“That’s not what floats your boy’s boat. He’s a Dom, and so am I. Do you know what that means?”
Her questions were largely rhetorical now, I realised. She was slowly but not especially carefully making clear the situation I was in.
“Pain isn’t part of his kink. He’s been a member here for long enough for me to know what he likes and doesn’t. A long time ago, we dominated some subs together.” She didn’t seem to long for that, but there was definitely a note of wistfulness there. “But what he does like is to take people’s control away, make them vulnerable, and right when they’re putty in his hands, he pushes them to the limits of pleasure their body can take. He’s really rather masterful with it.”
She turned to face me more fully.
“That’s what you’re getting yourself into if you engage in any kind of relationship with him. He might play along with whatever vanilla lifestyle you want to live, but it’ll be there, simmering away, like a snake in your own personal Garden of Eden. Sometimes, somehow, he’s going to want to take control of you, and if you want my advice?”
She stared into my eyes, waiting for a response, but I didn’t have one. I’d been back in skin for mere hours, and here was I, being thrust into yet another alien context.
“Get educated about kink and then come back when you’re ready before you start playing with this.”
“Scarlet…” Tobias rumbled.
She tossed the collar to me then, and I caught it on reflex. I turned the silver ring over and over, catching sight of the very fine joins in the metal, a strange-looking key sticking out of the side.
“You want to put this on me?” I asked, cringing back, not wanting to know the answer but unable to stop myself.
“No—” he started to say.
“Yes, he does. He’s fucking lying if he says otherwise. He wants his fangs in your skin and his steel around your neck, all of the symbols that you belong to him, because that’s the way it works for us.” Scarlet smiled, but there was something hard, vulnerable, and yet utterly merciless in it. “When we fall in love with a sub, when we give them our heart, we’re the bastards who want to lock them down, claim them, show every fucking person that sees them how much they belong to us and us alone.”
She stepped closer then, her hips swaying hypnotically.
“Ours to play with, ours to please, ours to drive out of their fucking mind, ours to hold close and put back together, because it’s only then that we feel truly connected, not one thing between us. That’s what this represents. It’s more permanent than a wedding ring. They can be taken on or off at will, but not this. It’s an eternity ring, though it doesn’t always last that long.” Scarlet’s voice was a low rasp now, real sorrow colouring the words. “But when we put it on someone, we think it will.”
I swallowed, my fingers gripping the metal tight, but it felt too cold, too hard, too impervious as I did so. I’d come back to skin for this? To have my nose thrust into whatever the hell fucking arrangement he’d set up with Chloe? I shoved the collar back into Scarlet’s hands and then turned on my heel, ready to stride out of here.
“That’s not it.”
His voice was coarse and desperate, and he grabbed me and spun me around, even as I began to struggle.
“Let me go!” I snarled, fangs snapping down, fur forming. I was ready to go back, to become the wolf again, to travel the streets, snapping and snarling at anyone who got in my way, when…
“That wasn’t what I was thinking when I put the collar on Chloe!”
“I told him not to,” Scarlet said. “He was still finding his way as a Dom, and he sure as shit wasn’t ready for the commitment he was proposing, but he didn’t listen to me.” She cocked her head to one side. “He often ignores me, the fuck. He thought it meant something different then, because he didn’t really understand his true nature, or hers. He thought he could bark at her, command her to do what he wanted—be all of his brother’s true mate, follow his orders, be a good little omega. That’s why he collared her—to ensure her compliance. It was the only way he could trust her, that’s what he told me.”
She watched me oh so carefully, picking up my every reaction.
“And more fool him. They call it topping from the bottom, when the sub appears to be submitting to your will, and yet you find yourself doing exactly as they want. She kept her mouth shut, let him put a collar around her neck, and pretended to be a good little omega. Look how that turned out.”
Scarlet shook her head and then pulled away, waving a hand to draw us after her. She flicked a curtain back, displaying an expansive BDSM space, complete with a daunting rack of things to play with.
“The collar’s not for you, but him, Sage. I think that’s a fucking mistake, but it’s one he wants to make, and at least he’s trying to make sure you make a decision with all of the facts, not like last time.” She turned to Tobias. “Show her.”
I watched, unable to move a muscle as he lowered himself down to his knees, head falling forward, hands behind his back, in an attitude of complete subjugation. He didn’t look me in the eye, didn’t plead or make a sound. Scarlet nodded, her brows wrinkling slightly.
“The room is yours. I’m going into my office to sort out some paperwork, so you can take as long as you like, do whatever the hell you like, but I wouldn’t.” Her eyes bored into mine, and it was only now that I saw the green flecks in those dark brown depths. “You have no idea what you’re doing here. People can be seriously hurt, playing games with those toys on the wall, not just physically but mentally.”
Her voice and gaze softened then.
“If you want to come back and learn about this world, I’ll be happy to teach you whatever you need to know, no pressure, no emotional entanglements.” She held up her perfectly manicured hands. “I’m committed to the idea of safe, sane practise, and I’m happy to educate those people who need it. Have a think about that, and if you need me, I’m just behind the bar and down the hall. You can’t miss my door.”
When she swept the curtain around us, it did more than just close down the space. The stranger had stepped out of it, leaving a curiously intimate one behind. I just stared at the back of Tobias’ head and experienced a small taste of what it must be like for him.
I moved slowly, pacing around the room, taking a look at him from all sides, and when I got to the front, I saw his eyes were closed, not screwed shut. The lashes just lay on his cheeks lightly, as if he were sleeping, and there was something of that in his pose, of release, of surrender.