Playing The Alphas

Chapter 42: I Will Not Be As Gentle As Next Time

JAYCE

The maze was darker than I expected.

The hedges rose above me like green walls, blocking out most of the moonlight. Only thin silver beams broke through the gaps, casting strange shadows on the stone path beneath my feet.

I stood still and listened as footsteps, soft, quick and scrambling were moving all around the place. Samantha.

She was running.

"Help her," Jaden, my wolf, said inside my head. "Our mate is scared. She is running in the dark. She does not know where she is going. Help her."

"No."

"No? What do you mean, no?"

"I mean no. I am not going to help her. I am going to tease her."

Jaden growled. "That is cruel."

"That is fun."

"Not for her."

"Not for her yet. But she will learn to enjoy it."

"What if she gets hurt? What if she falls? What if a snake bites her?"

I almost laughed out loud. "A snake? In this maze?"

"Snakes live everywhere. They hide in hedges to wait for prey. What if one bites our mate? What if she dies before we even get to claim her?"

"Then I will kill that snake," I said simply. "I will find it and skin it alive. I will hang its scales from my belt as a warning to every other snake in the kingdom."

"That is dark." freёwebnovel.com

"That is love."

"You do not know what love is."

"I know that no one dare touches my princess. Not snakes. Not wolves. Not even my own brothers."

Jaden was quiet for a moment. Then, "you called her your princess."

"She is my mate, so that makes her a princess."

"You are soft," Jayden growled.

"I am not soft."

"You are soft for her."

I did not argue. Because he was right. I was soft inside but I pretended to be hard because for some reason...I loved to see her in pain.

I moved through the maze slowly, letting my footsteps echo off the hedges. I wanted her to hear me. I wanted her to know I was coming.

Every few seconds, I heard her. She gasped, stumbled and took a sharp intake of breath.

She turned a corner. I turned the same corner through my second Alpha eyes. She looked back and saw me standing at the end of the path.

Her eyes went wide. She ran faster and I smiled.

"She is terrified," Jaden observed.

"I know."

"You enjoy this too much."

"I know that too."

I followed her through the twisting paths. Left, right and left again. She was not paying attention to where she was going. She was just running, panicking, making mistake after mistake all just to avoid us.

She then turned into a dead end.

The hedges blocked her on three sides. There was no way out except the way she had come.

And I was standing there.

She pressed herself against the hedge. Her chest heaved. Her eyes were wide and wet. Her white dress was torn at the shoulder. Her dark hair stuck to her face. She looked like a scaredy little chicken with nowhere to run to.

"Please," she whispered, begging me while I stepped closer.

"You ran from us," I said. "That was not very nice, bunny."

She did not answer. She just stared at me with those big brown doe eyes, trying to soften me up.

I stepped closer still, my hand reaching out while I cupped her face. Her skin was soft. Ugh! I could almost swuish her in my hands like a slimey. She flinched but did not pull away.

I bent closer, my breath touching her and then I planted a kiss on her forehead.

"You should not have run."

I kissed her nose.

"You should not have hidden."

I kissed her lips.

Soft at first, just a brush then a taste. Then harder. More demanding. I pushed her against the hedge and kissed her like I meant it.

She did not resist.

Her hands hung at her sides. Her body trembled against mine. But she did not push me away. She did not turn her face. She just stood there and let me kiss her.

Jaden purred inside my head. "Yessssss....This is good. This is right."

I slid my hands into her hair. It was softer than I imagined. It was thick and Dark. It wrapped around my fingers like silk.

I pulled back and looked at her.

"You belong to us now," I said. "Stop running."

She did not answer and I continued kissing her neck. Her skin tasted like honey. Like summer. Like everything I had been missing my whole life. I wanted to lick her and gulp her up.

I trailed my lips down to her collarbone making her shiver.

The reaction made me smile against her skin.

"Do you want me to punish you?" I murmured.

"No," she whispered. Her voice was barely a sound.

"Do you want me to make you walk half naked in a parade? In front of everyone? In front of my father? In front of the other slaves?"

"No."

"Then why did you run? Why did you hide? Why did you make me chase you through this stupid maze when I could be sleeping?"

She did not answer.

I pulled back and looked at her face. Tears were sliding down her cheeks.

My chest tightened. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

"She is crying," Jaden said.

I can see that.

"Make her stop."

No, I won’t.

"You are making it worse."

I am not making it worse. I am asserting dominance.

"She does not need dominance. She needs comfort."

I stared at her, at her tears and the way her lip trembled.

Something inside me shifted. Was that..sympathy? Was Jayce Cunningham feeling Sympathy? I reached up and wiped her tears with my thumb.

"Do not cry," I said softly. "I am not going to hurt you."

She looked at me like she did not believe me.

"I am not," I repeated. "I am going to tease you. I am going to chase you. I am going to drive you crazy, but I am not going to hurt you."

"Then why do you look at me like that?" she asked. Her voice cracked.

"Like what?"

"Like you want to eat me."

I laughed. "Because I do want to eat you, bunny. Just not in the way you think."

Before she could respond, I heard wings flapping towards us.

Darlington. Finnian. They were close.

I stepped back from Samantha. My hands left her face.

"They want their turn," I said.

Her eyes widened and she shook. "Turn?"

"Do not run again." My voice was harder. "I will not be as gentle next time."

I stepped back into the shadows, watching her a bit before I turned and disappeared into the maze.