Island Stripe Pride - Chapter 55: Chapter 55

Fucking fuck. Really?
Toni growled and tried not to gag on the thick rope wrapped around her head, forcing her mouth wide open. Overactive gag reflexes really sucked when you were being kidnapped. Or was it bunny-napped? Anyway, she was seriously pissed off.
Minutes away from having her mate claim her, she’d been clocked over the head with something hard. With her Shifter healing abilities, it only knocked her out for a few minutes, but that was long enough for whoever the fuck thought this was a good idea to snatch her fluffy ass.
Unfortunately, the dickweed had also tossed a tablecloth over her head before picking her up in a fireman’s carry and running off into the night. She tried to get a scent, but the tablecloth was either dipped in onions and garlic or the lunatic who’d kidnapped her was.
OMFG. Could it be? No!
Her heart filled with a deep, aching pain at the thoughts going through her mind. It did not make sense, but she supposed that was why she never saw it coming.
Disbelief and horror ran through Toni as her assailant dropped her down, huffing and puffing like a steam engine after racing through the woods that surrounded the resort. They could not have gotten very far, but it was a mountain, and the terrain was rough, especially hauling her chubby butt.
The evening had started out so promising, too. She’d gotten all dressed up, feeling like a fairytale princess, and could hardly believe all her dreams about Carter were going to come true. It was supposed to be an evening she’d never forget. Huge, momentous, and special.
Well, she’d never forget it alright, but for all the wrong reasons. She prayed to the gods that she was wrong, and that her kidnapper wasn’t who she thought it was. How could she have misjudged things so badly?
Tugging on her binds, she realized with frustration that she couldn’t break through. But maybe, if she concentrated hard enough, she could ask her Bunny for help. That was an idea! She needed to survive whatever this was to get back to Carter and her sister. Mara had suffered too many losses already. They both had. This was supposed to be her chance to get back the life she’d almost thrown away.
Toni was so done cowing and denying her natural instincts and desires. She was going to get out of this, somehow. Her thoughts were interrupted when, finally, the cloth was pulled off her head. No! Toni wanted to wail and scream but couldn’t with that rope in her mouth. She closed her eyes, cursing to herself as her suspicions were confirmed.
Motherfucker. I am going to chomp his ass to pieces!
Her Bunny was completely onboard with that. Gary! That fucker had not only hit her on the head, bound and gagged her, and kidnapped her, but the idiot was grinning like he’d done her the biggest favor.
“There you are. Glad to see you’re awake,” he grunted, leaning forward to untie the rope.
Toni winced as he pulled it off her face, taking some of the skin from the corner of her mouth with it. She tasted her own blood, but dismissed it, focused on her errant employee.
“Gary, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
His hurt expression caused her to flinch. Did he think he was doing her a favor or something? She knew he had a semi-crush on her, but she’d figured it was natural. No, she never encouraged him. But admittedly, she had not given him the talking to he’d needed. Toni simply assumed he’d get over it. But she never thought he’d stoop to this. Kidnapping her? Why? To what end?
The mad gleam in his eye heightened her suspicions that maybe Gary was not dealing with a full deck. Her feelings were only confirmed when he pulled on his own hair and started pacing before crouching right in front of her to scream in her face.
“What the hell am I doing? What the hell am I doing? I am saving you from yourself,” he yelled, spit flying from his lips.
He swung then, catching her in the jaw with the palm of his hand. The vicious slap stung, but she was a Cottontail and there were not many things more painful than shifting from her hundred and eighty pound human self to her nine pound Bunny alter ego. Toni could take a hit.
“You stupid whore! I loved you, Toni. Do you know what that means? I would do anything for you. Even save you from yourself,” he growled, standing up.
“Gary, we can fix this. Untie me, and we can talk this through,” she tried.
“No, it’s too late. I saw the bite mark. You let him claim you. Let that filthy whoring cat take what should have been mine! But I can fix that,” he said, and started tugging at his clothes.
“What are you doing?” Toni gasped as he pulled her arms up over her head, tightening the ropes and tying them to something attached to the tree she’d been leaning on.
“I prepared something very special for you, Toni. I’m going to fuck his claim right out of you. First, I’m going to fill your cunt with my cum, then your ass, and your mouth. I am going to fuck you so hard you won’t know your own name,” he growled menacingly, taking her bound feet and attaching them to a metal stake she had not seen in the ground.
