Sauter (Ironside Academy, #3)(33)

“He told me you would hurt me. He said that other Alphas try to hide their animal side, but he taught you to embrace yours.”

Sato’s expression tightened, and his shock pierced her chest before he managed to rein in the emotion.

“That’s right.” He brushed a finger down her clenched knuckles, almost teasing them into relaxing and releasing her grip on the straps. His influence was confusing, his oleander scent cloying, so sweet and seductive. She had to clear away the fog of it all and remind herself quite forcefully that Sato was dangerous.

“I’m not all there.” He tapped against the side of his own head. “I have impulses, and they’re difficult to control. You’re supposed to belong to me, and my impulse is to claim you in every way possible, even though I don’t want you. I refuse to share. I refuse to be told who to mate with, who to belong to. But the impulse …” He gripped her hands, guiding them away, and then he slipped his fingers beneath the straps of her dress and tugged them down over her arms. “You didn’t get lucky with me, Carter. I’m your curse now. You’re going to have to learn to live with me the same way I’m learning to live with you.”

“How exactly are you learning to live with me?” She sounded breathless as the top half of her dress fell away, catching at her waist. It revealed her thin, lacy bralette and the entire length of the gold chain embedded into her skin.

“I’m compromising,” he said, his eyes still fixed on hers, even as his hand drifted to the chain, the back of his fist pressing against the bottom of it, just below her bra, forcing her to lean more heavily into the door. “I gave you options, didn’t I? A peaceful one, and a fun one.”

“Why bother if this isn’t fun?” She hadn’t meant to sound snarky, but something in her tone carried a hint of sharpness, and his eyes glittered in a brief flash of humour before dropping from her face to survey the chain.

Or her boobs.

It was hard to tell.

“You’re right.” He bent down and grabbed her hips. “I only consider options I like.”

He curled his fingers into her bralette as he pressed the flat of his tongue against her skin, right at the bottom of the chain. He lifted, dragging his tongue to the middle of her chest as he yanked his fist back, tearing her bralette so that his journey to her clavicle would be unbroken. He shoved her into the door as he licked all the way up to her neck, pausing at her ear as he pressed the length of his body into hers.

He was breathing heavily, and she wasn’t breathing at all.

She had gripped fistfuls of his jacket sleeves, trying to pull him in tighter, her body soaking up the heat and comfort of him being so deliciously close. Sato wasn’t someone she thought she could ever find comfort in, but her half-formed bond didn’t care. It was reminding her that she had felt hollow for weeks, starved of all the love and devotion her mates should have been showering her with—

Hold up, what the heck?

“You bled.” He growled the words against her throat, his body vibrating. “He tasted your blood, didn’t he?”

Before she could react, his teeth were grazing the skin of her neck, just below her ear. She froze, her breath a raw scrape. “Don’t.”

“You’re mine,” he muttered against her skin.

“I can’t let you.”

“Why, baby?” He purred the words in her ear, so un-Sato-like that her eyes fluttered closed and a rush of heat pooled low in her belly, forcing her to clamp her legs together.

Holy crap, he needed to never do that again.

“I can’t belong to any of you,” she squeaked as he pulled back slightly, his Alpha ring swollen, his expression tight as his nostrils flared. “There are ten of you. It’ll never work.”

He gripped her hips, drawing her tight to his body. “I can smell how much you want me to do something.”

“It’s the bond.”

“Lie,” he snarled, pushing her back into the door. “Time’s almost up, little rabbit. My ability is chaos. I cause it. Thrive off it. Can’t live without it. Stay if you want a taste. Leave if you’re scared.”

She surveyed his face, her mind turning over at his admission. Chaos suited him. So did the glint in the darkness of his gaze, telling her that he wanted her to leave.

He wanted her scared of him.

And suddenly, her connection to Sato made sense. She did want a taste of chaos, but she didn’t want to admit it. And he wanted to chase, to hunt, to force it out of her.

He couldn’t hide the need even if he tried. It was in every line of his expression. It was in his cloying perfume as it both warned her away and tried to cajole her closer. It was in the dark thump of his emotion against her chest.

She had never felt an Alpha’s need before, because need wasn’t usually a negative thing, a dark thing.

Until Sato.

His need was pushing against her like all the other dark, dirty sentiments people didn’t want to keep.

They complimented each other, in that way.

Her breath hitched, her head suddenly dizzy with the realisation, but she was no closer to having any idea what to do about it. Sato stirred up something dark and wrong inside her, a kind of morbid curiosity that made her want to cover her eyes and bare her neck, hoping for the best.

But that was suicidal.