Her Loving Captor

15

Eric

"Alright," Dani sighed, then met his gaze through the mirror from where she had been brushing her hair. "Ask me."

Eric frowned at her. "What?" he questioned as he tried to follow what she was talking about. As far as he remembered, they hadn't been having a conversation. They had both been a bit cautious around each other once they had woken up after last night. Barely saying anything and being excessively polite.

She gave another sigh before she resumed brushing her hair. "You want to know more about werewolf mating."

"That," he agreed. "And an explanation on why you freaked out last night."

"No," she stated as she put the brush onto the dresser and took up a hairpin to secure her hair. "I will tell you anything you want to know about the bond we now have."

He watched her for a moment, seeing the stubborn determination that hid the slight echo of pain in her clear brown eyes. Deciding it wasn't the time to press her, he nodded. "Okay. I want to know why being my mate will lead to your death."

She smiled, an amused smile that he thought was out of place with his question. "You thought I lied to you." she met his gaze in the mirror again. "I didn't," she replied and for some reason, he was aware of the ring of truth in her voice as he'd never been before. She went back to focusing on her hair.

"When our people left the tender care of our dragon overlords." the sarcasm in that would be enough to shatter diamonds and he gave her a reproving look to which she stuck her tongue out. "Our elders decided to pool our power into one, so they chose the strongest of the wolves at that time to become the vessel of our people, our king.

Every wolf swore a blood oath to him, gave their individual powers so that he could be stronger, able to shelter them and even kill your people should they ever threaten them again. In turn, he filtered the same power back to them so that they became stronger than they had been individually.

In essence, he created the pack bonds, the pack mentality. Over the years it has grown so strong that without a pack mind behind a wolf, we die." she met his gaze again to emphasize her next words. "There's no such thing as a lone wolf."

As a lump formed in his throat and despair chilled his heart, Eric kept his face free of them. he frowned at her. "I thought you were never claimed by him." How he hated that another male had a claim to her, that he had touched her first. His frown deepened at those thoughts, Dragons sometimes met their mates long after they had had prior relationships. He hadn't minded that Dani had been with another man. So why did he mind now?

Her jaw hardened for a moment before she turned her gaze back to the mirror and affected a nonchalant look. "Yes, but the moment I met him my wolf shifted her alliance from my birth pack to his. Since he never rejected me, there was still a tenuous bond with his pack as I'm their rightful alpha female."

Again that bitter piercing emotion at the thought that the other male had any claim to her. "Can't your wolf just shift her alliance back to your family pack?" he asked.

She glared at him. "Why can't you just get back into your egg?" she demanded.

His jaw developed a tick but he held his ire back. "We don't hatch from eggs.

"And a mate's pack is not the same as a family pack. I will always have their loyalty and love but that's not the same as a bond with a mate's pack. It gave me a purpose and wolves need that. In my birth pack I will always be a child and never the luna I was meant to be."

"Does that mean you'll have to tear our bond apart to rid yourself of him like your cousin and her mate had to do?" he asked through clenched teeth. He couldn't seem to get over the fact that she somehow belonged to Dean, that she needed him more than she could ever need him. Eric was aware that a dragon-blood bond was impossible to break, maybe even for the goddess of fate. So where did that leave them?