“No questions.” Robert folded his hands upon the desktop. “Not even a hint of curiosity? Cadeyrn told you what I am. Are you afraid of me? According to him, I’m one of those dangerous, vicious alpha wolves.”
Her new master flicked out a claw and dragged it across the pristine desktop, then over the paper detailing her life. The crackle of paper and the gouging of wood rattled her self-composure. Aurora recovered and stared at him.
“Are you going to kill and eat me, or should I get started on the laundry?”
He blinked hard, and the hint of a smile played on his firm mouth. “I don’t eat Mages, although I have heard they are quite tasty with a garnish of almond butter. And I do my own laundry.”
A sense of humor. She cautioned herself against it. The witch had told jokes at dinnertime. She’d laughed and then, an instant later, would slam an iron bar against Aurora’s hand as she set down a plate of bread and butter.
The alpha leaned forward, stretching the material of his navy long-sleeved shirt, rolled up at the forearms. As the material shifted, she saw the edges of a familiar tattoo on his tanned neck. Aurora’s hopes leapt. Sign of the dragon. Surely this enslavement could provide the key to freedom.
He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back. “Who am I?”
She knew his background, from the briefing given to her two nights ago upon her arrival, before Melanie had locked her in the abandoned barn.
“Robert Keynes, alpha of the Keynes pack, one of the few red Lupine packs in the United States. You’re thirty-four, own a botanical nursery and grow tropical plants and trees. There are eighty-two members of your pack,” Aurora recited as if she were in a classroom.
“Eighty-one.” The coolness of his dark eyes remained. “Molly, my niece and my heir, has gone with her mate to the Mitchell pack in Montana.”
A tight knot formed in her belly. Cadeyrn had given her to Robert as a breeder. The Lupine needed an heir of his blood.
“You have no mate?”
A shadow crossed his face. “No.”
Surprise filled her. Lupines were a sensual people who enjoyed frequent sex. The urge to mate and breed ran strong in them.
“Why not?”
His mouth curved in a cold smile. “I’m waiting for the right woman.”
Then he pushed up from his chair and despite her bravado, she quivered. Robert stood well over six feet. His sheer physical presence made her very much aware of him as a man. He was extremely handsome, with a shock of silver threaded liberally through the black strands of his hair. Premature silver. She wondered if it had been caused by…
The very something that could set her free, and free her sister Emily as well. Her pulse pounded with sudden excitement. Had she finally found the man marked by the dragon?
“I need to breed an heir.” His gaze swept over her in a lingering caress that made her shiver with awareness. “This is why Cadeyrn gave you to me as a gift. You’re Mage, healthy and just entering the prime of your child-bearing years. He thinks you can produce strong offspring.”
She had lived years as a slave, working many hours to serve her masters in the house, even in the fields, as the ogre had a fancy for farming. But never in their beds.
Aurora gathered her emotions and stuffed them deep inside. Her body did not matter. Only Emily did. Her sister was living with a foster family. She must stay safe.
If it meant lying coldly beneath this wolf and conceiving his child, so be it. He was her master. He could order her to do anything. If she tried disobeying, he could make the magick collar around her neck squeeze tighter and tighter until her vision grayed and the pain became excruciating. She’d die, before she ever had the chance to save her sister. Aurora sensed this wolf might hold the secret that could free Emily.
But she could not let him know her true purpose here.
Robert glanced down at the document holding the details of her life. “Your dossier says you’ve never lain with a man before.”
Then he looked up and gave a smile, showing even white teeth. “Or a wolf.”
Aurora’s belly clenched hard at the intent behind that smile. She shrugged, knowing the gesture was futile, for his Lupine senses allowed him to even hear the increased beating of her heart.
I am not afraid.
Robert rounded the desk. He dropped a hand to the dog, patted his head with great affection. The lab’s tail thumped against the floor. Then Robert approached her. Faded jeans covered his long limbs, and his boots were dusty and worn.
“Look at me,” he said softly.
