Page 13 of Ruthlessly Mated (Shared Mates #2)

C onroy

We make camp in the desert, a long way off the main road and behind a series of large rocks that should prevent us from being seen by anybody who might be hunting us. We drove all day and all night and all day again before making this stop, so I reckon it’s as safe to be as anywhere.

Tailor is already much recovered. He slept in his wolf form for about ten hours, then woke up and took a shift behind the wheel.

We’ve all driven. Kita has been hard to get away from the wheel, but she lets herself be convinced every now and then.

She really would rather drop from exhaustion than accept help from us.

She saved us, but she is not here to be saved. She wants to be in control. She wants to be respected. I suppose it is not that much different from what I want.

She wakes up about thirty minutes after we make camp. She wakes up angry, and comes storming out of the truck in her little smuggler’s outfit that is actually pretty adorable. I wonder what she’d look like in a dress. Unrecognizable, I think.

“Why the fuck are we not on the road?”

“We need a break.”

“No. We don’t. We need to get to Eclipse.”

“We need to stop and decide what we’re going to do.”

She turns back toward the truck. “I don’t care what you’re going to do. I’m going to Eclipse City.”

“You need to rest.”

“No. I don’t. I need to get my fucking cargo where it needs to be. If you three want to be stranded in the desert, be my absolute guest, but I am going to Eclipse. Bye bye now.”

“Sit down,” I snap. “The fire is lit and we’re going to eat.”

“What? What are we going to eat?”

“I’ve hunted down some rabbits. They’re on skewers, see?”

I point to the makeshift grill I’ve made on the fire, turning the long sticks on which the rabbit meat is cooking.

“Oh,” she says. “Maybe you’re not entirely useless.”

“Come and sit,” I say, softening my tone a little. Tailor is by the fire, recovering. Damon is somewhere in the dark, doing whatever he does.

She finally takes a seat, and I know she’s probably very happy not to be driving.

“Thank you for coming back for Tailor and me,” I say, holding her gaze in the flickering firelight. “You didn’t have to do that. I know you were angry.”

“Oh, was I? I thought I was properly submissive. Isn’t that what you called it right before you threatened to fuck my ass?”

That threat apparently really hit home.

The tone in her voice is curt and spicy.

She’s not happy with me. I know that the fact she came all over my cock doesn’t mean she actually enjoyed being treated that way once the orgasm faded.

It’s one thing to be turned on, stuck in a submissive female body, pushed into responding with wetness and need.

It’s something else to deal with the feelings that come after that.

I’m sure she’s angry with me. I’m also sure she’s ashamed at how much she liked some of it. But I don’t get to tell her that right now. Now, I’m trying to make amends.

“I’m sorry your first mating was so rough,” I tell her. “I was an asshole.”

“Yeah. You were. You scared me. And you hurt me.”

“I thought you needed to be handled. Actually, I knew you needed to be handled. You were out of line and you were…”

“Fuck you.”

She doesn’t let me finish talking. She gets up and she storms off and I go after her because I do not want her getting back in that truck and leaving.

It is hard to keep my temper right now. I am not used to apologizing to subordinates, and my mate is supposed to be subordinate. Nobody has told her that.

I grab her and spin her around to look at me. “Listen. I apologize for what I did wrong, but you are still my mate, and I am still your alpha, so you will show me some respect, or you will have a sore ass.”

“Well, that lasted all of five minutes, didn’t it. No more Mr. Nice Guy?” She snorts at me. “You can’t even pretend to be good. You’re a fucking monster, and we both know it.”

“Maybe I am, but so are you. I’m going to keep you in hand, Kita.”

Her eyes flash at me with feral fury. “I don’t need to be kept in hand. I’m at my best when I’m doing what I want, when I want, and you know it. I came for you because I’m fucking stupid, but I won’t stay stupid. I’ll save your life, but don’t think I won’t kill you.”

God, she is such a brat. Every word out of her mouth makes me want to thrash her.

She stomps away to the truck and starts going through it for something.

I keep a very close eye on her to make sure that she doesn’t get in and drive away.

We escaped the port with what we had on us.

We have some cash reserves, but that’s it.

All the actual supplies we have right now are coming through her. She’s looking after us.

I feel immense gratitude toward this young woman, so I let her go without doing what I’d normally do—grab her by the arm, throw her over my knee, and spank her ass red until she begged me to fuck her.

