Page 48 of The Warrior's Captive

Chapter 18

Briar May

Fuck giving Castor a proper introduction to her cabin. She marched in and stormed straight to the kitchen. She banged the cupboard open, got down a glass, and filled it with water. She needed to say something, but what on earth was there to say? Her sister had just given herself up so that she could have her happily ever after, and she wasn’t even sure that happy was in the cards, let alone the ever after bit. She hammered back the water, parched from sitting and doing what little talking they had before it all went to shit.

No, it had all gone straight to hell the second she set eyes on the man in her doorway, charging towards her in the woods.

She’d been ready to die to save the twins. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for her siblings or her parents, or for the greater good of her pack. She’d been an alpha’s daughter all her life and now she was an alpha’s sister and she’d been raised with the ethos that the pack always came first. Prairie Rose was older by a few years, and she felt absolutely the same way, probably even more so. As the eldest daughter, she took a lot on herself that the rest of them just never got handed. She was always helping out in the pack, helping their mom or both their parents. There had always been a strange maturity about Prairie Rose, even when she was young. She was an old soul. Prairie Rose was all sweet and had absolutely no thorns. How was she going to survive in a pack like Castor’s?

Castor chose that minute to step into the kitchen, like he could chase away her fears with just that single footstep.

Half of her wanted to fight him. That animal side of her was pissed off that she couldn’t shift and wouldn’t be able to for months. Her wolf was not happy, and her distress only fueled the animal parts of her. The other half wanted to run to him, to claim him and taste him. It was this half that knew with absolute certainty that he was her mate, even if her other half wasn’t entirely on board with the idea.

Her future mate tilted his chin and held his arms out wide. “Go ahead. You can strike me if that’s going to make it better.”

“Jesus Christ.” He probably hadn’t even flinched when he was whipped raw and carved up. She didn’t run at him to hit him. She ran at him to throw her arms around his neck and crash against him. The whole of the world only felt half right when he closed his arms like an angel of death folding his wings around her. “None of this is your fault,” she whimpered with her face pressed into his chest.

He’d put on the clothes that were left in the room for him. Kieran had slipped in and left them two days ago. He must have done it while she was showering. She should have seen to him. It was probably excruciating to get dressed. Why was her brain only processing that now? There was too much. When he was prone in that bed, it was easy to care for him because he so obviously needed it. Now that he was upright and mobile, he gave the impression that nothing was wrong. He was like a panther, hiding its wounds so perfectly well no one would guess anything was amiss under those clothes.

“It’s not,” she reiterated, eager to force him to find a bed and lie down. Or sit. How was he even upright? She was thoughtless grasping his shoulders and putting her full weight against him. God, what was she doing? She tried to back up, but he pressed her in close like he’d rather have pain with her close, than be perfectly fine without her. “Your brother, Rome and my brother, Pollux. They put a future in motion that we’re all living now.”

“If you don’t want the mating…”

The effort of those words cost him dearly. He hadn’t died after that savage beating, but it sounded like right now, if she pushed him away, he might. He was opening himself up, just a sliver, just enough for her to get inside him. If she kept pushing him back, he’d close up and he might never give her another chance.

He bent down like he had to get close enough to make sure he heard her response. Thank goodness, because she could hardly get out more than a whisper.

“I do. I do want it. I want you. Our mating will make everything alright, so it’s okay to want what I shouldn’t want. It’s okay to feel as though my heart is going to burst without you. It’s okay to feel like my life would have no meaning if you were gone. It’s okay that every single one of my senses cries out for you.” She grasped his hand and forced it to her chest so he could feel how hard her heart was thundering there. Maybe he’d feel the ache. She shifted it lower, until his entire palm was splayed protectively over her belly. “I can’t spend another second not touching you, not tasting you, not breathing in your scent. Own me. Claim me. I only said those terrible things because I thought it would save you. That’s why I didn’t tell you about the baby.”

“Are you really, truly?”

She could barely deal with the wonder she saw. This man who had locked the world away would make the best father. Their child would be raised in a pack where they didn’t have to fight for scraps of affection. They wouldn’t have to claw out a bleak survival. They’d learn what it was to be loved. Castor would stay. He’d learn too, because love was like the golden sun and the full silver moon. It soaked into a person and nourished every bit of them. It replenished and it healed.

“Yes. Truly.”

There was more she wanted to say, but Castor jerked her forward, tipped her face up, and crashed his mouth over hers. He demanded her, ate at her. He did more than just taste her. He nipped her and kissed harder. As hard as he thought she could stand it. His hands ended up in her hair, pulling and pulling and tilting her head back for him to feast on her.

“I need to hear you say it,” he growled. “Say that you’re willing. Say that you’ll own me as I’ve never been owned by anyone. Say that you’ll find my soul and hold it dear, even if it’s just broken little shards. Say that you’ll teach me with infinite patience and kindness how to love you properly. All I have to offer you are these bloodstained hands.” He lifted them, palms up. “And a battle-hardened soul. Two war axes which I will get back so that I can protect you and our family properly. I would do anything for you, Briar May. I know we hardly know one another, but I want our mating to be a happy, peaceful one with a deeply shared connection. I want to understand you. Very little in my life has had any meaning and I was taught to shut down emotions because they could be exploited. I know already that I have nothing without you.”

Her heart was going to rip in half. Pain could also be a beautiful thing because she felt it now. Her eyes were wet with tears and Castor’s face shimmered. “Bloodstained or not, I’ll have you. I’m more than willing. My life and your life, my body and your body, our flesh, our souls, our destiny. You’re the greatest warrior I know, and if you can’t fight it, what chance do I have?”

“I don’t want you to fight. I want you to surrender to it.”

“And to you?”

“Not to me. I won’t fight this surrender. This is honorable. This is right.” He kissed her hard again, driving her back a step, but his arms caught around her shoulders, fixing her in place before she even had a chance to stumble. “I surrender to you. Will you have me?”

“Yes. Yes, I’ll mate you. Yes, I’ll have you. Yes, I want you as my mate.” She shuddered. “Please, take me. Here and now.” She shouldn’t be asking this of him. She should be showing him around the cabin now that she’d calmed down. Getting him something to eat. Running back to Kieran’s cabin for the medicine she’d forgotten. She should definitely not be pushing Castor beyond what was humanly possible. He’d hit a wall and she’d inevitably hurt him.

“No. Don’t pull away. I don’t need that. I need you.”

“You’re still hurt. You just barely woke up and all this landed on top of you. You should rest.”

“I don’t need to rest. I need to kiss you. I need to tear this dress off you. I need to fucking be inside you.”

He bristled with that need. He was driven wild by it. It was like getting hit by a hurricane as his hands tore at her dress, ripping the front of it past her breasts. She’d felt nothing but hopelessness for days. A desperate fear that drove her to her own brink. She dragged his face to hers and fed him all of that sadness, all that crazed worry, all that frantic buildup of emotion that she had no way to expel. She couldn’t shift, but she could take it out on him in just the way he wanted her to.

She felt the cool air hit her bare skin when Castor tore her bra in half as well. He grasped her lace panties and with a single rip, they gave way. All of it pooled at her feet.

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