Chapter 70
CHAPTER SEVENTY
Knox
“That hate will destroy you one day,” she whispered.
“No, it will destroy my enemies.”
“Knox…”
I tugged on her hair to draw her closer, but she turned her head to the side as she tried to break free.
“You’re my mate, Briar.”
“No, I’m not. I won’t let you mark me again. I loved the man who marked me; I have no idea who you are.”
“I may not be that man anymore, and I never will be again, but you are my mate,” I snarled. “I will claim you again, and you will remain in Wildwood.”
“What if that’s not what I want? Don’t I get a say in this?”
“What would you say, Briar?”
“I won’t be claimed by someone who won’t apologize for everything you’ve said and done since taking me from the harem! You don’t get to treat me like shit and expect me to be fine with it because you’ve decided that, hey, I am your mate after all! Are you insane?”
The beast’s roar tore from me before I could stop it. Briar recoiled even as I drew her closer, pinning her against my chest. When I lifted her off the ground, her feet battered my shins, and she slapped at my arms as my bellow rebounded down the hallway.
Before anyone could come running, I kicked the door shut. The echoing bang did nothing to drown out the beast’s fury as it battered my skull while my jaw cracked and the beast started to emerge.
I released the tendril of hair and pinned her arms to her chest when she started punching me. She swung her head back, seeking to break my nose, but I dodged it in time.
The blow skimmed my elongating jaw, but I felt it as much as I did her kicks… which was not at all. Her words had enraged the beast too much, and I couldn’t deny they’d infuriated me too.
She plans to leave us! the beast thundered. She plans to keep us shut out!
And while a very small, rational part of the man remained to understand her reaction was exactly as it should be, given everything she’d been through, it wasn’t enough to calm the beast or me.
Briar kicked and squirmed enough to free her arms. When she planted her hands on my chest, a spell flared to life at her fingertips.
My distorted paw landed over top of her hand, pressing it firmly into my chest as her spell crackled against my flesh; it didn’t hurt.
I didn’t know if that was because she wasn’t unleashing it…
yet… or if I couldn’t feel anything other than the blood rushing through my ears and the pulsing need to mark what was mine.
I refused to let her deny me this. Wildwood remained cursed, the shifters had all nearly died because of her mother and the casters, and while I should bear the denial of my mate as a punishment for my mistakes, I wouldn’t do so any longer.
If, once we broke the curse, the shifters barred her from Wildwood, then so be it. I’d leave here with her. But until that day came, I would have my mate.
I wasn’t a good man; I hadn’t been a good man in years, and I didn’t intend to become one again… not even for her.
I wouldn’t relinquish the small bit of happiness she’d brought to my bleak existence. She may not want me to brand her again, but she did desire me.
As she kicked and her power crackled against me, the scent of her arousal filled the air. My dick was so hard it ached.
“Knox!” Dromon shouted as he banged on the door. “Is everything okay?”
“Fuck off!”
Briar’s head swiveled toward the door, and her mouth opened before she clamped it shut. She knew better than to call for him. I was in the mood for either fucking or murder, and I could hold off on fucking long enough to kill.
“A yes would have sufficed!” Dromon shouted back.
I didn’t hear the retreat of his steps over the crackle of her power, the riotous beat of her heart, or the blood pulsing through my ears, but I knew he’d gone. He wouldn’t disobey me… unlike the heathen in my arms.
When Briar’s head twisted back to me, my mutated face reflected in her eyes, but she didn’t recoil from me. Instead, she glowered at me.
“Put me down!” she ordered.
“You dare to command me? Oh, little thorn, you’d better be careful, because I can inflict far more pain than you.”
“You already have!”
I grasped the knot on the back of her head and pulled her head back to further expose the delicate column of her throat. My previous brand stood out starkly against her otherwise pristine skin.
But those marks weren’t the beast’s. The monster vibrated with excitement at the idea of branding her as her struggles rubbed her silken skin against my cock.
Don’t do this, a small, rational voice whispered to me. Don’t force this on her.
That small voice was right, but the beast wanted nothing to do with what was right as its fangs rested against her skin. All I had to do was bite down, and she’d bear the beast’s mark for the rest of her existence, but I didn’t move.
Briar went still against me; her breath came in rapid pants. Her nipples pressed against my chest.
When my fangs grazed her neck, she jerked against me as blood welled from the scratches. The beast purred as I licked away her sweet blood, but I still couldn’t bring myself to bite.
I knew the awful feeling of being confined, helpless, and abused. Many nights, I still woke sweating and with my heart racing from the persistent nightmares of the harem.
Sometimes it took as long as an hour for my heart to return to normal and my brain to accept that I was safe in my room.
While I could never feel completely safe as long as the casters lived, they couldn’t get me in Wildwood.
They could send awful, spell-bound creatures, but they couldn’t capture or kill me.
Am I really going to force this on her?
YES! the beast yelled.
If given the choice, it would force sex and the bond on her, but I couldn’t. Even I wasn’t that fucked-up… yet. Who knew what the future held?
Taking a breath, I reined the beast in, but it wouldn’t allow me to cage it completely. My jaw cracked as it transitioned back to normal. My fangs wouldn’t fully retract, but my paws returned to hands, and the tips of my claws remained extended.
Pain twisted in my intestines and spread through my veins as the beast howled in dismay. “Oh, fuck,” I breathed.
When my forehead fell to Briar’s shoulder, I shuddered as my fingers dug into her back. I should let her go. I couldn’t.
While she didn’t relax into me, some of the rigidity left her body.
“You are my mate, and I will claim you again as such,” I grated against her silken skin.