The Mountain Ch. 05

Warder looked amused at the almost-question.

"There are certain characteristics of mating that are beneficial to a warrior," he said. "I intended to take a mate some day."

"And you will bind yourself to someone else, like Hadren?"

Lucy meant to sound uninterested, disdainful of their ways. Instead, she felt awkward and exposed as soon as the words left her mouth.

Worse, Warder didn't answer.

Lucy was still standing on the chair that she had been using to reach the television. Feeling conspicuous, she jumped down and went to the bed, pretending to turn on her side and sleep. She closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears, hoping to block Warder out.

After a few minutes, she felt the bed move next to her as Warder stretched out beside her, trapping her against the wall. As he did, she realized that this was what a part of her had wanted. For him to lie close to her. To make her feel safe.

"Lucy," he trailed a finger down her back.

She could hear him, but she kept her hands over her ears. "I'm tired."

Warder laughed and tugged her hands away, caressing them in his own.. "You are angry with me."

Lucy turned around to face him. "What?"

Warder stared at her, much too close. She wanted to move away, but she felt trapped by his eyes staring into her own. "Hadren treats Ysabel as less than a person. He uses her as a tool in the pursuit of power. Actually," he said, thinking, "he uses Grace the same way, but at least she can hold her own. Ysabel has been broken by him. She is unwell."

Unwell. It seemed like a rather benign way to describe what Ysabel was.

"I feel sorry for her," said Lucy. "And I hate you and your warriors for doing that to her."

Warder ignored her declarations of hatred like he always did.

"I will not use you like that, Lucy. I do not intend to allow harm to come to you."

"It harms me to be trapped here away from everyone I love."

Her voice faltered as she spoke. Warder's nearness was making her stomach ache with desire. She wanted him. Even now, when the fog of her sickness had abated. She was keenly aware that if he chose to use her as the king used Ysabel, she couldn't stop him.

"I don't want to become like her," said Lucy softly. "To lose my mind. To not be myself anymore."

"You will not," said Warder. He stroked her hair. "Ysabel did not become what she is because she is mated. Hadren made her that way. He turned something powerful into something ugly and painful. He treats Ysabel as less than human. After years and years, she broke apart."

"I'll break." Lucy nuzzled her head against Warder's chest. He continued to stroke her hair, a moment of shared gentleness that did nothing to dispel the terrifying future Lucy could see before her. "You'll hurt me. I'll hurt you. And one of us will have to break. I don't like my chances."

"I am not Hadren," said Warder. He pushed her away so that he could look in her eyes. "And neither of us are weak."

"But you will have your way."

Warder didn't deny it. "It will be easier than you think."

#

She woke up to find her arms stretched above her head, tied to the metal headboard of the bed. Startled, she tried to sit up. She was naked under the blanket and Warder was already awake next to her, watching her.

"Untie me," she said.

"It will be easier for you this way," said Warder.

"It will be rape," said Lucy.

"You are my mate," said Warder, as if that explained everything. "And you're already wet for me."

He reached between her legs to prove that he was right and Lucy blushed when his fingers came away with dew. He leaned over her and she saw that he was already hard. In a moment, he was inside her.

She was still sore from their first mating. She pulled at her bonds, begging him to stop.

He ignored her and kept moving. His hands went to her breasts and he teased the nipples and then lowered his head, taking one into his mouth. Lucy gasped.

"Stop!"

But his huge body felt so good towering over her, covering her. He kept moving relentlessly and the soreness slowly melted away and became an aching fullness. Lucy felt herself responding to him. In some rational part of her mind, she was desperate to reach down and push him away. So desperate that she was almost grateful to be bound.

"Mine," Warder whispered in her ear as he drove into her. "Mine."

She felt his hot cum in her belly as he found his release and she nearly orgasmed again. She shuddered beneath him as his knot grew, locking their bodies together.

"It hurts," she whispered. It didn't, exactly. The pain of stretching to accommodate him melded with a pleasurable feeling of fullness, his cock like velvet.

Warder kissed her, silencing her complaints.