Dare To Be Loved

by Stacy Lee

  His hand un-fists from my hair, both hands wrap around my shoulders pulling me back into him with each powerful plunge. His body lies across my back bringing his hips higher and his thrusts deeper. He grows rougher with each passing moment. My body begins to quiver, the need for release rapidly approaching. I bite my lip and mewl deep in my throat.

  He stops.

  “No.” He demands.

  “Dare!” I shout to him. A hand lands firmly on my ass. I groan. Oh, holy hell! Why did that turn me on this time? It didn’t before. Maybe sensing my enjoyment, maybe not, he brings his palm down again in the same place. My body trembles in pleasure.

  He leans up next to my ear, his hand swiping my hair away from my neck, he whispers, “You haven’t given me your surrender. Do not come.” His teeth sink into my flesh slowly. A measured amount of pain mixes with ecstasy making my body want to splinter, it doesn’t. It stays suspended in a burning intensity that sets every nerve ending on fire. It wants to detonate, it’s begging to let go, but it holds on as if it knows he told me no. I try to move my hips for a little friction, something, anything, just a little movement and I would find bliss. His hand finds my ass again, this time harder, sharper. My back arches and he bites down with a punishing grip. I freeze.

  “Dare! Please move.” I beg him. His deep chuckle is not what I wanted to hear. “Dammit Dare!” I grind out as I try to rotate my hips. His hold is absolute. I could not move. He very deliberately retracts his fangs from my neck and licks the wound.

  “Who do you belong to?” He asks in that deadly calm whisper.

  “Myself.” I answer automatically without thinking. I know it is the wrong answer instantly but I can’t take it back as he growls low in my ear.

  “Not anymore.” With quick moves he pushes my knees out from under me, landing me flat on my stomach, his body covers mine, somehow we’re further back from where I began because the ropes were now stretched to extremely painful and cutting into my wrists. His legs pinion mine, his hand finds its way back into my hair holding my head immobile with his solid grip, the other slips between my body and the sheets.

  Leisurely he begins to move, in and out, nowhere near the power of before. His fingers find that small bundle of nerves. He pinches it forcefully then begins to circle it completely, not hitting the right spot but everywhere around it. The little electrical surges from his touch fail to reach that spot. I let out a mewl of displeasure. His chuckle sets my normally hidden temper on fire. I slam my hips back against his with as much force as my position allows. He stops all movement. I sob.

  “Dare, please, please.” What I’m begging for I don’t know anymore. For him to move, hit the right spot, let me come, stop teasing me, something, anything but this.

  “Who owns you?” He whispers in my ear.

  “You.” I cry.

  “Whose body is this?” His fingers pinch my clit powerfully with the last word.

  “Yours.” I sob. Oh, God. I was so close, so damn close.

  “Who do obey?” I whimper. I didn’t obey anyone. He wasn’t Uncle. “No answer is still a wrong answer.” His hand begins to move again, torturing me, tormenting me, never hitting where I wanted him to. His body rocks against mine only giving me enough friction to make it worse, not better. His hand untangles from my hair and slides under my left breast. He grasps the pebbled nipple between his thumb and index finger then rolls it between them and pulls. I cry out with the new stimulation.

  His forehead drops to my shoulder wetting it with his sweat. The bite to my back surprises me enough to wrench a scream lose. It wasn’t any more painful than my neck; it was only that I wasn’t expecting it. He draws in two long drinks then pulls away. Not enough to send me over, but enough to make my blood boil with need. I need him to stop this, I need him to move, I need him.

  His fingers brush lightly over my clit then retreat. I bite my lip hard to keep from sobbing. Tears form in my eyes from frustration. I try unsuccessfully once more to move my hips, to guide his hand, anything. Nothing works. His words from earlier echo in my head ‘I don’t use my hands to hurt but I will use them to drive you to the point of insanity to get what I want or need from you.’ He has me at his mercy and the only way to finish this is to give him what he wants. Complete surrender. With a yell of frustration I give in with whispered words.

