by Dani René
The threat is clear. I can’t escape, not now. I’m not sure what’s worse, being murdered by some crazy person in the forest, or being imprisoned for the evening in a beautiful home with a hunter who seems as lethal as he is beautiful.
When we reach the door, Lycan pushes it open and steps aside to allow me to enter the room. It’s furnished with a dark wood four-poster bed, an elegantly carved vanity, and two enormous doors that I’m guessing lead to a bathroom and closet.
Spinning on my heel, I take in Lycan as he leans against the doorframe. His shoulders relaxed as he focuses on me. Those deep luminous green depths expose my fear as he stares at me from top to bottom, and up again.
I ask again, “Why am I here?”
Chapter Six
Lycan
Her gaze is burning as she regards me. Those full lips purse into a pout, frustrated at not knowing what’s happening. It’s evident that she’s angry, and I smile.
“What the fuck is going on?” Her arms cross over her chest, causing her tits to perk up as she storms toward me. I expect her to touch me, to punch me, but she doesn’t. And I find that I want her to touch me.
She’s close. Inches from me. The scent of her perfume envelops me, and it takes over my senses as she pins her glare on me. Her lips pout as her nose scrunches.
“If you don’t tell me—”
Tipping my head to the side, I narrow my gaze on hers. “What? You’ll what?” The challenge in my tone is clear. I quirk my lips at the corner, a smile ready to dance along my lips as I focus on her.
“I don’t know,” she backs down. “I just need to know why I’m here, what you want with me and who that man was.”
“That’s a lot of information for a little girl to take in. Isn’t it?” My brow lifts at her in question, and the blaze of her stare sizzles as she narrows her eyes.
“I’m not a little girl. I’m a woman. And I need to know what’s going on. Or I’ll walk home.” In her attempt to walk past me, my hand shoots out, gripping her wrist, tugging it closer to me. “Let me go, Lycan.”
“You’ll stay here, Scarlett.”
“No. I don’t want to.”
Chuckling, I push off the doorframe and grip both her shoulders, lifting her off her feet. I walk toward the bed and dump her on the mattress. “Stay.” When I turn, I expect her next move as she tries to make her escape, but I’m fast, much faster than her.
My arms wrap around her, bringing her back to the bed and pushing her onto her back. Her legs and arms attempt to attack me, but she’s not strong enough, and seconds later, I have her wrists bound to the wooden poles of the headboard and her ankles tied to the foot end.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Her rage bounces off the walls. The poison she shoots at me from her gaze would usually hurt, but I closed myself off to emotions a long time ago. There are instances in my life I allow myself to feel, and that’s when I’m dominating a woman in a scene.
Other than that, I’m cold, heartless, and unfeeling.
“Let me go!”
“Your screaming won’t earn you your freedom,” I tell her, keeping my tone calm, neutral, which only has her tugging at the restraints that will never let her loose. I’ve bound her too tight, and the sight of her lying there, ready for me, has an effect I knew to expect.
Her vulnerability in this moment has my cock throbbing against my zipper. I’d love nothing more than to strip her bare and feast on her, but I have things to do. I have a brother to kill.
“Please,” she pleads, her voice turning soft, but the heat in her eyes still dances with a threat of death if she were to wield a weapon. Thankfully, it doesn’t faze me. If I were stupid, if I were years younger, I would’ve wilted for her, but I’m no longer weak.
“You’ll stay. Once I’m done with my business, I’ll return for you.” I make my way to the door. Twisting the handle, I tug it open and step out into the hallway to her screams. It’s only when I shut her inside, does her voice get muffled by the thick wood.
Leaning my head against the cool surface, I close my eyes and listen to her for a while longer before I head down to my study. I promised Kahn that he would be able to go to the church to seek out the priest who may have news about his sister, but I need him and his team here.
My brother has gone rogue, and I’m done playing games. Picking up my cell, I hit dial on Kahn’s number and listen. Four rings, and he finally answers—out of breath and gravelly.
