Pushing aside painful thoughts of my past, I decided I liked this surprisingly homey room.
Cole waved his hand, inviting me to enter. I dropped my knapsack at the foot of the bed, pressed my hand against the mattress, and marvelled that I’d spend the night on what must’ve been a cloud stolen from the sky. I’d never felt a mattress so soft and pliant. Would Cole find it impertinent if I flung myself on the bed and told him to leave?
I wasn’t used to nice things. Facing him, I grinned to cover my unease. “Should’ve called this the green room.”
Leaning against the doorjamb, Cole raised an eyebrow, probably sensing my disquiet since his smile gentled. “You’re safe here. The vampires can’t cross the threshold and even if they did, we have a few surprises for them. Sleep deep tonight, for tomorrow will be a busy day.”
I nodded. He was right. Tomorrow I’d start my training and he’d already told me he wouldn’t go easy on me. Oh shit, work. Cole would let me leave for work, right? I had clients lined up, ones who expected me to be there.
I sank down on the mattress, my mind groggy. If Cole wouldn’t let me leave, I’d fight him in the morning about it. The day’s events had caught up to me. At least with the food digesting in my stomach, I’d recoup my blood loss. For once, I had no hunger pangs.
“If I run into trouble, where can I find you?” I didn’t anticipate any problems, but one never knew.
“Oh, that won’t be difficult.” Cole’s smile raised the hairs on the back of my neck. He gestured to the double doors. “I’m right here, next to you. If you should feel the need to visit me for any reason at all, my bed is wide open.”
“Why am I right next to you? There’s, what, a hundred rooms in this place?” My fingers gripped the post, my nails digging into the wood. His answer wouldn’t please me, would it? My gaze darted around the room, searching for a way to escape and finding none.
“Where else would an alpha’s mate stay before the mating ceremony?” he said as he shut the door. The lock clicked into place.
Chapter Eleven
My night was anything but restful as I tossed and turned, trying vainly to catch some shut-eye. The first time I could sleep without fear, and Cole had ruined it for me. How the fuck was I gonna pass out with that sword hanging over my head?
Asshole.
And no way in hell had I agreed to mate the arrogant alpha. My life might not be perfect, but it was mine and I didn’t need his interference.
Why would he claim me as his mate? He said their war had rules. Was this one of them? If Cole claimed me as his, did that mean the werewolves hadn’t broken any laws?
Sleep finally claimed me, though it wasn’t enough to refresh me. The dreams didn’t help either. A black wolf chased me through the woods while monstrous shadows grabbed for me. It didn’t take a shrink to figure out what was worrying my subconscious.
A gentle knock roused me and I threw one of the pillows at the door, irritated at the interruption. Five or ten more hours of sleep would’ve made me feel marginally better. I groped for my phone and checked the time.
Bolting upright, I rubbed my eyes, positive I’d read it wrong. Nope. It was eleven in the morning. How’d I slept that long? What about my clients? Had Doug rescheduled them? I pressed the text notification on my phone and sighed in relief. He had rescheduled. Bet it hurt him to do so.
I plopped back onto the pillow, cuddling its softness into my face, wishing I could stay like this forever. Other thoughts crowded my mind, shoving aside my contentment. What time was training? Maybe I’d missed it. I rolled my eyes at that thought, like Cole would let that happen.
“Yeah, who’s there?” I croaked, not bothering to raise my voice. I strongly suspected everyone in the household was a werewolf with amazing hearing. Had they heard me tossing and turning all night long? If so, I hope it disturbed their sleep. They deserved it, since I doubted a single one of them would speak out against Cole’s decision. None of them would help me, even if I asked.
The door opened and Lena’s head popped through the crack, a friendly smile on her face. I wanted to snap at her. How dare she be happy when my life was circling the drain? Instead, I kept my mouth shut and forced an answering smile. No sense pissing off the locals just yet.
