I've been here for two days. Two whole days. I'm already going crazy. The witch will be here in two days. That's what Bella told me anyways. She's been acting more distant with me, keeping a straight face when I make jokes, ignoring my trying to small talk. It's starting to really piss me off.

Dog has been down a few times, trying to get through my mental barrier, threatening me. I started to see the Dog that she warned me about. This wasn't the person who laughed and joked at the table, who found my rebellious attitude cute. He was annoyed now. Very, very annoyed.

He screamed in my face, threatened me, punched a hole in the wall. I just sat there with a smug look on my face. This seemed to infuriate him even more to which I was glad.

Bella warned me against it but I glared at her and she shut right up.

Despite our indifference towards each other lately, I still really like Bella. When I get out, I was going to make sure she and her mate were safe. If Dominic tries to defy that order, he'll regret it.

Being away from him these past few days has been painful but I'm starting to see things differently. I know that I can't really change his attitude towards 'owning' me that much but I sure as hell can help get to change the rules towards the mating.

Bella has told me more snippets of her hometown and from what I gathered, they worked perfectly fine without the stupid male domination. I was going over points in my head that I wanted to discuss with him when Bella came in carrying brownies. My stomach growled loudly. She grinned.

"I thought you might be hungry." She held the plate out towards me and I hesitated.

"Who made them?" I asked her cautiously. She rolled her eyes.

"Rose did. She's an amazing cook." Her eyes shone when she spoke of her mate. I took one and took a small bite.

It was delicious.

"Oh my God! They're so nice!"

Bell grinned again. "She's actually coming down today to visit me."

"She is?"

"Yep, she should be here soon-"

She was interrupted by a person laughing.

"Bye Jared!" The sound of heels walking towards us had us both craning our necks. A brunette of average height came into view and I blinked at her. My fingers were dusted with coco powder from the brownie, that I hadn't realised I had eaten all of. Her eyes were a light brown, matching the colour of her skin with dark hair cut into a pixie cut. I blinked at her again.

Her eyes widened on me and she put her hand to her mouth.

"You're pregnant?! Oh my Days, you ate the entire brownie!" She turned to her mate and slapped her hard on the arm. "You never told me she was pregnant!"

She batted her hands away. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"They're hash brownies, you idiot!"

Bellas head snapped towards me.

"I'm all wishy washy." I said dreamily. Their looks of horrors had me cracking up once more. Wait, had I laughed before?

I tried to pause and think but when I closed my eyes I couldn't remember why I stopped. I giggled. I opened my eyes and looked at Bella and Rose with squinted eyes.

"Oh shit! SHIT! I am so dead!" Bella panicked. I walked over to her and put one hand on her shoulder and the other on Roses'.

"It's all good. I'm chill, I'm down." I giggled again. I stared at them in fascination. "You're both so pretty! You'll have gorgeous babies don't worry."

Loud screams were heard from upstairs. I screamed back and burst out laughing. Bella pushed me and Rose into the room. I smelled my mate and pushed past her, sniffing my way upstairs.

Mmmmm. I thought. I'd love some of that.

"DOMINIC ARE YOU THERE?! I SMELL YOU SO MUCH MORE NOW!" My voice was squeakier than normal. Or was it. Did I just speak? It felt as if I'd been walking for so long but when I looked back, I had only walked a couple of steps. I deliberately walked slowly towards the stairs, everything seemed to be in slow motion.

I slipped and tripped on the ground, I fell on my arm.

"MY ARM!" Bella and Rose rushed towards me, both of them helped me sit up while Rose looked at it.

"Oh God, I think it's broken, Bell."

Light flooded the hallway and I sat up straighter, smelling my mate. A group of men rounded the corner, my mate at the front.

I lit up. His eyes were glowing as they met mine, a feral gleam in them. For a second, my smile faltered. He looked terrifying. Rose and Bell shook next to me. Why was he so scary? I forgot how scary he was, how scary he could be. I've never seen him shift, which was a huge relief.

