by Aspen Grey
He was devastatingly handsome, well over six feet tall with wavy blond hair that he’d pushed back and green eyes that seemed to see right through me. He was dressed like a biker, with black jeans and a leather vest. He had several tattoos on his arms and strong, callused hands. I felt small as he held his gaze on me.
His scent was manly, a musk that was primal, animal and went straight to my soul. I felt the slightest sensation of my slick beginning to run. I’d never felt that before, no matter how turned on or horny I was. I even felt my dick starting to get hard beneath my pants.
“Hey!” Mark snapped, breaking me from my trance. I looked back at him immediately. “Someone over there more interesting than me?”
There’s a question you don’t want the answer to.
“No,” I lied. “Of course not.”
“Good,” he grinned. The bastard was so cocky and oblivious that he didn’t even bother turning around. “So, like I was saying. You will have jobs around the house, but they’ll be minor. Cleaning the kitchen, the dishes and the counters and that sort of thing, making sure the bed is made and the floors are swept and vacuumed. But you’ll have everything you could ever want. But I do expect to get what I want—whenever I want it. Do you understand?”
I wanted to vomit.
“Yes.”
“Good. I know you may be hesitant right now, but you’ll find that I’m a good guy eventually.”
“Good guys buy their mates?” I asked. My snotty reply actually shocked me. After living with my father, I wasn’t the kind of omega to talk back, but seeing my true fated-mate standing in the corner of the shop had me feeling different. It was like a shot of confidence had been injected into my veins and I was pulsing with a newfound energy.
“Watch yourself, boy,” he warned, his eyes narrow. “Don’t think I won’t scold you in public.”
“MARK!” the girl behind the counter announced. “Your mocha lattes are ready!”
“I’m going to get our drinks,” Mark said. “And I want you to think about your attitude.”
“I’m going to use the bathroom,” I told him.
“Don’t take too long.”
I stood and tilted my hips back to hide the erection that was growing in my pants. As I came around the table I glanced at the alpha who was standing in the corner, his scent pummeling me with lust. I indicated with my eyes, hoping he would understand. As I made my way to the back hallway that led to the bathroom, I saw him begin to walk towards me.
Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit! He’s coming!
It was what I wanted. I shouldn’t have been surprised. But as I stepped into the back hall and heard him come in behind me, I was ready to faint.
“What’s your name?” he asked. His voice was strong, firm and determined, without a hint of anxiety. I stood there for a moment, my back to him, trying to get my shit together.
“Eric,” I replied. My voice was as quiet as a mouse. I coughed and tried again. “Eric.”
“Eric,” he mused, stepping closer to me. “Eric, my name is Brooks.”
Brooks…I couldn’t respond. He stepped even closer—close enough that I could feel the warmth from his body. It was too much to handle.
“You smell it too, don’t you?” he asked. “The scent.”
I forced myself to turn around and almost died. His good looks were overwhelming, so much so that I felt ready to collapse, like the last leaf of autumn still clinging to a tree—even the slightest breeze would knock it to the ground.
His eyes were magic. If I did actually fall, would his sheer charisma catch me?
Wait—did he say something?
“W-what?” I stammered.
“You smell it, too?” he asked. “The scent.”
“Y-yes!” I blurted out. “You’re my fated-mate!”
His eyes somehow got more intense and he stepped forward and brought his nose to my neck. He sniffed me, encasing me in his scent at the same time. His touch tickled and aroused me at the same time. Without realizing what I was doing, I pressed my body against his.
“What’s your name?” he whispered.
“Eric…”
“Eric,” he replied as though he were tasting my name on his tongue. “I’m Brooks. Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are, Eric?”
Beautiful? Me?
I’d never been one of “those guys” in high school. None of the popular guys had paid me much attention, but they’d been humans, so I hadn’t really been bothered by it. But still, I’d never considered myself that much of a looker—not like him.
