Page 28 of Depraved
“What naughty things has my little wolf been up to?” Black’s tone is light and mocking. But his jaw flexes right after, and I know he’s clenching his teeth.
Elena sucks in a breath, and her eyes dart to me. I can’t tell if she’s asking for my help or permission to fuck him with that look because her lids are heavy, and her back arches.
But then she says my name. “Jonah,” and she’s pleading.
Tension ratchets up another notch as my own scent comes on stronger than it ever has before. I’m not competing with Black, not on purpose, but my mate mark and my heart compel me to protect her from his fury. Because even if she only says she wants me, even if she doesn’t want me as much as she wants Black, I belong to her.
She says her heart is mine. But I don’t know if it truly is. Even if part of it is, I don’t think the entire thing is mine.
Can a heart be shared?
Does that ever really work? I know I pushed for this situation, telling her she needs a protector and I’mnotthat.
But I’m not a fortune-teller and I couldn’t see the future. I think I might be an idiot.
Sitting up in this bed right here and now, I don’t know that Elena can split her heart evenly. I don’t know if either Black or I will be able to handle it long term. Things have been different since I woke up, and outsider syndrome has raged through my veins from the second I saw them together.
But even if she’s breaking me, even if loving her wrecks me, I can’t stop. She can shatter me and stomp me to bits, and I’ll die smiling.
“Elena …” Black’s warning growl is furious, and I can see his fingers dig into her skin.
“Wait. Don’t hurt her, please.” I tack on the ‘please’ when his head snaps up in my direction. “It’s my fault.” It is my fault she said what she did. She’s trying to make up for the fact that I’ve woken up over the rainbow and this fucking place suddenly feels like Oz.
Gritting my teeth together and staring across the room so I don’t have to meet his crazy, intense gaze, I confess to him what I told her. It’s humiliating to say to him; it feels like I’m admitting to having a third testicle. But I do it.
When I’m done, I feel raw and vulnerable, like all of me is a wound in need of a Band-Aid.
Black simply nods and turns back to Elena, not speaking a word to me. Not a single word of reassurance. He doesn’t tell me that I’m not destined to end up some lone wolf—which as a beta would just mean prey for some alphas out for kicks. So either he’s a total asshole, or he believes I’m right.
In any case, my whole-hearted confession doesn’t seem to do a damned bit of good because he goes right back to glaring at his mate. His grip on Elena’s jaw doesn’t loosen. It tightens. “So, Jonah’s come back from the dead with a pack rank problem. And yet, little wolf, your solution is never talking to me. It’s always running away. Why is that?”
“I like running,” she deadpans.
Fuck, Elena. Not the time for humor.
My wolf whines in my ear, but his avatar hides out of my line of sight, not wanting to be too close to the furious alpha.
Black leans down, letting his face get very close to hers. “That smart retort equals one spanking. In addition to the twenty you earned for—”
“Twenty!” Her eyes widen in alarm and she tries to pull out of his hold, bringing her arms up to his forearms to shove them down.
“Another. Keep struggling. Let’s get to fifty.” Black doesn’t even budge from all her efforts. You’d think she wasn’t touching him at all.
My hand moves forward to help her, but one word from Black stops me.
“NO!” His alpha command freezes me in place.
Instead of growing silent and compliant like he wants, Elena starts to argue. Of course, she does. “You fucking dickhead. Jonah’s having a full-on crisis, and I’m just trying to help—”
“By running off when we’re in the middle of a war? By making yourself and him easy targets for a madman? Dammit, Elena! What the hell do you think would happen to the Lobos if our luna got killed?”
“I’m not the fucking luna!” She shoves up to her knees, getting right into Black’s face.
Immediately, he twists her around, pushing her face down onto the mattress near the foot of the bed, her ass bent up in the middle. “That adds ten more.”
His head turns, and those eerie glowing eyes find mine. His voice changes as he says my name. “Jonah,” his words rumble with the power of an alpha command. “You’re going to spank Elena. With every spank, you’re going to say this phrase: ‘You are the luna. And I’m the beta elite.’”
I’m taken aback, but I can’t show it or even process it. Beta elite—that’s not even a real thing. What is he doing? Giving me a made-up title? I want to tell him off, but the command magic from his voice is too strong, and my mouth won’t open. Instead, my body automatically moves to comply.