  “I surrender.” He stops moving.

  “What was that? I didn’t hear you.” Yes he did. He had heard me talk much lower and knew exactly what I said. He wanted it louder, he wanted it complete.

  “You own me. My body is your body. I will obey you and only you. I surrender to you, Dare. I surrender to you completely. I am yours, heart, body and soul, forever.” The tears finally fall with my confession. It was the absolute truth.

  I was his, forever.

  Behind me his entire body trembles with my submission. With a quick movement from him I’m flipped to my back, the ropes are gone and he is above me. He sinks into me slowly before leaning down to take my lips in a passionate kiss. I’m surprise to realize this is the first kiss he has given me since this episode began. The other four times he had been very generous with his lips. However, this kiss isn’t only filled with passion but also need and an underlying current of urgency. Even before he pulls away he is moving faster. Oh, thank fuck!

  He rises up on his knees, grabs my hips and pulls my bottom half up to meet him, I wrap my legs firmly around his waist leaving my shoulders on the bed. His hands manacle my waist pulling me into his deep, long, hard strokes. His rhythm is frantic, forceful and out of control, as he pounds furiously into me. I watch his eyes as chaos reigns supreme. He has finally lost every bit of his control. He moans and throws his head back on a howl. He grabs my hands and pulls me up into him, wrapping his arms around me in a tight embrace, his fangs punch out and he latches onto my neck all in one motion.

  My eyes flit to the clock by the bed and back.

  11:58. I watch the juncture of his neck as a vein pulses wildly there. I can hear the blood pumping through his body. It’s calling for me to take it. It was meant for me. I needed it. I could smell it. I could practically see it. I wanted to taste it. My mouth explodes in pain as fangs punch through my gums and drop low in my mouth.

  11:59. My head falls forward, fangs slide through skin, his blood fills my mouth, cinnamon and something new…something strong…exquisite…. Power burst over my taste buds, so much stronger than just the cinnamon had been from his wrist, the thick liquid coats my throat.

  12:00. Just like his touch, electrical currents run through his blood sparking and igniting as it courses throughout my body literally creating tingles everywhere. His taste, his smell, the sparks, the tingling, his touch, his bite, The Claiming --Because that’s what this time was, he claimed me as his with every thrust he pounded into me-- they all overwhelm me. I break into a million pieces on the most intense orgasm yet. I feel his body jerk inside mine as he also reaches his release.

  I remove my fangs from his neck then lick the wound as he had done to mine. I lay my head on his shoulder and watch as it heals over leaving two scars where my puncture wounds had been. My gaze flits to the clock.

  12:06. The Claiming was done.

  We were mated.

  ****

  Within seconds she is asleep sitting up in my arms and I have to chuckle. I guess twelve hours of sex would tire any one out. Trying not to wake her I carefully twist and lay her on the bed before disentangling myself from her body. Damn, that was relaxing. I hadn’t let go like that in a hundred years, if not longer. Inspecting the rope burns on her wrists I can’t help the small wince. I might have enjoyed it but I didn’t feel right about those marks. I shouldn’t have let the ropes harm her, I forget she can’t heal as quickly as me….yet.

  Oh, but controlling her had been so much fun. It had been worth playing her little game and letting her believe she had power over me in that chair, just to hear those words. Her voice rings in my ears.

  ‘You own me. My
body is your body. I will obey you and only you. I surrender to you, Dare. I surrender to you completely. I am yours, heart, body and soul, forever.’

  Damn right she is.

  What The Claiming meant by surrender completely was she had to give herself over to the Patronus way of life. Meaning she had to accept my blood willingly for it to change her. She had surrendered completely the first time we had sex when she held my arm to her mouth. Making her say the words were for her benefit. She needed to know she was mine. Everything about her is mine. Unknowingly with both her mental and verbal submission she gave me ultimate control over her.

  She was mine in every way.

