“Astrid?”
She jumped, her bag and the lantern flying from her hands. Glass broke and there was a faint smell of kerosene, but the flame was gone, plunging the room in darkness.
“Who’s there?”
“My name’s Yves. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Rather than be relieved that she’d been rescued, Astrid’s mind immediately drove down another morbid path. She remembered what Sabine had said, about not leaving her room alone, as the males of the pack might attack her. Now, here she was, God only knew how far below ground, cornered by an unfamiliar werewolf.
When Astrid didn’t respond, the wolf asked, “Were you lost? Where are you headed? I can take you there.”
“Erik’s room,” she blurted.
It was one of the last places she wanted to be, second only to being lost in the tunnels. But she also remembered what Erik had said, that the males wouldn’t bother her if they knew she belonged to him. She hadn’t bathed, so she assumed that Erik’s scent still clung to her skin. Still, she wanted to make it perfectly clear that she wasn’t available.
“Erik’s room?” he asked, sounding uncertain. “Are you sure he’s okay with that?”
“He told me to wait for him there, but I got a little turned around. If you could take me there, I’m sure he’d appreciate it.”
Yves hesitated, and she wondered if she hadn’t oversold the lie. Erik didn’t strike her as the appreciative type and she didn’t know him half as well as his own pack mates would.
Astrid cleared her throat. “Look, the truth is, I was supposed to stay in his room, but I needed to grab a few things. It would really help if you could just take me there.”
Or anywhere, just get me the hell out of here.
“Don’t worry,” he said, his voice turning soft. “I’ll get you back there before he even knows you left. Here, take my hand.”
She did, and he was pleasantly warm. He gently pulled her along.
“Oh, wait, my bag is—”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got it. Want me to carry some of those blankets, too?”
“That’s okay, I’ve got them.”
“Let me know if you change your mind. Erik’s room is still a fair distance from here. And if you get tired, I can shift and carry you.”
Astrid had been teetering on the brink of becoming a full-blown cynic for the past few years, and in the past couple days, it seemed that Erik had finally tipped her over the edge. She couldn’t bring herself to believe that Yves was being friendly towards her for no reason, and decided that he had to have some sort of ulterior motive. She engaged him in conversation, but only so that she could get an angle on him.
“How did you know my name?”
“You’re all the pack has been talking about for days,” he told her. She could hear the wry amusement in his voice as he added, “No offense, but I’m rather sick of hearing about you.”
Okay, maybe he wasn’t that bad.
“I suppose that was a dumb question, and no offense taken.”
“But I am glad that I caught your scent down here,” he said.
“Why, because I would have froze to death if you hadn’t found me?”
“Well, that, and I’ll finally have an interesting story to tell.”
Astrid couldn’t help but laugh. “This is an interesting story?”
“Not by your standards, I’m sure,” he said. “But everyone is interested in you. They want to know about you, where you come from, what you’re like.”
That surprised her. Astrid had found the pack to be very standoffish towards her. She had even thought earlier that Sabine seemed to be the only shifter aside from Halley and Sten that would give her the time of day.
“If they want to get to know me, why don’t they come up and introduce themselves?”
Yves thought on it for a moment, and then said, “It’s hard to explain to a human. Most of them take their cues from the alpha. They’re waiting to see how Erik treats you so they know how to treat you.”
Good God…
Would the pack also start treating her like crap? How long would that last? The rest of her life?
Yves made small talk with her for the rest of the trek. Astrid was polite, but detached. As the darkness steadily gave way to faint blue light, she could just make out Yves’s face. He looked young, probably in his early twenties, but he sported light hair that she suspected was white. Had she met him before Erik, she probably would have found him tall and handsome, if not a bit boyish. But compared to the alpha, he was decidedly average.
“I’ll leave you here,” he said, as they stopped at a fork in the tunnel. He handed Astrid her bag. “Down there on the left is Erik’s room.”
“Can’t you take me there?” She asked, not wanting to be left alone again, especially with dubious directions.
He scratched the back of his head. “I’m really not supposed to be down here. Erik’s room is off limits.”
Astrid considered asking him to take her to her own room, now that she knew Yves better. But he’d been so nice, she didn’t want to admit that she’d been lying, or worse, why she’d lied in the first place.
“Promise it’s right up ahead and I won’t get lost and freeze to death?”
His eyes twinkled with amusement. “Promise.”
“All right. It was pleasure meeting you, Yves,” she said, inclining her head. “Tell them good things about me, okay?”
“Of course.”
Yves left before she did, leaving her standing at the crossway. She rocked on the heels of her feet, unsure what she wanted to do next. There was enough light that she could see her path now, and she considered trying to find her room. But the memory of her earlier crisis was still too fresh. If she went to Erik’s room, he might get pissed, but at least she wouldn’t be lost.
“What’s the worst he could do, imprison me more?” she muttered.
Even as she hung a left and headed down the tunnel, she knew how ridiculous that statement was. For a prisoner, she had a great deal of liberties and as bad as her situation was, Erik had the power to make it a lot worse.
