Chapter 5 "No Escape"

Third Person’s POV

Brett, the alpha wolf from Holmes clan pack, brought Maxine inside the spacious luxury bathroom filled with gold.

Maxine had no time to appreciate the surroundings as the first thing that she heard from Brett was dumbfounded her.

“Strip.”

Maxine had assumed that this guy is crazy, and yet, dealing him alone brought her an unprepared shock. She was not mere surprised, she was startled.

She forced herself into sort of resignation, as if thinking that she might have heard him wrong. However…

“Strip now.”

As he repeated his command, Maxine knew she had not got over the sickening shock and the flurry of her misfortune.

Her blood ran cold as she stepped back. She dragged her wobbling feet backward from him as the chill haze of suspicion began to crystallize.

‘This man is mad. Not only I was kidnapped by beasts but they are also telling me to strip?!’ inwardly, she screeched in terror with a pounding heart.

“Oh?” Brett murmured, crossing his arms and tilting his head. “I was pretty sure that you can speak and you can understand words. So why aren’t you stripping yet?”

Chandler told Brett to guide Maxine and let her take a bath. But she did not anticipate for anything such as stripping her clothes in front of a man!

‘I am a v*rgin for Pete’s sake!’ she shouted inwardly.

Maxine never experience being hold by a man, either dating one. So, how come she can show her naked body to someone she met for the first time.

Feeling the rising tide of fear from her head to toe, Maxine hugged her upper body and said, “N-No! Why should I do that? I can wash myself alone! W-Why you I let you watch me naked?”

Looking at Maxine, her purple face and bloodshot, and the way she breathed heavily and unable to run away as fear had paralyzed her legs, a smirk logged in to Brett.

“You are the first woman who declined stripping in front of me,” Brett said, as he grasped his blonde hair. Under the lighting, his platinum hair looks like soft strands of gold. Intertwining his hair with his long fingers, he continued, “The other women voluntarily stripped out once they saw my face.”

Maxine twitched as her eyes gander at Brett’s face.

The first thing that came to Maxine’s mind when she saw him is that he’s pretty. He has mischievous yet captivating two-lid eyes. If his blonde hair is longer than what it is usually is, people might mistake him as pretty woman who happened to have a bump on his throat and wide shoulder. Straight nose, small face and angelic eyes, Brett’s beauty, which lays more into the pretty side, not the manly, is definitely one of kid, as if he was especially born together with a million normal people.

No wonder, a pretty guy like him can swoon any woman even if all he does is to stand in the middle of the street and wait until girls flocked onto him like how ants do around a sweet treat.

And yet, staring at Brett who is taller than her, Maxine saw no assumption of godliness nor conceit, no holier than though smirk about him. He seemed to have an occasional smile through all the gamuts of sneer, from the smirk of toadyism to the simper of conceit. But frequently, it is full of vanity.

Now seconds after, Maxine found herself face-to-face with the monstrous guy.

‘Since when did he come close?!’

She did not know if she was caught off guard because she focused too much in reading her countenance, or he just moves faster.  

Anxiousness pumped dark wine through her veins and sharpened all her senses. She ogled at him and watched how his mouth opened.

“Or maybe, you are still a v*rgin?” Brett asked.

A shrieking panic reigned through her body as Brett suddenly pulled her closer and held her both of her hands.

“W-Wait!”

Despite her pleas, Brett played ignorant. He turned her around, as if arresting a suspect, and then, he stripped the back of her clothes.

Soon, Maxine felt the cold air brushing on her bare back.

“No!”

She growled at him through clenched teeth. Her bright red face and her shivering body were telling the whole story.

Maxine hates this. She wouldn’t want someone to do this  without her permission.

“Don’t…” she begged, her eyes welled up with tears as she tried her best to get out from his grip.

But he is too strong. Resisting is futile under the hands of the Alpha of Holmes.

When Maxine felt all clothes torn behind her back, the whole world seemed suddenly disappeared for her.

‘I’ll lose my v*rginity just because of him,’ she thought. However…

“Ahuh~” Brett hummed while looking at her clean, white and smooth back.

