Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Seven
Come find me tonight. Come find me tonight. Come find me tonight.
The words Graham had spoken to her kept replaying in her mind along with how he looked as they dragged him out of the foyer. Catherine sat on her bed meditating, trying to find him in his dreams. Instead, she was met with the image of his limp body again seared into the back of her brain. Whatever they were doing to him, he was awake for it.
She’d felt his pain throughout the last few hours. It was the only thing keeping her heat from climbing higher. The pain had stopped about half an hour ago and with it, her restlessness grew. She glanced at the clock. It was past midnight. Was Stuart still down there?
Catherine flung her legs over the bed and strode across the room with purpose. She took hold of the door handle, took a deep breath and tried to turn it. The handle clicked and the door opened. She stared down at it for a minute in shock. Her mate was here. In the house. And they didn’t lock the door?
She opened the door all the way and glanced down the hall. She listened, holding her breath so she could hear better. The faint sound of laughter and boisterous voices came to her ear. She listened more closely and, there, she could hear Stuart’s proud voice. She stepped out and closed the door as quietly as she could. She walked down the hall on her toes. She passed the door beside her own and smelled Dominic’s strong pine scent. It must be the room he was sleeping in.
She continued through the hall and down the stairs. The laughter grew louder as she passed the parlour. She looked in through the cracked doorway to find most of Dominic’s guards surrounding Stuart as he told how he’d sliced her mate up with a knife Jensen had given him as a boy. She shook her head and continued forward.
When she passed a door that smelled of blood and spices, she stopped. She tried the handle and it was unlocked. She descended down the stairs on the other side, trying to identify the smells around her. She didn’t scent anyone other than Graham. Where were the guards? Surely they couldn’t all be on break at the same time, could they?
The stairs narrowed and she had to rely on her senses to see in the pitch dark. She saw a row of four cells. By now, Graham’s scent was pungent but not as much as the smell of blood. She walked toward the last cell and relief hit her like a punch to the gut. Graham sat with his back to the wall. His knees were drawn up, his hands were held out over them and his head hung low. At the shuffling of her feet, he looked up.
“There you are,” Graham breathed, letting his head fall back to the wall.
Catherine held her hand over her mouth at the sight of him. He was healing, but very slowly. His face was swollen. There were cuts in his eyelids, along his neck and down his bare chest. Several of his tattoos had been peeled off but as he healed, the ink seemed to reappear. She glanced at the chains still around his ankles. They were clearly laced as the skin around the chains were raw and bleeding. Wolfsbane. It was why he wasn’t healing.
Despite all of this, Graham cracked a relieved smile. He stood up far easier than she’d expected and walked toward the bars. He gripped the rails and leaned his forehead against them.
“Come here,” he encouraged her.
Catherine shook her head and looked back up the stairs. “This was too easy,” she whispered. “It has to be a trap.”
Graham gave her a mischievous smile. “Not a trap. More of a test. One which you are about to fail splendidly. Come here,” he repeated. Catherine took an uncertain step, still thinking there was something wrong with this. Sensing her unease Graham sighed. He held his hand out for her. “Trust me, Baby. Just, just touch me.”
Catherine reached her hand out and brushed his fingers. The shock that rocked through her shot her forward. Before she knew it, her arms were reaching through the bars. He held her tightly and kissed her forehead. He released a long breath that loosened his entire body.
“What am I supposed to do?” she asked, stepping back. She looked the door over. They at least weren’t dumb enough to leave that door open.
“I need you to break the lock.”
Catherine’s eyes shot up to his. “I… I can’t break the lock,” she said, examining it. She didn’t have the strength unless she shifted and even then the sound would certainly bring attention to the cells.
“You can bend it with energy,” Graham encouraged.
“I can’t,” she held up her wrists to remind him.
“Hold on,” Graham stepped back and reached into his mouth. She heard a crack and he pulled out one of his molars.
“Uh, Catherine grimaced as he examined the tooth.
He smiled. “It’s okay. I lost it in a fight with Theo when we were kids. They put in a veneer and I asked them to leave it empty. Comes in handy.” He pulled out a tiny clear crystal from the tooth and held it up for her to see. “Let me see your wrist.”
Catherine held out her right wrist. He held her forearm with a delicate touch. With his other hand, he took the crystal and made a slight scratch on the stone where two ridges came together. The band unlocked, opened and fell to the ground. All at once energy flowed through her. She gasped at the power that flooded through her veins. The entire house above her came into focus. She could feel everyone moving through the house, she could feel the heat of the fireplace and the thump of the dryer. She opened her eyes to find him watching her with a satisfied smirk.
“How?” she asked, examining her freed wrist while he took her other one.
“I told you these were Muriel’s invention. He knew how to break them.”
“Wait!” she cried, as he started to take off the other one.
“Why?”
“Just…” Catherine took her wrist back. His eyes roamed her face, trying to figure out what she was thinking. “I’ve been storing so much inside. I need to save it. I’ve been planning to use it.”
Graham nodded in understanding. “Can you break the lock with one wrist free?”
