1: Bought & Paid For
Who was I supposed to hate the most right now? The closest candidates were the mongrel brutes that were forcing me down to my knees while restraining my arms behind me. They’d already failed to prevent me from cracking my knuckles against the ring leader’s jaw, right after he’d ordered me to kneel in submission before him. It was almost certain I’d have bruises on my knees from hitting the hardwood floor, and up and down my arms from where the meat hooks they called hands clawed at me. No, they were not who I hated most.
Maybe it should be my parents. After all, they didn’t hesitate to comply with any of the demands that were made. Even now, they just stood there, agreeing that the time had come for me to leave with these barbarians. Our family wasn’t considered to be real members, just refugees allowed to live within their borders. I’d never seen any of these men standing in our living room before today. But my parents were behaving as if these monsters were the absolute authority. Neither had looked me in the eye this whole time, but I felt more betrayal than hatred for them.
Reaching the top of my s**t-list was the smug asshole in a suit, towering over me. The Alpha, Dmitri Volkov, of the Opalescent Moon Pack. He was exactly what you’d picture an Alpha to be; tall with broad shoulders, and under that suit, he had muscles for days. I suppose most would’ve called him handsome, with startling ice blue eyes, and thick, wavy black hair framing his perfectly calm face.
He grabbed my chin firmly with his hand, forcing me to look up at him so he could inspect me easily. He talked like I was used car for sale, interrogating my parents about every facet of my life. The kind of diet I was on, did I have a healthy appetite, my grades at school, any training I had acquired, and how many human friends I seemed close with. He even went as far as questioning them about my feminine health and cycle.
The more I fought against the hands that held me in place, the wider the arrogant smile spread across his face. Pushing my hair out of my face with his free hand and tucking a stray curl behind my ear, he made a remark about the paleness of my complexion. Not everyone was born with a perfect golden tan, as if they’d spent their life laying poolside. I decided that for now, it was him I hated most. He was treating me like a piece of property to be collected, and the arrogant smirk plastered across his face pissed me off all the more.
He turned away as my mother offered to show him some of my old photos, and I saw my opening. Twisting my chin free of his grasp and planting my feet, I lunged, catching my handlers off guard. I surged forward almost a foot. With my arms still held behind me, I did the only thing I could think of doing. I bit down on the fleshy spot of his hand between his forefinger and thumb until the coppery tang of blood flooded my mouth. My jaw clenched, locking my teeth in place so he couldn’t pull his hand free, until a hand smacked my face. My head rolled back from the force of the blow, and stars danced across my vision. No one else moved a muscle or said a word as he stared down at his hand and the blood oozing out of the half-moon gash my teeth had left. I couldn’t help the maniacal smile that twisted my lips. I hoped it healed into an ugly red scar, as a constant reminder that he couldn’t control me.
“Alexandria!” My mother cried out, breaking the silence, “I’m so sorry,” she groveled, quickly shifting from horrified shock, to obedient servant. “I’ll fetch the first aid kit!” she called as she scampered out of the room so fast she practically tripped over her own feet, eager to please the tyrant that kept us on the fringe of our own society.
‘Traitor,’ that was the word that came to my mind. This pack had granted our family sanctuary, so that we wouldn’t be hunted or killed off as rouges. We lived on the outskirts of their territory. I attended a human school. All my friends were human and our neighbors too. Why did she treat him with such reverence?
I wasn’t exactly sure who had slapped me; my money was on the muscle-clad oaf of a Beta. I will have to repay him in kind another time. As it was, only my anger had helped me fight through the dizzying sensation of the blow. My eyes came back into focus slowly, almost like stepping out of a dark tunnel into sunlight, just to see him watching me. Pulling on the angry fire ripping through me, I pushed forward again. They were ready this time, and 2 more enforcers lunged forward, helping to keep me restrained securely. It was comical that it took 6 large men to hold back one 18-year-old girl. He just smiled as they wrestled me back down onto my knees.
Returning with our first-aid kit, my mother rushed in and knelt on the floor beside him. “Alpha, may I tend your wound?” He held his hand out to her, those icy blue eyes still fixated on me. “I’m s-so sorry,” my mother babbled as she cleaned the wound and wrapped his hand. Damn his quick healing, it’d already stopped bleeding. “I assure you we raised her better, she’s never behaved like this before in her life. I’m so embarrassed by her behavior…” she babbled on and on. I glared at her. She was embarrassed by my behavior? I wasn’t the one trading my only child to the Alpha of a pack.
He hushed her torrent of apologies, “She’s very,” an amused smile pulled up the corners of his lips, “spirited.” My mother nodded, thanking him like it was a great compliment. “Perhaps now would be the perfect time to take you up on that offer of coffee. I still have so many questions to ask and details to iron out.” He smiled warmly, while my parents nodded like mindless drones. “We’ll talk in the other room to avoid any further outbursts. Please, lead the way…” he gestured with his good hand. My parents walked out of the room, refusing to look in my direction as they passed by. They weren’t even going to say anything to me?
“Nathan,” he leaned nearer to the mountain of muscles standing beside him, “Strip her down and have her bound and gagged. I’d like to spare her parents anymore unpleasantness tonight.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully, “and I think I’d like to see her in a full karada.” He took a few steps to follow the same route my parents took out of the room, but paused in the doorway, “try to make sure the merchandise isn’t damaged further if you can help it.”
