by Alisa Woods
“You didn’t harm her, did you?”
“She’s fine, Mace.”
“Then go.”
“Not even a thank you, Ma’am?”
“Get out.”
The door opening and closing.
Mia struggled to open her eyes. She blinked, and the room came into focus. Mace loomed over her. Jak still stood by the door, impassive. What had he said? That she could delay it, but she couldn’t stop it: the shifting. The submission. That was coming next, but she didn’t think she had any strength to withstand it. She felt about as strong as a wet paper towel: one particularly strong tug, and she would rip apart.
“Get up.” It was Mace’s voice, but she was unsure who he was talking to. Jeeter’s hands left her body, and Mia missed their touch, but even so, she felt a little of her strength returning. That wolfy ability to recover from just about anything—anything short of a carved-out heart—was making itself known. But still, she was weak. So weak. Even more, it felt like her spirit was breaking. This was what Mace wanted: to break her. She didn’t want to give him the pleasure, but if he ordered her to submit to him… she didn’t know if she could fight it.
She whined and looked to Jak again. But he was as still as a statue next to the door. If she couldn’t fight the submission, Mace would claim her. Probably right now. Would he order Jak away or would he stay and watch? What about Jeeter? It was humiliating to even think about.
Something deep inside her welled up and protested. She wasn’t supposed to be mated to Mace. Lucas was the one she belonged with. And Lucas was coming for her, if she could just hold on…
“Get her off the floor.” Mace’s voice again.
A scrape of hard-soled shoes, and Jak’s hands were on her, lifting her gently. He held her upright as her legs wobbled under her. He didn’t say anything, but his touch was careful, like he knew exactly how fragile she was at that moment.
Mace stepped in front of her, looking down. She peered up at him, giving him all the hatred she could in her glare… but he was all smiles.
“Well fought, Mia,” he said. “You’re even stronger than I guessed. You’ll make a fine addition to my harem.”
Mia’s stomach heaved. Harem? Seriously? This guy was a piece of work. Lucas wouldn’t even claim her when she wanted him to, simply because he thought he couldn’t protect her the way she deserved. He was everything Mace was not—good and kind and decent.
Jak’s hands left her, and she teetered, but managed to stay upright.
To her horror, though, Mace shifted until he was in wolf form before her.
Submit.
The command almost knocked her over. It swept like a wave through her already jittery system.
No, she thought. You can’t have me. She had no idea if that thought would keep her from submitting, but it was how she truly felt, regardless.
Mia, Mia, Mace thought. He stepped forward and rubbed his muzzle all over hers. She turned her head away in disgust, but he just licked the side of her face. You’re perfect. Strong. Resistant. A fighter to the last. Such a challenge. Exactly the kind of mate I want in my bed. And you’ll welp the strongest of wolves for my pack. Don’t you see? You were meant to belong to me, Mia.
I do not belong to you! she thought.
Oh, but you will, he thought. Submit.
Her head bowed with the strength of the command. No, she thought, but her resistance was fading.
Submit to your alpha.
You’re not my alpha, she thought, but she leaned back, forepaws stretched before her. It was like her body was weighed down by a tremendously heavy blanket, and she couldn’t help but assume the position of submission.
Submit to me, Mia, and you will forever belong to me.
No, she thought, but the last vestige of her resistance fell away like a mist. I belong to Lucas. Then her tail tucked between her legs, and her submission was complete. She could feel the bond seizing her, a magical thing that stretched between her and her alpha: Mace.
He stepped back to glare his dark wolf eyes into hers. What?
I belong to Lucas and nothing you say or do can change that. Somewhere from within her, she held onto that core belief, even in submission. She would do whatever Mace told her. She couldn’t resist her alpha. His will was her command. But she could still speak the truth to him. And that was the truth: she belonged to Lucas, and no matter what Mace did to her, that would always be true.
Mace growled, then he shifted quickly into human form. The submission bond dimmed a little, but she was still in her wolf form, and it still gripped her like a physical force. She wouldn’t move or shift or do anything until he allowed it.
