Sh!t. What's Ivan gonna do to her?
I make sure that the partition is closed between me and Edie, my driver, before saying through the intercom, “Take us back to the packhouse.” I can’t having him scenting that she’s a rogue. I can’t have anyone figuring that out, but I need time to figure out what I’m going to do, so back to the packhouse it is. “Yes, alpha,” Eddie responds and then we pull away from the back entrance of the Warren. Obviously, Nova didn’t know how often I have snuck in and out of the Warren. I can’t have my pack knowing everything about my sex life. This is a routine thing for me, so I was able to mindlink Eddie and have him bring the car around when I realized that was where she was going. I had to use my alpha tone when I realized that she was almost out the door and that her rogue scent would be out in the air. I can’t have anyone else scenting her. It’s not that a rogue scent is a bad scent. But it’s very different from the scent of our pack. Each differen
The ride to the packhouse is tense, but at least it’s only about a 20-minute ride. She keeps my shirt fisted in her hands but hasn’t put it on yet. She just sits there coiled, ready to fight or run, whatever will get her away. Her eyes never leave me, though she’s not looking at my face. She’s watching my body. The movements of my face, the center mass of my body. Hell, she could give my warriors some pointers with how vigilant she is to make sure that she is safe and how she knows to watch me for any threat. It makes something in me ache that she knows to do that. I know every wolf that is in training as a warrior. I participate in the training of the higher-level wolves on a daily basis, but at least drop by every other training group two to three times a week. She’s never been in one.It means that she’s had to learn these survival skills the hard way.As an alpha, I don’t like to know that any of my pack members are going through something like that.
The sparks that flow over my skin at Nova’s touch have me closing my eyes and biting back a moan. I can easily see how this would be addicting, which worries me. Even if she joins the pack, can I accept her as my mate? How long as she been here? Why does no one else know? Is she a harbinger of something worse happening? The easiest way to find answers to these questions is to ask her, but I can’t do that until I get her to my room. We hurry up the stairs and make it to the floor of my gamma and delta’s families. Straining my ears and scent the air, I can tell that no one is in the hallway and I nearly sprint across the landing, Nova able to keep up with me easily. The stairway that we just came through is private, just for the leadership of the pack and their families. We use it as a way to escape in times of attack, especially to get the pups out. It’s not that it’s a secret, it’s just faster. What is secret is the stairwell that is behind
I don’t know how to react to the alpha. He scares me. He has so much power over the city. Over me and my fate. I could piss him off and he could have me killed with just a flick of his hand. But, so far, he’s protected me. Yeah, he chased me through the Warren, but it seems like he just did it so that he’d be able to get me out of there without anyone seeing. I’m not really that gullible to just believe what he tells me, but his actions seem to support what he’s said. Now he’s left me in his room alone. He didn’t even lock the door. He gave me clothes, told me to get comfortable, and said that he was getting me food. Taking a deep breath, I look around the room. His scent fills me nose and, now that it isn’t augmented by the scent enhancer, it’s very pleasant. More than pleasant. I almost want to roll myself in it. To envelope myself in it and never emerge. It’s spicy and very masculine. Fuck, it’s making me horny.
“Daddy? Why are we here?” I know I’m whining and Daddy hates whining, but I can’t help it. It’s cold and dark and scary and I want to go home. “Shut the fuck up!” he orders. Though his voice is gruff and the words that he says are mean, he isn’t really paying attention to me right now. He’s too busy peering into the gloom that’s all around us. Daddy looks down at his watch and then looks back into the trees that surround us. His movements are fast and jerky, like he’s on that special medicine again. Well, more like he needs to have another shot with the special medicine. He always gets meaner whenever he needs the special medicine. “Are we really going to see Mommy out here?” I ask. That’s what Daddy had told me when he made me get out of bed. He was bringing me out into a deep dark part of the words beyond our pack borders where the teachers always tell us that we’re never allowed to go so that we could get Mommy and bring her home. He
Climbing the steps to my rundown, shit hole of a house, I feel a bone deep weariness that never seems to go away these days. The evenings at the club, the skintight clothes, the filthy hands grabbing at my body, it all takes a toll. One that I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to wash away. Tonight was no better. My feet ache from the heels that I’m forced to wear and I feel like I have a permanent wedgie from the way that the bunny outfit that is my uniform at work showcases my ass cheeks. I just wish there was a better, faster way to make the money the I need to get out of here. Unfortunately, those grabbing hands also fork over a fistful of cash for the liberties that they take. And if I want to escape the situation that I’m in, this is the fastest way to do it. Speaking of my ‘situation,’ I take another quick peek at the street in front of my house to make sure that he isn’t there. That his truck isn’t coming down the street or
The bath is tepid and too small, but it still feels glorious. A bargain basement bath bomb, a travel-sized bottle of Moscato left over from a very confused man’s bachelor party, and a sugar cookie candle that one of the other servers gave me for Christmas and I’m in heaven. No thick, itchy stage makeup to cover my rogue mark. No aching feet. No hands on parts of my body where they aren’t wanted. No father that never wanted me lurking around. Just me and marginal luxury. Thinking about the night, I realize how good it was. I made $800 in tips. That’ll cover what’s left of my bus pass for the month, food, and a little extra cash just in case, leaving me with $500. Calculating in my head, I add that to the total that I have hidden away in my room. I’m within $5,000 dollars of my goal. Maybe by the end of the month. Definitely by next month and then I’m out of here. Away in the cabin in the woods that Cody and I said that we woul
I stay in my wolf form throughout the night. It’s the best way for me to heal. My wolf’s metabolism is sped up which will help to heal the bruises to the point that I can at least cover them up with makeup tomorrow. The bones will all shift back into place when I shift back, probably leaving a bit of soreness and ache behind, but nothing that I can’t deal with, even on heels. I’m used to pain. It’s like a second skin that I wear, whether physical or mental, I always feel it. I can fake like it’s not there and no one will know. And at least in wolf form, if Roy comes back I can defend myself better. Healing from major wounds like this always causes me to dream. I don’t know if it’s because of the fact that I’m in my wolf form and closer to the Goddess or if it’s because of all the crazy amount of chemistry that’s going on in my body to heal myself. Whatever it is, I find myself floating into a dream. I find myself walking in a fami