Bleed Me Dry, Alpha

Chapter 2

The drive home is long and slow as I make my careful way up the mountain with eyes so puffy from crying that I can barely see the road. As I pull into our private drive, any hopes of arriving unnoticed evaporate like morning mist.

In the distance, I see the unmistakable silhouette of my husband’s sleek black sedan, parked next to the garage covered in muck and leaves from a swift drive through the storm. After two months away, the alpha has finally returned.

Taking some deep breaths I step out of my car and listen carefully for any signs that my husband is nearby. It’s possible that he’s on the other side of the estate considering how large it is. Crimson Sky Pack is one of the largest in the North. Our packhouse can comfortably house over 300 wolves and the grounds around it cover several acres of mountainous forest hunting grounds.

He could be anywhere.

The sound of my breath and the rapid beating of my heart seem loud in my ears as I walk through the hall on feather-light feet. Inhaling deeply, I pray that I can make it to my room unobserved.

But as soon as I round the final corner before my room, the light glowing under the door to his study crumbles the last of my hope.

“There isn’t enough time,” The alpha’s voice breaks the eerie silence and I jump back startled at the sudden noise as if he had been right next to me. “No, it can’t wait. It must be tonight!”

The Alpha bellows and roars into his phone as I make my way past his study door.

Right before everything goes strangely, suddenly, quiet. The sound of a loose floorboard creaking is the only warning I get before my husband grabs me from behind and slams me into the wall.

“Where have you been, Annalise?” Logan demands, seizing me by the neck when I don’t reply immediately. “Why weren’t you here when I returned?”

I gasp, struggling for air as his massive hand squeezes my throat. “Please Logan, I…I can’t breathe.”

“Don’t be so overdramatic,” he snaps, his eyes glowing bright blue as he looks at me with ice-cold contempt, “If you couldn’t breathe, you wouldn’t be able to lie to me.”

He drops me without warning and I land with a solid thump. Reaching forward, I wrap my arms around my midsection, preparing in case he kicks me. He doesn’t, thank the Goddess, as he stands over me bellowing his foul accusations. I can take a beating, but our child, that innocent little life, cannot.

“I’ve been calling you for HOURS, Annalise. Why didn’t you answer your damn phone,” Logan reaches forward, snapping the strap of my purse right before rifling through it to find my two phones. The first one, the phone I keep for pack business, he tosses aside and it lands with a clatter behind us.

He flips open the second phone, the private line I am required to keep for communicating with him and scowls as he shoves the dead phone in my face as he screams more obscenities, calling me useless, worthless, pathetic.

“You know what, it doesn’t f*****g matter,” Logan hauls me to my feet, gouging my arm with his partially extended claws.” We need to get you hooked up immediately. Eloise needs a transfusion.”

“NO!” I screech, dropping my weight into my heels and forcing him to stop. I need to stop him. I can’t let him kill our child. “You can’t! I can’t!”

Logan shifts his weight and reaches back to grab a fistful of my hair, pulling it tight as he uses it to make me move forward. “You had to make this difficult. Eloise was in an accident and this is how you behave?”

“I can’t give blood!” I protest. Usually, I just give in but this time I feel justified in forcing him to hear me out. I can’t risk my health anymore, not with another life depending on me.

“You don’t have a choice,” he slams me against our bedroom door, his chest heaving. “You signed a contract! I held up my end, I’m not letting you get out of yours!”

The contract, our arrangement–my blood in exchange for his hand in marriage and the title of Luna. I agreed hoping someday he’d learn to love me, his fated mate, as much as I love him.

“No,” I yank myself free of his grasp, feeling a clump of hair tear from my scalp. “I won’t, I can’t I…“I’m…I’m…” My palms are sweating as I take another step back out of his reach. “I’m….I’m anemic! I can’t give blood anymore. I’m pr…”

Before I can tell him about our pup, his handsome face twists in a nasty snarl as he snatches me by the arm and yanks me forward. “I already know you’re anemic, I’ve known for months.”

