Chapter Ten

That stuns me into both stillness and silence. I go tense in his arms, my thoughts running a mile a minute worrying over Leisel. If he marks me, it’ll be a step towards cementing the bond between us. A bond that will permanently bind me to him in an irrevocable way.

I clearly won’t be able to escape Camden using brute force, but if I give him some obedience, there’s a chance it’ll calm him, and I’ll return to Leisel sooner.

Despite my worst fears, I doubt he’ll want to separate us for long—he has to be smart enough to know that’ll only increase my hatred of him.

“Take me back to my sister, please,” I beg, absolutely despising myself for how quickly my strength crumbles when I’m worried for Leisel.

“I will,” Camden says through gritted teeth, opening the door to a room and stepping inside before shutting it behind him.

I tense even more to see that we’re in a bedroom. There’s a large four-poster bed situated against the far wall and a fireplace across from it. At the corner is a desk with a few papers and pens strewn around it.

My breaths turn shallow as Camden sets me on my feet in front of the door and pins me against it. His hands land on my arms, securing them at my sides, and leans his full weight against me, effectively trapping me.

“Let’s get one thing clear, Sierra.” The possessive way he says my name sends a shiver of exhilaration through me, followed by a healthy dose of disgust with my body for reacting to him in such a way.

“You are my mate. You were made for me, as I was for you. I will have you, in every way I can. I’m not an average shifter who’s bound by laws of duelum—I’m the Alpha of the most powerful pack in this realm and ruler over all packs of all shifters. If you think winning the duel will truly allow you to escape from me, think again.”

I open my mouth to refute his words, but he cuts me off by crushing his lips to mine. Although my mind continues formulating reason after reason why I truly despise him, my body melts against him—forced to do so by the bond. After a mere few seconds, I’m sagging in his arms, and his hands turn from restraining to supporting. Slowly, all reasonable thought begins to escape me until all I can think about are his soft, full lips against mine, his tongue exploring and tasting me, and the length of his hard, powerful body pressed against mine. He’s bigger than me in every way, and that only makes him more attractive. My nipples pebble inside my bra, and I feel liquid heat pooling in my core.

I have to wonder if he brushes his teeth with pheromones because his kiss literally makes me feel drugged, dizzy, and giddy.

His hands travel down to my ass, squeezing and molding the flesh, and he groans into my mouth. Pulling his lips away from mine, he presses his nose into the hair cascading down my neck, and inhales deeply. A low sound of pleasure rumbles up from him.

“Never forget that I’m a wolf, Sierra,” he growls. “That means when you try to dominate me, my instinct is to force you to submit.”

That dampens the arousal scorching through me instantly and I stiffen again. “Are you saying you’re going to beat me if I don’t act the part of a perfect mate?”

He removes one hand from my ass, fists it in my hair, and pulls my head back, forcing me to stare into his eyes. “I don’t want a perfect mate. I want you, but if you run from me in any way—whether that be physically or by trying to keep me at a distance—I will punish this perfect ass of yours.”

Anger gives me a rush of adrenaline, and I find the inner strength to shove at him again. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

In a move that’s so fast it leaves me dizzy, especially since I’m still unstable with the aftereffects of his kiss, he spins me around and pins my front to the door.

Guessing his intention, I struggle with all my might, kicking and thrashing and trying to get away from him. I curse Camden both in English and in Latin—a language my mother taught me so that I could read ancient books on witchcraft—which makes him let out a puff of amused laughter. He remains in position easily, barely seeming to notice the effort that leaves me panting angrily.

When I’ve tired myself out and my struggles have turned from vehement to pathetic, he pins both of my wrists above my head with one hand and brings his big hand crashing down on my ass, creating a stinging sensation that spreads over my cheek. I jump and gasp, which makes him release a dark chuckle as he rains down a series of sharp slaps on my ass and the top of my thighs, so hard that I feel the burn even through the thick material of my pants.

The worst part isn’t the pain. It’s the fact that him…spanking me only serves to turn me on more.

“Stop! Enough!” I exclaim when the blows harden until I really start to feel them.

“This is how shifters deal with defiant mates,” he tells me, his voice having turned slightly breathless. He stops the spanking but leaves his hand resting on my ass.

“I’m never going to be submissive!” I snap back.

His tone gentles. “I know that, Sierra. I don’t expect you to be submissive to anyone.”

That gives me pause. “You won’t demand my submission?” I ask.

“No, I won’t, but I will demand your acceptance.” His palm starts to rub over my stinging flesh soothingly, and I can almost feel the mate bond getting to work to alleviate the pain—turning it into pure unadulterated pleasure. I think I hear him mutter, and submission in bed, but hope to the gods I’m hallucinating from whatever drug his mouth is laced with.

“I’ll never accept you,” I hiss.

His response is a pleased rumbly laugh. “Then why is the sweet scent of your arousal wafting around my room?”

Oh, shit. Shifters have an enhanced sense of smell—of course he can smell just how turned on I got by the spanking he just gave me.