When he had one ankle secured, he cut the rope tying them together, but Tonie never had the opportunity to kick. He was waiting for that, and he slammed his fist into her stomach. She couldn’t breathe for the pain. And Gary took advantage, pulling her legs open wide, securing the other ankle to another stake.
By the time she could catch her breath, she was spread eagle on the ground, arms and legs bound.
“No! You can’t do this, Gary. I would rather fucking die than let you,” she raged, struggling against the ropes.
That only sent them digging further into her flesh. Blood poured from her wounds, the warm sticky mess was painful, but the thought of him touching her was making her sick.
“Don’t you understand, Toni? I am saving you. You can’t be with a filthy predator. He has tainted you. After I claim you with my cum, I’m going to cut his mating mark off your skin, then I will replace it with dozens more all over your body, so you never forget who you belong to.”
Toni’s eyes went wide in horror. The fucking Rabbit was bonkers. He looked down at her, his gaze hungry and demented as he took her dress in his hands, her perfectly pretty dress, and tore it from her body with his claws. Leaving her naked, bruised and bleeding, Gary tossed his head back and snapped his teeth excitedly.
He reached for his belt, unaware of the rustling sounds of the leaves in the surrounding forest. This was it, Toni thought, gulping as she begged her Bunny to do her bidding. Partial shifts were difficult and dangerous, but she needed this and she needed it now.
Gary pulled his pants down, revealing his pasty, naked flesh, and the tiny needle he called a dick. Revulsion and bile filled her, but she was so close, she could not lose focus. The rustling grew nearer, and Toni offered one small prayer of hope that this would be over soon.
Then three things happened all at once. Gary pounced, his skinny, naked body landed on her, but Toni had managed to free her right hand, using her Rabbit to partially shift so she could slip it through the ropes. Then she clawed at his face, and Gary sat up howling in rage as he tried to hold the pieces of skin she’d flayed together.
“You bit⁠—”
But he never got to finish the word. Right then an eight hundred pound Bengal Tiger vaulted through the air and knocked the mad Rabbit off of Toni. Going for his throat, the beast closed his mighty jaws over the puny male and crushed his spine with one vicious shake. The Tiger spat the male out, snarling deeply, making sure the man was dead before turning to face his unclaimed mate.
“Carter,” Toni sobbed. She’d freed her other hand, but couldn’t reach both feet.
Carter switched forms in the blink of an eye, using his superior strength and claws to slice through the binds on her ankles before scooping her up gently in his arms. It was his tenderness that made Toni come undone.
“I got you. It’s over now,” he whispered, sitting on the forest floor, and holding her close.
“Fucking hell!”
“Toni!”
She vaguely recognized the voices of the others who had undoubtedly followed Carter to rescue her. She was grateful, but the only one she wanted right then had her wrapped in his steady, sure arms.
“We got the clean up on this, Carter. Just take her home,” Trench told her mate, and Toni snuggled closer.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow, sis,” Mara called, and she nodded at her sister.
Her emotions were running too high for speech just then. Carter’s too. She’d almost lost her second chance, and though she grieved for the tragedy that was Gary’s misconception of their relationship, Toni was not sorry he was dead.
No one had the right to force a mating or to try to stop one. Shifters were violent on a regular day, but fuck with a mated Shifter, even a half-mated Shifter, and death was guaranteed. They all understood that, and what Gary had tried to do was unforgivable.
“I got you,” Carter murmured on repeat as he took her to the cabin and right into the bathroom.
He started the shower and proceeded to carefully wash and rinse all of her from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. He treated each cut and scrape, rinsing and tending the wounds. The healing process had already started and by the time he was finished, Toni had a few red lines and bruises, but no more bleeding. All evidence of Gary’s abuse would be gone by morning.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, taking a large towel and wrapping it around her body.
“It’s not your fault, Carter. No one could have guessed that was going to happen.”
“I wanted tonight to be special for you. I wanted it to be about us,” he murmured, touching her face so carefully, it was like he thought she would disappear if he pushed too hard.
“I had to kill him, Toni. He touched you. Tried to make you—” his voice turned too gravelly for human words, and he wound up growling fiercely.
