Rage (Scarlet Dawson Book 3)

by Nicola Chadwick

  His hard body settles against mine, gently at first, until his hand snakes between my back and the bed, crushing me closer. He grinds his hips against mine and a shiver of pure pleasure shudders through my body. I break from the kiss to say breathlessly, “Naked, I want you naked, now.”

  He flashes me a massive grin as he moves away to shed his trousers and boxer shorts. My eyes widen as I see his hard length for the first time, but he distracts me from whatever thought was about to tumble out of my mouth, by moving over me again and quickly ripping open the fabric of both my pants and bra, the tatters of the fabric trapped between my body and the bed. Fully naked now beneath him, I feel my confidence falter as I unconsciously shift into one of my other forms. My eyes widen in horror and I try to hide myself with my hands.

  Bastian growls pinning me to the bed with his hips as he uses his hands to capture my wrists and pin them above my head. “Never hide yourself from me, I like all of you; Human, Fae, or Nymph,” he growls as he begins to trace a pattern on my skin. I can only assume from where his fingers trail that I’m in my Nymph form and he’s tracing the ivy vine that grows on my skin.

  He traces over my breasts avoiding the place I want him to touch the most. I begin to squirm under his touch when his hand traces lower then moves off the path of the ivy vine. I open my mouth to protest but his hand begins to move against me, and desire overrides my mind. He grins at me before leaning down to claim my lips.

  I feel the pleasure build in me when Bastian releases my wrists and moves over my body, his hand continuing its rhythm against my core. I barely notice him adjusting his position above me until he thrusts his hips and I suddenly feel extremely full. My eyes widen in shock at the unusual sensation of being stretched as Bastian freezes. My brow furrows as I look at Bastian in confusion.

  “I thought it was meant to hurt,” I say to him.

  “Not always, you were made for me,” Bastian says as he begins to move inside me.

  I moan as his rhythm builds and he claims my lips again in another searing kiss. I have no control over myself as the pleasure Bastian’s movements elicit builds and builds, especially when his teeth graze my neck. He pulls back slightly, and I began to make a noise of protest when his teeth sink into my neck. He growls against my skin when my blood floods his mouth, then he begins to suck, drawing more out. I have a second to realise he is initiating the mating bond when the sensation has my own fangs descending and for the first time it doesn’t hurt. As Bastian’s mouth is still at my neck, I sink my teeth into his shoulder at the junction of his neck.

  The minute his blood fills my mouth my body explodes; my skin feels alight with sensation and all the pleasure that has been building bursts inside my core as a scream tears my lips away from Bastian’s skin. Bastian breaks free of my neck to throw his own head back and roar at the same time, the sound more animal than Human.

  Bastian’s arms come around me and hold me closer as the aftermath of our mating shudders through me. Every part of my body feels electrified and the feel of his hands gently brushing against my flushed skin is too much sensation to bare.

  I try to think about the amazing experience that just happened but instead, I begin to drift asleep to the sound of purring coming from Bastian. I only wake when Bastian shifts us under the covers and moves to my back pulling me close and anchoring me to him with his arm.

  Chapter Seven

  I wake the next morning still curled on the same side, facing the clock on the nightstand, and it takes me a few moments to realise that Jinx is standing on my shoulder and is gently touching my face. I swivel my head to look at her and she gives me the most pathetic meow. I roll over and Jinx launches herself at the floor to avoid getting crushed.

  I lay there for a few minutes and replay yesterday afternoon. I smile. It was one of the best experiences of my life and now I was tied to Bastian forever.

  Shit!

  What happens if we’ve made a mistake and I’m stuck with him forever? I start to panic a little before I realise that Bastian and I were never going to have a normal relationship. I need to adjust my perception and take our mating as it comes, and if yesterday was anything to go by, I could definitely try to put up with his dominating nature. Try being the operative word.

