Page 38 of Betrayed Wolf Mate

“I’m sorry,” Farrow repeated.

“You should be,” Akron said. The demon turned to me and gave a proprietary smile as he stepped toward me. “I want my bride to look immaculate in her dress.”

He ran the backs of his fingers down my cheek. I forced myself to meet his eyes and not shudder at his touch.

“Leave us,” Akron said to Farrow, though he didn’t bother looking at him.

I don’t think I ever saw Farrow bolt so quickly.

We were alone in the giant hallway. Silence pressed down on me as Akron regarded me with interest, the faintest hint of a triumphant smile on his face. I waited, my breath a little more shallow than normal as I waited for him to break the silence.

“You, my dear, have been quite the willful shifter, haven’t you?” he said, his voice a purr. He put one hand on either side of me and leaned in until we were inches apart. If I moved an inch, I would brush up against some part of him. “I guess Farrow was wrong about you when he said you were obedient. I don’t mind. I’ve had fun chasing you down.”

“Glad I provided you with some entertainment,” I said.

“You’ve definitely made things interesting.” He looked down at my still-naked body, and I saw unmistakable hunger and lust on his face. One of his hands moved off the wall and ran down my side, his fingers feeling ice-cold against my skin as they trailed down my waist before gripping my hip, holding me in place. His thumb ran along the skin there, making my insidescrawl. “I have to wonder, though, did you actually think it would do anything? Did you really think I would let my prize just run off and not go after it? And here I thought you were smarter than that.”

“You don’t know a thing about me,” I said.

“I know you’re brave and stupid enough to try running away from me. I know you think you should get your own way, and that you want to be independent.” The smile vanished, his expression darkening as the hand on my hip squeezed tighter. “But that’s over now. You’re mine, and you’ll do as I say when I say it.”

“Or else what? You’ll kill me?”

He laughed, and his laughter was somehow worse than the scowl. “Why would I kill my property? That doesn’t do me any good. And it would certainly defeat the purpose of marrying you. But I can do things that are much, much worse than killing you. Trust me.”

I believed him, but I was done going along with what people told me to do. I wasn’t going to lie down and roll over for him because he threatened me. Not anymore.

“You’re not going to break me,” I said. “You can do whatever you want, but I’m not going to be your obedient little plaything. You can go and fuck yourself for all I care.”

The demon’s lips curled into a sneer, and he leaned forward. Icy breath brushed against my face. His eyes were nothing more than chips of the blackest obsidian as he moved in.

“Are you sure about that?” he hissed.

I was sure he could hear my heart thundering in my chest, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction ofseeing my fear. He was nothing more than a bully. I wasn’t going to bow down to someone like him anymore.

“Yes,” I said.

The snarl on Akron’s face vanished, replaced with that disturbing smirk. “We’ll see how you feel about that in a few weeks,” he said. “My methods are very…effective.”

Without another word, he grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me deeper into the house. I struggled and tried to pull away, but I already knew it was pointless. There was no getting out of this.

All of my attempts to get away were completely ineffectual. I might as well have been a puppy trying to seem fierce, for all the good it did. And it wasn’t long before Akron flung open a door to reveal a small closet without any windows. He forced me inside and down to the floor, then produced a set of handcuffs seemingly from nowhere. He handcuffed me to a pipe at the back of the closet and stood over me.

“Modern houses never have proper dungeons anymore. But this will have to do.”

“Fuck off.”

“Make no mistake,” he said. “You are mine. And I’m going to enjoy destroying every inch of that town that was stupid enough to shelter you.”

I had been rattling the handcuffs, testing them and seeing how much give they had. But at those words, I froze, my head shooting upward. He must have seen the alarm in my eyes because his smile grew wider.

“Did you think I would let them get away with that sort of insolence?” he asked, then started to laugh. “They killed some of my demons, and they had the audacity to hide my bride fromme. They clearly have a death wish, and I’m more than happy to grant them that wish.”

“Please,” I said, my voice breaking. “Please don’t. I’m here already. You can just leave them alone. There’s no reason to—”

“Oh, I have plenty of reasons.” Akron laughed. “And believe me when I say there won’t be a single splinter left of that town by the time I’m through with it.” He tilted his head and flashed me that evil grin again. “Maybe I’ll take you there afterward for our honeymoon.”

I had been angry before, but now I was terrified. An entire town was going to be destroyed because they’d been kind enough to protect me. The first pack that had ever accepted me, the first place that had felt even a little bit like home, and the place where Sam lived…Akron was going to destroy it.

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