The sound was so deep her human ears hardly heard it, but her Rabbit could, and she recognized the danger. Funny though, instead of making her scared, Toni felt proud. Proud to have a fierce predator as her mate. But her eyes narrowed at the big, beautiful male in front of her, and Toni grabbed his face between her hands.
“I’m a Shifter too, Carter. I would have never let him do that to me. Now, I may be small and physically weaker, but my Bunny teeth are sharp, and I can tear the shit out of a head of cabbage,” she said, smirking. “Don’t mistake me for glass. I am flesh and blood and, if you still want me, I am yours.”
Carter’s eyes glowed brightly with his beast. She’d roused the Tiger with her words, and heat and need raced through her veins. She needed to feel him inside her, to have his body cover hers, claiming her, finally.
“Are you sure, Toni? Really sure?”
His question damn near stopped her heart. She still did not know what the future held, but Toni wanted him more than anything.
“Yes. I’m sure.”
Then he pounced, knocking her to the mattress with a groan as he crushed his mouth to hers. They were already naked and clean from their shower, and Toni felt wonderful with his hot, hard flesh pressed against hers.
"Am I hurting you?” he growled, concerned.
“No more glass treatment, Carter. I can handle you,” she whispered, tracing a line from his eyebrow to his chin.
“Mine,” he grunted.
His eyes flashed gold, and her soul soared. This was it. He was finally going to make her his, and Toni could not wait another minute. Need surged forward and her body swelled and flooded, readying for his imminent possession.
Carter was pinning her to the mattress with his delicious weight, and Toni preened beneath him, loving the feel of every nuance and muscle. There was plenty of time for other things later, she needed him inside of her. Now.
“Need you, mate,” she said, watching his eyes flash as he nudged her legs wider apart, breaching her entrance inch by glorious inch.
“Can’t promise gentle, cutie. I need you too much,” he growled, staring at her as he tried to hold still.
Beads of sweat were dotting his brow at his efforts, and Toni arched, taking him deeper.
“I don’t need you to be gentle, Carter. I want you to make me yours, for however long you want me. Please,” she begged.
"Toni, you’re driving me wild,” he growled, pushing down and nearly splitting her open with his enormous size and girth. Her channel stretched and burned as she tried to take all of him in. Tried and succeeded. She was made for him, after all. His fated mate.
“I love you,” Toni gasped. “But I need you to move. Hard and fast,” she demanded.
Carter’s growl vibrated through to her, and she thought he looked like a god hovering over her, shaved head, tattooed, and gold eyes glowing. She was one lucky Bunny. Then her Tiger started moving, and Toni was no longer capable of thought.
Her body drew taut as he worked himself in and out in a rhythm old as time. The bed squeaked, the headboard thudded against the wall, and the sounds of their flesh slapping against one another filled the room. Toni cried out, the friction between them causing a familiar heat to start circling deep in her core. She flattened her feet on the mattress, rising to meet his thrusts, her needy sex squeezing him tight.
“Easy,” he growled, rising to his knees and slowing his thrusts. Carter ran his hands over her body, from her shoulders down her breasts, paying homage to the tight nipples with gentle tugs and pinches. Lower still, he caressed her soft belly, moving over her curls until he held her with one thigh in each grasp. Toni mewled at the sensation as he squeezed her tightly in his hands. Withdrawing almost all the way out, Carter growled, pounding back home. Again, he repeated the move, slamming into her, impaling her on his cock. Again. And Again.
Each thrust brought her closer to the edge of a pleasure she could not even comprehend. She was so close. Almost there. Eyes wide, she gasped, wrapping her hands around his. Toni arched her back as Carter fucked her harder, faster, moving them both up the bed, until he had to use one hand to reach out to stop them crashing into the headboard.
“Close,” she moaned, and he growled, doubling his efforts.
His long, impossibly thick cock seemed to grow even larger, like silk covered steel he possessed her body, mind, heart, and soul. Toni was so full of him, of her mate, she could hardly breathe, and it was fucking glorious. Finally, the world seemed to stop, and the skies opened as they fell off that pinnacle. Pure bliss rushed through her as her orgasm crested, followed by the stinging bite of his fangs slicing through her flesh.
Toni screamed her release, scratching at his shoulders as he pulsed inside of her, and drank her essence. Eons later, Carter lapped at the wound, sealing it with his healing saliva. She would have a scar there, she knew, and she would wear it proudly.
However things worked out, she would always have this, and he would always have her heart.
Forever.