Page 31 of Bound to the EMT

CHAPTER 12

BRANSON

Soft sobs greet my ears as I open the door. I stride out, concern making my heart beat out of my chest. Instead of some unknown calamity, Emmeline hunches by the front door, crying as if her heart will break.

“I didn’t think asking you to get dressed would be such a burden,” I tease, sitting next to her on the floor.

“I- I don’t have any clothes.”

My brows draw down as I pull out my communicator and scan the front cameras. No one in or out except us. That’s odd.

“I thought they were supposed to bring some of your things over. Did they get lost? The civic center has my address.”

“It’s not that. Mother is refusing to send me anything. I had to beg her to send my school supplies, and even then, what’s the point? I can’t set anything up in this house. It’s too much, too many things.”

Without giving her a chance to protest, I gather her into my arms, rocking her back and forth as I purr. “We can make this work. Remember, I said we were looking at other places to live? I’m sure we can find something.”

“It’s not just the artwork. I- I-.” Her hiccupping sobs slice through my heart, making my rage grow as anger for her mother embeds itself into my soul.

“What else is it? I can’t help if I don’t know.”

She turns her teary eyes up to me. “I can’t go back home if I’m not a virgin.”

Shock roots me to the spot as I stare down at my new wife. “I told you; I don’t give a fuck about sleeping with you. Not until you’re ready. But damn. How heartless can she be?”

“It’s not her fault,” she whimpers, trying to make me understand. “She’s told me from the beginning that she will not house nor abide sheltering a whore. My fault,” she mutters, rocking back and forth, staining my t-shirt with her tears. “It’s all my fault.”

I grip her shoulders and force her to look at me. “What exactly is your fault?”

“I shouldn’t have wanted you. I shouldn’t have... shouldn’t have.”

“Shouldn’t have...?” I coax, not sure what she could possibly be taking blame for.

Redness engulfs her face as she hides away in my shirt. “I shouldn’t have thought about you while I touched myself. It’s why we got married and not the other Alphas she brought to dinner to force a match.”

Dumbfounded, I sit there, trying to process what she’s saying. Try as I might, I can’t hold the laugh back. Only when she starts to squirm as fresh tears leak from her eyes, I sober.

“I’m not laughing at you, Princess. I’m flattered you got yourself off thinking about me. But to reassure you, just having an orgasm doesn’t make a genetic match. If that were the case, we’d be matched the day after I took the plug out of your ass.”

“You do have a point,” she murmurs, her voice thick with tears. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m married to someone she doesn’t want or approve of.”

Again, I force her gaze to mine. “Do you want me? That’s the important question.”

“I wish I could say no. I wish I could say I despise you, that I detest you, but I can’t. You’ve awakened something in me that no other Alpha has. Even at the dinner, I couldn’t help but compare how they smelled wrong. Not at all like you do.”

“Then, as I said before, fuck your mother. You’re married to me now. Anything we do together does not make you a whore. Hell, even if we weren’t married, you wouldn’t be a whore, but seeing as your mother is insane, I have to speak terms she’d understand.”

“I’m scared.” Her voice is so soft, so lost, so forlorn. It tears at the very fabric of my soul.

“I know, Princess. I’ve got you. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“But if we don’t make it-”

“Let’s talk about the worst-case scenario, since that’s where your brain is stuck. Let’s say six months come and go and we just don’t work. I have so many friends who would take you in. Hell, I’m sure my parents would even take you in if it came to it. Whether you have sex with me or not. Whether we last the six months or not. You’ll never have to go back home to your mother.”

“And my stuff? You can’t possibly make enough to replace everything.”

“Replace? Probably not. But if you’re willing to slum it with us plebeians, I can guarantee you’ll be taken care of. It might not be the fanciest or the best, but you’ll have everything you need.”