Page 5 of Regressive

“Like me?” I ask. “What does that mean?” Does he think I’m untrustworthy, like my mother? A betrayer of Serendee?

His hand is flat against the wall next to my head and our eyes level. “An innocent. A follower of The Way. Someone that doesn’t need the burden of Serendee’s true weight on her shoulders.”

“You don’t trust me.”

His eyes narrow. “Other than the feel of your pussy clenching around my cock when I’m inside of you, I don’t know you, Imogene.”

My jaw drops, the shock of his crassness overtaking any other emotion. It’s not the first time he’s treated me like this. He’s a disgusting pig. He’s assaulted me more than once. And here I am, Bound to him. God, I’m a fool.

Maybe I should have just let Anex have what he wants.

A hot tear burns at the corner of my eye. Humiliation—and not the first I’ve experienced today. “I’m no longer an innocent,” I say, “You and your father took that option away from me the day you arranged to make me your mate. And the moment I accepted the Order, the weight of this community fell to my shoulders, because you and I are one. We are Bonded. In the eyes of Serendee, and it was sealed when you pushed past my barrier and left your seed inside of me.” I place my hands on his hard, muscular chest. “If you don’t think you know me, then figure out a way to find out, because I have no choice but to stand by your side.”

His eyes narrow. “You spoke to him. Anex. When? Today?”

My cheeks burn. “Healer Bloom examined me.” I can’t bring myself to say that Anex had done the actual exam. “She gathered proof that we’re truly Bonded. Your father,” I swallow, “he was there.”

His hand clenches around my arm. “Did he touch you?” Before I can answer he tightens his grip and repeats, “Did he?”

I see the dark, murderous, glint in his eye, and I understand then that Rex is hanging by a thread. He’s looking for an excuse and he’ll end his father if given the chance. I can’t allow that. What if he fails? What happens to me then? What happens to Elon, Silas, and Levi without the protection of their best friend?

“No,” I tell him, wincing at the pain of his fingers digging into my skin. “No. He was just there for confirmation, but he’s watching us. Closely.”

He registers my pain and releases me. My arm throbs, but I take the chance to duck under his arm and hastily walk toward the gate. I fumble with the latch, and his hand comes down over mine, taking over. He stops me before I walk through.

“If he approaches you again, let me or Elon know.”

“I will.”

“I won’t allow him to hurt you, Imogene.”

“Why not?” I ask, pushing past him, exiting the secular world for the safety of Serendee, “Or is hurting me something reserved just for you and your friends?”

We walk in silence,the hostility growing between us like bricks in a wall. I regret telling him he has to come home every night. All it will do is create pain. My pain. I’d be better off if he was off in the city, getting his needs met by secular women.

Except that thought makes my stomach hurt.

At the fork in the road, he stops. The main house, where we’d both been living, although separately, looms up the hill.

“We won’t be going back to my father’s house.” He looks down the other road. “We’ll live in a cottage like all of the other couples that went through the ceremony yesterday.”

“Why?” Mixed emotions swirl in my stomach. In the Main House there were always people around. Staff, guards, Anex’s spiritual wives… but a cottage? That feels isolated.

“Because I need some space from him.” He glances up at the imposing Main House. “He’s a murderer. A criminal.” His hand balls in a fist. “I can’t be near him any longer, and I don’t trust him with you.”

His words should be comforting, but they just bring up conflict and turmoil. I’ve lived my whole life with Anex as my spiritual guide. I can admit things are confusing right now. Anex’s behavior… it’s discomforting, but he’s told us many times that following him, and The Way, is not an easy path. Our own resistances will try to sway us. Our Regressive thoughts will creep in, trying to lure us away from the life he’s built for us. I’m not ready to give that up because Rex is delusional and hurt because he lost his mother at a young age.

Join the club.

I follow him down the road, until he stops in front of a pale green house. I raise an eyebrow. “You think this is a cottage?”

He looks down at me, blue eyes cold as ice. “Compared to the mansion? Yes.”

The house is a large, two-story, bungalow with a wrap-around porch. “It’s quite big for the two of us.”

He brushes his blonde hair out of his eyes. “Four bedrooms. One for us and one for each of the guys.”

The big news here should be that he’s suggesting we’ll share a room and I assume a bed, but that’s not what forces me to snap my eyes away from the house, toward him. “The guys?”

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