  I cannot believe she thought to tie me down. It actually gave me a little more respect for her. Not many, if any, would have been brave enough to try that little stunt with me. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t happen again. I let her play her game this time, I gave her what she wanted to show her what she was getting herself into if she pushed me again. I had even carefully maintained a measured amount of my control, until she uttered those words. That’s when I had truly lost my mind. I never dreamed hearing a woman say I owned her would drive me to insanity. It had with Marnie. I look down to her sleeping frame, so peaceful.

  My mate.

  Already the Patronus traits were beginning to be visible. The bruises I had been trying to ignore all damn day were almost completely gone now. As a human she would have had at least another three to six days before they healed. Her stitches could be removed in the morning, the gash on her thigh almost gone. I trace my mark on her neck with shaky fingers, the scars of my bite would never fade. Gently I brush her hair back away from her face and have to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud. She never retracted her fangs. They would tear her lips up by morning.

  I climb from the bed to grab a can of Coke. Hopefully the smell alone will retract them. I don’t think I could get her to drink in her sleep. Not bothering with clothing in my own home I walk into the front room and freeze.

  “How long have you been here?” Archer is lounging on my couch with his hands crossed behind his head staring at the ceiling.

  “Since six minutes after twelve. Is it done? Is she your mate?” Six minute after. He was making sure The Claiming had been completed by 12:05. Got to love nosey big brothers.

  “It’s done.” I stroll to the fridge to grab that Coke. If he didn’t want to see me naked he shouldn’t have barged into my home. Any one of my brothers would have used magic to put on some clothes but again, I hated magic. His brow rises at the Coke as I walk back in. A small smile curves his lips before I can answer.

  “She can’t retract them?” He asks with humor.

  “She fell asleep before she even tried.” His bark of laughter makes me shush him. “She just went to sleep, dammit. Don’t wake her. Give me a minute. I’ll be right back.” He nods with a knowing smirk as I walk away. I pop the top before I enter the room then stride to the bed and gently prop her up in my arms. Holding the can under her nose I wait to see if it will work. It doesn’t. I scratch my head trying to think of any way but waking her.

  Getting an idea I lay her back down then dip my finger in the caramel liquid before tracing her lips with the drink. Her tongue darts out taking in the moisture, her body flinches when her tongue catches on her fangs, cutting it. It doesn’t wake her though. Her mouth stays partially open and I take advantage of it by dripping drops onto her tongue. It only takes a few before the fangs retract, a deep sigh coming from her as she curls tighter into a ball. Her hand reaches out to feel for me across the bed. When she doesn’t find me her mouth turns down in a frown before she settles into sleep. It pleases me to no end that she is looking for me.

  I throw on my sweat pants and return to my nosey brother. Settling myself in the chair across from him I ask the question I know he’s here to have answered. “What do you want to know?” I lean back and take a swig from the can. No sense wasting it.

  “What was it like?” His eyes fill with a deep sorrow before carefully going blank. I had no idea Archer wanted a mate. I wouldn’t have pegged him for the type. Bane, yes, maybe even Emmitt or Fin but not Archer and never Cash. Archer has always been resigned to his single status. Almost like he knew there wasn’t a mate out there for him. Even though we all had a predestined mate, it just took time to find her.

  “The first word that pops into my head is intense. But then again we did a forty-eight hour ritual in less than twelve hours.” I shrug.

  “Was it like the stories we have heard? Did she take to your blood willingly?” He leaves off ‘or did you have to force her.’ It is implied though. Did he really think I would do that? Then again if it was force or death, I would have used force. It wasn’t easy for Archer to ask questions. Him being the oldest and over nine hundred, he was the one we ran to for answers not the other way around.

  “At first she fought me. She tried to shove my arm away from her mouth after I finally got her to open it to begin with. Once she got a taste though, she latched on like it was chocolate.” I chuckle at the memory of her crying because she enjoyed it. Women.

  “Did you know when to bite her? When you needed to give her the blood, did you just know?” Archer was a very literal man. If he couldn’t see it or touch it then it wasn’t real. This whole mating thing had him confused since I was a child. He used to sit and unload question after question on our mother wanting to know all there was to know. He just couldn’t comprehend something he couldn’t see.