“Because the goddamn mate bond is warping my thoughts. Trust me on this, Camden, I’ll never feel anything but disdain for you, no matter how strong the bond gets. And if my body responds to you, it’s not because of me, it’s because one of the gods decided to play a cosmic fucking joke by pairing us!”

He spins me back around so that I’m facing him again, wrapping his arms around me to hold me still, and I see how intently he’s staring at my lips.

“Such dirty words out of such a sweet mouth,” he murmurs, looking entranced.

“You bring out the worst in me,” I shoot back.

His grin is molten and absolutely wicked. “You’re so godsdamned sexy when you talk back to me.”

“And you should really come with a warning label: biggest idiotic incompetent asshole alive.”

His eyes travel over my lips and settle on my neck. “You have no idea how much I want to make you mine.”

My fists clench. His teeth are not getting anywhere near my neck. “Try it and I’ll educate you on what your testicles taste like.”

Gaze half-lidded, his smile widens. “You’re stunning when you threaten me with bodily harm.”

“You won’t be sporting that smug grin when I mutilate you.”

He licks his lips. “If you had any idea of the things I want—and will—do to you…”

“I’d kill you in your sleep,” I finish for him.

“If anyone else said that to me, they’d be dead before they could draw their next breath,” he points out, his tone turning stony.

I wait for the innate fear all humans have of mythics to hit me, but it doesn’t come. For a moment, that puzzles me, until I come to a realization. The mate bond is already corrupting me—making me feel safe in Camden’s presence despite the blatant danger he poses to both me and the one other person I truly love in this world.

I say slowly, “You won’t kill me.” It feels like the words are pulled out of me by an unseen force—as if the bond demands a verbal acknowledgment of what I somehow know to be true.

“I won’t,” Camden agrees softly. “But there are many ways to punish you, Sierra, and not all of them even involve pain.”

I try to jerk away from him, incensed at the threat, but he doesn’t allow it. His arms tighten until I can barely twitch.

He rumbles, “I don’t want to punish you—at least, not in ways you won’t love.” The sexual innuendo in his tone sends a shiver through me. “But if you force my hand, I will.”

“If you try anything, I will castrate you—”

He cuts off my words with a hard, chaste kiss. “Listen to me very carefully,” he says once he pulls back. “I don’t expect total obedience. I don’t want total obedience—it would bore me since that’s all I get from those around me—but I think it pertinent to give you a few guidelines on what will get you punished.”

“You act as if I’ll agree to go anywhere with you,” I interrupt. “The likelihood of that is somewhere south of zero.”

He lets out a hard breath of frustration. He thinks quietly for a moment before seeming to settle on a decision. “Leisel is a member of the Rockwell Pack by association. I am her Alpha. If I issue a command for her to be taken to Kinrith, that command will be followed through. The laws won’t protect her from that.”

The last time I felt the sort of fear that wholly encompasses me in this moment was when Leisel was dying from pneumonia. It feels like a casing of ice settling over every inch of me, making me shiver down to my very bones.

“Y-you can’t,” I whisper, my voice breaking from the onslaught of sheer terror I’m experiencing at the thought of this mutt taking my sister. “She’s underage—”

“Which means she can’t be marked or mated,” he interrupts. “That law will be respected, but I’m still her Alpha. Tomorrow she will be moved to Kinrith.”

That’s when I see it. Camden’s checkmate. He’s seen how much I love Leisel. He knows that I’m her protector in every way. He also knows that I won’t ever leave her—especially not if she’ll be dragged to live amongst shifters. I’d die before leaving her to bear that burden on her own.

Camden knows I’ll follow her to the ends of the Earth and he’s using that against me. By moving her to Kinrith, he’s ensuring I move with her.

“You motherfucker!” I yell at the top of my lungs, renewing my struggle with such vehemence that Camden actually stumbles a step back. I slap him across the cheek with all my strength, so hard that his lip splits and a trail of blood drips from it before the cut quickly heals.

Then I do something I never thought I would; I call forward my flame with lethal intent. I’ll kill Camden before I let him have my little sister.

This time, my black fire doesn’t just ignite in my palm—it covers the entirety of my hand, as well as some of my arm.

Anger fueling me, I strike Camden again, fully expecting him to turn to ashes on the spot and not caring that I’ll be killing my so-called soulmate. Not caring that I’m about to take a life because all that matters is protecting Leisel from his kind.

Shock flares on Camden’s features as I slap him with my flame-covered hand, but nothing happens. He doesn’t disintegrate. Not even a scorch mark is left on his cheek. The fire doesn’t affect him at all. He must have immunity to my abilities—evidently, a side-effect of the bond. The fire on my hand dissipates.

Camden’s blue eyes burn brighter as they lock with mine, and I instinctively stiffen. Being given that raging stare from a being who’s an apex predator in every way makes me freeze. He sucks in a deep breath as if trying to calm himself, and when he speaks, his tone is cold and flat. “Did you think that would kill me?” He gives his head a single mechanical shake. “Mates can’t kill each other, Sierra, but attempting that is something that will earn you a heavy punishment.”