Chapter 246. Choices, Or The Lack Of.

Chapter 246: 246. Choices, Or The Lack Of.

Maisie

There was an impressive number of guards and staff running around on the estate’s grounds. More than there had ever been in all my time here. I was of the mind that my ex-mates liked to have their personal space, but clearly, a lot had changed since I was gone.

I had just taken Soren’s hand to help me out of the car when a middle-aged familiar looking woman came out through the doors.

I blinked when rich brown eyes flicked to mine. "Corazon?"

The last time I’d seen the woman was before the wedding, and Soren had fired her soon after as her cover was blown as the Queen’s spy–though, knowing Soren, he had known who she was all along.

Why was she back here?

Her eyes lowered instantly, something close to guilt entering her face, but she returned her gaze to Soren and I thought she seemed more demure than the woman I knew who often whacked the back of my head for no reason. "The doctors are here, sir."

My gaze drifted past Corazon to the open archway and the blood in my veins turned to ice.

There were more than a dozen doctors filling the entrance hall. White coats. Gloves. Cases of equipment. One of them was laying out syringes and vials on a silver tray like this was a... physical examination.

I went rigid in, snatching my hand out of Soren’s. "No," I growled ferally.

Soren only said to Corazon. "Prepare a bath. We’ll be up shortly."

"I am not going anywhere with you!" I yelled, but Corazon was already hurrying up into the mansion.

When Soren turned his violet eyes on me again, there was something predatory in the way he watched me.

"Choices, Adams." He took a step forward, and I took one back, heart leaping with dread. "You taught me a great deal about the importance of them. I’ve given you more than enough of those. Now we do this my way."

His hand closed around my waist.

I tried to push back and my injured knee buckled. Pain lanced up my thigh. I caught myself on the doorframe of the car, breathing hard through my teeth.

"You brought me here for this?" My voice shook with fury. "A full medical team? Without telling me? Who do you think you are–"

"Your mate."

"We are not mates anymore!"

His eyes dropped to my neck. His tongue dragged slowly, sensually over his fangs as he stared pointedly at the spot his mark used to sit.

The look alone felt like a hand closing around my neck. "That can be fixed," he said.

"I don’t–"

"Consent to this?" he finished for me in a darkly amused tone. "We’ve played this game before, Adams. You tell me you don’t want to. I tell you it’s happening anyway. You punch me in the face. And it still happens. Tell me, does constantly defying me count as a twisted form of foreplay for you?" He yanked me into him and I gasped when I felt the hard poke against my thigh. "Because it does for me."

"Get. Off me, you psycho!" My fist cracked against his chest. "You can’t force me in there! You said you were bringing me home! But you were just going to hand me over to a room full of strangers who are going to poke and cut and study me!"

He caught my hand before I could hit his chest again and his thumb stroked once over the frantic pulse in my wrist. "This is your fault, love. You have driven me to the brink of madness to get the answers I need out of you. Had you returned when I asked, it wouldn’t have to be this way."

The first time Soren’s men found me was six months ago. There hadn’t been force. Neither had there been an altercation.

I’d been handing out a cup of coffee at the little Café I worked at when the patron gave me a huge tip and a letter, and walked out.

I found a private corner in the store and opened it with trembling hands.

"Come home. I won’t ask questions. I won’t demand anything. Just come home."

Over the next couple of months while I changed locations, I got letters like those a lot. Short sentences.

"One conversation, Adams."

"Please."

"You’ve lost weight. Are you eating well?"

"This is the last time I’ll ask nicely. Come home or I’ll have you brought to me in chains."

"You really are a cold hearted bitch, aren’t you?"

"I’m sorry. Please come home."

"The others are becoming unbearable without you. Violette says she’ll nail my nuts to a post if you don’t return in one piece."

"You ignore me, yet you steal from me. You break our bond, and then you use my last name whenever it suits you. Do you want to die, Adams?"

"I don’t need you to love me or want me, Adams. I just need you here. I miss you so much it’s starting to feel like a death sentence.

Soren’s eyes bore into mine now. "You will cooperate."

"Like hell I will."

I shoved my hand into his chest, managing to get him one miserly foot away from me. I made it three agonizing steps towards goddess knew where–because we both knew I couldn’t fucking walk anywhere in this state–before his arm banded around my waist and hauled me back against his chest, my feet dangling off the floor like a stuffed doll.

The doctors and staff had their gazes averted, like Soren had given an unspoken order I didn’t catch.

"Let go of me!"

"Be good and this will be over quickly," he pressed to my ear as he carried me into the mansion. "Or not. I don’t mind the challenge."

He took the stairs slowly, caging my arms so I could hit him anymore. My heart was slamming so hard I could barely hear my thoughts over it.