We were almost at the house when a voice in my head said: "That would make an excellent pelt. The snow leopard's fur is quite soft. We could fuck it on a pelt. Couldn't we?"
I was silent and didn't bother to answer. It would only provoke Damon. I said nothing to Adam.
Damon's voice was distinct. Now, it didn't have the anger, the rage that it normally had, but now it was a pleasure, a distinct pleasure, like he already imagined me in my pain and fear. Now, he didn't threaten me; he didn't send the feeling that I was being chased. There was no sense of anxiety, and I just wondered if it was the work of an evil spirit, the chasing.
We came into the yard, and Adam drove the car pretty close to the front door. His men drove off; they escorted us now and then went about their business. I didn't even have time to get out of the car properly as Adam was quickly out of the car, taking Lady out of the car.
Samuel came to meet us. Samuel came over to Lady too, stroking her while she was holding onto Adam, but Samuel's natural calming, healing vibe was apparently working as Lady stood up against him too and licked Samuel's neck.
Apparently, Adam had told Samuel in his mind because he went to give Lady a health check. The men and Lady went ahead. They went downstairs. I was glad I wasn't the target now. I didn't have to go downstairs to be the subject of the examination.
I went downstairs to the bedroom and undressed. I didn't go to our room now; I needed my space, and somehow, it was mine and Damon's place, our room alone, and I just couldn't be there by myself. That was place of good times.
Or maybe I had learned my nest, too. My room was my nest. There were soft, luxurious materials, familiar smells, security, and an enormous pile of wonderful memories. I wanted to nest.
I took a shower, and then I thought I'd go out for dinner. The shower did the trick. I got to wash the travel sweat off of myself, and it was lovely to pick out my own clothes in peace. I dried my hair and just put it back in a ponytail. I got dressed and then went to eat by myself. It was time to be safe and rest for a while. Be Mimi, not killer or leader.
There was quite a lot of ready-made food made by Adam, and I had an excellent selection of all the meaty stuff and then went to eat at the smaller table again. I had a Coke and coffee and allowed myself a bottle of Hartwall Palma lemonade; indulge now and then. It seemed that men in my life wanted to feed me, make food for me and I was thankful for that, actually.
It seemed like Lady was getting all the attention. I had time to eat my food and then went to the gym for a little workout. It had been a while since I had done anything at the gym, and it was high time to get some action going.
I started lightly and picked up the pace, improvising as well and letting the frustrations out. They had been built up because of Salvatore. The door opened, and I stopped. Adam came in then, in the middle of my exercise. He looked at me for a moment. I wiped my chest and face with a towel and went to Adam. It was better to stop than make him to stop me. I had learned my lessons.
He said: "I know you don't want Bran here, but he knows about Lady, and he's coming. Tell me if it's too difficult. Samuel promised to put you to sleep for the time being. We can't say no because he's Marrok, and it would be an ungodly conflict then about this thing."
Interesting. Lady is gathering an audience, but I had no problem with things at all. i had my ways not to meet him, not at all.
I nodded and said, "Let him come as long as I don't have to deal with him."
Damon had cleverly faded the whole gang rape thing from my mind, but I still knew what he was doing to me. If I wanted to, I remembered it, and I remembered it very well, but I didn't want that kind of shit in my head right now.
And I hadn't forgiven him yet. Samuel had told me later that Leah had been treated the same way several times. It was too bad that Leah learned to enjoy it, so it wasn't a punishment anymore. And alphas did that from time to time to women, not everyone were so perfect.
Bran seemed to have a problem with women, and what could I do about it? If he did what he wanted when he was drunk, I would not forget or even forgive him. It wasn't my business.
I was finishing my series when Adam walked away. I wanted to let it burn and properly, meaning taking my rage out but I knew better than do it than when Adam was here.
I let it all go so hard that I was finally panting from exhaustion, and wasn't it all supposed to be for nothing when Damon said it in my head: " Oh Bran, coming to see kitty cat. Interesting. I wonder if I should come, too, when there's a real pack meeting. I wonder if Charles the Savior will be there, too."
Damon seemed to have a problem with Charles, and I didn't bother to say anything about it. The entire session seemed for nothing, as I was getting pretty fucking pissed off with the gentleman's brief comments. But what could I do? I was fucking so fucking pissed. Somehow, some part of me had woken, and I had quite snappy sentences in my mind but I kept them in hiding. No need to irritate Salvatore.
I took another shower. There were only passionfruit-scented products here, too. Never mind. I'll just wash with fucking water, and then I'll shower better in my bedroom.
I went back to my bedroom and called Magnum and told him what Salvatore was up to again. Magnum cursed long and hard. I told him how we had fucked with Adam, and Magnum wondered why the fuck Damon didn't come as soon as he saw us fucking; it was as if he was looking for a reason to get upset with me.
Magnum promised me a new, stronger armor, and he had that on him, too, so I wouldn't have to worry about someone drinking it all away. I told him I was in Chicago, and this place was pretty damn safe. But Magnum said he would come and bring the armor. He was eager to meet lady as well.
I then went into my shower and washed with the proper stuff, thinking to myself, that's what you get for being a horse's ass, Salvatore. Now you can't do anything. I refuse to smell of passionfruit.
I told Adam when I went to dinner that Magnum was coming, too. He was actually quite happy about it.
He said, "All the advantages we get are good. This is a very safe house, but the safety is really the best. "
I said, " Yeah, Magnum armor is good, and this time, you can't break it with just a chemical reaction. He did some product development."
Adam grunted. He had already eaten and walked away. But I kept eating, trying to keep my fitness up, and ate myself into a coma now and then. Sometimes, it was really boring when I wasn't hungry anymore, but I could fit food into my stomach all the time. Once I got my stomach full, I went to rest afterward and read anatomy in my bed. It was early evening already. My body could no digest food properly still, meaning my shit was almost half digested food and it rarely even smell normal.
