“Projects want to hurt me? A friend sacrificed himself?” I banged on the glass wall. “It wasn’t my closest friend . . . Bladon?” No answer.
Bladon? Bladon was dead?
“Your friend was called a project X. This information is top secret. Every project has some kind of talent to them, and X was manipulating scent. He is no longer here, so there is no more protection for you anymore,” he said honestly to me. “Your scent is getting stronger, and it will eventually attract even more projects. The fact is that you will at some point have to accept a wolf or a pack as yours, and let them claim you several times over.”
“Never.” No way, nuh uh. “There must be something I can do. I won't lose my virginity to packs of wolves.”
“Roxie.” He lowered his voice. “You aren't a virgin anymore.”
I dropped the phone in my hand. No. I lowered my head, and my voice went dry. I took a moment for myself, trying to understand what he said. I didn't know how much time passed by before I picked up the phone again. “I'm not a virgin?”
“No.” He bit his lip, hard. “As I said before, you are genetically enhanced to accept it. You become aroused as projects touch you. After you lose your lust, your mind forgets what happened.” He shifted slightly. “So does the one who mated you.”
Roxie bit her own lip and screamed in her mind. “Where.”
“Restaurant.” He added it quickly, like it would make it less painful. “Almost an alley too but it was stopped.”
I'd been some slut to projects, and I didn't even remember. I felt disgusted as I held the phone. No wonder he wanted me here. It was harder to scream and run off in a police station. “Roxie.”
I heard his voice through the phone slightly, but I had pulled it away from my ear.
“Roxie.”
I held it back up, but my tears were too thick to look at him anymore. I didn't care what else he had to say now.
“It was me who took it.”
I lifted my eyes toward him. He took it?
“We don’t remember, but I know it wasn't forced or someone would have stopped us. Probably. I mean, don’t look at me like that.” His compassion was waning, but I didn’t care.
He was the hero. He was supposed to be the hero.
And he fucked me? “You bastard.” I tried to keep from crying but it was hard. “You bastard!”
“Don’t blame me,” he came back on me. “I told you, I don’t have any extra control. Besides, I already told you all this once. Besides your scent, your friend was manipulating your mind. He didn’t want you to know what you were. He wanted you to think you were normal. This isn’t the first time we met Roxie. I even went out with you once.”
“Went out?” No way.
“Your parents probably tried to tuck it away.” Hero sighed. “Look, it was all your poisonous scent and your former friend, so don’t try and―”
Nothing in the world could have stopped me from getting out of that police station.
Except the police that grabbed me. I fought and screamed for them to let me go, but they dragged me back to the seat.
“This isn’t over yet.” Hero snapped his fingers, and someone came through the front door that I knew. The person pushed his glasses up and waved at me. It was Greg, the school guy that told me to . . . something. To watch out for . . .
///“It’s pheromones.” Greg approached me. “You should be careful. He was busy fighting, no reason to notice you way up high unless it’s pheromones.”
“If it were pheromones, it would be for everyone,” Alexandra disagreed. “Hero has never even shown interest in any women.”
“Not all, others are attracted more to certain smells. Hero isn’t completely human we all know it.” He looked toward me. “Just, be careful. If it’s your scent, he wants sex.”///
“Where did that thought come from?” I asked looking toward him. Thoughts. Memories.
A restaurant.
“Meet the second X left in existence.” Hero looked toward him, but Greg didn’t respond. “When you don’t fight, no one discovers you. Smart X.” He got up and I trembled a second. “I am coming around. Your memories are going to slowly come back with no more blocking, and this X is manipulating your scent so we can be in the same room. I can’t do this next part like this, I just didn’t want to scare you.”
I watched as he came around and I felt my heart beating fast. I didn’t hear it beating fast though.
“Still you. Still me.” Hero nodded toward him. “This is Greg. As long as he’s around, we can be in the same vicinity. He will keep the smell of other wolves away too.” He moved closer. “Now. Business.”
