Tears burned my eyes as his denial of my claim shot through me. His grunts sounded against my ear as I bit my lip to keep the moans and cries buried in my throat. When Saint shoved my face down as he continued pushing it into the pillow, he dispelled any illusions of this mating being anything other than him marking his claim by scent. His body jerked as a loud grunt echoed in my ear, hot fluid slipping from my body as he withdrew and rolled away from me.
“Get dressed, Braelyn. I’m finished with your cunt for today,” he snorted, uncaring that I hadn’t finished with him.
I retrieved the panties and dress I’d worn last night. I didn’t wait for permission to slip out of the tent, ignoring his order as I emerged. People were already moving around the courtyard. Some appeared still to be drunk and celebrating, while others slept out in the open, near where Saint and I had mated. Had they heard my cries throughout the night? Had they heard him being cruel this morning?
“Braelyn,” Saint snapped from behind me, his voice cold and unfeeling while I continued to ignore him.
My hair was a mess, and I needed a hot, steaming shower to remove him from my core where he was dripping down my thigh. People stopped to watch as he dug his fingers into my shoulder, spinning me around to face him.
“I didn’t give you permission to leave the tent,” he barked angrily.
I snorted, shaking my head. “I didn’t ask.”
“From now on, you will ask for my approval to do anything. You’re a prisoner, and you have no rights.”
His men were gathering around us, blocking our argument from the pack that was watching. My chest rose and fell, breathing through anger as my body ached. My sex was swollen and covered in the multiple releases he’d taken through the night. Not to mention, I could smell the blood from our first mating still crusted against my sex.
“I’m going to go wash you and your obnoxious scent from my vagina. I don’t need your fucking permission to shower, Saint. If I don’t wash away the scent of my blood, it will empower other males to take me for a chance to mate. Unless, of course, you want to watch them rape me. I guess that would be something that you’d enjoy, correct?” I challenged, watching the anger burn in his translucent cyan-colored eyes.
“Eryx, go with my mate and don’t let her out of your sight. Not even when she showers,” Saint grinned with amusement.
“Come, Eryx. Maybe you can get me off since Saint didn’t have what it took to make it happen this morning. After all, I am a whore. Right? Don’t let my pesky virginity fool you. I fucked anything and anyone willing. Isn’t that the story they fed you?” I laughed soundlessly at the way Saint’s eyes narrowed on my mouth.
“Just because they hadn’t fucked your cunt doesn’t mean you didn’t allow other things to happen,” Saint returned, cruelly. “You’re dismissed, Princess.”
I smiled coldly, laughing inwardly while walking to the hallway that led to the living quarters. Saint was acting cold and indifferent. Well, I could play that game, too. I didn’t even acknowledge Eryx as I entered my room, going into the closet to grab clean clothes.
Inside the bathroom, Eryx leaned against the counter as I tossed the clothes beside him. Stripping down to my skin, I heard him growling low in his throat before I stepped into the shower, ignoring his existence.
Resting my head against the tiled wall, I groaned as every ache and pain in my body made itself known. Eryx’s scent drifted into the shower, the steam making it thicker with his foreboding presence. Dismissing it and doing my best to ignore how potent it was, I grabbed the peony-scented shampoo, lathering it into my hair before rinsing it. I followed up with conditioner, using soap to remove Saint’s scent as best I could before slipping from the shower.
Eryx’s midnight stare slid down my body with something terrifying burning in his gaze. I reached for the towel, only for him to grab it before I could touch it. My eyes rounded as he crept closer, boxing my body against the wall.
A tremor of unease moved through me, sending every instinct I had on high-alert. Eryx’s nostrils flared as he lowered his lips to my throat, placing a soft kiss against my thundering pulse. His hand moved, skimming his fingers over the curve of my hipbone. Deep, wicked laughter escaped him before he lifted his mouth to press it against mine. I turned away, keeping my lips at a distance from his.
“Come on, give me some sugar, Brae. You and I could have ended up together if you’d stopped running away from me ten years ago,” he urged, but there was a catch in his voice.