“Are you busy fucking?” I ask, my own tone taking on a gruff rumble.
Kahn chuckles. “No, Mr. Shaw, I was working out. Late night in the gym,” he tells me. “What can I do for you?”
“Are you leaving for the convent soon? Or are you still in New York?” I settle back in the expensive leather chair and close my eyes. My head is pounding from today’s shitshow, and even with Scarlett upstairs, safe, I’m not at ease. If Darius is so adamant about stealing her, he could walk in here at any moment. Not that I won’t see him approach, but the thought of a fight tonight doesn’t bode well for the state I’m in.
“I’m still around. Did you need me?”
“I’ll send the jet. I need you in Crimson Falls before sunrise,” I inform him. “Bring the team. I have a feeling this could be a tough job.”
“What’s happening?” Usually, I wouldn’t tell the men until they were all in the room with me, but this is a special case. I’ve never asked them to do something so personal before. Killing my brother is not something I planned to do for a while yet, but when someone threatens my life, my livelihood, I fight back.
“Darius is here, and he needs to be taken care of as soon as possible.”
Silence greets me. I’m certain Kahn is in shock at my response. If I had to be honest, I am too. Holding someone’s life in your hands is a powerful emotion. Something that takes hold and doesn’t let go. Not easily, anyway.
“I’ll make sure the guys are on the flight.”
“Thank you.” I hang up before tapping out a message to the pilot. Once my men get here, we can map out a plan. There's a lot to do with two days to go before the ball and my marriage to Scarlett. Especially getting her ready and onboard.
That’s going to be my toughest challenge yet.
Chapter Seven
Scarlett
When I open my eyes, I shoot up from the lush, comfortable mattress to find I’m no longer bound. Instinctively, I glance at my wrists to see a hint of the bindings that kept me prisoner. I’m not sure how much time has passed. I must’ve been exhausted that I fell asleep while chained to the goddamned bed.
Lycan Shaw is a monster, but I need answers. I push off the bed, feeling the softness of the carpet underfoot. The curtains hang open, and I notice it’s still dark out. Surely the sun is coming up soon.
Pacing the carpet, I stop when I hear a sound outside, and I notice Lycan stalking from the house toward the property line. The shadow I saw earlier is gone, but it doesn’t make sense that he’s out there when he didn’t want me going home. I wonder if my grandmother has asked where I am. I didn’t see her when I arrived. She must know I’m no longer in the house. The staff must’ve heard me scream. Surely, they’ll come to find me.
A shot rings in the air, causing me to jump back from the window. Silence greets me, and my lungs struggle to pull in air as my heart thumps at my ribs. I should’ve run when I could, when he released me, but there’s something about Lycan Shaw that’s intrigued me.
Going to the bed, I find an envelope lying on the nightstand that I didn’t see earlier, and Lycan’s earlier words ring in my mind. Everything will be answered when you get to your room. Ripping open the envelope, I pull out the letter that’s been folded three times over. The handwriting is familiar, and I recognize it instantly. It’s my father’s scrawl, signed at the bottom of what looks like a contract.
I scan the pages of the terms and conditions. Every word, each sentence, sends ice through my veins. My father signed my life, my hand in marriage over to Lycan Sha
w. There’s no reasoning behind it, just that he thinks it’s better for me in the long run.
I read it and reread it, but nothing makes sense. When I glance up at the room once more, I take everything in. Every inch of this bedroom has been created especially for me, from the mirror with the carving of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, to the bedding that is in my favorite color.
The door flies open, and standing on the threshold is the man who bought me from my father. His expression is calm, but his tense posture has the hair on the back of my neck prickling.
“What is this?” I ask him, throwing the contract onto the bed before making my way toward him. Anger surges through me as his mouth tips slightly. “I asked you a fucking question, Mr. Shaw,” I mutter, spitting his name with as much venom as I can stand. “I’m not a fucking possession you can barter with like that. I’m a woman, a person. What kind of man buys a woman from her father?”
