65. Mark of the Beast
Werewolves. Werewolves. ~Werewolves.~ The word repeated in my head over and over again.
“For fuck’s sake,” Robert said, directing his curse toward the ceiling.
Mitchell never took his eyes off me. “Yes, Dorothy, I said werewolves. As in the pack of werewolves you’ve lived with for practically your whole life. The fucking monsters who stole you from me.”
He gripped my knee harder. “Now is not the time to pretend you don’t know anything. Please. These men can help you but you have to prove to them you’re on our side first.”
“I don’t understand,” I replied. “I don’t understand any of this. Are you saying Ace is a-a werewolf?”
My mind raced, thinking over all the signs. The growling, the teeth-baring, the biting and licking. The fucking huge ass wolf in Ace’s backyard. Everyone calling him Alpha, for god’s sake.
My god. How could I have missed something this big?
I didn’t have time to process that revelation. “Dorothy, please.” Mitchell’s tone was turning desperate.
“We know you’ve mated with Ace. You have the mark on your neck to prove it.” He looked at my neck.
“And if that weren’t proof enough, you were heard talking about it at school.
Cormac can confirm it.” He gestured back at Mr. Callahan who shifted uneasily against the wooden pillar he was leaning on.
“So, we know you’re connected to Ace. There’s no point lying to us.”
“M-mated?” I asked. “Are you…are you talking about…?”
He couldn’t possibly be referring to the sort of mating that occurs between two animals, could he?
Mitchell exhaled, making his irritation clear. His grip on my knee was becoming painful. “I need you to work with me here, honey.” He hesitated. “You and Ace have had sex, yes?”
I nearly choked. So, when he asked if we had mated, he really was asking if Ace and I had slept together. As if we were two creatures he had seen on a nature documentary.
“W-why does that matter?” I stammered. “You have absolutely no right to ask me that.”
But Mitchell just continued with his next question. “Did he bite you after he finished?”
I sputtered something incoherent in shock and disbelief.
“Don’t even fucking try to deny that one,” the older man cut in. For someone who barely knew me, he regarded me with a staggering amount of contempt. “We can see his mark on your neck.”
The mark on my neck? My eyes widened. ~Oh my god. Ace did bite my neck after our first time.~ I struggled to remember what he’d said: “Keep submitting to me like that and you’re going to end up with my teeth lodged deep in your throat and my mark on your neck before you’re ready for it.”
I hadn’t thought his words were weird at the time. In fact, I remember being turned on by them. Maybe I had been too dazed by all the orgasms.
Now, though, it registered just how strange and concerning his threat to bite me was.
The weird part was that he did bite me that night. I had the bruise on my neck to prove it. That had to be what the old man meant when he said could see Ace’s mark.
But then what had he meant when he said I was going to end up with his teeth lodged in my neck?
Didn’t he already do that?
And why did I like it so much? I distinctly remember tilting my head to the side, wishing he would bite
me harder. Deeper.
Because Ace was a fucking werewolf. The biting had to be related to that somehow.
Why was I only realizing all of this right now? Why had it taken me so long? I felt like such a fucking idiot.
Mr. Callahan stepped forward. “Was the sex unprotected?”
I veered away as if I’d been slapped. “What?!” I seethed. My birth father asking me about sex with my boyfriend was one thing, but my fucking science teacher? “That is none of your fucking business!”
Without warning, Robert marched forward, knocked Mitchell out of the way, and grabbed me by the back of my hair, yanking my head back so far that it connected with the top of my chair. I cried out.
“Stop! What the fuck are you doing?” Mitchell yelled.
He lunged for me, but Mr. Callahan grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him so he fell flat on his back.
As if he were nothing more than a bug to squash, Mr. Callahan put his foot on Mitchell’s chest and pressed him to the ground. He subdued him so easily. Mr.
Callahan was much stronger than he looked.
“Get off me!” Mitchell gasped. He shoved Mr. Callahan’s foot on his chest while looking at Robert.
“You promised you weren’t going to hurt her—”
Mr. Callahan whipped a gun out of his back pocket and pointed it down at my birth father’s head.
Mitchell froze. The temperature in the room plummeted.
“Shut the fuck up,” Mr. Callahan seethed. ul. “I need you toSlowly, Mitchell lay back down, surrendering. The air returned to my lungs.