  I roll out of bed, move over to the closet, and select a black knee-length skirt and a long-sleeved top in royal blue. As I move, I feel different, no longer aching and tired, but then that could just be from sleeping for nearly fifteen hours. I move over to the full-length mirror after pulling on the skirt, still naked from the waist up and see that my body is no longer marred by any wound or scar, even the scarring on my neck has completely faded and the ivy vine that was savagely broken has crept higher up my neck. I shift back into my human form watching the vine disappear and my eyes turn from green to blue.

  I quickly finish getting changed then race upstairs through the lounge, ignoring the Guardians gathered for breakfast and into the medical wing. The wing is completely empty now, so I go to the storage closet to try to locate a tool which I can use to cut the bandages from my wrist.

  I find an odd-looking pair of scissors and ease the bottom blade under the bandage and begin hacking it off. Once I’ve cut through the whole thing, I drop the scissors and pry the rest of the bandage away from my wrist. As my skin emerges, I see a band of intertwined ivy has appeared around my wrist that wasn’t there before, other than that there is no evidence that I ever broke the bone. I rotate the joint just to double check and smile when I don’t feel any pain.

  I walk out of the closet and back through to the lounge while studying the ivy vine encircling my wrist. I wonder for a second if I’ve switched back to my Nymph form but the Ivy vine that trails up my other wrist isn’t present. I drop my wrist and take a seat at the table with Jessica, Steve, and Aylesbury.

  I reach over to scoop some eggs and bacon onto my plate, piling it quite high compared to normal, before I lift the fork to tuck into it, I realise no one is speaking and they are all staring at me.

  “What?” I say, frowning at them.

  “Red, you smell different?” Aylesbury says. The others still sit motionless.

  I lift my top up to my nose just to check it’s clean when Jessica says, “You smell like Bastian.”

  “Assuming that’s what happens when you’re mated, then yes I may smell like Bastian. Please tell me I don’t smell too manly because that’s just weird and it’ll be costly finding a perfume to mask the smell of man,” I say, digging into my eggs.

  I ignore their stares as I tuck into my eggs.

  Bastian walks in as I start on the bacon. “I think they’re all broken,” I say to him after spearing a piece with my fork.

  Bastian eyes them as they now look at him with their jaws open and I notice his eyes have gone back to normal, they are now a deep blue and the black has fully receded from his whites.

  “What did you say to them?” he asks me.

  “Apparently, I now smell like you,” I say around a mouthful of food.

  Jessica is the first to recover and says, “It’s just a shock, we’ve all been taking bets at how long you’d make Bastian wait.”

  Bastian growls at her in warning before filling his own plate and taking a seat opposite me.

  I smirk at Jessica and ask, “Who wins then?”

  She pulls out her phone, taps a few buttons, and says, “It’s a toss-up between Cain and Denver, Denver bet last night, and Cain picked yesterday afternoon.”

  “Cain wins,” I say as Bastian narrows his eyes at me.

  “Cain wins what?” Cain asks as he reaches the top of the stairs.

  “I don’t know,” I reply then look at Jessica. “What does Cain win?”

  “Over a thousand dollars.”

  I choke on my bacon as Cain inhales through his nose and clicks on to what he just won.

  Aylesbury ferry’s his plate over to the sink then comes back over to me and envelops me in a hug, placing a kiss on the top of my head. Bas
tian growls a warning at him, but he ignores it to say, “Congratulations, Red.”

  I roll my eyes at him when he turns his attention to Bastian and says, “Hurt my little sister and I will make sure you suffer before I kill you.” He grins at Bastian before saying. “Funny thing is, I am probably the only person that can follow up on that promise.”

  Bastian narrows his eyes and my heart speeds up as I think he’s about to go nuts but instead, he just inclines his head at Aylesbury and turns his attention back to his food.

  I notice that Bastian has the same vine now on his wrist, so I ask him, “Is that some kind of bonding thing?” I nod at the tattoo then roll my sleeve up to show him mine.

  “It must be a Nymph thing because I’ve never seen it before,” Bastian answers, his mouth lifting at the corners.