"Don't hurt them." I blurted out. "Friends." He ignored me and advanced towards me, pulling me from their grips. They whimpered and flinched away from him, holding each others hands.

He scooped me up and I cried out in pain.

"Jesus man! My arm! I literally just fell, were you not there?" I hiccuped and collapsed into a fit of giggles. "You're so tall! I missed you so much!" I tried to look over his shoulders but everything was too blurry. I giggled again and snuggled into his chest. I closed my eyes and then I was asleep.

---

Beep, beep, beep.

I shifted where I lay.

Beep, beep, beep.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I peeled open my eyes. I was vaguely aware of the beeping in the background but my attention was on something else. I was lying on a large bed in the middle of a large white room. The walls were white, the curtains were white, the duvet was white. Everything. Including the shirt my mate was wearing. He was standing at the foot of my bed, his eyes unmoving as they stared at me, glowing.

I opened my mouth and then closed it. He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. I sat up and stared back at him, my eyes swimming with tears. I put my hand on my stomach, still round with our pup.

"Hi." I said quietly. He breathed in deeply but remained quiet. I placed my feet on the ground, wiggling my toes when I finally stood. I was careful to not hurt my arm as I shook off the cover. I took slow steps towards my mate, his glowing eyes taking in my every move.

His hair was disheveled, his face unshaven. I stopped an inch or two away from him. He released a deep breath and stepped towards me, wrapping his arms around me, careful of my sore arm.

He murmured words in my ear in a language I didn't recognise and told me he was sorry. I rubbed his back with my free hand and rested my head on his chest. His chest was harder than I remembered, stronger than I remembered. I was only gone for a few days and yet it felt like weeks being away from my mate.

He inhaled my scent and let out a deep growl.

"Don't worry, anybody who was and could have been involved are gone." He growled. I stilled in his arms, not sure how to react. I stepped away from him and after a moment of hesitation, he let me go.

"Bella and Rose are unharmed though, right? They were kind to me, the women who were with me when you got to me." I searched his eyes for any sign but he remained cold and silent.My heart started to beat faster. "Dominic, they are my friends." His eyes flashed.

"Your friends? They helped keep you captive, they should be dead. I didn't kill them but they won't be doing anything like that ever again." I released a deep breath but my heart still felt tight.

He didn't kill them, that's good news. What did he do to them? I made it clear that they were my friends and to not hurt them,but I never said mentally. He could have used that stupid mind of his to make them see things.

"How long was I asleep for?" I mean, I only broke my arm so that wouldn't be fatal enough for me to be in a coma.

"Three days. I wanted to make sure you got all of the proper nutrients necessary and to heal your arm." He said, he tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. "It should be healed by now but because you are pregnant, it will take another few days until it is properly healed."

I nodded and touched my stomach. "How's the baby?" I asked softly. He smiled at me and put his hand on my stomach.

"She's perfectly healthy." His eyes were shining, the glow finally gone.

"She?" I echoed. He froze, a look of panic crossing his face.

"Yes, she's a she." He said cautiously. My eyes filled with tears and I rubbed my stomach.

"I can't wait to meet her." He relaxed and nodded in agreement. His face turned serious.

"Now, get back into bed and rest. You'll be here until your arm is completely healed."

"Where is 'here' exactly?" I asked glancing around the room.

"The hospital room in the house. I'm not letting you leave this house ever again, little mate."

I laughed already knowing he was serious but this time, I wasn't going to just roll my eyes or smile at him and wait it out.

"Sure." I snipped. He looked at me sharply but I just smiled at him innocently and slipped into the bed. With narrowed eyes he kicked off his shoes and slid in next to me. I turned around so my back was facing him and he pulled me towards him, my back meeting his chest.

"Are you tired?" He asked me softly. I shook my head at him. I was being honest, I was wide awake, despite how warm the room was and how comfortable the bed was.

"Let's talk." I murmured. He chuckled into the crook of my neck but agreed to talk.

"When you were younger, did you ever have a pet?" I asked.