“Good afternoon. Are you hungry? Cole said not to wake you. He had duties to attend to before he put you through your paces.” Lena stepped into the room and she practically vibrated with energy. She appeared to be in her late twenties, perhaps early thirties. Her dark brown hair was twisted into a bun and she wore a white apron over her simple, black dress. A uniform? Did Cole require his staff to wear a uniform? For some reason it seemed out of character.
I buried my head in my pillow, annoyed with my need to figure out the man who’d taken away my choices.
The bed dipped next to me and a hand patted my shoulder. I wanted to shrug her off, but again I remained civil. Turning my head, my cheek against the pillow, I was met with a sympathetic gaze.
“Cole can be intimidating, but he’d never hurt you.” Cole, intimidating? That was the last emotion I felt when I was around him. Safe, annoyed, baffled, furious, but never intimidated. If I hadn’t known he was the alpha of a werewolf pack, I’d have said he didn’t have it in him. “Are you worried about being Cole’s mate? You have some time to get used to the idea. Beware, though, some of the pack members aren’t pleased to hear Cole’s finally taking a mate.”
Well shit, now I had werewolves gunning for me? I closed my eyes, weary to the bone. “You don’t seem upset,” I mumbled, not in the correct frame of mind for tact or interrogation techniques. “Why not?”
“I’ve heard a lot about you over the years. Cole admires you.”
I peered at Lena with one eye, the other still covered with the pillow. “He’s spoken of me? I guess that shouldn’t surprise me. He’s ordered his people to guard me these past few years.”
“Oh!” Lena covered her mouth, appearing to debate her next words. “No one else but Cole was allowed near you until recently. And Doug, but he doesn’t count. He’s a jerk who thinks he’s better than the other submissives, even though he’s an Infected.”
“Infected?” I asked, latching on to the word she’d loaded with scorn. “What does that mean?”
“He was bitten, not born a werewolf. Infected aren’t considered,” Lena tossed a quick, nervous glance over her shoulder, then whispered, “pure.”
“What about vampires?” I mumbled, wrapping my brain around this unexpected tidbit. Werewolf mommies and daddies seemed so strange, not at all what I was expecting. I’d assumed they just savaged a batch of humans for their next generation. “Are they born, too?”
Lena shook her head, her nervousness vanishing. Vampires settled her? Or was talking about werewolves off-limits? Duh, of course it was. Cole wouldn’t want me to understand the secrets swirling around me.
“Vampires are made by the sires. A human agrees to give up his soul to live in eternal darkness. I’ve never seen the ritual, but I’ve heard some vile stories about it.”
“Lena, leave us, please.” Cole’s voice washed over me, and Lena startled. A hint of anger threaded through his polite words. The other woman gave me another pat on the shoulder—to reassure me or herself?—and left the room.
I didn’t bother turning over or lifting my head. Couldn’t I just pretend none of this was happening? It was all just a strange dream brought on by lack of food and proper rest.
When the bed dipped for the second time, I faced reality, namely the alpha sitting next to me. My stomach grumbled, impervious to my current predicament. It’d become a little too used to having food. Feed it decently once and now it was making all kinds of demands.
Cole chuckled, his gaze soft. “Lunch is ready whenever you are. There’re clothes in the dresser and closet that should fit you, all brand new. After you eat, Lena will show you to the training room.”
He stood and strode to the door. I watched him, resentment burning through me
. No discussion, just an order.
“I won’t mate you and you can’t make me,” I said as his hand touched the knob. His back stiffened for a moment, but when he turned, it was all smooth charm.
“Yes you will and yes I can, ma petite chérie. The ceremony will happen on the summer solstice, so you have two and a half months to get used to the idea.” His smile couldn’t quite cover his anger. “You’re mine to look after and I won’t let the vampires take you because I made a mistake.”
I could disappear. While I didn’t have much money, I could still hitchhike out of town. The fitness club wouldn’t give me a referral, so I’d have to take odd jobs instead. I’d done it before and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. Survival was all that mattered.
“Yeah, sure,” I muttered, dragging my hand through the rat’s nest I called hair. “Whatever you say.”
His eyes narrowed and he pinned me with his gaze. “You run and I’ll hunt you down. No matter where you go, I’ll find you. Understand me?”
