“Brogan left the room so we could work through—”
“I can’t do this!” she snarled. “I left your house. I went looking for another Dom. Why would you still want me at all? I… I can’t—” She shook the chains above her head but didn’t ask to be freed.
His heart twisted in pain at her words. The cane he held slipped from his fingers and dropped to the floor with a soft tap that echoed through the still room.
No. She was wrong. He would show her she was wrong.
“Can’t or won’t? We have something between us that our people desire and treasure above anything else. A magickal connection. How can you just say no to that? Am I so terrible a man that I don’t deserve a chance to win your heart?”
“No. That’s not—” She stopped and lurched against the chains again. “Let me down. Now.”
“Teagan, talk to me.”
“No,” she snarled. “Red! Let me down. Now. I won’t let you keep me captive for this conversation. How dare you trick me? You both should be ashamed of yourselves.” She yanked the chains again, baring her fangs at him. He could just imagine the angry yellow color her eyes probably were at this moment.
“You ran, Teagan. We started a bond and you ran. I merely chased.” He approached, unbuckling her wrists one at a time.
She took a big step backward and tore the blindfold from her face. Her eyes weren’t yellow anymore; in fact, they looked as if she would burst into tears at any moment.
“The only thing that can stop what we’ve started is a witch. You came here to try to drive me away. Well, it backfired and you’re pissed. I get that. But you are mine, Teagan. I want you. All of you. Every single broken piece of your heart belongs to me.”
“Fuck Fate!” she screamed, throwing the blindfold at his feet.
A growl started deep in his chest and Finn bared his fangs. “Kneel.” His voice boomed through the room, bouncing off the stone floor and walls. In another life he would’ve been alpha in his family’s pack. Here he was like everyone else. Bloodlines didn’t mean anything in Sanctuary, but his bloodlines did give him an edge over the average Lycan.
If she truly didn’t want him, she would be able to ignore his command. But if she felt the connection as strongly as he did, she wouldn’t be able to overcome the need to follow her alpha. Her mate.
She stared at him. Seconds felt like hours.
Her fangs receded and she dropped to her knees. The second her hands touched the stone floor, sobs overwhelmed her and she crumpled into a fetal ball.
He started to move toward her but stopped himself and turned toward Kate and Jackson. The alpha pair nodded their consent before turning to leave the room.
The bond had gone far enough to seal their fate. She was his and he was her alpha. Her Dom. The alpha pair would not go against his desire to take her officially as his mate. She had publicly submitted.
Turning back to Teagan, he closed the space between them in a few steps and scooped her naked, sobbing body into his arms.
One of the Sisters brought him a soft blanket. He whispered his thanks and wrapped his mate in the fleece before taking her out of the Castle. It only took him a few minutes to reach her front doorstep.
He tried the handle. Locked. He turned back and forth on her porch, looking for a place she would have a spare key. When he turned back to the door, he noticed a lip in the trim. Holding her tightly with one arm again, he felt along the top of the doorframe. His fingers brushed a loose piece of metal and he pulled a key down from the hiding place.
The door unlocked without complaint, and the magickal blue barrier flashed in the doorway like a shimmering liquid shield as he entered and closed the door behind him. The ward kept the Others known as Djinn from being able to teleport from outside buildings to the inside.
The inside of her house was Spartan but very clean. There was a small love seat and a lamp in the living room. He passed by the kitchen where a small table sat in a window nook with two wrought iron chairs. Turning down a dim hallway, he opened the first door and found her bedroom. A mattress lay on the floor, wrapped in pastel blue sheets, and a darker blue comforter lay scrunched to one side of the bed. Nothing else was in the room. No dresser or chest.
He set her gently on the edge of the mattress and then headed back to her kitchen. She might think he was going to just tuck her in and leave, but that was not what she needed. She needed a Master. And he was beginning to realize just how badly.
Grabbing one of the dinette chairs, he returned to her bedroom and set the chair a few feet from her bed, facing her.
She lay on the mattress, watching him between the folds of the blanket, her sobs making her small frame shudder every few seconds.
Chapter 12
What did he think he was going to do? She didn’t speak, instead just remained as silent as her body would allow. Eventually the sobbing would stop. She took a deep breath and tried to will the tears away.
What he’d done to her was humiliating and terrifying. They’d tricked her. Called the alphas in. And he’d showed his claim on her publicly. It would take an act of the gods to change their minds now. In their eyes, she was his mate. She’d accepted him the second her knees touched the cold stone floor of the Castle playroom.
But she had accepted him. If she had been able to ignore the command, he wouldn’t be here. He would’ve left her alone. He wouldn’t be laying claim to her broken heart.
It was broken. Shattered. There was nothing left to give another man. It didn’t matter what stirrings she felt deep inside, she couldn’t let him in. She couldn’t let herself grow as close to him as she had to her precious Ethan.
“I deserve the truth, Teagan. No more running.”
She met his piercing gaze and shivered. He was truly an alpha male. He might be mixed up in the hodgepodge of Sanctuary now, but he’d come from royal bloodlines. He’d come from power.
