by Jill Haven
6
Evan
“No. You can’t go.”
“Who are you to tell me? It’s not fair.” My hair was down, and absolutely everywhere, but I didn’t have a brush and Bishop didn’t seem to own anything that had to do with taking care of hair longer than the short stubble on his head that he seemed to prefer. I ran my fingers through my mess. I still had trouble meeting his eyes today. Embarrassment at the casual way he’d dismissed me last night when I’d offered myself to him still had me ready to dig a hole and jump into it. Why had I thought he’d want me? Simply because he was an alpha?
“I said, no.” Bishop’s face was impassive, as it had been for most of the day. He went to the shower and began to peel his shirt up and off. My stomach jolted frantically at the sight of his skin, and I fled into the outer area while he was getting cleaned up to leave. I paced the fighting ring while the water ran in the shower. We’d had that at the stronghold, and now I wondered how it worked. How much of the stronghold ran on electricity? How much of my life was a farce for my benefit? After I figured Bishop must have had plenty of time to dress, I went back in, only to find that he hadn’t even put on nice clothes, just some old leather pants and a thin long-sleeved shirt that looked good on him, but wasn’t exactly what he should wear to a party.
“I want to see Seth again. I left the first night because I wanted to go to the party for Seth and Mason and their baby. Why would I stay here now?”
Bishop frowned and stood from where he’d been bent over tying his boots. “I’m sorry. I have to put in an appearance and there’s no way you can be there when Vince shows up. What would be the point of putting you into a position to be carted home again?”
“Uncle Vince won’t be there. He’ll be too busy looking—”
“He will be there, precisely because you’re missing. He’ll be attempting to enlist Carlisle’s aid to find you, or he’ll realize you wanted to go to the fucking party and expect to find you there and take you home again. He’d be right, more’s to it. There is no way it’s smart or safe to take you to Carlisle’s house in Charleston, unless you want to go back to your uncle?”
I shook my head as I furiously bit the tip of my tongue. Bishop narrowed his eyes on me and I tried to scrape my hair back at the nape of my neck. I carelessly twisted a piece of string I’d found around it and tied it off to keep things out of my face.
“Then listen to me.”
“But I want to go,” I crossed my arms and knew I was acting poorly, but I really did want to go. This wasn’t fair, any of it.
Bishop stalked toward me and bent down until his nose was barely an inch from mine. My stomach went hot and he took a slow, deep breath of me, sending off mixed signals again. Everything he did made me wonder more why he hadn’t taken me up on my offer last night, but was he the insane one, or I?
“You left your entire life behind to go to a party?”
My cheeks heated. I sounded vapid when he said things like that. “Among other things. What’s so wrong with that? What’s so wrong with wanting to have friends?” My chest hurt. Maybe this was ridiculous because I had socialized with other Redcaps, but I specifically wanted to see Seth again, and maybe Haiden, who he’d talked about. I wanted to meet others like me.
Bishop slowly shook his head, but his intense stare made my stomach warm.
“You’re staying.”
“You can’t keep me here.”
“Oh, really?” Bishop grinned at me, and something in his sharp-toothed smile told me to run, but I hesitated. He had me around the waist before I could get even a step away, and then hoisted me up into his arms. By the time I thought to struggle, he had me tossed onto his bed and followed me down. A mortifying moan slipped from me, and he leaned his weight on my body, and I thought I heard something like a growl from him. He took one of my wrists in his big hand and then there was something cold around it. I glanced up. A shackle. I tugged. It seemed like the end of the chain was anchored to the bedframe. Easily, he moved off me and got to his feet, standing beside the bed with his arms crossed. I studied the locked cuff furiously.
“You… you jerk.”
He snorted. “I’ve been called better by worse people.”
“Hey….” While I was still trying to figure out if I’d just been insulted or not, he patted himself down, clearly making sure he had everything he needed to depart, and took his cellphone from the counter to drop in his pants pocket. “I want to go.”
