Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“I’ve still got you,” I tell her.
“I can put people in places of management for the pack,” she says. “I’m set up for a structural corporate takeover. I’m not worried about that. But I am worried that I might…”
“You’re worried I can’t contain you now you have so much power.”
“Yeah.”
I smile. “Sweetheart, I can handle you.”
She smiles, but I can see a certain amount of doubt in her eyes.
Callie
I needed to hear those words so fucking badly. Since I was a teenager, I’ve been in charge of more things than I could begin to understand. Finding myself as a terrible werewolf wasn’t really that surprising really. It made sense to me that I’d end up with all the power for no good reason. That’s what always happens.
People think being really, really rich is a good thing, and they’re right, but it comes with responsibilities and fucked-up challenges that are constantly stressful. I’m lucky that those who run the companies I own and otherwise advise me haven’t decided to take me for every dollar I have, because that could have happened all too easily.
Might still happen, I suppose, but I don’t think so. If anybody tries to financially fuck me over now, I can turn into a mythical creature and eat them. So I’ve got that going for me.
I feel Gray’s fingers on my chin, turning my face toward him.
“Come back here,” he says. “I don’t know what you’re thinking about, but you don’t need to be thinking right now.”
I look into his eyes and I remember how he was when I first met him as a strange, hot man in a wolf mask in my basement office. I looked into those eyes then, and I submitted to them even though it made absolutely no sense to.
Now, against all sense, I find myself submitting again.
“Ow!” I gasp as his hand lands hard against my ass.
“What was that for?” I whimper a little. I hadn’t even done anything. That’s not fair. I immediately start to pout as the sting sinks into my skin.
“Just to remind you that you’re still a human, and a pretty small and frail one at that,” he says. “I know you have another form that makes you strong, but this one is the one you’ll spend most of your life in. This is the one you’ll have your ass spanked in if you step out of line, and this is the one you’ll be bred in. So don’t worry about me not being able to handle you. Worry about your behavior, because now that there is so much more at stake, I have no intention of letting you get away with a damn thing.”
“You couldn’t stop me,” I say, half-giggling and half-serious.
“Oh?” His brow lifts at me, and I get to feel that little spark of excitement that always accompanies being in the best kind of trouble.
He picks me up and tosses me down on the bed, and throws a bedside drawer open.
“What’s in there? Lube?”
Lube doesn’t generally jangle the way whatever he has in his hands. He’s wincing slightly, and I notice he reaches for a cloth to put between the object and his own skin.
“Put your hands above your head,” he says sternly.
I obey him, somewhat curious.
I see what he has now. Silver chains wrapped in some kind of velvet material.
“Don’t struggle when I put these on. Tell me if you want me to move them. I don’t want you to burn yourself.”
So this is actually dangerous, I suppose. But I trust him, with more than my life. I trust him with everything I am.
“What is it?”
“Silver,” he says. “It is one of the things werewolves are weak to, as you are well aware. It shouldn’t hurt, but it will weaken you. You won’t be getting up. You’ll be at my mercy.”
I feel a tingle of excitement at the prospect of helplessness. I haven’t felt helpless in a long time, and yet somehow I’ve always felt helpless. Vulnerability is the flame to which I am drawn, and the same flame that burns me. So I let him place silver over my upstretched arms.
The chains are wrapped in soft fabric to stop my skin from being burned, but they’re close enough to me that I can feel the wild animal thing settling inside me, withdrawing like waves on a beach when the tide is going out. It feels peaceful.
“Does that hurt?”
“No,” I say. “Feels nice. Kind of heavy.”
“Good. That’s what I want. I want you to know that you’re not beyond containment. I know you think you’re strong—and you are. But you still need to be aware that everything and everyone has their weak spots. All monsters can be beaten by the right hero. There are tales upon tales teaching us that.”
“Do you think I’m a monster?” My voice quavers a little as I ask the question.