“You go to your home and I’ll go to mine,” I snap.
“My home is wherever you are,” he announces and deposits me into the truck seat before leaning close to me. “Move again,” he warns, “and I’ll make you submit to me right here in this parking lot. You want that?”
I don’t know what ‘that’ means but I shake my head.
His voice goes lower. “I’m sorry I hurt your wrist, Ivy. I am more sorry than I can say. I didn’t realize… but if you think you’re running away from me, I’ll do what I must do to make you submit. Understand?”
“What does that mean?” I ask, voice barely a whisper.
“Misbehave again and you’ll find out,” he warns me.
He quickly lifts the rest of the bags in one scooping motion and dumps them all into the back of the truck, uncaring. Something shatters back there.
My eyes track his movements until he’s back in the driver’s seat and pulling out. He hands me the half-thawed bag of peas that he must’ve fetched from the pavement.
“You didn’t even put the carts back,” I mutter.
One rolls into the side of an old minivan. I doubt it damaged it, but still…
He grinds his teeth and I actually hear them squeak.
He then grabs my face and glares in my eyes.
I’m suddenly terrified.
I reach for the handle, not caring that the vehicle is moving, and his hand hooks around the back of my neck and holds on a second as he accelerates.
“Behave or I’ll stop the truck and make you submit,” he tells me, eyes moving to the road.
“You’re scaring me, Tyson.”
“If that makes you behave, good. You’ve been very naughty, my little mate.”
I blink.
“And when I get you home…” His eyes bounce to me briefly and he shakes his head.
Oh my God. What? What does that mean? I’m trembling all over.
He speeds up.
I swallow hard and hold the peas over my wrist.
***
Abruptly, he stops the truck. I look around. We’ve been riding in silence up until now. We can’t be far from his place judging by all the trees and little else around.
“Stay here, Ivy,” he demands.
“Huh?”
“If you make me hunt you down in these woods, I’ll fuck you in the dirt.” His eyes then rove over me and he looks, for a second, like that’s precisely what he’d like to do. Fuck me. In the dirt.
Why is that spot on my neck tingling?
He leaves the vehicle, taking the keys with him (shooting me a dirty look as he pockets them as if he just thwarted my plan) and then he rounds the front and heads down the hill. Oh. That hill.
I roll the window down and stretch my neck to look out. I see my car down there. My poor little car! It looks small and damaged and… sad.
I’ve only had this car six months. I love my little car.
A minute later, he’s back with my packet of birth control pills, my very old Blockbuster membership (why did I even have that in my wallet still?), three random business cards that’d been stuffed in my wallet, my coffee club card (with all the stamps needed to get my freebie except two), and a lip gloss. He passes them through the window to me before he rounds the truck hood and climbs back in.
16
Tyson
I don’t like that she’s frightened of me. At all. The scent of her fear sickens me, especially knowing she’s afraid of me, but I’m having trouble keeping myself calm. She’s trying to leave me! I can’t allow it. I won’t.
And that I hurt her? I’m disgusted with myself for it. The mark on her wrist makes me want to rip my own innards out.
She should be settling; she should know she’s mine. I’ve mounted her and knotted inside her. I’ve given her my mark. Why is she trying to leave me?
And she came in contact with him. A wolf shifter who could be a real threat. And those he was with. I ran after her, unable to keep up with the speed of the truck, but knew she’d come back around because that road led to nothing and then when I caught the scent of Riley Savage with others that I knew were shifters, one scent that I recognized with a sickness inside me that I haven’t been able to shake, dots have been connecting in my brain ever since. It doesn’t feel good.
I found speed I’ve never had and got to her as soon as she was fleeing from them. And then this ridiculous game in the food store and the parking lot and I’m infuriated with my little Ivy.
More than infuriated, I’m confused. Why isn’t she settling? Am I doing something wrong?
She’s going to learn that she’s not to leave me, ever, and I’ve decided she’s going to begin learning that through submission.