Page 36 of Mortal Shift
He continued to pet my hair, drawing the moment out while my heart thudded almost painfully in my chest.
“I could do so much to you while you’re like this, pet,” he said, as if I didn’t already know that, the sadistic bastard. He snapped his fingers at me like he would a dog. “Heel. Hands and knees.”
To my horror, I fell forward onto my hands, and couldn’t stop myself crawling along beside him like an obedient puppy as he took a few steps from the wall.
“Davorin.” The voice came from the darkness ahead of us and crackled with anger. And dammit, I didn’t think I’d ever been so relieved to hear Cole’s voice. “What the hell do you think you’re doing with my mate?”
I glanced up in time to see Davorin’s smirk. “Just teaching your little mate her place.”
“Her place is bymyside,” Cole said, stepping forward into the moonlight. “Not yours.”
“Whatever. I was done playing, anyway. Goodbye, pet. For now.” He snapped his fingers again and I felt the compulsion fall away. I scrambled to my feet, red-faced with humiliation as I brushed the dirt from my hands and knees. Davorin started to stride away, then paused and threw a glance back over his shoulder.
“Oh, you might want to check her pocket.” And with that, the smug asshole strode out of sight—after dropping me right in it. So much for keeping my escape attempt quiet.
“What did he mean?” Cole demanded.
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” I brushed more dirt from my clothes, though they weren’t nearly as dirty as the look I threw in Cole’s direction.
“I’m not in the mood for playing games, Cali.”
“Too bad Davorin doesn’t feel the same way,” I grumbled under my breath.
“I mean it. Show me what’s in your pocket.”
“No.” I covered my pocket with my hand and then felt like an idiot. Why hadn’t I just denied I had anything?
“If you make me search you, little mate,” he said, backing me up toward the wall, “you’re not going to enjoy it nearly so much as I will, I promise you that.”
My mouth went dry and my heart all but thudded to a stop, and the rest of my body reacted in all the wrong ways to that threat, my mind abruptly full of images of his hands roaming over me, and— I shook my head, clearing it. It wasn’t me who wanted that, it was this stupid mate bond.
“Cali,” he rumbled, a note of warning in his voice that seemed to boil me from the ground up. Dammit!
“Fine! Take it,” I snapped, yanking the torn page from my pocket and slapping it in his hand. “Just get the hell out of my space.”
He ignored me and unfolded the sheet of paper, scanning it quickly in the moonlight. A rumble worked its way up his throat, and his eyes snapped to me, glinting yellow and animalistic.
“Escape?” he snarled, and his next words burst out as roar. “You were trying to escape?”
“Could you say that any louder?” I demanded, and tried to shove him away, which did about as much good as trying to shove away the academy’s boundary wall. “Yes, I was trying to leave. Why would I stay?”
“Because I told you to.”
I barked a bitter laugh. “Right. Of course. I forgot. I’m just supposed to sit around in this place I clearly don’t belong like a good little girl because you told me to.”
“Yes.”
“No! I’m not one of you. I don’t need to learn your whole kill or be killed, rule the world philosophy. I don’t need to learn to shift or study fifty types of fae I’m never going to meet. It doesn’t matter to me how to fight because normal people don’t need to know that!”
His jaw twitched as he fixed me with a flat look.
“And my pack? My family? After everything I told you about them, you still don’t give a shit about them. Can you really be that selfish?”
“I told you, this isn’t about your family,” I said, glaring up at him. “It’s about mine.”
“And I told you to forget about your mother. You can’t help her.”
“Not from in here, no. So turn your back and let me go.” The fight went out of my voice as I searched his face, looking for any sign of decency. “Please.”