  I move my attention to the carving knife in the middle of the table and decide to test another theory I have. I pick it up and shove the point into my index finger, wanting to see how quickly I heal. I wince in pain as Bastian roars and moves over to wrestle the knife out of my hand.

  “What the hell are you doing, wench?” he roars at me while manacling my wrists with his free hand.

  “Making sure I can heal properly again,” I say innocently.

  “I suppose you’ll want to check you’re immortal next by stabbing yourself in the heart? I would have thought the answer obvious when you can blatantly see all your prior wounds have magically disappeared.” He lets go of my wrist and stalks to the stairs, shouting over his shoulder as he storms down them. “Everyone gathers in the main hall at eleven, no excuses, and yes that means you too, Scarlet.”

  I act like I don’t hear him as I suck the bead of blood off my thumb and find it un-marred. I could definitely get used to being immortal. I still wish I had some kind of superpower though, I could certainly go for night vision and strength. I suppose we can’t have everything though.

  I finish up my breakfast and go to find Jinx, I need to make sure one of the Guardians will take special care of her while I am gone. I know she is happy to roam about The Manor with the Lycans, but I still need to make sure that someone will put food out for her and make sure my room door is open, so she doesn’t get locked in.

  I check The Manor and can’t find her in any of her normal places, so I head out the main doors and look around outside. I see a tiny speck of black next to a large speck of black hunkered down in the grass field that leads up to the woods. As I get closer, I see the large speck is a panther and Jinx is lying in the grass, imitating it as it stalks on its belly towards a bird.

  I know they have both heard me as their ears twitch slightly, so I stomp up to Jinx and scoop her up from the floor. She gives me a pitiful yip but settles into the comfort of my arms straightaway.

  The panther turns to look at me as the bird flies away, so I say to it, “Dante, I have told you twice to stop letting her follow you. It’s bad enough that she thinks she’s a panther, but it really confuses her when you magically turn into a man.”

  I turn around and leave the panther blinking at me trying to pretend he doesn’t understand me when I know he does. I walk back into The Manor and up the stairs to hopefully locate Quinn.

  When I reach her door, I knock but she doesn’t call out to enter so I knock again. I look down to the gap under the door and see a shadow move against the light shining through the crack, so I know someone is in there.

  “Quinn, it’s me, let me in?” I say to the door.

  When there is no answer again, I try the door and find it open. I push myself through as Jinx adjusts to being held in one arm.

  I stand, staring in shock when I walk into the room. The last time I walked into Quinn’s room it had looked like a bomb had hit it, this time it was so neat and tidy I wondered if Quinn had been replaced by a replica. I study her for a moment and watch as she paces in front of the window along the length of her bed and back again.

  “Quinn?” I say, and she looks up at me, sniffs, and bursts into tears.

  I rush over to her, placing Jinx on the bed. I grab her arm and pull her into a hug. She’s a lot taller than me so she bends to rest her head on my shoulder as she sobs.

  After a minute or two of silence, I pull back and say to her, “What’s the matter?”

  She sniffs again then moves to sit on the bed. When she doesn’t reply I ask, “Is it Dante again?”

  She looks at me then, and says, “How did you know?”

  “Only a girl with guy problems could clean up the mess that you used to call your room.”

  She laughs then her eyes go blank again as she says, “I’m pregnant.”

  “What?” I say, shocked, then I recover and say, “You’re pregnant, does Dante know?”

  “Oh, he knows. The problem is he thinks its Aylesbury’s.”

  Oh hell.

  “It isn’t,” she tells me. “It’s Dante’s. We got together the night you were taken. It was like all my dreams had finally come true. We were this close to mating.” She gestures with her thumb and index finger. “As soon as he could smell my body changing, he jumped to conclusions. He’s too irrational now to realise that you smell the change within a week of becoming pregnant and I haven’t been with Aylesbury for a couple of months.”

  “I think he’ll come around once he realises. You do know he’s only acting like this because of how much he likes you?” She snorts as if she doesn’t believe me. “Trust me, I’ve noticed how close the two of you were since the moment I met you both. The only reason he’s acting like this is because he doesn’t realise how much you both love each other. Just be patient with him. He’ll come around when he realises it's him you want and not Aylesbury.”

