by Rae Foxx
"Think of that first time," he sighed, looking back at Selene who was either going to vomit or rip my eyes out. Maybe both. ‘Think of the dirt under your feet. Of my hand around yours, of our bodies pressed together…'
With a scream, my wolf retreated. Everything cracked and broke as my naked body reappeared, promptly threatening to collapse. If it wasn't for Howls arm around my waist I might have.
"I've got you, baby," He whispered in my ear, his hands tight against me as he held me up.
My body was a red, black, and blue pulp of oil and flesh. Bleeding gashes covered my rib cage, my foot was turned in the opposite direction, and blood was dripping down the side of my face. That, with all the bruises that flowered over me and I was sure I was more bruise than woman. If Howl hadn't stepped in, there was a chance, I wouldn't even make it to the second semester of school.
Fuck, what happened to studying and grades and regular school shit?
"Son," Pater said from the other side of the yard, all of the wolves walking closer now. "Release the bitch and come to your mate."
Selene stepped forward with a smug grin on her face.
"I am with my mate," Howl said, his hands tightening around me. I winced at the pressure but made no move away.
Pater grabbed Howl by the shirt, his other hand balled into a fist that made his knuckles go white. "You are mistaken, Howl. Your wolf is confused. She has a spell over you. There is no way you belong to her or her to you. You are betrothed to Selene, have been since you were pups. Our clans and our pack will be united with this union."
"Jackson," Pater growled, Selene's father stepping forward with murder in his eyes. "I say it's time we seal our children's union, don't you?"
"Indubitably."
"No, father. Ivy is my mate, not Selene. My wolf is not confused and neither am I. Ivy is mine. I will not mate with your daughter, Jackson. We are already bonded--our wolves know their mate. It's too late."
‘They can't tell me who to mate. You are mine, Ivy.'
I attempted to stand behind Howl and my wolf clawed and scratched at me from the inside, wanting out, wanting to bleed these fuckers where they stood. If only I wasn't a pulp of flesh and broken bones I might have given in to her.
Howl was mine.
"It's not too late to stop this," Nicky's whiney-ass voice broke the tension, adding to the drama. "The bond can be broken. As long as the mating rights haven't been completed and he hasn't bitten her, then there is time. We can make this all go away."
"Break a bond?" I finally found my voice again. "You can't do that. All the books say…"
"We wrote the books. Who cares what they say?" Nicky looked at me with a smug little grin. To think, I thought she meant all that shit about embracing my birthright. All the trouble they went to in getting me from the trailer park and churching me up with a uniform and now all they wanted to do was get rid of me. Made sense.
Assholes.
"Give me access to her--to her blood and we can make this nightmare all go away, Alpha. You know why I brought her here, Pater. You know what I require. All it takes is a word from your mouth." Nicky didn't even spare a glance my way, instead of looking at Pater while she crossed her arms, waiting for his answer.
Howl reached behind his body and pulled me flush against his back. Keeping me safe, and thankfully upright.
"Let me see what spell she put against your son, Pater. Let me be the one to make her pay." Nicky was nearly purring her request, the Alpha's eyes bleeding darkness into me as he considered it. He worked his jaw back and forth and flexed his hands while darting his stare from me to Howl. Howl's mother looked down at her feet. Howl better not expect that studying the grass shit from me.
"Pater, I swear this upon the blood of my mate," Jackson spoke through the silence after a moment. "If you allow this mating to be--if you don't follow Nicky’s council and take the action necessary to rid yourself of this menace to our ways, I swear it, I will remove my clan from this pack and trust me, I will have the backing of the other clans. You won’t have a pack left. Give the bitch to Nicky and let us be free of the vile wolf. We can make her disappear and be done with it. Let our children bond and mate as they are meant to. Let Howl bite her tonight and let it be done. Make a decision. That's what Alpha's do."
I wracked my brain for what they were talking about. I was a shifter--pure and simple, according to them, though I knew that my body called to more than one magic.
What would they do with my blood?
