Page 39 of The Unwanted Mate of the Lycan Kings (Unwanted #1)

I push off his chest. “What? I need to get to the other side!” He laughs.

“Now I know you’re fucking with me! Let me go!” I grind out through clenched teeth. Regan laughs.

“You’re like restraining a child,” he mocks as I thrash, suddenly becoming claustrophobic in his powerful embrace. Panicking, I lash out harder, but he just laughs like he thinks it’s funny while I’m on the verge of tears. So I bite him.

Hard.

So hard, I can taste his blood in my mouth, and it coats my tongue. He shoves me away, but my teeth are embedded in his pec, and I refuse to let go.

“Human, I am warning you! Let go!”

I bite down harder, and he groans then growls. “Not fucking nice, is it?” I speak with a mouthful of him between my blunt teeth. Yet, the longer I hang onto him, the more of his blood I swallow. The room changes color, and I feel lightheaded.

“Let go, or I will break your fucking teeth,” he growls.

“No you won’t. You won’t risk getting in trouble with daddy!” I taunt, speaking through my teeth. A giggle escapes me, and the same strange feeling I got from Lyon’s blood slips over me. He growls, pinching my nose.

Which only causes me to giggle again, then snort when he finally rips me off.

His growl is thunderous, and when he pins me to the bed, using his crushing weight to hold me there, blood drips on my face.

Staring up at him, he could be Zeke’s cyclops brother, only he looks funnier as his angry snarling face twists and morphs like he is pouting.

“You have one eye!” I giggle and his growling stops. He pulls away, letting me go and checking his chest.

“You drank my damn blood, didn’t you?” he growls, accusingly.

But all I can focus on is the way his eyes have blurred together, and his lips are enlarged like a trout’s.

“Human! Come on, snap out of it!” He leans over me, tapping my face.

“What’s wrong with you? You couldn’t have drunk that much.”

“You have one eye.” I tell him.

“I don’t have one damn eye, you’re high!” he scolds, prying my eyes open with a sigh.

“Right there!” I poke it, and he rears back, clutching his face.

“No, that is my fucking eye!” He yells at me. I did try to tell him it was his eye! Nobody ever listens to me.

“I know, I touched it!” I admit sitting up. The moment I do, the room spins, and I can’t help but laugh at the tingly feeling that moves from head to toe.

“No, back in bed.” He shoves me back down.

“And leave my one eye alone,” he scolds.

“You have two now!”

“Great, the other returned.” He laughs, dropping beside me.

“Damn cannibal. You’re lucky you’re high so I can kinda forgive you.” He laughs, clutching me closer. After a while, the feeling abates, and my body gives into exhaustion, but only temporarily.

Gnash whines and wakes me up. “No, boy, you’ll squash her. Down!” Regan whispers before Gnash jumps off the bed. Regan sighs, and I pull away from him, but he tugs me back again.

“He can stay,” I tell him, and Regan jumps.

“You’re awake?” He lets me go quickly.

“He’s covered in blood. He killed something, though I think it may have been a someone by the scent,” Regan tells me, and I cringe.

“In that case, he stays off.” I yawn, trying to get comfortable. Yet as I try to get back to sleep, I find I can’t.

“What time is it?”

“Three.”

“I’ve only been asleep for an hour,” I groan.

“Why? Are you hoping to wake up early so you can run to my brother?” Regan mocks.

“Yeah, because I’m so excited that the first cock I will be forced to touch is of someone I despise!”

Silence falls in the room. What I said really starts to sink in, making me feel sick. “Keep a drink in his hand. He’ll pass out after dinner. Lyon and I will try to slip him something,” Regan says.

“Although if he catches us, it may make things worse for you. It’s up to you, though.”

“Can’t I tell your father I don’t want him and have him removed from participating?”

“No, my father is stubborn. He won’t allow it. He knows Zeke will use it as an excuse, saying you never tried with him. But that is not the only reason, it is not so much about marrying you but more for us to work together I think, I don’t think you choosing was the main plan of his.”

I chew my lip for a second, daring myself to ask. “Can you get me some wolfsbane?” I ask him. He scoffs.

“Certainly not. I am not handing you something that can kill us!” I roll over onto my side, knowing it is pointless.

“I’m sorry, Zirah. I can’t risk giving you something like that.”