He doesn’t react; he merely watches me, intrigue dancing in his gaze. His nonreaction only sends my rage into a spiral. My gut twists as he regards me, the smirk on his handsome face turning upward.
“Talk to me!” My fists pound against his chest, but I only get one hit in before his hands grip my wrists, a deep rumble vibrates through his chest as he pushes me back until my ass hits the edge of the mattress.
Lycan leans in, his tall frame cocooning me as he stops inches from where I’m bending backward painfully. He steps in between my legs, causing me to tumble onto the soft comforter, his hardness against my core, forcing heat to sizzle between my legs at the contact.
“If you ever lift your hands at me again,” he speaks, calm, clear, and threatening, “I will bend you over and whip you with my belt until you’re bleeding all over my pristine carpets. Am I understood?”
There’s not even a hint of anger in his voice, but his eyes, they’re expressive, burning like open flames as they pierce me. The depths drown me, the closer he gets. His lips brush along mine, and as angry as I am at him, I can’t deny my body trembles under his. The power he exudes sends heat blazing to my cheeks, and my stomach tumbles and twists with need for him to move, for him to press harder against my center.
“Get the fuck off me.” My words are meant to sting, but instead, Lycan chuckles at my outburst. “I’m serious.”
“So am I.” There is no doubt in my mind that he will whip me, and he will enjoy every moment of my torture. He pushes away from me, and an unwarranted whimper of agony escapes my lips. “Are you hungry?”
“What?”
“I don’t like repeating myself,” he throws back easily, his grin making him seem younger than what I can only guess is about forty years.
“No. I’m not. I want answers.” I don’t want to sound like a petulant child, but I know I do. I can hear it in my voice. It annoys me that he does this to me. I’m not this girl. One who acts like an immature teenager, but something about Lycan Shaw makes me feel young.
Lycan stays silent for a long while before he sighs. “Your father fucked up,” he speaks, turning his back on me as he moves to the vanity. “He did things that were illegal.” He doesn’t look at me as he tells me this, and I wonder what my father could’ve done that was so bad. He’s always been a good man, at least to me, he’s been a good father.
“I don’t understand. Why not arrest him?” I push to my feet, needing to stand for this, or at least I think I need to be. “Lycan?”
His hand threads through his dark hair, a lock falling into a shimmering eye as he gazes at me over his shoulder. “Your father was a smart man, but I’m smarter. He wanted more than he could hold onto, including your mother.”
My curiosity wins out as he trickles information to me, and I take a couple of tentative steps toward him. “What do you mean?”
“He stole from me,” Lycan says. “And now I’ve taken from him.”
“You can’t steal me. This isn’t some archaic eye for an eye belief,” I bite out, forgetting that this man holds all the power. But then again, I have control as well. He can’t do anything to me if I don’t want him to. He wouldn’t force me. He can’t.
“Those questions racing through your pretty little head right now, they’re pointless,” he tells me. “Because I can do anything I want, to anyone I want, at any time I want.” This time, he turns toward me fully. The control and power that follow him like a perfume grip my chest, squeeze the breath from my lungs, and I can’t find the response I need and crave.
“Don’t treat me like a child.”
“Then don’t act like one,” Lycan counters seriously. He leans against the vanity, and for a moment, I see him as the wolf, but something internally, my gut tells me he’s not. “I’m not the bad guy here.”
“You bought me from my father. I think that makes you the asshole.”
“If you continue to curse like that, I’m going to be forced to take you under hand and show you how naughty girls are treated,” he bites out, those jade orbs flaring with danger as he pins me in place with a stare.
“Oh?” I challenge. “What? Are you going to spank me, asshole?” I have no clue what I’m doing, why I’m taunting him like this, but a second later, before I have time to apologize, his body is looming over me, his one hand gripping both of mine as he spins us around, shoving me against the smooth wood of the vanity he was just leaning against. My butt sticks out toward him, which only makes me blush.