Arrogant, bossy, insufferable . . . “Yeah, I understand you,” I spat out, fury seeping into my words. “I am not your property. Let me go and I’ll hide where the vampires can’t find me. I’ll hate you if you force me to go through with this.”
“As long as you’re alive, I don’t care if you hate me. You leave my house without my protection and your life is forfeit. Maxwell Winter sent word that he wants you returned to him.” Cole’s fury matched my own.
I sat up, uncaring of my nearly nude attire. “What do you mean, ‘returned to him’? I’ve never been around him before and I’m not some wayward pet who wandered off. So he can go fuck himself and his stupid orders.”
Cole looked away, his lips tightening in anger. With me for arguing or with himself for giving away too much? “We’ll discuss this later, after your first session. Now get dressed and have lunch. And keep a civil tongue in your head when the pack is here. Some of them resent the efforts I’ve gone to for your safety. Fight with me and they’ll view you as fair game.”
He opened the door, strode through the entryway, and firmly shut the door behind him without giving me a backwards glance.
What game was he playing? Protecting me wasn’t his only angle, that much was clear. A shame everything else was muck.
I stood and stretched out the kinks from my body. Wondering how long I could linger until someone else came searching for me, I did a modified work out of jump squats, mountain climbers, lunges, push-ups and knee highs, just enough to loosen up my muscles. If the werewolves hated me as much as I suspected, I wanted to be as limber as possible in case one of them attacked me.
Taking advantage of my unwanted situation, I ambled to the bathroom and turned on the taps in the stall. A shower two days in a row, would wonders never cease?
Chuckling, I shucked off my shorts and tiny tank top, then tackled the tangled snarl of my hair before hopping into the shower. Hot water poured over me and I moaned in pleasure.
I tried to rush, but I enjoyed the steam too much. It cleansed me soul-deep in a way I don’t think anyone else in this household could understand. I’d taken for granted a lot of things in my life—until I could no longer reliably get them. Food, shelter, cleanliness.
Rubbing shampoo into my hair, I again moaned as I washed the soap from the strands, enjoying the sensation of water sluicing down my back. I grabbed the washcloth and scrubbed myself clean. My skin glowed.
With a sigh of regret, I turned off the water and stepped out of the stall. I wrapped a towel around myself and patted my hair dry with another towel. Cold showers felt great when I had few options, but I could get used to this kind of treatment. But selling my body for it? Nope, not gonna happen.
Cole better realize that if the mating ceremony went through, a big if, there wouldn’t be any actual mating. Just because I lived on the streets didn’t mean I’d give up on my morals for a warm bed. Yes, I knew a few prostitutes and some of them enjoyed their job. To them, it meant money and freedom. For me, it meant losing a part of myself. To each their own.
I dropped the two towels into the laundry basket by the bathroom door and exited into the bedroom naked. Rummaging through the dresser, I found it full of clothes in my size. Eyes narrowed, I wondered who’d picked them out for me. It disturbed me, since it meant someone had been paying me a lot of attention.
I dressed in a matching dark blue bra and underwear, a little uncomfortable in the obviously expensive clothes. My own bra had been worn down to almost nothing, since I didn’t have the money to replace it. My underwear situation wasn’t as desperate, since I could replace them at Walmart. A pack of three for ten dollars. Not how I wanted to spend my money, but better than holey underwear.
Would Cole notice if I took off with one or two of his pretty bras? Hey, I was female enough to appreciate how sexy a good-looking bra made me feel even if no one else would see the garments.
I slipped on a pair of comfortable jogging pants and a fitted red T-shirt. If Cole expected me to wear one of the dresses in the closet, he was out of luck. Fighting wasn’t fun with a skirt. I felt a little too self-conscious and worried about flashing my nether regions to everyone; a silly concern, since I was usually fighting to survive, but one that distracted me nonetheless.
I couldn’t find any shoes, though I put on some socks. I hated wearing anything on my feet, but if I had to make a break for it, I wanted to be prepared.
