Rory threw the pants down on the floor and stood with his arms folded across his chest.
Casey lunged up, pulled back his arm and dealt a hard blow to Rory’s butt. Whirling around and
holding both hands to his backside, he looked at Casey with horror.
“You hit me!”
“I spanked your ass. I’ll put you over my knee and do it properly if you show your temper
again. Now get into those pants or don’t. Either way I don’t give a shit. But that’s all you’ll wear
from now on.”
Backing away, Rory shook his head. “No, Casey. I won’t do it!”
“Boy, you know and I know that I can make you. So put them on like a nice pet, or I’ll put
you over my knee and spank you. Then I’ll put them on you myself.”
Rory, still in shock, glared at him, saying nothing.
Cody picked up a collar from the table. “Come here.” Casey crooked his finger at him.
“Next we’ll take a little trip downstairs to have some of that hair taken off your chest, legs, and
other places.”
Rory stared at the collar and shook his head.
“Everyone is going to know your murdering wolf is gone and that you are my property, my
pet, doing only what I allow you to do.”
Rory’s face drained of all color. “God, you really hate me, don’t you?”
Casey tightened his lips, and he stared straight into Rory’s eyes. “You’re my mate, Rory. I
can’t hate you, damn it! And I couldn’t kill you if I wanted to. But humiliation—it won’t physically harm you, but it will hurt. I can do that much at least for my brother. From now on, you’ll submit to me totally. No more wolf for you. You’re a pet now—dress the part. Get used to
it!”
Rory shook his head in disbelief. “No. No, I won’t let you do this to me. If you do this, if
you try to humiliate me like this, I’ll end up despising you. Is that really what you want?” Casey gripped tight Rory’s arm. “Shut up, Rory, and take orders. You’re my property! My
boy! You’ll do what I say, when I say. Is that understood?”
Rory glared at him. “Oh yeah, it’s understood. Now understand this. I may not be a shifter
anymore, but I’m still a wolf, lead gamma of the Dark Hollow Wolf Pack. You can beat me up,
’cause you’re bigger and stronger than I am. You can feed me your damn blood until I’m
drugged with it, and you can rape me if you want to. But it will be rape from now on, Casey,
make no mistake about it. I’ll never submit to you willingly again. I reject you as my mate. Do
you understand? I reject you! We’re through!”
Casey pushed him roughly onto the bed, ripped the blanket off, and fell on him. “Bullshit! I
won’t allow that. You’ll do as you’re told!”
Rory pushed back against his chest. “Oh no, I won’t!”
As they struggled, an insistent knocking made the door shudder in its frame, and Marco’s
voice rang out. “Rory, Casey, I know you’re in there. What’s going on? Let me speak to Rory.
Open the damned door!”
“Help me, Marco!” Rory’s voice called out before Casey could stop him. A bare second's
hesitation passed before the door burst open. Marco took one look at what was going on and
grabbed Casey from behind. Hauling him up and off Rory, he flung him across the room. Marco
turned and reached a hand out to Rory, but Casey jumped up off the floor and was on him. They
crashed around the room, their powerful, muscular bodies breaking up the furniture and making a
wreck of everything.
Chapter Four
Rory jumped off the bed and to his feet. “Stop! Please stop! You’ll kill each other!” The loud crashing and sounds of yelling soon drew others crowding into the room, trying to pull the two furious wolves apart. Rory grabbed the blanket from the bed to wrap around himself and fell back miserably on the bed. He shivered under his blanket, rocking back and forth, eyes tightly closed, waiting for it all to be over. His emotions were ripping him apart. Devastated by Casey’s betrayal and furious with him, he didn’t want to care about him, wanted him punished for what he’d done. At the same time he couldn’t help loving him and was terrified Casey would be hurt. Strong hands on his shoulders lifted him to his feet. He opened his eyes to see the kind face of Marco’s beta, Ian.
“Let’s get you out of here, son, until these two get it all worked out.” Ian pushed him gently from the room, and Rory glanced back over his shoulder to see a pile of bodies on the floor. Instinctively, he knew Casey was on the bottom, and he tried to turn and go back to him. Ian tugged him away.
“They won’t really hurt him. They’re only holding him down. He just needs to cool off, and so does Marco. Let that happen and you can see him later. C’mon, Rory, come with me.”
