Chapter 2 – Dead Woman

(Rene)

The Murphys are already on their feet when I close the distance to her.

"Get out," I say without turning my head. "Now."

The bell rings, leaving us alone in the room.

She is shaking.

Mine. Protect. Claim. Take her. Mark her.

I push my wolf down, warning him to be quiet. 

Angelique is shaking, standing with her back to me.

She’s trying to put off the moment of recognition, but the bond is screaming through my chest and it doesn’t matter whether she turns around of not, because I already know.

The back of her neck is flushed pink. The way it was the first time I buried my cock in her sweet heat and the mate-bond snapped into place.

But that bond has been lied to and destroyed and is waking up anyway. 

My wolf is in my throat going ours ours ours like a dog at a fence.

The man in me wants many things.

I remember watching my mother weep when we found a tooth in the remnants of the fire and believed it was Angelique’s.

I remember punching trees until my hand eventually broke when the stone was put up to mark her passing, even though we had no body to bury. 

I remember the emptiness in my chest where the bond used to beat warm and sure.

Right now I want to put my hand around her throat and squeeze until she admits what she did.

So I do.

My palm closes around her slender neck and she makes a sound.

Not a word. The sound underneath words. 

Her wolf and mine meet through skin for the first time in five years and the bond slams home so hard I have to set my jaw against it. 

The bond I will be rejecting as soon as possible, in front of my entire pack.

My cock is a steel rod begging to be freed from my pants.

She's not immune to the effect of the bond. She’ wet from that single point of touch. 

I can smell her arousal coming up through the fear, and a small dark thing in my chest opens its mouth, begging to be fed.

I force her head back with my grip.

"Look at me."

She keeps her eyes on the buttons on my shirt.

"Up."

She lifts her eyes. 

They’re green and they are wet and she is terrified of me.

She should be. I’ve never felt fury like this before. 

She will never escape me again. I will make her pay and then I’ll cast her out on my terms.

"There you are."

"Rene, please-"

"You don't get to say please to me, Angelique."

I tighten my hand. Her breath goes shallow and I feel the small involuntary lift of her chin.

I let myself smile. Showing her all my teeth.

"You forfeited any right to leniency from me. But you will be given the opportunity to make up for the pain you caused."

"I-"

"My mother mourned you for years. She’s gone now, so you won’t get to apologize to her for being such a traitorous bitch."

She closes her eyes.

"Open them."

She does as she’s told.

She’s crying now, silent tears running down her face without her permission.

The wolf in me is so happy I can barely hold him.

He’s going to be pissed when he realizes what I have in store for her. He’ll just have to deal with it.

"You're a liar, Angelique." 

I drag my thumb up the side of her throat. 

Slow, so I can savor the feeling of her pulse jumping against it. 

"You're a liar and a coward and you let me bury you, and I’m going to spend the rest of your life making sure you understand what that cost."

Her mouth opens. I don't let her use it.

I bend down. Put my mouth right at her ear. 

Her breath catches and her hands come up between us and land on my chest and stay there.

She doesn't push though.

The small dark thing in me purrs.

"I can smell you," I tell her quietly. 

"I can smell what your body is doing right now. You can lie to me with your mouth all you want, sweetheart. The rest of you isn't going to be able to play along. Your body and your scent will beg me to keep punishing you."

My free hand drops to her hip. Closes there. I pull her in against me until her belly meets my cock through too many layers of fabric, and I let her stand there and feel exactly what her shaking is doing to me.

"There," I purr at her ear. "Now you know. I'm as hard for you as you are wet for me, but only one of us is going to be punished for it."

She makes another small sound. 

I drag my nose along the line of her jaw because I’ve longed to do it for five years and nothing is going to stop me now. 

I’ll do anything I please to her. She owes me that.

Her hands close in my shirt. Holding on. Her body hasn’t gotten the memo her mouth keeps trying to send.

"Still so beautiful," I murmur. “Who could ever have guessed how much treachery is hidden behind this gorgeous face?”

I straighten. Don't let go of her neck.

“Everyone will know soon enough. The whole pack will see what you truly are.”

Her eyes widen and she starts to struggle, finally trying to break free of my grip.

“No! Please, Rene, please, I’m begging you. I-I have a son. I can’t leave him. You have to let me go.”

The words cause the anger I’m already feeling to amplify.

My claws slide out, slicing a thin line across her throat before I can force my grip to loosen.

She let some other man use her body and plant a whelp inside her?

The last vestiges of control burn away in the heat of my fury.

“You can bring your bastard with you,” I sneer. 

“I don’t care about that. I have no interest in breeding with you. My Luna will bear my children. You will be my pet.”

She sways on her feet. “Y-your Luna?”

"Brynn." 

Pleasure curls through me as I watch the name land. 

Watch her flinch like I slapped her.

I’ve never been happy about the match my father forced on me until today.

The dark thing in my chest stretches and yawns and gets comfortable. 

“Promised. Not mated yet, but the contracts are signed and the ceremony is in four months. My father and I are both very pleased with the pairing. Brynn will be the one to carry my heir."

She’s gone white as a sheet.

"You don't get to look like that, Angelique. You don't get to stand here and bleed about it. You lit a match and walked into the dark and let a whole pack mourn you.”

I don’t hold anything back.

“The world kept going without you, and one of the kindest things the world did was hand me your half-sister." 

I bring my mouth back to her ear. 

"You want to know a secret? She doesn't taste like you at all. Not even a little. I checked the first time she came on my tongue. I think she’s even sweeter."

I bend back to her ear. Let her hear me breathe her in.

"I can almost taste you on the air right now, traitor. Wet and scared and so fucking turned on you're going to walk out of this restaurant with your thighs sticky and feel every step of it on the way to your car.”

I can feel her wolf through the bond, and her wolf is on its belly in front of mine and offering its throat. Her wolf is the only honest thing about her.

I let go of her neck.

She sways and I make no attempt to catch her. She grabs onto the table when she’s halfway to the ground.

"Here is how this works." 

I step back. Give her a foot of air. Let her feel the absence. Let her wolf feel it too.

"You're going to walk out of this sorry excuse of a restaurant on your own two feet. You're going to get in your car. You're going to drive to whatever hovel you call home to pack a bag and fetch your bastard.”

Thinking about the child makes me want to retch.

"My men will be at your door in one hour. You will not run. You will not call anyone. You will not get clever.”

I take a menacing step closer to let her see how serious I am about this.

“You ran from me once, Angelique. Try it again and I will find you in a day instead of five years, and I will not be in this generous a mood."

I take her chin between my thumb and finger. Tip her face up. 

"There is nothing in your life now that isn't mine to take."

I let go.

"One hour, sweetheart. I wouldn’t worry about packing too many clothes, you won’t be needing them."

I let my eyes burn into hers.

"You're going to take whatever I give you. You're going to come around my cock like you used to, and I’m going to make sure you hate that you still love doing it."

I lean down to her ear one last time.

"You used to beg for me, Angelique. You're going to do it again. The only difference is what it's going to cost you."

I throw some money on the table before walking past her without looking back. 

The bond pulls so hard going through the doorway it feels like a hand in my chest.

I leave her standing in the wreckage with her hands at her sides and her mouth open and my fingerprints already bruising up under the skin of her throat.