Page 13 of Alpha's Bullied Mate
My paws digging into her shoulder, I had her bested. Her eyes, emerald against her pale face, freckles dusted across her nose, blinked up at me. Fear and anger that matched my own stared back at me. Betrayal, guilt, they all mingled in her gaze.
No hurt is to come to her, I had ordered my pack. But then I noticed my claw pricking through her thin t-shirt. Tiny spots of blood seeped through the material, and she hissed.
It had me giving into a shift, back into my human form, aware of my own nakedness. I didn’t care. I had been caught unawares in shifts plenty of time. In Oak Hill, I had stashes of clothes everywhere. Many shifters did, just in case. But now I was all too aware of my body, still clinging onto the grease and sweat from my day’s work, warm against her cold body.
She was frozen, scrabbling back from me, so she had her back to the tree, rather than lying down. I caged her in against it. I let myself lean in close, blocking my nose from sniffing her.
“You can’t escape me, pretty wolf,” I warned her in a low voice. My mouth came inches closer to the corner of her mouth. I flicked my gaze to hers, pausing to let her fear set in. I'd be happy if I could just trigger that fight response in her. “And if you try again I’ll do far worse to you than a tiny puncture on your shoulder.”
With that, I flicked the blood spots on her t-shirt. Her fear rose, her wince at the flick heightening that emotion, and I felt like I could taste it, it was intoxicating. Dakota’s fear was everything. A scared person was either stupidly docile or angrily triggered to fight. I wanted the latter. I wanted her torefuseto come back, to give me a fight, to make her escape worth it.
I stood back, aware of her silence and her eyes, wide, fixed on my face. Had she even blinked in the last two minutes? I smiled indulgently at her, cocking my head. Riling Dakotaup had always been easy. Her weaknesses were many, and I had always exploited that. Made her feel ashamed when her grades dropped just before graduation due to some unknown reason, made her feel small when she’d been rejected by her top university choice because of them. I’d been an ass, but I knew how to get under her skin.
“You’re smart, Wolfie, I’ll give you that. I’vealwaysknown that. But you surprised me here. You targeted Ryan. Did it make you feel big, tricking him to escape? How did it feel to knowingly betray someone? Good?”
She shook her head, glaring at me.
“Words, Dakota,” I spat.
She cleared her throat. “No, it didn’t. You have no right to keep me there. I can’t justsitthere and let you be in control of my life.”
“No, I don’t have a right, but I have awant.” I reached out and snagged the front of her t-shirt. “Don’t try that shit again. Do you understand?”
I looked at her mouth, thinking about going to kiss her again, just to scare her a little. Not to actually do it but just to see that delicious fear and rage mix rise in her eyes again. Oh, how I loved when she showed her hidden strength, when she shed the good girl and showed her claws.
“Where are you, Wolfie?” I purred. “Come out to play. You want to, I can see it in your face.” I waited for a few moments for her to take the bait before laughing. “You’re a coward. Always were, always will be. Shame, I actually thought you’d come for me for a minute. Were you this quiet and feeble in Fenrys’s pack? No wonder he hasn’t noticed you being gone.”
I laughed at her again, stepping back before preparing to shift so I could force her back with me. There was no way I was letting her go again. I crouched, starting to give my body over to the shift, when a body hurtled into me from behind, knocking me to the ground. Dakota’s scent overwhelmed me as she pressed herself into my back and pummeled me.
A scream tore from her, and I grinned into the ground.
“There you are,” I teased. “Not so quiet after all, are you?”
Chapter 8 - Dakota
Aidan was so very wrong about me. Iwassmart, yes, but I was quiet to conceal everything else. It made me look weak and made people underestimate me, which was always their first mistake. He thought I couldn’t fight him, talk back, or doanything. But I had been so close to escaping.
Of course, he had to be the one to find me. I’d been listening out for the two wolves that had almost tracked me, threw myself into the river to disperse my scent, smudged my footprints in other directions, and covered my tracks as best as I could. Wolves were good trackers but shifters knew how they hunted humans. We had the front seat to our own hunts but also knew how to cover our tracks.
But nothing got past Aidan. I had been waiting for him all evening to find me eventually, feeling that my capture had been too good to be true, too easy, and now I straddled him, my fists hammering into the muscles of his back. I clawed at him when he tried to buck me off and turn our positions around. I got my feet from under me in a crouch so when he tried to get up, I swung my leg around to swipe him across the ribs. He groaned and faltered, crumpling to the floor for a minute, stunned.
I didn’t give him a minute to recover. I threw myself at him, all claws and frustration, and sent us both rolling through the grass. Dirt stuck to his skin, leaves tangling in his hair, and I could only imagine I looked as feral as he did with his teeth bared at me and his eyes manic with a drive to best me.
But I had fought Conall and Theo in Fenrys’s pack, and I was sure I could take on Aidan, even if I was weaker.
You can’t escape me, pretty wolf. His words rang in my head as I got my legs around his waist again, my nails pinninghim in place, much like he’d done to me in his wolf form. I felt every inch of him beneath me, and hated that it roused something in me that I refused to admit. His thighs flexed beneath me, preparing to throw me off, but I shifted my weight to keep him pinned. His chest flushed, and he stared up at me.
I had been with a few men since graduating. I was by no means a virgin but it had been a while since I’d had my arousal piqued. But when that mingled with my own terror at him very easily being able to rip me apart if he wanted to, I didn’t know what to do. Now, with Aidan’s hair fanned around his head, the strands wet and thin with the damp ground and leaves, I remembered how I’d hated the attraction I’d had for him in high school. He was handsome,toohandsome, and I hated every inch of interest I had in him. Even now.
My hands slipped up his collarbones and over his neck. He lay there, watching me. I realized he waswaiting. He was waiting for what I would do.
I wanted to punch him in the fucking throat.
A punch for high school, a punch for kidnapping me, a punch forthis. This war of weird desire and fury in my body as he lay naked beneath me, vulnerable and yet acted like he wasn’t. I hated his lack of self-consciousness.
I punched him in the chest instead, getting two blows in before he finally threw me off, and we grappled through the underbrush. He slammed me back into a tree trunk, the rough bark making me groan in pain as it scraped down my back. I hooked a foot around his ankle and got him away from me, darting around him and tearing off.
Aidan launched himself after me. He could shift at any point and I’d be done for.