“You and I have nothing in common, let alone a connection.”
“You have a pussy, and I have a cock. What other connection do we need?” he mused, stepping back to drag his heady stare down my body.
“If you think that is all that is needed to breed with a mate, you’re fucked, Eryx.”
“No one said shit about breeding. Sometimes it isn’t about connecting, Princess. It’s about unleashing anger on your partner. You’d enjoy being manhandled and fucked so hard that you’d forget your name by the time I released you. Do you want that? That leg-shaking, bone-breaking, soul-crushing sex that destroys you until you’re nothing but a single orgasm that doesn’t stop until I’m finished fucking you?” Eryx leaned back against the counter, smiling with sexual carnage, leaving me curious as to what he meant.
Eryx was trying to fuck with me, and I’d had enough shit happen in the last twenty-four hours. I slowly stepped forward, mirroring his pose by placing my hands on either side of the counter behind him. Lowering my lips to his pulse, I nipped at it before letting a sultry growl escape my chest. I lifted my hands, turning his mouth toward mine until we shared breath.
“Fuck, the fucking hell off, Eryx. If I’d wanted to fuck you, you’d have been fucked. I fell in love with Saint. It went beyond a basic we have matching parts connection. You’re trying to scare me or get me to react, and the thing is, fuck you.” I grabbed my clothes, exiting the room to find Saint leaning against the wall, glaring at me. “And fuck you, too,” I snorted, going into my closet to change.
I shimmied into panties, pants, and a white tank top. Grabbing a flannel, I took it with me into the bathroom. Once inside, I tried to close the door, but Saint pushed his way into my space. He immediately started stripping, giving me a view of where his name, Kingsley, was tattooed over his shoulders, with skulls and black ink dominating his skin.
Ignoring him, I grabbed the brush and started two braids on either side of my head, then a larger one on the top. It was a Viking style worn by the Fenrir wolves and one I’d just begun using. It was an easy style to maintain since we spent most of our time doing chores, preparing to be stuck on top of the mountain until spring came, and the roads were passable.
Steam billowed from the shower, and I smirked wickedly. Eryx was leaning against the doorframe as I reached over, turning on the water in the sink. Opening the drawer, I withdrew my toothbrush and paste and began slowly brushing my teeth as Saint screamed from the shower, stepping out of it a shade redder than when he’d entered.
His eyes held mine before moving to my mouth, where the frothy paste was covering my lips. I cleaned my tongue, turning to look at him with a lifted eyebrow.
“Problem?” I asked, muffled by the paste and brush between my lips.
“You’re pushing me,” he warned.
“What are you going to do to me? Fuck me crudely and treat me like a whore? Oh, wait, you just did that. Spank me? You might not get the result you want. I might be into that shit, Saint.” Grinning, I pointed to his head with my toothbrush, “You have soap in your hair. You will need to get your own. Unless, of course, you don’t mind smelling like me all day long.” I deadpanned him so hard he felt it. “The shampoo is enhanced with my scent and nullifying herbs that make my heat-cycle remain hidden and muted to the males. I’m uncertain if it works for someone with a cock instead of a vagina. Let me know if it does so I can market it for unisex production.”
Turning around, I spit out the pa
ste before grabbing the mouthwash and swishing it while I held his angry glare in the mirror.
“Oh, do you mind that I am brushing my teeth without permission? I forgot to ask if that was allowed. Should I ask permission before I piss, too? You’re going to need to write down the rules, as I have always been shit at following them. It tends to make my pussy wet when I disobey the rules and indulge in being a rebel. You remember, don’t you? When you told me I couldn’t touch myself, and I did it anyway, making you listen as I came for you? Oh, that’s right. You didn’t mind it at all.”
His eyes sparkled at my words as if he was enjoying my mouth running. He didn’t get back into the shower where the scalding water still ran. He just stood there, letting the bathroom filled with steam, which did nothing to hide the fact that he was stark ass naked.