Catherine nodded and put her hand over the lock. She closed her eyes again and collected the energy in the air around her. It wasn’t difficult. Stuart had expended a lot of negative energy here. She focused the energy she felt into the lock beneath her fingers. A second later the lock clicked. She opened her eyes as Graham pulled the door open. He reached his hand out, seized her wrist and yanked her inside.
Graham’s arms wrapped around her in a vice-like grip. She couldn’t breathe, nor did she care. She clung to him just as tightly. She relished the heat of his skin soaking through her clothes. She enjoyed the chiseled-hardness of his body against her soft one. A few minutes passed until Graham pulled back. He caressed her face and smiled.
“Now what?” she asked, her voice suddenly husky.
His eyes turned black. He shut them and took a deep breath. “You’re going into heat.” She nodded in response. “That’s good. It’ll work in our favor.”
Graham pulled her shirt over her head. Once it was off he started undoing the buttons of her shorts.
“What are you doing?” she asked, startled. She grabbed his wrists to stop him from continuing.
“It’s okay.”
“He’ll know.”
Graham’s smile widened. “That’s kinda the point.” Catherine’s eyebrows pinched in confusion. Graham released her shorts and held her waist. “I have a plan. For it to work, I need Dominic to get really angry.”
“What are you talking about?”
He licked his lips and looked upward as if he thought someone might be listening. “I can’t tell you everything. Just know I have a plan. I’ll need him to hurt me to the point…”
“To the point of what, Graham?”
“To the point where I’m on the edge of death, if not completely pushed over.”
“What?!” she hissed, taking a step back.
“I need you to trust me.”
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Seven
“I do.”
“I need to make him jealous.”
“He doesn’t get jealous. He’s told me over and over. He has other men lined up to fuck me for Goddess sake!”
Graham gave her a lopsided smirk. “He gets jealous, Baby.” Graham pulled her back to him and started working on her shorts again. “I’ll take care of your heat,” he whispered into her neck. Her struggling immediately stopped. She became liquid, like a puddle, at the feel of his breath against his mark. He kissed the scarred flesh and Catherine’s knees wobbled.
“Graham,” she breathed in warning.
Her shorts fell to the floor and his fingers grazed down the front of her panties to the cleft under her legs. He groaned at the feel of the soaked fabric. His mouth found hers and Catherine’s mind went blank. She started grabbing at his pants until they too were gone. He pulled at the fabric of her panties until they snapped. She raked his boxers down until his erection sprang free. She was getting hot, too hot. She needed a cold shower, a pond to jump into, she needed her mate now.
Catherine pushed him back until he lowered himself to the floor. She crawled on top of him and started rubbing her slickness up and down his length. Graham groaned and gripped her face in one hand. The other hand gripped his erection and seated it at her entrance.
“Down,” he ordered her.
Catherine immediately complied. She sank down onto him and the heat she’d been feeling subsided for a moment only to come back with a vengeance. She started riding him hard. When she came down he rose up to meet her. The sound of their hurried breathing ricocheted off the stone walls. She moved faster, chasing the release that would bring her relief from the suffocating heat.
“Take what you need, Baby,” Graham whispered against her collarbone.
He nipped at her neck and his hands broke the straps of her bra before his palms molded to the sensitive flesh. He pinched her nipples between his fingers and she cried out. He quickly covered her mouth. His other arm wound around her waist and he took control. He plowed up into her, reaching a depth she couldn’t find on her own. Her head fell back as he gripped her tighter, tighter, tighter. Catherine cried out at her orgasm. Graham buried his face in her chest. His body shook as his seed spread inside her, warming her in ways only he could. She felt the swelling that only happened when she was in heat and her eyes flew open. Could she get pregnant in a false heat?
“Shh,” he whispered. “I know. It has to be done though or your heat will get worse. If your body gets what it wants, it won’t keep pushing you to get it.”
Catherine relaxed against him and he removed his hand from her mouth. She was spent and laid her head on his shoulder. He stroked her hair while he waited for his swelling to go down.
“We’re going to do this one more time, Catherine,” he whispered in her ear. “Then you’re going to go upstairs and bump into anyone you can. Go to your bed and roll around a bit, coat it in my scent. This is the important part. Are you listening?” Catherine nodded against his shoulder. “He will get angry. He may hurt you but it’ll be okay. He’ll be more angry with me. Did you feel it earlier? With Stuart?” Catherine stiffened. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He sighed. “You’ll feel this too. You’ll feel me slipping away and it’ll be… I don’t know. I can’t imagine it. Make sure you are around someone who can witness what you’re going through. Someone needs to see you are nearly dying because of me. Can you get Julia to be with you?”
“I can try.”
“Good girl,” he cooed. She felt the swelling within her start to subside. She sat up and braced her hands against his shoulders. “She’ll come down and I’ll take over from there.”
“Will it work?”
“It has to.”
Catherine shifted slightly but Graham held her in place. Her eyes widened as she felt his member start to thicken inside her again. He licked her neck and she shivered. “I told you we would need to do it a second time. This one will mark your skin. One other thing,” he said as he started to move within her again. “I’m going to reclaim you and I need you to do the same.”
Surrendering to Destiny
