I shook my head. He'd taken me to the woods to run every full moon since I arrived, but I didn’t remember what the wolf did when he was in control. “Every once in a while, I have the image of my teeth sinking into a warm, screaming rabbit, and I want to be sick.”
“There are ways to introduce you to your wolf and begin the process of letting you have control. I’m not inclined to begin that process just yet. Perhaps next year, when we’ve had time to settle into our relationship better.”
Next year? Relationship? I was afraid to get my hopes up, so I focused on the rest of our conversation. “If there’s something I can do on my own, I’d love to know.”
“If you think he’s helping you, send thanks to him. Otherwise, there probably isn’t much you can do without help.” He paused and said, “Your food’s being taken to my room downstairs. Shall we?”
I nodded and fell into step with him. He’d broken me from walking just behind him and to his left. He preferred we walk side-by-side.
“How many places in town do you keep a bedroom?” I asked.
“Most people know I can sleep at my home, the coterie house, and here. I have safe space under three other businesses.” He hesitated a few seconds. “The Master of the City seventy years ago had an underground room built in a local park when it was being constructed. No one alive today other than the Vampire Masters who’ve lived here since, and I assume their top people, know of it. My top four know of it, and you’ll eventually need to be shown, though we’ll have to shield your mind better before you can know those secrets.”
“I believe my mind is already a fortress to anyone except you and your top two.” Gavin and Kendra. Both were scary, but I liked Kendra. Gavin made me want to run away screaming, though.
“I have enemies stronger than me, but that’s a conversation for another day.” He chuckled. “Most everyone in their right mind wants to run from Gavin.” Abbott opened another door and ushered me through, as if he were waiting on me. It felt as if I should be holding doors for him, but I wasn’t about to correct him.
“You met Duke and Gen tonight, the first couple we met. Duke is the president of a local motorcycle club. Are you familiar with the term?”
I nodded. My former master had dealt with the local gangs and the bikers. He’d brought the drugs in and they’d dealt them. He’d also traded girls for favors, and given them to a gang or to the bikers for a few days to reward good behavior. The girls were always in rough shape when they were returned. Sometimes, they weren’t returned.
He was in my head and saw my memories, so he responded, “The bikers here don’t do drugs, and while they can be rough on the girls who come to them for sex, they don’t abuse them. Their wives and girlfriends are treated well. You met Gen — did she seem abused?”
“I thought it odd that she was in a designer dress and he was in dark jeans and a black shirt. I guess that’s dressed up for a biker.”
Abbott laughed. “I’ve seen him dressed up more, but yes, that’s about all she’ll get for a play. I believe he considers those his dress jeans.”
I laughed. “Oxymoron.”
“Your vocabulary lessons have served you well.”
My thoughts darkened at the mention of vocabulary. Holly was refusing to speak differently and drop the redneck accent — which was stupid because I’ve seen her mom on a YouTube video and she didn’t talk like a country hick.
“No thoughts of Holly tonight.” He touched the door, the top of the panel just beside the door, and the bottom of the doorknob. A light only a supernatural would see blinked for a microsecond, and he rested his entire palm beside the door. A panel lit up and I heard his heartbeat alter. The door opened on the sixth heartbeat.
“You have serious security on this room.”
“The spots I touch frequently change. Cutting off my hand won’t do anyone any good, because I have to set my heartbeat to the right tempo, which also changes. It’s currently the first six notes of the Happy Birthday song. Most recently, it was the eight notes of, “Hey, teachers, leave those kids alone.”
I looked around at the extravagant sitting area and bed beyond. All flammable. He’d have a hidey-hole saferoom somewhere else with ventilation brought in from elsewhere, and with nothing flammable in the room.
“Would you like to see it?”
I shook my head, but I appreciated the offer because it gave me the nerve I’d needed in order to voice my own wishes. “I have a few requests.”
“I know, but we both need to hear you ask them.”
“Please be open with me about whatever you can. Dangers, plans, politics, the state of your territory. I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s happening. Also, please talk to me about the people you feed from and have sex with. If you have feelings for them, please don’t hide it. If you someday want them over me, I beg you to let me go so you can replace me with them. It’ll hurt worse for you to hold onto me and ignore me.”
“I can promise all of that. In exchange, I need you to promise me exclusivity outside of my household unless we agree on a particular person. You may continue to have sex with the members of my flock who live in my house. There will be a few exceptions, though there aren’t at the present time. If you wish to have sex with someone else, you’ll need permission from me ahead of time. Also, no meetings, no dates, not assignations, no lunch plans with anyone you wish to get physical with, whether you intend to actually do so or not. Lunch with Bethany or Gen? Fine if they call at eleven to invite you to lunch at noon. Lunch with someone you’re attracted to? You’ll need to know at least the day before so you can run it by me when I awaken.”
“Forever?”
“Possibly. For sure as long as your bond to me is that of blood-slave.”
“The wolves can all see the blood-slave connection. It won’t look good for you to be dating someone you technically own.”