Rory allowed Ian to draw him away and down the hall, and he’d almost made it safely away when he heard the howl of a wolf. Bloodcurdling, and lonely and full of heartbreak, he knew it had to be Casey. The sound called Rory back as clearly as if it had been calling his name. Out of Rory’s throat came a weak answering howl, and his wolf stirred somewhere deep inside him. Ian steered him gently down the hall to his suite of rooms.
Ian must have known he wasn’t really cold—the shaking was no more than reaction to all that had happened in the last forty-eight hours or so. He sat Rory down on the sofa and made him a cup of hot chocolate. Rory tried to calm down and make sense of what was happening.
Ian sat quietly beside him on a sofa. The room was neat and orderly, like Ian, and had a restful quality to it. Ian’s wife had decorated the room not long before she died. Rory began to relax ever so slightly.
“How are you feeling, son? Any better?”
Rory nodded, still frowning. “I guess so. I’m worried sick about Casey though.”
“Do you want to see him?”
“No—yes.” Rory looked up, his eyes shining with tears. “No—hell, I don’t know. I’m so confused.”
“What are you confused about?”
“I love him so much—I can’t help it. To me, he’s the most handsome, most sexy man I’ve ever met. When he…when we…you know…I can’t get enough of him.” Rory blushed furiously, He’d been a virgin, and Casey had blown his mind with his lovemaking. “But if his blood would let him, he’d kill me. I don’t think he’ll ever feel any differently. All he really wants to do is hurt me. How can we have a life together? How can I live like that?”
Nothing seemed to rock Ian. He listened without looking shocked. Rory guessed as loud as they were yelling everyone already knew what was going on.
Ian said, “At least you love him, and it sounds like he has very strong feelings for you, even if he’s really mixed up right now.”
Rory set down his cup and leaned his head back on the sofa. “I thought so too, in the beginning, before he told me why he came here. He came here to k-kill me, because I killed his brother last year, the man who kidnapped my brother and Nicky. Finding out I was his bloodmate must have freaked him out.”
“Has he hurt you, Rory? Tell me the truth.”
“Not really. He did hit me.”
“He hit you?”
“Well, on the butt. He said it was a spanking, but he forgets how strong he is. It was only once. What really bothered me was what he said afterward. He said he wanted to humiliate me by making me wear the leather pants and collar pets wear so everybody would know I was not a wolf anymore, nothing but a weak pet with no mind of my own.”
“Why would he say you aren’t a wolf anymore?”
“It’s because of my…you know…my private parts. They look more like a human pet’s than a wolf’s.” When Ian still looked puzzled, Rory whispered, “No knot.”
“That may to be a result of a wolf mating a wolf, nature’s way of ensuring there is only one dominant when both are male. Since Casey is alpha and you’re gamma, it would naturally be him anyway.” He considered that for a moment longer before asking, “How do you feel about having Casey dominate you?”
Rory sighed and admitted, “In a way, I don’t really mind that part of it. I’ve never been as muscular and tall as the other wolves. After all, you’re right. He is an alpha. I’d owe him my obedience and allegiance anyway. When I was growing up, for a long time my parents thought I might be a pet. I never minded the idea, but when my wolf matured, I didn’t want to let Marco down. He’s really tried to help me.”
“Marco wants you to be happy, Rory. That’s all. You’ve got a strange idea about pets. There’s absolutely no shame involved in being one. They’re precious to us. We cherish our pets, and not because we just want someone to control. A wolf’s nature is to dominate. They’re like our other halves. Yin to our yang, I guess.”
“Yeah, I know that, but it’s a whole different mindset for me. I’ve always been wolf, and even if my knot is gone, I still feel wolf. I don’t know if I could be submissive, depending on him for everything, and I know I can’t be the way Casey says he’s going to force me to be. I can’t trust him either. He lied to me.” Tears welled up in his eyes again to embarrass him even though Ian ignored them.
“I think we wolves flatter ourselves with the notion our pets are totally dependent on us. My pet was the strongest, smartest woman I ever knew. She couldn’t shift, but she had me to do that for her. I worked for her, Rory, not the other way around. We’d be nothing but animals without them. They truly are our better halves.”
“But we discipline them and make them mind us and wear collars on their necks.”
Ian smiled gently. “You’re very young, Rory. Most of that is sex play. They allow us to do that, don’t you see? What are we going to do to them if they say no? We can’t hurt them—it goes totally against our nature. They could totally dominate us if they wanted to. No, they enjoy being taken care of and pampered, and in return they let us pretend we control them. Who goes out and works every day in the cold and rain while the other one stays at home and drinks coffee and reads magazines? Who’s really in charge?