Enslaved in Shadows (24 page)

             
“Better?” Draven asked.

             
“Better.”

             
Jes stood and wiped her hand across her mouth. Throwing up was not good on all levels.
She needed to clean up, get the taste out of her mouth. Quick.
In the back of her
head,
she knew she needed to question him. Ask him what had just happened.
Was it an accident or did he do it on purpose?

             
She could smell burnt flesh. The smell was something she would never ever want to smell again.
How had he burned her? The pain slowed a bit more to a dull annoyance. Her fingers gently traced the swollen flesh around the wound.
Her skin was angry and irritated. She gave Draven an accusing glare.
Men!
He fully didn’t understand his error in all of this. His demeanor was confident when his arms closed around her.

             
His voice was reverent as he spoke. “There is no you or me, only us.”

             
Come again?

             
Jes’s heart knocked on her ribcage. It wasn’t in a good way either, her breathing slowed.
Panic was digging its way back into her thoughts.
Don’t say it. Don’t say it.
It being
the
three words.
If he said
them,
it would take her over a cliff she could never return from.
You will be locked up!
She would because if he uttered the words she was going to commit murder on the foulest level.
Growing a pair of balls was going to be her new mantra. No matter the outcome!

             
“Stop right there,” her open palm landed on his chest with a smack and pushed. He allowed her to make room between them. He wasn’t stupid. “What the fuck just happened? Huh?” She shook her head when he looked at her and then at the pile of embarrassment. “Not me losing my stomach, you. What the fuck did you do to me?” Jesminda asked.
Playtime
and warm fuzzy feelings was officially fucking over.

             
“It’s done.” Draven said darkly. His eye held a determined gleam. Oh, so he was going to attempt his hand at ‘Good Guy, Crazy Girl’.
Not gonna happen partna.
And bring on the ghetto. Jes thought as her hands landed on her hips.
Strangely, she felt the need to crack her neck, arch her back. Prepare for verbal battle.

             
“Monosyllabic phrases may work in the wild. Here not so much.” Her side hurt like a motherfucker, now.
She’d gone from scared, bum rushed through angry, and wanted an explanation. Now!

             
Draven reluctantly put distance between them as he took one step, then two more.
He knew he was treading water.
He was still infused with his dogmatic tendency. She wasn’t about to back down now.
He started this.

             
“We are a mated pair now, you and me.”

             
She watched as he bent at the legs
,
then back up again stretching.
He’d answered her as if it was just another ordinary day in their not so ordinary world. His chest stuck out with pride as the words spilled from his mouth. Mated? Her? Not in this or any other lifetime. Standing in the clearing naked, having a conversation about being mated? Unfuckingbelievable! Her insecurities threatened to overwhelm her. An overload of words she wanted to say never came. She was dumbfounded.
Jes abruptly grabbed her stomach to cover her scars. Now she had a new addition.
Open your mouth and say how you feel! He’s not Marcus!

             
“We are no such thing!” Her voice radiated her incredulity. “I didn’t sign on for this or the abuse. You don’t fucking touch me with so much as a hair on your head! Are we clear?”
She’d walked right up to him. His only reaction was a grin. A placating grin. One eyebrow arched in challenge, daring her to think or say otherwise.
She was not going to let him emotionally, physically, or mentally bully her. No one was!
Not anymore.

             
“We need to get moving, Royce is expecting us.”
Draven dropped a kiss on her forehead walking her back towards the boulder. He’d called her bluff.
He was too close.
She could feel him in her bones; he dipped his head to capture another kiss.
He just dismissed her like she was some ill-educated women. As if her feelings didn’t matter! Instead of a
kiss,
she bit him hard on the lips.

             
“Ow!” Draven moved back nursing her bite.

             
“I said we are not mated!”

             
He sucked the blood on his lips and growled. “Woman, we shall discuss this later. What’s done is done.”

             
“You are a bully and a pig! This is not the early 1950’s I will not wear an apron.” Jes stomped her foot in the dirt. “I will not cook, clean, service, or breed. I am free to choose who I want, when I want, and whenever I want.”

             
The boulder was almost painful as it dug into her back. Draven’s muscles bulged and his hands shook as he got in her face, placing both his hands on either side of her face. In a deadly quite voice, so calm it was barely a whisper he said.

             
“Try it petal.”

             
“Try or what?” She hissed back in his face in blunt challenge.

             
“I would never hurt you, but I can and I will punish you.”

             
She flinched at the words.
Draven’s eyes went big with worry. His hands rose slowly to alert her of his intentions and softly caressed her face.

             
“I know you’ve been hurt baby. And I promise you, it won’t ever happen again.” His jaw clenched and unclenched in frustration. “Marcus will pay on so many levels. I didn’t want to bring it up, I know you hurt here,” he bent and kissed her chest were her
heartbeat
. “I give you my word I will never hurt you, your heart, body, or your soul. I only want to take care of you and our daughter. To L-” Jes cut him off before he could say the words that would destroy her.
She couldn’t hear them from him, would never accept them.