“No…”
“Well, you are,” he told me. “You’ve got me so fucking horny. As soon as I saw you out there my dick started to get hard.”
It was the greatest thing I’d ever heard in my life.
“Yeah?”
“Come with me,” he told me. “Ditch that date of yours and I’ll take you home.”
“I—I can’t,” I stammered. It was the hardest thing I’d ever had to say. “He’s not my date. His name is Mark and he’s my—my dad sold me to him.”
“Sold you?” he gasped. He stepped back and looked at me with something in between pity and disbelief. “What, like a fucking used car?”
“Something like that…,” I muttered, ashamed. “He’s taking me back home with him tonight. I thought I was going to have until tomorrow, but he wants to be there for my birthday when—when I turn legal.”
“Legal?” he asked, confused. “You’re not eighteen?”
My cheeks went red and I shook my head. I felt suddenly ashamed, but Brooks simply smiled.
“Well, then,” he chuckled as he stroked my lower belly with the back of his hand. “I guess I could get in a whole lot of trouble for touching you like this, huh? A twenty-nine-year-old man like me.”
Twenty-nine? That’s so hot!
“Eric?” Mark’s voice was like an off-key note in the midst of a symphony.
“Quick!” I hissed. “That’s him! If he catches me with you—”
“I understand,” Brooks replied, backing away. “Don’t worry, Eric. I’ll come for you.”
Without another word, Brooks turned away and stepped out the back door into the night just as Mark came in from the main room of the coffee shop.
“The fuck are you doing back here?” he asked. His brow furrowed and he sniffed the air. I cringed. It was obvious he smelled Brooks, another alpha infringing on what was his. “You talking to another alpha?”
“No, I—”
Without waiting for an answer, Mark grabbed me by the arm and hauled me out of the back hall and through the shop. We passed our table where our drinks were steaming, and went straight outside back to the car. I saw a motorcycle sitting a few spots up from Mark’s car and knew instantly who it belonged to.
“Get in!” he growled as he got in the driver’s side. I instantly obeyed, not wanting to upset him and feel his, or my father’s, wrath. But as Mark threw the car into gear and spun out and headed out of town, I couldn’t shake the feeling that had come over me.
My fated-mate, I thought. But why couldn’t I have met him earlier?
It might not have mattered anyway. If my father was the kind of prick who would sell me to an alpha, he wasn’t the kind of guy to be swayed by such a fairytale thing such as fated-mates. No, it didn’t matter when I met Brooks, I would have been sold to Mark either way.
It wasn’t long before we pulled up to Mark’s gate. It opened automatically and he parked in front of the most incredible house I’d ever seen. Most people would have been impressed, but it wasn’t a mansion to me; it was a prison.
“Out,” Mark commanded.
I did as I was told and followed him to the door, which again, unlocked automatically for him. The lights came on as we stepped inside, illuminating a cold, bleak marble floor and white walls devoid of any art. He pointed to a set of stairs.
“Up.”
Mark was angry, and over something so trivial. For all he knew, I could have been
back there being harassed by an alpha who had run off when he came back. Maybe I could have needed his help. But he assumed automatically that I was chatting someone up—which of course I was, but he didn’t know that—and he was furious. Imagine if he’d actually had a real reason to be mad at me. What then?
I took the stairs to the second floor which was lit by a tacky chandelier.
“Left,” he ordered.
Again, I did as I was told and made my way down the hall toward the master bedroom. But before I reached it, he took me by the shoulder and guided me to a door on the right. It was a smaller bedroom, with nothing more than a desk, a bed and a door that led to a small bathroom.
“This will be your room,” he told me. “If you please me, I will let you sleep in the master bedroom, but until then, you will stay here. I’m going to freshen up. I suggest you do the same. I’ll be back at midnight.”
And with that, he was gone.
I looked around my bedroom—my jail cell—the white walls illuminated by a single fixture that hung from the ceiling, closed my eyes and tried to focus on the scent of my mate.
