Page 14

Ivy

I woke up with a start.

Blinking groggily, my breath caught in my throat.

I was no longer in the healer’s cottage.

I’d been returned to my comfy prison cell.

Briggs sat in a chair pulled up right beside the bed, watching me intently.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, hoarse from sleep.

"Making sure you're healing properly." He spoke matter-of-factly.

I threw back the covers, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and taking inventory of myself. No pain. No dizziness.

In fact, I felt well-rested. It was a welcome surprise.

When I rose, Briggs shifted in his seat like he was ready to lunge.

“I’m fine,” I told him and marched to the en-suite bathroom.

Bracing my hands on the sink, I hung my head and took a few deep breaths.

After relieving myself and brushing my teeth, I stripped off the cotton nightgown someone had put me in. The movements tugged at my nearly-healed wounds.

The skin along the lacerations was more itchy than anything. From the looks of the marks, though, that wouldn’t be an issue for long, maybe not even by dinnertime.

I stepped into the shower, sighing. I was just rinsing the conditioner from my hair when I heard the bathroom doorknob turn.

I froze, pulse pounding in my ears. He wouldn't dare.

"I brought you a warm towel from the dryer," Briggs said gruffly from right outside the fogged glass.

"Get out!" I yelped, crossing my arms over my breasts even though he couldn't see me.

"Ivy," He exhaled wearily, "don’t be stubborn. Let me take care of you."

I shut off the water with a sharp twist. "Just leave the towel and go."

His shadow moved in front of the shower door, paused, then moved away.

"As you wish."

I cracked open the shower door and peeked out. Briggs was gone and the fluffy towel he’d retrieved hung from the hook.

I’d forgotten to grab one, too lost in thought and the desire to scrub away the remnants of the tussle I’d gotten in down by the lake.

I took my time combing out my hair and then gave it a quick blow dry so it wasn’t dripping down my back.

My clothes, most of which still had tags, were all either in the closet or the chest of drawers. In the other room.

I grabbed the terrycloth robe hanging behind the door and tied the belt tightly. With a silent prayer, I opened the door to confront my captor.

I had my issues with the Alpha and his Luna, but my heart truly broke for him when he’d told me about losing his son. I wanted to hear all of it, no matter how tragic the story was—for either of us.

Briggs was standing near the window, peering down into the yard.

"We need to talk," I told him.

He turned and crossed his arms. "Alright."

I played with the lengths of the robe’s belt. "I want you to tell me the rest, to tell me everything. The parts you left out. And most especially why I’m really here.”

The big Alpha licked his bottom lip. “You know why you’re here.”

“Stop being so damned obstinate! You didn’t want me before, why do you want me now?”

The muscle in his jaw flexed. "Ivy, I always wanted you. You're my mate."

I glared up at him. "You made it pretty fucking clear to me that I wasn’t going to be your mate. That I wasn't good enough for big bad Alpha McClellan. That you wanted someone else. Tell me, was it Ruby you really wanted or could it have been any she-wolf, so long as it wasn’t me?"

Briggs visibly shook. "You are the only one I’ve ever wanted, Ivy. You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Then enlighten me!" I threw my hands up in frustration. "Why reject me so cruelly in front of the whole pack and then drag me back the second Ruby was out of the picture? Was no one else willing?”

“Stop—”

“I guarantee that skank, Scarlett, would gladly sign up for the job. Or did you burn too many bridges after bedding most of the pack’s female population? There was still one you hadn’t screwed and it just so happened to be me?"

His eyes flashed with barely restrained fury. “Don't talk like that. You don’t understand!”

“ What don’t I understand?”

Onyx looked out at me through Briggs’s eyes. Rieka whimpered for him.

"I did what I had to do!” he snarled, leaning in until our faces were inches apart. “I would do anything—and I mean anything —for you! I did what had to be done and it’s fucking wrecked me how much I hurt you! There is nothing I want more than you. Nothing I have ever wanted more.”

The air between us crackled. My skin felt hot and fevered, my head dizzy.

Rieka responded to the proximity of our mate despite my brain's protests. I could feel our bond pulsing, drawing me in.

Numb it, Rieka. It’s too much!

I—I can’t , she whined.

And so I fell, taken down by the pull of the invisible cord tying us together. Hell, taken down by incessant need to be the object of my mate’s obsession.

Briggs's mouth crashed against mine in a brutal, savage kiss. A kiss full of repressed longing and barely leashed aggression.