He started to walk out and had his hand on the tarp when I said, “Please, please, please.”
He stopped and sighed, and allowed the tarp to swing down. “Tell you what.” He surprised me when he turned and a warm smile flickered to life on his face. “You manage to get yourself out of that, and you can go.”
Sadly, I tugged on my wrist. My face heated as I contemplated precisely why he had something like this hooked to his bed. I refused to allow myself to get distracted, however, especially since he didn’t seem inclined to take advantage of me stuck in a very vulnerable position on his pillows. “There has to be a way to get loose.”
“Oh, there is.” The bastard winked at me, walked across the room, and then disappeared to the other side of the tarp. The sound of his boots on the cement floor rang clear.
“Bishop. You wouldn’t dare!”
He whistled on his way across to his Jeep. The large door that led outside rumbled, I assumed going up, and the air got chillier. I shivered.
“You will not keep me here!”
“You’re keeping yourself here,” he called back, and I didn’t care at all for the amusement in his tone. I jerked at the shackle and studied it. There was a spot for a key. My folding knife was in my pocket, but it wasn’t the knife I was after, so much as what it could do for me. The point was rather sharp, and when I took it out, it looked like it would slot into the little hole. I couldn’t imagine it was a complicated mechanism. It turned out I was right, and after a few tries I was able to pop open the metal cuff. With a triumphant cry, I leaped to my feet and raced out after Bishop.
He sat in his Jeep behind the steering wheel and had his cellphone out in his hand. He really seemed to use that thing a lot. I slapped my palm against the hood and he glanced up, startled. He slowly shook his head but gestured toward the passenger side door.
“You got out.”
“Of course I did,” I sniffed in his direction. “That lock wasn’t very well made.”
“It’s meant to be able to slip out of, if you really want to.”
“You’re just saying that to make my escape seem like less of an accomplishment. Why would anyone…? Uh…”
He gave me a long look that almost seemed like a challenge, but I didn’t have the nerve to actually delve into all the reasons someone would want to chain a man to his bed. I slouched down in the seat.
He laughed. “You’re going to have to be careful. If Vince finds you at Carlisle’s, he’ll drag you back home and chances are you’ll be under such heavy guard I won’t be able to get you out again.”
“I don’t want that.”
“Neither do I.”
We shared a lengthy, uncomfortable stare, and I sighed. “Fine.”
“Fine.” He sounded angry as he drove his machine backward down the driveway. The garage door closed in front of us. My stomach lurched when he continued to drive us backward, going in the wrong direction.
“You’re not going to do this the whole way, are you?” I asked, breathless with the way my insides seemed to be drifting off somewhere in front of us, rather than being in my stomach where they belonged.
He didn’t answer me, just backed the vehicle out onto the road at the base of the little hill before he put it in drive.
It wasn’t long before my stomach smacked back into place and then grumbled. I sat combing my hair out with my fingers and tried to ignore my discomfort. We’d had a light breakfast of a few bars with berries and nuts in them, and nothing else today. It was almost like Bishop didn’t
know how to live, and goodness knew I’d never prepared my own meals, but we were on our way to a party, so I wouldn’t complain. There was bound to be food there. I crossed my arms and stared out the window.
We were in the car for about forty minutes before we entered the city and my heart made its way into the back of my throat. Everything was very odd looking, and nothing like the homestead. There were a few things I couldn’t easily identify in Bishop’s home, but everywhere I looked were lights and more cars and trucks, large monstrous vehicles, oddly built homes with flimsy walls and small lawns and people… just so many people walking and talking and stopping into different businesses.
“There’s so much going on,” I whispered, and I practically had my nose plastered to the glass of my window.
“I imagine for you there is. This isn’t even a busy area of Charleston.”