It was getting quite late in the evening when Bran arrived. He seemed to be in a hurry. I only heard him coming, wanting to come into my room and Adam blocking him. Bran tried to say something about my heat time, and Adam's voice was so edgy at that point that Bran then went to see Lady out.
I hadn't even had a chance to properly examine Lady and be with her yet while Adam and Samuel were up to many things. I was in my room when Bran came in. I didn't even come out to say hello. I heard his heat speech, and I wasn't interested in going anywhere near him, whether or not he took the piss.
Neither Adam nor Samuel came into my room, and I was a big girl and tried to sleep by myself, even though there were pretty fucking many problems all around.
I read until I was really sleepy, and then I went to sleep all by myself.
I had a weird dream about a wedding. It was me and Damon's wedding. Somehow I was really confused at the wedding. I couldn't stand up, and Damon called me darling all the time and talked to me all the time. I was very confused in the dream. Somehow, I couldn't get myself to act, and I was in Damon's arms all the time. Somehow it was not scary, more like pissed off and I had in some reason to keep myself under tight control. I could remember his almost purring voice, sharp passionfruit scent and strange pain in my sides.
When I woke up in the morning, I remembered the dream, and then I somehow got irritable feeling from Mimosa. She seemed to mutter something almost to herself, and I couldn't quite make out what the fuck, but the sounds of hurried footsteps and excited chattering woke me up properly. I got up and got dressed, having first chosen the right clothes.
I got dressed and went to see what the problem was. I walked out of the room and saw that the door to the smaller medbay was open, and there was talking. I walked over to see what was going on, curious.
I was pretty fucking shocked to see Lady lying on a stretcher asleep and Samuel gently manipulating Lady's badly broken front leg into position. The bone had come through the skin, and the injury had been crushing.
I watched my time, and Adam came in, put the door shut, and said, "Go eat breakfast- the lady will be alright. I'll be in the kitchen in a minute. I haven't eaten myself." His voice was tight.
I walked into the kitchen, and my heart was pounding in my chest when I saw that on the kitchen table, where I eat, on a small table, was a bouquet of black roses. Oh fucking fuck, Damon. Really. He had somehow gotten into the house, badly crushed Lady's front leg, and left the roses.
And a note. It said: "What if it had been you, baby, and I'd done that to your hand? Would everyone be so panicked? At least Bran is enjoying himself now. Soon baby, so damn soon, now I don't bother chasing. The shed's already done. This time your recovery won't be just for a week and I am not sure if I am in mood to fix you up. I might be in mood to some companions and booze."
I was making coffee with trembling hands, and somehow, my safe feeling wasn't so terribly safe anymore. It was pretty fucking unsafe. I gathered my breakfast supplies and went to eat.
After a while, Adam came into the kitchen with Samuel and Charles, but Bran was nowhere to be seen. The men read the note, saw the roses, and were pretty fucking cranky. I was quiet, trying to think what next.
Bran was throwing up. Damon had put some fucking dental stuff on it so Bran wouldn't stop throwing up even after Samuel had given him who knows what kind of anti-nausea medicine. That's what I heard Charles, who had come in, say to Adam.
The entire pack was pretty pissed at Damon. I just thought, well done, Salvatore, well done. At least now there are defenders. Magnum called and said he couldn't make it today, but he'd be here tomorrow.
After the meal, Samuel took me downstairs to the medbay and took several bags of blood from me for Lady. He wanted to see if my blood would help Lady in the same way that Damon's blood helped me. Maybe I was lady's biological half.
He took an enormous pile of blood tests and did all the scans he could. My heat time was nowhere near, and there was no fear that Damon would get me pregnant; when I asked about it in passing, it just came to my mind. I wondered if it would be wise to come up with contraception.
Samuel assured me that my reproductive system didn't feel that I could get pregnant; it would take a special reproductive heat, and the male would smell it, and as I was a hybrid, Samuel wasn't at all sure how it would work on me, or for that matter, on Damon.
I went back to the gym to unload everything when I got out of Samuel's clutches. I did quite a fucking lot of sets, and I had a brand new coach. I had been my rage on display and did not notice when Charles had came in. He had just leaned on the wall, looked at me as I let it burn. Charles watched, and it wasn't long before he started giving me advice. Well, I was a good girl, and I obeyed; he actually had some valid advice, but he didn't start fighting me. He saw how unpredictable I was; he didn't want to lose against me at all. He made me keep my focus on, not be too sloppy even if I had my rage on. He made sure I went to eat, and I had changed the shower gel in the hall so I could go straight from there to eat.
The rest of the day was fine. I ate and then went to read, to be safe in my nest, and knew that tomorrow would help when Magnum brought the armor. My own room and I had learned that I needed my own space.
Bran vomited for a good 12 hours at least, and Samuel got bored and put his dad to sleep when the vomiting wouldn't stop otherwise. He also fixed Lady's leg, and it healed surprisingly quickly with my blood.
Adam was on the phone or in his study, trying to find where the hell Damon had gotten into the house. But his security cameras couldn't find anything. I was on my own, mostly in my nest, reading, fetching treats there, and eating in bed.
I went to bed again in the evening. Now, I didn't have any weird dreams when I woke up in the middle of the night to the feeling of something heavy on top of me. I opened my eyes.
It was Damon. He was dressed in all black again and sitting on my chest with his legs apart. His one hand was in front of my mouth and the other on the back of my neck.
I smelled the wet dog and felt how his hand in front of my mouth was sticky, greasy. I felt him take hold of the back of my neck and twist sharply, holding on for a moment, looking me in the eye. He released his grip, and my broken neck snapped my spinal cord. The darkness came.