“Just do it,” Tailor says, coming up beside me.

“Do what? You should be resting.”

“I’m rested,” he says. “You got worse. You’re not even down.”

“I’m okay. He didn’t hurt me that badly.”

“Of course he hurt you badly,” Tailor says.

“Doesn’t matter. I don’t care.”

“Well, anyway. You’re seething because you want to spank her. You need to be in charge of her. Just do it. It will do the both of you a lot of good. She needs it.”

“She already hates me for doing it the first time.”

“Fine. Then I will. We can’t let her talk to us like that. We can’t allow disrespect. Not for someone like her. The second she feels that she isn’t in hand, she’s going to get rowdy.”

“I’m surprised to hear you say that. I thought you’d be telling me to lay off her. She saved your life today, and mine. Damon didn’t need saving, but what’s new there. You and I? We’d be dead if not for her, drained and burned.”

“All the more reason to spank her little ass,” he says.

“We need to give her what she needs. She can’t get stuck in the role of protector.

She’ll get even more wound up and aggressive if we let that happen.

Yes, she saved our lives. Now maybe we save hers, by being her mates, and doing what mates do. ”

“There it is!”

She steps down from the truck with a bottle of high-proof ale in her hand, wrenches the stopper with her teeth and necks a good dose of it.

“Cut that out. We need to keep a clear head.”

“You don’t want some?” She offers me the bottle. I’m tempted to take the offer, but I just told her no. I need to be sensible. I need to be in control. I need…

“Stop that!”

She’s taking it on herself to finish the rest of it in one go.

I’m able to convince her not to go all the way to the bottom. She throws the rest of the bottle onto the fire, laughing as it makes a splash that causes a fireball to burst forth. We’ve seen enough of that sort of thing for one day.

“Alright. That is enough of that. Go lie down. You need sleep, not drink.”

“I need what I say I need. I thought there was rabbit to eat.”

“Go sit down, then you get rabbit.”

She looks at me with an attitude fortified with a swift and heady dose of alcohol. “Listen. I’m the only reason any of you are still alive. Except Damon. He seems to be able to keep himself alive. And he’s not trying to boss me around right now, is he? No. The two of you have a lot to learn from…”

She’s cut off when Damon grabs her around the waist and hauls her bodily off to the truck, where he snugs her into the bed at the back of the cab and keeps her there until she stops squirming.

We have a lot to learn from him.

Kita

“I can’t get up,” I complain, knowing that’s the point.

Damon doesn’t reply. He never does. But he has his ways of making his wishes known regardless.

Right now I am held in place under his arm, pressed belly down against the mattress where Tailor bled previously.

It smells like mates and blood, like desire and death.

Damon’s own scent is deeply masculine. Not sweaty, but rich.

I like this guy. He barely batted an eye when I drove the truck into the vampire. This situation is cozier than I thought, and the fact that he won’t speak and therefore won’t argue means there’s no point even bothering.

“Let me up, you…”

He bites me lightly on the back of the neck, a little warning.

“I’m not tired. I need to burn some energy off.”

He slides a hand down my back and cups my ass, tapping it lightly. Warning me, or maybe promising me something. I think I might like it either way. I feel heat starting to well between my thighs. I’m getting turned on. Arguing with Conroy does that. So does being picked up and manhandled by Damon.

“I’m going to get up, and you’re going to let me,” I tell him.

He responds by sliding that hand up and then down into my pants, his fingers sliding between my legs from behind to trace along my slit. I make a little hissing sound, because it’s sore. I was a virgin yesterday. Today, my pussy is still trying to recover from the effects of being taken roughly.

He taps me lightly, warningly, then slides his hand out again and snugs my underwear tight between my legs. It is a very effective warning. If I keep disobeying him, he’s going to make my pussy hurt.

I don’t think he actually wants to do that, but who knows, given he doesn’t say anything.

“I don’t want to sleep,” I complain. “I’m just not ready.

Today was fucked up. I smushed a vampire.

An ancient one. One who is going to reconstitute and fucking kill me, you know?

This isn’t over. Not by a long shot. I didn’t end the problem, I just put myself even more on his radar, and if you can’t tell, I was already very much on his radar. ”

He pats my bottom gently and rubs it in slow circles that I think are supposed to be soothing. They are also actually soothing. I feel very contained by Damon. Very kept. The fact that he doesn’t speak actually makes me feel more like talking.