Dare To Be Loved

by Stacy Lee

  “Do you have something to say, Marnie?” Archer’s voice draws my attention to him. He is watching my hand as it circles my wrist anxiously. I scan the room to see all of them watching me, all of them but Dare. He seems lost in thought. I shake my head crumbling under the pressure of them all listening. I could ask him later. Slowly, power unfurls inside my body snaking through every crevice. I meet Archer’s gaze steadily as I try to refuse the pull to say what he wants to hear. It’s useless.

  “If he didn’t use magic how did the ropes leave my wrists?” It falls from my lips against my will and I cringe with every word. As soon as it’s spoken the power leaves and Archer’s eyes turn apologetic. Too late now, you already embarrassed me, I shout at him in my head. Archer flinches with my inner shout like he could hear it. Impossible, I dismiss that thought immediately. Dare tenses with my question, his hand slides down my arm to run a finger lightly over my wrist.

  “You’re right. As soon as you surrendered I released the ties with magic.” Why did it sound like he enjoyed saying those words, ‘you surrendered’?

  “Then magic was present. It was still in your system.” Archer breathes out and leans back in his chair, defeated.

  “Wait, how was it in your system? It had been a good five to ten minutes between the magic and when you bit me.” I mumble hoping only he heard what I asked.

  “Remember when I told you I didn’t care to use magic?” I nod.

  “It makes you feel funny. I believe that was how you put it.” I remember because I thought it was weird to hear him say those words. A big bad man like him feeling funny would have been interesting to see.

  “Yes. The reason it makes us feel funny is because once you call on the magic it stays in your body waiting to see if you need more. It lingers up to an hour with the small magic, longer with the larger stuff, attaching itself to every cell in your body while it waits. When you don’t use it again it dissipates leaving you just as you were before. What I imagine it means by it being present is I literally had magic in my blood when you bit me.” Something close to fear trembles in his voice.

  “Cinnamon and power.” I mumble to myself.

  “Do what?” Dare asks.

  “Your blood, it tasted like cinnamon when I drank from your wrist but when I drank from your neck it tasted like cinnamon and power.” Archer sits up in the chair and leans forward. I can see the same question Angie asked on his face. “I don’t know. I have no clue what power tastes like.” I sigh out to their chuckle. “That’s just what came to mind when it hit my tongue. That and because of the electrical charges.” I shrug and try to disappear into the couch.

  “Electrical charges?” This is Emmitt, he was the one who worked with everything electronic so I wasn’t surprised this drew his interest enough to speak when they all had so far been silent.

  “Every time he touches me an electrical current comes from him. Well, that’s what it feels like, I’m not saying it is electricity.” I blush deep crimson and tuck my head to avoid looking at them. “When I drank from his neck the current seemed to flow with his blood causing my entire body to tingle with the surges.” This couldn’t get any more embarrassing, could it?

  “Does his semen do the same thing? I suspect you swallowed, right?” It could and has gotten much more embarrassing. I hadn’t paid much attention at the time because of Dare’s reaction but no I don’t believe it did.

  “No.” I squeak. “Neither did the blood from his wrist.” I bury myself in Dare’s chest trying to escape their humor filled stares.

  “Archer, you’re being awfully quiet. You have told us what is needed to make this happen but you still haven’t told us what it is?” Dare says impatiently, his hands rubbing the length of my arms in comfort.

  “You know of The Choosing and The Claiming. What you did is called The Binding.” Every muscle in Dare’s body tenses to beyond rigid. His hands that are lightly caressing my arms still and tighten just above both elbows.

  “Excuse me?” He grinds out.

  “You bound Marnie to you. Depending on the words of her surrender depends on the stipulations of The Binding. I need those words now whether it’s from you or her. I need to know how deep this goes.” Dare’s jaw clinches as if he is going to refuse him.

  “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.” I force the words to leave my mouth before Dare can stop me. We had to know the extent of what he did to me. Archer sucks in a ragged breath while letting his head fall in his hands. Mutters can be heard from the other brothers but nothing I can make out. Dare’s grip tightens.

  “By the fates above, what prompted you to say those words?” He grits out. I don’t think he meant to put power behind the question in his obviously distressed state, but he does, forcing me to answer.

  “Dare. It’s what he asked for.” I squirm as the answer leaves me. Dare’s grip tightens. “I had to answer him. I couldn’t stop it.” I mutter hoping I hadn’t made him too angry. Archer would have just forced the first answer anyway and he had the second. He couldn’t hold that over my head, could he?

  “You forced her?” Dare asks in that deadly whisper of his.

  “I needed the truth, Dare and you have to realize how embarrassing this is for her. With those being the words that made The Binding complete, if she thought answering would be disobeying you then she wouldn’t have spoken them on her own. I would be very interested in knowing how exactly you managed to make her say those words but for Marnie’s sake I’ll let this go and just try to explain.” Oh, thank God. I couldn’t take having to listen or tell how he tortured me into that surrender. Archer pins Dare with a meaningful look that says he will get answers later and he wasn’t happy about this new knowledge before he returns to me.

