18

TROY

One year was giving Ruby a free card at rejecting me and leaving. But I already hated myself for forcing her to marry me in the first place even though I didn't show it.

But when she hit me with her having conditions, I felt blood almost drain from my face. I didn't like this. And I had a feeling it was something inconveniencing. "You're not supposed to have conditions, Ruby." I kept my voice steady. I watched her chest rise and fall, she was breathing hard. And that meant one thing.

She's pissed.

But she didn't know though. It was my way of keeping her with me. A year was more than enough for me to come up with other ways to permanently keep her by my side. She also didn't know that I was in a hurry to give her the antidote. I hated the red mark on her. It was the color I would have loved it to be.

Reddish pink from my bites. Little hickeys here and there, all peppered on her skin so that every fucker knew she was taken and who exactly she fucking belonged to.

But instead, the color was deeper in a way that told me she was in pain and she needed the antidote to heal. With her wolf trapped, she was nothing but completely human, wolfless and without powers. And even though it would be my father's wish to punish her, to keep her in this state for much longer, it wasn't mine.

Unlike him, I possessed the ability to feel love and be human.

"Then I'm not signing this shit." I didn't know who between us was more stubborn. I felt something stir inside me. I paid attention to the crease in her brows and how hard she tried to look cold but all that her face showed was a little pout on her lips.

I made the mistake of zeroing in on them. Those lips. I adjusted my position, let my fingers graze my own lips. I could still feel hers on them and I already couldn't wait to have them again.

Knowing she wasn't going to let this go as I planned, I sighed. "Okay, what do you want Ruby? What are your conditions, my Luna."

"Stop calling me that!" Her eyes heated. But I just smiled at her. She was here. She could throw all the tantrums she wanted. She took a seat again, and I heard the faintest wince escape her lips. She straightened, and before me sat the business woman everyone else knew her to be. "Boundaries…" she started. "I don't care what you'll do with your time, you won't care what I do with mine. Secondly, you and I will not be intimate for whatever reason. I do not intend to be close to you in that regard." Oh, hell fucking no.

I should have stopped her right there. But I didn't. Instead a plan formed in my mind.

"My company is off limits to you and anyone from this pack. You will not demand anything financially or anything else when it comes to that during our divorce." Thanks Dad, now she thinks I'm after her company. "And lastly," She took a moment to think, playing with her fingers. "…Whatever you or your pack expect of me as Luna, trash it. I won't be it. You and I will live this one year as husband and wife, and mates on paper only. After that, you and I will go our separate ways, never to meet again. Not for business or anything else for that matter. These are my conditions." Might as well castrate me.

I let her words sink in as I watched her. Willing myself not to get distracted from what we were talking about right now. Then I sat up, unlinking my folded legs.

"That's not marriage, Ruby. Your conditions are a death sentence…" Just thinking about them was giving me a headache. I rubbed my temples, maybe it was the exhaustion kicking. I hadn't sleep well in more than a week. "I can't agree to these. I won't." I didn't go through the trouble of forcing her with me just for me to not be with her like a man would with his wife.

She was about to protest, but I had other plans. I swiftly, with unnatural speed pulled her up to my thighs, straddling me. My cock stirred at the motion. It felt good to have her like this again. But terrible at the same time because Mr. Cock didn't seem to care that she would feel him.

She glared at me, trying to push herself off and away from my hold. But my hands tightened around her waist. "I want my wife in every way." I said in a whisper while I gazed at her lips that were begging to be taken. "I want to be able to fuck and make love to you anytime I want." She sucked a short breath in. I left her lips for her eyes, my cock was harder now. Could she feel it?

"I'm not interested in being with you Troy. I never was. The only person I want fucking me, is Austin, no one else." That just made my blood cold. The fuck did she mean by that? My face hardened, my grip tighter that I wanted it to hurt as I held her. Let her feel pain so that she couldn't think about him at all.

"What did you just say?" She knew she hit a nerve. She smiled, mockingly so.