"He's bluffing," I said through a clenched jaw. "I can smell the terror coming off his skin. He would never challenge you or your role in the pack."
"Stupid girl," Pater finally said, his wolf’s growl rumbling against the blood-soaked dirt. "You think I don't know that. You think I would just hand you over with a threat and make your life so simple. No. Too many people saw your little outburst tonight. I can't make you disappear, not yet. We need to set an example first. Send a message to anyone else who thinks they can stand up to me."
He was circling me and Howl now, Nicky took a step closer to me as though she already had permission to make me her lab rat or whatever she intended to do with me.
"I am going to make you hurt first," Pater said, a new blush rose to his cheeks, but I knew it wasn't the romantic kind. "I will make your heart break to pay for what you have done. Next week, on the solstice Howl and Selene will be mated, he will bite her and complete the rites before everyone…" He paused, taking a slow step forward his yellow eyes digging into mine, "and you will have to watch. You will be forced to watch him bite her, watch him fuck her--"
Howl's hands left me as he lunged at his father, as he soared over the dirt and wrapped his hands around his father's throat, ready to take him down.
I fell to my knees, unable to hold my weight, pain rattling through me at the impact, as I screamed with another crack of bone, with the impact of Nicky against Howl's side, of the Gorilla Anatoly who grabbed him from behind and held him immovable against his chest.
"Take him away, lash him in the basement!" Pater roared, Howl screaming as Anatoly carried him into the house, his yells echoing in the air and in my head as I tried to get up, as I tried to run after him. To stop them.
To save him.
I was stopped by two feet scuffing the dirt and a cock swinging inches from me as the naked Alpha squat before me, his calloused fingers snapping to get my attention.
"If I catch you with my son, trash, it will be you who pays. You run away. You touch him. You so much as think about him and you will be the entertainment next week instead." He sank to his knees, one hand on his dick as the other twisted through the air to caress the heated fury that surrounded me, his fingers millimeters from my neck, from my breasts, and down... His voice had a lower, hungry, quality to it when he spoke again.
"It will be you who is fucked before the crowd, whore. It will be my prick forcing its way into you. Every part of you. Instead of being mated, you will be tortured. You will be ripped limb from limb as I fuck you. Howl will be forced to watch as your blood soaks his hands. As I fuck the life out of you."
I looked up to him, anger and disgust coating the air between us.
"I would rather rot than obey one more of your commands," I snarled, spitting a glob of blood at his feet.
"So be it, but you have been warned."
"Go fuck yourself!" I yelled, but the man laughed and slammed his foot into my face.
Chapter 18
Everything hurt.
White rippling pain grew with each pulse of my heart. Bruises screamed with each pulse, bones cracked with every moment. I wasn't lying on the dirt anymore. The world didn't smell like blood.
Not like that made it any better.
"Fucking dogs," I mumbled as I tried to shift my body, the pain multiplying when I pushed against a soft mattress and hands wrapped around me, forcing me back down.
"Sleep honeybee," Finn whispered from behind me, his arms pulling me into him. "Sleep and heal. I'm h
ere."
I still tried to fight him. "Howl. I have to go back. I can't stay."
"You must, darling," Finn whispered, pressing his lips against the back of my neck. "You must. Sleep."
Warmth spread over me from where his hands pressed against me, his magic infecting me and pushing me back under, into a dark room that was filled with screams that sounded familiar. Screams that wrenched my heart as if it was going to crack as bad as my bones.
"Howl."
I wasn't sure If I said it or thought about it, but it didn't matter. The tears came all the same, the heart-wrenching pain consumed me as his sobs filled my mind.
‘You are mine, Ivy. Always.'
The words echoed as Finn's magic swelled and I was pulled into the dark abyss of sleep. The staggered sobs of memory breaking through the physical agony for hours. Days. Who knew anymore? I wasn't surprised when I woke up crying.
"It kills me to see you like this," Finn whispered in my ear as I woke, his arms tightening around me as I lay still, my fingers twisting through the rays of sun that were streaming through my window. "Your body seems to have healed."
