Marked For His Wrath

Chapter 4

She beat against his chest with all her strength, fighting as though her life depended on it and for a moment, it was as if all her efforts were wasted until he suddenly stopped and grabbed both of her hands as if in an after thought.

“Okay sweetheart. It was cute at first, but trust me, I don’t like my whores pretending to be chaste . . . . . don’t make me lose my patience. You can save the antics for later.”

Ariana sucked in a breath. She fixed her steady green eyes on him, silently willing him to believe her. “I am not a whore.”

Again, her voice was barely a whisper and she half thought he hadn’t heard her, but then his lips twisted up in a wry smile she was getting familiar with.

He nodded. “Okay. So tell me why you’re here then. Who gave you up for the collection?”

She sucked in a nervous breath. “My step father, Jack Parker.”

Alpha Jared stopped, and his grey eyes watched her intensely. Without a word, he got up from the bed and went over to the decanter to pour himself another shot of whiskey.

Jack Parker was his former beta. A Werewolf who was one of the most truant males he had ever known. Jack had stolen something important, very vital information from him before he had turned rogue and fled the pack. Now was it a coincidence that Jack’s step daughter was in his sheets playing ‘catch me.’

He turned to look at her, his grey eyes cold now, and totally void of any kind of emotion. She was half lying on the bed, supporting her weight on her slender arms. Her hair tumbled about all over her face in complete disarray, it’s dark curls exaggerating the silky paleness of her skin. Her lips were slightly swollen from his kisses and her seemingly innocent green eyes stared at him, a silent plea in them.

She looked innocent, vulnerable, and very lovely. The kind of female a male would die to protect.

The Alpha laughed harshly. Knowing Jack as he did, the male had chosen the perfect bait, but he was not going to fall for it. It was obvious the lovely human girl on his bed and come to steal more information from him, probably information to sell to the highest bidder.

He flung the empty glass out of the window and strolled over to meet her. Yanking her up with her hair, he pulled her to her feet, ignoring the pain that clouded her large green eyes.

This time, when Alpha Jared crushed his lips to hers, he did it with the intention to hurt. He heard her whimper, but it only stirred him on – he wasn’t known as a ruthless beast for nothing was he?

His hands tore at her clothes, roughly stripping her, and he was sure, hurting her in the process. When his lips finally left hers, it was to whisper. “We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Which do you prefer?”

Ariana swallowed as a sob tore at her throat. She knew it was over. All chances of the Alpha letting her go was gone. For some reason, the mention of her step father’s name seemed to have triggered him.

“The easy way,” again, her voice sounded so vulnerable it was barely a whisper.

The Alpha let go of her then, and Ari felt the bite of the cold evenings breeze against her bare body. She missed the warmth of his skin pressed against her. She shivered slightly as she hugged herself, partly for warmth, and partly to cover naked body from the unfathomable darkness of his gaze.

“Sit down.”

It was a simple command she dared not disobey. She walked backwards towards the bed, trying to cover as much of her as she could with her tiny hands.

“Oh for the sake of the moon can you stop the pretense at modesty. We both know your are far from modest, or Jack wouldn’t send you on missions that involved seduction.”

Ariana nodded as a shiver wracked through her body. She did not know why she was nodding, she only knew that she needed to agree with everything the Alpha said – maybe then, he’d take pity on her. Her eyes clouded with tears and she fought hard at them, but then a lone tear managed to slip throughout her long dark lashes – it seemed to make the Alpha even more furious.

“Stand up!” He snapped, after she had sat down.

Ariana got on her feet, but when she made to cover herself again, the Alpha shook his head.

“I want your hands by your side Love. We must be done with this pretense if we are going to make any head way.”

She nodded, but she couldn’t stop the tears that kept streaming down her face as she let her hands drop, standing before the ruthless Alpha in all her nude vulnerability. What was he going to do next to her?

“What has Jack sent you to do here?” The Alpha asked calmly – too calmly.

Ari shivered as her eyes searched his. It was as if there was a cold wall separating him from her, and nothing she did would draw his empathy. He seemed to think her the devil’s incarnate simply because Jack was her step father. There was nothing she would say now that would make him believe she was innocent, Ari decided, so she played along.

“He said he was going to kill me if I gave him away.” Staring into his eyes with a defiance she had not thought herself capable of, she added, “and I believe him.”

The Alpha searched her face with renewed interest. “Jack can kill you, but do you know what I can do to you – what I can do with you? It would be enough to make you beg for death.”

He got up slowly to his feet and Ariana found herself moving backwards till her back hit the wall. She could only brace herself then, as he cornered her in, his hands by her side, trapping her.

“Look at me when I am talking to you.” The Alpha snapped, and her wide green eyes shot up to meet his.

Standing so close to him, from that angle, she could see the tiny specks of black in his grey eyes. There was just something so arrestingly magnetic about him that even then, even when she should be begging for his mercy, Ari still wanted to press herself against him, to feel his warmth on her skin once again. She wanted his arms to hold her tenderly, and she wanted him to kiss her gently as though she belonged to him, his prized possession that he cherished.

His hand came up to cup her naked sensitive flesh. “We could even have a happy ending Ari,” he said, stroking her almost fondly. “Just tell me what I want to know.”

Ariana sighed. He would never believe she was innocent. “My step father would kill me – I know he would. . . . . please just let me go –”

The Alpha scoffed, then ran a hand through his hair, the first visible sign of his irritation. “You would find I am not a very patient person. I have been patient enough with you.” His hand dropped from where he had been touching her, and he turned to go.

“You’d find my shirt on the bed. Wear it if you want to keep up your pretense at modesty, and use the few minutes I’m away to think – if you’d rather offend your step father, or offend me” he said over his shoulder as he walked out the door. Ari waited till she heard the click of the lock before she sank to the floor, fresh tears clouding her vision. What had she gotten herself into!

It took over thirty minutes before she was able to still her tears, and then she found his shirt where he said it would be.

His scent engulfed her as she put it on, and Ari shivered at the direction her thoughts were going. What was wrong with her! How could she find herself attracted to the one male she should flee from, the one male aside her step father who cared nothing about destroying her.

As she buttoned it with shaky fingers, her mind formulated a plan – she needed one if she was going to get out of this unharmed by both her step father and the ruthless Alpha Jared.