“I told you already. You’re of good breeding age, and strong enough to do so. You survived a car crash like that; you will survive delivering my pups.”
“Pups?” Who referred to their babies as pups? It proved that this man was a psychopath.
He reached out and slid a stiff finger up her calf, and she cringed.
“I will be quick.” His hand came to rest on her abdomen. “Still not healed completely from the accident, I see.” He tore his shirt over his head, and tossed it over the footboard. His chest was extremely hairy, but underneath all the fuzziness there was no doubt that he was a strong man. And determined to get what he wanted no matter how much it would hurt her or how wrong it was.
Selene tore her gaze away as he unzipped his jeans. She didn’t want to do this. She didn’t want to murder a full grown man. But she had to do something if she was going to escape this horrible fate alive or dead.
His hands worked the knot of the rope around her ankles and he pulled those off too. “Just give me nine months...”
“You’re a sick bastard.” Her voice quivered as she spoke.
“Bastard?” Blood shot red eyes bore into her. He grabbed hold of the front of the gown and ripped it, baring her naked flesh.
Selene shrieked, and brought her legs up toward her chest again. She perspired from fear and her bra and panties clung to her like a second skin. Her blood was heated, but she shivered like a scared school girl.
Scarface reached behind her and snatched the rope off her wrists. It gave way easier than the ones that bound her feet. He took no notice as he climbed on the bed, kneeling over her.
“Lie down.”
There was a nasty grin plastered on his lips as she slid down. She hadn’t noticed it before, but there were long fang-like tooth sticking out on either side of his mouth. Something like an animal would have. They were pointed and curved inward a bit, and looked sharp at the tip.
She squeezed her eyes shut just as he reached into his waistband.
“Open your legs. Haven’t you done this before?”
She shook her head, still averting her gaze away from his body.
“Don’t lie to me, you fucking bitch. Spread your legs before I do it for you.”
She forced her legs open slowly. “Don’t make me do this.”
“I like the way you resist me.” He chuckled. “Are all human females like this?”
As he came down over her, she said, “I am so sorry…”
He grabbed at her thighs and took hold of her cotton panties. “Oh? Now you want to apologize. Have you changed your mind, you little slut?”
She felt something heavy against the inside of her thighs. Raising the broken glass over them, she squeezed hard, breaking through her own skin. She took a deep breath and thrust the sharp end of the glass straight into his neck.
Scarface hollered like an animal and scrambled off the bed, clutching his neck. The piece of glass was still lodged in his throat and when he pulled it out, blood spewed everywhere.
“Oh, God.” Her breath rushed out of her.
“I’m going to kill you!” He rushed for her. His penis lay flaccid between his legs.
She screamed at the top her lungs, and ran across the other end of the room.
A maid and another man rushed through the door.
“Sir, what’s happened?” the maid asked.
“She stabbed me!” Scarface pointed in her direction. “Chain her.”
They ran to subdue her, but this time she wasn’t passed out. She was wide awake, and she would not make it easy for them. She kicked and screamed as they tackled her.
“Where do you want her?” the man heaved her over his shoulder.
“Let me go!” She beat at his back. Certainly someone would hear her and come to help. But she was out in the middle of nowhere…how would anyone hear her?
“In the dungeon.”
The dungeon?
“It’s occupied, Sir.”
“I don’t care. Lock that bitch up.” Scarface ran to the opposite end of the room toward the sink and faucet.
“I won’t do it.” Her protests turned into cries. “Kill me now!”
Selene meant it. No way would she allow someone to disrespect her body that way. To bring an innocent baby into this world under these circumstances were out of the question.
“You have two choices…your body or your life.” Scarface turned to glare at her. “You want to act like a rabid bitch…then I’ll lock you up like one.”
As they hauled her away, she tore and pushed at anything she could get her hands on. She grabbed up a lamp and hurled it at the maid, as she was carried toward the door. The maid ducked and the lamp crashed into a hundred pieces on the floor behind her. She clawed at the door frame and clutched at the hook hanging on the wall. Her struggles didn’t seem to faze the man who carried her. He kept taking her away. To where…she had no idea.
Finally they were outside and night air blanketed her. Her lungs burned from screaming. She lifted her head, and looked out across fields of absolutely nothing. Was there anybody out there to help her? Her prospects didn’t seem too good.
Her shoulders slumped in defeat, and she let the man carry her like a sack of potatoes across the field.
Selene tried to contain her agony and impatience, but her entire body was consumed with it. Tears fell down her face, and she balled her hands tighter into fists. Her fingers met a solid metal object. Her heart jumped when she glimpsed a small key with a piece of broken chain hanging from it. In her fit of rage, she’d grabbed something.
A key.
Chapter Four
Nick raised his head in alarm as he heard the doors overhead being slid open. The voices were muffled, but he made them out to be the man who guarded the cell and Jonathan, the man who’d caught him.
He pushed himself off the stone wall and came to stand by the bars as the men moved closer. There was no use in them bringing him any more food. He’d rather rot in this cell than accept something they’d poisoned.