His hand comes down in a loud, harsh swat against one cheek of my bottom, and then the other. Alternating between the two, he spanks me hard, painfully, causing the sting to trickle its way over my skin. Embarrassment floods my mind, my cheeks hot and red, and my panties… those are soaked from the assault.
Chapter Eight
Lycan
Her body trembles under my hold. Soft whimpers free themselves from her lips, and I can’t help but smile. Our reflection shows my dominance, but it’s her submission in this moment that has my cock rock-hard.
“Are you going to act like a petulant child, or can I release you now?” I ask, trailing my fingertips over her spine, reveling in her reaction to me. A moan of deep pleasure escapes her when I reach the juncture between her thighs. Heat spills easily as I taunt her pussy over the thin layers of material that hide what I crave.
“Please,” Scarlett pleads, but I’m not sure what she’s asking for. More of the same, or for me to release her from my hold. “Please, Lycan.”
Leaning in, I engulf her with my body, keeping her in place, allowing my lips to trail over the shell of her ear before I ask, “What, little red? Tell me what this pretty pussy craves.” The command is gentle, a caress of words along her smooth, porcelain flesh.
“I… I can’t marry you,” she whimpers as my finger continues to taunt her. “I-I don’t want to be arm candy.” A tear slips free from her long lashes, and as it trickles down her flushed cheek, I lap it up, tasting the salty emotion as it spills from her eyes.
“You’re not arm candy,” I tell her because it’s the truth. She’s so much more than that. “If you think for one moment, I’m going to let you go, to walk out of my life…” I inhale a deep breath to keep calm. “Then you’re sorely mistaken. You are mine. I own you, and you will submit to me. Perhaps not tonight, but soon.” I press down on her clit, sending her over the edge, and her keening cry is music to my ears.
I watch her ride the wave of her release for a long while before I step back, releasing her from the confines of my body. Scarlett straightens, her glassy eyes flicking to mine. Heat, confusion, and a hint of anger swirl in her gaze.
“Why did you do that?” Her words are croaky, her body still shivering from the intensity of what just happened. My cock, on the other hand, feels like steel against my zipper. “Why?”
“Because I like to make pretty girls cry,” I respond. “And because you are mine. My little red. And nobody is going to take you away from me.”
She straightens her shoulders, tilting her chin in challenge as her eyes narrow. “What if I
want to walk away from you?”
“Learn about your father’s transgressions before you make your choice. There are always a lesser of two evils in this world.” I shrug, shoving my hands in my pockets before I continue, “And your choice should come from knowing all the information.”
“Then tell me,” she pleads, tears filling her lashes, threatening to fall. She looks so beautiful on the verge of crying, and I want so badly to pin her down and claim her, mark her as mine.
“Give me two days,” I request. “Should you feel the need to leave after, I’ll rethink the terms of the contract.”
“Two days?”
“While you’re in my house, you will not touch yourself. Every orgasm you have while you’re here, and trust me, there will be many, are mine to give you. I own you, Scarlett; it’s written on that contract.”
“You can’t own someone. If I’m not willing to give you something, you can’t take it,” she sasses, crossing her arms, but I don’t miss the tremble in her hands.
A smirk curls my lips, and I raise a dark brow at her in a challenge. If she thinks I’m a good man who won’t take what I want, then she’s mistaken.
“Right? You wouldn’t…” Her words filter into nothing, the silence deafening when she realizes I’m no gentleman.
Taking a step toward her, I notice her attempt at moving away, but she’s now pinned between me and the smooth wood of the vanity. She’s small, only reaching my chest, so she has to tip her head back to look me in the eye.
There’s a hint of fear, but it’s mingled with curiosity. When I close the distance between my mouth and hers, I notice desire dancing in her eyes, but the moment she blinks, it’s gone.
“Don’t underestimate me.” Keeping my voice calm, my composure is hanging by a thread when her tongue darts out, wetting her plump lips. “When I sign a contract, when I agree to anything, I don’t break that promise. In two days, you will be my wife, and when you sign your name, it will be Shaw, not Bardot.”