             
She stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his shoulder to kiss him on the cheek. Deep down she knew she was avoiding the serious discussion. She’d do anything not to hear those words uttered.
Even kiss the man who’d hurt her. She needed to get back to Faith, hold her daughter in her arms. The dynamics of their relationship, what Draven thought was a relationship would have to wait.
             
             

             
“Let’s get back to the others,” She said against his cheeks.

             
Draven lifted his head, ran his hands down the sides of her face and resting them on her shoulders. “We will talk more about this. For now, get dressed and hop on the wolf express.”
Some of the tension left her body at his words. He’d let her have her out.

             
Jesminda stepped away from Draven and began putting her clothes back on. Issues would have to be addressed later, much later.
Draven pulled her against his chest when she was finished dressing and bit the back of her neck. She knew what he was doing, trying to get her use to his touch. She wasn’t about to let that happen. Regardless of her body, deciding to relax in his arms.

             
“I am going to change now, I want you to hop on so we can leave, don’t worry about people seeing us on the service roads, we’re not far from the motel Royce and I saw on the way to Bells. We will be there in about an hour.”

             
She watched as Draven changed into his wolf form. There were a series of loud cracks as bones adjusted and readjusted. Muscles bulged and expanded. His hair grew longer, thicker and seemed to spread across his entire body blanketing him in the change. It was amazing. Unreal.
If he stood on his hind
legs,
he’d be massive.
Whoa!

             
She hopped onto the back of the wolf and nuzzled the top of his head. The wolf shook franticly back and forth in a jerky motion. Heckling.

             
“Sorry, wasn’t trying to tickle you.” Jes giggled. She could relate to him in this form. It didn’t have to be serious or dire.
She could just relax and enjoy her surroundings. The sun was at her back as they ran toward the motel. There was still so much more to do.
They still needed to find the house Marcus was hiding the vampires, and then of course Marcus himself.
Added to the equation now were- Jesminda stopped short in her thoughts.
She didn’t know what the hell those things were back at Bells’ house. Damn! Now they had them to contend with them as well. How did they find her? Were they now being followed?
She didn’t want to think about all the shit swimming in her head. She had a plan and it was perfect. Get to the motel and see Faith. Talk to Draven about what was going on with him and her. Find Marcus and the missing vampires, and most important finish what they fucking started! Anyone else would do the same. She needed to look at her glass
half-empty
, because Draven was drinking the Kool-Aid and her flavor wasn’t kiwi strawberry blast. It was Mango madness.
They needed to finish what they’d started.
Period!
End of subject.
Even if in the
end,
they would both go their separate ways.

Chapter 15

The run to the motel was uneventful.
No one was on the service roads as Draven raced toward their destination. He’d mentally been ticking off a list of things he’d done wrong where Jesminda was concerned.
He’d fucked up in a major way, knew he had. How was he going to fix this fuckup of epic proportions?
She was avoiding him, and he knew it was due to her traumatic past.
Kill the bastard.
His wolf said. They were both on the same page there. He was going to do more than kill Marcus. He was going to keep him alive for an entire year, gutting him over and over but just to the point of death.
Maybe even tie his intestines into pretty bows and wipe his face clean with the foul things.
The possibilities were endless.
What ever happened in her past he would wipe from their future.
Their lives would not be affected by Marcus, not even a blemish would remain.

When they arrived, everyone was there waiting for them.
Faith still slept soundly.
She looked peaceful with her head propped up by her folded arms and a serene look on her face.
He wanted to go to her, but he didn’t know if that was the right thing to do to a sleeping child. Did she wake up in a good mood or would she be upset? With his sister’s
kids,
he never worried about those things. It was his sister’s problem not his.
Jesminda stepped behind him and placed a hand at his waist. It wasn’t a forgiving gesture. It was to give the impression of a
united
front. She wasn’t finished with him by a long shot. She was tired, and she had every right to be.
It had been a very long night. Fucked up as it was he was settled. Being mated was calming in a way he’d never felt before.
In the face of the storm, the air was unsettled but fresh with the scent of his woman.

There were a lot of questions that needed to be answered.
And those things, what the fuck were those things? That guy Solon seemed to know but why the fuck was he following them? Draven intended to find out.
He unlatched Jesminda’s arm from around his waist and stalked over to the intruder.

“Royce, I want you to keep my daughter asleep for this.” He growled.
He was pissed and things were not adding the fuck up. He needed to get all in this man’s grill. Preferably hands on.
But
somehow,
the bastard knew he was coming and pinned Draven with a hard stare.

“Yo, you really don’t want to do that. I mean not in front of the ladies. I’d really hate to have to wipe the floor with your ass.”
Solon said confidently.
He was rubbing the back of his neck in frustration. The man knew he was going to get worked over.
He could feel the energy pulsing through the air. There was a raw power that surrounded the guy.
Well, he’d take him and if he really wanted to get randy, well that’s what Royce’s ass was for.
Royce would fuck him over in ways that boggled the darkest minds.

“I’ll answer every single one of your damn questions, but without physical contact, alright.”

Jesminda let out a curse and sat down on the bed next to Faith. She put her head in her hand and looked up at Solon with acknowledgement and horror.