Startled, she jerked her gaze up and silently cursed. When had she lowered her gaze?
The rich smell of cedar enveloped her. His scent. She’d heard Lupine alphas had the ability to weave their scent around females, a tendril of enticement to attract them for mating. It served to heighten a woman’s arousal. But she was immune. Or so she’d thought.
“Your dossier says you’re a pureblood Mage. You have no Lupine blood in you. Not even a drop.” Robert picked up the paper on the desk and crumbled it. “But I haven’t searched for a Lupine to bear my children.”
He picked up her left wrist and slowly stroked it. A jolt of awareness shot through her as her heart beat faster, not from fear, but something equally primitive and raw. Aurora’s breasts ached and her nipples turned hard.
Robert gave a knowing smile, as if he sensed her arousal. Of course. He was wolf, with sharp senses, and very alpha.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
Staring at her left wrist, he circled her birthmark with his thumb, each slow stroke across her skin making her breath hitch. His touch was gentle and she imagined him touching her like this all over, his fingers grazing across her body and then down between her legs…
Finally he lifted his gaze and she stared into the brilliant green of his eyes. Eyes that smoldered with purpose. Seductive eyes that could lure a female to bed with promises of erotic pleasure.
“You, Aurora. The woman marked by the dragon who will bear my child. You are the one who will lift the curse from my people.”
CHAPTER 2
Cadeyrn had given him a slave. He didn’t want a slave, but if he’d refused the gift, Cadeyrn would have killed Aurora. He would never again be responsible for anyone’s death. Neither accidentally nor on purpose.
But the wizard was sly. He had given him Aurora, who could permanently lift the curse from his people and their land. Cadeyrn had given him the one woman he knew Robert wanted.
Aurora.
Defiance flared in her deep blue eyes.
Mage eyes, like his dead lover’s, Caroline’s. Caroline, the Mage who had turned to evil in exchange for power, and cursed the land and his people.
Aurora would never discover the secret keeping his people alive, and thriving. Mages could not be trusted.
The Shadow Wizard had been explicit when he’d given him Aurora as a reward for saving the nearby forest from an evil witch. “Take her as your slave or I shall kill her. Fuck her. Breed her,” he’d told Robert.
Robert took her left wrist and turned her hand over, feeling her quiver beneath his calloused fingertips. He stroked a thumb over Aurora’s palm. Nothing.
No flare of red, as with Caroline, indicating she was compatible to his blood type. But it was far too early to tell, for Aurora wasn’t in heat yet. His Lupine senses assured him of this. His thumb drifted lower, over the dragon-shaped birthmark on her left wrist.
Robert released her hand. He remembered this one well, from the time when he’d stormed into Cadeyrn’s palace shortly after he’d assumed leadership of his pack.
Wariness flickered in her expression, and resignation. Aurora had been a slave much of her life, but this was a new twist, he felt certain.
“You want me to mother your children.”
“As my mate.” He studied her intently. “Of your own free will. Once I take you as my mate, the curse will be lifted from my people.”
She gave a little l
augh. “Curses. Are they the only ‘benefits’ from the damn wizards who rule over us? Can’t they ever do anything nice, like give us free movie tickets?”
He smiled, liking her sarcasm.
“What kind of curse?”
Robert hesitated and decided to settle on part of the truth. “The worst kind. The type that destroys life. When I mate with you, you will break the curse. A Mage wrought the curse and a Mage marked by the dragon will break it.”
“You want to mate with me.” She paused. “Me. A slave.”
He studied her wariness in her eyes, the way she held herself rigid. Aurora was quite lovely and he felt a primal male desire. Oh, he would mate with her to save his people. But his distrust of the Mage race ran deep.
“Call it a business arrangement that will benefit both of us, in bed and out of it.” He caressed her body with his gaze, knowing he could do the deed.
Flushing, she looked away. Her stomach grumbled loudly. He raised a brow. “Have you eaten?”
Aurora blinked hard, and then raised her fine, silky brows. “Eaten what?”
