Enslaved by the Alpha: Part Two Page 4

  “The last time Sabine watched Halley, she left her above ground for twelve hours.”

  This again.

  “She was playing,” Erik said dismissively.

  “She was five years old.”

  Erik was not going to dredge up this tired debate again. “Fine, leave in the morning. Is there anything else?”

  “Yes, actually.” He hesitated, before saying, “I was hoping I could ask Astrid to look after her.”

  Erik’s wolf growled at the mention of her name. The animal had been on edge for hours, pacing back and forth, growing increasingly agitated the longer it was away from her. Unable to shut it up, Erik had been trying to block it out instead, but to little avail. He needed to see her.

  “She’s a human,” Erik grunted. “How is she supposed to guard your pup?”

  “Halley doesn’t need to be guarded, the pack will take care of that. She needs to be cared for and nurtured.”

  As they reached Sabine, she lifted her head up. Though her human form was only moderately attractive, Sabine’s long, muscular legs and strong features transitioned well into her wolf form. She knew this, and spent much of her free time splayed out in the main room preening her limbs.

  “Where is she?” Erik asked.

  Sabine stretched out her legs and then shifted. She had the sense not to play coy. “Ila had her bag. I took her to get it back, and she decided to stay.”

  “You left her with Ila?” Erik kept his tone even, despite the fact that his wolf was growling louder now.

  “They were getting along famously and I do hate being the third wheel.”

  And there goes her sense.

  Erik narrowed his eyes. “You were supposed to be looking after her, not Ila.”

  “I wouldn’t trust Ila to watch the dog,” Sten remarked.

  “Erik only told me to feed her,” she protested.

  Erik massaged his temple, not for the first time that day. His head had been throbbing since he’d woken up and it had only gotten worse as the day had worn on.

  “I should have known better than to rely on you, after what you did to the pup,” Erik heard himself say.

  Sabine’s eyes widened. “That again? It was light out, she was playing!”

  “She was five years old,” Erik snapped.

  Sabine recoiled as though he’d struck her.

  “Where is she? Ila’s room?”

  She nodded. He saw her open her mouth to speak, but he turned to walk away. He shifted, not caring to listen to her excuses and also not trusting himself to speak. The wolf was howling inside his head, and he knew that there was only one thing that would shut it up.

  When he found the human, he wasn’t sure if he was going to fuck her or strangle her.

  He picked up her scent on the way to Ila’s room, but it went off onto another pathway and then mingled with the scent of another male. He recognized it as that of Yves, one of the younger, smaller males in the pack. Nose to the ground, he followed their trail, the fur on the back of his neck standing up straight.

  His mind was wild with speculation by the time their scents diverged from each other’s. He stopped where the tunnel split two ways, noticing for the first time where he was. Pace slowing, he took the left tunnel several meters down, to where the wall split with the opening of his room. His ears perked up at the sound of soft breathing from within.

  Shifting into his human form, Erik squeezed himself into the room. It was a small room, just big enough to comfortably fit his wolf form while he slept. The pile of furs where he rested was covered in silk blankets. Beneath them, the human lay curled up, sleeping soundly.

  Her scent was everywhere, and he knew it would be a while before he could rest in his room without smelling her. She still smelled like him as well, and he could tell she had not shared herself with another male.

  “What are you doing in my room?”

  He deepened his voice to make himself sound angrier than he actually felt. She was a skittish creature, and he expected her to jump awake. Instead, she roused slowly, rubbing her eyelids and looking up at him through bleary eyes.

  A small smile tugged at her lips. Then, she yawned his name. “Erik?”

  Nothing about what she’d done was meant to tempt him; he knew this. But his name on her lips was like a fist wrapped tightly around his cock. In the span of a breath, he was hard and ready to fuck.

  Erik pounced on her, one hand grabbing her wrists to pin them above her head. He buried his face in her neck, running his tongue over the bite mark he’d made the day before. A mark like that would have already healed on a shifter female, but on the human it would scar, forever imprinted into her skin. He aligned his canines with the shallow grooves and tugged at the flesh, groaning as his cock swelled harder.

  Straining against him, she shoved one knee in between them. “Cut it out, I’m sore and I’m not clean. Seriously, Erik.”