"That's a miracle in itself," Scarlet said, towel around her as she emerged from the bathroom. "When I pulled you out of the yard, I wasn't sure if you were going to make it. I'm still not sure how you did. You look like old meat the groceries store throw out."
"Is it that bad?" Even speaking hurt, my lungs aching as I forced air through them.
"I mean, I don't want to scare you, but there's some significant damage. " The way Scarlet was looking at me was not doing anything to help.
"I deserve it," I sighed, sagging into the bed and Finn's arms.
"That seems dark for you, Ivy," Scarlet said, stripping down and pulling on a skirt and shirt. "What the hell did that Wolf bastard say to you?"
"The Alpha is torturing his son and… and I can never see him again." I couldn't force myself to say any more with the pale-faced shock Scarlet was fixing with me.
"Is he really?" she gasped, her eyes still wide.
"Yes." I swear I could still hear his screams, I hoped that was more memory than something that was echoing through our link.
"We will fix it," Finn whispered from behind me, his arms gentle as he pulled me into him.
"I don't know about fixing," she sighed, hesitating as she ran her hand through her hair. "I'll see what I can find out. I'll tell everyone Pater beat the shit out of you and you need to miss a day of school."
"Hey!" I tried to yell, but it came out more like a squeak, the word aching against my rib cage.
"Trust me, it's better this way." Scarlet didn't even smile before she left me alone with mate--well, the one mate I could be with.
Damn. Even thinking that hurt like a motherfucker. A tear escaped, trickling down my cheek before Finn caught it with his thumb and wiped it away.
"I'm sorry. I don't know when I turned into a damn crybaby. Over a guy. Dumb."
He kissed the back of my neck. "No apologies, sweet Ivy. You are mourning the loss of your mate. Just as I would mourn you should anything happen. Take all the time, and all the tears you need, I will be here for all of it."
We lay like that for the rest of the day, Finn's arms around me, his hands warm against my skin. Anytime a pain would pull, or my heart would ache as his magic would flood me, warm and lovely and plunging me into an abyss of sleep and long lazy kisses against my cheeks and neck.
I vaguely remember Scarlet's return and saying that Howl wasn't in class either. The two of them whispered of wolves and missing vampires and fixing things that at that point I was fairly certain could never be fixed. It wasn't long after that that I drifted to sleep, letting the numbing abyss consume me before the sun returned and pulled me awake.
This time, Finn was gone. A flower was the only sign he had been there, a note tucked inside its petals.
Be strong. I am only a name away. You have all my love, honeybee. - Finn
It was enough and I pulled myself out of bed, everything screaming in pain. I ignored them, letting the liquid heat that dripped from the showerhead try to soothe me. The warmth a numbing balm against everything else and I almost stayed there all day, but Scarlet was pounding on the door, giving me a twenty-minute warning.
I was going to need more than twenty minutes.
It took me a minute to figure out it was me I was staring in the mirror. My nose was broken, the thing mangled and tilted to the right, to an eye that was so swollen I could scarcely open it. My lip was split in three places, my opposite cheek featuring three long slashes, as though a cat had clawed me. Maybe they had.
Everything was black, blue, and swollen. It wasn't just my face either. My formerly broken hand barely moved, my leg was stiff and angry. I had turned into a giant bruise.
"I can't go to school like this," I said when Scarlet busted her way in, snarling about needing to pee. "You have to, Ivy. Nicky dropped off a note this morning. You miss another day and ‘Your Alpha's threat will be a reality' whatever that means."
I flinched and walked out of the bathroom. I wasn't about to share that bit of info with her, nor was I interested in watching her pee, something that she didn't seem too concerned about. Shifters were weird.
Getting dressed took twice as long as usual and required Scarlett's help to get both bra and shirt in place, although it took some convincing to not have her button the thing right to my throat. Turns out I couldn't move my shoulder more than a few inches. My swollen hand was completely useless.
As I limped my way toward homeroom every head turned, eyes wide, jaws dropped as too loud whispers were falsely disclosed behind hands.
