The untamed Alpha and his human mate

Chapter 8: Caught

Clayton

I drove Bliss home, and she asked if she could see me again. I rarely saw the same woman twice, but she seemed ok; she was good with Amaya, so I gave her my number.

I thought perhaps she could help Amaya come out of her shell more, help her where I couldn’t. I was s.hit with the emotional side of things, and Bliss seemed better suited to helping Amaya.

As I drove back, I wondered if it would be a good idea to get her a therapist too. I didn’t want a weak, pathetic human who was scared of her own shadow and unable to complete tasks properly because she was having a nervous breakdown every two minutes. On the drive back, Bliss’s light perfume lingered faintly in the car, sweet, artificial, and not pleasant to my sensitive nose. It clung to the leather seats, and beneath all that was another scent. Amaya. Faint, soft, human.

When I got back and climbed out of the car, something felt off. Among the scent of the cool air with traces of last night’s rain and the dampness of the forest, I caught Amaya’s scent in the air and frowned. Why would I smell Amaya outside? I heard a loud rustling and stumbling, and heard someone gasp in pain down the side of the building. My jaw tightened. For f***k’s sake, she’d tried to escape.

I found her on the ground panting and heaving; the smell of blood, sharp and metallic, let me know she’d cut herself. Good, served her right. I leaned back against a tree and folded my arms, waiting.

“Going somewhere?” I asked casually.

She looked up at me, terror-stricken, but I had no pity for her right now. I’d been honest with her, told her the rules, and even given her the castle to spend alone in, and she still tried to escape.

She slowly got to her feet, too slowly for my liking, so I walked over and grabbed her by the shirt, yanking her up, and pushed her forwards. “Get the f***k back inside,” I growled.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“I don’t want to f*****g hear it,” I snarled and pushed her again, forcing her to walk back to the front of the castle.

I opened the door and shoved her through, and she fell to her knees crying.

“Quit f.ucking crying, that’s all you f.ucking do,” I snapped.

“What do you expect! I’m a slave, I’m forced to be here. I don’t want to be! Would you want to be held against your will?” She yelled in a burst of anger. I saw the fear in her eyes when she realised she’d just screamed at me, and then she quickly ducked her head, still sitting on her knees, and she shielded her head with her hands. “Sorry, please don’t hurt me,” she begged.

I sighed; she was right. I remembered how I felt being kept in the circus. I assumed treating her well enough would be enough, but it didn’t mean she had true freedom.

“You’re right,” I said.

She peeked up at me through her fingers in surprise, and I shrugged.

I held a hand out to her; she hesitated, then she placed her hand in mine. Her skin was cold, her hand small in my grip. I helped her to her feet. “What if I let you have the freedom to do what you want? You can still help keep the place clean and cook, but I’ll pay you for it like an actual job. If we build up trust, I can start allowing you to go out and do what you want too.”

“You would actually let me?” She whispered.

“Over time, I didn’t buy you to be some housekeeper anyway; the real reason is to have you find my daughter. Where she lives, I’m not allowed to go; killed too many people there, apparently.” I rolled my eyes.

She nodded and sniffled. “Ok.”

She went to go clean, and I muttered, “don’t bother; it’s practically f.ucking sparkling in here. Go do something you want to do.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know; what do you like to do?”

“Read?”

“Sure, got a whole-a.ss library down there to your left.”

She gave me a small smile and went towards it.

The rest of the day was boring. I checked the Red Eye Sect’s chat room, but they were staying low down for now after Thomas hadn’t returned.

In a world of supernaturals, it wasn’t all that uncommon to find a dead body, a fight gone bad, so I knew someone would come along and simply dispose of it.

When evening came, I looked out the window and saw a half moon. In a few days, I’d have to go into the forest, forced to spend three days in wolf form.

I made my own dinner, and when Amaya came out, she made her own, and when she finished eating, she tried to head up to her bedroom.

“You sleep with me tonight,” I said.

She stopped midstep and looked at me in horror at the idea of sleeping with me; that was a first.