Astrid would have missed Erik’s room, had she not been drawn to his sharp, masculine scent. She stopped, turned, and took a few steps back, to where a narrow crevice split the wall. She ran her hand over the cold stone, and then stepped inside. The opening was a bit wider past the initial pinch, and she could imagine Erik just managing to fit through in his wolf form.
She expected the inside of Erik’s room to be a vast cavern with ice-capped stalactites and pervasive darkness, every bit as intimidating as the alpha himself. Instead, she found a room slightly smaller than her bedroom back in Florida. Scant amounts of light came in from the crevice, faintly illuminating the white pelts on the floor. The pile dipped in the center, where she could imagine the black wolf might curl up when he slept. The room was by no means warm, but the air was still and free from the draft that plagued the tunnels and even her own room.
Erik wasn’t there, and she was okay with that. His room was oddly cozy, and she didn’t mind being alone there for a little bit. She dropped her bag by the entrance, tossed the silks on the floor, and then collapsed on top of them.
Relief flooded her tired limbs, but her mind was still in turmoil. She had learned more today about the workings of a wolf pack than she had learned from Ginnifer’s entire documentary. And what this information all boiled down to was that if she didn’t figure out how to ingratiate herself to Erik, she was going to be worthless in the eyes of his wolves.
“He’ll get tired of you,” she said as she stared up at the ceiling. Her breath hung in the air in front of her. “He’ll get tired of having sex with you and then you’ll be nothing to him.”
Nothing to the pack.
Nothing at all.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Sten shifted as they entered the main room, a signal that he wanted to speak. Erik did not bother masking his irritation as he shifted. He’d had enou
gh talking for one day, and his eyes were already scanning the room, seeking out the human. Before he could stop himself, he was lifting his nose to the air, searching for her scent.
“What is it?” Sten asked, looking perturbed as he joined Erik in sniffing at the air.
Erik shook his head. “Never mind. What do you want?”
Frowning, Sten nodded towards his pup, who was on the far side of the room, napping on top of the dog. “I can’t leave right away. I need to make arrangements for someone to look after Halley.”
Erik spied Sabine towards the center of the room. The white wolf lay stretched out, languidly cleaning her paw. She was alone.
“I will have Sabine handle it,” he said, already walking towards her.
“The last time Sabine watched Halley, she left her above ground for twelve hours.”
This again.
“She was playing,” Erik said dismissively.
“She was five years old.”
Erik was not going to dredge up this tired debate again. “Fine, leave in the morning. Is there anything else?”
“Yes, actually.” He hesitated, before saying, “I was hoping I could ask Astrid to look after her.”
Erik’s wolf growled at the mention of her name. The animal had been on edge for hours, pacing back and forth, growing increasingly agitated the longer it was away from her. Unable to shut it up, Erik had been trying to block it out instead, but to little avail. He needed to see her.
“She’s a human,” Erik grunted. “How is she supposed to guard your pup?”
“Halley doesn’t need to be guarded, the pack will take care of that. She needs to be cared for and nurtured.”
As they reached Sabine, she lifted her head up. Though her human form was only moderately attractive, Sabine’s long, muscular legs and strong features transitioned well into her wolf form. She knew this, and spent much of her free time splayed out in the main room preening her limbs.
“Where is she?” Erik asked.
Sabine stretched out her legs and then shifted. She had the sense not to play coy. “Ila had her bag. I took her to get it back, and she decided to stay.”
“You left her with Ila?” Erik kept his tone even, despite the fact that his wolf was growling louder now.
“They were getting along famously and I do hate being the third wheel.”
And there goes her sense.
Erik narrowed his eyes. “You were supposed to be looking after her, not Ila.”
“I wouldn’t trust Ila to watch the dog,” Sten remarked.
“Erik only told me to feed her,” she protested.
Erik massaged his temple, not for the first time that day. His head had been throbbing since he’d woken up and it had only gotten worse as the day had worn on.
“I should have known better than to rely on you, after what you did to the pup,” Erik heard himself say.
Sabine’s eyes widened. “That again? It was light out, she was playing!”
“She was five years old,” Erik snapped.
Sabine recoiled as though he’d struck her.
“Where is she? Ila’s room?”
She nodded. He saw her open her mouth to speak, but he turned to walk away. He shifted, not caring to listen to her excuses and also not trusting himself to speak. The wolf was howling inside his head, and he knew that there was only one thing that would shut it up.
When he found the human, he wasn’t sure if he was going to fuck her or strangle her.
He picked up her scent on the way to Ila’s room, but it went off onto another pathway and then mingled with the scent of another male. He recognized it as that of Yves, one of the younger, smaller males in the pack. Nose to the ground, he followed their trail, the fur on the back of his neck standing up straight.
His mind was wild with speculation by the time their scents diverged from each other’s. He stopped where the tunnel split two ways, noticing for the first time where he was. Pace slowing, he took the left tunnel several meters down, to where the wall split with the opening of his room. His ears perked up at the sound of soft breathing from within.
Shifting into his human form, Erik squeezed himself into the room. It was a small room, just big enough to comfortably fit his wolf form while he slept. The pile of furs where he rested was covered in silk blankets. Beneath them, the human lay curled up, sleeping soundly.