Business. “What, some kind of saver fee?” I gestured to Greg. “A scent fee to him?”
“I am taking care of his personal wishes, don’t worry about that,” Hero answered. “As I will yours.”
What? “What do you mean?” I asked him.
He tapped his fingers up and down the side of the glass. “I don’t like anyone. I never will, humans don’t appeal to me and female projects are just as disgusting as the men.” He took a moment to look back toward Greg. “Most. I am sorry for hunting down X’s. You were closer than I thought.”
Greg didn’t answer. He simply pulled out his inhaler and puffed in it.
Hero stopped talking to him and looked back toward me. “I made that X, Bladon, a wolf promise. It was a death bed promise I can’t break, and there is only one way to keep it.” He chewed on his lip. “You have to marry me.”
I blinked. Several times. What? “Marry you?”
“You’ll be taken care of. I have billions, I just don’t do anything with it.” Hero groaned. “Don’t expect to divorce me and take anything. I don’t care about the money, but I have pride and lawyers for the important stuff.” He leaned against the glass wall. “The press aren’t going to buy that we just met and want to get married easily, we’ll need to have dates beforehand. The X will be present.” He gestured to Greg. “After the marriage his presence will no longer be needed. We will let nature happen until we remember.”
I’m supposed to marry him. Someone I just met. I was supposed to marry the Adventurer. A guy that wasn’t even really human. Not that I apparently had been but really? I pinched my arm. I hadn’t been dreaming. Bladon was gone, and I was supposed to marry this heroic billionaire.
It sounded like a fantasy, except in a fairytale I should have been in love. “There has to be another way,” I said, my voice quite dry. “Bladon is gone, and I have to marry you. I can’t believe that.”
“Your friend is gone,” Hero said again. “Of that, I am sure, and I am sorry.” He moved away from the glass. “I told you that one day you were bound to become a plaything to wolves. The only memories you’ll experience are the times between rough matings. After time, you would rather be dead.” He shrugged. “Maybe after the first you would be fine, but by the second and third? I am not dedicated to always saving you. I save the world at large, the majority rules. I told you that once too.”
I sort of remembered. A déjà vu feeling fell upon me. “A contract.”
“Yep. I can help, but I can’t promise anything without financial support.” Hero rolled his eyes. “If we were seen as ‘true lovers’, my right-hand man Bose believes it would work. I am the last project Y.” He gestured toward me. “You are the last Z. Kind, not barbaric and living as a human. No one would know it was of convenience.”
The teeth. My tongue slid across the back of my teeth involuntarily. “You tell me that Bladon is dead, that you screwed me, and strictly because of a promise, you want to marry me?”
This was no happily ever after.
“What?“ He scoffed and crossed his arms. “Don’t give me that look. You’re marrying a billionaire that never stays home. You’ll never see me and we will never interact. There isn’t much more someone in your position could ask for.” He gestured between us. “We are the only decent projects alive now.” He glanced toward the X. “Mostly.” He l
ooked back toward me. “If we have any sort of pack considering you are a Z and it’s your biological need,” he said as he gritted his teeth, “then fine. Don’t expect me to raise them though. I am busy, and I do not have time for that kind of triviality.”
Triviality. A trivial family. I just wanted to get out of there already. I kept myself under control knowing the police would just grab me again, but I couldn’t take that deal. “You want to marry me and have a family, a pack,” I said almost mockingly, “and then pretend it’s nothing.”
“It is nothing.” He shrugged. “We’re wolves. We aren’t attracted to humans, there is no one else. Face the facts. I don’t like them any better than you.” His eyes focused upon me in a glare. “We’ll keep up appearances for a month. I will even come out in public in my human form with you for a month. After that, the marriage, and then no more press.” He held his hands out in a swishing manner. “I hate press.” He gestured to his right-hand man. “Our first date will be scheduled this evening. I’ll take care of the arrangements and the clothing. Don’t try any of your clothing, it’ll just be considered ragged for the event. Bose will escort you around to get things for it.” He placed his hands behind him. “It will be the coming out party, welcoming my new little girlfriend to the world.”