  “You got what you wanted, little brother. You own her, she will be dependent on you mentally and physically. Her body is yours, she will not be able to refuse your touch. She will obey you, any command you give her she will be powerless against it. She will think before completing any action that you might disapprove of, like answering where she wanted to live. She knew you wanted California so she agreed with what you wanted because asking for somewhere else would be disobeying you, contradicting you, arguing with you. However you want to word it, it wasn’t what she knew you wanted. Immediately after she takes your blood or you take hers the pull to obey will be stronger just as it was then. It seems to fade after a while because she hasn’t been as agreeable in the past half hour as she was at the table but that could be because The Change isn’t complete. She is completely bound to you in every way, just as you wanted.” He sneers at Dare whose hands tighten once more on my arm. They were beginning to become painful.

  “Anything else?” Dare spits out.

  “Yes. By binding her to you, you also changed the way The Claiming affected her and you. She will have the abilities I already described plus one more thing we will get to in a minute.” The thought makes me shiver. How could this have possibly changed Dare? He was already supernatural, how much more unnatural could he be?

  “What did it do to Dare?” I whisper before he can continue.

  “Remember all of this is what we believe will happen, as I said only one man has done it before and not much is known about what happened between him and his mate.” He glances between us to make sure we understand his meaning. Yeah, I get it, he was guessing, now what would happen to Dare! Like he can hear my thoughts he answers them.

  “He will become much stronger than he already is. I am not talking just physical strength, but in every ability we have. Where we can only use the abilities of those we are fighting against, he will be able to use them all when he feels like it. Of course he will need to learn to use and control them but after some time he will be unstoppable. He is now the most powerful Patronus alive. He is also the weakest, because of you.” I gulp. “Your lives are tied together now. To be separated f
rom each other will be physically painful for both of you, if one is aggravated, you both are, if one hurts, you both hurt, if one dies, you both die.” So that is what he meant by they would come for me.

  “Meaning if anyone wants to hurt him, they take me. The weakest link.” Dare’s hands tighten even harder around my arms, I cringe.

  “Anything else?” His voice sounds dead. I fight the urge to look at him. I wasn’t happy with him right now and the last thing I wanted was to see something in his expression that made me feel sorry for him. He did this to me, I had to remember that while I could.

  “Yes actually, there is one more thing I have been avoiding. Um….” Archer looks to me his gaze going to Dare’s tight grip then to my eyes. “You not only bound her to your life but to your blood. It is no longer just for pleasure or healing for her. She must have your blood to live. Food will do nothing for her, it will have no taste and may even make her sick. It will be with your blood alone that she will thrive.” I ignore Dare’s ever tightening grip as Archer’s words sink into my head. I had to live off his blood. The one thing he told me I didn’t have to do. I literally had to eat his blood.

  “Every time she feeds from you or you from her in the forty-eight hour time period while she’s changing the bond will grow stronger taking away her ability to disobey you, turn you down when you want her body, or anything else to do with owning her as you had her state in her surrender. She is now completely yours, little brother, heart, body and soul, forever. Just as you asked for.” Archer’s harsh tone doesn’t register, only his words.

  “And if I refuse to….feed from him till The Change is done? Will I stay as I am now? Will I be able to keep my free will?” Even before I am done speaking his head is shaking.

  “You won’t be able to refuse. You have to eat. Also I don’t really think it matters, Marnie. You might be able to resist now but what happens when you can’t anymore. Just the little you took earlier left you dependent on him for almost two hours before the effect started to wane. Not to mention the fact you have to keep his mouth away from your neck till then also. Do you think you could do that if he gave you a command, even if he didn’t mean to make it one? Dare tends to speak in commands, how long can you resist them?” He is right. Dare didn’t ask for anything, he demanded it.

  The growing pain in my arm finally registers in my head and tears begin to prick my eyes. I look up to his face and am astonished by his expression. Dare was no longer in control. It wasn’t like last night, it was as if every emotion he was experiencing was flitting across his face and for Dare to show any real emotion was rare. He was always guarded with what he showed others. When pride and then satisfaction roll quickly over his expression before moving on to regret. I completely loose it.

  He did this to me! I have to drink his blood to live and he is satisfied with that? Proud of it? Oh, no, he doesn’t get to be happy about this when I am completely destroyed. He got power and I get to obey him!

  “Let me go.” It comes out strong and demanding. His grip tightens. I gasp and against my will a tear falls down my cheek. I whip at it furiously and try to pull away from him. He doesn’t let me. Cash shifts forward as if he is going to intervene but Archer stops him. “Dare, you are hurting me. Haven’t you hurt me enough in the past twenty-four hours? Now let me go!” I scream. His surprised look turns quickly to anger but he does drop his hands. I jump to my feet taking several steps away from him.

  “I have not hurt you, Marnie.” He leans forward resting his elbows on his knees giving me that cold hard stare of his. His control was back in place.

  “Not physically, no. But you can’t possibly believe what Archer just said doesn’t hurt me? You tortured me into that surrender. I was only giving you the answers that you kept demanding of me when I said that. At that time I would have given you everything to make you stop playing with me like you were and now I realize I have! In that moment of weakness I gave you complete control over me, not for a few hours but for the rest of my life! And from what you have said it will be a very long life! I asked you if I would have to take your blood to live and you assured me I didn’t.” Wound up in my anger I begin gesturing wildly with my hands as I yell.

