Page 21 of Bonded

“Don’t be too mad at him for bringing me back here. All of us have to face what we’ve done in the end.” She hugs me like she never wants to let go.

I squeeze her hand once before walking out, seeing tears in her eyes, and it hurts to leave her there. I tell myself she is alive and I have time to figure out a way to free her. I’m not leaving this pack until I do. The guard stays with me, escorting me all the way back to my room and leaving me when I go inside and shut the door behind me.

The room has a big four-poster bed, leaves falling from the canopy over the top of it, matching the dark green sheets. On the end of the bed is a tray with silver pots on it. I walk over and lift the lid. I see ice cream—every single flavour, lined up in every pot.

And there is one note, simply signed O. I laugh before digging into my ice cream and thinking about how I’m going to fix this mess.

Chapter Eleven

This place looks like a volcano, and I would literally love to be anywhere else. Lava flames the floor, smoke curling around the air in waves, and high walls of ash are everywhere. There is no fire, and my heart slows as I search for flames that don’t exist here. I’m standing on a platform of hardened black lava in the middle of a river of lava, and there are other little islands like this one. I look around, knowing he’s here but waiting for him to speak first.

“Hello, wife.”

I grit my teeth as I turn, the red dress I have on in this place moving with me. “Stop calling me that. I’m hardly your wife when I never agreed to be one.”

“The mark on your neck would definitely challenge that statement, and so would I.” His voice is closer. “You are my wife, mine. I will wait out the next hundred years for you to forgive me…but I won’t apologise for it.” His hand brushes my neck, and I move away from the contact, even as heat spreads down my spine from his touch.

“Blackfire. You even wear the mask when we’re in this dream state.” I stare up at him, all in black as usual and just as imposing. The giant man towers over me like he does everyone else, but somehow he makes me feel so tiny in his presence. Like an ant. Although, maybe he wouldn’t want to fuck an ant. His eyes glow orange and red, like the colour of a sunset, through the dark wolf mask and even darker locks of hair.

“You’re the one who brought me here, not the other way around. Even though I leave my mind open to you every night,” he taunts with a slight turn of his lips. “This is an interesting power you got from the goddesses. Did you have it before? Have you tried going into minds without being asleep?”

“In truth, I have no idea.” I shake my head. I do not want to be in anyone’s head, thank you very much; my own is fucked enough.

“Tell me—is Orion and his court looking after you?” He stares at me for the answer. “We’re coming to you now… The bastard will pay for taking you from us.”

“He’s Orion…but yes, he is, err…good to me.” My cheeks burn. What would Blackfire think of Orion kissing me, claiming me as his, and overall being possessive? It’s hardly cheating when I’ve never so much as kissed Blackfire before even though he might technically be my husband. Urgh, no, still in denial on that one. “I brought the bat and your friend with the red hair who refused to not come with us. And Reed, of course.”

“Of course,” I reply, edging my tone with sarcasm.

I walk across the platform to another part. This one has higher walls around it and feels less warm. He follows me and I can feel his eyes all over my back like they are heated themselves. “When did you decide that I was going to be your wife?”

“When that stone cat attacked us.” I am surprised enough to turn around. “When my guardian was standing over you, about to kill you, something snapped. That was it for me. I knew I wanted you and I wasn’t going to back down. I wasn’t sure what I wanted exactly between us, but then you started accepting food from me, and my wolf loved that. He bred the idea of a marriage between us. The deep, possessive part of me knew exactly what I was doing, giving you that food. I knew exactly what I was doing when I took you out into the forest with the gloves and marked you. It was the best night of my life.”

“Shame I wasn’t awake for it,” I mutter. “I would have stabbed you with something.”

“You would have fought me tooth and nail not to put that mark on you if I’d done it while you were awake. It’s better this way.” He shrugs.

“No, it is not,” I snap. He just grins, and I shake my head. He is still just as psychotic as always. “You always call me Hopeless. Why?”

“Because it’s hopeless to want you. Hopeless to feel like this.” He touches his chest. “I have never felt it before, and I didn’t have a name for this feeling.”

He thinks love is hopeless.

Blackfire’s chest rises and falls fast as he stares at me.

“And what happens when you find a mate? Your true mate. What happens for all of you when you do this? As much as you, Reed, and Orion seem to have some claim on me, what happens when someone else comes along? I don’t think any of you have really thought this through. You can’t just choose me.” He goes to answer, likely to tell me more bullshit, but I speak first. “You told me once that you’d do anything for your mate on our forest walks. That there was no distance too great. I know you want your true mate.”

“I was thinking about putting a mate bond on you. That speech—it was for you.” He steps closer.

My heart tightens in my chest. It can’t possibly be true. “You’re insane.”

“About you, yes. But I think that’s how all men should be about their wives. They should want nothing more than to be with them and destroy anything in the world that is a threat. They should want them desperately, like I want you.” He walks towards me—so huge, so overwhelming. That’s always how it is. I want to fight him back every bit of the way. “My powers don’t work in this place,” I warn as he closes the space between us, “or I’d throw you again with my powers.”

He shrugs his shoulder. “Do it again when I get to you. That was the most turned on I’ve ever been in my life.”

He picks me up against the wall and slams his lips against mine. As much as I hate him, I end up kissing him back, pouring all that anger and frustration into the kiss. Blackfire kisses me like he wants to stake a claim on not just my body, but my soul too. We’re both breathless, staring at each other when he stops the kiss and looks over his shoulder. “You are being woken up. I will see you soon, my wife.”

The dream dies away as fast as smoke, leaving me falling through it—noting that’s the first time I ever kissed my husband, even if I never agreed to marry the secretive bastard. But hey, my tally of men I’ve kissed is getting higher, and Tannith would be proud.