Chapter Fifty-Three
“Graham, what’s going on?” Catherine asked, looking up at her mate’s deeply furrowed brow. “What were the two of you talking about?”
Catherine could feel the tension climb over her skin the moment she stepped into the gym. Graham looked as though he were about to send Lucien to the ground while Lucien looked amused. That coupled with the familiar puzzling look Graham gave her when he was trying to figure something out without having to ask made her confident they’d been discussing her. He sighed and released some of the pressure keeping her against him.
Graham cupped her cheek in his palm. “When do you need to be back to the kitchen?”
“I have a few hours,” she said cautiously.
He nodded. “Let’s go home and we can talk.”
“Is it that serious?”
Graham shrugged. “I just want you to be somewhere comfortable where no one will be listening.”
“Yikes.”
Graham smirked and took her hand to lead her from the building. In his other hand he held the plate she’d brought him with a jaw-splitting sandwich and homemade fries. As they walked, she took a moment to admire his carefully sculpted back. She let her eyes trail down the curve of his spine and to the shorts he wore. Graham didn’t like loose basketball shorts, he favored the shorter spandex that showed the thick ribbon of muscles along the back of his thighs. He’d taken the motorcycle to work so she rode behind him with her head pressed between his shoulder blades.
Once at home he went directly to the bathroom to shower. He set the sandwich on the bathroom counter and then deftly deposited Catherine on the counter beside it.
“Take a few bites,” he ordered as he turned on the shower. “We both know you haven’t made anything for yourself.”
Catherine did as she was told with a small smile on her face. She didn’t try to hide her gaze as he stripped down to nothing in front of her. The steam covered the lower glass of the shower, obscuring her favorite part of him when he stepped inside. She grabbed a few fries and stuffed them in her mouth.
“I promised I wouldn’t keep anything from you,” Graham began.
“You did.”
“Lucien told me a few things today right before you walked in. I can’t be certain they’re all true but…”
“You want me to hear them anyway.”
“Is that okay?”
“Let’s hear it,” she said on a sigh as she braced for another hit to the world she knew.
Catherine listened intently at first. After the first few things she found herself drifting away from the conversation. She didn’t want to be rude but it wasn’t anything she hadn’t heard before.
Instead she watched the way her mate moved behind the glass of the shower. She loved the way he used both hands to wash his hair. The gesture reminded her of the first time she’d seen him in the market. She loved how the steam seemed to cling to him, as if every force on earth was determined to touch him.
She didn’t realize Graham stopped talking until the water shut off and he stepped out. He dried his hair for what felt like five minutes before he tied the towel around his waist. Graham walked up to her and placed both hands on either side of her thighs. He lightly kissed her lips and then laid his forehead against hers.
“Why do I get the feeling you weren’t listening to a thing I said because you’ve already heard it before?” Graham asked.
“I like watching you,” she breathed, wanting to avoid the subject.
“Catherine…” Graham warned. She looked up to find his eyes closed.
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Chapter Fifty-Three
“You said I didn’t need to talk about him until I was ready…”
Graham sighed and pivoted so that he was leaning against the sink beside her. “May I at least ask why you are so afraid to tell me?”
“I am not afraid,” she said defensively. He gave her a raised brow in response and crossed his arms. Catherine intertwined her fingers in her lap and stared down at them. “I am terrified. From the moment I met you, telling you the truth terrified me.”
Graham stood in front of her again and placed his hands on her knees. “I won’t let him hurt you again.”
“I know, it’s not that. I’m just worried…” Catherine took a deep breath. “I’m worried you’ll leave me.”
Graham gave her a dubious look. “Well I’ll have to…” Catherine locked up. “Catherine, I will need to kill him and anyone else who hurt you. I won’t have a choice but to leave you for a little bit but if it worries you so much then you can come. You’ll have to wait in the car but…”
Graham’s reassurance was interrupted by a burst of giggles from Catherine. “No, no…” Catherine reached out and took his hands. “I’m afraid you’ll reject me.”
Graham’s brows drew down impossibly further as he stared at her. His expression was of pure bafflement as he again gave her his puzzling look. “You’re afraid I’ll reject you?” he asked as if he must have heard her wrong. Catherine nodded. His hands gripped her face and he licked his lips as his face became stern with determination. “I will never reject you. I am yours, Catherine. You are mine. Even if we never mark each other. Even if the Goddess herself were to rip you out of my arms, I would go past the ends of the earth to find you. Your traumas won’t change that. No… they will only make me that more determined to keep you close beside me. I need you to tell me you understand that.” Catherine nodded her head. He gave her one quick dark chuckle. “No, Baby, that just won’t do. I need you to tell me.”