“Duke saw that you have your willpower. Jonathan had already told Ranger and Mac about you, so I’m not sure what they could see since they already knew. Martin — the tiger we spoke with during intermission — didn’t pick up on the connection.” He sighed. “We’ll figure it out. I don’t want you stressing over it. You know it shows up between Gavin and Queenie, and no one bats an eye over it.”
“I also know how he treats her away from the public.”
“No, you really don’t. You’ve seen only a small portion of it. Gavin needs the release he gets from the relationship, though. Truth be told, I occasionally enjoy joining them and finding some of my own.”
“I want you to be able to use me to find release.”
He ran his hand through my hair. “Dear boy, I know what was done to you, but I find I don’t want to hurt you in the ways they did.”
“You’ve been in my head, you know I let the girls in your flock ride me when they want, but I don’t fuck them. I make myself the size they prefer and I enjoy it, but it isn’t my preference. You know whose bed I’m in the most, and why.”
“I do. He isn’t allowed to belt you. It wouldn’t be proper, but I’ve allowed him to get rough with you in bed, and only in bed. You’re the manager of the flock now, and you’ve done a good job of handling them without them feeling as if they have a boss other than me.”
He touched my chin and I met his gaze. “You may call me Sir, if you feel the need for it. You aren’t required to do so. You shall never call me Master again, unless at a formal gathering where even Kendra and Gavin are obligated to use my title.”
I smiled. “Yes, Sir.”
He loosened his tie and began working the buttons of his shirt. “There are hangers in the wardrobe for our suits.”
5
Spence
I opened the wardrobe doors and saw jeans and a t-shirt, and another suit. Clothes for us to wear tomorrow. I hung my clothes as I took them off, but tossed my shirt in a bag hanging on the inner hook of the wardrobe door, as Abbott did.
“The shirts are cleaned after each time they’re worn,” he ex
plained. “Someone will look the suits over and decide whether they need to be fully dry cleaned, or merely treated to remove any body odor.” He slid his hand over the silky boxer briefs someone had included with my suit. A light touch at my lower back, firmer as his palm curved around my bottom and slid to my thigh. I shivered at the promise of his touch.
“I like these,” he said into my ear. “Bethany was right, you know. You’re beyond beautiful.”
My good looks were my curse. It was the reason I was abducted into slavery.
“It’s the reason you were a sex slave after you were abducted, but they took you because you were in foster care and had threatened to run away. If you’d been big and ugly, you’d have been trained as a guard. Bonded slaves are trained to do all kinds of things in some households.”
I breathed out. He was right. My former master had used them for maids, cooks, drivers, guards, seamstresses, even someone to cut his hair. Abbott had people he could trust because they love him and are loyal. Some master vampires only trust the people they’ve bound to them as a blood-slave. My looks weren’t the cause of my slavery. If I’d been ugly, I could’ve ended up working the wheel in the basement, making electricity. I was glad Abbott was in my head, hearing my thoughts. I had nothing to hide from him in the present day, and it let him see what I was thinking that I’d have never said aloud.
“Thank you. The perspective helps.” I stood straighter. It felt important to do this formally the first time. Also, remembering the bookmarked pages in the legal book, I added a few phrases to make it sound even more official.
“I offer myself, of my own free will, to the Master of the City of Chattanooga, and the States of Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, and Maryland. Please, allow me to nourish your body with my own.”
“I accept your offer, and in return I offer you protection, honesty, a place in my undead life, the maintenance of the wolf residing within you until you are able to do so yourself, and your freedom from all bonds.”
I stared at him in shock as the blood bond between us gave way while he still controlled my wolf. I was well and truly free. Adrenaline spiked through my system and I felt my wolf more than I was accustomed, but he was still on Abbott’s tight rein.
The blood-bond doesn’t just put a leash around your willpower, it weaves the ends of the leash through it. It’s part of the very fiber of the source of your thoughts, the wellspring of your being. It becomes your will. I’d learned how to skirt the fibers of the leash and find the original ones so I could find other ways to follow orders, but I was still following orders. It was impossible not to.
Removing the leash was supposed to destroy some of my brain, at least until he could change me so I could heal. I’d seen others bleed from their ears and scream in pain when it was removed, and yet… Abbott had done it without even a hint of discomfort. It was as if the old ties disintegrated and my brain immediately healed and filled in the now-empty spots.
Freedom. I marveled at the feeling. I was my own man. No leashes on my will, none in my brain. I could sense the one going through me and to the wolf, but it didn’t hinder me in any way. My brain hadn’t been truly my own since I was a child.
Abbott pulled me into his arms and for the first time, I fully relaxed in a vampire’s arms. The cool strength had always meant possible danger, but with Abbot, those arms meant I was home.
“There were only a few times you could’ve opened up the possibility,” he said, a touch of relief sounding in his voice. “I wasn’t able to explain it to you, and I hoped you’d pick up on what was needed. The damned laws are difficult to understand and interpret by design, but you figured it out.”
“I didn’t think it would completely set me free. I honestly didn’t know this was an option.”
