Page 44 of Come for Me
“It’s not his fault.Iwent looking forhim.”
“You.What?”
My amusement fades, replaced by blind rage and hurt at her betrayal.
Oh, she did this out of spite.
The mutt’s intentions were true, and my mate was just being defiant and trying to get back to me in a jealous rage.So, the mutt isn’t the problem.
But my mate’s behavior is. A pup with a tantrum. Something I’m certain I can fuck out of her later. Thoughts of me fucking her into submission run across my mind. How good that bratty mouth would look with a mouthful of my cock, lodging myself into her throat, causing her to gag, daring her to talk back to me again. She’d cry pretty little tears for me.
Focus on the task at hand.
Right. My mate misunderstood what she saw, and instead of confronting me, she ran off to mate with someone else like a child.
We can’t have that now, can we?
I can either spend the rest of my life reminding every male that Alaina is mine, or I can remind one disobedient little mate to make sure everyone who encounters her knows it automatically. They’ll smell me on her for eternity and avoid her like the plague. Touching her would mean signing their death warrant.
I can’t help the wicked grin that creeps onto my face, displaying my canines. As my wolf registers my next move, I salivate, eager to sink myself into her.
“So, he doesn’t need the reminder. You do.” I release the mutt’s throat, and he falls as he gasps.
My guards switch their holds from Alaina to the mutt as I step over the bloodied mutt.
Stalking toward her, I see Alaina standing tall, not afraid of my wrath, and it fills me with pride to have such a brave mate. Anyone else would be cowering and begging for their life. The cell would be filled with fear, sweat, and—if I’m at my most ruthless point—urine. But not my mate.
She will make a brave queen.
A shadow covers her face as I meet her small frame. My enemies would find it easy to throw her around and take advantage of her. One whiff of my scent on her, and no one would dare try. Really, I’d be protecting the unmated males from being slaughtered. After all, I have to think of my people as their king.
I grab the back of her neck and yank her toward me. Sinking my teeth into her flesh, I mark her as mine forever, and I know from her taste, this woman will be the death of me.
Chapter Fifteen
Alaina
“Mine,”Dax echoes through our mindlink for the first time, his voice mimicking a conscience and infecting my body.
Dax isn’t emotionless like I thought, making it harder for me to hate him. Tears pool in my eyes when his emotions creep into me as if they were my own. Like Dax, his feelings hold grave strength. The joy and relief I give him, the pain I’ve caused him, the care he has for me...
And the fear he has of losing me.
An instinctual urge to claim him as mine sparks within me. His insertion of himself has made him part of my being. Rejecting him now would mean removing a part of myself.
I don’t know enough about myself to begin with, but this part of me that encompasses him feels like home.A home invasion, maybe.The thought of giving away this new sense of belonging means more than just denying him of me. It was denying me myself.
Dax must be sensing how hard I’m trying to stifle my tears when he gently holds my face, caressing my cheeks with his thumbs. I take in his vulnerable expression as he waits for me to respond to his claim —to accept him as mine—and it has my insides breaking.
I have him, and now, he wants to have me, too.
A small movement causes me to spot Caleb, who’s struggling to bring himself to a sitting position on the stone floor.
But how can I have someone who hurts those I care about? How do I freely give myself to someone who forces my hand out of his own insecurity and jealousy?
I’m weeping, the internal conflict becoming too much. Dax’s mark, what is supposed to be a declaration of love, is a life sentence. His possessive nature would never let me leave. I’d forever be a prisoner to this pack.
Before, no one in the kingdom knew what I looked like, so I had a good chance at getting away unseen. Now, everyone will smell him on me and recognize the gigantic mark that’ll tattoo my skin. No one will help me leave their king, sentencing their pack to be more vulnerable with their ruler unmated.
