Page 69 of Ruthlessly Mated
“Stop with the incessant questions.”
I think I know why he hasn’t killed us. He is powerful in ways that cannot be imagined. But he is something much worse. He is bored. And he might even be lonely.
I let the silence draw out between us, until even the great evil being feels the need to fill the silence.
“She’s a dark little beast. Tenderness is not in my being, but I do feel a certain connection with her. Her parents chose to die when I met them, but she clung to life with a ferocity I could not deny. Since that time, I have considered her part of my possessions.”
“She doesn’t belong to you. She belongs to me. And you know it.”
“You are an animal. You can’t own anything. I own you all.”
“Let him go or I’ll let your maker’s heart go boom!”
Kita continues shrieking threats from some other part of the dungeon.
“Quiet, wretch!” Alexander booms the words back at her. “I have had enough of your incessant shrieking. Another word and I will tear out your tongue!”
“Tear out my tongue and it goes boom!”
“She will not be quiet,” Alexander sighs.
“Probably not,” I agree. “Are you sure you want to keep her in captivity?”
“I am sure I want to get my maker’s heart back, and I am sure I do not want her out of my sight. She is a liability.”
“She is.”
I am starting to understand that the vampire is actually somewhat desperate. He took Kita when she was a pup and now she is more trouble than she’s worth. He wants to kill her, naturally, but killing her feels bad to him for all the reasons that are now so terribly obvious to me. A murderous, vicious, terrible creature who enjoys torture and inflicts death for his amusement is struggling with softer feelings.
“Let me see him!” Kita screams out again. “Let me see them both!”
“It might be easier to put her in here with me,” I say.
“Yes. It might.” Alexander leans in. “I will have that heart back, wolf. I will have it back at all and any costs. Do you understand? I may not kill Kita, but I will kill you. I have already killed your friend.”
My blood runs cold.
“Tailor? You killed Tailor?”
“He was redundant. You are clearly the stronger and more dominant of the two, and nobody needs more than one mate.”
The fury and grief I feel is incredible. It is like I have been punched in the chest. There is no time to react, and there is no way I have any intention of allowing him the satisfaction of seeing my pain.
“You seem sad. Don’t be. It means you have increased usefulness, and increases your chance of survival by quite a margin. Are you ready to see your mate?”
“Yes. Sure. Why not.”
Alexander smirks coldly. “I am not impressed by your attempt at seeming unaffected. You will die as easily as the other one when I decide your time has come. And the most frightening thing of all, from your limited animal perspective, will be that you will beg for it.”
“Am I going to see Kita, or are you going to keep the foreplay going, big guy?”
I inject enough sass into the dryness of my tone to hopefully show him just how little I care. He is not the master of my emotions. I am.
Alexander swings the door of the cell open and invites me to step out with a curt come hither gesture of two fingers. It takes all my self-control not to shift and hurl myself at his throat. I know it won’t do any good though. He’d burst into a thousand bats before I got anywhere near him.
Alexander is the originator of absolutely every vampire rumor and theory. Bats, garlic, crosses, sparkles. Actually, not the sparkles. I don’t need to know everything about him to know that I have absolutely no chance against him in a 1-v-1 situation.
“Good boy,” he says, taunting me. He wants me to try to attack him. He wants me to make myself seem stupid and weak. He wants to humiliate and torture me, the same way he no doubt humiliated and tortured Tailor.