  Deciding her talking would be more of an annoyance, he released her wrists and moved his hand to cover her mouth. His room became blissfully silent, save for the sound of muffled protests.

  He effortlessly nudged her knee aside, but as he went to pull her pants off, Erik felt a sharp sting in the heel of his hand. He jerked back, releasing the human and holding his hand up to inspect it.

  Blood rolled down his forearm in rivulets. The wound in his hand was deep and not at all superficial. He looked between it and the human, who stared up at him with wide, panicked eyes.

  She had bitten him.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “I’m sorry, I just…”

  Just what? Astrid felt the muscle in her throat flex as she gulped. Erik was just staring at her. She couldn’t make out his expression in the dark, which made it all the more terrifying.

  Her body tensed as he raised his hand up. She braced herself to be slapped, but when his hand came down on her face, it was to smear it with his blood. She remained motionless, save for the fine tremor that ran the length of her spine.

  Erik traced her bottom lip with his thumb, spreading his blood over it like a coppery gloss. His hand moved to her chin. He pinched it hard between his thumb and forefinger, pushing her head back as far as it would go.

  And then, he kissed her.

  At least, that was the only word she had for what he did. It seemed grossly insufficient. She’d been kissed many times, and by several different men. It was nothing like any of those times. He drove his tongue past her lips, the powerful muscle forcing her teeth to part. He swept the inside of her mouth, licking up the traces of his blood while his teeth scraped against her lips.

  It wasn’t a kiss meant to coax or seduce—he was devouring her.

  She didn’t struggle as he pulled her pants down and positioned himself between her thighs. While she couldn’t deny that her body thrummed with perverse arousal, their encounter had been too brief for her to be sufficiently prepared. There was little he could have done anyway, as she was still sore and had yet to recover from their previous run.

  Through sheer force of his thrust, he was able to get the full length of his steely erection within her. She cried out, the pained sound lost inside of his mouth. Her hands took fistfuls of his hair, gripping them tightly as he began moving within her. He growled in response, one of his canines grazing her delicate bottom lip. Fresh blood pooled in her mouth, and he worked quickly to lap it up.

  This time, the initial pain never faded. Either because she was becoming more depraved, or because her mind was desperately trying to cope, she began to relish in the prickling sting of being too full and hot burn of his relentless pace.

  As Erik neared his climax, his thrust grew increasingly rigid. Confident that he was thoroughly engrossed, her hands grew bold. She released his hair and began a feverish exploration of his body, feeling out thick muscles and hard contours. Her inquisitive hands spurred him on, and before long they were both panting with the speed and force of his thrusts.

  Climax hit her, and she felt as though she were coming apar
t at the seams. Her inner walls clenched and unclenched around him, her entire being throbbing in tandem. His body trembled as he came inside of her, and she felt drunk on power. She had made this hard and powerful alpha quake.

  The feeling was fleeting. He collapsed beside her, his massive leg keeping her pinned to the floor. The sweat that had broken out over her body began to chill, and soon she was the one shivering.

  He said nothing to her, and within minutes, he was ready to go again. As he moved to climb back on top of her, she placed one hand flat on his chest.

  Her breath was still coming out in soft pants. “Please… Can I clean up?”

  Somehow, she’d sensed that this time he wouldn’t ignore her, and she was right. Astrid stifled a cry as he pulled out of her, her inner walls now unspeakably tender. She felt around for her pants, but Erik brushed her hand aside.

  “Don’t bother.” He grabbed one of the pelts from the floor and wrapped it tightly around her. “It’s not far. I’ll carry you.”

  Without further explanation, he lifted her up into his arms and carried her out into the tunnel. She turned her head into his chest, not wanting to feel the cold air on her sensitive skin.

  As he carried her down the tunnel, they shared a silence that was oddly comfortable. The room he brought her to was warm and when she looked up, she gasped. Blue-green light reflected off the walls, emanating from a pool of dazzling water. Steam rolled off the surface, filling the room like a sauna.

  “No way,” she whispered as Erik let her down onto her feet. At some point between arriving in and leaving Erik’s room, she’d lost her boots. The floor was pleasantly warm, and she approached the pool, tentatively hovering a toe over it.