“Of course, I’ll do my best, Alpha,” Nathan nodded.
“I’ll see you later my Pet,” he laughed when I tried to lunge after him again. His voice faded with his departure around the corner. I knew it was futile, but I kept trying to go after him anyway. The grip of 12 large hands held me firmly in place until I’d exhausted myself.
“Let’s try to get this done and over with quickly lads,” Nathan dropped the small duffle bag he’d been carrying onto the floor beside me. Kneeling in front of me he pulled a leather strap with a small red ball from the bag. Oh hell no! I rallied what strength I had left and struggled to slip from their grasp. “Hold her still.” The 6 enforcers holding me tightened their grip again; one moving to hold my head in place this time as Nathan pressed the red ball to my lips. I clamped my lips shut. Laughing, he used his free hand to pinch my nose shut, cutting off my air supply. I could hold my breath for a long time, but eventually he won and my mouth gapped open sucking in air. The red plastic ball fit snugly between my teeth and the strap was quickly fastened behind my head.
“Now,” he drawled, “for the fun part.” He pulled out a small switch blade, making my eyes go wide as my heart jumped up into my throat. There was a round of laughter from all of them. “Hold her arms out,” he instructed. My arms were pulled out like a cross. Using the blade, he sliced the tee shirt from my body, the fabric falling away to leave me in my bra. “Lay her out,” he gestured at the floor. They pushed forward and down onto my stomach on the floor, one kneeling on my back to hold me firmly in place.
Eye level with the bag now, I could see a coil of red rope before it was pulled out. “Arms back,” he ordered, unwinding the rope. I tried to struggle, but their grip was firm, plus the weight of their bodies over mine gave them more leverage. My arms were pulled straight back behind me, allowing Nathan to loop some rope around my wrists. It was a shock how fast he looped the rope around my arms while he tied a series of knots up the length of them. It felt like a ladder formation. Most of the hands let go when he finished, knowing my range of motion had been diminished.
My ankles were yanked apart as Nathan moved to kneel beside me. My whole body froze when I felt the cold steel of the knife slip into the ankle of my jeans. Gliding against my skin, the blade slid up the outside of my leg all the way to my waist, slicing through the denim as if it was made of butter, but it didn’t cut me. He made a second cut along my other leg, peeling the cloth from me like a banana peel. With another length of rope, he looped and tied more knots up around my legs, securing them together. I laid there on the floor of my parents’ living room, gagged and bound, wrapped like a mummy. The best I could do now was flop on the floor like a fish out of water.
“Blake,” he stood up to issue more orders, “pack her up and wait for us to finish up here. The rest of you head back to the house and let Luna know that we’ve collected our guest and that we’ll be returning home soon. Do not retire for the night,” he looked me over with a frown, “I’m sure we’ll be taking inventory before the night is out.”
There was a chorus of “Yes Beta!” from all of them before they started filing out of the house. All but one, who I assumed was Blake. He was a pile of muscles like the rest of them, with shaggy brown hair and big brown eyes. He picked me up off the floor and tossed me over his shoulder like a rolled rug. He held my legs to his chest as he carried me out, my hair swinging back and forth as he walked.
As we left the room, I could see Nathan gathering up the scraps of my clothes, tossing them into the duffle and straightening up the room to erase all the signs of a struggle. He even wiped the blood off the floor from where it’d dripped down the Alpha’s fingers.
Goose bumps formed everywhere the cold night air kissed my skin the moment we stepped outside. The sound of car doors shutting and engines roaring to life echoed all around us as the rest of the enforcers followed their orders to leave. I was shivering by the time that we made it to the last black SUV left parked in front of my childhood home. “I’ll get you a blanket to keep warm while we wait,” he promised with a gentle whisper, moving to open the back hatch.
He swung me back over his shoulder like a rag doll, cradling me in his arms as he maneuvered me into the back of the car. True to his word, he wrapped a blanket around me, tucking it around like a burrito. He even folded a second blanket and set it under my head like a pillow. I was as comfortable as you could be, if you didn’t mind being trussed up and tossed in the back of a stranger’s car with a plastic ball in your mouth.
After starting the car and turning the heat on, Blake stood guard outside, leaning against the side of the car, just within my field of vision out the window. He folded his arms over his chest, glancing to the left and right every so often. I wondered what our neighbors would think if they looked out their window to see him, a large, muscular man, standing beside a running vehicle, wearing just a pair of jeans and a tee shirt, in the early February chill. One of the pluses of being a shifting wolf is that they always ran hotter than normal.
The ropes weren’t tight, but they did hold firm. I gave up on loosening them quicker than I’d like to admit. If I moved in one direction or the other too far, cold air seeped in under the blanket, replacing some of the body heat trapped within. Even if I got loose, what was I supposed to do next? If I was lucky, I’d be able to land another blow before getting tackled again. I couldn’t run anywhere that they couldn’t sniff me out. Beyond the pack’s boundaries, I’d be considered rogue, and most other packs would kill me.
Frustrated, with no one around to direct my anger at, all the energy seemed to drain out of my body. All the muscles in my body felt weak and sore now that the adrenaline was fading. My eyelids grew heavy and eventually the blissful nothingness of sleep overtook me. I never even felt the car shift when it pulled into the street.
