“What thefuckwere you thinking?” Arch’s voice is a low growl.
My wings fan back instinctively, dropping low.Arch is ragingly pissed.I notice Ben has a similar submissive stance. Neither of us move.
I watch our little bride’s throat work down a swallow.
“Speak, woman!” Arch roars. Ben and I exchange a glance.
She’s leaning back on her arms, knees bent, trying to keep herself from being totally exposed, but at Arch’s yell, fire flares in those honey eyes of hers.
“I wasthinkingthat I didn’t want to be a brood mare. I wasthinkingthat if I could escape, I would not be forced to be naked, pliant,punished. I was thinking that my freedom was worth the risk to my life! I’d have rather died back there in that dirty house, fighting, on my own godsdamn feet, than be in your cushy bedon my back!”
She pants, her face red and angry, but stays still on the floor. She doesn’t break eye contact with Arch though.That alone takes balls.
Godsdamn, the courage of my little mate, to have weighed her options so and chosen the unknown. A warrior,I realize,my center is a warrior.My eyes flick between my leader and my human bride, who may some day bear our young.
Archibald, however, seems to have lost his mind, I decide, as I see his hand fall to the laces on his breeches.
“You must be punished for your actions,” he growls, pulling at his pants.
“No,” Ben and I both say at the same time.
Arch’s disbelieving eyes take us both in, his mouth open for a moment before it snaps shut and his teeth clench. HIs face is flat, gaze foggy.His alpha hormones have taken over,I realize. Leaders of chimes bear more responsibility, and have a tendency to repress, making it all the worst when they become overloaded.
“No, the two of you will not naysay me in this. A runaway must be punished.” Arch’s eyebrows are drawn angrily and Ben and I still stand with our wings low, though we’ve both stepped towards him.
“That’s true,” Ben says quietly, “But lock her in the closet and we can discuss her consequences. Nothing needs doled out now.”
I nod. “Let us see to her. And it’s obvious you’re upset and need release. Ben and I will give it to you while she rests.Thenwe can decide upon her punishment together.”
Arch’s jaw clenches again and I see something flash in his eyes.Hurt. Betrayal.He looks as if he would refuse us, and terror hits me.
No, he cannot, not now. I cannot allow it.If he doesn’t listen to us, I’ll challenge him rather than let him push himself onto Fern right now.
A challenge from me would... break us, no matter the outcome. If he won, he’d ruin us with his actions against Fern. If I won, he would surely end his life. And I do not think Ben, nor I, could handle that.
Alphas within a chimecannotfight like animals. But I can not stand by and watch that happen; not after what I saw in that cabin.Shit, I think,I would not have allowed it even when we first landed, her terrified and unwilling. No, we’ve never been alphas who forced our lovers. Arch would not have done it, nor I allowed it; but he is clearly not in his right mind.
Thank stones, his hand drops away from his pants and he turns towards his room, shoulders slumping. “Feed her, heal her, toss her in the closet.And attend.”
Thank the Night Goddess.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ebenezer
Iawake the next afternoon earlier than is my wont. In the afternoon sunlight, I stretch my wings slowly. They are sore from being tied last night.
I roll and look at my bonded. Theo is in repose, though one wrist still trails a thick rope. Arch is also asleep, his head pillowed on his arms, his blue-grey skin bathed in the warm light coming in the windows.
Theo and I had rubbed some cream on Fern’s—relatively minor—wounds last night and given her bread and juice before we ushered her into the closet. She had gone without a fight, looking so broken that my chest hurt for her. She’d curled up on the pile of blankets before we’d even closed the door, her hair a mess, in makeshift, torn clothes, with her dirty pink little human feet covered in the healing lotion for their mass of small tears.
She had said nothing besides one word answers to our questions.
“Did they hit you? Did they violate you? Did you kill the two young gargoyles at the homestead? Why?” were answered simply with, “Yes. No. Yes. They were going to rape me.”
When Theo asked quietly, “Why did you leave?” her big eyes shone with tears that never spilled as she responded, “Wouldn’tyou?”
And after that we couldn’t get a word out of her.
