Housebound with the Blackridge Heirs novel Chapter 114

Chapter 114

Chapter 114

Maya

Heat was not what I expected.

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It was a condition that rewrote the rules of my body and laughed at everything I thought I knew about pain and control.

It started even before nightfall, and I already couldn’t cope.

My head was aching, my body felt like my veins were catching a fire, my gum ached, my finger tips and toenails did too, and my I was as horny as a rabbit.

Caden actually did it… He brought me to the saferoom, although I could feel his restraint and the anger of his wolf, and locked me in.

He didn’t slam the door. He didn’t yell. He didn’t even look at me long enough for me to beg properly.

He just stood there with his hand on the lock, his shoulders rigid, his eyes hard in that way that told me he was making himself into stone because if he softened, even for a second, he would break.

“This is the safest place,” he said, and his voice sounded like it had scraped against his own throat on the way out. “It’s scent resistant, it’s reinforced, and it’s far enough from the others.”

“Caden,” I whispered, and the way my voice came out made my skin crawl because it was already changing, already thickening with that low, needy edge I didn’t recognize as mine.

His gaze flicked to my mouth like it hurt him, and then it flicked away again, and his jaw tightened.

“You’re going to hate me,” he said, not asking.

“I already do,” I snapped, because anger was easier than fear and pride was easier than the truth, and the truth was that I was terrified of what would happen when the moon reached its apex and my wolf stopped pretending she cared about my dignity.

His eyes darkened, and I saw something flash in them, something like regret, something like hunger, something like both, and then he stepped back and turned the lock.

The click was quiet.

The sound still felt like a finality.

I stared at him through the small reinforced window in the door, because the room was built to keep things out and keep things in, and I realized with a sick lurch that it was built like a cage.

“I’m fully mated to you,” I said, more pleading than I wanted. “If you leave me in here alone, it’s going to be unbearable.”

He swallowed, and for a moment it looked like he might come back, like he might cross the threshold and pull me into his arms and act like the world made sense again.

Instead, he stayed where he was, and his voice dropped into something rougher.

“It’s better this way,” he said, and my throat tightened.

The heat rolled through me like it was listening, and it was pissed and punishing me for it… me!

His mouth parted like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t.

18:40 Tue, Dec 30 M J

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Chapter 114

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He just turned away, and the next thing I heard was his footsteps leaving, and then silence swallowed the hallway and I was alone with my breathing and the rising fire in my blood.

I did not cry at first.

I paced.

I raked my fingers through my hair until my scalp hurt. I pressed my palms to my stomach and tried to will the ache away, like it was cramps, like it was something I could breathe through, like it was something human.

It was not.

It started as heat beneath my skin, then it became pressure, then it became hunger, and my wolf paced in my mind like a wild thing trapped behind glass, furious at the confinement, furious at the denial, furious that the mate who marked us had dared to lock us away like we were a problem to be managed.

I tried to reach Caden through the bond, even though I already knew he wouldn’t answer.

All I felt was a wall.

A deliberate block, cold and hard and absolute.

That hurt more than the lock.

By the time the sun began to lower, the safe room was no longer a room.

It was a furnace.

My skin was damp with sweat, my thighs ached with a pressure that made me tremble, and I had to bite down on my own wrist to keep from making sounds that would haunt me later.

My senses were so sharp that I could hear the wind outside, could hear distant movement in the house, could smell the faint remnants of the others even through the scent-resistant walls, and that only made my wolf snarl harder.

Then the door opened.

It opened like someone had made a decision and didn’t care who approved of it.

Leo stood in the doorway, and for a second I didn’t recognize him as the calm, guarded heir who used to watch everything like it couldn’t touch him.

His hair was slightly mussed, like he had run his fingers through it a million times. His chest rose and fell too quickly, and his eyes were dark, almost black, as if his pupils had swallowed the hazel./

The moment my scent hit him, I watched his whole body react.

His shoulders tightened. His throat worked. His hands curled into fists so hard the tendons stood out.

And still, he didn’t step closer.

He stayed right on the threshold like crossing it would be the end of his control.

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