Chapter 4
1082 Words
Scarlett
The drive to the Storm Pack estate takes hours. The kind of dark, endless stretch of road that seems designed to put you to sleep or make you question what led up to you traveling there. Mostly the latter.
Each mile eats away at who I used to be. I left my home, my pride, and my last thread of control in that hospital room. All for Violet. And I’d do it again. Even if it means handing my soul to a monster in a tailored suit.
The city gives way to mountains, then the forests thicken again. When we finally pull into a long driveway flanked by cold stone statues and weeping trees, I realize just how far from home we are.
The Storm Pack mansion looks like a damn fortress. Black stone. Towering spires. Glowing windows.
...I don’t like this place.
It’s past midnight, but the air whirrs like we’re being watched from the dark. The trees are taller here. A crow cries out somewhere in the woods, and I catch a few glowing eyes.
It must be Rhodes’ pack members.
Lycans.
The SUV hums to a stop. The door opens.
Rhodes climbs out first, then holds the door while Isabella gently tries to wake Violet. She stirs but can’t lift her head.
Rhodes glances into the forest. “Cassian,” he says.
The bushes in the forest rattle, and I hold my breath when something huge and heavy moves behind them.
I expect to see a monstrous lycan, but a naked man steps out. Tall and beautiful with midnight hair and eyes like granite. He smells like a lycan, and his aura is calm. Sharp. Loyal. This is a man who would die for Rhodes.
“My Beta,” Rhodes explains with a glance my way before looking at the other man. “I need the weak woman carried to the guest quarters.”
Cassian nods, then his gaze lands on Violet.
Rhodes turns to Isabella. “Isabella, go with him.”
Isabella offers a weak smile. Cassian scoops Violet up gently and cradles her against his chest.
For a long moment, he doesn’t move. Just looks at her like she’s something sacred and broken. A puzzle his instincts want to protect.
Then it’s gone.
Isabella trails after him silently.
I move to follow.
“Stay,” Rhodes commands.
My body stops.
Literally. Stops. Like someone yanked an invisible leash.
This is the blood contract at work.
It’s not just my muscles that lock. It’s something deeper. Like my soul recognizes him as a master. My wolf, too. The part of the silver wolf that lives in me goes still. Obedient. Terrified.
I have to fight back!
My heart pounds when I try to move, but I can’t. I swivel my head to glare at Rhodes with fire in my eyes. “Are you serious?!”
He steps closer. “Very.”
The command releases just enough for me to breathe freely. But I’m still rooted in place like a toy in the hands of a child.
“You’ll be sleeping in the quarters reserved for staff,” Rhodes says casually. “Where the other maids and butlers stay. Unless you’d prefer a cage.”
I open my mouth to tell him exactly what I think of that idea—
“Close it,” he murmurs.
My jaw snaps shut.
Doesn’t stop me from trying to open it. Panic flashes through me when I try. It feels like someone is burning the very flesh on my lips. Yet I keep fighting. My fingers fly to my mouth, pulling at it, but the muscles won’t respond.
Rhodes watches me like I’m a science experiment. Calculating. Interested. Pleased.
He takes a step forward and grips my chin between two fingers, tilting my face up to his.
“You’ll learn, little wolf. Your mouth is dangerous. I’m simply teaching you how to use it properly.”
Tears of fury sting my eyes. My entire body is trembling, not from fear, but from humiliation. I’m not his toy. I’m not.
I can fight this. I can prove that I’m not some obedient lapdog whose mouth he can silence with his blood magic!
But the harder I fight, the more the chain on my arm burns like a reminder that I’m not my own person anymore.
Rhodes smiles like he knows. “Burns, doesn’t it?”
He means the chain.
My eyes narrow to say a silent, “f**k you.”
He smiles. “Ever a fighter.” Then his voice drops, velvet over ice. “But while I love your shape tongue, I do not like that you don’t know your role yet, Scarlett Heartlock. You’re my little slave, and if you challenge me again… maybe I won’t be so kind in the future.”
My heart jerks.
I want to ask him what he means by that threat, but I can’t. His magic prevents me from speaking.
But he knows.
He stares down into my eyes. “You need to give in.”
Give in? As if I would—
“Disobey me again,” he whispers, “and your sister will suffer for it.”
Now he is threatening to hurt Violet?!
I want to scream. Fight. Rip his throat out. But Violet means the world to me. I can’t create drama if it means putting her life in danger.
So I nod, once. Stiffly. He’s won... for now.
“That’s what I thought...” Rhodes releases me.
I stagger back, rubbing my mouth, hating how violated I feel. How powerless.
“Left corridor,” Rhodes says, pointing toward the far end of the estate. “Second door. You’ll find your uniform waiting.”
Uniform?
He’s already turned his back on me.
I bite my tongue and walk the path he pointed out. Each step feels heavier than the last.
I traded my freedom for Violet’s life, and now I’m in the belly of the beast.
“Welcome to the Storm Pack, Scarlett Heartlock,” I murmur to myself. “Hope you survive the night.”
The chain on my arm is pulsing. Not painfully. Just enough to say that Rhodes is watching me.
Fucking Rhodes.
I hate him already, but I will play the part of being his slave. I will wear the chains. I will clean his laundry and cook him food. But I swear to the gods that I will find a way to make him bleed.
- Writer