“That’s…” I couldn’t finish my thought. I had no words for this hum of activity. Eventually Bishop pulled his Jeep past some wrought-iron gates toward a large home that reminded me a little more of what I was used to. The house was massive and multistoried, though it wasn’t made of stone and the windows were all wide and tall. A porch wrapped around one side, and there was a small, flower-lined walkway that went in a perfectly straight line to the front door. Everything about this construction was so precise, unlike where I grew up. Natural stone didn’t go in even lines like this place. I was left in awe. He drove his vehicle between rows of other shiny cars and around the side of the house into what seemed like a more private driveway in front of a garage.
“You can’t go inside yet.”
Fury pelted through me and I wanted to bite my tongue, had learned that to argue with him directly didn’t often end in my favor, but I blurted, “That’s the whole reason I came with you!”
He made a low sound, nearly a growl, that had me shifting uncomfortably, partially in fear, but my cheeks warmed hotter than ever at the dark, measuring look that followed. What would it take to get him to shackle me to his bed without my clothes on? Would he growl like that then, too?
“I’m going to make sure Vince isn’t inside getting Carlisle to help look for you. I have no idea what his car looks like.”
Sighing, I thought about the line of vehicles on either side of the driveway. “Me either.”
“Then stay put and stay out of sight.”
“What am I supposed to do here?” Glancing at the house, lit up with bright electric lights in a warm cozy way Bishop’s home didn’t have, almost made my stomach hurt. I’d wanted to visit people, not be stuck outside, closer, but not part of the fun.
Bishop took his phone out of his pocket, messed around with it for a second, and then handed it to me. “There. It’s a game.”
“What… how…” He showed me how to use my finger to move around a little bar that rearranged what seemed like candies, and when I got three of a kind in a row, they vanished.
“Oh!” Grudgingly, I admitted to myself that it was fun as I made some more candies vanish.
“Sit tight. I’ll be back to get you.”
Glaring at him, I nodded, and actually did enjoy myself for a bit. The sky got darker, and my stomach twisted and grumbled with hunger, but I decided he was probably right. I didn’t want to go back home, at least not right away. As the night approached, gray clouds rolled in overhead. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Tired, I climbed into the back seat with the phone and sprawled out there. Yawning, I rolled over and laid my head on my arm, playing the game until my eyes began to drift shut. Eventually, I dropped the phone down on the floor and closed my eyes. I was used to keeping time with the sun, though it seemed like maybe in this world of electricity people stayed up as long as they wanted.
Later, I sat upright, dazed and confused. A jacket fell from me. It smelled smoky and delicious, like Bishop, so I assumed it was his. Why had he come out here to check on me but not ask me inside? How rude. I pushed his coat aside and climbed into the front seat again. I opened the door and rain smacked me on the face.
Cold and wet, I trudged along the driveway, around the house, to the front sidewalk. When I got to the door I knocked, and not long later Dr. Mason Hardwick appeared in the doorway. He looked nice in his party clothes, and his hair was styled to perfection. I pulled mine around over my shoulder. I wasn’t fit to be here tonight. I turned to go again, tired and grumpy, and that’s when I noticed most of the vehicles we’d passed earlier were gone. I’d missed the party after all. What swallowed me up wasn’t sadness, exactly, but it hurt. I’d wanted so badly to see new dragons and have a good time.
“Look at you, are you okay? Come in out of the rain, come in.”
He ushered me inside and my stomach jolted, and nervousness set in. I’d never been in someone else’s house before. How should I act?
7
Bishop
I’d found Ace and Tennyson loitering in the entrance and quietly filled them in on the cargo that I was carrying in the Jeep. With my team at my side, we’d entered the party and delivered a gift to Seth that we’d retrieved on his behalf, a leather-bound book of great significance to his lineage. He’d been visibly moved, and it warmed my heart.
“Thanks. That’s all I can say.” His face had flushed and he cleared his throat.
“You’re welcome.” I’d bowed slightly toward Seth and then more deeply toward Mason.
“Knock it off, old-timer.”
I’d laughed and then smoothed a hand over their baby’s tiny head. “Best of luck to you and yours, Mason.”