“But first I will punish you for running from me yesterday.”
Her chest tightened and she gasped for a breath. Punish? Her sex clenched as much in anticipation as it did in worry. He didn’t like to hurt her. He’d already said as much on several occasions.
He patted his leg and motioned her forward. “Come lie over my lap.”
She gulped air. Everything inside her screamed not to move, but she couldn’t help but do what he wanted. That primal connection was stronger than any solitary will of her own. He was her Master.
She would be better with him than without him. Of that she was quite sure.
Climbing off the mattress, she moved on all fours to his side and carefully arranged herself over his strong thighs, ass up, bared and ready for the swats she knew were coming.
Her body trembled like a leaf in the wind, but at this moment in time, he didn’t seem to care. His sympathy had been replaced by fierceness and a darkness she hadn’t seen in him before.
“You ran from me. You allowed your fear to dictate your actions. You should’ve spoken to me about whatever was making you uncomfortable. That kind of behavior is unacceptable from here on out. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Master.” Her answer was soft but clearly enunciated. And she’d used the term Master instead of Sir.
He took a deep breath and steadied his hand. He hated to punish her, but she needed this from him as much as she didn’t know she needed the tenderness.
“You will count to twenty-five. If you stop, we start over.”
Her body tensed over his legs. He could hear her heart racing, but he could also smell her arousal. It bathed his senses in her delicious, sweet smell. He wanted nothing more than to forego this punishment and move on to taking her so completely that she never considered the possibility of her life being better anywhere but with him.
“Yes, Master.”
He rubbed her bare ass and then raised his hand, bringing it down moments later with a hard thwap against her white skin.
The word “One” fell from her lips with a breathy gasp.
He raise
d his hand again and again, each swat bringing blood rushing to her skin. Her skin had shown an outline of his handprint after the first few, but now the whole of her cheeks were fiery red. His hand stung as well, but he didn’t give her a break. If he did, she’d find her way into a place where the pain ceased to matter. He wanted it to matter. It needed to matter.
“Eigh…teen. Nine…teen,” she counted out through clenched teeth.
Her tears wet the carpet below her head, but he continued.
He adjusted her body’s angle over his lap and spread her legs so that the last few swats would be delivered against her ass and pussy.
“Twenty. Twenty-one!” She counted, but he could hear the pain in her voice and it tore a hole in his heart. “ Twenty-two. Twenty-three. Twenty-f-four. Twenty-five.” Her body shuddered from head to foot as she counted the last swat.
He held back a sigh of relief and flexed his hand. His palm was as cherry red as her ass and probably hurt just as much.
“Good girl.” He gently caressed her burning skin. “Now we’re going to fix the barrier between us. We can’t be a strong pair unless we know the pain the other holds.”
Her body continued to shudder from time to time with sobs, but they were starting to slow.
“I’ll start by sharing something about myself. Then it will be your turn. If you don’t want to share, you can choose to receive five more swats instead.”
His lips curved into a grin at the small gasp that slipped between her lips.
“I lost my parents shortly after the Riots. They were amazing alphas and truly in love with each other. My brothers and cousins and I came to Sanctuary after being on the run constantly for years, even though I had to give up my birthright. This is my home, and I want you to feel the same way.” He’d grown up in a loving home where his parents and aunts and uncles had been blessed to find their magickal mates. They all had children, most of whom he’d grown up with his whole life and several who had run with him from town to town after the Riots as they tried to make sense of the “new” world they found themselves wading through.
Her body shuddered in his lap. She was so small and so desperate for someone to take care of her. Why wouldn’t she let him? He wanted to love and cherish her more than he’d wanted to do anything in years. She was the reason he hadn’t taken up with any single females. She was the reason he hadn’t given up on having a family. Fate surely wouldn’t be so cruel as to finally give him a mate but then take her back because she didn’t want a bond. He could sense she was fighting the attraction. Fighting everything about this match. Why? Why didn’t she want to be happy? A magickal mate was what every Lycan wished for… wasn’t it?
Sure, plenty of them settled and gave up after a hundred years or so. But he never had. He couldn’t. He’d known Fate would deliver the perfect woman. Now he just had to convince her of that truth as well.
“I don’t deserve you, Finn. I don’t deserve any of this.”
“Why would you say that? You are a beautiful, strong, woman. Are you saying I don’t deserve you?”
“I’m broken,” she whispered, her breath a soft warm puff on his calf. “You deserve a woman who can love you back.”
“You are attracted to me. That much is obvious. Getting to know each other is a process. I understand that.” He wanted to beg and plead, but his pride wouldn’t allow it. Still, he had to know why she wouldn’t give him a chance. Who had hurt her so badly that she considered herself in such a terrible light? “What happened, Teagan? Tell me what broke you.”
“I—” She started to speak but caught herself.
“You have two choices. Talk or get another five swats. Then we choose again.”
His heart clenched when her naked body tensed across his thighs. The choice was there. She just had to make it.
