Page 22 of Lost and Bound
It sounded petulant and childish, but the thought of lying down next to him again made the panic well up again. My mate.
My fuckingmate, and a dominant mate at that. I’d planned to mate someday, but I’d have been the one giving the bite. I didn’t have a knot, but I’d have fucked her—probably her, or maybe him, who knew—and bitten her neck, and claimed her.
Only now I’d been fucked, and knotted, and bitten, and claimed, and owned.
Fragments of what we’d done in the cell flashed through my mind, jagged rents in the disturbingly normal room around me. His teeth rending my flesh. His knot forcing me open.
His hands cradling me, his lips pressing softly against my skin, cherishing me.
Lying to me with his touch, because he needed me compliant and I’d asked him to do it, to pretend, to make me feel like he cared about me before he tore me apart.
And he expected me to lie down next to him and…no. Just no.
I blinked myself back to full reality, feeling chilled again. Calder was still waiting for an answer. I shook my head at him.
Calder frowned at me, but then he shrugged and settled himself more comfortably against the pile of pillows at the head of the bed, as if he didn’t give a fuck one way or the other what I did, or whether I stayed near him.
“The bond tied us together and wouldn’t let you die,” he said finally. “I pulled everything through it. Everything you had to give. I drained you. Until I had enough to get out of that fucking collar.” His hand moved, an aborted gesture perhaps indicating how much ofeverythinghe’d taken. “But you didn’t die.”
Cold sickness gripped my stomach, tightening my chest too. Apparently it would’ve killed him to sound even marginally happy about that. “Sorry to disappoint you,” I managed through clenched teeth.
He stared at me levelly, but his body went tense. “If I’d left you there, the bond wouldn’t have been strong enough, with the distance between us. I felt it fading whenever we weren’t touching. I could’ve abandoned you to die on the floor alone.”
But he hadn’t. Maybe he hadn’t given a damn, not really—but he’d kept his word. And that must have been…difficult. To put it mildly.
Calder was being kind of an asshole, but shame crept over me anyway. He’d kept his word. I was alive, and safe, and he’d been the one to do it.
“How did we get out?”
Calder shrugged, those massive shoulders shifting. “I followed the plan. Killed them all.”
Screams, and thuds, and pain in the darkness. I shuddered at the memory, but sharp, brutal triumph welled up in me, warm and soothing in my chest.
“Good,” I spat, sounding almost as vicious as I felt. “I’m fucking glad. I’m sorry I didn’t see it. I’m sorry I didn’t get to do any of it myself.”
“There were three other prisoners there. One of them helped. The other two weren’t in any shape to do it.”
Oh, fuck. I’d completely forgotten about any other prisoners—and I’d known there were some. How selfish could I be? I hated myself in that moment.
“I’m glad you got them out too,” I said, my throat horribly tight. I’d been useless, a burden—and he’d rescued all of us. “Where are they? Are they here with us? And where is here?”
“They went their own way. One of them had somewhere to go, and took the others with him. I got their names. A place they meant to go. One of them was a werewolf, with a pack in Idaho.” He shrugged. “If you want to check up on them later. I thought maybe you would.”
“You could have told them where we were going. I mean, I have a pack. It’s easy to find.”
“Not safe,” he growled. “I don’t know them.”
Which probably explained why he’d ditched them as quickly as possible. It didn’t sound like he’d gotten their info so he could follow up with them—but for me, and it kind of shocked me he’d figured out I’d want to.
But later. I wasn’t even in a position to take care of myself quite yet.
Which reminded me. I needed to call the people who were.
“Where are we? I need to—fuck,” I said, running my hands through my hair. “I need to call my cousins.”
And the heavy weight of that felt like enough to pull me down through the floor.
“The Oregon coast,” he said. “Right over the border from Washington.” Anticipating my next question, he said, “I broke into an empty vacation house.”