She waited.
He growled, stomping around the room and shoving on his clothes. She couldn’t understand why he was upset, but she waited patiently for his command to release her.
Mace stalked up to Jak, whose arms were folded as he stood by the door.
“Has Lucas claimed her?” Mace shouted in his face.
“What?” Jak asked, then shot a look at Mia. She could barely see them with her eyes downcast, awaiting Mace’s commands.
“The Sparks wolf! Has he taken a new mate? Why haven’t I heard of this before?”
Jak’s eyes narrowed, still examining Mia. “I don’t know.” He paused, then looked to Mace. “But if she’s his, you can’t claim her.”
“The hell I can’t!” Mace spun away from him and stalked over to her. “Rise!” he commanded her.
Her muscles screamed their protest, but her alpha’s command was absolute. She rose up from her submission pose and shifted all in one motion. Only when she stood naked and shaking in front of him did she notice the clothes she shed in the rapid shift the witch’s spell had commanded. They lay at her feet.
Before she could decide whether she should pick them up and get dressed, Mace had grabbed hold of her around the waist and yanked her close to him. Her bare skin slid against his chest and the fabric of his still-open shirt, but it evoked nothing but horror. This was it. He wasn’t even going to wait for the others to leave. Shudders ran across her back, and every hair on her body stood on end.
With his other hand, Mace grabbed her hair and bent her head back. He growled into her neck, like he was itching to bite her. “Has another wolf claimed you?”
Her mind was whirring. What had Lucas said about the claiming? Her head was dizzy with trying to think: the bond was for life. It could only be broken by the death of the male. She remembered a male could have more than one mate, but Lucas had never explained what stopped the reverse from happening. Could a female be bound to more than one male? He didn’t really say… just that she would be bound. For life. Did that mean… would a second claiming kill her?
Mace shook her. “Answer me!”
She didn’t know the right answer—would it stop him, if he thought Lucas had actually claimed her already? Or would it anger him, spur him on? Behind Mace, Jak had edged up to them. He gave her a small nod. She wasn’t entirely certain, but she took a guess. He was trying to help her delay him again.
“Yes,” Mia eeked out, her teeth clamped against the pain of Mace’s hold on her hair. “Lucas is my mate.”
Mace growled and gripped her hair even tighter. “I don’t care who has claimed you, I will make you mine. Maybe Lucas needs to find a convenient way to die.”
Mia’s eyes went wide. No! She couldn’t let that—
“Your father would not be happy to see a dead female wolf in his lair.” Jak’s voice was soft, but it froze Mace. Anger rippled across his face, but his hold on Mia relaxed.
A dead wolf? Mia swallowed. So it would kill her. Or at least, it would if she was actually mated.
Mace released her and shoved her back on the bed. He stared at her with a hateful loathing that made her skin crawl. Jeeter had scooped up her clothes from the floor and vainly tried to cover Mia with them. Mia couldn’t look away from her alpha—the bond’s power was intense, even now in human form. She held her t-shirt
over her chest, even as his stare kept her captive.
“She’s lying.” Mace’s voice was cold. And dangerous. Mia had the sense she would pay for lying to him, if he found out.
“Perhaps,” Jak said evenly. “But if she’s not…”
Mace growled, but looked away from her to glare at Jak, thus releasing her from his stare. Mia’s hands were shaking so badly, Jeeter had to help her get her t-shirt on over her head.
“There’s a simple test,” Jak said, his tone cool. “Better safe than sorry.”
“Bring it. Tell me the moment you know.” Mace spun away and angrily strode from the room.
Jak waited until the door closed behind him, then turned to Mia. “I didn’t know you were already mated.”
Mia tried to keep a neutral face. “I forgot to bring it up earlier. Things were a little… tense.”
He arched an eyebrow but nodded. “It will take a little time to get the test and the results. No more than a few hours, though.”
Mia nodded. As he turned to leave the room, she couldn’t help wondering why he was helping her. Or even if he really was helping her. But she couldn’t worry about that now.