But the joyful energy of the party had taken a turn when Vince made an appearance and loudly demanded that Carlisle hand over Evan. Tennyson and Ace had moved to my side in a slightly obvious manner, before Vince and his Redcaps had been skillfully calmed with Carlisle’s flawless etiquette, and escorted to the other end of the room. Mason had taken me aside and quietly urged me to reveal Evan’s location, with clear intentions to ensure the young omega was safe and had gone on his own volition.
“Yes and yes, and I’ll be mother fucked if he’s ever going back to Vince,” I’d grumbled with deep resonance, and Mason patted my arm as though trying to calm me.
“I’ll just trust your judgment on that, but a word to the wise—the china belonged to Carlisle’s grandmother, and he’ll be mad if any of it gets broken. So… avoidance in this situation is key.”
A belly laugh had broken out of me, and we’d made our way together to eat and laugh, far away from Carlisle and Vince. I socialized politely, but my mind was set firmly on Evan. I hated that his uncle was so close, and I said a silent prayer that the omega would know what was good for him and stay hidden.
The celebrations had worn themselves out and the crowd had drained out slowly, finally allowing the household and their closest guests to retire to their rooms. But not for long. Evan’s knock on the door woke the house, but I was at the far side of the residence talking tactics with Ace and Tennyson and didn’t realize he had amassed quite an audience until I followed the sound of laughter to the kitchen.
His lithe body sat upright and erect on a stool, with perfect posture, surrounded by Carlisle, Mason, Seth, Haiden and even Mable. Evan’s thin fingers were covered in cupcake icing and shoved deep in his mouth, almost ruining his poise. His eyes widened when I entered, and he almost fell off his stool, as though I’d sprung him in the middle of a gambit.
“Enough, I’m taking him home tonight, and that’s final,” Carlisle said, though he glanced around like he was searching for anyone, anywhere, who might back him up. Ah, so I’d entered at just the right moment.
“I’ll take him,” I said immediately, drawing everyone’s attention. Carlisle argued, of course. Seth backed me up but the Princeps Draco didn’t relent until Evan stepped in.
“If I must be returned home,” Evan said quietly, “I wouldn’t mind Bishop escorting me.”
“That’s not happening. We’ll figure this out in the morning. Come along,” Carlisle said to Evan. “We’ll get you a
room to stay the night in. Let’s go.” Carlisle glared at all of us, daring us to say another word. Seth seemed to vibrate with a barely restrained urge to snap at Carlisle, and I felt much the same.
The rest of the group returned to their beds, but I angrily paced the hallway until I was sure that Carlisle had returned to his room. The last thing I wanted to do was disturb the Blood Dragon clan leader after he’d gone to bed with his omega, but here I was. I took a deep breath and held it, trying to center myself the way I would before a fight.
Mason knew I had a hand in Evan getting here tonight, and if he knew, Carlisle would soon know, and it was better to get this over with. I knocked on the bedroom door.
Carlisle opened the door and glanced up at me, his eyebrows flying high. He was an impressive dragon, but I had a couple of inches in height on him. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes.”
“Then what can I do for you?”
“You’re not returning Evan.”
“Excuse me.”
“He doesn’t want to go, and if he doesn’t want to go back to Vince, I’m not letting you take him back.”
“Oh. I see.” Carlisle glanced over his shoulder before he pushed out into the hallway. “You do know that puts me into a hell of a bind, right?”
“He doesn’t want to go back there. I… I helped him leave.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Carlisle sighed. “You know, technically we should have some huge fight and I should drag Evan back to Vince by his ear.”
“He’s not a child. He’s not even a teenager. He’s a man.”
Carlisle pursed his lips and nodded. “I can’t take him anywhere if he’s not here.”
“Okay.”
“I’m going to bed right now, and when I wake up, he’s gone. Don’t forget, there are other Divine Omegas we need to find. From what I understand, many of them are out of state. That’s a good long distance to put between Evan and Vince.” Carlisle stuck out his hand.