  She sighs, her tears drying up, so I ask, “So, what’s with the weird cleaning suddenly?”

  “Bastian took me off duty three days ago. The boredom is driving me insane already, and the more bored I am, the more I think about Dante. Not only that but I’m pretty sure my being pregnant is why no Guardians are coming with you as your remaining team members.”

  She was probably right, I thought Bastian would have picked Dante, Cain, and Quinn to join us, leaving Jessica and Steve here with Cage and Denver to run things. I smile at her.

  “I have just the thing to keep you out of mischief,” I say, picking Jinx up and thrusting her in Quinn’s arms.

  She arches a brow at me as Jinx squirms in her arms. “A cat is going to keep me out of mischief.”

  “Well, she thinks she’s a panther, so it means you’ll be spending quite a bit of time with Dante. Enough time to hopefully sort out your problems while we're gone. Just be careful though, Jinx doesn’t understand him when he’s a man. When he changes back, she tends to attack him, quite viciously too.”

  Quinn smiles and looks down at Jinx, I interrupt whatever she’s thinking by saying, “I also need you to help Raven with the investigations like you did last time, just don’t take any cases that are too dangerous.”

  “You’re actually going to let me do your investigations while I’m pregnant?” She looks at me shocked.

  “Well, I’m not a Neanderthal Lycan called Bastian, I know you're still capable of working for a few more months, just don’t overdo it. You can always ask Cain, Watts, or Harris to do some of the more dangerous cases if any come in. Although now we are based here, I have a feeling that the cases we get will be pretty tame. Plus, I’ll ask Gerry to keep checking that you’re doing okay and if he says you need to stop then you stop.”

  While still holding Jinx, she throws her arms around me and pulls me close.

  “Thank you, Scarlet,” she says, pulling away from me. She frowns at me then and says, “I didn’t notice before because I was crying… you finally mated with Bastian.”

  I smile at her and say, “On that note, I’m out of here. I have a few things I need to check on before Bastian’s ominous meeting.”

  I stand and leave her smiling with Jinx asleep in her arms. As I shut the door, I turn around to see Adam
walking up the stairs, carrying a wooden box, and looking extremely uncomfortable.

  He walks up to me and thrusts the box at me before jumping back a few steps, taking long deep breaths before he says, “Iron, lots of iron, wasn’t sure I could carry it this far.”

  I drop the box on the floor and lift the lid and see three handguns inside with holsters and over a hundred bullets which I could only assume were all iron from the way Adam was reacting.

  “I thought you might need more guns too, the more people you have shooting at him the easier it’ll be to put enough iron in him to weaken him,” Adam says once he starts to look better.

  As I close the box and stand, Adam’s gaze remains locked on the box then suddenly his head snaps up and his eyes widen.

  “You actually completed the mating bond,” he says as he pulls me away from the box and into his arms. I rest my head against his chest as he says, “I’m a bit shocked but happy you finally did it, of course, this makes it harder for me to taunt the Lycan.”

  I smile against his chest then he’s suddenly ripped away from and me and smashed against the nearest wall. Bastian stands in front of him growling and breathing hard. Adam sinks to the floor smiling and says, “Or not.”

  I laugh and move over to pick the box up, completely ignoring Bastian.

  “Scarlet, aren’t you going to help me,” Adam says as Bastian advances on him.

  “Nope,” I say, laughing as I take the guns down to where Bastian is storing the rest of our gear.

  Chapter Eight

  It takes me around twenty minutes to find the main hall. Unfortunately for me, I stumble upon it five minutes too late and find Bastian waiting for me outside the door to the hall.

  “You're late,” he says before grabbing my arm and dragging me behind him.

  He walks through the door and instead of finding myself in a hall, I find myself flanked by two curtains. Bastian walks between the curtains so I follow him, only to freeze when I realise the curtains lead onto a stage and the hall that Bastian wanted to meet in is full of Lycans.