Chapter 92: Not going to happen

Stefan's POV

"Change of plans," I announced tightly.

Kara looked up from the floor, her lips still parted, the haze of arousal already competing with confusion in her eyes. I was already tucking myself back into my clothes, my jaw tight with the kind of frustration that made me want to break something.

I hated getting interrupted during moments like this.

"What is it?" Kara asked.

"Don't worry about it. Just rest up."

I didn't give her room to argue. I stepped past her, pulled the door open, and walked out before the heat still throbbing in my cock could convince me to stay and finish what we had started.

The afternoon heat hit me like a slap, making me realize there was definitely something in their homes here which served as air conditioner. The insides were cool compared to how the outside was serving hotness.

I took two steps down the path, then stopped dead as the obvious problem slammed into me.

I had no idea where Jonquil actually was.

"System, give me the location of Jonquil. Now. Don't be difficult." I muttered.

A response came up immediately;

[Jonquil is currently at Bloomhold.]

"That's not a direction. I don't know how to get there from here."

The System, true to form, offered no map. Instead a new timer bloomed in the corner of my vision, red and already counting down.

[Time remaining to intervene: 30 minutes]

"Shit."

I turned on my heel and went straight back to Kara's door. She was still standing where I had left her, clearly deciding whether to be annoyed or concerned. I didn't waste time on charm.

"I need to get to Bloomhold. Fast. I need to use your car... I mean, carriage."

Kara studied my face for a second. Whatever she saw there made her drop the questions. She stepped outside and gave a short string of commands to the two Bounds waiting near the gate. Both of them looked visibly conflicted - Bounds did not drive carriages for other Bounds, and they certainly didn't take orders from one but they lowered their heads and moved into position anyway.

How many times would I remind those guys that I wasn't a Bound like them?

Okay, I would just continue proving to them. And despite the situation at my hand, I would still create time to show them I wasn't a Bound.

I climbed in and shut the small door harder than necessary.

"Run. And keep running until I say otherwise." I ordered sharply, my voice landing so much as a bellow and the Bounds flinched slightly.

"Will you run or like to be punished?" I snapped and pushed my Authority forward. They bowed immediately and began running.

When the pace still felt too slow for the timer burning in my vision, I leaned forward and snapped, "Faster."

They pushed harder. Their bare feet pounded the packed earth. By the time the outer markers of Bloomhold came into view both of them were breathing like they'd been chased by something with teeth, sweat running down their backs, but they didn't dare ease up.

There, there, there... They were learning.

~~~~~~~~

I was out of the carriage before it fully stopped.

Bloomhold was large, practical, and nothing like the palace. No gold, no unnecessary decoration. The compound spread out in clear layers: neat rows of small private cottages for the ranked Flowers, a wider shared section for the unranked, a broad open training yard of packed dirt, and a low kitchen building where a handful of Bounds moved around with some servant women. Flowers were everywhere - sparring in pairs, stretching, walking between buildings with the easy ownership of women who belonged here.

Belladonna and Zinnia were nowhere in sight. That was something, at least.

I spotted Lily near one of the cottage paths and cut straight toward her.

"Jonquil," I said, not bothering with greetings. "Where is she?"

Lily pointed without hesitation toward a cottage set slightly apart from the others, closer to the edge of the training grounds.

The System's warning flashed again, colder this time.

[Window closing. Two minutes remaining.]

I broke into a run.

The cottage door wasn't locked. I hit it with my shoulder hard enough that it banged against the inside wall and then I stopped dead on the threshold, my breath still ragged from the sprint.

Jonquil was on the low bed of layered animal furs.

Her training wrap had been pushed up around her waist. Her thighs were open, knees bent, feet braced against the furs. Between them her cunt was completely bare - flushed a deep, telling pink and so wet that the slickness had already started to coat the insides of her thighs.

In her right hand she held a long, smooth wooden rod, the kind used for grip-strength drills. She had the rounded end positioned right against her entrance and was in the middle of pressing it downward when the door crashed open.

She froze in her actions due to the interruption.

I stared, my chest heaving, trying to force my brain to accept the picture in front of me.

Jonquil, the most disciplined, controlled warrior I knew. On her back with her cunt on full display, about to fuck herself with a piece of training equipment?

Jonquil recovered faster than I did. A deep flush flooded her cheeks, but instead of stopping her hands moved again, wanting to push the rod in anyway, as if finishing the motion might somehow erase the fact that I was standing there witnessing it.

If it were on earth, this scene would have been so appealing - a brunette trying to fuck herself with a long, ridiculously big dildo, spreading her legs wide for everybody to see.

But that training rod? It would be a dangerous and bloody scene.

I crossed the room in three strides and caught her wrist hard, yanking the wood away from her body before it could slide inside.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I snapped.

Jonquil's breathing was uneven. Her chest rose and fell in short, sharp pulls. She didn't try to close her legs or pull the wrap down. She just looked up at me, her golden eyes dark with a mixture of frustration, embarrassment, and something rawer.

"The ache will not leave..." she replied in a low and tight voice.

"It has been constant since I left the palace. Every hour. Every time I close my eyes. I need to destroy it - permanently so I will stop feeling your absence like this. It has been bad. Torturous. I cannot train properly. I cannot think properly. I want it gone."

I stood there with the wooden rod still clenched in my hand, staring down at her.

She had been ready to try to fuck the need for me out of herself so she wouldn't have to feel it anymore.

For a long moment I couldn't find a single clever line. The timer in my vision finally hit zero and vanished, the mission marked complete whether I liked the method or not. The only sound in the cottage was Jonquil's uneven breathing and the distant noise of Flowers training outside.

I looked at the wetness still glistening between her thighs, at the way her fingers had curled into the furs, at the stubborn, almost angry set of her mouth, and felt something possessive and dark settle low in my gut.

She had tried to erase me.

That wasn't going to happen.