Page 16 of Ruthlessly Mated
“I was a virgin,” I say.
I don’t say anything more than that. I say it in a soft, pitiful voice. There’s a brief pause and then Tailor is on his feet.
“She was a virgin, and you took it all from her. You took her innocence. You took her first and you mated her twice and now she is like this, a shivering wreck, afraid of us, smelling of hate. She hates us, and that is because of you.”
“I did what I needed to do.” Conroy says. “And time will prove that I was right to do so. She’s our mate. She needed to be mated.”
“She needs to be treated like she matters, because she does. We finally have a mate. We have all wondered if we would ever find one. And now we have. And here she is, and…”
“You enjoyed watching me punish fuck her as much as I enjoyed punish fucking her,” Conroy growls. “I’m going to bed. Good night, Kita. I’m glad you’re here. Come find me if you get tired of being treated like you’re made of glass.”
Conroy goes into one of the rooms leading off the main room. I guess that’s his bedroom. Good. Good for him.
“Thank you,” I say softly to Tailor.
“You’re welcome, now come and sit down and have a drink. We need to get to know one another like civilized people.”
I take a seat in Conroy’s chair. The same chair I was fucked over for a second time. Tailor hands me a crystal glass of something that is red and smells rich and very alcoholic.
“Thank you,” I say. “That’s nice. You two have been nice to me.”
“There are expectations for being our mate,” Tailor says. “We’ll all have our individual requirements, of course, but you may as well hear mine first. I expect my mate to be a lady. What level of education do you have, Kita?”
“I went to school once,” I tell him, taking some joy in annoying him. The question is pretentious, and he’s not going to like the answer.
“Once?”
“Okay, twice.”
He gives me a long, assessing look. “You don’t want to tell me about yourself,” he says.
“Not really. You’re a stranger, and I don’t feel like I have to explain myself to you. I prefer Damon’s approach.”
Tailor smirks a little. “Well, you’re obviously intelligent, even if not traditionally educated. It’s important, because you will be raising our babies one of these days, and children get intelligence from their mother.”
“What do they get from their fathers?”
“Safety. Security. Sometimes they get to chase a ball.”
He sips his drink, and I realize that’s something of a joke. He is funny, in a dry, contained sort of way.
“None of you three seem to fit together,” I say. “You’re all so very different. How did you all end up in a port like this?”
“Well, Conroy needed help, and the two of us are helpful.”
“You don’t want to be known either,” I say shrewdly.
“Well, past histories don’t always paint us in the best of lights, do they?”
I’d say Conroy and Tailor are in their late thirties. Tailor might be a bit older than Conroy. Damon is probably late twenties. I’m the youngest of this group by quite a way, and I’m not ready to settle down and forget my mission, even if they are my mates.
I play along, though. I make polite conversation for the evening, and ensure that I don’t sound like I am a flight risk. I tell Tailor that I’ve left my pack in the Southern Isles, and I’m hoping to make a life for myself here in the lower North. The Southern Isles are well known for being rougher than the North, less well off, more vampire infested. A lot of people make their way North, to big cities like Eclipse.
“I’m tired,” I say. “Where am I going to sleep tonight?”
I look around, but Damon isn’t here anymore. That’s odd. I wonder where he went. To do something useful, maybe. He seems like the one who does all the grunt work. He lets Tailor feel refined for not having to get his hands dirty, and Conroy feel powerful for doing the work that Conroy thinks is beneath him.
“You can sleep with me,” he says. “I won’t take advantage of you, I want you to heal up a little before you and I lie together. AndI’m going to keep Conroy off you, big beast. He can’t have sole access to you, no matter how much he might like the idea.”