“Something that resembles food, such as lunch.”
Frowning, he studied her sunken cheeks and pale face, the tired lines around her eyes. It was his duty as alpha to see to the needs of those under his care.
“Did Guy feed you?”
She avoided his gaze, but clenched her hands harder.
“Answer me.”
Aurora licked her lips, and the gesture sent a little spike of arousal straight to his groin. Such a plump, lush lower lip…
“Did Guy feed you?” he said, sharper this time.
“No. But it’s not his fault. He handed me over to a woman, and told her to take care of me. She must have forgotten. I don’t remember her name.”
Diplomatic answer. Aurora wasn’t pack, but she was smart enough to avoid throwing someone under the bus who might be a future ally, or enemy.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, knowing the ends probably stuck up because he’d done so. “Come on. I’ll take you to the kitchen.”
“Do you have chores for me to do there?”
From his pillow, Lady looked up and barked. Robert silently agreed. Sweet mother goddess, this was a stubborn one. And then he looked again and saw faint fear flickering behind Aurora’s eyes.
Maybe her former masters had been cruel. Slavery was rare among Others. Though cold-hearted, Cadeyrn only made slaves out of Mages who’d committed grave offenses, but were too young to kill.
What the hell had Aurora done to warrant a lifetime of slavery?
She was Mage, like Caroline, but the differences ended there. Mages were all sizes, temperaments, magick abilities and appearances, but for their deep blue eyes that turned dark when they used their powers. Caroline had been blonde, seemingly strong like a Viking, but with magick so weak she’d craved more. His lover’s thirst for power had ruined his pack.
Aurora had long brown hair, straight and thick. She was short, with soft skin and the full figure of a Lupine female, the type that caused lust to rise in a male. Robert studied her curvy hips and breasts, covered by clean, but worn khaki trousers and a simple green blouse. She wore sandals on her bare feet. One leather strap was starting to fray.
He liked Aurora’s spirit and sass. It sparked something long dead inside him.
Best it remain that way. Cold and dead. This was a business relationship, pure and simple. He would never love again.
But he could mate, and he needed to produce an heir to replace his niece, Molly, or he would lose his pack. Lose everything he’d so carefully rebuilt over the past decade and a half. And who would care for his people then?
For years, he’d refrained from choosing a mate, hoping to find the woman with the dragon-shaped birthmark, the woman who would lift the curse from his pack. And now he’d found her. She would not slip away so easily.
Mine.
The raw possessiveness startled him. It did not come from the need to protect his people, but a more primitive and base male instinct.
Robert parked a hip on the desk and indicated for Aurora to sit. She perched on one of the matching leather chairs before his desk, back straight, face expressionless.
“I don’t keep slaves.” He pointed to her collar. “I will make you an offer.”
“An offer I can’t refuse?”
As he lifted a brow, she explained. “My last master liked watching The Godfather. I can probably recite every line of dialogue from that movie.”
“An ogre who liked The Godfather?”
“I believe he was an Italian ogre. He did like spaghetti and used to tell me if I didn’t work faster, I’d sleep with the fishes.”
“He threatened you?” Robert felt protective of this small, seemingly fragile Mage.
Aurora shrugged. “An idle threat. He was more the minnow kind than a real fish.”
He smiled. He liked her wit. It would serve her well in this tough pack.
“This is a real offer. If you agree, we’ll sign an oath.”
She sat forward. Now he’d caught her interest.
“You need your freedom. I need an heir.” He gripped the underside of the desk with his fingers. “Mate with me, bear my child, and I will free you.”
Emotion flickered in her confident gaze. Such bearing for a slave. “That sounds agreeable, but what if you, ah, cannot produce a child?”
He gave a dark smile. “I’m alpha. I know I can, if I keep you in my bed long enough.”
Red flushed her face, whether from sensual heat or embarrassment, he could not tell. But he caught a delicate hint of arousal. Oh yes, they were sexually compatible. And he could do the deed to produce a healthy child.