Wandering out of the room, I followed the hallway to the stairs and slowly walked down the monstrosity of a staircase. My fingers trailed down the wooden banister as I again tried to figure out how Cole had such a beautiful and expensive home. I hadn’t seen any clues to his profession. Old money?
Although, speaking of old, a painting caught my eye, one of Cole dressed as a cowboy from the Wild West. It could’ve been a re-creation, but something told me he’d been around in the eighteen hundreds. And if he had, it explained where his money came from—compound interest over centuries was nothing to sneer at.
Ah fuck, I was being held by a centuries-old werewolf? Yeah, I was screwed. How could I match my wits against someone who’d been around for that long? My only hope was to fool him into believing I was compliant . . . somehow. Acting meek and mild wasn’t part of my nature, not when my life was on the line. Although with Doug, I bit my tongue a lot because I didn’t want to lose my job.
I stopped dead when I realized I could tell him off and he couldn’t fire me. Cole had ordered him to give me a job. Regret washed over me for all the words I’d left unsaid to my asshole boss because no matter which way events turned out, I doubted I’d continue working for Doug.
Skipping down the rest of the stairs, pretending I wasn’t skittish about seeing Cole again, I made my way to the kitchen. Heavenly smells permeated the air and my stomach gurgled in anticipation. I couldn’t identify all the scents, but that made no difference. Soon I’d gorge myself. It might be my last full meal for a while, so I wanted to indulge.
Feeling a little shy, I hesitated at the doorway, watching Lena and two other women bustle around making what appeared to be a feast.
Lena turned and caught sight of me. She grinned and motioned for me to enter. “Please, sit and eat. Whatever is on the table is for you.”
I moved to the table; only one place was set this time. Guess Cole wouldn’t be joining me. An odd mixture of relief and disappointment flooded me. He was the only one I knew, yet he wasn’t my saviour and I’d do well to remember that.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner awaited me. Fried eggs, bacon, bagels, pancakes, French toast, grilled cheese, cucumber sandwiches, wraps, roast beef, mashed potatoes, and so much more. My knees actually trembled at the feast and I slid into my chair with a huge grin.
An empty plate sat in front of me, although it didn’t stay empty for long. I grabbed a bit of everything, my stomach and taste buds demanding a sample of all the food. Without a word to anyone else in the room—they appeared to be ignoring me—I dug in, moaning softly when th
e roast beef hit my tongue. It was perfectly spiced and still slightly bloody. The potatoes had sautéed garlic in them and the French toast had a hint of cinnamon and vanilla. The combination of food should’ve turned me off eating, but I was past caring.
After two platefuls, I was finally ready to stop eating. My gut was overloaded and I felt faintly nauseous. I should’ve paced myself, especially since I rarely indulged in large meals, but my self-control had failed.
And I was trying to avoid thinking about remaining another night. Run or stay? I had no idea which one would be worse. Look over my shoulder for the rest of my life, worried about vampires and werewolves hunting me, or accept my role as Cole’s mate and whatever it entailed.
The pain in my gut no longer had anything to do with the abundance of food. Could I crawl into a hole and pretend none of this existed? Maybe if I ignored it all, both monster species would leave me alone.
I quietly snorted, tired of my circular thinking. No matter what I did, I was screwed.
“Fuck,” I muttered, dropping my fork onto the table. Pushing my chair back, I left the kitchen without glancing at the other women. I didn’t need to see their pity or disgust.
Chapter Twelve
Like a coward, I hid out in my temporary bedroom, hoping to all that was holy that the werewolves would forget about me. I wasn’t important, right? Ha, I couldn’t even fool myself. Cole had turned me into a big deal. He’d told his people I was his soon-to-be mate, and from the way Lena acted, it was a significant event.
Voices floated up the stairs and through the slightly open window. From the sounds of it, the entire pack was outside. How could I sneak away when a pack of hunters surrounded me? They’d sniff out my scent within seconds, never mind the fact I had nowhere to go. My brain was on a constant loop, pushing me to my limits.
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