“I’m leaving to do chores,” I announced, exiting the room before he could cage me in against the counter or make my brain turn to a sediment one stage less than mush.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.
“I’m going to do princess duties,” I snorted, sliding on my flannel as his attention lowered to my hard nipples straining against the tank top that exposed my midriff.
“You’re not to leave this room.”
I began tapping my foot while I glared at him. “I’m sorry, what? Because it sounded like you just tried to ground me to this room. I have shit to get done today. Just because you come in swinging that big dick energy with your crew doesn’t change the season. If things don’t get done around here, we will freeze and starve to death when the mountain becomes unpassable.”
“I’ll handle it. It’s not like the pack needs some bossy little alpha bitch telling them what to do,” Saint snapped, forcing my anger to rise.
“Is that so? And tell me, Saint, what do you think needs to be done to prepare this pack for winter?” I challenged as the tic in his jaw hammered at the taunt. “You wouldn’t know what is needed because you haven’t been back here in ten years. This is my pack, even if you’re the alpha now. So, I’m going to make sure shit is handled properly, and you can swing your dick around all you fucking want. It still doesn’t change facts, and facts don’t lie. Have a good day doing whatever it is you plan to do. After the meal, I’ll be back here to play a good little bitch and do what you need of me inside the bedroom. Outside of this room, though, keep the fuck away from me.”
I spun on my heel, escaping the bedroom before Saint could get a word in or stop me. My home and territory were crawling with unfamiliar faces. It only catapulted my anger once I reached the main hall, finding strangers lounging everywhere, with trash scattered. I didn’t pause, not even when Xariana and her father thought to approach me. My eyes slid over Leif’s powerful physique as his gaze glided over my braids. Exiting the lodge, I flagged down Lucas, a member of my pack, nodding toward the side of the building.
“Get the pack over here. We have shit to get done before winter comes,” I mused, watching his eyes slid over my body.
“Are you okay?” he asked, then grinned at the wicked smile that played over my lips.
“No, but there’s a woodpile screaming my name, and I have an ax to grind on it. That should relieve the anger and stress that Saint’s sudden appearance has caused me.”
Lucas chuckled, pushing his fingers between his lips before an ear-piercing whistle cut through the air. I didn’t wait to see if my pack responded because I fully intended to do what I’d said by taking my anger out on the woodpile.
Chapter Eight
Sweat beaded on my brow, and my arms burned as I brought the ax down hard onto the round log. The pile in front of me was higher than I could see over, while the men beside me continued complaining that I was putting them to shame. I’d done this every day since my father had banished Saint. Splitting wood seemed to relieve pain, stress, and anger all in one satisfying loud bang as the ax bit into the log, sending it over the edge of the stump I used as a chopping block.
We’d been at it for hours while the children and betas emptied the piles. They stacked the wood in large sheds used to keep it from exposure to the elements. All around us, people worked. Hunting parties brought in deer to gut and clean, hanging it to be butchered into small enough pieces to fit into the walk-in freezer where perishables were stored.
I watched as Lucas laughed with Garrett, both men covered in blood as they carried a deer into the courtyard on poles that rested on their shoulders. Women picked the last of the vegetables to store in the underground cellars, and the children assisted the omegas, preparing material to be cut and used for blankets and clothing.
Lifting my ax, I started to swing, only for someone to grab it. Turning, I found Saint sliding his eyes down my dirty frame. My brow rose in a silent question as he wrenched the ax from my calloused hands.
“Get your own ax, Saint,” I growled, noting the way he glared at me through heated eyes. He stepped closer, forcing me to back up and notice that his men, Leif, and the other uninvited guests all sat behind us, observing the pack work.
Assholes.
Saint removed his shirt, allowing my gaze to slide down his muscular torso. Rolling my eyes at falling into his stupid male trap, I looked back over the pack at the children moving about. The ax slammed against the wood, sending it crashing into my thigh. I gasped, stepping back to glare at Saint as if he’d done it on purpose.