Bitter. So bitter. His voice had been so bitter. Like he lost so much.
Except he hadn’t. I lost Bladon. I lost control of my own life. I lost control to some scent. I had been the one who should be like that, not him. “What do you want me to say to make you feel better?” I said it in the most contrived way I could manage as I matched his glare. “Oh poor baby. Having to offer himself to some girl just to save her?”
Hero didn’t respond. “I had a feeling you weren’t going to jump at it that fast.” He nodded. “A human wouldn’t have given it a second thought.”
“I am human,” I said coldly, “but I’m not into riches as much as living my own life. This marriage is essentially your version of buying me, and I won’t have it. It has to be accepted on both sides, and I will not do it.” I looked at the police holding me, then back at him. “Do whatever you have to, but I refuse to marry some . . .” I gave him the hardest glare I could muster. “Animal.”
That did it. He stood up, completely wide-eyed. He waved the policemen away and they let go of me. “Fine, go ahead. Rebel. Do it your way until you push your luck too hard and I have to kill you.” He reached in his pocket and threw some brooch at me. “As I said before, the trigger is in the eye. I will come if I can, but the majority wins. If I have another emergency, I am not wasting my time simply on you.”
What a fucking asshole. I stomped right out of that police station. I couldn’t believe the nerve of him. He was what everyone worshiped and adored? He was the one who saved us from all the major disasters? He kept our world from becoming wrecked and savaged by projects? Fine, he did, but he was nowhere near human. I hung onto that anger before a bit of realization hit me.
The X didn’t follow me.
~Hero~
Okay, so I wasn’t as welcoming as I should have been. I saw those looks though, she was blaming me. Me. Yes, it happened. I had no responsibility to it though, and it was her wolf friend who screwed up her memory. It was more her fault for being friends with him.
I looked over toward the X. “Follow her.”
“I can follow on the dates, like I agreed,” Greg answered shifting his glasses. “I can’t just stay around her all the time. I have school and a life. I’m happy to help, but that’s no way to live.”
“Well, I can’t just pay you to hang out with her. Same reason I can’t just give her family money.” Shoot, same problem. He wasn’t going to do that of his own accord, would he? “I’ll kill you if you don’t stay near her.” Nope, he didn’t even buy it slightly. Even he knew that I trusted the intelligence level of an X now. It felt less like killing an animal. Especially when said animal had shifting glasses and an inhaler. “Shit.”
“That was pathetic.” Bose came over by me, crossing his arms. “That is how you propose? We went over this. You were supposed to go with some ‘swept up when I first saw you’ excuse.”
“She’d figure it out. I’m no Romeo.” I growled. “I shouldn’t even have to be doing this.”
“You cannot keep coming to help her just to do her again. We have gone over this. If you were likely to one day get married to anyone, this option would not even be considered. But this is best for all parties involved.”
I knew he was right. I had gone over different options in my head 1000 different times already. My guardians wouldn’t allow her to be a courtezan, so marriage was the best way to get this done. Without the would-be bride’s cooperation, it would not be easy though.
“It has to be you, banishment or the other X,” Greg said. “You are supposed to be the best. Are you sure that you cannot control scent?”
I did not know the first thing about controlling scents. That was the talent of the X’s.
“Well, are you sure that she cannot control scent? Z was the last project.”
Hmm. Great point. Could Roxie have the ability to control scent? If she did, I would not have to go through this farce marriage. “If she had the ability, you could teach her.”
“Yeah, I suppose for the right price.”
There was no guarantee this would work but it was worth a try.
“Hero. Emergency.”
