Rite of Submission (Rite #1) Unedited

The Devil You Know

“You didn’t sleep again?” Sophie whined, looking me over as she stumbled sleepily from the bedroom.

I just shrugged, “Crazy dreams,” I mumbled not wanting the women setting up the table for breakfast to overhear. “I’d do just about anything for a cup of coffee right now.” As if on cue, in came a fresh pot of coffee.

“Now, wish for world peace and a pony,” Sophie laughed, helping me stuff my bedding back into the closet. I just elbowed her playfully in the ribs.

“I don’t think either one of my two favorite girls missed me a bit,” Dmitri frowned, leaning in the doorway.

“Dimi!” Sophie squealed, running across the room to hug him. “Of course we missed you.”

He smiled down at her, “Well, I feel a little better then.” He lifted her up as he squeezed her a bit, making her laugh. God help me he looked so damn good. The plain black tee shirt he wore was stretched tight across his chest, showing every line of every muscle, including the v his abdominals made pointing down towards his… and the black slacks fit perfectly snug around his ass with just the right hint of bulge in the front.

“Good morning, Dmitri,” I was impressed with how steady and calm the words came out of my mouth. His smile sobered a bit as he looked me over. I was probably less than impressive looking in my plaid flannel short PJs and I could only guess, dark circles under my eyes with a mess of frizzy curls to top it off.

“Lexi,” he nodded an acknowledgement towards me before turning his attention back to Sophie. “I heard a rumor that you were running wild through the house like a hurricane,” he teased, as they headed towards the table. He held the chair for her, and rounded the table holding my chair, “are you going to join us today?” he shot me that smug smirk that irritated me.

Ignoring the warning tingle up my spine, I strode across the room to him. I leaned up, to give him his kiss and was caught off guard when his arm circled my waist and his lips crashed down to mine. It was both soft but demanding; making me knees go weak, until only his arm around me was holding me up. “Gross,” Sophie giggled, “I’m going to lose my appetite if you don’t knock it off.”

With a wolfish grin, he pulled away, “My deepest apologizes,” he pushed my chair in for me and sat down. It was as if the last few days hadn’t happened. They talked about meetings and contracts, as I ate, trying not to interrupt.

As we turned to leave, Sophie pointed out a box, asking him to carry it over for me. “No peeking Dimi!” she winked at me. My stomach dropped as I realized which box it was. It was the box we’d put all my slinky sleepwear in.

He carried the box through his rooms, setting it on the floor in his walk-in closet, next to a duffle bag that reeked of copper, dirt and snow. “I’ve got these two drawers that I never use,” he pulled two drawers of the built in system open, they were actually empty. “I’ll just give you some time to get things sorted,” I nodded and he shuffled out of the room like it made him uncomfortable to be in there with me and all his suits.

With a huff, I opened the box. I didn’t know if Sophie knew that something was weird between us. Or if she thought these particular items would get more use over here. When he’d first seen me this morning, it looked like he’d been slapped. But that kiss, he’d never kissed me like that in front of her before. Now he didn’t want to be alone with me? I started shoving the contents of the box into the empty drawers angrily. If it killed me, I was going to get some answers today. My eyes fell on the green nightgown. I’d get answers or see how far was too far to push him.

I stepped out into the bedroom, but he wasn’t there. I found him sitting at the desk in his office, thumbing through some papers. “I’m going to take a shower if that’s ok.” He mumbled something and waved me off. I made sure to slam the bathroom door behind me, starting to feel more that a little annoyed now.

There were brand new bottles of all my favorite things, lined up on the counter. Smiling I grabbed them all and put them around the room where I’d want them if it was my bathroom. After a quick shower, I brushed out my hair, then using the blow-dryer, tried to keep it more long and straight than my usual curls. I pulled on the nightgown, pushing my breasts up into just the right position. It really did make me feel like I could be Aphrodite or Venus, ready to ensnare the hearts of all men.

Peeking out the door, I could still see him sitting at the desk, so I listened to make sure no one else was had come in. All I heard was the shuffling of paper and the steady thrum of my heart beat in my ears. This was probably not what my mother had in mind when she’d let me buy the negligee, but today it was my battle armor. With a deep breath, I squared my shoulders and walked through the office, around his desk so that he couldn’t miss me.

He barely looked up, “What are you doing?” his voice was gruff and unamused. Biting my tongue I walked back around the desk, beside his chair. Without a word I knelt down on the floor, sitting back on my heels, and pushed my hair back over my shoulders before placing my hands on my thighs. I still looked up at him, instead of down at the floor.