"Oh my god, look what they did to her."
"I hear she had him under a spell."
"Serves her right for trying to overthrow our Alpha."
"We don't want trash like her around anyway."
I guess the message Pater had kicked into my face was screaming loud and clear. Even with all the hissed whispers, I kept my head up, spine straight, staring straight ahead. Scarlet, Evan, and Owen flanked me like my personal bodyguards. It couldn't last all day but was needed when I walked into Saenger's and right to Howl's desperate stare.
He leaned against the desk like he always did during homeroom and pack announcements; calm, casual, beautiful. Selene was hanging on him like a fungus. Although with the way he was favoring his left leg, his right hand gripping the desk, dark jacket buttoned up tight, it was clear things were not the way they always were.
That he hadn't come through unscathed. They had hurt him where others couldn't see. I was the walking banner ad for pack loyalty. He was the power child.
Howl's jaw was tight, his eyes horrified when he looked at me, meeting mine for the first time in days and his voice filled my mind. I nearly cried right then.
‘Your face… Ivy. I will make him pay.' Now it was my jaw that was tensing, my feet that were shuffling forward as I walked away from him, tears seeping from swollen eyes and dripping over bruises and still healing cuts.
‘Don't do anything, Howl. We have to let this happen,' I said as I took a seat at the very back. ‘We can't fight him. We can't win.
That last part was for me, but I knew he could hear it with how his eyes glossed over, the pain digging into me before he looked away and started the announcements, his hand winding around Selene's waist like usual.
Selene.
Pater's spy.
‘Yes,' Howl's angry hiss confirmed.
It all made sense now.
‘I will come to you,' Howl's promise cut through his announcements, causing me to jerk. ‘They can't keep me away.'
‘They can. They have. Stay away, Howl,' I whispered in return, my eyes focused on the desktop and the tears that were forming there, the blood-tinged drops falling in time with his footsteps as he exited the room.
I would love to say that everything was normal, you know, besides the mincemeat face I was carrying around. Howl seemed normal. Class seemed normal. Sch
ool seemed normal. But everything was numb. The world had lost something and I couldn't put it back.
Everything moved in a whirl. Seager. Caruthers. Lunch. Gym. Everything was a wash of agony made worse by the exhaustion and the new target I had on my back.
Notes were passed my way, white pieces of paper scrawled with threats. Food was thrown at my head, and in the sparring matches at least five guys volunteered to ‘punch my face in further'. Luckily Evan took pity on me and circled me for an hour, the two of us taking obligatory swipes at each other when Coach looked our way.
None of it was as painful as the shadow that was haunting me. The tall figure that stood at the end of every hallway, breaking my heart at every turn.
Before, when I didn't know he was my mate, it seemed Howl avoided me on purpose and it worked so well.
Now that I couldn't have him, he was everywhere.
By the time I got back to my room, I didn't have the strength to do more than collapse into bed and cry myself to sleep.
Pathetic.
Weak and pathetic.
Those were the words that echoed in my head as when I woke up. Uniform mussed, hair tangled, face a little less battered.
I stared at my reflection, straightened my shirt and fixed my black and blue jaw into a scowl.
"Stop whining, you whore. You're a badass and it's time you acted like one."
"Well, that sounds more like the girl I know," Scarlet said, smug smile in place as she leaned against the bathroom door. "Going to kick someone's ass?"
"Not yet." It was as honest of an answer as I could give her.
I wanted to, oh how I wanted to. I didn't see that happening against Pater and his clan of blood-thirsty wolves.
Blood.
Vampires.
Finn.
"You okay?" Scarlet asked, looking at me as though my swollen-eyed stare was a sign of a stroke.
"Finn. Meet me in the atrium," I spoke without thinking, talking to the air like he could hear me. Gawd, I hoped that worked.
"What can you mind-meld with him now too?"
"Scarlet, cover for me in homeroom. I'll see you in Saenger’s." I said, hobbling past her and out the door, not even bothering to answer her question.
