Auctioned Mates Revenge
Chapter 16

Matt's POV

My wolf howled with desire, urging me to take her up to my room and have her until neither of us could move. My mouth watered thinking about how delicious she'd taste, how much I'd make her come, the sounds she would make while I was claiming her over and over again. Lucas was itching for me to make the fantasies a reality. The sweet and sour of the drink seemed to only make her taste better as she crawled into my lap a little unsteadily. I turned us over to lay her across the couch and pulled away from her lips. What are you doing? Lucas growled, She said-

I pushed him out of my mind and looked down at her. She looked up at me with a hazy expression and let out a soft giggle as I trailed my fingers across her neck. It would be so easy to claim her now. Her neck was bare and she lay beneath me with a husky gaze. A feral desire to sink my teeth into her neck and mark her was pressing at me, but I held back, content to look at her openly.

I couldn't help taking in every inch of her. She wasn't voluptuous, but she was curvy. Her dark hair had spilled across the couch around her head. She looked like an old-school pinup except for the scars.

Large and small marks peeked from beneath the burgundy cloth of her dress across her chest and thighs. Some of them were dark enough to see clearly, the others were silvery and pale. I remembered the feeling of the marks on her back and clenched my jaw. Had they all come from whips? Knives? Who had left all these marks on her body? Where were they? How soon could I kill them?

"You look so upset," she said and pulled me down to press our bodies together. "You don't like me?"

Her scent flooded my senses, and I groaned, turning my head into her shoulder. I didn't want to be like the johns she'd had. I wasn't a customer who would use her and throw her away when I was done. She's my mate. I had to remember that and act accordingly. S*x would be amazing, but we had our entire lives for that. If I rushed it now, I'd lose her forever, I knew. The thought made my blood run cold with fear.

I took a deep breath of her sweet and alluring scent, "Are you sure you want this?"

She pulled at my shirt with a low moan, "Come on, stop stalling... Come on..."

I didn't move to help her fumble with my shirt as the scent of the alcohol on her breath sent a cold chill through me. Her hands fumbled with the buttons on my shirt, squinting before huffing in frustration. "Renda," I started, "Are you... Have you ever had a drink before?"

She scoffed, tugging at my shirt collar now, "Of course, I have."

"Not human alcohol... Wolfsbane alcohol."

"What difference does that make?"

I sat up with a suffering groan.

Lucas growled, She wants us! What are you doing?

"You're drunk," I said, rubbing my face.

Of course, she was drunk. Why did I think that Larry's would have exposed their werewolf workers to wolfsbane alcohol? It was expensive and more werewolves got drunk if they drank enough cheap human alcohol.

She'd probably never had wolfsbane alcohol in her life, and I'd poured that drink strong enough to at least get me buzzed.

She pouted and got onto her knees, "What difference does that make?"

I got off the couch and scooped her into my arms. It was all I could do to contain my anger as I felt the shallow scars on her legs and turned over her words.

My frustrated desire to have her sizzled and nearly died at the question. What difference did it make that she was drunk? It made all the difference! The bastards that had made her think that her state of sobriety didn't matter would pay. The thought of being just another man like them strengthened my resolve not to give in to her or Lucas.

She reached for my neck with a low moan that made my c**k harder.

"Are we going to your room?"

"No," I said, walking up the stairs. "I'm taking you to your room."

"My room? I don't know if my bed is big enough...

"We're not having s*x, Renda." I reached the second floor and managed to get the door open.

As I lowered her onto the bed, she held onto me, lifting herself to wrap her legs around my waist.

"I know you want me," she said, her voice was breathy and warm, but her body told a different story.

She was tense and clinging to me. Her voice said she wanted it, but her thighs clamped around my hips barely keeping our hips apart. It was as if she wanted to hold me in place rather than draw me close and keep me captive.

I sighed, lowering myself to the bed so my weight rested on her. The muscles in her back grew tenser beneath my palm as our hips met.

Her eyes were still hazy, but there was a coldness in them even as she tugged on my shirt.

"It would be easier if you got undressed, you know? Or at least let me get your pants down."

Her eyelids lowered and she lowered her hands to my belt. I smelled her fear just barely beneath the heat of her skin and perfume.

I caught her hand, "Stop."

She pouted. The sultry expression melted away to something stubborn and almost childish.

"Why are you stopping me?"

"You don't want this," Matt said, "And even if you did, you're in no position to consent."

"But you want it-"

"I can't enjoy it if we both can't enjoy it."

Lucas growled at the back of my mind as I tugged at her legs to get her to release me. It wasn't hard though her muscles tightened a bit in resistance. I pulled back and stood. Calm down, Lucas.

Lucas just growled at me again, She looks so good! What are you doing? She wants it! She wants it! She said so.

No, she didn't say that. She just said that I should take her to bed while drunk. It wasn't the same thing. I have done horrible and dangerous things, but I'm not a rapist. You're probably scaring her wolf with that talk.

Renda reached for me again, getting up on her knees, "What's wrong with you? Just-"

"No," I said, firmly. "Maybe... if you feel the same way when you are sober, I'll consider it."

Her eyes widened and I knew that I had made my point. Shame and confusion warred on her face and my heart clenched.

She'd been hurt so much by so many people. Whatever I could imagine about what she had suffered probably wasn't even close to all of it.

That's not true. I can't even reach her! Lucas growled, I bet if we marked her we'd get to meet her.

No. I pushed that impulse away and pulled the blanket down on the bed.

Marking her now would only car her further and push her wolf further away. I knew from college and the research done on the population that trauma, physical and mental, could suppress a person's wolf.

It only went to show how horrible of a person I was that Lucas had never been suppressed no matter what I did.

Whatever happened to Renda after the death of her parents until I had purchased her from Larry's had pushed her to the edge of her sanity and suppressed her wolf.

Being sold to Midnight likely meant she'd been kept somewhere else. She'd probably been abused there too. How old could she have been? She didn't look more than twenty or so, meaning she was sixteen or seventeen when she was bought by Midnight. If I was right that she hadn't been born into slavery, I can't imagine that the sixteen-year-old Renda hadn't fought her captors with everything she'd had.

The scars on her would have only remained like this if she had been near to death and without her wolf.

She's suffered too much, Lucas. Think about that... How are we supposed to prove ourselves worthy of her if we treat her the way every other man has treated her?

Lucas seemed shocked by my words, but I wasn't wrong and he didn't argue the way he usually would have if he didn't agree.

His anger and need seemed to ease, making it easier for me to focus on anything but how good she smelled.

I was glad that I had opted not to drink earlier in the night.

We have to find them, Matt. Lucas said, his voice low and angry. I could feel his fury burning in my chest.

We have to find them all and kill them. Painfully.

We will, I promised. I promise.