Catherine gave him a shaky smile. “I understand. I love you.”
“I love you too,” he whispered, pulling her into his chest. Catherine wrapped her arms around his waist and inhaled his spicy scent.
Catherine squeezed her eyes shut. “Dominic DeAngelo.” Graham’s body tensed up around her. She worried for a split second that he might crush her in his embrace. She felt his throat working as if to clear a huge lump. Catherine sighed again and buried herself deeper into his warmth. “Dominic DeAngelo told me everything you just did. He told me I would be his one day. Dominic DeAngelo marked me.”
Graham kept her pinned to his chest for several minutes. Catherine knew because she counted every second in her head until he pulled away from her. He put his hands on her thighs and squeezed. His black eyes watched his fingers tighten around her flesh. His jaw ticked. He inhaled deep, closing his eyes as he did. Slowly his fingers loosened and when he opened his eyes again, they were the warm brown she could sink deep into.
“He told you all of this? Did he tell you how he knew it?” Graham asked, his voice surprisingly calm.
“You knew it was him,” she whispered. Graham’s jaw ticked. “When?”
“Lucas found out before I left to track the rogues.”
“You’ve known that long and you… you haven’t left me?”
“What did I say not five minutes ago, Catherine?” he asked, aggravation lacing his voice. “Nothing will take you from me, let alone that fucking asshole.”
Graham grabbed her face and kissed her. His lips were demanding on hers, demanding for her to grasp how he felt for her. He put everything he felt into the desperate way he held her and stole her air from her lungs only to breathe it back into her. He pulled away so they could both gasp for breath. He pressed his forehead against hers harsher than before.
“I won’t leave you. I just want to know so can help you, Baby,” he begged.
Catherine nodded and gripped his hips as she thought about how to let it all out without completely disintegrating. “The memory I relived the other day before my shift. It unlocked a few others. He knew when I was five, Graham. He saw me shift and knew there was something special about me. He found a wizard to corrupt so he could become an alpha… the alpha of Moonstone. He proclaimed Achmond Rais but I’d seen him when he publicly killed Isobel and Lionel. I couldn’t remember exactly but I knew he wanted me for something. I tried to run but the day I was set to leave, Curtis came.”
“Curtis,” Graham growled.
“The people who raised me signed my body over to the law. Curtis took me through a portal to Dominic. There were nineteen of us. Curtis put a spell on the packhouse. If any of them were to try to escape they would be teleported to the dungeon and deprived of food and water for 24 hours.”
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Chapter Fifty-Three
“Why do you say ‘they’ as if you had a different punishment?”
Catherine pushed her forehead into his chest. “Because he wanted me. The other girls were only there for his men. When I tried to escape I would be…”
“It’s okay,” Graham cooed against her ear as he stroked his hand down her back.
“I would be teleported to Dominic so he could punish me himself.”
“No one else touched you?” Graham asked as softly as he could. Catherine didn’t respond as she fought the memories that made her skin crawl. “Catherine…”
“Only one. A few times. I preferred it, actually. At least he wasn’t… violent,” she whispered. Graham took a deep breath and let it go slowly. “He knew I would get my gifts once I was marked. Dominic wasn’t patient. He didn’t want to wait for the council’s approval but he couldn’t risk losing the pack so he decided to mark me somewhere discreet. When he tried… I told you I fought. I kicked his jaw with my heel and I knocked out his right canine.”
“Catherine, when he bit you, did his blood mix with his bite?”
“I don’t know…”
”
His grip tightened slightly. “Why?”
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“Because when I hurt him, he knocked me unconscious. When I woke up, I was in agony and his mark was on my thigh.”
Again Graham inhaled slowly. He removed his hands from her thighs and placed them on the bathroom counter. The marble creaked under the force of his clenched fists.
“How did he know all of this about you, Catherine? This stuff is not common knowledge.”
“I don’t know. He seemed to know everything. He told me my mom was a turned wolf, that my father was an alpha lycan. He knew my gifts would only appear once I was marked and…”
“When did you escape?” Graham asked, interrupting her.
“The day after he marked me. A maid came to me and told me she could help me escape. She got me to the edge of the packlands and I took to the roads. Two days later Juno picked me up and took me to Sterling where I knew Dominic would never go,” she answered. He looked off to the distance as he pondered. “What is it?”
O
Graham sighed and looked down to her. “Just something Lucien said about Dominic playing the long game. You said you were magically bound to the packhouse. So what changed? If marking you was supposed to reveal your powers, why would he mark you and then immediately let his guard down?”
Catherine put her hand over her mouth. “You think he realized only my true mate could release the gift.” Catherine watched her mate’s jaw tick. “You think
he let me leave.
Surrendering to Destiny
