I kept my attention on Syn though, this incredibly gorgeous woman. With it came a desperate hunger, consuming me, and a craving to move closer to her with every fiber of my being. She was a beautiful distraction, and an unbearable need shot straight to my dick. I’d never had my body react so instantaneously. It was partly unnerving, partly arousing.
She chewed on her lower lip, tilting her head back, eyes closing as she took in the sun.
Part of me worried how quickly I found myself drawn to her. How the temptation to wrench her against me and bend her over as I fucked her pussy burned through my skull.
She opened her eyes and gave me a sharp stare. “So, what does one do here, aside from...” She glanced down to the pool and back at me, not finishing her sentence.
“Anything we want,” I responded easily. “When my brothers and I bought this island, we did so with the intention of no one ever telling us what to do again.”
Her pink lips twisted in anguish, which confused me at first. “Except for the slaves who work for you. They have no such freedom.” She turned her attention back to the splendor of the landscape.
“There are no slaves here. Everyone receives a fair salary for their services.”
“What does that make me then? I’m locked up, aren’t I?”
“It’s for your own safety,” I insisted, convinced that had to be the reason Hendrix kept her locked up. I didn’t want to mention that there was a chance he wanted to keep her as his own personal sex toy.
With that thought alone, a possessiveness rose through me, and instinct begged me to draw her closer to me, to rip off her shirt and bite down on that creamy skin. I wanted to mark her so that everyone would know she belonged to me.
Except, I knew my brother. He was feeling something for her, I could see that just by talking to him. This girl was going to be a problem. I could tell already. Was she even aware of the effect she had on us?
My hands were shaking from the effort of not reaching out to touch her and see if her skin was as soft as it looked. A hitched breath came out of her as she looked at the shoreline, and she looked so fucking fragile at that moment. So innocent…
I couldn’t help but think that despite my intense attraction to Syn, I had done some really fucked up shit, as had my brothers. Was it a smart move to bring someone so innocent into our lives? There was a reason we had guards with guns across the entire island. We had enemies who wanted us all dead, and I doubted she fully realized what she’d walked into.
“Keep me safe from what?” she asked.
I pulled my lips into a reassuring smile. “It’s an island. There are all sorts of wild beasts in the woods who wouldn’t hesitate to attack someone as beautiful as you,” I told her, intentionally vague about the fact that the ‘wild beasts’ weren’t exactly animals.
She swallowed loudly and didn’t respond right away. “I don’t want to be stuck in a cage,” she whispered, her hand coming up to her throat. “I might as well be sent back to the Madfur pack then.” Disdain filled her voice as though it took a lot of effort to admit something like that.
I let out a sigh. “Believe it or not, you could have a good life here. When you leave the room, it just has to be with us or escorted by someone.”
I was making things up on the spot right now, obviously having no idea what Hendrix had planned. But I was on board with any plan that prevented her from running away. And I could tell right now she was definitely a flight risk.
I closed the distance between us with one long step, and my shadow played across her face. She recoiled, her back hitting the stone railing from the balcony. I wasn’t sure she believed me, but my word was something she’d have to learn to accept.
No one wanted to be imprisoned, but I could tell right now that my wolf had no intention of letting her get away.
She caught me studying her, and something glinted in the sunlight on her wrists. Bronze bands that looked more like shackles than jewelry pieces. I took her hand in mine, expecting her to yank it away, but she didn’t resist. Her skin was silky smooth and soft, and all I could think was how careful I had to be with her.
“What’s this?” I asked, looking at the bracelet and noting that she also had an identical one on her other wrist.
She licked her lips nervously. “A little something to remind me of my place from my fated mate in the Madfur pack. It suppresses my wolf so I can’t get away from him.”
I watched intently as an array of emotions flared across her delicate face, from embarrassment to blinking tears from her eyes, and finally coming to a resolute tightness of her expression. Hot, white rage rushed through me as “fated mate” absorbed into my brain.
“Your fated mate did this to you?” Hendrix’s words came back to me about Syn being someone special to Brayden. He was her fated mate… Why else would he keep her wolf locked away? I’d despised the guy before, but now I had a newfound hatred for him, and I was already rummaging through my mind for the cruelest way to torture him.
Hung by his toes, then unleash wasps on him? While painful, it wouldn’t give me the satisfaction of getting my hands dirty. No… the bastard deserved something more fitting, a slow death that involved breaking every bone, one at a time, and ensuring he never passed out. Hmm, I’d have to work on it; I knew I could do better.
Syn raised an eyebrow, watching me cautiously.
Nothing could encapsulate the primal fury tearing across my body of what he’d done to her. To have her wolf suppressed was like ripping out her soul and leaving her with half a life. And was he responsible for the burns on her back too?
For now, I would tend to her while she stayed with us, but one thing I knew with certainty was that she would never return to the Madfur pack. I would make sure of that. I would obliterate Brayden and his father, Anton, before I let them touch her ever again. Fated mate or not.
I went to finger the band on her wrist when she flinched her hand back.
“Don’t. If you try to take it off, it’ll zap you.”
“What does it do to you?”
She hesitated at first, and an expression filled with pain flared over her face. “The same if I try to take it off.” Those beautiful lips tugged downward, and my destructive tendencies floated forward once more.
Fury scorched across my chest, knowing that Hendrix hadn’t murdered Brayden.
As much as I didn’t want her in the firing range of the dangers that came with our life, the more I stared at the band, the more my blood boiled. Her fated mate put her in harm’s way on purpose. His his heinous act infuriated me.
Maybe I’d underestimated Hendrix as to why he brought Syn into our home.
“Hendrix said he’s going to bring a witch to remove the bands,” she explained, almost hopeful.
“That’s a good idea,” I murmured. “We’ll get that off you soon. And I’ll make you a promise that I will personally murder your fated mate for doing this to you.”
Silence danced between us. “I’ve never had anyone stand up for me before, but I don’t want you and your brother to endanger yourself for me.”
Fuck, she was sweet.