His manly musk…the way my heart bloomed like a spring flower when I smelled him…the way his eyes held me in place as he gazed down at me like I was, and always had been, his…
Really his too, not his because of some transaction.
“Don’t worry, Eric. I’ll come for you.”
That’s what he’d told me, and as I sat there, staring at the clock on the wall, I prayed that he came sooner than later.
Chapter Four
BROOKS
“What are the fucking chances?” I thought as I saddled up on my bike, Eric’s sweet scent still fresh in my nose. “One in a fucking million? One in ten million?”
A college-aged kid gave me a strange look as he passed, then shouldered his bookbag and walked faster. Probably thought I was a nutjob, talking to myself like that, but I didn’t give two shits what some random punk human kid thought about me right then. I’d just met my fated-mate and my whole fucking world was upside down.
My dick was practically full mast as I gunned the engine to life.
Fuck, he’s gorgeous!
All I could think about was how he would look naked and the incredible, horrible things I wanted to do to him. He was the sweetest, sexiest, most seductive omega I’d ever laid eyes on. It just didn’t make sense how incredible-looking he was. I wanted to ravage him, get him on his knees and feed him my dick, then bend him over and slide into his little puckered hole.
Fresh…
Untouched…
But seventeen…
“Shit,” I grinned as I threw the bike into gear.
Until tonight!
Eric’s scent was so strong and so perfect that I could practically see it cutting through the night. Following it was as easy as following a car with a sparkler on its roof. Speaking of cars—what the fuck was he talking about back there? His father sold him?
I’d heard of such things going on in the deepest, darkest corners of the world, virginity auctions, sex slaves, things of that nature. I’d even heard about arranged marriages in the shifter world, used to bring peace to wars between packs like we were living in an episode of Game of Thrones or something, but I’d never heard of a father selling off his omega son to a willing alpha.
The thought of such a thing made me sick, but the fact that it had happened to Eric, my fated-mate, made me want to find his father and tear his head off. How could anybody do that to anyone, especially their son? But I shook the thought out of my mind as I drove, following Eric’s delicious caramel mocha latte scent out of town—way out of town.
Wherever he was headed, the house of the alpha who had bought him, no doubt, it was on the complete opposite side of Mountainside from my house, closer to Sleepy Hills and headed towards Mist Peak. When I finally reached a private driveway that led to a gated property, I realized something about the alpha who’d bought my fated-mate: he was rich.
The mansion was impressive, but tasteless, more like something one of those creeps from Beverly Hills buys to show off their wealth, not a place you’d actually want to live. A place that big would probably need servants, or at least a live- in maid.
Maybe that’s what he paid for, I thought as I pulled my bike to the side of the road and shut off the engine. From this distance, it was unlikely the prick who owned the place would be able to smell me, but I grabbed a bottle of pheromone blockers from my bike saddle and doused myself heavily. When things got rough with my last pack and we were sending scouts to see what the other pack was up to, this stuff came in plenty handy.
It was getting close to midnight, which meant Eric was getting close to his eighteenth birthday. It turned me on to think that he was so pure, untouched by any other alpha in this world, and that in a matter of minutes he would be of legal age. But then a horrible thought occurred to me; if I knew that, then he knew that as well—he being the sad sack of shit that had purchased my fated-mate against his will.
I hopped off my bike and scanned the place for cameras. Not seeing any, I hopped the fence easily and scanned the windows of the house. The downstairs was pretty much all wall, concrete, cutting off any view of the inside, and the upstairs windows only revealed a hallway that led to the left and right. If I was going to see anything, I’d have to go around the back.
As quietly as I could, I raced across the yard, keeping to the shadows whenever possible, until I made my way to the rear patio and pool. A pool in Colorado?
