Chapter 3 Hand It Over To Me

With an impatient roll of her eyes, Elyse pushed the bowl into Trevor's hands. "You can feed yourself, and once you've finished, get some clothes on."

From her portable sanctuary, she fetched a loose outdoor jacket and flung it in his direction.

For a moment, Trevor simply looked at the rich broth in the bowl he was holding. His mouth curved into a smile that was barely noticeable.

After tasting her cooking, he was even more convinced that the woman before him held many secrets beneath her ordinary appearance, and he wanted to uncover them.

Somewhere deep inside him, the mate bond they'd just formed stirred with a warmth that felt like something only he could sense.

Among werecreatures, forming a mate bond meant that the male came completely under its control, bound by rules he couldn't simply choose to ignore.

Obedience to his domina was now part of his nature, along with the need to keep her safe, and he couldn't bring himself to do anything that might hurt her.

For all the ways he differed from other males, there was no mistaking the hold this bond already had on him.

Something shifted in his expression, and he stopped fighting what his instincts were telling him to do.

After putting down the bowl he'd finished, Trevor rose slowly to his feet.

A little confused, Elyse watched the tall, remarkably handsome man approach her and lower himself onto one knee, showing her the same devotion any ordinary male werecreature would offer his domina.

One of his large, well-shaped hands closed gently around hers. With his head lowered, he brought her hand to his mouth and placed a warm kiss against her skin.

Every movement followed the solemn, formal ceremony through which a male pledged himself to his domina.

"Will you tell me your name?" Still on one knee, he lifted his gaze to meet hers. The low rasp of his voice held a willing obedience that was strangely hard to resist.

"Elyse Foster," she responded.

"My name is Trevor Knight." As he introduced himself, he kept his eyes fixed on hers. A smile spread across his face as he retrieved the empty bowl from beside him and offered it to her. "Could your mate earn a second helping, my domina?"

For a moment, Elyse looked at the spot he'd kissed before accepting the bowl and studying him for several long seconds.

Could a mate bond really have this much control over a werecreature? Only a short while ago, he'd woken up and tried to kill her with all the cruelty of a vicious beast. Somehow, a single bowl of broth later, he'd become so tame that she could hardly believe he was the same male.

"That'll cost you a thousand coins per bowl," she replied. "You can owe me for it."

Trevor didn't respond for a second, but then he chuckled, clearly happy to humor her. "Of course, my domina. We'll do it your way."

Before she could answer, two chimes sounded from the battered communicator strapped to her wrist.

Her account balance had just gone up by fifty million coins.

For a moment, Elyse could only stare at the screen. Did being someone's domina really come with perks like this?

With an almost apologetic look, Trevor explained, "That's all the money I can access right now. If you need more, I'll find a way to get it for you. And don't forget the level 3 tusk boar we killed earlier. You should be able to get a few million coins for its beast core, too."

At the mention of another few million, she looked up in disbelief.

"You could've told me that a little sooner!" she exclaimed.

Suddenly delighted, Elyse turned straight back toward the carcass, eager to dig out the valuable core.

She'd barely tucked the softly glowing beast core into her pocket when several unwelcome visitors forced their way through the bushes and marched into the clearing.

Leading them was the wererabbit chief, Arthur, and the original Elyse's parents and younger sister followed close behind.

A pale blue hologram appeared above Arthur's wrist device, showing the merfolk's strongest warrior. "I bring orders from King Jonathan. Elyse Foster, a wererabbit female, has a fertility rating of zero. You wererabbits must forcibly dissolve her mate bond with him at once! If you refuse to obey, the merfolk fleet will destroy your whole species!"

With a final flicker, the holographic projection vanished from the air.

Fear drained the color from the wererabbits' faces, but it soon gave way to outright fury, and they turned on Elyse.

"You're nothing but bad luck! Being completely worthless apparently wasn't enough for you. Now you're going to get every last one of us killed!" someone shouted.

The level 3 beast core sticking out of Elyse's pocket caught Julia's attention almost immediately, and she made no attempt to hide how badly she wanted it. Rushing at her, Julia screeched, "You've got a level 3 beast core! How does a worthless thing like you have any right to keep it? Hand it over to me!"