“What are you doing?” he asked again, sounding tired this time.

“The deal was I’d give you one day,” I felt stupid even as I said it.

He sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose like he had a headache. “I’ve already lost several days of work because of you. I don’t have time to play these games or let you get me all twisted again. Don’t you have a book to read or something else you could be doing? I would’ve left you with Sophie if it wouldn’t have…” he grit his teeth.

“If it wouldn’t have let her know you want nothing to do with me anymore.” I finished for him, standing up.

“Why do you have to be so, so,” he pounded his fist on the desk, making me jump, but I steeled my nerves.

“So what!?” I shot back, “What is it that you’re so afraid to say. You always start to say something, but then nothing comes out of your mouth.” I pushed his chair around to make him face me. “For an almighty Alpha, you act like a little b***h sometimes!” I knew I’d crossed the line before the words had finished coming out of my mouth.

I found myself slammed against the wall; my hands pined over my head and a hand around my throat. “I’m getting really tired of your mouth,” he snarled, I wasn’t dealing with Dmitri anymore.

“Good,” I hissed back, ignoring every instinct I had to panic or try to fight back, “now that you’re out, maybe you can clear things up.” It was both beautiful and terrifying to see the whites of his eyes go black around the icy blue center. “After all, you’re mine whether or not I want you, right?” As if I’d hit him with a semi truck, he rocked back, dropping me back down to the floor.

“You do know!” he accused, a low growl forming in the back of his throat.

“I suspected,” I shrugged, eying the scar on his hand meaningfully. “How does this work? Is Dmitri aware right now? Does he have any control?” I didn’t want to have to go through this twice.

“He’s,” he rolled his shoulders, “trying to reign me back in.” He grinned, “Why? Do I frighten you Princess?”

“No,” I lied, making him laugh.

He slinked forward, closing the space between us easily. “I can hear your heart racing in your chest.”

I pushed him away, and folded my arms in front of me. “Do you know what’s been happening to me?”

He studied me for a minute. “I do Princess,” he grinned.

I rolled my eyes, “Let’s hear it then, what the hell is happening to me?”

“I cannot tell you,” his face looked strained, “I’m bound to keep my silence.”

“Bound by who? Does Dmitri know?” this was going nowhere, and I didn’t like the way he had started to eye me.

“He, suspects,” he mocked me with a grin. “But he’s wrong.”

“So no one can tell me anything?” I frowned, there was no way I was taking this risk and getting nothing. “Don’t you two share thoughts or something?” I was genuinely curious, unsure of how the man-wolf thing worked.

“Just what we choose to share with each other,” he agreed, looking bored now.

“Then why the hell are the two of you so damn afraid of me now?” I shouted the words.

A maniacal laughter bubbled out of him. “You are just a stupid little girl aren’t you?”

“Well, why don’t you educate me then?” I scowled up at him; I just wanted to make sense of the last 2 weeks.

There was a long pause as the inner conflict made his face shifted through different expressions. With a gruff laugh he eyed me lustily, “What would you reward me with, to betray my patron’s deepest secrets?”

I stepped into him, smiling sweetly, “You?” I paused as if considering, “I’ll give you nothing,” I took a deep breath, mentally signing my own death warrant, “but I just offered him everything he asked for.”

There were several expression changes again before he answered with a grunt, “I will require a kiss to seal the…” I didn’t wait for him to finish. I grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to me so I could plant a kiss squarely on his lips. It was a rough, but not wholly unpleasant experience. As soon as he started letting his hands grope my hips, I pulled away. “Remember that you promised everything, Princess,” he purred, sliding a fingertip along the spot on my neck where I’d dreamt he bit me the night before. It sent a chill through me.

Glaring up into his dark eyes, I hissed back, “Just tell me what I asked to know.”

He paced around me for a minute. “We are not afraid of you,” he drawled out slowly. “We are afraid of what the loss of you might do to us.” He grinned down at me, “The fool thinks that he’s just been in love with you all these years, when the truth is so much worse.”

I didn’t know what to say. All these years, I’d just met him less than two weeks ago. Didn’t I? No, Sophie said I used to visit them when we were all much younger. His smile spread into a smug smirk as he watched me wrestle with the information. But my brain zeroed in on something else, “What’s the truth? Why is it worse?”

“I didn’t promise you my secrets Princess,” his grin widened, “unless you’d like to extend our deal.” He caressed my hip again. I slapped him with a loud crack across the cheek. He stood, unmoved like a brick wall, grinning.

“I’ve seen what happens when he wants me.” I laughed, trying to ignore the pain in my hand. “He’s barely managed to even touch me, except to keep up appearances with Sophie, why?”

