Runaway Rogue

Chapter Thirteen: Caspian's POV

Someone had tried to mark her. Someone had tried to mark his mate. Repeatedly.

He tried to rationalize, tried to think about others in his life that had desperately asked a high school boyfriend to mark them in the hopes that it would mean something. It never did. So, these marks meant nothing either. They were failed attempts at something that could not be. He knew that.

But someone had touched her. Someone had tried to mark her while he spent sleepless nights staring at the ceiling, wondering why he didn't deserve a mate. Was that why he hadn't found her? Because she had been in love with someone else?

He could feel his wolf coming forward. Fuck, he knew better. He always used to make fun of the young guys meeting their mates, saying they were hot headed and could never keep their cool and here he was, losing his own. He was sure his pupils were dilated and that his fangs were starting to protrude.

"Caspian?" Indigo said, dropping her hair.

Hearing her whisper his name like that did nothing to repress the wolf within, especially not when she cocked her head to one side, her amber eyes moving over him.

"Someone has tried to mark you," he said, his voice sounding like it wasn't his own.

She didn't seem particularly concerned about it, raising her shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. "Clearly, it didn't take, so it doesn't matter."

"Let me see," he rumbled.

"You want to see?"

No, he really didn't want to see the scars left on her presumably by another man. "Yes," his wolf stated.

Indigo made a show of rolling her eyes, her attitude still in full force. He didn't know if it softened him or hardened something else to see her be so nonchalant while he was on the brink of shifting in his own home.

He stepped closer to her. Though the human part of him didn't want to acknowledge that someone else could have touched her this way, his wolf would not step down from a blatant challenge. She was his mate. She was meant for him, not for anyone else.

The scars were all faint on closer inspection, but there were more of them than he had first thought. Some were newer and still pink; others were on the brink of ceasing to exist. He wanted to demand to know who had done this and when they had touched her last, but Caspian knew him barking questions would only be met with equal hostility.

"Lift your hair and turn around," he ordered.

Indigo seemed to think better of questioning him now. She twisted her hair in a smooth motion, one he tried not to fixate on too much, and turned her back to him. His hands fell to her hips before he could think better of it and he hated how well she fit on his grip, though his wolf howled as the soft gasp that left her mouth.

This was a bad idea. He had only meant to look, but now he was touching. She was panting a little, her chest rising and falling faster than it had been before. Her black hair smelled like his shampoo and a part of him loved the idea. His mark wasn't on her neck, but she still smelled like his home and his clothes were billowing around her smaller frame.

He hadn't even realized that he had pulled her hips back towards his own until he heard her suck in a breath at the contact.

He should stop. Things were fragile. He didn't even know if this was what he wanted. She was a rogue with many secrets. He was a beta carrying many scars.

That didn't seem to matter when she let out something close to a whimper. And when the sweet scent hit his nose, none of his rationalities seemed to matter. He couldn't think straight when the scent of her desire struck him.

"I could mark you right now and it wouldn't fade," Caspian whispered, his mouth so close to her throat.

Indigo shifted backward, her body searching for any friction that he could provide.

"I'd have to accept it," she panted back.

It should have been a slap in the face or, at the very least, a reminder that this was all so damn fresh and that he had no right. But it was a challenge. And his wolf loved nothing more than winning. He just had to play his cards right.

"You would, wouldn't you?" he murmured.

Fuck, she smelled good like this, not that sickly scent that she carried with her. His head was spinning with the sounds she made as her body shifted and moved against him. This was his fantasy. She was everything he never knew he wanted.

"Caspian." It was somewhere between a whisper and a plea.

"Indigo," he purred back, satisfied when he felt her knees soften and her pelvis shift against his.

His mouth hovered over her neck. This was perfect. Her desire was calling to him as clear as a beacon. She would smell like him for days after this, everyone in the pack would know that she was his, that she belonged on this land just as much as any of them.

His lips skimmed the skin on the side of her throat. He was so close. And he knew that his mark would take, it wouldn't fade like these other ones. His would last. His would show the world that she was mated to a powerful beta. She shivered when his mouth slid downwards, fangs dragging lightly.

"Tell me you want me to mark you," he rasped. It was the human in him pleading, the one who knew that this might be something he would regret.

Indigo's head tipped back, resting against his collarbone. She let out a breathless moan. It was enticing. But it wasn't a yes.

His wolf was on the brink and he knew he didn't have much time.

"Indie," he gasped. "If you don't want this, you need to tell me now." The countdown had begun and he wasn't sure how long he could stay in this trance before he did something permanent. But he wasn't a strong enough man to halt his own pleasure, not when he had waited so long for her.

Her body trembled. He could do it now. He had given her a warning. It was only fair. But the tease was incredible, the moment fragile and fickle. He would live in it forever if he could bear it.

"Caspian," she whimpered.

"Yes, Indie?"

"I can't," she confessed, her entire body slackening. She tipped forward, her palms thumping against the wood of his kitchen table. A shuddering breath ripped through her chest.

Caspian missed her warmth immediately. The natural instinct was to grab her again and to pull her back into him. His wolf would not be told no lightly. But the humanity responded to the slap to the ego more strongly.

"Indigo?" he pressed, hating that his voice shook a little now.

"I won't let you mark me," she repeated.

His body was frozen for a half a second. How was this possible? He had waited so long for her. She should have run to him with open arms and somehow, she was still fighting him.

His human might have been stunned but his wolf saw the denial for what it was. Caspian made a split-second decision. His wolf was coming out. And Indigo did not want to be marked. He fled, darting out the back door. He knew if he stayed, his wolf would not tolerate a rejection. He forced himself into the perimeter woods, praying he could cool off enough before he did something stupid.

~~~Question of the Day~~~

What is the biggest con of having a pet?