Fighting off the mate bond was hard, but I'd had plenty of practice during my time here. With a burst of strength, I shoved Jordan away from me, making him fly across the cell. He looked surprised, as if he didn’t think me capable of it.
“I reject you as my mate!” I yelled, repeating the words he'd said at the Convergence. Now you know what it's like, a part of me thought. Doesn’t it hurt?
Jordan's eyes flashed with anger, and we both snarled at each other like we might tear each other's throats out. We couldn't kill each other, but that didn't mean we wouldn't try. But before either of us could do anything, a bright light shot out of Roxandra's hands and hit me in the chest, knocking me back against the wall. White-hot pain lanced through me and I screamed, and when it ended, I sagged to the floor.
When I got up, one of the other Sun Witches rested her hand on Jordan's shoulder. He bent his head and she spoke into his ear, and even with my wolf hearing, I couldn't make out the words. He nodded and turned back to me with the kind of anger I’d only ever seen in my father flickering through his eyes. I flinched instinctively, but I wasn’t fast enough and there wasn’t enough room to properly move away. All I saw was Jordan’s fist, flying toward my face.
I was surprised at the power behind it. It sent me sprawling to the floor again, a bright bloom of pain throbbing all along the left side of my face. I lifted my hand to touch my cheek and winced at the secondary jolt of pain it sent through me.
“Hit me all you want,” I said, glaring up at him with hatred burning inside me. “I’ll never be your mate. You’ll have to force me tomorrow, and even when I'm your mate, I’ll fight you every step of the way.”
“Fine,” Jordan snapped. “If that's the way it has to be, then so be it. I tried to make this easy on you, but you've left me no other choice."
I hardly recognized my mate. I’d almost grown lax, so used to the Jordan who'd spoiled me with food, given me gifts, and stopped touching me because I needed time. But this Jordan had been lurking under the surface all this time, just waiting for a chance to be released again.
As he turned away, I said the thing I knew would hurt him more than anything else. “You’re no better than your father."
"I am nothing like him!" He spun back around and delivered a swift kick to my side.
I sucked in a sharp breath of air, or tried to, and I was still gasping by the time he was outside of the door.
“Have at her, boys,” Jordan said, with such a cruel note in his voice that I looked up at him one more time to see if I could spot anything human beneath the monster lurking in his skin. “Just make sure she’s alive at the end of it. I do need her mated to me tomorrow.”
He grinned at me through the bars as he closed the doors, leaving the two guards on the inside with me. They advanced upon me, while the Sun Witches stood outside and watched the show.
I gritted my teeth and thought about trying to fight back, but what was the use? I was trapped in enemy territory, surrounded by shifters and witches, and they were holding Mira hostage. Basically, I was fucked.
Instead of fighting, I just slumped back and lifted my arms to try to protect my head as the guards came closer, sharp looks of glee on their faces as they began pummeling me with fists and feet. The Sun Witches hit me with a spell too, though it didn't hurt this time. I wasn't sure it did anything until I realized my body wasn't trying to heal itself. Somehow they'd turned off my shifter healing. Fuck. Jordan really did have them wrapped around his finger, ready to act on his every whim.
The feel of Jordan’s proximity through the mating bond persisted for a few moments, still trying to draw me closer to him, even though he was the one responsible for this. I hate you, I thought, and then the feeling pulling at my gut faded, and I knew Jordan had left.
It didn’t take too much longer for the pain to become too much. As they continued beating me, I slipped gratefully into unconsciousness.
A part of me hoped I would never wake up at all.
Chapter Nine
I woke when one of the guards who had fun connecting his feet to my ribs slapped me across the face. I sat upright—or tried to. Every inch of my body hurt like I’d been run over by a freight train. I groaned and tried my best to curl up, to make myself a smaller target. How long would this beating go on? But instead of hitting me, the guard shoved some sheer fabric into my hands.
I looked down at it. “What the fuck is this?”
The guard slammed the cell door shut and locked it, then looked at me through the bars, his dull eyes glittering with malice. “Your dress for the ritual, princess. Alpha said to strip down. Completely. Then put that on.”
His eyes lingered on my body, and I hugged my hands around myself. I’d gotten used to being naked, but nothing could desensitize me to being leered at like that.
“Hurry up,” he added, turning around as if I’d suddenly lost all interest to him. It was jarring, but at least he wasn’t looking at me anymore. “I’m supposed to bring you out in a few minutes.”
Shit. Not only had I passed out for hours, but I’d only been awoken a few minutes before the ritual. I didn’t appreciate the thought of being dragged out of the cell while I was still half-groggy and all kinds of sore from what they'd done to me.
I stripped down, every movement agony, and if I’d been any more lucid, I would have thrown a fit about the dress. As I put it on, I noticed it was extremely revealing, low cut in the front, and almost completely backless. When I moved, my legs slid out from the fabric, all the way up to the spot where my thigh met my hip. The fabric itself was almost see-through, so sheer that if someone looked at me in the right lighting, they’d see everything. The bruises showed through, dark splotches against my light skin. On the front of the dress, plastered on my stomach, was the Leo pack symbol, big and gaudy. I’ve basically been marked, I thought. I looked at the Ophiuchus pack mark on my arm, wondering if this was one of the last times I’d see it.
This is it, I thought, as I realized what this dress meant. I’d thought about mating with Jordan before, of course. The mating bond wouldn't let me not think about it, but the thought of having sex with him hadn’t carried the same weight as it did now. Tonight I knew there would be no escaping it.
The guard opened the door, and two shifters entered. I didn’t flinch, but held my head at a contrary angle, daring them to beat me again. Both guards just grabbed me by the upper arms and practically lifted me off my feet so they could drag me out of the cell.