As soon as the door closed behind Jak, her roommate started saying, “Oh my god, Mia,” over and over. Finally, she broke that pattern with a shaky breath. “I was so scared for you.”
Then she stopped rambling and helped Mia get dressed. The two of them curled up on the bed, holding each other in silence. Exhaustion swept over Mia. She couldn’t believe she felt sleepy with everything that had happened—the terror of Mace’s grasp, the horror of submitting to him, the scoring marks all of it left across her soul—but she was tired. Deathly tired.
Mia burrowed her head into the pillow and let herself drift into sleep.
Sometime later, Jak brought in a short woman who drew some blood from Mia and then left. She barely roused from her sleep for it, lapsing back again as soon as they were gone. By the time Mia awoke again, night had fallen. It was utterly dark in their room except for the sliver of moonlight falling between the curtains. Jeeter slept next to her. Soft snores told Mia her roommate was just as wiped out from the ordeal as she was, even without the witch spell and forced submission.
The echo of that bond still shivered through her. Even in human form, she could feel its hold on her, like a heavy blanket holding her down. The perimeters of it were the limits of what she could do. She could feel it binding her to this place: her alpha’s home. Now it was her home, too. It was where she belonged, and where she would always belong. That belonging would be even more complete when her alpha came to claim her, which would happen as soon as he knew the truth about her not being mated to anyone else.
She had always had a sense that something was missing in her life, but she had never quite known what it was. No father. No pack. Not even a mother who knew anything about what Mia truly was. Before she discovered this world of wolves, she didn’t even have words for that essential thing was missing, but now she knew: her wolf wanted to belong. To a pack. To a mate. It called to the core of her being to not be alone in the world. Her wolf knew she shouldn’t have to fight through life, every step of the way, all by herself.
And now she wouldn’t. Even if Mace wasn’t the alpha she might have wished for, he was the alpha she had. And her wolf sense told her the magic of the submission bond was just a glimmer of what the claiming would be like: when her alpha took her, the sense of belonging would be utter and complete. He would care for her, and his home would forever be hers. Part of her mind fought valiantly against the idea that this house of Mace’s was her home, but the submission bond was so strong that it didn’t matter. Something deep in her bones cemented her to this place. With Mace.
And soon he would claim her.
Her mind fought against that thought, too. Before submitting to Mace, she really had belonged with Lucas. If only he had been ready for a mate. Being with him would have been so much better: Lucas would have cared for her. She would have been more than a worthy conquest. More than just a vehicle for welping more, stronger wolves. Lucas would have cared for her human side as much as her wolf.
But he had lied to her when he said it would feel the same with someone else. Even with her submission bond to Mace muddling her brain, she knew that wasn’t true. It wasn’t the same with Mace… it would never be that all-consuming, burning heat she had with Lucas… but none of that really mattered.
This was the life she would have now.
She would have to make the best of it.
She tried to picture Mace claiming her, taking her into his bed, as a good thing. But her body rebelled and shook so hard, she nearly woke up Jeeter. Mia took a deep breath and tried again to prepare her mind for what was coming. Jak said it would be a few hours at most. She needed to be ready when the time actually arrived. It would be better that way. Or maybe better wasn’t the right word.
Tolerable, perhaps.
As she wrestled with that idea, the door to her room slowly creaked open. Mia twisted her head to see Jak slip in and close the door behind him. He didn’t turn the lights on, probably because he didn’t want to startle them. Mia tried to ease up to sitting without waking Jeeter.
“Did you get the test results back?” she asked quietly, stretching the sore spots from her arms and neck. She knew the test would show she was unmated. That Mace could claim her without killing her. She was a little surprised he would care, but apparently his father would. Or someone. Enough that it stopped Mace.
But now that he knew the truth, he would be free to do what he wanted with her. Forever.
“I’m not here about the test results.” Jak eased onto the bed next to her. He still hadn’t turned on the light. “I’ve come to help you escape.”