Her scent was everywhere, and he knew it would be a while before he could rest in his room without smelling her. She still smelled like him as well, and he could tell she had not shared herself with another male.
“What are you doing in my room?”
He deepened his voice to make himself sound angrier than he actually felt. She was a skittish creature, and he expected her to jump awake. Instead, she roused slowly, rubbing her eyelids and looking up at him through bleary eyes.
A small smile tugged at her lips. Then, she yawned his name. “Erik?”
Nothing about what she’d done was meant to tempt him; he knew this. But his name on her lips was like a fist wrapped tightly around his cock. In the span of a breath, he was hard and ready to fuck.
Erik pounced on her, one hand grabbing her wrists to pin them above her head. He buried his face in her neck, running his tongue over the bite mark he’d made the day before. A mark like that would have already healed on a shifter female, but on the human it would scar, forever imprinted into her skin. He aligned his canines with the shallow grooves and tugged at the flesh, groaning as his cock swelled harder.
Straining against him, she shoved one knee in between them. “Cut it out, I’m sore and I’m not clean. Seriously, Erik.”
Deciding her talking would be more of an annoyance, he released her wrists and moved his hand to cover her mouth. His room became blissfully silent, save for the sound of muffled protests.
He effortlessly nudged her knee aside, but as he went to pull her pants off, Erik felt a sharp sting in the heel of his hand. He jerked back, releasing the human and holding his hand up to inspect it.
Blood rolled down his forearm in rivulets. The wound in his hand was deep and not at all superficial. He looked between it and the human, who stared up at him with wide, panicked eyes.
She had bitten him.
***
“I’m sorry, I just…”
Just what? Astrid felt the muscle in her throat flex as she gulped. Erik was just staring at her. She couldn’t make out his expression in the dark, which made it all the more terrifying.
Her body tensed as he raised his hand up. She braced herself to be slapped, but when his hand came down on her face, it was to smear it with his blood. She remained motionless, save for the fine tremor that ran the length of her spine.
Erik traced her bottom lip with his thumb, spreading his blood over it like a coppery gloss. His hand moved to her chin. He pinched it hard between his thumb and forefinger, pushing her head back as far as it would go.
And then, he kissed her.
At least, that was the only word she had for what he did. It seemed grossly insufficient. She’d been kissed many times, and by several different men. It was nothing like any of those times. He drove his tongue past her lips, the powerful muscle forcing her teeth to part. He swept the inside of her mouth, licking up the traces of his blood while his teeth scraped against her lips.
It wasn’t a kiss meant to coax or seduce—he was devouring her.
She didn’t struggle as he pulled her pants down and positioned himself between her thighs. While she couldn’t deny that her body thrummed with perverse arousal, their encounter had been too brief for her to be sufficiently prepared. There was little he could have done anyway, as she was still sore and had yet to recover from their previous run.
Through sheer force of his thrust, he was able to get the full length of his steely erection within her. She cried out, the pained sound lost inside of his mouth. Her hands took fistfuls of his hair, gripping them tightly as he began moving within her. He growled in response, one of his canines
grazing her delicate bottom lip. Fresh blood pooled in her mouth, and he worked quickly to lap it up.
This time, the initial pain never faded. Either because she was becoming more depraved, or because her mind was desperately trying to cope, she began to relish in the prickling sting of being too full and hot burn of his relentless pace.
As Erik neared his climax, his thrust grew increasingly rigid. Confident that he was thoroughly engrossed, her hands grew bold. She released his hair and began a feverish exploration of his body, feeling out thick muscles and hard contours. Her inquisitive hands spurred him on, and before long they were both panting with the speed and force of his thrusts.
Climax hit her, and she felt as though she were coming apart at the seams. Her inner walls clenched and unclenched around him, her entire being throbbing in tandem. His body trembled as he came inside of her, and she felt drunk on power. She had made this hard and powerful alpha quake.
The feeling was fleeting. He collapsed beside her, his massive leg keeping her pinned to the floor. The sweat that had broken out over her body began to chill, and soon she was the one shivering.
He said nothing to her, and within minutes, he was ready to go again. As he moved to climb back on top of her, she placed one hand flat on his chest.
Her breath was still coming out in soft pants. “Please… Can I clean up?”
Somehow, she’d sensed that this time he wouldn’t ignore her, and she was right. Astrid stifled a cry as he pulled out of her, her inner walls now unspeakably tender. She felt around for her pants, but Erik brushed her hand aside.
“Don’t bother.” He grabbed one of the pelts from the floor and wrapped it tightly around her. “It’s not far. I’ll carry you.”
Without further explanation, he lifted her up into his arms and carried her out into the tunnel. She turned her head into his chest, not wanting to feel the cold air on her sensitive skin.
As he carried her down the tunnel, they shared a silence that was oddly comfortable. The room he brought her to was warm and when she looked up, she gasped. Blue-green light reflected off the walls, emanating from a pool of dazzling water. Steam rolled off the surface, filling the room like a sauna.
Enslaved by the Alpha (Shifters of Nunavut Book 2) Page 10