My traitorous body melted against his hard planes and angles, my wolf howling in bliss. His tongue plundered my mouth as he hauled me tight against him.

The bond roared, vibrant and scalding. Wanton desire flooded my veins in a disorienting rush. All thoughts scattered and there was only his lips, his hands, his scent.

Him .

Suddenly my robe was gone and strong hands gripped my waist, lifting me effortlessly as I wrapped my legs around his hips. Briggs carried me to the bed, our lips never parting, tongues tangling.

He laid me down none-too-gently, his weight settling over me. I arched into him, craving more contact, more friction. More everything.

My hands tore at his clothes between desperate kisses and nips. Miraculously he kept his mouth attached to mine until every stitch of clothing disappeared.

Only then did he pull up, kneeling between my legs. Briggs's eyes blazed bright as he took in my naked form splayed beneath him, his palm stroking his shaft.

" Mine ," he growled, voice rough with need.

Swallowing, I reached up and pulled his face down to mine. My wolf howled in delight.

He trailed hot kisses down my neck, biting at my skin and sucking on the sensitive spot just below my ear.

His hand slid down between my legs. The touch was more probing than teasing.

“Thank fuck,” he whispered.

I barely registered his words, mewling and writhing and needing something—anything!

When the blunt head of his cock nudged at my entrance I dug my nails into his shoulders. My heels pressed into the backs of his thighs.

Briggs entered me in one powerful thrust. Twin groans of pleasure filled the room while he held still above me.

He rolled his hips. Once. Twice. On the third, nonsensical sounds poured out of my mouth.

Then he really started moving .

It wasn’t tender. It wasn’t slow. It was raw and brutal. Each stroke knocked me further into my delirium.

The world narrowed to sensation. The delicious drag of his hardness inside my wet heat. The scrape of his teeth against my pulse point. The coil of tension building low in my belly.

I met his pounding assault with matching fervor. Our bodies were in total sync, like we were born to fit one another—because we were.

Briggs gripped my hips, changing the angle and hitting a spot that had me keening. I was lost to the tide of ecstasy, hurtling towards the edge.

His breath ghosted over my ear as he groaned, his praises strummed a chord deep inside me, "So good. So perfect.”

The words were barely out before he was moving faster, harder, his control slipping. His fingers dug into my hips as his thrusts grew desperate. I clung to him, my nails scratching down his back.

I could feel that overwhelming rush that signaled my impending release. My body tightened around him and I cried out.

He buried his face in the crook of my neck. His big body pressed down and he ground his pelvis into mine, prolonging my climax.

Briggs joined me with a guttural moan. His roar echoed off the cabin walls. His hips pistoned erratically until he stilled, spent.

We lay there, sweat cooling on our skin as our breathing gradually returned to normal. Reality began to seep back in, and with it, a growing sense of alarm.

I couldn't even blame the mating bond entirely, not when some weak, piteous part of me craved to belong to someone. To be someone’s priority.

To be wanted. Desired. Loved .

The big male lifted his head and I had to turn my face away.

I closed my eyes, wishing I could disappear. Wishing I'd had the strength to resist this temptation. But it was too late now.

He shifted, taking some of his weight off my torso without severing our intimate connection.

“Ivy, look at me.”

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes.

“Did I hurt you?”

The humorless laugh got stuck in my throat. “If you mean while sexing me up, then no, it didn’t hurt at all. Quite the opposite.”

One side of his mouth twitched and I weighed the merits of punching him while in such a vulnerable position.

“As much as I would love to continue sexing you up, as you so fittingly put it, I think it’s time I give you the full story.”

“Can you do that while, um, not inside me?”

“Even if it’s my favorite place to be?”

Rieka rolled over and showed her belly. I rolled my eyes. “Yes.”

“If you insist.”

He pressed a quick kiss to my lips before slowly withdrawing, still semi hard. It left me with an emptiness I hadn’t anticipated.

Don’t worry, he’ll give us that big dick again whenever you ask , my wolf reassured.

Goddess, Rieka. Now is not the time.

If you say so.

Briggs picked up his t-shirt and put it over my head. I let him dress me, comforted by his care and the masculine scent surrounding me.

He slipped on his jeans and sat in the chair beside the bed. When his elbows went to his knees, he went into serious Alpha mode.

“Theia came to me weeks, maybe a month or two, before the Mating Moon.”

Theia was a Seer who tended to keep to herself on the outskirts of the territory. She rarely came to communal meals or large gatherings.

