted tattoos for that day only. There was this big handwritten sign out front with the sale information written onto it with pink chalk. I remember it like it was yesterday. I don’t know why I did it, but I walked in and asked the artist to do a tattoo that said I belong to me.
I knew I was at the end of what I could handle with Cian’s coldness.
I was going to leave him, or kill myself. Those were my options.”
“Lyric,” Vic whispered.
“It was this endless push and pull. He would behave for a day. Get me a present when I was on the verge of leaving. Love bomb me to bring me back into line. Exploit the Maker Bond. Break up. Make up. Break up. Make up. He wouldn’t give me space to detach.
It was this endless pattern that was killing my soul.
And I remember laying on this leather chair as the tattoo artist etched that phrase across my ribcage, and she asked me if it hurt.
And I had been staring at a wall and I blinked hard, trying to come back to the real world.
I told her I hadn’t realized she had started the tattoo.
And I remember the look in her eyes as she took the tattoo needle off my skin and asked me, ‘Are you okay?’ I said, ‘Of course. I’m fine.
It barely hurts.’ And she said, ‘That’s not what I meant.
This is a sensitive part of your body. If you don’t feel the pain, sometimes it means you aren’t okay.
’ And I remember this tear fell out of the corner of my eye and made this little splat on the leather of the chair.
And I just knew what to do. I just knew how to burn the bond inside of me.
I was just done. I reached into myself and set that bitch on fire. ”
“Did he feel it?”
“He called me immediately and was yelling. Asking me to stop. Asking me what I was doing to him. Told me I was hurting him. I told him I hated him and I never wanted to see him again. And I blocked him and left my Pack that day without a single goodbye. I started over. I went to my sister and asked for shelter. I told her everything that had happened. She seemed to understand at the time. She seemed sympathetic.”
“Then why was he here tonight? That is Eden’s territory.”
“Because she asked him to come. She’s trying to bring me back into line.
Aro kept me in control for all of the life I remember, and now he’s gone.
The Elders still want me to be their Turner.
I haven’t lost a wolf. Not one. Eden probably has the Elders in her ear telling her to bring me back to their control.
She wanted me paired up with Cian so they can control me. ”
Vic slid his hand over her thigh and squeezed gently. “I can hear the pain in your voice.”
“Tonight, Eden told me about my real parents. She said I come from trash.”
“That’s rich coming from Eden,” he gritted out. “Want to talk about it?”
She shook her head. Cian had brought up so many memories and right now, it felt like her body was morphing back into those old feelings of not being good enough.
Of not being valuable enough. Trauma did that to a woman.
Trauma did that to her. No, she didn’t want to admit how messed up her head was.
Pluse, if she talked about her emotions too much, men grew bored and frustrated, and that eventually would turn to anger.
So instead of answering Vic, she shook her head instead. “I’m fine.”
He reached for her hand, then drew it to his lips and let the kiss linger there. Butterflies filled her stomach, and she melted into the seat, allowing the tension to ease in her shoulders.
“Listen to me,” he said, his attention back on the road. “No one will control you anymore. No one will ever make you Turn a wolf again. No one will ever bring you back into line. You are allowed to be yourself Lyric. I’ll hold the barrier.”
“Hold the barrier?”
“Everyone who tries to get to you will have to go through me. You can laugh, girl. You can smile and feel safe and feel free and live your life. Fuck everyone who has ever seen you as a pawn. Those days are over. Stay out of line.”
Stay out of line.
A small smile fluttered across her lips, and chills spread up her spine.
Stay out of line. She liked that.
The promise he was making was so beautiful, but it would never work for someone like her.
People used her. It was her destiny. The Elders would never let her go.
Maybe for a time, but they would come back for her.
She did appreciate Vic for those hopeful words though.
Much more than he could ever understand.
She was going to have to run. She was going to have to put distance between herself and Eden, and leave Cian behind again, and avoid the Elders.
She would have to find a Pack. She couldn’t drag all of this shit onto Vic’s life.
He’d been nothing but kind, but he didn’t understand.
If he tried to be her hero, the Elders would eat him up and spit him out. His people too.