  “Yes, I knew. Well, let’s say my fangs did. I had no control over them. When they dropped it was time, trust me.” I grin.

  “I’ll have to.” Something in his voice draws my attention. His cobalt eyes are more reserved than normal, a deep sadness lurking behind the surface. “You are the only one who has a mate.” He adds almost as an afterthought. What was depressing him tonight? Me? Marnie? The entire mate thing?

  “Hey, you aren’t angry are you? I know Bane was a little miffed she was mine, but are you?” This was a little more in depth with feeling than we normally went, usually we just kicked each other’s ass when we were pissed about something. However this seemed different.

  “It wasn’t that she was yours, Dare. None of us can hold that over you. We don’t get to pick, it’s done for us. It was your treatment of her that aggravated the rest of us.”

  “My treatment of her? I took her straight to you guys. Everything inside me screamed for me to run with her, but I brought her. I did what I was supposed to.” He gives me the big brother look, you know the one. That look that asks ‘are you really that stupid and if you are how are you related to me?’

  “Dare, you made her run five hours through the forest barefoot.” He gives me a hard look. I was never going to live that one down. Three hundred years from now they were still going to be holding it over my head.

  “Okay, that was stupid of me. I only wanted to get her back to the tent to get it over with. You know damn well I didn’t want a mate. Then to find her wandering around a forest lost after some asshole attacked her. I wasn’t thinking straight.” He didn’t have to know I found out about the asshole after the fact. With this news he sits up straighter on the couch.

  “Someone attacked her? Who?” It didn’t matter they were pissed at me, she was family now and they would feel the same way I did about this. They’d want to hurt the asshole.

  “She won’t tell me his name. I was going to see if Emmitt could pull up satellite images of Yellowstone from when I met up with her back two maybe three days. She said it had been two nights. If he can follow her back from meeting me to when she was attacked we might be able to figure out who it was.” Then I would pay him a visit.

  “Why won’t she tell you his name?” His puzzled look is amusing. Archer didn’t do puzzled very well.

  “Let’s see, her words were, and I quote ‘even though he did wrong, I don’t want you to kill him. It would just make you wrong also.’” Archer chuckles.

  “Smart woman.” He g
rins.

  “She is. Even though I get the impression she doesn’t think she is. We haven’t talked that much about her life. She mentioned her abusive Uncle that is already dead, her mother died in a car crash with a drunk driver when she was four and she didn’t mention a father.” I hadn’t asked either. Talking about her uncle had put a deep sadness in her eyes I didn’t like seeing there. I hadn’t wanted to hear about her father and see more pain cross her face.

  “You want Emmitt to do a background check? Make sure everything checks out?” I stare at him.

  “She is my mate. What good would that do me now?” I had no doubt she was telling the truth, after all I had seen the Uncle and asshole in her head. It’s hard to conjure a lie into your dreams like that.

  “You might find the asshole was her father or she knew him, maybe even was close to him.” She better not be close to him. A growl wants to rip itself from my chest but I hold it back forcefully. If he had been someone she knew it would be tearing her apart. Was it? She hadn’t seemed to be focusing on the attack that led her into the woods but then again with everything else going on how could she be? I think maybe I have been commanding her attention for the past two days making it impossible for her to focus on anything else. I know I had for the past twelve hours.

  “It wasn’t her father. Angie hooked up her computer to Marnie’s brain and I saw the jerk. He was early twenties. If anything he could be a full, step, or half-brother. If the satellite doesn’t turn up anything then I’ll have him run it, until then leave it be.” He nods.

  “She’s your mate.” That isn’t the first time he’s said that.

  “That really bothers you, doesn’t it?” He doesn’t look surprised by the question, he looks tired. Was he having trouble sleeping again?

  “Not that you have a mate, Dare. That doesn’t bother me. I’m happy for you. What I’m trying to figure out is what you are going to do next.” He arches his brow expectantly.