Free Bonds of Fire: The Bellum Sisters 2 (paranormal erotic romance) by T. A. Grey

Rachel. Both of you get the hell away from my house.” She stormed inside and slammed the door shut with a bang.
    Rachel shrugged. “Sorry about that. Alpha Lyonis has been the one man she’s always wanted.” Willow snorted and followed Rachel away from the house. “So the Alpha kidnapped you, huh?” she said with a smile.
    Willow didn’t smile back; it wasn’t funny to her. “Yeah, he did. I’m not staying with him either.”
    “Why not?” Amy looked genuinely puzzled.
    “Because I don’t want him. He wants to subdue me into some sexual submissive that pleases him all the time.” Rachel tossed her head back and laughed.
    “Don’t all men? Hey, it’s not my place to really say anything, but since you’re not a shapeshifter I’ll go ahead and say it.”
    Willow wasn’t so sure she wanted to hear this.
    “Shapeshifters get one mate; one chance. Sometimes it takes hundreds of years before the other one can be found. In many cases, they die before ever finding their mate. Sometimes it’s much easier. I found my Jack while visiting in California.” Her soft smile was infectious.
    “Is he a shapeshifter, too?”
    Rachel nodded. “Yes, I met him while visiting a cousin in a different pack. He asked me out right away and after that first kiss,” she sighed blissfully. “We knew right then.”
    Willow felt a pang of bitterness in her chest. She used to want that, to know what it was like to feel something on that kind of level. And she did get to experience it, in a tainted, disgusting way.
    “I didn’t know shapeshifters can mate with other breeds,” Willow said.
    “It’s a bit unusual that’s for sure, but not uncommon.” Rachel paused. “So I don’t want to make you awkward or anything but you can’t leave him.”
    “What do you mean?” The baby fussed a bit and Rachel moved her to the other shoulder. The baby quieted.
    “To have your mate not accept you is...geez I don’t even know how to say it. It’s considered shameful. Not to mention that the one who’s left can never be with anyone else. After they find their mate, that’s it. They are locked together forever.”
    Willow’s head throbbed with a migraine. “Are you saying that if I leave him, he’ll want only me and can never just find some Suzy Homemaker to make him happy?”
    Rachel gave her a sad look. “It’s sad I know but it’s true. We spend our lives looking for our other half, if we lose them after finding them, it breaks us.”
    Willow sighed, of course it does. This couldn’t be easy. Nope. She had to either stay here and be with the dominating Alpha or hurt him for the rest of his life. She wasn’t so sure she was mean enough to do something like that.
    “But I’m not a shapeshifter, how would that affect me?” Rachel frowned and shook her head.
    “I’m not sure. You might be able to move on with your life and find another, but he’d be left the same. This is me,” she said as they neared a small white house. Willow walked with her to the door.
    “Thanks for the info, Rachel.”
    Rachel laughed. “Anytime you need anything just come by.” When she turned around her smile was gone. “Listen, I know you don’t know him very well, but you should try it. I’ve lived in this pack since I was a child and I’ve never seen him so happy. Is he really so bad?”
    Willow swallowed the lump in her throat. How did she explain old fears without revealing herself? She couldn’t.
    “Yes, he wants me to be someone I’m not.”
    Rachel smiled as if she was remembering something. “Then maybe you need to push back.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Sometimes an Alpha needs to have control exerted on them. It might help to keep him in check.”
    How did she control someone like him? The man was so physical it was in everything he did. She wouldn’t be able to do it without being physical.
    Nodding, Willow said goodbye and walked back to Lyonis’ cabin, lost in her thoughts. Could she really leave him if that meant