Page 2 of Regressive

I lay rigid while he thrusts into me, mute as he rocks his hips with rugged force.

“Jesus,” he mutters, followed by a string of swear words. “It’s nice that you’re tight, but fuck, you need to let me in.”

I don’t know what that means, how to be what he wants.

“Unclench a little,” he commands, pulling out before slamming back in.

He tears through me, a different sort of innocence stripped away. I smell his body, his scent. I feel the slick heat of his sweat as our bodies slap together. I close my eyes, floating away as he grows more erratic, the grunts coming faster, his hips pummeling into me.

My whole body is tense when he comes and I peek at him, at his clenched jaw, spine stiff, his manhood pulsing deep inside, filling me with his seed. I feel no more lonely when he pulls out than I did when he was inside of me, although when I move to close my legs, he holds them apart, one finger scooping up his seed and pushing it back inside.

I’m still lying there, sticky cum between my legs, pulse pounding from the lack of my own release, confused and conflicted. This is all I’d ever wanted. All I’d ever dreamed.

After all the trials and tribulations, that one act seals it.

Rex and I are officially Bonded Mates.

2

Silas

The bedroom door opens,and I look past Rex’s frame to catch a glimpse at Imogene. All I see is a her naked on the bed before the door snaps shut.

My friend passes, and I reach for the knob.

“Don’t you dare go in there.”

“And why the fuck not?”

Rex sighs, running his hand through his hair. “Because you’ll go in there and hover over her like some mama hen. She needs a minute, and I need to talk to you.”

Rex is my best friend—one of them at least—but at all times he outranks us and although I’ve defied him before, I know now is not the time.

Elon and Levi are both in the living room. Elon sits in an armchair, his body almost too big for the space. His eyes search Rex’s as he walks in the room. “You ready to tell us what the fuck is going on?”

“I changed my mind,” he says, walking to the refrigerator. He skips the door, moving to the cabinet above where he unearths a bottle of whisky—contraband, but who is going to tell him no? He unscrews the top and takes a long swig. His shirt is untucked. His pants are wrinkled. His face has the pink flush of a man who’d just exerted himself. “We’re Bonded. In the eyes of my father, there’s no going back.”

The last we knew Rex was leaving Serendee. He’d been threatening it for years and after his father’s birthday weekend things reached a climax. None of us expected him to show up for the ceremony—or to claim Imogene as his mate.

“So you stayed,” Levi says. “Why?”

He looks to me. I’d shown him exactly what happened to women that were not tied to a man in Serendee—women that held Anex’s interest. “Does there have to be a reason?” Rex asks. Elon snorts. Even Levi rolls his eyes. He leans against the doorframe. “What?”

“You do nothing without a reason,” Elon says. “It’s either self-serving or to get back at your father.”

“Maybe this time it’s both.”

It probably is.

“So what?” Levi asks. “You brought her back here immediately following the ceremony and staked your claim?”

“You don’t get to tell me how to run my Bonding, Levi.” Rex narrows his eyes. “She’s mine. Not yours.”

“You say that,” Elon starts, “but you leave her to us to mold into the woman you want. Were you not happy with the way Levi put meat on her bones? Or the sexy lingerie I bought her before you tore them off? Or the fact Silas tended to her after you ripped her virginity from her so ruthlessly?”

“In the eyes of my father and all of Serendee, she is mine and mine alone,” Rex says, crossing his legs at the ankle, “but you’re right, this is less about me and more about exposing my son of a bitch father for being a fraud and a predator. I’m also not inclined to give him what he wants, which,” his eyes dart to mine, “Silas pointed out to me before the ceremony, is Imogene.”

Levi’s eyes widen with alarm. “You want to expose him for what? Rex, I know you and Anex have years of problems. I know you think—well,” Levi can’t say it, ‘You think your father killed your mother,’but we all know it. “Does she know this is your plan?”

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