"put me down!" Ilara pounded against his back but Caesar didn't even flinch.
"Stop fussing,Omega." His voice was low with irritation. The heat radiating off him was suffocating. She clawed at his shoulders but his grip didn't waver,not even once.
He had taken her from the dungeon after what had happened and hauled her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing.
He kicked open the door to his room and carried her inside,across the floor and into the bath area. Before she could catch her breath,he threw her down into the massive stone bathtub. She gasped,the cold water making her body jerk from the shock.
Pain seared through her limbs but she pushed herself up, slipping and struggling to get out of the bathtub. "You can't…"
"I said stop," he snapped,his voice deep and commanding.
She tried to stand again, anything to get away from him, anything to run but her body betrayed her. The fever from her heat crawling under her skin made the cold water more unbearable and the ache slowly spread all over her body.
His fingers caught her wrists and forced her back down into the tub and the water splashed everywhere. His hands were rough and possessively all over her body.
"Let go of me," she hissed, twisting and struggling beneath him.
"you'd rather die than let me help you?" He asked,his eyes flashing with anger and his wolf barely holding back.
"i don't need anything from a monster like you,I'd rather die than need you."
Those words pissed him and he growled angrily as he grabbed the back of her head and kissed her roughly. His body pressed against her,his breath was hot on her neck when he broke the kiss. She heaved,breathing heavily and fast,her body torn between the painful effects of her heat and the pull from the mate bond the moon Goddess had cursed them with.
When his lips brushed against her throat,she shivered slightly. Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes and she let out a broken laugh. "The moon Goddess must be enjoying this joke." She whispered,her voice hoarse. "Bounding me to a monster that despises me."
His hand slid up and caught both her wrists, pinning them above her head. He hovered over her, his eyes wild with desire. His scent filled her lungs until she could barely think.
Then he froze for a moment. His gaze dropped to her shoulder where a fresh claw mark glistened against her skin.
"What's this?" His voice darkened.
"None of your concern."
He brushed his fingers over it and she slapped his hand away instantly. "Don't touch me."
"I'll do more than just touch you." He said catching her wrist midair and to her shock pulled it to his lips. His lips brushed against the mark softly and a shiver ran down her spine.
"Stop," she tried to push him away but he didn't stop
"Caesar,I want to see my son. You promised me."
That made his head snap up and his eyes narrowed,his golden pupils flared bright and violent. "Your what?"
"My son."
He stared at her like she'd just stabbed him in the chest.
"Why is that bastard so important to you?" he asked, grabbing her hair and titling her head.
"Because he's mine."
"Mine?" He laughed bitterly and it sounded almost broken. "You mean his. You loved my dead brother so much that you'd rather die for his spawn?"
She stared into his eyes, meeting his fury head-on. "Yes. He's everything to me."
For a moment,something dangerous and painful flickered in his eyes but it was gone in an instant,his expression hardening again.
He grabbed her and pushed her against the edge of the bathtub, trapping her with his body. The water spilled over the rim to the floor as he yelled in a raw and almost vulnerable voice. "You're tied to me! Do you understand that? Bound to me!"
Her throat tightened and she let her tears fall freely.
He leaned closer,his breath hot and harsh against her lips. "Your hope is useless Ilara. Do you even know why you're still bound to me even after I rejected you?"
"Tell me," she whispered,her heart breaking all over again from the memory of the rejection.
"Because you're nothing without me." He said, roughly grabbing her chin to make her look at his eyes.
The words hit her harder than any blow he'd dealt her for the last six years. Caesar was cruel and he knew just what to say to break her resolve.
She didn't struggle anymore, she didn't fight him. She just stared up at him through the blur of her tears. Because for the first time in six years,she saw it. The flicker of something almost human behind his cruelty.
"You know what I'm going to do?" he asked with a wicked smile, tracing her lower lip with his thumb.
"Since you want a child so bad,I'm going to make sure from now on,you'll serve me until you bear one for me."
Her eyes widened with panic. Caesar had just threatened to get her pregnant. She couldn't let that happen. If she ever got pregnant for him,Gaia and her father would kill her mother.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "I'd never carry a child for you."
She tried to push him off and get out of the tub again but his body didn't budge.
"We'll see about that." He nodded,like he was taking on a challenge.
Before she knew what was happening,he stood and lifted her by the waist,then carried her in his arms out of the tub. Her hair clung to get face and her wet clothes to her skin,cold against the heat of his body.
She thrashed in his arms but he didn't let her go or drop her.
He threw her onto the large bed and pinned her down,his fingers digging into her thighs.
"If you do this,you'll regret it," she said hoarsely.
"Oh please," he murmured, his tone sharp with mockery. " Stop acting innocent,Omega. You want this too. It's not like it's your first time with me."
He tilted her chin,his eyes glinting wickedly.
She shut her eyes,her heart pounding in her ears. The air was now filled with her scent. Why wasn't her body rejecting him? Why wasn't it resisting him? Her pulse betrayed her. The thudding only made her Pheromones rise and she knew he could feel it.
"Look at me." He said gently touching her chin.
She shook her head, refusing to look at him as she closed her eyes. She was getting dizzy from her heat.
He kissed her collarbone and felt her shudder.
Why did it feel this good when the man who had made her life a living hell for the past six years touched her? Why did the moon Goddess make him the only care for her painful heat. Where was all her hate and willpower when she needed it then most?
The scene from six years ago flashed through her mind "I,Caesar Midnight of the Midnight Pack,reject you,Ilara of the blood moon pack as my mate.
She hadn't rejected him back, maybe it was why she was suffering so much now. She hadn't gotten a chance back then to reject him back. Because immediately he had rejected her,he spat out blood and collapsed. He had been poisoned. She had used her blood to save him and the pheromones from it had intoxicated him and awakened that feral desire that had led him to forcefully taking advantage of her despite rejecting her. When he had woken the next morning,he accused her of using her pheromones to seduce him. He didn't remember that she had been the one that saved him
She waved the memory away when she felt his tongue and his breath against her skin. She could see the war flickering behind his eyes…rage and something else he'd never admit.
Then he whispered in a low voice. "From now on," he said, "you're no longer my slave, Ilara. You're my concubine."
She looked at him stunned then gasped when he parted her thighs with his knee and buried his whole length into her.
She froze,relief from her heat washing over her like he'd poured freezing cold water on her.
But what was worse was the word he'd just said to her. 'concubine?" That was worse than being his slave, worse than the collars,the whippings she was used to receiving.
Being his Concubine was a death sentence. It was far crueler than being his slave.
Because Gaia would make her already washed up like a living hell. Caesar had just declared a death sentence for her without even knowing it. She was an Omega and she knew what it meant being elevated from slave to concubine to an unmarried,unmarked,unmated Alpha. He had now put a target on her head.
And he wouldn't be able to protect her from it even if he wanted to.