“What do you mean, you’re rescuing me?” Mia stared at Jak, the Red pack wolf who had been helping her all along with delaying Mace’s attempt to claim her. But she had already submitted to her alpha. As soon as he found out she wasn’t already mated to another wolf, he would come for her. “What about the test results?”
“I’ve delayed the results as long as I can,” Jak said, “but they’ll probably finish the analysis within the hour. You have to leave before then.”
“Leave?” Mia frowned and looked down at the bed she was sitting on. Her roommate, Jupiter, was sleeping next to her. Night had fallen while she and Jeeter had been sleeping, and Jak hadn’t turned on the light when he came in. There was just the moonlight blanketing everything with its silver sheen. She looked back up at Jak. “I can’t leave. Mace will be here any minute.”
The dark-haired, dark-eyed shifter gave her a soft look. “It’s the submission bond, Mia. It’s confusing you. You want to escape.”
Escape? She couldn’t simply walk out of Mace’s house. Not just because she knew the doors were locked, but because this was where she belonged. Mia shook her head, literally trying to fling those thoughts, those feelings, out of her head. She did want to escape. If that was possible. Even as she thought it, she doubted it.
“Wake your roommate,” Jak insisted. “Ask her if she wants to leave.”
Jupiter stirred next to her, their voices disturbing her sleep. Jeeter would want to leave, of course. She wasn’t a wolf. Mace wasn’t her alpha. Some of the clouds cleared from Mia’s mind. If Jak could get Jeeter out, she had to help him.
“Jeeter,” she said in a hoarse whisper while she shook her roommate’s shoulder. “Jeeter, wake up.”
Her roommate slowly opened her eyes and squinted at her. “Mia?”
“Jak’s going to help you escape.” The more she thought about it, the more urgent the idea became. Mia scrambled up from the bed and urged Jupiter to do the same. She was slower moving, still waking up, but she managed it.
“I’m helping you both escape.” There was disappointment in Jak’s voice, a sadness that made Mia frown. Oh, right—he wanted them both to leave. And that seemed like a legit thing to do, although as soon as she thought that, her mind got fuz
zy again. Like a haze had settled on her brain and blurred everything at the edges. Her wolf didn’t want to leave, that much she was certain about. But what about her human side? Did she want to escape?
Mia pictured being claimed by Mace. It made her human body shudder.
She nodded to herself then looked up into Jak’s concerned face. “I want to escape, too.”
Relief made his shoulders drop. “Good. Let’s go.”
Mia held Jupiter’s hand and followed Jak to the door. He peeked out into the hall, then motioned for them to follow. The hallway and stairwells were dark, but there was light coming from underneath the bedroom door next to hers: Mace’s bedroom. Mia hesitated by the door, straining to hear, afraid their footfalls might make the floor creak. Muffled sounds came from behind the door, not quite voices. Jak urged them toward the stairwell, and she reluctantly followed. As they descended, he put a finger over his lips to keep them quiet. At the bottom, she saw Mace’s beta, Alric, passed out on the white leather couch. Beer bottles littered the nearby table. Mia’s wolf bristled: Mace’s beta was supposed to be guarding her, but he’d apparently drunk himself into a stupor instead.
She frowned. That thought didn’t fit with the fact that she was sneaking out with Jupiter and Jak. Escaping. The word rolled around in her mind but it still felt strange: why would she leave her alpha?
Jak had taken her by the elbow, steering her toward the front door. Jupiter was already outside in the moon-drenched front yard, which looked like it could be any suburban home in Seattle: lush carpet of grass, decorative bushes, and a few broad-leafed trees lining the driveway. The other houses cast yellow spotlights to compete with the moon’s silver frosting over the landscape, including the black drive that wound through the Red pack compound.
Mia stood in the open doorway, her stomach twisted in knots. This was Mace’s domain. His territory was marked: she could feel the presence of him hanging over her. Jak and Jeeter were urging her forward, but her feet were welded in place. Why was she leaving?
