She hasn’t, and my patience has waned.
God, how tempting it is to walk up behind her, wrap my hands around that dainty little throat, and show her that the only reason she can breathe is because I fucking allow her to.
“Fuck, you really piss me off,” I bite out beneath my breath. I plunge my hand into my pocket and pull out my pack of gum, popping two pieces in my mouth this time.
I wait until she's finished at the barn, clicking off the overhead lights before making her way out into the trickling rain. She's not carrying the bag of clothes and hair that she typically burns when she's finished, likely due to the rain. Which means she'll probably wait to scatter the teeth in the mountains.
I contemplate leaving her be for another night. But that lasts all of half a second. My control snaps.
Legion will have to come out of hiding if he wants to try and stop me.
Two weeks without being able to inhale a full breath is torture enough.
Quietly, I make my way through the tall grass, keeping to the shadows as I approach her from behind.
She doesn’t sense me until it’s too late—her instincts having lightened over the past nine years.
She freezes, her shoulders stiffening and hiking to her ears, the panic snapping her spine straight. And then her damp, thick curls are fisted in my hand and I’m jerking her against my chest, my lips at her ear.
“For a little ghost with so many bones, you're just begging for me to break them,” I growl.
A sharp gasp breaks through the melodic pattering of rain, and a shiver races down her spine so violently I feel it through her skin.
“Cage,” she breathes, the pulse in her neck beating erratically. I’m tempted to press my teeth against it to taste something sweeter than the bitterness coating my tongue.
“What are you doing here?” she chokes out, resisting my hold. But I’ve let her pull away from me for long enough. She’s lucky I don’t sew her goddamn flesh to my own.
“Didn't I already tell you that I let you disappear on me once and I’m not going to allow it a second time? Did you think I’d just let you go so easily? ”
“Yes,” she squeaks when I fist her hair tighter, gritting my teeth as my fury renews. Just when I think I’ve calmed, I’m reminded that she actually tried to ghost me.
No proper explanation. No phone call telling me she doesn’t want to see me again. Not even a fucking shitty breakup text. Just… silence.
“Then I suppose I haven’t made myself clear enough. Allow me to remedy that.”
“Cage, stop it!” she snaps, digging her heels into the wet grass when I shove her toward her house.
When she continues to fight, I scoop her up and throw her over my shoulder with a frustrated snarl.
“Walk away from me one more fucking time, Molly, and I’ll make sure you can’t walk at all.”
“Don't you dare threaten me, asshole,” she snaps.
While she sends her little fists flying into my back, I send the flat of my palm directly onto her plump ass.
“You dick!” she screeches as the loud slap reverberates into the cool night air.
A dark laugh unleashes from my throat, my muscles tightening with the need to punish her.
“Seems to me that’s exactly what you need right now.”
She huffs out an affronted sound and sends a hand diving into the back of my jeans to grab ahold of the waistband of my briefs, her threat clear.
I narrow my eyes as I climb her wooden porch steps.
“I’d just love to know what you think that’s going to accomplish. If it’s anything other than my cock shoved down your throat, you’re sadly mistaken. ”
“You won’t have a cock if I pull hard enough and cut off the circulation.”
Completely unrealistic, but I let her have her little tantrum while I carry her into her house. All the while, she continues to threaten me, likely growing angrier by my lack of concern over a possible atomic wedgie. It’d probably hurt—would definitely piss me off—but it wouldn’t make me drop her like she’s hoping for.
She’s made me into this, and now she has to fucking live with it.
“Cage, I swear to God, if you don’t let me go, I will call Legion—”
“Don’t make me find that faceless fucker and kill him,” I snap. “He may have saved you before, but he sure as fuck can’t save you now.”
She growls at me, pounding on my back again. “Just let me go, and then we can talk like mature fucking adults!”
“Oh no, baby, you had that chance when you decided to run away rather than fall in love with me. Now, we do it my way.”