Maxine sniffed her nose upon hearing his voice. She felt a piercing stare behind her nape.

“There’s no mark behind your back. Maybe he’s wrong,” Brett murmured before he removed his grip from her hands and stepped way from her.

And that’s all.

Nothing happened.

Maxine blinked her blurry eyes as she turned around to see him and saw the sneer of Pharisaical satisfaction on his face.

She still clothed in front, but her back was exposed. As Maxine stared at the weird guy who did nothing but only looked at her bare back, her cheeks turned red and her eyebrows got narrowed.

Maxine clenched her fist and suddenly, she laid a slap on his face.

Well, almost.

Unfortunately, Brett was too quick to stop her from hurting his face.

“Oh no,” he uttered, holding her wrist.

“Ahhh,” Maxine winced at the tight grip around her. Still, she set her glaring eyes to Brett.

“You can’t injure my face. This is my fortune.”

He let go of her hands and Maxine stepped backward while wincing and holding her wrist. Sharply, she lifted her gaze to him.

“What the hell are you doing? Suddenly stripping my back, are you insane?!” she raised her voice which made Brett chuckled sardonically.

“I told you that I only need to check something. You are being over sensitive.”

“You, You were checking something on my back and that’s all? Really?” not blinking her rounded eyes, she asked.

He uncrossed his arms and displayed a candid look on his face for a moment.

“Why? Don’t tell me you wanted me to do more than just checking?”

His tongue licked the corner of his lips before the sardonic appearance came back.

Feeling ominous about the sudden shift of his demeanor, Maxine stepped one more backward until her kneecaps bumped onto the Ivory bathtub behind.

“If you want more than I can do more,” Brett said with voice like evening thrush.

Instinctively, Maxine raised her right hand while the left holds the remaining cloth covering her upper body.

“Stop!” she said.

Brett ceased.

Catching her breath even thought she did not come from a long run, Maxine looked at him and murmured, “I don’t need m-more.”

Actually, she wanted to ask him what he was looking for behind her back. Yet, she despises the idea of staying at the same place with this pervert looking man.

‘Perhaps, it will be better to send him away as soon as possible,’  she calculatedly thought.

“If you finished then please go out. I will t-take a bath myself.”

“Awww,” Brett complained. “Alright. Go and take your bath, Ms. V*rgin.”

The word ‘virgin’ made her eyebrows tangled in cantankerous frown. She put an attitude as cold as an executioner’s ax as she glared at Brett as if she’s a bomb that about to detonate.

Surely, she saw lot of warning signs threatening him around this man.

“Anyway, I would say that your back is sexy,” he bit his lower lip as he winked, and then he left the bathroom.

As soon as he’s gone, Maxine ran towards the door and locked the knob. She leaned his bare back on the door, and felt the coldness and yet her sweats are dripping hot. Maxine looked up and sighed in relief.

‘No. It is too early to sigh in release.’

Upon knowing who might be those men who kidnapped her, Maxine grasped a clue of her identity in her hands. However, she feels threatened being by their side. It feels like sooner of later, her neck will be flying out of nowhere.

Instead of knowing more about her identity which she’s been longing to know for many years, Maxine prioritize her flee.

But the problem is no matter how she looked left to right, she couldn’t see a scapegoat inside the bathroom.

“Sh*t,” she cursed silently while looking at the one and only window. Her small frame can exit the window but there’s steel bar outside.

“If you think of escaping!”

A loud voice from Brett came outside the locked door.

“Don’t even bother! You cannot do it anyway!” the next scream came with giggles, as if mocking Maxine.

Her eyes glared at the door and her shoulder drooped.

‘Right. Even if I wanted to, there’s no way out,’ Maxine admitted and bitterly accepted the truth.

“Just focus on washing. If you don’t want me to wash you directly.”

At Brett’s warning, Maxine hastily removed all of her torn dress. Then she rushed towards the bathtub.

“I am washing! I currently am!” she reported, clicking her tongue.

Heaving a sigh, Maxine looked at the water in the bathtub. It looks warm and relaxing as there are rose petals floating above the water.