Robert only glanced at the whole exchange. His blistering attention was set on me, his excruciating grip on my hair keeping my head angled back at an unnatural angle. I whimpered.
He set his knee on the edge of the chair between my legs and leaned over me so our faces were inches apart.
“Listen, you fucking brat. I would fucking love to have a reason to kill you. Do you understand that?
Nothing would make me happier than putting a bullet through this traitorous little skull of yours.
“I’m starting to think that’s what you want too. Is that true? Is that what you want?”
When I didn’t respond instantly, he yanked my head back even further, bending my neck at an angle I didn’t even know was possible. I was afraid he was going to break it, and a gasping sob escaped.
“N-no!” I cried. “No, I d-don’t want that. P-please.”
“Good. Then I’m giving you sixty seconds to give me the information I want and prove to me that by them. Maybe you’re of more use to me alive than dead.”
I nodded, despite the pain in my neck.
He lowered his voice. “Did you finish the mating process with Ace Stoll? Did he cum inside you after he fucked you?”
It wasn’t the crudeness of his question that made me struggle to answer this time. It was the relevance.
Why does it matter if Ace came inside me? And what is the mating process? How am I supposed to
answer questions I don’t understand? ng he would bite Robert yanked my hair and slammed my head against the chair once more, harder than before. I
screamed. My brain rattled in my skull.
“N-no!” I finally sobbed. “We used a condom! We used protection. P-please let me go. Please.”
Robert turned to look at Mr. Callahan, ignoring my pleas. “How do we know if she’s telling the truth?”
I couldn’t see what was happening but I heard Mitchell gasp as Mr. Callahan let him up from the floor.
“Hold on. Just let me talk to her,” Mitchell pleaded.
“This is what you signed up for. You brought your daughter here,” Mr. Callahan replied. “Now you have to deal with the consequences.”
Next came the horrifying sound of my birth father’s yelp of pain. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a
body hit the floor.
I screamed.
Oh god. They just killed Mitchell.him so he fell flat “No!” I wailed, violently thrashing against the chains restraining me. Tears of horror raced down my face.
Robert finally released me. I jerked my head up, my eyes instantly falling on Mitchell’s unmoving body on the floor. The sight made me sob harder.
Mr. Callahan stepped in front of me, blocking my view of my father. “Miss Kennicott,” he said. “Miss Kennicott, look at me.”
Miss Kennicott. That was what he called me at school. For a moment, I was back in his classroom, sitting at my desk, learning about chemical bonds while Ace tried to distract me.
The man in front of me wasn’t the monster who just murdered my father but my harmless science teacher who I planned on begging to let me retake the midterm after class.
It was enough to snap me out of my hysteria. I blinked through my tears, peering up at Mr. Callahan. excruciating grip “I didn’t kill your father,” he stated. “Although, I might have been doing you a favor if I had. He’s just unconscious. So, you can stop your weeping.” He spoke like I was a child throwing a tantrum.
I looked back down at Mitchell, noticing the steady rise and fall of his chest for the first time. The dread in my stomach dissipated, and I could breathe again.
Mr. Callahan grabbed my chin and jerked my head to the side. I groaned through my teeth.
I knew he was looking at the spot on my neck where Ace had bitten me. The bruise had probably faded but was clearly still visible.
Mr. Callahan rubbed his thumb over the small bump between my shoulder and neck.
I gasped and jerked away from him, my body reacting the same way it had when Mr. Stoll touched the bump a few weeks ago—as if someone had poured scorching hot lava on my throat and down my spine.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to endure for too long. He pulled his hand away a moment later and stepped back, peering down at me with a troubled expression.
“She’s not mated,” he said in a low tone.
“What?” Robert demanded.
“She’s not mated. Her mating gland is unpierced. The alpha—Ace, I mean—hasn’t completed the mating process with her yet.”
“But you said—”
“I was wrong.” elling the truth?”There was a lengthy pause, filled with tension.
“Are you sure?” Robert asked.
“Pretty damn sure. Any werewolf could lay claim on her right now.”
“Well.” Robert grinned down at me. “Well, that changes things.”
s unmoving body
d probably faded
“But you said—”
“I was wrong.”
There was a lengthy pause, filled with tension.
“Are you sure?” Robert asked.
“Pretty damn sure. Any werewolf could lay claim on her right now.”
“Well.” Robert grinned down at me. “Well, that changes things.”
