A Different Kind of Release

*Rowan*

I’m so angry I want to crush something. I walk out into the hallway, lock the door and turn to find James and Dean standing there with their arms crossed. Natalie should probably be my most trusted advisor because she’s the only one smart enough to get the fuck away from me.
I envision what it would feel like to take each of my best friends’ heads between my palms and squeeze until they explode like a couple of watermelons.
If I didn’t have a raging hard-on from the interaction I just had with my mate, maybe I’d stop and say something to these two knuckleheads. Instead, I glare at them as I march past them toward my room.
“You can’t just leave her locked in there until Solomon responds,” Dean calls after me.
“Watch me!” I reconsider the watermelon play but don’t stop walking.
When I get into my room, I go straight to the shower, turning on the cold water, stripping out of my ill-fitting sweatpants, and stepping right in. The cold water is just what I need to clear my head and watch my cock shrink back down to its normal size–which is still pretty damn big, I might add.
I get out of the shower, towel off, grab some clean boxers, and climb into bed, knowing I’ll be dreaming about my mate soon, and I hate that. I need to distance myself from her. I can’t give into the mate pull, even though my wolf is begging me to go down there, claim her, and mark her as my own.
I think of Mara and know that there’s no way I can do that. She has to be my priority, no matter what my wolf, my friends, or anyone else thinks.
It takes forever for me to fall asleep, but when I do, I’m back in her bedroom. She’s sitting on the edge of her bed, her eyes wide, her bottom lip pouty. Rather than storming out of the room, I storm toward her, eliminating the space between us and capturing that lip between my teeth, sucking it into my mouth as I push her backward across the bed.
I know it’s a dream when our clothes completely disappear. She’s beneath me, her nipples hardened to peaks as she squirms, trying to get my stiff dick inside of her soaking wet pussy. “Please,” she whispers. “Please, Rowan.”
I line up the tip of my cock with her slit, but I don’t press inside of her yet. “Who am I?” I ask her, tipping my hips enough to tease her but not to alleviate the mounting pressure she’s feeling inside her core.
“My… Alpha,” she pants, reaching for my hips. I grab her wrists and push them down next to her shoulders.
“What else?” I demand.
She whimpers, bucking her hips. I move back just enough that she only slides against me. “My king.”
“And?” I lean close enough that my breath makes her eyelashes flutter.
“My… mate.” She thrusts up at me, and I come down at the same time, impaling her on my enormous cock. Her mouth falls open in rapturous surprise, and as I pull out and thrust back into her again, she cries out. I don’t give her a chance to recover. Instead, I lay into her, fucking her hard and fast until she’s practically vibrating beneath me. She feels so good I can hardly contain myself, and I’m just about to explode when my eyes fly open.
It was a dream. “Fuck.” My dick is so hard, I have to finish it off myself. I can’t even stand up in this position. A few minutes later, relieved, I head to the bathroom to splash some water on my face. It’s still the middle of the night. I could go into her room right now and make that dream a reality.
But no. I won’t do that. I remember Mara and head back to bed, but I’m unable to sleep. As soon as the first rays of sunlight sneak in between the curtains, I use the mind-link to see if James is awake. He’s not, so I use my Alpha voice to command him to wake up. “Did you send that video?”
He swears. “No, Alpha. It was the middle of the night.”
“Get it over to him now,” I command. Then, I get ready for my day and head to my office. I’ll spend the day trying to concentrate on work and wondering when the hell the light on my phone is going to tell me King Solomon has all the proof he needs that he should trade Mara for his daughter right away.

***

*Hezzlie*

I didn’t dream I was a wolf last night.
I did have a sex dream about Rowan, though. Again.
I spend my morning by myself, wondering if I’ll be locked in this room by myself for the rest of my life, but then I remember that he wants to trade me to my father for that woman he’s in love with. I stare out the window at the castle and wonder if my father is so awful. I have no idea.
I’m surprised when James comes in. It’s about 2:00 PM when he knocks on the door, and I call him to come in.
He gives me a weak smile and asks, “How are you?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I feel like a prisoner, I guess.”
He sits down across from me. I’m used to him carrying a notebook, but he doesn’t have one now. Because I’m not a patient anymore. I am being held here against my will. “I want to talk to you about a few things.”
“Like what?” I ask, trying not to take my annoyance out on him. Granted, it’s his lies that have brought me here. I wonder what would’ve happened if I would’ve refused to come. Was staying at Peripheral ever even an option?
“Like… why you ran away,” he admits. “Where you thought you were going.”
“Well, it’s become pretty apparent to me that I’m only here because Rowan wants to use me to get his princess back.” I hear the disgust in my own voice. I sound jealous. I am jealous, and I don’t know why. “I have no reason to want to help him.”
“I’ll give you that,” James admits. “That’s your father over there, but you don’t know him. He attacked our kingdom for no reason.”
“So why would I want to be part of a deal where I have to go live with him?” I fold my arms.
“Also a good point. Still, you have to know you won't be able to run away from us, Hezzlie. What you did was quite dangerous.”
I don’t know what to say, so I look away. My eyes focus on the castle in the distance. At this point, I can only hope that my father is much nicer than the assholes who live here.
James drones on for a few minutes about how sorry he is, how he wishes things were different, and how I shouldn’t try to leave again. I don’t look at him. Eventually, he gives up and tries to walk out the door, but then I remember what he said about if I had questions.
“James,” I say, and he freezes with his hand on the doorknob. “What does that word mean?”
He turns and looks at me, confused. “What word?”
“The one I called Rowan,” I reply, trying not to roll my eyes. “What the hell is a mate?”
He turns and hits his head lightly on the door jamb. I don’t expect him to answer me, but then, he turns, looks me right in the eye, and says, “The person the Moon Goddess wants you with–your soul mate.”