“I watched my mate and daughter get executed and I did nothing.”
His stomach dropped to the floor, and the air seemed to vanish from the room. Gods on earth and in heaven. No wonder she was in such a state. There was more to the story than she was letting on, but even her attachment to Javier made sense now. At least the blood-sucker hadn’t left her alone to wallow in her misery.
He placed his hands on her shoulders and lifted her torso, lowering her to the floor so she could rest on her knees beside him. There would be no more punishments tonight. She’d finally told him what stood between them. Now he just had to find the right path for her to start healing. Pain was where she’d gone to hide from it before, so that was completely off the table.
“Teagan,” he said, keeping his voice soft but firm. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine the pain of losing someone you thought you would spend your entire life with. But take that feeling and apply it to my situation. Not only are you punishing yourself, you are denying me a chance with you. A chance to spend my life with the person that the universe has deemed perfect for me.”
She lifted her head and met his gaze. Her tear-streaked cheeks and mussed-up hair didn’t faze him at all. It was the tiny spark in her big brown eyes. Though small, it was a promise that she might be willing to try.
“I don’t know how to move forward. Ethan would be so upset with me, but I just don’t know how to function without him.”
Hearing the other man’s name on her lips shouldn’t be painful, but a small corner of his heart would always be jealous that she’d already shared her love so completely with another man. He wanted that coveted place in her heart for himself, but it was important that he respect her previous mate’s memory and that of her daughter. They would always deserve her love.
“First we are going to take a shower, and then you are going to get some sleep. Tomorrow we can discuss how we move forward from here. For now I want to officially request your submission to me as your Dom. I will care for you as long as I live, Teagan. Anything and everything you need will be my first thought when I rise and my last thought when I lie down next to you in the evening.” He pulled a small black velvet bag from his jeans pocket and pulled out a thick silver chain. On the ring at the end hung a four-leaf clover and a heart charm.
Her eyes opened as wide as saucers, but she didn’t run.
He drew in a slow breath. Her face was a rainbow of emotions from fear to excitement and back to reluctance again.
“I’m not asking for everything at once, Teagan. Just a chance to work toward what we could eventually be to each other. But no matter what, you are my sub and I am your Master in all things.”
Offers didn’t get much better than the one Finn was holding out in front of her. She wanted him as her Dom. Hell, she wanted him as more, but she just wasn’t ready to admit it. Still, he was willing to take what she could give right now and wait patiently for the rest.
She was fooling herself if she thought her life would be better without Finn. Fate was giving her a second chance at a mate. Even more than that, he was a Dom who could help her navigate through the pain that tortured her soul. She didn’t know him that well, but she knew in her heart he meant everything he said. He would be there for her. He would protect her from herself until she was able to stand on her own two feet.
The collar in his outstretched palm was beautiful. The chain was as thick around as her pinky finger and she found herself wondering what the weight of it around her neck would feel like. She wanted to know. Everything he’d said, she wanted.
“Yes,” she said. “I can’t promise much right now, but I can promise to try.” She drew her loose hair away from her bare shoulders and leaned forward, offering her neck.
The cool metal on her skin made her gasp, but after he’d clasped it and she dropped her hair back into place, she couldn’t imagine ever taking it off. She touched the charms with the tips of her fingers and felt a sense of security surround her that she hadn’t had since losing Ethan and Miranda.
Glancing up, she met Finn’s gaze and reached forward, laying her hand on his knee. “Thank you.”
One corner of his mouth twitched wit
h just a hint of a smile. He was pleased. She had pleased him. After this whole ordeal, knowing that she had finally made a choice that made the man in front of her happy sent her heart flying. She wanted to see him smile again, and she wanted to be the reason he smiled every day. She wanted that for herself.
“Thank you,” he answered, his big voice rumbling out and soothing her soul with those two simple words.
Epilogue
months later…
Teagan shuffled through the kitchen of the home she shared with Finn. Within hours of accepting his collar, he’d secured them a house together in the same neighborhood with his cousins but several doors down and on a secluded cul-de-sac so they could be as loud as they wanted. At least that’s what he told her.
She smiled, bracing herself on the counter as she leaned down to retrieve a frying pan from the bottom cabinet. A few more weeks and she wouldn’t be able to get that low without help. She needed to ask him to move some things around in the kitchen so she would still be able to get up and cook him breakfast without bothering him.
A punch to both her kidneys at the same time made her groan and drop the pan. Her hand flew to cradle her swollen belly, rubbing where one of the little feet had jabbed. She cringed at the racket as the pan crashed to the wooden floor. No way was she escaping this one unscathed.
“Teagan!” His voice bellowed through their home, filled with a terror that only a soon-to-be-father possessed.
She straightened up and waited, his footsteps pounding ever closer. His large form appeared around the corner. He was sopping wet and had forgotten to grab a towel on his way out of the shower. She couldn’t help the smirk that curved her lips as her eyes were drawn to his bared family jewels.
“Good thing no one was here but me to witness your impressive entrance,” she said, trying desperately to keep from snickering.
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 73