“It wasn’t until you opened up the possibility.” He held me a little tighter. “You had to offer it. I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t even explain it. Giving you the books with pages marked pushed the edges of the laws, but we’re technically legal.”
When vampires aren’t pretending to be human, they glide instead of walk. So graceful, so deadly. Predators at the top of the food chain. Sometimes, they move so fast even my werewolf vision sees them as a blur.
Abbott lifted me, the room blurred around us, and the next thing I knew, he was lounged on the settee and I was in his lap, my back to him. His right arm around my waist, his left arm holding my head, his breath on the side of my neck.
My heart raced, my cock pulsed in time to it. Goosebumps broke out over my entire body. I shivered in anticipation. Even my nipples ached.
Yes. I didn’t want to move enough for speech, but I wanted him to know how badly I wanted this.
The pain of the fangs going in lasted longer than it had to, and I groaned in bliss when he put the feel-good mixture in with very little of the numbing agent. I wanted to feel his teeth, feel the pressure, the sucking, the blood leaving my body.
I know.
Thank you.
Hush. You taste better than I imagined. Let me enjoy.
Yes, Sir.
He drank, and drank, and drank some more.
I was drowsy when he injected whatever made me orgasm, and I wasn’t expecting it. He held my upper body to keep it from moving, but my hips went crazy and the front of my boxers filled with cum. I screamed into the air until my balls finally emptied, and my entire body went limp. Fuck, he hadn’t laid a finger on my dick and he’d already made me come.
Gently, he pulled his fangs from my throat and I heard them retract.
“All fours, Dearest.”
He’d taken too much and I needed to replenish. I sank to the floor and waited on hands and knees for him to turn me into my wolf and yank me back to human.
When my former master had done this, it’d hurt from my soul to my eyeballs to my toes. However, it was uncomfortable when Abbott did it, but not painful.
When I was human again, he helped me up. “As I get to know the two of you better, I hope to make it less uncomfortable.”
A knock sounded at the outer door, and Abbott rose to answer. “That’ll be a few burgers for you. Have a seat on the sofa and I’ll bring them to you.”
The boxer briefs had torn and fallen from my hips during the changes, and I stepped out of them as I stood on two legs. As badly as I wanted him, I was glad for the food. I practically inhaled the burgers, downed the water, and set the dishes and napkins on the table.
“Will you join me in bed?”
I stood, already naked, and to turned to the back of the room.
Abbott ripped his boxer briefs off during the five steps to the bed, and my insides turned to mush at the thoughts of what he’d do to me.
“Knees and chest, boy. If you get hard while I fuck you, you’ll feel my belt.”
Shit. I’d been trained for the men who thought it disrespectful to be hard when you’re fucked, but I hadn’t expected this of Abbott. The very words coming from his mouth made blood pulse into my cock, but I closed my eyes and willed myself soft.
“Good boy.”
Does this mean I’ll never feel your belt, Sir? How can I feel it without disappointing you?
Patience, Spencer.
A lubed finger sank into my ass for a brief second, and then his slick cock — warm from the effects of my blood — pressed into me. Opened me. Spread me. I groaned in agony, not because I didn’t want his cock, but because I was fighting to stay soft. He mercifully stayed away from my prostate, and I breathed through it, resolved to stay relaxed and open, and focused on being a vessel for his pleasure.
Vampires are known for their endurance, but Abbott didn’t take terribly long before his first orgasm.
“Grow for me, boy.”
I dropped the hold I’d held over my arousal and blood rushed to my cock. I resisted palming it as it pulsed, throbbed, and swelled. I groaned in discomfort, and then again in bliss.
“You don’t have permission to come.” His b
reath tickled my ear with the whisper, and my entire body broke out in goose bumps once again.
Abbott came three more times before he rolled us to our sides, his cock buried in me, and bit me again. This time there was no pain killer at all — only the orgasm cocktail, and I screamed and writhed during this second forced release of the night.
“Someday, I’ll force you to have a dozen orgasms in the space of an hour, until you’re in tears and begging me to stop because there’s nothing left, and dry orgasms can hurt when they come one after another.”
I snuggled into him and moaned, happy with the thoughts of his someday.
His arm appeared at my mouth, a short gash with blood seeping out. I sealed my lips around it and he sent the blood to flow so I had to drink to keep from choking. Six fast swallows and he slowed the flow, stopped it, and pulled his arm away.
Mine.
“Yes, Sir.”
6
Abbott
With the blood-slave bond broken, I’d have to make a new blood bond, enough to mark him as mine to keep him safe and allow him to use his energy and whatever powers I gave him, but not enough to enslave him again. It would be tricky, but I was certain I could navigate through our energy to create the bond we needed.
Gavin knocked and entered in the early morning hours. Spencer had fallen asleep around two, and I’d been working in bed beside him on my laptop and phone. I’d waited so long to have him in bed beside me, I couldn’t bear to move to my desk, fifteen feet away. His warmth, his trust. He gave me all of him. How could I leave the bed?
“You need me to witness,” Gavin said as he stepped inside.
Leashed (Dark Underbelly Book 3) Page 5