Whatever…
I glanced up at the second floor and saw two windows lit. The first was clearly the master bedroom, which sat on the corner of the house. I saw Mark through the glass. He was looking at himself in the mirror as he took off his shirt and threw it aside. Then, he actually flexed at himself and nodded with approval.
What a fucking douche!
I watched for a moment to see if Eric would appear beside him, but after a moment Mark vanished into what I imagined was his bathroom. Then, I saw a flicker of movement from the other window and glanced over at it.
“There you are…”
Eric stood at the center of the room, a look of complete hopelessness on his face that broke my heart. He was so pure, so innocent, like a beautiful flower that had just bloomed—and to see him like that, looking like the entire world had turned its back on him, filled me with rage.
“Don’t worry, my fated-mate,” I whispered. “I haven’t turned my back on you!”
It was only minutes until midnight. I knew that when the clock struck twelve, Mark would bring his maniacal ass into Eric’s room and have his way with him. To be honest, I was surprised he wasn’t already in there now. A man who was cruel enough to buy an omega certainly didn’t seem to have much respect for the law. Maybe it was his way of convincing himself that he wasn’t that bad of a guy.
But I was wrong.
As I looked up at the window, I saw the door behind Eric open. Mark, still shirtless, stepped into the room. My hands turned into fists at my side.
He approached Eric, my sweet, sweet omega, reached out a hand and stroked his cheek. I felt a pang in my chest as though I’d been cheated on. It wasn’t his fault, of course, but simply witnessing the touch was enough to drive me crazy.
Eric cried out, loud enough to be heard through the window, and stepped back. Mark got right up on him, snatched him by both arms and moved in for a kiss. At the last second, Eric twisted his head out of the way. But I wasn’t waiting for it to go any farther. I threw my vest aside, licked my lips, and shifted.
Poof!
The air burst around me as I took my wolf form, shredding the rest of my clothes as my body morphed. I leapt forward and vaulted towards the second story, landing on a balcony that protruded from the master bedroom. I kicked off hard and propelled myself towards Eric’s window.
The enormous glass pane shattered as I slammed into it. Small shards cut into my hide, but I ignored the pain. It wasn’t life-threatening—not eve
n close. My only concern was for my beautiful omega.
“What the fuck?” Mark gasped, but before he could finish speaking, I was on him.
I sprang forward, brushing past Eric, who threw himself out of the way, and closed my jaws around Mark’s neck. The force of my jump knocked him to the floor and it took everything I had in me not to simply bite down and crush his throat and let him die. The son of a bitch probably deserved it and had already crossed several lines when it came to Eric, but I was a better man than he. So I simply held him there, feeling him quiver, and let out a deep guttural growl.
He raised his hands slowly like he was being held at gunpoint. He understood.
“O-okay…” he managed to croak out. I growled again, louder this time, then released him.
I glanced back at Eric, who was standing wide-eyed in the corner, and threw my head towards the window, indicating to him that he should run. He didn’t hesitate, and shifted into a beautiful wolf with warm, caramel-colored fur, and leapt through the shattered pane and out into the night.
Before Mark could get any funny ideas in his head, I spun back to him and bared my teeth. His neck was red from where I’d held him. Only a few more pounds of pressure would have broken the skin.
Again, he threw his hands above his head.
“Okay!” he gasped. “All right!”
I roared and slashed his inner thigh with my claw, drawing blood. He screamed in pain and I bellowed again, bringing my teeth close enough to his face that they almost touched. He howled in pain and clasped his hands against his leg. I’d made my point, so I whirled around to the window and leapt out to join my mate.
Chapter Five
ERIC
Holy shit! I thought as I watched Mark leap from the window. His wolf form was enormous, like something out of a fantasy novel, and his coat was a deep black but flecked with blond around his neck.
Now that’s a real alpha!
He landed before me like the king of the forest, his face still filled with rage which quickly melted away and was replaced with concern. He walked right up to me and shifted back to human form to reveal a body that was just as perfect.