The door to the dungeon flew open and fresh night breeze flowed inside. He inhaled deeply, savoring what freedom would taste like. Wolves were never meant to be caged. It was a dreadful punishment. The punishment for trespassing.
Jonathan came down the stairs, and Nick immediately flashed fang. When he saw a body over the man’s shoulders, he withdrew them just a bit.
He carried a female.
Nick couldn’t see her face, only long black hair cascading down as she hung her head toward the floor. She wasn’t even moving. Was she dead?
One of the men unlocked the cell door. They brought the woman’s limp body into view.
He should have made an escape for it then, but shock had him frozen to the spot.
They threw her on the floor and slammed the doors shut.
“Lookie there, you’ve got a cell mate.” Jonathan chuckled as he trekked back up the stairs.
The woman whined, but still made no move to get up. Her long thick hair still covered her face. She was half naked with only a matching floral bra and panty set on. There was an undressed wound at her side and a wide scrape down the left side of her arm. She curled into a ball facing away from him and started to cry.
“I should have killed him,” she whimpered. “God, I should have killed him.”
Nick shrunk back. The woman didn’t seem to know that he was in the cell. She was talking to herself.
“Why didn’t I listen to you, Dad? You told me not to go anywhere alone,” the woman continued.
He didn’t know whether to leave her be or answer her. Her scent wafted toward him. It was a delicate blend of nutmeg and brown sugar. An underlying scent also told him that she was human.
“I’m so scared.” She cried some more.
Nick cleared his throat. “Hello?”
The woman jumped up like a leopard, scrambled into a corner of the cell, and screamed. It was a high pitched shrill that should have shattered the glass windows in the room above t
hem.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You’re one of them!” she shouted. “What kind of people are you?”
He pressed his lips together and ran his tongue across his teeth willing his fangs to disappear. “No, I’m not.”
“You better not come near me!”
He stepped closer. “Sssshh…please. You’ll draw attention.”
“I’ll kill you!”
He tried to hold back his amusement. No woman had ever uttered those three little words to him. “I’m locked up in this cell with you. Do you really think I want to harm you?”
“Just stay right there.” She held up a hand. There was a jagged cut on the palm and her fingers were covered in blood.
From the scent of it, it was her blood and someone else’s. Someone familiar.
He wasn’t taking any chances; he didn’t want his blood added to the equation. “Okay, okay. I’ll stay back.” He took a few steps back.
The woman hugged her body with her arms in an attempt to cover up. She shivered as well. He figured the combination of fear and cold had taken over her.
“Here.” He pulled his shirt over his head and offered it to her.
The woman eyed him like a hawk, her gaze sliding from his face to the shirt he offered. Stepping forward, she snatched it, ran into her corner, turned her back, and pulled it over her. She sat down, bringing her knees to her chest with her bloodied hands balled into fists.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. Following suit, he moved to the other corner and sat down facing her. He wanted to go over to her and comfort her, but figured that wasn’t the wise thing to do given her threat to kill him.
“I was attacked. How can I not be afraid?”
“Of me, I meant. Don’t be afraid of me.”
She looked up to level her stare at him. “I don’t trust you.”
Her lips were pursed in fury. They were a perfect set of lips. Rosy in color and plump and sexy. Her feral gaze nearly hypnotized him.
He shook his head. “That’s okay. I’m a stranger. I know.” He studied her. Even in her state of stress, she was clearly a very beautiful woman. “My name is Nick.”
“Why are you locked up?”
“I was captured, and brought here.”
She returned an ambiguous stare. “Me too. They brought me here and will not let me go.”
“How long have you been here?” He had no idea that Darius kept human servants nowadays.
“I was traveling to visit a friend when I swerved to miss an animal in the road. My car crashed off the main highway. I must have blacked out. Next thing I know, I wake up on a cot with Mr. Mangled Face staring down at me. It’s been a day or two, maybe.”
“Mr. Mangled Face?” His gaze dropped to her bloodied fists. “What happened to your hands?”
“I stabbed Scarface.”
“Scarface?” Who were these people she was talking about?
“He attacked me. They called him Darius. He had the ugly, mangled scars on his face.”
Nick ground his teeth. The nerve of him to attack an innocent woman. “Are you alright?”
“No.”
“I can help.”
Her eyes filled with tears, but she managed to shed not one of them. “This was a mistake. I want to go home.”
“I’ll get you out of here,” Nick said.
Hope filled her eyes, replacing the tears. “Hi, Nick. I’m Selene.”
“Selene,” he whispered.
“Yes, but not like the singer. Mine’s spelled with an S.”
He smiled. “Right. Pretty name.”
She shrugged. “It’s alright. My dad named me.”
The casual conversation seemed to calm her, so he carried on, all the while examining her slowly. “What would you rather be called then?”
She raised an eyebrow. “That’s an odd thing to ask someone.”
Her eyes were a deep brown. Bedroom eyes. Eyes you could get lost in for hours on end.
“You have an accent. Northern and maybe Spanish?”
