~ Chapter Thirty-Three ~

I stepped into Dylan's room hoping he'd be in there, and although I found that he was, the position he was in wasn't pleasant for either of us.

"Oh, Erika!" he exclaimed out of fright, scrambling for the towel that had fallen to the floor.

I held my hands over my eyes. "Dylan! You said come in!"

"Sorry, I... nevermind. What do you want?"

"Can I look?"

"Yes." I opened my eyes to find Dylan's towel poking out from his closet in the corner of the room, as far from me as he could be. The sound of metal hangers on a metal pole screeched through my ear holes, as I looked for a place to stand that put me further away from his naked body.

"Where is Dimitri?" I asked him, hesitant. "I can't get through to his mind-link and Jessica's busy."

Dylan poked out of the closet, a floating head smiling at me. "Worried about your boyfriend, Keller?"

I didn't answer.

"Dimitri's on a perimeter run with some of the warriors, they left really early this morning. Jess only allows it because it's some form of training, but she'll have them in the gym later working out their arms or their abs or something." He shrugged. "Is something wrong? Can I help?"

I sighed. "No, you can't. I just have to ask him something. If he doesn't get back, I'll have to leave a note."

He frowned.

"I need to go somewhere for maybe two days, that's all you need to know."

"Dimitri won't like that at all," Dylan pointed out quietly. "I mean, I know you're all about doing your own thing but you've got to think, Roger *just* threatened you and everyone else pretty harshly. If you do something like this now, you're gonna put yourself in a lot of danger. Not to mention the bond. Do you really think you could stand being away from each other for a couple of days after you've..." He trailed off, and I started.

"After we've what?"

He smirked. "Oh, come on, I heard you guys the other day. And girls aren't the only ones who talk."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I don't talk about personal things with anyone, *Dylan.*"

"Well, he only told me a little because I asked. Don't fight about it, you'll have enough trouble trying to convince him to let you leave."

I didn't reply to that, because the mere concept of having to *ask* my mate if I could leave the packgrounds was ridiculous to me; it was totally demeaning and made me want to back out of this entire mateship again, to run to Gina before the Moon Goddess could force Dimitri and I back together. But I held myself completely still instead, silent, so that Dylan would get the message. He had come out of the closet by then, dressed in sweatpants holding a t-shirt in his hand.

"I just talked to one of the warriors with Dimitri," Dylan explained, "and they're on the pack grounds now. You could see them if you were on the right side of the house."

"Thanks," I muttered as I turned around for the hallway. I pulled Dylan's door shut behind me and walked ahead straight to Dimitri's room, passing Jessica on her way downstairs. We simply nodded our heads at each other before we were on our separate ways. I waited at the foot of the bed with my legs crossed, a pile of work I had accumulated together sitting by my knee.

When Dimitri walked into the room, he looked tired and sweaty, but all my traitorous eyes could see was a walking pair of lips - amongst other things. I fought down the feelings that instantly rose up inside of me, and Dylan's words fluttered briefly around my head. Dimitri stopped as he felt the same thing I was, his eyes trailing to my face across the room. I caught his gaze slipping lower for a second.

"How was your run?" I asked lightly, trying to keep the emotion from my voice.

He pressed his lips together. "Erika, you are driving me mad right now."

"I wish I could help it," I murmured, glancing down his broad chest.

"Fuck sake." Dimitri lunged at me so fast that I couldn't stop him. His large body pushed me down onto my back, his hips silencing my arguments by pressing to mine. He claimed my lips in a second, dominating me in ways I promised myself I wouldn't let myself be dominated. In an attempt to steal back some control, I wrapped one leg around him, then used half of my strength to shove him to the side. He rolled onto his back with me on top, knees either side of his waist. For a moment, we sat there, his hands on my hips, his eyes on my body, my chest heaving with the excitement of everything. I leaned down slowly, taking my time to appreciate the curves of his body, trying to talk sense into myself, even though I knew I was already lost to the moment.

"Erika," he murmured into the kiss. "What's the pile by my foot?"

I tried to let his words process, but I answered automatically, still lost. "My research."

He pulled back. "Research?"

I blinked and the moment was gone, as if it had never existed. Dimitri's face looked uncertain, confused, but more than anything, he was eager to find out what this was about, and I knew exactly why. He wanted to know why we were about to have an argument.

"I did extra research for Gina," I explained as I sat upright on top of him. "One of the alphas I talked to recently brought my attention to a new pack that the village haven't heard of before, and I thought it would be a good idea to let Gina know about it. It could be the perfect fit for someone she finds, especially if..." I trailed off. "What?"

"Why is it printed? Why haven't you just emailed it to her?"

My lips pressed together for a moment, then I sighed. "Because I'm going to take it down myself."

He practically shoved me off of him.

"Dimitri, the people at the village are a part of my life, too. I'd like to see them once in a while. This is the perfect excuse to go down, see how things are going."

"Roger *just* threatened you, Erika. You expect me to accept that you could get hurt while you're gone? I'm hardly comfortable leaving you in the house alone." Dimitri tugged on his own hair, his elbow on his knee. I could feel his genuine stress through the bond. "I'm not letting you go."

"What?" I snapped. "You are *not* in the position to say that! It's not a question of whether you're going to "let" me, Dimitri."

"You're in my pack, under my rules."

My skin was crawling with anger that I hadn't expected so soon. I was usually more composed than this, more level-headed, but this was just not something I could let go of. Like he thought he couldn't let me go.

"If you make this into a fight, I'm just going to leave without giving you *any* leeway. I was going to let you send someone with me maybe, or even come with me yourself, but if you continue like this..." I trailed off, letting him fill in the blanks. Although I didn't have a car yet, I did have complete access to the car downstairs Xanthe rarely used, and I had my own paws. After so much training, I was confident that I could run all the way back to the village in one go, without a single look back.

Dimitri watched the thoughts passing through my head in my eyes, his gaze growing angrier by the second. I was certain that I was about to see him explode, see him yell at me and put up a fight. But he stayed deadly still without looking away, and I stared right back, waiting.

"There's nothing I can do to stop you, is there?" he asked eventually, so softly I could barely hear him.

"No," I agreed. "There isn't."

"Unless I were to chain you up somewhere."

I started, and he smiled to himself, though it was hardly very sincere.

"If you get hurt..."

"It'll be completely my fault," I finished for him instantly.

"And you'll come back to the pack as soon as you can?"

"Yes."

He looked away to his lap, thinking, and then stood up and walked toward the bathroom. "Then I'll leave you to it, but I'll never forgive you if something happens."

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