Chapter 2 #2
Sometimes some of my friends would whisper about the possibility of finding their fated mate one day, but I’d never paid them any mind because it would never be something I could ever even hope to have.
I told myself I couldn’t, not even now.
But the pull of his scent was like gravity and my resistance faltered. It vibrated at the very edges of my nerves, pulsing as it surrounded me in the security of its thorough embrace. With every breath, it sank deeper into my soul, and I whined softly at the terrible temptation.
I tried to breathe through my mouth, shunning the delicious mixture of citrus, smoke, bourbon, and the sheer masculinity of Elijah.
As I opened my lips, the taste of his scent burrowed into me like the sharpened tip of a blade.
I whimpered, the sound nearly silent. It was as if his very existence had consumed everything and there was nothing else other than me and him.
Elijah cocked his head to the side as if he knew what I was thinking. Feeling. Experiencing.
As if he understood me.
My father cleared his throat, breaking the long stare between us with its harshness. I shook my head and desperately grasped at my coffee. I gulped it down, trying to wash away the taste of him. It didn’t work.
“Vacate the room,” my father blurted out to the wait staff.
The servants disappeared within seconds, leaving my father, Elijah, me, and the rest of the pack members that had dared follow him.
“What if we made a deal?” my father suggested.
I hazarded a glance in his direction. His face had paled underneath his graying beard.
His eyes were frantic, like he was scraping the bottom of the barrel for any possibility of avoiding Elijah’s challenge and a sickening feeling descended into the pit of my belly.
“What would you offer?” Elijah answered, looking pointedly at me and then back to my father. I slammed my lips shut, too flustered to allow myself to say anything at all.
“I’ve changed my mind. You’ve been such a loyal servant all these years that I want to reward you, not fight with you.
With that in mind, I want to give you the gift of peace.
You may start your own pack with any of the men that wish to follow you if you leave the Crimson Shadows’ territory.
You may go anywhere you wish in the world.
I will not raise a finger to stop you,” my father growled.
Elijah’s grin was enough to send my stomach into flutters. I suddenly wished for a black hole to open up beneath my feet and swallow me whole.
The heavens would never smile on me like that.
“I will agree to your suggestion on one condition, Amir,” Elijah answered, and the rumbling sound of his voice was enough to send my core into a spiraling overdrive. My chest rattled as the air rushed from my lungs. What the hell was wrong with me? Why was I reacting to him this strongly?
“Whatever you want, soldier,” my father answered, and time seemed to come to a screeching halt.
“I will be taking Ashleigh with me as my mate. I claim her as my prize,” he declared, and his pronouncement was enough to force me to my feet.
“I am no man’s prize,” I spat.
Neither man answered me. They didn’t even hazard a glance in my direction. It was as if I wasn’t even in the room, like I had no power in deciding my fate.
“Take her. She’s yours,” my father answered, and I stared at him in shock. No matter how angry he made me, I’d been groomed to be his obedient daughter. But this… this was too much. I wouldn’t be bartered like a prized horse.
I turned my fury straight to the source. Elijah.
“How dare you? You’re worth nothing more than the dirt beneath my shoe. I am our alpha’s daughter. I would never go with the likes of you,” I vowed. I lifted my chin proudly.
Elijah was a brute. He was good at one thing, fighting. He carried no status with him and even though my father had offered him a deal in exchange, it was nothing more than a veiled offer of exile.
The most important thing to my father was loyalty and Elijah had shown that he would no longer give him that. He was probably already planning his revenge in his head. Elijah was as good as dead. I could see it in my father’s eyes.
Elijah leveled his intense glare at me. His gray gaze glimmered with power, and it was all I could do to remain standing there in front of him.
I took a shallow breath and lifted my chin even higher, playing the part that was expected of me all my life.
He smirked as if I didn’t stand a chance against him and maybe I didn’t, but I wasn’t going to be taken by a man like him quietly.
His eyes darkened dangerously, and it took everything in me not to start trembling right then and there.
“Ashleigh, I will give you a choice. The decision is up to you, but if the next words out of your mouth aren’t an apology and a humble request to be punished like you deserve in the privacy of our bedroom, then I will take that to mean that you need your bare bottom marked with my belt before I mount and claim you right here in front of everyone watching,” he warned.
I stilled, words failing me in that moment. My mouth opened and closed several times as a heated shiver raced across my skin. I turned my head away, desperately needing to break eye contact with him for only a second.
“Do you want your spanking and fucking right now, Ashleigh?” he pushed, and I had enough sense to shake my head quickly. When I didn’t answer right away, he took several steps in my direction and something inside me cowed before him.