A sly grin spread over face, “What’s the matter Princess? Do you miss having our hands on your body? Perhaps our tongue?” he licked his lips suggestively. “Do you crave something more substantial perhaps?”

I could feel my face turning red, but I had to push past the phantom sensations his words drew from my body. “That isn’t an answer,” I chided, “Why the distance? Is it because I asked him to stop sleeping with Candice?”

I barely got the words out before he started laughing loud enough for the whole house to hear. “If I never have to see that pathetic b***h again, it’ll be too soon, even if she does serve a purpose.” The laughter cut off abruptly and I found myself pinned back against the wall, as he nuzzled the same spot on my neck from my dream, “He was afraid that we couldn’t keep our promise to Sophie if we got another taste,” his tongue slid over my skin and he sighed contentedly.

“I’m done with you,” I pushed him off of me, fighting the panic. “How do you give control back to Dmitri?”

“I don’t,” he smirked, “I must be satiated first. If you want me gone, you’ll have to make me Princess.”

As he stepped towards me again, it felt like time slowed down, grinding to a halt. An unnatural calm came over me, as I instinctually pressed my palm to his chest, over his heart, “Somnum,” I breathed the word in a voice I didn’t recognize. There was a soft whimper, as he dropped down to his knees.

Dmitri looked up with clear eyes again, panting for air, like he’d just run for miles and couldn’t catch his breath.

“Have you lost your f*****g mind?” He shouted up at me, making me wince. “We could have killed you!” he roared as he shoved the corner of the desk, moving it halfway across the room.

Taking another deep breath to calm my nerves, I knelt down beside him, “Are you, ok?”

“You want to know if I’m, ok?” He started laughing like a lunatic, slumping into himself and holding his head in his hands. “Do you have some kind of death wish?”

“Says the man who knowingly exposed himself to wolfsbane for a kiss,” I answered dryly. “More than once, and then lied about it to me and Sophie, repeatedly.”

“You’re going to be the death of me,” he groaned, falling silent. “I will not hold you to his deal,” he whispered after a long while, I almost thought I could feel the frustration of his wolf as he said the words. Several muscled tensed and rippled under his shirt as if he was fighting himself to stay still.

“I offered before he asked,” I stated firmly.

“You don’t get to make deals on my behalf.” He balled up his fists, like he wanted to hit something.

“I don’t see how it’s any different than our parents deciding who my mate is,” I huffed, getting tired of always talking in circles with him.

“It’s not the same thing.” I didn’t know if he was trying to convince me or himself.

“You’re right,” I agreed, “What you did was worse.” He slumped down further. “I spent my whole life making plans for a future that I was never going to get a chance to live. You all pulled the rug out from under me, while denying me a normal life before hand.” It seemed odd that he just let me rant for so long. “You wanted a Luna to claim, well here I am, but you won’t even let me uphold a deal I made,” I was fed up, “You treat me like I’m a slave, just here at your disposal and to serve you at your convenience! You lie, and keep things from me,” I was shouting now “You can’t even talk to me like a person; everything is some sick, twisted power struggle or game with you!” I lowered my voice, “I don’t have the energy to keep this up anymore! I can’t even escape you in my dreams!”

His head snapped up, “What dreams?” There was no playful smile, no smirk, just a wide eyed worried stare. I shrugged, unwilling to play this new game. “I’m serious Alexandria, what dreams?” His eyes fell to my neck.

Instinctually, my hand flew up to cover the spot on my neck from my dream. His muscles flexed for a second, as if he had just stopped himself from reaching out to touch me as we stared at each other again. “I’ve had several the last few days, which do you want to hear about?”

“Start with the first and go from there,” he ran his fingers through his hair as he stared at me.

“You took me down for blood work in the middle of the night. We argued on the way back to Sophie’s rooms,” I looked down at the scar on his hand, not wanting to repeat the words he’d said again. “I thought I’d woken up to see you sitting in Sophie’s room, watching me sleep, twice.” I continued, trying to study the expression on his face. “Last night,” my voice faltered as the sensation of his teeth breaking skin bloomed under my hand, “last night…”

“I marked you.” He finished for me, his voice lacking any kind of emotion. I didn’t have it in me to actually say it out loud, so I just nodded slightly. It felt like forever before he spoke again. “They weren’t your dreams,” he closed his eyes and sighed, “they were mine.” He mumbled something under his breath that I couldn’t quite understand.

“What do you mean they were your dreams?” a feeling of dread washed over me.

He took a breath and with a blank face he stated, “I’m bound to you.”