Wondering if she should really wash, Maxine sniffed her body. When she did, her nose wrinkled and she felt sour dip in her stomach.

‘I really had to wash.’

Slowly, Maxine raised her legs and gently soaked her feet onto the water.

Warmness spread all throughout her legs. Wary, Maxine soaked her body into the warm water filled with red rose petals.

She has always wanted to know how it feels to bathe in roses, as she has seen a lot of this in historical dramas where the royals or the noble people take a bath in a bathtub full of red rose petals.

Although she’s a curious type of a person, she didn’t dare buy an expensive flower just to satisfy her curiosity. She has a neighbor who owns an organic garden but even if she got them, she has no bathtub.

But now, she’s experiencing a heavenly fragrant and relaxing bath, thanks to her kidnappers.

“Huh! As if I will be thankful,” she murmured while bathing.

Of course, even is her curiosity was filled, it won’t change the fact that she was kidnapped.

Maxine did not enjoy the red rose bath as she keeps on thinking about the life ahead of her after this.

First, how will the revelation of her identity will affect her life?

Second, is it possible to stay alive with the three werewolves?

Third…

“Adler Blaine,” she whispered underneath her tone.

She remembered her best friend who must be frantically looking for her right now. Yesterday, Maxine went to visit her best friend in the police station because Adler’s mother asked her to bring his forgotten lunch box.

Then, Maxine told Adler that she will be attending her friend’s engagement party.

“But if Adler would find that I am missing, he will get worried, right?”

A ray of hope flickered in her eyes. If a detective Adler would try, he might rescue her under the hands of the beasts.

‘But we are talking about beasts, not just a small shot criminals. What if I put Adler in danger and be killed?’

She shut her eyes and took a deep breath.

Certainly, she’s sure a human like Adler has no chance to win over beasts.

“Look at me calling other a beast,” Maxine told to herself while her eyes are still close.

She bit her lower lip, pondering about the idea that she could be a werewolf just like what she was told to.

‘Chandler said that I am a werewolf because he saw my eyes changing. But is that enough to prove my identity?’

Bit by bit, Maxine opened her eyes. A glint of green appeared.

“But I think there’s one more thing that convinced him,” she uttered.

Before she lost her consciousness in the toilet room, she recalled that Chandler asked her something.

‘What is it? Why I can’t remember? I am sure I told him something before he whacked the back of my head.’

She spent long minutes trying to remember the details but failed. Until she finished her bath.

At last, she smelled good and her hair feels so soft.

Naked, she grabbed the towel from the side and dried her body. However, she realized one important thing as she wrapped the towel around her body.

“Clothes,” she mumbled.

She wasn’t given any clothes to wear after taking a bath!

“What should I do? I can’t go out with just towel covering my body.”

Her desperate eyes went to the close door.

‘They probably prepared a clothes for me to wear, right?’ she prayed, swallowing hard.

Maxine approached the door while dragging her feet. Due to her nervousness, she bumped onto something and bottles of shampoos fell down.

“Oh,” she gasped, looking at the bottles.

Worried that she will get a trouble for making a mess inside a very luxurious and spotless bathroom, Maxine took time to pick up the bottles and placed them back to their place.

After cleaning up, she stood up again and approached the door.

She played so coldly and with pride before, therefore, she felt a bit embarrassed for asking Brett’s help.

‘As if I have other choice.’

After taking deep breaths, Maxine picked up her courage and knocked on the door.

Knock knock.

“Excuse me,” her sheepish voice called. “I think I need some help.”

She placed her hand around the doorknob and twisted it.  Her plan is to peek at him and beg him to lend her a clothe to wear. But before she could open it, another person opened the door from outside.

The door opened widely.  Maxine’s eyes went roundly too.

A tall man, with red hair and golden piercing stood before her.

He isn’t Brett but someone whom  Maxine saw for the first time today.

‘But his identity isn’t the problem. The problem is that I am standing in front of him while only wearing a towel around my body,’ Maxine thought.

And when the reality processed inside her head, a piercing shout came after.

“Ahhh!”