  While she hesitated at the edge, Erik dove in. The impact caused the water to surge up and onto the floor, before receded back into the pool. The feel of hot water rushing over her feet was all the encouragement she needed. She shed her top and climbed in, moaning as the water enveloped her aching body.

  “This is amazing,” she said. “I just want to stay here forever.”

  She’d been talking mostly to herself, so she wasn’t annoyed when Erik brought up his own topic. “You aren’t allowed in my room again.”

  She splashed water on her face before glancing over at him. Erik’s long, muscular arms lay spread out on the edge of the pool in a relaxed position. He was perfectly still, only his eyelids moving to blink.

  “I didn’t want to go to your room. I got lost and…it’s a long story, actually.”

  “Why was Yves with you?”

  His eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch, and she wondered if it was deliberate.

  “He sort of rescued me. Like I said, I got lost, and then my lantern was running out of gas. Then it broke, but that was more his fault because he startled me. I’ve actually been really jumpy lately. I’m starting to think I might have PTSD, or something. Anyway, I probably would have died if it weren’t for him…”

  She trailed off as his eyes narrowed to slits. Definitely deliberate.

  “I would have found you long before you died,” he said.

  “You didn’t even know I was lost. You wouldn’t have found me at all if you hadn’t come back to your room.”

  She wasn’t sure why she was debating with him when he was in such a foul mood. For that matter, she wasn’t sure why she ever bothered debating anything with him. It wasn’t like she was going to win.

  “I only came to my room because I was following your scent.”

  “Oh,” was all she could think to say.

  She drifted in the water for a bit, letting the heat sink into her bones. Once she was sufficiently relaxed, she began to comb her fingers through her tangled curls. When she braved a glance at Erik, he was looking away from her, blue eyes pensive.

  “What are you thinking?”

  Apparently, her mouth had a mind of its own today, and that mind was an idiot. Erik seemed to agree. He cast her a dry look.

  “Why would I tell you that?”

  Something about the way he said ‘you’ annoyed her. “I get it, I’m so beneath you. But that’s exactly why you could tell me anything. Hardly anyone talks to me, and even if they did, no one would ever believe their great-and-powerful alpha permitted a mere mortal into the privileged confines of his mind. So, what are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking about drowning you.”

  Astrid lowered her head until the water rose just above her chin. “You could have just said ‘nothing.’”

  A ghost of a smile tugged at his lips, but it vanished quickly, as though swept away by the mist.

  “I am thinking I should have killed you,” Erik said, his expression inscrutable. “Obsessing over you is growing tiresome.”

  The silence returned, and this time it made her squirm. Erik climbed out of the water and wrapped the pelt around himself.

  “I’m sending Sten to track a group of trespassers,” he said, his back to her. “They’re headed east, towards Siluit. While he’s there, he will investigate your sister’s whereabouts and reclaim her, if possible.”

  Astrid brought her hand up to cover her mouth. “You mean it? When is he leaving?”

  “Tomorrow morning.” He cocked his head to peer at her from over his shoulder. “Don’t think I’m doing this because you begged. I’m only sending him because circumstances have changed.”

  Any appreciated she’d felt promptly evaporated. “I didn’t beg you. I asked you to uphold your end of our deal, seeing as how I’m upholding mine by being your slave.”

  He gave a dry laugh. “Don’t pretend to be a victim. You asked to be here.”

  “You killed my guides,” she said, raising her voice. “It was either you or the tundra, and I’m starting to think I made a mistake.”

  Erik crouched down by the water’s edge and mocked her with his grin. “Then shall I throw you back out there?”

  “We both know you’re never going to let me go.”

  Help will never come.

  I’ll never see my home again.

  I’m going to die down here.

  It wasn’t a moment of startling clarity, Astrid realized. She had known it all along, and had just refused to accept it. This was her life now. Coldness, darkness, and Erik.

  PART THREE

  When she reveals new information about her sister, Astrid inadvertently makes herself far more valuable to Erik. Soon, she finds herself setting out across the tundra with the alpha, bound for Siluit territory.

  Away from the pack, neither of them is prepared for the way their relationship begins to change. And as Astrid finally reaches her breaking point, Erik reacts in a way that he could not have predicted.

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