The next morning I woke up with Darius wrapped around me as usual. I push him off with what strength I gained over the night and get dressed. I put on pants and a shirt. When I turn I see Darius watching me. “Where are you going?”
“I think you lost that privilege last night. I have been trying to be understanding. I have let you make me do things that I didn’t want to do. But last night was the last straw. Who does that to someone they say that they love?”
He jumps from bed. He is naked, he must have thought that this morning everything was going to go back to normal. “I do love you. I got angry. I got carried away. I won’t do it again.”
I look away from him. “Was it Sasha?”
He takes a step back. “Yes.”
“Yeah, I think we are done here.” I push around him, only for him to grab my arm and drop to his knees.
“It wasn’t supposed to go that far. I just wanted you to feel a little pain. The mate bond took over. It is never going to happen again.”
“Darius, there should be no mate bond to take over. This is all wrong. If you love me as much as you claim you shouldn’t want to hurt me. I didn’t do anything wrong. I was dancing with your brother, just like your mom asked me too. He didn’t touch anything inappropriate. You went crazy. I can’t do this with you.”
“I saw the way he looked at you.” He growled at me.
“Yeah, so. He has as much right as Sasha does. Maybe I should go fuck him and give you a taste of your own medicine.”
He pulls my arm closer. “What does that mean?”
I get right in his face. “I think you can figure it out.”
He growls and pulls my body to his. He starts pawing at my clothes. “You are mine, mine only.”
“Darius. Stop. I don’t want this.”
He doesn’t stop. I try to move away from him but he pulls me back. “You are my mate. You bare my mark.”
I scream at him. “It didn’t seem to stop you last night.” I kick at him. He growls and pulls his hand back.
“Bitch.” He slaps me right across my face sending blinding pain through it. I let out a scream and held my face. Only this seems to knock some sense back into him. “What have I done?”
“What you are always going to do. Be a bully.” I roll over and lunge away from him and leave the room before he can stop me.
I straighten my clothes on the landing and dash down the stairs. I plan to just run but I am stopped by Markus. “There you are. Ready for training?” He has a smile on his face.
“Not so sure I am ready for that.” I sneak a peek upstairs to make sure that Darius isn’t following me.
“You are ready for this one.” He takes my hand and leads me out of the pack house. Instead of going to the training grounds he takes me the way to the trail. The trail that I used to take to go to that spot. The spot that I always thought of as ours.
“Where are we going?”
“Our spot.” I can’t help but smile, he thought of it as our spot too.
As soon as we are out of sight of anyone he pulls me closer with his arm around me. I lean into him. Why couldn’t Darius have waited a week to corner me? I would have already been claimed and I wouldn’t be in any of this mess.
Markus takes his time leading us up the mountain. I don’t mind. The more time I have with Markus the less time I have to deal with Darius. As soon as we get to the field he pulls me down to the ground with him. He wraps both his arms around me. “Now, tell me everything that happened.”
“If I tell you, you can’t tell Darius I told you. He will punish me again.”
“What is his punishment?”
I sigh. “Last night he had sex with Sasha. It hurts like hell. That was just for being comfortable while dancing with you. For this it could be worse.”
“He is going to pay for all the pain that he has caused you.”