“Becoming my mate doesn’t mean you will sit around all day and eat bonbons. Everyone in this pack works. We all contribute and benefit from the results,” he told her.
A real smile touched her face. “I’m used to hard work and I hate candy.”
“If we’re going to do this, then I need your absolute agreement.” Then his gaze sharpened as he studied her. “I’ve been told you are quite healthy. Anything in your history I should know about that may be passed onto offspring?”
“You mean, any history of insanity in my family? Well, only that my stupid parents killed Mages under Cadeyrn’s special protection, therefore inciting the wizard’s fury. He turned them into scorching balls of flames and me into his slave. I guess that might be considered insane.”
Sarcasm was a good defense. “Stupidity isn’t inherited.”
“I don’t know. My master, the ogre, was pretty dull-witted and his parents didn’t look so swift, either.”
His mouth quirked upwards. Robert stood and she did as well. He approached Aurora and stroked a finger across her face, enjoying the softness of her skin, but disturbed at her sunken cheekbones.
“I’m satisfied. Do you agree to do this?”
“I agree.” She looked around the office. “Do we sign now, or later?”
He’d learned quickly that business deals were best sealed first, lest the agreeing party change his or her mind. But something inside him tugged at her shuttered expression. She was making this deal because she wanted to be free, and because she was desperate.
He knew desperation. It had driven Robert to make a devil’s pact with Tristan, the Silver Wizard, exchanging his freedom to save his people after Cadeyrn had refused to help him. Robert rubbed the silver dragon tattoo on his shoulder. The Mage needed to be shown kindness first. That he would be a good mate to her, and provide for her needs. First, he must care for her. Aurora looked as if she’d last eaten a good meal back when flip phones were popular.
“Lunch first.” He thought of the formal rite that must take place for the blood oath. “Then I’ll take you on a tour and we’ll complete the blood oath.”
Relief flickered in her eyes.
He snapped his fingers. “Lady. Downstairs.”
Aurora’s mouth tightened. “I beg your pardon… You
have every right to do with me as you wish, but if possible, could you please call me by my name?”
Robert smiled at her dignified expression. “I was talking to the dog.”
“Oh!”
Lady rose from her bed and trotted toward him. He twisted his mouth in a wry smile. “Like the rest of my pack, she isn’t very well-trained.”
“Your Lupines don’t roll over or sit on command?”
She clapped a hand over her mouth, obviously regretting the snarky outburst. Robert’s smile widened. “I can get them all to stay.”
A flash of humor, a quick lift of her rosebud mouth. So there was life there, after all. Then the somber, obedient look returned.
Lady bumped her nose against Aurora’s leg. She squatted down and rubbed the dog’s head, earning a furious tail wag in return. He silently assessed the exchange. Lady was a good judge of character. She seldom took to strangers, preferring to stay by his side.
“Lady! Downstairs. Lunch time.”
The dog gave a happy woof, and bounded out of his office.
Robert led Aurora downstairs to the kitchen. She tried to maintain an air of cool indifference. Gods, he knew what that was like, pretending nothing mattered when inside, you were breaking apart. But her nostrils flared and her expression turned eager as the scent of cooking beef filled the air. The kitchen had an eight-burner range, stainless appliances and a long wood table in the center where some of the pack informally took meals.
“We’re having hamburgers for lunch,” he told her, pulling out a chair at the table.
Aurora stared at the seat, her head lowered. For some reason, the gesture sent a pang through him. He’d liked her earlier refusal to lower her gaze. That spark of spirit had probably fed her strength through years of servitude. But now, faced with a hearty meal and a small touch of basic kindness, she seemed lost.
Anger coiled inside him. What the hell had Others done to her?
“You should eat first. I’ll wait,” she murmured, remaining standing by the chair.
She was accustomed to serving. Maybe it was time someone else waited on her for a change. Lupines were fierce, but protective when it came to their own. And Aurora, like it or not, was his responsibility now.
Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Page 84