Chapter 6: Hate the Hero
~Roxie~
I heard a low growl at my door. Then, a scratching sound. Several scratching sounds. I turned to run but someone leaped out and . . .
and I didn't remember. Did I get cold cocked? I wasn't in my house anymore. It was a den and all around me were wolves. One of them licked my chin.
“I am the alpha, I believe she should go to me,” a brown wolf argued with a black one, snapping at him.
“I say she should breed with the whole pack,” the black one said as it snapped back at him. “There are no more like her.”
I felt another tongue across my neck.
“Ooh, I've heard tales of Z's,” he said anxiously. “Didn't know your scent was this powerful. You must be a damn special one.”
I looked at my hands and legs that were bound with rope. I could fall to my side and crawl, but I wouldn't get very far. If I did, it would only be because they were laughing at me. I was at their mercy.
“I am alpha, the woman belongs to me,” the brown wolf howled against the pack. “That is how it was done in the wild with our ancestors. So shall it be today.”
“Our ancestors were different than us,” a gray one argued. “There are not several projects of women who are like Z's. Name one who has grappled and taken a project wolf of any kind but Z?” No one barked. “They don't care to breed with us, but Z's do. They flat out enjoy it. We can't deny this Z her birthright.” He growled with an upbeat ending and looked in my direction. “They were made for many.”
As the wolves approached me, I waited for the inevitable memory wipe, but there was none. I had no tingle of arousal as they crept closer. Some of them turned into human forms while others remained wolves and snapped at me.
I yelled as one of them grabbed my shirt and tore it. A vicious hand wrapped around my neck though, and another held me still.
“You will eventually want us,” the one with his hand on her mouth whispered. “I don't know why you haven't succumbed yet, but we don’t got that kind of time right now.”
My future. This was my future. To be taken night after night. But how could I ever be turned on by this? One of them in a wolf form climbed on top of me. His eyes glowed slightly as he set himself low.
“Alpha goes first.”
I screamed in the hand, knowing it was no use, but didn't feel any pain. I heard a snap and a wild bark like nothing I’d ever heard before. When I looked forward, I saw Hero. He was in his white wolf form with saliva running from his mouth. His teeth were showing wide, but I saw traces of meat in it. The howling
from the alpha wolf on top of me indicated that it was definitely his.
Hero grabbed him again and swung him away. He still didn't speak any words, just raised his head in a mighty howl.
I watched as all the projects turned into wolves again, trying to corner him. It didn't work though. Hero bit, gnarled, fought and chewed his way through the projects before they were leaving, yelping with their tails between their legs.
Hero lapped at his paw, a little bloody from the battle. He looked at me a moment. “Do you need help?”
I looked away and tried to shield my half-exposed body. I didn't want him thinking I would thank him with some mating like an animal. He seemed to take the hint and climbed up some rocks at the back of the cave. He licked his bloody paw and waited. Seeing that he wasn't looking at me, I tried to shuffle the rope off myself. It didn't do much good, but I could at least keep myself facing the ground to avoid embarrassment when someone came since my top had surely been torn.
Embarrassment. Half-naked, covered in some wolf blood from a fight and dirt all over my body. My whole life was an embarrassment. A farce. How could I have any kind of life with those wolves always after me?
How could I trust the hero each time when he had taken me himself?
Did I really have to end it all in marriage?
Hero looked at me with a strange expression on his face. “I had to take care of an emergency first. I am sorry.”
Oh yeah, the brooch. I had forgot all about it, and left it at home. That means my mother must have known who took me.
“You almost made me break a wolf promise. You were almost hurt.”
He acted like the first part was more important than the second part. When in fact there was a third part for just a second I almost forgot. I backed away quickly. “Don’t come near me.” I was not losing myself into some slutty ecstasy in a wolf’s den with him.
“Relax.” He gestured with his nose toward the outside. “I had Greg tag along. For the right price, he was willing to come.”
Wolf in Hero Clothing Page 7