“Did I hear you correctly? You want me to sleep with you?” She asked shyly.

I snorted and stood up from my chair. “Calm down, I’m not inviting you to bed to f***k, when I say sleep, I mean sleep. I don’t trust you after earlier not to attempt another escape from your window.”

She put her head down and nodded. “Ok. I’m allowed to enter your room now?”

“Yeah.”

“Would you like me to change the sheets?” She wouldn’t meet my eyes when she asked.

“Oh, right, uh, yeah, sure.” I’d used a condom, but I doubt she’d want to sleep in sheets I’d f.ucked someone else in.

She carried on up the stairs, and I watched her as she tripped on one step, looking mortified, only to trip on another. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing under my breath. So I’d gotten myself a clumsy girl.

Shaking my head, I went into my office and saw my phone flash up with a message. Grabbing it, I saw Bliss had messaged, asking when she could see me again. I chucked the phone back down on the table. I wasn’t one for technology, even phones, if I could help it. I’d message her later when I decided what day to see her again.

Another reason I didn’t give out my phone number to women anymore lit up the screen. A message from Kira, someone I’d slept with once, and now she wouldn’t leave me alone. She hadn’t had the balls to turn up at my door yet, just sent constant messages about seeing me, as though if she kept asking I’d one day change my mind. She’d only succeeded in solidifying my choice not to. When the phone rang and her name flashed on screen, I turned it off.

When I headed up to bed, I saw Amaya lying on the floor, shivering and cold.

“What the f***k are you doing?”

She quickly sat up and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d want me actually sleeping in your bed.”

“I do. How else am I supposed to make sure you don’t go sneaking off?”

“Right, I’m heavy and fat enough I’d move the bed enough to wake you,” she whispered.

I snorted a laugh and quickly swallowed it. “f***k me, that’s not what I was thinking at all, but I am a light sleeper, so yes, I’d know if you slid out of bed. And I don’t want to hear you use that awful way to describe yourself again.”

“Fat?” She asked.

“Yes, stop describing yourself that way.”

“But I am?”

“Well, there’s a nicer way to put it.”

“Like?”

“You’re a bigger woman for one.”

“Why do you care how I describe myself?” She asked and then ducked her head down low as if worried she was asking too many questions.

I sighed and said, “honestly? I don’t give a f**k, but I’m sick of this whole pathetic, meek, weak, woe- is- me attitude; that’s not going to help you find my daughter.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Just get in the bed; I’m tired, and we can talk more about it tomorrow.”

I watched her shyly shuffle her way towards the bed and climb in, lying as far to the edge as she could.

“Do I repulse you that much?” I asked.

She looked at me wide-eyed and quickly said, “no! Of course not, I just don’t want to take up too much space being f—big,” she corrected at the end.

I frowned at her and snorted, “it’s a f.ucking king-size bed; there’s more than enough space.”

I usually slept naked, or at least topless, but I’d probably give her a heart attack if I did that, give her the wrong intentions, so I found some blue checkered PJ trousers to pull on and a grey t-shirt, then climbed in beside her.

We didn’t make physical contact, again I didn’t want to freak her out, humans were weird creatures, sharing a bed with the opposite s**x always seemed to mean something s****l with them.

For us werewolves it was normal to share a bed or sleep together like a puppy pile, no different from real wolf packs, the comfort of another pack member beside you, but of course this human was not pack to me, at most she was a business exchange, I’d bought her to use her in find my daughter nothing more, and in order for her to succeed I needed to build her confidence, make her stronger both mentally and physically.

The last thing I needed was someone calling her names in the street and she falls to the ground a huddled mess, and that’s all she was right now, the simplest thing set her off into a sobbing mess, so as much as I hated humans I needed to help this one, help toughen her up so she could focus and not get distracted when searching for my daughter.

Amaya didn’t mean anything to me; she was only useful until I had my daughter back. After that? I wasn’t sure if I would just kill her or sell her to someone else; I was leaning more towards my usual method. Kill.