He already knows I’m unwell, but he’s been taking my blood. He even took extra before his trip. Does he hate me so much that he’d welcome my death?

Dragging me into the walk-in closet, the alpha kicks open a hidden door revealing a well-lit chamber with gleaming metal surfaces. At the center of the room is a cushioned chair with thick leather straps.

And standing next to the chair is the physician. His features are completely hidden between his cap, mask, and goggles, but I know he is the same loyal gamma that has been there every time by his bitter scent and the excited gleam in his eyes when he sees us enter.

Pushing me down into the chair, Logan straps my arms down while the doctor works on my feet. Once they are done, Logan leans over the chair, his expression blank and unreadable.

“I don’t care if you’re sick or not, Annalise.” He positions his lips near my ear, whispering his hateful truth. “ The only reason you’re here is because I find you useful. If at any point you stop being useful, I’ll drain you dry, you selfish bitch..”

Logan turns to the physician and instructs him to extract 3 units of blood this time. Usually, they only take one.

“Alpha, that’s above the safe limit,” the doctor warns. “A body only holds 10 pints. She’ll need to recover between extractions and…”

“Take 3,” he commands, using his alpha voice to force the issue “Annalise is strong, she can handle it. Eloise needs it more.”

Begging him to stop, my eyes are full of tears as the doctor returns to his work without another word of argument.

Opening the door to leave, Logan looks over his shoulder one last time. “If she continues to beg, feel free to gag her.”

The edges of the room seem to creep closer as stars fill my eyes and my vision grows dark. My body, already so weak from fighting, slowly gives up and my mind floats away.

Much to my surprise, I did not die that afternoon. I wake up to an empty room, my husband has forgotten all about me. The comforter is heavy and my body slow as I pull myself out of bed and grab a robe. The wood floor radiates cold through my slippers and my body rattles with cold as it struggles to warm from within. They took too much this time, I’m not sure if I’ll ever recover.

And my baby…Oh Goddess let him be okay.

I’m not just hungry, I’m ravenous. Usually after a donation, they bring me an extra large meal to help me rebuild my blood. But this time there is nothing in my room, and as I open up my door, nothing in the hall.

Something hard hits the wall between the two rooms.

“Oh stop it, Logan,” she teases with a giggle. “You’ll wake the dead.”

“She isn’t dead yet,” he growls playfully.

The door to their room is open. How could they be so careless? What if a servant came by and…

Logan is nestled between Eloise’s legs, her back against the wall as she rests on top of the guest room dresser. He is nibbling her neck wearing a long pearl necklace and little else. My husband is looking the other way, towards the window.

Eloise, however, is looking directly at me.

“You didn’t have to take so much blood,” She projects her words clearly, making sure I can hear every syllable. “The cut in my thigh wasn’t that deep, I would have healed it on my own.”

“You are too caring,” he admonishes her. “You scared me, Eloise. Falling from that ski lift. When you hit that tree, there was so much blood and I..you are too precious to risk,” My husband tells his mistress, kissing her softly just below her ear. “My perfect angel.”

“Oh Logan,” she leans to the side, her white-blonde hair cascading across her shoulder in a delicate frosty curtain, “say it again.”

“You are perfection…” he breathes as he kisses his way down her neck, to her chest., “...my angel, my love…”

Listening to them and hearing them loving one another was more than I could take. How could he be so shameless as to flaunt his mistress right next door to me while I’m in so much pain recovering from giving her the gift of my blood? Haven’t I given enough? Does he need to embarrass me too?

Sick to my stomach with heartbreak, I barely make it to the bathroom before I vomit. Biting my lip, I force myself not to scream as he enters her, betraying our mating bond and our marriage with every thrust.

No…for the sake of our little one, I must find a way to end this as soon as possible. If I don’t, neither one of us will survive his father.