"You heard me, Alpha Troy. I want him." That only angered me more. She wanted him. I wanted her. What the fuck kind of fucked up triangle of fuckery was that?

I moved my hand from her waist, to the back of her neck. The other was still in place, holding her still. Then I forced her head lower until it was a breath away from mine. She pressed her lips in a thin line, like that was supposed to stop me from devouring her mouth. Of course, it didn't. Because I flipped us, landing her back on the couch and being on top of her. She gasped, lips releasing from being pressed and I acted quick, tasting them again and pressing my cock on her so that she knew how hard I was for her.

I moaned into the kiss, overwhelmed with the sparks of electricity that flowed down my spin. The mate bond. Did she feel it too?

"She can't without the antidote idiot. Did you forget?" My wolf sneered at me. I pushed him to the farthest part of my mind and locked him there. Stop talking. He was distracting this moment.

Ruby pressed the palm of her hands on my chest, pushing. I grabbed both hands and forced them above her head as I sucked on her lower lip. "Stop…"

Not a chance.

"Did you fuck him?" the words left before I could process them. But jealousy burned my chest. The need to possess and own her coursed through every nerve in my body.

I had only backed away enough for her lips to move but not be away from mine if I puckered my lips. "What? How's that any of your business?" She snapped, wiggling against my hold.

"You're only making my cock harder for you by moving too much, Ruby." She froze instantly. "Now answer the fucking question. Has he fucked you before? Touched you?" I didn't really want to know the answer. If I did, it would turn me wilder with rage. But I needed her to be mine alone. Untouched.

"She was away for five years asshole. Of course they fucked." My wolf had somehow sleazed his way out of the fucking box and was now roaming free. If he wanted to distract me, this was not how. I saw red at his words. My heart raced but not for a good reason. Every butterfly that flew earlier was burnt right now.

"Back the fuck up, Troy. And it's not your business if he and I fucked before or if I had another man inside me. We weren't together remember?" Kiss her and shut her up. My dark said yelled.

And that was exactly what I did. My head dipped and I claimed her lips again. I was mad at myself for a lot of things. Losing her, letting another man touch her and know exactly how she felt against his cock. Fuck! Don't think about it, Troy.

I kissed her deeply, running my tongue inside her mouth like I owned it. Left her lips for a second to pepper her neck with some. Then nipping at the one spot I had committed to memory that was her soft spot and she moan. Out loud.

I pulled back for a moment, to find her eyes wide. She must have shocked herself by moaning to my touch. And that made me realize that I needed her to feel the mate bond too. Even if that meant her powers would return.

"I hate you, Troy."

"That's okay, my luna. You won't for long."

"You want my body so much? You want me to be a whore, fine. I'll sign the damn contract. But know this, you will never have my heart." We'll see about that baby.

"You can only be a whore for this fucking cock, Ruby. As for your heart, it was mine before. Sooner or later. You will fall for me again. And not only that, but you will love my cock too. I'll make you want it more than you did years ago. I'll make you beg for it." My cock strained in my pants. It was begging to be released, and I could, but now wasn't the time. If I wanted to make her fall for me, I was going to have to control my urges around her.

First get her the antidote, and make her feel the spark.

That was the mission.

I gave her a smile, released her hands and slid off of her. She scrambled in a hurry while I gathered the papers from the table and handed them to her. "Signature please…"

She snatched them from me, with so much hate her body shouldn't be housing. Before scribbling her signature on it. "Thank you Mrs. Troy." I dared to wink at her. Something about this pissed off and resentful side of her was amusing. I hadn't had the liberty of this fiery side years ago and it was fucking turning me on.

I wrote my signature as well, binding us to the contract immediately before rising to me feet. "Now that that's settled, let's have some food, shall we?"

Ruby stared at me bewildered like I had grown two heads suddenly. "How is food supposed to be important right now, Alpha Troy? Where the fuck is my antidote?" Such a stubborn girl.

I rolled the documents in my hands and pocketed them before letting out a sigh. "What's the hurry, baby? I never said when I would be giving you the antidote, did I?"