"No, my father and I didn't care for pets. My youngest brother and mother did but they were the only ones in the household who did. My father was very strict with my mother at the time and didn't allow for her to get every single thing that she wanted, in case she got too used to getting things she wanted and tried to sleep with another man." He gave a bark of laughter at this.

"Would your mother ever do that?" I highly doubted it, she seemed genuine and kind when I first met her.

"No, never. I think my father knew that but was still afraid to lose 'one of his possessions'. That's how he referred to her. When she realised what he was doing and referring to her as, she lost it. She defied him in every way until he apologized and took back what he said. He eventually did but it empowered my mother and he grew to love her even more."

He squeezed my waist and ran his nose along my shoulder.

"She was heartbroken when she found out what happened to you." His voice grew hard. He inhaled and he began talking again. "I swear to God, nothing like that will ever happen to you again. Any and all threats will be handled immediately."

I turned to face him, my round stomach creating space between us. "Why? I mean sure, they're going to try and kill me or do something horrible but you don't need to kill and torture every single person involved. They have family too, reasons behind why they're doing it, you just need to talk to them."

He stayed silent, his face blank. He caressed my cheek and gently tipped my chin up.

Goodie.

"I told you when we first mated that I wasn't going to change, didn't I? That no matter how much I grew to love you and how close we grew, I wasn't going to change. I may be kinder and more lenient towards you but to anybody else? I show no mercy." His eyes were hard, stubborn.

I glared at him. "I was raised in a town where the men publicly beat the women and no body said anything. They were females, who cares? They're only needed to create a baby and then they're worthless, ust something to have fun with occasionally, that's all. I thought every single town was like that until I talked to other people in the cells and they told me of their towns. Towns where the dominance was subtle and where the females could be dominant too. Where females had their own jobs and didn't have to have a chaperone everywhere they went." I sucked in a deep breath and stared him in the eyes.

"I don't want to have a daughter who has to face the world behind a man with her head down. I want her to be able to walk down to her job with her head held high on her own or with friends. I don't want to raise a son where he is taught he has to be the head of the household, has to be the dominant one unless his mate happens to be male and more dominant." My lower lip trembled, my mind returning to the image of Nate beside his mate, bruises around his neck from his training.

Dominic remained silent as I spoke, his eyes studying me carefully.. One wrong move form him and I was going to start crying and he knew it.

"I don't want that either." He said simply. I blinked at him in surprise.

"Really?"

"Yes. I may not change the way I act when it comes to you, hell I never will, but I do agree with you I was planning on changing a few of the rules anyways. You can't expect everyone to agree, even some of the females may dislike the idea but I'm going to go ahead with it anyway and anyone who has a problem with it can come to me."

My eyes filled with tears and I wrapped my arms around my mate, awkwardly patting the back of his shoulder when I couldn't full reach around him. Stupid big belly.

He laughed and kissed the tip of my nose. "Inside that 'stupid big belly' is our child."

I laughed and rubbed my stomach. "I know, sometimes it can be very annoying." As I said this, I glanced down at my boobs. They had grown so much during my short pregnancy, I had large breasts before but now they were huge. So had my thighs but my face kind of untouched, despite all of my cravings before I was kidnapped. I could eat like a wild animal.

A feature which returned a few hours later when a craving for apple pie and cream hit me full force. I lay in bed, my mouth watering just thinking of it. Freshly made, with a generous amount of fresh cream. The best I have ever had was in Ireland, so fresh and delicious. In America, everything has sugar in it. It took me months to be able to stomach a slice of bread.

I turned towards Dominic, he was sitting up with his laptop resting on his legs. His hair perfectly in place, his blue eyes concentrated on the screen in front of him. I cleared my throat and he didn't budge. My brows furrowed in confusion.

His mouth twitched and he looked over at me.

"You were talking about apple pie in your sleep so I told the chef to make some for you, it will be here soon. I told him to go easy on the sugar."

I beamed up at him, my heart swelling with love. He listened to my thoughts in my sleep and decided to think ahead for me.

"You told him to bring the whole pie, though right?" I asked cautiously.

He nodded seriously. "Of course." I grinned up at him and he gave me a small smile in return. "Anything for you, little mate."