  “‘Only during sex’ you said, ‘only to heal’ you said. ‘My choice, always,’ you said. ‘It will be fine Marnie’ you said. It’s not fine Dare! This is so far from fine I can’t even begin to tell you how I feel about it. Oh wait, even if I wanted to tell you I couldn’t because it may go against what you want. Because I have to have free will to be able to argue with you, to be able to tell you what I think and feel and you have taken that away from me! I can’t even have a thought that disobeys you! So yes, dammit, you have hurt me! At least when Uncle hit me I saw it coming!” He jumps to his feet and stalks towards me, his eyes hard.

  “Do not compare me to that human.” He bellows the words, his temper well beyond the quiet deadly whisper. I should have been afraid of him, I should have run. I didn’t. I slap him hard across the face before raising my knee to hit him perfectly in the groin. He lets out a grunt and doubles over with his hands on his knees taking deep breaths.

  “At least for the moment I’m still able to show you how I feel about what you’ve done. Now before you are able to command me to be happy about this I need to get out of this damn room and far away from you. Cash will you please escort me outside?” Cash stands with a grin. I turn and march to the kitchen, where I grab the brownies, before storming from the room barefoot. I needed away from him before I found a way to kill us both.

  Chapter Twelve

  “You deserve so much more than that.” Fin growls out as I try to catch my breath. For a little woman she had a powerful right knee. I happened to agree with him. It is the only reason I didn’t move and let her lash out at me. It would have taken nothing for me to move out of her way but like Fin said, I deserved so much more than a slap to the face and a knee to the balls. Would she ever forgive me for this? I didn’t know what I was doing, that had to count for something, right?

  “Dare, what were you thinking making her surrender twice? You already had her, what was the point?” The point was she challenged me. It was stupid, childish and irrational but I wanted to show her I wasn’t challenged without consequences. I needed to be in control, always. I sure was now, wasn’t I? I had never wanted to control her this way. I like her fight, her bravery, her courage, her spunk. I liked she had stood up to me and now I have taken it away from her. If I was her I would have kicked my ass too. Finally able to control my breathing I sit on the couch silently. I didn’t feel like answering questions right now. I needed to sort this out in my head. The fact she just left with the brother she feared more than anyone else in the room was not sitting well with me.

  “Dare?” Fin asks again since I hadn’t answered him. I shake my head and rub my face with my hands. He exhales loudly in exasperation then turns to ask Archer something I completely ignore.

  Why would she want to leave with Cash? After all the drama of earlier and she asked him to show her outside. I could have taken her outside then left her alone to think. Fin had made her laugh, she had talked to him about things she hadn’t told me but it was Cash she chose to take her outside.

  To take her away from me.

  Why was this bothering me so much? He was my brother, she was fine with him. Still, I want to go find her, need to go get her, she belongs with me. A growl leaves my throat. Standing I proceed towards the door, my mind set, she was coming back, now.

  “Sit down, Dare.” The power behind Archer’s voice stops me cold. I fight as my body turns and resumes my position on the couch. I glare at him. “She needs time to think. Leave her be. Cash won’t hurt her, if you were thinking properly you would know that.”

  “I’m not thinking properly?” Of course I wasn’t but I didn’t want to hear it from him. He had said quite enough already.

  “No, your body is changing just as hers is. It has you feeling out of control and possessive, not tha
t you won’t still be possessive after tomorrow night. It’s just more so when your mind knows she needs your blood more right now than she will later. I didn’t explain this because I could see she’d had enough. Her body is going to crave your blood and your bite forever but till tomorrow night it is going to more often because of the things happening to her genetic make-up. She needs the blood to change, Dare. If I would have known about this I never would have called the meeting this morning. She needs to feed every couple of hours if not more and with every time she bites you I suggest you do the same. You aren’t dependent on her blood like she is yours but until tomorrow night you will need it, crave it. After then it’s up to you. It might take another day or two after The Change is complete before her body settles on a schedule of when she needs you. Expect three times a day if not four once that happens. You will need to be available to her, Dare. You can’t take off hunting and leave her without a way of eating unless you find a way to store your blood for her use when you aren’t here. Freeze it, maybe? Dare popsicles.” He chuckles at the idea. I don’t.

  “This is going to sound very male of me but it is not meant that way. Is sex required during any of this?” All four of them burst into laughter. Yes, it sounded like I was wanting it but in actuality I wanted to know so I could give her time if she needed it. If what he says is true and I have taken all her choices away from her I didn’t want her having sex with me while I knew she was upset. It would only piss her off more in the end. A pissed off mate was bad, a pissed off mate that could kill us both with one shot was worse. Her immortality wasn’t final till tomorrow night. I didn’t need to push her over any edges till she cooled off and accepted this. I had a feeling that would take a long time.

  “No. The Claiming is done. The Binding is done. Sex is no longer a requirement for The Change to finish, as far as I know. You should give her time to adjust before demanding her to sleep with you.” The disgust in his voice is not missed.