Of course. She’d expected that one. And still, the certainty of it — no escape valve, no waiting until therightone came home — made her pulse race.
He opened a wooden case beside him to reveal an infinity collar with the matching circles for her wrists and ankles.
She felt her eyes widen, and the cold gleam of the steel instantly made her imagine the weight of it on her throat.
His tone dropped lower. “We expect that at the end of four months, when your lease is up, you’ll be ready to either move in permanently or walk away. If you feel as if it’ll be the former, I’dlike to put the collar and cuffs on you tonight, when we finish negotiations. They’ll come off when you shift, and I’ll have to put them back on, but otherwise, they stay on. Consider them permanent. You’ll be bruised for the first week or two — wrists, ankles, feet, collarbones — until your body adjusts to wearing steel.”
She swallowed hard, pulse skipping. The gleam of polished steel caught the light, cold and heavy in her imagination. The image bloomed in her mind. She’d look like a slave girl whether naked or in a dress.
And it would take mere seconds to restrain her at any time. A carabiner to connect her wrists behind her back. A lock to attach her to a chain.
She’d been collared before, but not like this. Not with this permanence in the air threatening,promising, forever.
And not with what amounted to five collars.
Vanillas would just think she wore odd jewelry, but anyone in the scene would recognize she was owned.
The thought sent flitters through her entire being.
Owned.
But Kenny wasn’t finished.
“The three of us want a joint ritual, just before the full moon every month. Within the twenty-four hours before the first night, we piss on you. All three of us. Probably in the shower, with you lying on the floor between us. No part of you covered. Nothing sacrosanct.”
Her breath caught. Not quite a gasp, but close. They wanted to mark her in the most feral way possible. And she understood why it needed to be before the full moon, when wolves get evenmorepossessive than normal.
When she didn’t argue, he continued. “And other shared marking rituals for important events,” he finished. “Each of uswith a different implement. Horse whip, loopy, cane, whatever we choose.”
It wasn’t more than she’d agreed to before, so she figured he’d put this in as foreshadowing, a hint at where he was heading.
It came exactly as she expected. “Unless you have objections you haven’t voiced, we’ll end with the collaring ceremony, and then the three of us will mark you, each with a different implement before we take you at the same time to commemorate the occasion.”
Her body gave her away again, heat flooding between her thighs. She lowered her gaze to the table and nodded.
It was everything she’d ever wanted, but agreeing to it sent terror spiking through her veins and twisted her gut into a demented fucking pretzel — all while her traitorous clit throbbed and pulsed like an old open-element heater glowing bright red and about to set the drapes on fire.
Chapter 16
Kenny stood, and the air pressed tighter in the room until she could barely breathe.
“Upstairs.” His voice was all command now. “Strip in the hall. Clothes on the table, then back here.”
She made herself nod, made her legs work when she stood. She was going to be collared.
Forever.
Maybe.
She wanted this with every cell in her body, and yet, a tiny part of her wanted to run.
Mostly though, she wanted to kneel and let them do whatever the hell they wanted.
The house felt different now. Same hallways, same furniture, but heavier, more permanent. The air was thick with intent. She reached the second floor, and her fingers were clumsy on her shirt buttons. Jeans down, panties with them, bra unhooked — all of it folded in a neat stack on the hall table, her skin prickling in the cooler air.
She turned to go back downstairs and remembered her boots.
She took them off, and her socks, and headed downstairs, back to Kenny’s office.