I opened my mouth to reply but a brief knocking on the door and the smell of apple pie had my stomach growling and my mouth salivating. He stood up and walked briskly to the door, stepping outside and coming back in wheeling a cart with two freshly made apple pies and a bowl of whipped cream.

"That chef is a godsend, you know that right?" I eagerly sat up, my eyes tracking the carts every movement. He didn't reply to my comment and I figured the chef must be a male. "Have you always had a chef" I asked, I could have sworn he didn't have a chef.

"Yes, but I told him to take the next six to eight months off so I could have you all to myself and so I wouldn't kill him."

I laughed but stopped when I realised he was serious. Of course he was serious, he took lives so easily. Another thing we needed to talk about. Maybe I could convert him to the vegan diet, repent his sins and give back to the world by not eating animals and their by products.

One look at his 'are you kidding me?'look though, had me retreating the vegetarian diet.

Stop reading my thoughts, Lycan. I thought.

He raised an eyebrow at me but otherwise didn't react.

He placed a few slices of pie on a plate and covered them in fresh cream. He handed me the plate carefully, his fingers brushing mine. Shivers ran through my body and I flushed.

He handed me a fork, a smirk on his face the entire time. I stuck my tongue out at him and he chuckled.

He returned to his spot next to me while I wolfed (ha, get it?) my pie. I moaned a very unsexy moan and continued devouring the pie. I stopped for a second and looked at my mate, who was watching me with careful eyes.

"Why are you sitting there watching me?" I asked, not bothering to hide my annoyance. It was irritating feeling his eyes on me while I was trying to enjoy my pie to its fullest extent.

"I'm just making sure you don't choke and die, considering the rate you're eating that pie."

I flushed and glared at him.

"I will not be shamed into eating slower or healthier!"I declared proudly. He raised an eyebrow at me but I ignored him.

Rude bastard.

He growled lowly in warning.

So sorry, I thought snappily.

I reached over and pulled the trolley to beside me and loaded my pate with more slices of pie and cream. Mmmm.

"You know, we really need to tak about your hobby of killing people without a second thought." I licked the cream off of my fork and he sighed.

"No."

"Yes." I put my hand up to silence him. "They are people, they have feelings and have parents. Sure they may be shitty people sometimes, hut they're people and you shouldn't kill people. You also shouldn't kill animals but I'll wait another year or two until we have that conversation don't worry."I winked at him.

"Anyways! As I was saying, they're people, big mate, and they deserve to be treated like people and allowed to die naturally. Karma will come back and get them and karma came and got you when I was kidnapped because you were so distraught. I am not saying that it's your fault that I got kidnapped although it kid of was. I'm joking! Jeez, calm down, buddy." I shoved a forkful of pie and cream into my mouth, chewing rapidly until enough was swallowed for me to speak again.

"I know you enjoy killing people and torturing them with your mind and then physically torturing them as well, I get it, gets the rage out of you. Maybe though, and this is just a thought, try using a punching bag or a wall or anything else other than humans and animals and trees." I ended my speech with a close mouthed smile in his direction, my cheeks puffed out a bit from all the food in my mouth.

"I'm not going to stop what I do, people need to be taught lessons and they need to learn to never disobey me. My father tried the kind approach and it didn't work so he was forced to change his ways and showed us how to act as well. I will, however, not do it in front of you if it upsets you so much and have already banned anybody from saying anything to you."

He twirled a strand of my hair around his finger.

"O.k. I know that that is all I am going to get now so I will take it." I also knew that trying to get him to change his mind about not allowing people to talk to me about it was pointless, he had that stupid stubborn gleam in his eyes that I hated but also loved. "I'm going to need to get my hair cut pretty soon, it's getting very long."

It was almost two inches past my shoulder which was long for me.

"So, what's your favourite colour?" I asked him.

"Green."

"I didn't expect it to be green." I admitted honestly. "Something like black or brown maybe, not green."

"I am full of surprises, love."

My lip twitched. "I know an I have a feeling you're just going to keep on surprising me."

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