CHAPTER FIVE – A LYCAN’S PROPERTY

ORA

I should be looking for a way to escape. I should be fighting him, protesting. Instead, when Jake calls the matron to lead me back to the dressing room while the auction continues, I find myself obeying without a word of protest.

I guess I’m still in shock over watching him publicly claim me before hundreds of Lycans…over watching him call me his.

Ordinarily, if anyone had claimed me like some piece of wood, I would have fought him to death, but it didn’t quite occur to me to step in and inform everyone that I am not their crown prince’s asset, and that scares me half to death.

After being utterly pampered, bathed in scented oils and worrying myself half to death about my mother and sister, I have formulated a plan, one that would get me out of Alpha Jake’s clutches and help me locate the rest of my family.

I am currently staring at the dress the matron laid out for me, a look of complete disgust on my face. It looks like something out of Barbie and Her Merry Band of Princesses.

“There is no way in the seven clans you are getting me in that thing.”

When she just stares at me, I feel the need to add.

“I will fight you to my very last breath, the goddess help me.”

She gives me a displeased look but to my surprise, doesn’t push the issue. I breathe a sigh of relief when she comes in with more clothes my style. Jeans, a tee shirt and sneakers.

I nod in approval.

“This is much better.”

I pick up the clothes and my gaze involuntarily finds the tag. My eyes almost bulge out of the sockets. I give the bored Matron an incredulous look.

“Please tell me these are not really from Louis Vuitton.”

She shrugs, her eyes lighting with pride.

“Oh, but they are. The master requested they you should be dressed in only the most luxurious of brands.”

I sink into the stool, my head suddenly throbbing. This is too much. The most luxurious of brands indeed. These clothes look like they cost a billion bucks.

I look over at the box of shoes like it holds a live bomb.

“And the shoes?” I ask, fearing her response.

“Gucci.”

I throw my hands in the hair.

“Oh, come on!” Louis Vuitton and Gucci are not a very good combination for trudging around in the forests.

“If you do not like them, miss, I could have another set brought at once.”

I give her an exasperated look.

“What other set? Armani? Versace? Balenciaga?”

Now she looks confused. I heave a breath, pitying her.

“Isn’t there any cheaper brand of clothes you could dress me in? Something off the rack of a thrift store maybe?”

The matron looks at me like I’ve just uttered blasphemy. Then she pats her perfect hair, sends me a disappointed glare and flounces out of the room.

“The master wants you out there in ten minutes.” She hisses before the door slams shut.

I sit on the bed, staring at the clothes for what feels like an eternity. It feels like a sin to wear them. Being extremely poor and always on the run, I’ve never had any fancy stuff before. Just old shoes and mismatched hand me downs.

All these feels too much.

I’m about to summon the matron to take back her purchases when the door slams open, revealing a very angry looking crown prince.

My heart immediately goes on overdrive, beating at a million miles per second.

I get to my feet slowly, wrapping the skimpy towel tighter around my small frame. Jake stares down at me from his perch at the door, his hands in his pockets, those smoldering eyes burning my insides to hot ash.

The atmosphere in the room instantly becomes tense…and prickled with a strange spark of electricity.

He looks like he could swallow me whole. I have no doubts that he could.

His shirt is open at the collar, revealing the strong column of his throat, and the faint beat of his pulse. He looks so deliciously masculine, I feel my insides quiver.

I come to a conclusion there and then. This man is bad for my sanity and my goals. I must avoid him at all costs.

I finally find my voice after staring at him like a crazed woman for the past one minute.

“Wh-what are you doing here?”

“I should be asking you that, Ora.”

“Why do you call my name like that?” I blurt. My cheeks blaze with heat when the stupidity of my question dawns on me.

Jake steps forward and closes the door behind him. The final shutting click has me gripping my towel a little tighter. When he turns towards me once again, his eyes are two dark, gleaming pools.

“How do I call your name, Ora?” He asks softly.

I swallow.

Like you’re making love to me. Like you’re whispering sinful things in my ear, things that could make the goddess throw us both into the abyss.

Like you want to eat me alive after being starved of me for so long.

Like I’m yours indeed.

A million thoughts run through my scattered brain, but I keep my mouth shut.

“Nothing.” I say, shaking my head.

I feel a strange gust of wind and before I can blink, Jake is standing right in front of me.

A gasp escapes me.

“You can super speed?” I ask incredulously. How cool! I heard only a few Lycans in the seven clans possess the power to super speed.

Instead of answering me, his hands shoot out and he wraps his fingers around my chin. I hiss at the heat that engulfs me when our skin come in contact.

Burning alive is an understatement.

He lowers his dark eyes to mine, pinning me in place.

“When I ask you something, I expect you to give me an answer, Ora.

How do you think I call your name?” He growls softly.

I heave a breath, my pulse hammering wildly against my throat.

“Like…”

“Like what?”

I hold his gaze.

“Like you want me.”

My forced confession drops around us like a bomb. For a moment, Jake says nothing. Then he wraps his hands around my middle and pulls me forward, planting me straight against his chest.

I stop breathing altogether.

“What if I do want you, Ora? What if I want you so much, for the past two years, you’re all that has haunted my dreams and my waking moments?” His words are a dark whisper against my heated face.

Stunned, I open my mouth to speak but Jake’s index finger against my lips silences me once more.

Two years? He has known me for two years? I barely know this man and he’s been aware of my existence for the past two years? How exactly is that possible??

He pushes my further against him and lowers his head until our noses are touching and our breaths mingle; until all that goes through my nostrils is his intoxicating male scent.

“What if I told you that I’ve waited for you for so long, I would kill anyone who tried to take you away from me with my own two hands.”

I gasp.

He reaches forward, taking a tendril of still wet hair away from my face. I shut my eyes as I absorb the feeling of his fingers gliding over my skin.

“What if I told you that you are the most beautiful female creature I have ever been opportuned to set my eyes on?”

My eyes fly open, meeting his burning gaze.

“I thought you didn’t do the trash?” I whisper, quoting his earlier description of me.

“I don’t.” He says without missing a beat, “because you are not the trash, Ora.”

He takes my hands in his, releasing them from the towel around my chest.

“I cannot wait to taste you. To run my lips over every inch of your soft skin.”

I freeze in his arms, a strange heat gathering in my most intimate parts. Strangely, Jake’s lustful stare does not make me cringe or gag in disgust like Richard’s did.

It brings everything within me to life with bone jarring electricity. It makes my thighs clench with arousal.

“I cannot wait to make you properly mine, princess.”

That snaps me out of my reverie.

What the hell am I doing?! How can I be engaging in such intimate conversations with a total stranger? Mother would be so ashamed of me.

I step back abruptly, causing him to release me in surprise. I narrow him down with a practiced glare.

“I have no idea what your game is, Alpha Jake. I have no idea who you are. For all I know, you might be the enemy. Please, stay away from me.”

The lust and softness in his eyes evaporates immediately, leaving behind cold, empty shells.

He stalks towards me and I take one step back. In the last minute, I pull out a hairbrush and point it between us in a frantic attempt to keep him at bay.

“Stay the tell away from me, Jake!”

He freezes, staring from the hairbrush to me in anger and disgust. Then he turns around and stalks out of the room, leaving a freezing cold air in his wake.

“Wear the darn clothes I got you and meet me by the doors in the next five minutes. Do not make me come back here.”

For the second time in the past ten minutes, the door slams shut once again.

I sag against the table, completely drained.

Oh well, that could have gone much, much worse.