“Try aiming for the middle, so you don’t hit everyone else with the wood,” I growled, stepping away from him, heading toward the semi-truck pulling into the area to unload goods.
Away from the woodpile, I looked back as the others converged around Saint. His men slowly relieved the others, who, of course, began packing the wood into the shed with the betas and kids. My hungry gaze locked onto Eryx and Enzo, who were both anything but woodcutters.
Enzo slipped his shirt off, smiling at me as he tilted his head, lifting his brow. It was almost like he read my mind because the look in his eyes was most definitely a challenge. His sides held tattoos in dark ink that drifted down into his suit pants. The muscles on his abdomen bunched together as his thick arms lifted the ax, sending it smashing into the log, effortlessly slicing through it. He didn’t cut the next piece immediately, choosing to crook his finger at me, and a frown tugged on my lips. I spun on my heel, ignoring Leif, who was also shirtless, wearing jeans that allowed the deep, chiseled V-line to show.
Tattoos and men. Sex and sin. Fucking great. It was everything we didn’t need here. I’d been fine without them!
My attention slid toward laughter, finding Zayne in his suspenders, with his sleeves rolled to his elbow, smashing his ax through the wood. His bright eyes lifted, meeting mine as a smile played on his full mouth. He turned his head, and my gaze swung to Sian, who was also shirtless and had at least washed the blood off of himself. Eryx had rolled up his sleeves, leaving his olive-colored forearms exposed, showing off his colorful tattoos.
Tearing my eyes from the men, I noticed the truck was backing up entirely too fast to stop. A toddler was standing behind it, her wide, blue eyes following an orange butterfly in front of her. I glanced back at the truck, and a scream ripped from my lungs as I took off. Clearing the space between us, I tossed the toddler out of the truck’s path, leaving myself in harm’s way.
The truck smashed into my head, and I reached for the tailgate, pulling myself up just as Lucas got the driver’s attention, screaming over the music playing from inside the truck. The startled driver slammed on the breaks, and I dropped to the ground, grabbing my forehead where blood was dripping down my face. Rounding the back of the truck, I ran to the driver’s door, opening it to rip him out of the vehicle.
“What the fuck?” he demanded, growling at me with his fangs exposed. “Stupid bitch, I’m the only motherfucker willing to make the drive up this mountain!” he snarled, sending anger rolling through me.
“You almost ran over a child!” I shot back, and he lifted his sh
oulders, dropping them in a shrug.
“One less fucking mouth to worry about feeding then, bitch,” he snorted.
I jumped without warning, hooking my feet beneath his armpits and my hands around his waist. Using the momentum, I flipped him into the air, grabbing the back of his head as he fell toward the ground, slamming his face into the dirt. Hard. Bone crunched, and I walked around his large frame, oblivious to the crowd watching.
The truck driver, a shifter, came up quickly, forcing me to roundhouse kick him in the face and lowering my body to the ground, removing his feet from beneath him. Before he’d hit the dirt, I used a spurt of speed to drive my fist into his face, smiling as I felt his teeth snapping off beneath the gums.
The moment he came back up, I was ready for him. However, I wasn’t prepared for the ax that swung through the air or for the driver’s head to go sailing across the courtyard, painting my face in blood. My eyes followed the body to the ground, slowly lifting to hold Saint’s angry stare.
“What the fuck did you do that for?” I demanded.
Saint snorted, staring at my forehead where blood still dripped from the gash made by the truck hitting me. “You’re my mate, and only I get to talk to you like that, Braelyn.”
I huffed as I walked toward the large semi, crawled into the driver’s seat, and backed it into the delivery dock. Putting the truck in park, I jumped out and strolled back to the mess Saint had made, whistling loudly.
“James, toss the prick’s body into the pen with the hogs. Caiden, grab your bike and an overnight bag.”
I lifted the truck’s hood and hefted myself onto the front of the truck. Pushing my hand past the scorching engine block, I grabbed the GPS tracker and tossing it to Caiden, who caught it and held it up.
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