Selene cracked a small smile, and lowered her thick eyelashes. “There’s no disguising this accent. I’ve tried many times, but I always slip and most people figure it out.”
“I like your accent.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Since this afternoon, but it seems like forever.”
She scanned the room outside their cell, really observing their surroundings for the first time with a troublesome expression on her face. What had Darius done to her?
The only light in the room was from the moon beams that snuck through a tiny barred window. It was dark inside, and if it wasn’t for his wolf eyes, he would not be enjoying how lovely she looked despite her distress.
“Do you have a plan to get out of here?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“How?”
She was relentless.
“The guards are sloppy. I’m just waiting for the right moment.”
“You’re patient, then?”
He nodded. “In order to defeat an enemy, you must know him thoroughly.”
“Makes sense.”
From across the room, Nick heard her stomach grumble. It wasn’t gas. Evidently she was experiencing hunger pangs. “You haven’t eaten since you’ve been here, have you?”
She didn’t answer.
Nick reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of jerky wrapped in a plastic. It was the last piece he had. He’d been saving it for tomorrow just in case his plans backfired. He handed it to her, arms outstretched.
Surprisingly, she came forward and accepted it. “Thank you.”
He inhaled her scent again as her small fingers opened the package and extracted the jerky. She tore the dried meat in half and handed one to him.
He smiled and accepted his piece, eating it in one bite.
She sat beside him and nibbled hers slowly.
Her toes were painted a bright red, the same color as her nails. His shirt barely covered her and his gaze ran over long shapely calves and plush thighs. She was a light cinnamon complexion, just like her smell. It would be difficult keeping his eyes off her.
After eating the jerky, she rested her head on the wall of the cell and yawned. “Talk to me some more, so I don’t fall asleep.”
“If you’re tired, why don’t you sleep?”
She glanced at him then, but her eyelids were heavy. “Because I’m scared.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to you, but what about?”
“Anything.” Her speech slurred. “I love the sound of your voice.”
“Okay. I’ll tell you a bit about myself.” Nick swallowed. “I grew up in a very small town in Virginia. Near the mountains. A place where everyone knows everyone. My parents owned the supermarket where I worked until I was old enough to move out of their home. I then attended a nearby technical school and began my career as a welder. It wasn’t my dream profession. I dreamed of something bigger.” He frowned. “Something happened in my small home town of Virginia. Things weren’t the same. Our close nit community began falling to pieces. I wasn’t the only one who could see that. If it wasn’t for Devin, my closest friend, I probably would have given up on my dreams…”
Nick stole a glance at Selene. He knew before he started that he wouldn’t get to finish is boring life story.
Her head had fallen on his shoulder, and she was fast asleep.
Chapter Five
Selene was jarred awake by the sound of a door slam. Her hands instantly went to her neck as pain shot through her spine. The tendons had become stiff as she slept on Nick’s shoulder through the night.
Nick’s body tensed beside her, and he turned in the direction of the door. “Patience,” he whispered. “We’ll get out of here soon.”
She hoped he was right.
As he stood over by the bars, she examined him further. He was built and tall. Hard around the edges, but yet he’d been so gentle, ensuring her throughout the night to stay c
alm. His voice was deep, soft…and eased her fears. If it wasn’t for him, she probably couldn’t remain in the right state of mind. She’d never been locked up in a cell like this and held against her will.
His bronzed muscular back rippled as he gripped the bars. His toffee colored skin complexion reminded her of the candies she had always loved as a child. There were tattoos on either side of his arms. They were symbols of some sort. His head had been shaved, as if with a sharp razor. He was nearly bald.
Two men came down the stairs. They weren’t the same one’s who’d thrown her in the cell last night. One of them carried a tray in his hands. He bent down and slid it under the cell.
Selene thought she heard a growl escape Nick’s lips.
“Do you think we’re stupid? It’s poisoned!” He used his foot to push the tray back under the cell. The blunt force caused it to crash into the opposite wall and the bowls of soup splattered across the walls and onto the guards’ pants.
One of them came to stand outside of the cell, meeting Nick in challenge. “It seems you can’t be contained by cell. Perhaps you’d like to be tied up again like the rabid animal you are?”
“Do with me what you will, but what did she do to deserve being in here?”
“Direct orders from Darius.”
“She’s a woman, for God sakes. Have respect.”
The guards gaze shifted toward her. Selene lowered her gaze to the floor.
“The bathroom. We need to use it,” Nick hissed.
“There’s a drain on the floor behind you.”
“You asshole! You’re no better than that sick crook who leads you.”
“If you really need to piss, that’s where you should go.”
“The woman…you want her to pee on the floor?”
The guard shuffled his feet a bit, as if unsure on what to do. “Alright. One at a time. The human goes first.”
Selene rose on shaky legs from her sitting position. She met eyes with Nick as she walked toward the open end of the cell.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, and then turned his attention to the guard. “If either of you so much as touch her, I’ll rip your throat out.”
The threat seemed real, but the guard leading her to the small bathroom stall never laid a finger on her.
Wolf's Promise (Caedmon Wolves) Page 3