“It’s fine, Regan. Forget I even asked.” Knowing today is potentially the day I will die, my stomach sinks. I have never feared death, but I know when Zeke does it, he’ll make it as painful and humiliating as possible.

Sleep does not come for me, and the dread in the pit of my stomach only worsens when I see the sky slowly lighten. Rolling over, I pull the pillow over my head, trying to block out the rising sun and forget about the hell I will live through over the next twenty-four hours with Zeke.

“The pillow won’t change it being morning.” Regan exhales. I lift the edge of the pillow and peek at him. He’s lying on his back with his eyes closed. He appears to be trying to sleep, or maybe he was asleep and my movement on the bed woke him.

“I need to shower to wake up, or do you want to have one first?” he asks, turning his head to look at me. I shake my head, and he sighs before climbing out of bed.

“Don’t you need my scent on you?” He groans and falls back down on the bed.

“Fuck!” he curses, tossing his arm across his face to block the light that is slowly starting to filter in through the curtains. My eyes roam over his body. He’s all hard and muscular, deep valleys of muscle pressed beneath taut skin.

“Can you stop staring? I can feel you watching me.”

I move to roll over when I stop and turn back to him.

“What, human? What do you want?”

“Why do you do that?” I ask, and he groans, turning his head to glare at me.

“Do what?”

“Call me human one minute but use my name the next. It is annoying.”

“Because you irritate me, and I know calling you human irritates you.” He laughs softly.

“You’re an asshole.”

“You only just figured that out?” He grins and watches me roll away from him. “Why does it bother you? My brothers call you the same thing.”

I freeze at the edge of the bed. “Because I’ve heard you use my name, then you revert to calling me human.” I huff.

“Because they can’t use your name?”

I roll my eyes and sit up. “Because they don’t use my name. Not at all.” I glance at the clock, finding it to be a little after six. Sighing, I fall back down.

“Time always seems slow when anticipating something,” he states.

“And what are you anticipating?”

“Getting away from you,” he answers flatly.

“You say that, but you have stopped Zeke from killing me... How many times now?” I ask.

“Because I want to keep my throne,” he growls.

“Is that what you’re telling yourself? Because the way I see it is, you actually like me. Probably because, despite hating you, I am the only person who isn’t repulsed by or scared of you.”

“Repulsed? Wow, thanks,” he growls.

“You kill people!” I retort.

“And that makes me repulsive?”

“I said I am not repulsed by you like everyone else is. Are you deaf?” I ask him.

“Well, in that case, you don’t repulse me either.” He laughs as I stare blankly at him. “What? It’s a compliment, I promise.”

“Coming from you, I think that is the best one I’ll get. I can see why you can’t find a wife with such manners,” I retort.

“No, I can’t find a wife because I would kill them, and every damn woman knows that,” he snarls.

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that when I pick you to marry,” I tell him.

He scoffs and shakes his head. “Why? Because I can’t have sex with you?” he asks.

“Yep! I plan on keeping my innocence until I die!” I huff.

“Not if Zeke gets his way, you won’t. In fact, you’ll probably lose it sometime today,” he taunts.

“He can’t touch me,” I remind him.

“Without your permission. You’re easily commanded, in case you haven’t noticed.” His words slowly sink in, and I feel like my entire world is crashing around me.

Fear slivers up my spine and threatens to strangle me. My entire life has crashed and burned in only a few short days, and now I’m left with the rubble of desolation.

“Do you think he will?” There’s a vulnerability in my voice that I instantly hate.

He shrugs. “Depends. It’s hard to say with Zeke.

He’s unpredictable. Zeke will probably make you suck him off, or maybe jerk him when you have to bathe him,” he says like it is no big deal and completely normal to speak of someone’s torture.

Bile rises in my throat, and a sliver of hope fills me when an idea occurs to me, and I roll to face him.

“Can I keep Gnash for the night?” I ask him.

“Definitely not,” he says quickly, and I press my lips in a line to stop them from quivering. He squashed that hope so quickly without even considering it.

Getting up, I move toward the bathroom. “What are you doing?”

“Showering. I’m fucking doomed either way. I’d rather he kills me this morning than rape me tonight.”

“No, I am not losing my fucking throne because of you,” Regan snarls, sitting up quickly.

“Fuck your throne! I have nothing to lose, right? So why the fuck should I worry about what you do?” I ask him. Disgusted with how he can so casually speak of his brother raping and killing me.

