Chapter 6
1329 Words
Alisa
I wake to the sound of a woman calling out to me. “Miss!” she says loudly. “Miss!”
Slowly, painfully, I drag my eyelids apart. For a wild moment, I see Mistress Katrina with her thin lips and disapproving eyes, but then my vision clears, I remember where I am, and the image is replaced by a kind-looking she-wolf in her forties, with gentle brown eyes.
“Oh, thank God,” she exclaims. “I thought you were sick. Alpha Derrick would have my hide.”
“Why?” I croak.
“It’s my task to look after you. I’m Missus Quinn.”
Oh. The housekeeper. “Alisa,” I reply, and push myself up. “What time is it?”
“It’s just gone past seven.”
My eyes are gritty and my brain feels like it’s pounding against my skull. “I only went to sleep a few hours ago,” I mutter.
“Alpha Derrick insists that we all rise at an early hour.”
Of course he does. It was no different at the academy. I’ve heard stories, myths really, about wolves roaming the nights, but that must have been a long time ago. We are daytime creatures now. “Your breakfast is in your kitchen,” Missus Quinn declares. “I’ve put clean clothes for you in the bathroom.”
I nod. “Thank you, ma’am.”
“Aren’t you polite?” the old housekeeper beams at me. “Everyone just calls me Missus Quinn, dear.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Alpha will see you at two,” she informs me. “You are to enjoy your room until that time.”
“What am I supposed to do the whole time?” Strange way to run a household. Waking me at the ass crack of dawn, and then expecting me to sit around doing nothing.
“I can bring you a book, or you can enjoy the television. It gets all the channels.” Missus Quinn’s appraising eyes slide down my body. “What did you do to deserve this fate? You are not…” she hesitates. “Well, you are not the Alpha’s usual type.”
“I don’t know,” I answer. “He didn’t tell me.”
“Oh dear. You seem the innocent sort.”
“I am from the academy. I’ve been trained in all manners of pleasure.”
“Uh-huh,” the housekeeper grunts. “Not our Alpha’s type of pleasure, I’m sure.”
A cold, cruel fist of fear twists my guts into a painful knot. “Wh- what does that mean?”
The housekeeper doesn’t answer me. “You will take lunch with the Alpha this afternoon. Don’t be late. He is a busy man, and he hates tardiness.”
“Yes, ma- Missus Quinn.”
The housekeeper wrings her hands together and stares at me with her soft, brown eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she says, then flees from my room.
I swing my legs off the bed, cradling my throbbing head as I do. It’s so bad that I want to throw up.
It takes me a while to steady myself. I’m used to late nights and early mornings, and getting out of bed shouldn’t be this hard, but I just can’t seem to get my legs moving.
With a sigh, I sag back to the mattress and allow the fear in. It shakes me to the core of my being. My future was always uncertain anyway, and whatever Alpha Derrick has planned for me can’t be good. I knew that right away. It’s just that the housekeeper’s words dragged it out into the light and forced me to look at it.
Still feeling unsteady and sick, I get up, and go to the bathroom on unsteady legs. Missus Quinn hung a pretty white dress with big, bold floral prints, against the door. There’s a clean towel, a pair of flat sandals, and clean underwear on the stool next to the cabinet.
I frown at the brand-new underwear and pick the items up. The white pair of briefs and bra are exactly my size.
I wonder how she knew?
There’s no use in speculating. I won’t be wearing them for long. I’m also sure I won’t be alive long enough to find out how she guessed my size so perfectly.
I throw the night dress in the hamper, step out of my panties and turn on the shower. The water is warm and delicious. I never got to shower in private at the academy, and we were always rushed. I take my sweet time. It’s not like I have anything else going on this morning.
An hour later, as the water starts to turn cold, I finally get out of the shower, dry off and get dressed. The clothes are magnificent, the fabric soft and luxurious. Better than anything I’ve ever worn in my life.
A pampered sacrifice it is then, I guess.
That’s okay. At least I get to experience a little bit of the good life before I die. It’s better than being a harem keeper or a breeder.
I’m just about to sit down to enjoy my cold breakfast, when the lock slams hard enough to make me jump. The door swings open, and the fresh scent of bergamot and dark spices assault my senses.
I smelled it last night too. In the limousine.
My heart slowly crawls up my throat and I jump to my feet, keeping my gaze turned down. “Good morning, Alisa,” Alpha Derrick says in a low, smooth voice. “I trust you had a peaceful night’s rest.”
“Yu- yes Alpha.”
“I apologise for intruding on your breakfast.” I chance a glance up at the Alpha. His bright, blue eyes capture mine and hold me prisoner. “I have much to do today, and I won’t be able to make our meeting at the scheduled time.”
“Ooooh,” I sigh softly. “Are you preparing for the blood festival?”
Derrick frowns and shakes his head. “No. Did Beta Egbert not explain to you that we don’t sacrifice?”
“He did.”
“Then why do you ask such a question?”
“I didn’t believe him.”
Derrick stares at me, his expression unreadable. “You wonder why you are here?”
I nod.
“Hm,” he grunts softly. “I’m in need of some company. That is all.”
I’m eternally grateful that the dress covers my knees. They start to knock together with outright terror. I don’t know what’s worse - being a sacrifice or a brutal Alpha’s bed slave.
“Mistress Katrina trained you for that purpose, did she not?”
“Y- yes, Alpha,” I reply.
His eyes soften and an amused little smile plays around his lips. “Were you any good at it?”
I shake my head. “Bu- but, I know the basics, I guess. She said it didn’t matter anyway.”
“Why would she say that?”
I shrug, tear my eyes away from his, and glare at my feet, willing my body to stop shaking. “No one would ever want me for that purpose.”
“Ah. She was wrong,” he announces. “You may leave your room and explore the grounds.”
I jerk my head up and stare at him in disbelief. “I- I am not to be kept in the harem room?”
“I don’t have a harem.”
Egbert told me that too.
“Do you have any questions?” Alpha Derrick asks.
“Whu- what will happen to me?” I ask. “When you’re done with me?”
He just smiles. “You are to come to my room tonight at eight. Down the hall, last door on your right. Enjoy your day, Alisa.”
- Writer