Lyric cared about them already.
She couldn’t live with herself if that happened.
They didn’t need to talk about goodbyes now though. Tonight, she was safe. Tonight, she would have space to process her life and what had happened. She could think over what Eden had said about her family. Her origin.
Eden had really known about her parents all this time and had only exposed the information tonight? Now? After all this time and all her questions? And in a way just to hurt her?
Lyric was seeing things so clearly since Vic had come into her life such a short time ago.
Eden wasn’t who Lyric thought she was. Neither was Aro, or Cian, or the Elders, or any of the new Pack that was forming in these mountains.
She’d always had this sense that she didn’t belong, but now it felt undeniable.
Like the breaking of the bond with Cian, she could feel the pull of her old life burning up inside of her too.
Lyric was ready for more. She was ready for change. She was ready to say goodbye to her old life for good.
Stay out of line.
Hell yeah.
That’s exactly what she wanted to do.
“I was serious,” she murmured, too scared to look over at him to gauge his reaction.
“Serious about what?”
“About pulling over onto the side of the road. I know you dominant wolves need to fuck after a fight.”
His grip on her hand strengthened. “You gonna show me the tattoo that freed you?”
Lyric pursed her lips to hide her smile. “If you want to see it. Sure.”
“Is it hidden under that red bra you’re wearing tonight?” he asked. “I would’ve noticed a tattoo.”
“Yes.”
He ran his tongue over his teeth and then leveled her with a look and pulled over on the side of the road. He didn’t stop on the shoulder. He drove right through the woods, deep into the trees, parked and turned off the headlights.
His phone vibrated with an, Are you okay? text from someone named Dodger.
Go without me. I need a few minutes with Lyric, he typed out before he sent it.
Copy that.
Vic tossed his phone in the back seat and wore a big grin. “Strip it down, girl.”
And what a beautiful way to distract herself from the overwhelming tidal wave of emotions threatening to drown her. With a wicked smile, she lifted the hem of her shirt over her head and lifted the edge of her bra on her left side to show him the script font tattoo. I belong to me.
“It’s hard to see,” he teased, testing.
She unsnapped her bra in the back and let it fall from her arms then angled her left elbow away so he could see it clearer.
Vic’s smile faded slowly, and his face morphed to a hungry look. The air smelled like fur again.
He traced the script and then shocked her when he leaned forward and pressed his lips onto the tattoo. And then he bit it. Not hard enough to break the skin, but firm enough that she could feel his teeth dig in. Chills rippled up her spine, and a soft, helpless sound escaped her throat.
Vic cupped the side of her neck and drew his lips up to her ear. “Oh, you’re noisy?”
Her breath shook as she held onto his wrist to keep him there.
“Good girl. I like when you tell me what you like. You want to be bit?”
“Gently,” she uttered on a breath.
“I can bite you gently.”
Her heart pounded faster, and she rolled her eyes closed as he drew her earlobe between his teeth and sucked.
“Do you know how hard it was to stay off you after that fight?” Vic asked as he slid his hand to her thigh to cup her between her legs. “I wanted to bend you over my truck and take you in front of him. You do not belong to him anymore.”
A wicked smile took her lips. “I know, because I belong to me.”
A dark chuckle filled the cab of the truck. “Sure.”
“Possessive,” she accused him.
“Protective.”
“You barely know me.”
“My wolf does not care about that,” he growled. In the same motion, he unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled her into his lap like she didn’t weigh anything at all.
Her knee rested against the door as she straddled his lap and ground against him. It would probably leave a bruise for an hour or so, but she was having trouble caring about little details like that right now.
His erection was stone-hard and felt good between her legs, even with her jeans still on. She rolled her hips against him, and he hit the button to ease his seat back as far as it would go. Without the steering wheel pressing against her ass, she could roll her hips against him more freely.
His hands went to her hips, and he gripped her hard as he dragged her against his dick again.
He slid his hands upward and cupped the sides of her breasts, pressed them together and ran his face up her cleavage, scratching her sensitive skin with the stubble on his jaw.
It felt so good, she arched her head back and huffed a shaking sigh.