“I offered to drug him for you,” he snarls.

“Give me Gnash!”

“No!” I throw my arms up in the air, turning on my heel. Getting anywhere with these men is impossible. King Theron is a fool if he thinks there is even a sliver of humanity left in any of them. Gripping the door handle, I shove open the door.

“If I give you Gnash, he’ll hurt him. I know my brother. You think I want him to hurt you?” I stop, turning back to look at him.

“You speak so nonchalantly about him raping and hurting me. You’re obviously okay with it, ” I retort.

“I never said I was. I only said it was inevitable when it comes to him. Not once did I say I wanted him to,” Regan snarls.

“No, but you threatened to do it the first time I met you. Did you think I forgot? You’re just as bad as he is.”

“I am nothing like him!” He throws the blankets off and leaps to his feet.

“So it would be different if you raped me?” I scoff, shaking my head.

“Fuck what I said. I wouldn’t intentionally hurt you.”

“Same monster, different logic. The only difference is that you have excuses for your shitty behavior.”

“You fucking challenged me!” I blink at him, trying to understand what he is even thinking or how that would even make sense.

“So that gives you permission to use someone’s body as punishment?” I ask, completely dumbstruck by this entire conversation.

“I’m not human! You can’t challenge us. We will retaliate, and you won’t like it. I can’t help what I am! Do you think a normal dog asks permission before he mounts a bitch? Or any creature for that matter?”

“So you’re a dog?” I laugh.

“No—but it’s the same. We have the same instincts.

Hunt and kill. Command and submit. You didn’t submit.

You fought back! You challenged me. You say I’m a monster, but I didn’t kill you, did I?

I wanted to. Prey and predator. It’s not my fault you ended up on the crappy end of the food pyramid,” he yells at me.

“So what about your so-called human side?” I question.

“We are less human than you think. We look human in this form, but our instincts and needs are controlled by our true form, Zirah. Rationally, we know it is wrong, but our baser instinct will always overrule the human counterpart in us. The more you refuse, the harder we’ll try to mate with you.

The faster you run, the more we’ll hunt you.

And if it’s a full moon, all of that is ten times stronger.

We are creatures of the moon, not children of the fucking sun.

Creatures Zirah! Not fucking human!” he yells.

Regan exhales and rubs his temples like he has a headache. “Hunting and killing is as instinctive as breathing for us. You don’t tell yourself to take each breath. Your body knows what it needs. That is the best way I can describe it.”

So either way, I’m doomed then. Nodding, I push open the bathroom door.

“Wait!” Regan calls out, and I internally groan. I am over debating right and wrong. Turning around, Gnash is sitting on the floor watching us, his fur covered in blood.

Regan growls, glaring at the floor. “I’ll get you the wolfsbane.” Regan offers, lifting his head and looking at me.

“But if you get caught with it, I didn’t give it to you,” he tells me.

“Really?” I could kill two birds with one stone if he gives me the wolfsbane. I can use some on Zeke to help me escape and rebrand these runes that are fading.

“Do we have a deal?” Regan asks, but that won’t solve my problem of spending all day with him, but it is better than nothing.

Letting the bathroom door go, I walk back to the bed and climb in.

Regan exhales, lays back down, and stares at the ceiling.

My mind is moving a hundred miles an hour with different scenarios and different outcomes that torment me when he moves, drawing my attention to him.

I find my eyes taking him in, and I glance at the runes etched into his skin.

“The tattoos. What are they for?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he grumbles. Lying back down, I stare at the ones covering his shoulder, taking in the massive design. The more I look, the more I notice they aren’t tattoos, but they are burns like mine.

Reaching out, I trace my finger over one, feeling the silky yet rough texture of his skin. “It’s a burn, not a tattoo,” I murmur, and he turns his head to look at me.

“Litha did it. When she burned, we burned along with her,” he says. He almost looks like he regrets killing her.

I trace the pattern of one particular rune that Granny said gives me the element of air. Yet, why would he need it?

“You need to stop that, Zirah,” Regan speaks coldly, and my eyes move to his to see they are pitch black. My reflection is mirrored back at me in them, and I move my hand away when something occurs to me.

“Maybe Zeke doesn’t have to be my first encounter with a naked man.” I murmur, my face heating as the words spill from my lips.