Eric, Emery’s dad, had cautioned all three of us to keep our distance because sometimes wolves with certain gifts struggled with close proximity to others.

“She saw something. About me?” I guessed.

“Not exactly.”

His big hands clasped together. “What she saw,” he swallowed, “was that my mate would die birthing my first child."

I stared at Briggs. "She saw me dying?"

He shook his head. “She saw the birth of my first pup, the mother was nondescript.”

“And your son?”

His eyes took on an amber glow. “She swears she saw nothing of him, had no inkling that he, too, would perish.”

The world tilted. I could practically feel his anguish as though it were my own.

“I tried every angle, asked every question. What if I got fixed? What if you had your tubes tied? What if I didn’t take a mate? What if I took my own life? What if—what if—what if?? ” his volume rose.

Then he shrugged. “It didn’t matter. Something worse would come if I didn’t take a mate. If I didn’t procreate. She was adamant about that.”

It was supposed to have been me. I should have been the one to die. Maybe then his—our—son … oh, Goddess, it was too awful to think.

"So instead of taking me as your mate, you condemned Ruby." The words tasted like ash on my tongue. "She died because of us.”

"She died because of my choices, choices I made because I couldn’t let that be your fate. By rejecting you, I was trying to save your life."

“But you still sentenced her to death.”

I couldn’t stand the female, but I would never wish her to die on her birthing bed.

“Ivy, she knew.”

My eyebrows rose to my hairline. “ What? ”

“She knew.”

“And she still chose to mate with you?”

“I told Ruby everything Theia told me. Laid it all out before offering her the position of Luna.”

“That’s … that’s insane! Why would she go through with it?”

“Ambition. Denial. Take your pick. She believed I was just trying to make up an excuse so I wouldn’t feel bad about forsaking my true mate. She also believed I wanted her that badly. Nothing could have been further from the truth.”

Briggs scooted to the edge of the chair. “I am not a good man, Ivy. I felt only the slightest twinge of something over her delusions. I didn’t care much because the only thing I cared about was you . As long as you were safe, I could survive. I had no other thoughts about it. No specific plan for what I would do after Theia’s vision came to be. If you think I consciously made the decision to put you on a shelf and only take you down when it was finally convenient, I didn’t. I only knew you had to live and that someday in the future I would need to earn your forgiveness.

“Then, when I lost my son, too, all I wanted was you. All I wanted was to see you and know you were safe and close enough to watch over. I was so desperate I sent Baylor.”

He'd lost his mate and his child. The pain of that was unimaginable. And yet, a small, selfish part of me whispered that he'd been willing to sacrifice me, too.

I didn't know what to feel. Anger, betrayal, sorrow, pity. They all warred within, leaving me shaken and confused.

I sat there trying to reconcile this new information with the years of hurt and anger I'd carried. The revelation broke cracks into the ice around my heart, but it didn't completely erase the pain of his rejection.

"And what about now, Briggs? What do you want now?" I asked, purposefully using his name.

He inhaled sharply, gaze intense. "Everything."

I turned away, my emotions running high. A part of me longed to fall into his arms, to let the past fade away. But the wounds, old and new, were still there.

“Say something,” he pleaded.

“I can't just forget everything that's happened.”

“I don’t expect you to.”

"I-I need time to think," I managed, my voice trembling.

Briggs nodded, his expression carefully blank. "I understand."

He stood, gathering the rest of his discarded items and went to the door.

"For what it's worth, Ivy, rejecting you was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I had to make it real, make sure you hated me because I don’t think I could have stayed away from you otherwise. It was my own weakness that kept me from telling you beforehand. It was never about not wanting you. Never."

The truth changed everything and nothing. Briggs had tried to protect me, but in doing so, he'd caused so much pain.

And now here we were, our lives fractured and our futures uncertain. I didn't know how to move out from under the boulder sitting on my chest.

"Get some rest, Ivy. We'll talk later."

He left, closing the door softly behind him. The click of the lock engaging reignited my ire.

I stood and made my way to the door. I tried the handle, knowing it was futile, but needing to confirm I was still a prisoner.

Locked. I was trapped, just as I had been since the moment he brought me here.

"You can't keep me locked up forever, Briggs!" I shouted. "If you want to make things right, this isn't the way to do it!"

Silence was my only answer. I slammed my palm against the door in frustration.

I returned to the bed. The sheets were still rumpled. The air still steeped with the smell of sex.

My energy was sapped. I curled up on the bed, pulling the covers around me like a shield.

Soon, I’d need to find something stronger to protect my heart.