Page 31 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

brYN

Ibit my lip as I crouched by the window. I had been busy since I woke this morning. Violet was later than normal, and that made me uneasy. With a burst of inspiration, I had leapt out of bed to try yet again to pry open the window.

I had managed to form one of the wax candles into a wedge that just fit under the slight gap between the window and the sill.

It had taken a while to get the wax hot enough for me to mold the candle into the right shape, and I’d really believed that it might work.

But as I forced the wax into the small space, the candle chipped apart.

Some of the wax was too soft to take the abuse, and the part that had hardened simply wasn’t strong enough to force the window open.

I stepped back with a frustrated sigh. Was there anything else in the room that I could try?

Suddenly, the door opened. I jumped and tried to stand in front of the remains of my most recent escape attempt.

“Oh! I’m glad to see you awake,” Violet greeted. She looked from the window to me and then gave a knowing smile. “And I see you’re pretty active this morning.”

I decided not to acknowledge her comment. After all, anything I said might further incriminate me. Instead, I looked at Violet’s empty hands. “No breakfast this morning?”

Violet’s expression brightened. “That’s the good news,” she said, clapping her hands. “Starting today, you’ll be living with me!”

I paused, blinking. “Wait, really?”

“Yes! Night and his men decided it would be best for you to live somewhere more comfortable.”

I resisted the urge to smirk. I doubted that Night would ever make a decision for me that would make me “more comfortable,” but I wouldn’t argue with her.

Violet is a nice enough woman, but this is a problem. Now, I’ll have to get used to a whole new environment. I had a few other escape plans in development, but if I was leaving this room, I’d have to rethink everything.

“Is there anything you want to bring with you?” Violet asked.

I had literally nothing to pack, but the pillow I’d been sleeping on was the nicest one I’d ever had, so I plucked it off the bed and held it against my chest like a shield.

It had absorbed many of my tears, and if I pushed my face into it, I could almost smell Night.

It wouldn’t have been comforting for Night to be there himself, but his scent was another story.

Something about it soothed my nerves. I told myself it was because it was the only consistent and therefore familiar aspect of my abduction, but in truth, I couldn’t explain it.

“Just this,” I replied. “If I can bring it?”

“Of course you can! If that’s all you want, let’s head to my cabin.”

I walked behind Violet and looked around at the cabin as we left.

Now that I was seeing it in the daytime, I noted that despite how modestly Night lived, the place was homey.

He didn’t have any decorations in the cabin, so it lacked personality, but it seemed comfortable enough.

The more I looked around, the more I felt that the space suited a man who was as hard to read as Night.

I let out a long sigh. “Violet, how could a nice woman like you ever give birth to the asshole who likes to keep me locked away?”

Violet laughed so hard, we had to pause in front of the front door for her to catch her breath. “I understand why you’d ask me something like that, but he’s more like me than you know, girlie.”

“Sure, okay.” I accepted the answer, though I’d yet to see any evidence of that.

“Alright, before we head out that door, I need to lay down some ground rules from the ‘asshole’ himself. You can’t try anything like what you were doing in that room. Do you understand?”

I nodded. I understood alright, but that didn’t mean I’d obey.

Violet gave me another knowing glance. She opened the door to reveal Dom standing on the other side. He wore a wide smile on his face.

“Hey there,” he said. “Long time no see.”

My eyes widened at the unexpected visit.

It had been days since I’d last seen the large, friendly wolf.

I couldn’t keep myself from returning his smile.

He’d been so kind to me on the hike to the Wargs’ territory, so seeing him now was like a breath of fresh air.

I knew I couldn’t trust him, of course, but he wasn’t as much of a jerk as Night was.

“You’re not here to take me back to that room, are you?” I asked.

“Not at all,” Violet said. “He’s our guide.”

Dom nodded, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb. “I’m here to escort you lovely ladies up to Violet’s cabin.”

I raised a brow. “Uh-huh, I doubt that. I bet you’re really here to make sure I don’t run away.”

Dom’s snort turned into a laugh. “Aren’t you perceptive? Got any other observations for me?”

As we began walking, I looked him over, taking in the tired hue of purple beneath his eyes and the slight slope in his shoulders. “I bet you’re not much of an early riser. Either that or you had a late night.”

He blew out a low whistle. “My own mother never noticed those things about me. Are you a professional witness? A spy, maybe?”

“If I were a spy, this would be a really convoluted way for me to infiltrate your village, don’t you think?”

“I suppose I can’t argue that. But maybe that’s just what you want me to think.”

I chuckled. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see, huh? A good spy never reveals her secrets.”

“Oh, to be young and full of wit,” Violet sighed. “Those were the days, eh?”

“Please, Violet, you look younger than me,” Dom said, slipping his arm around her shoulders. “And without your intelligence and wit, the pack would be much worse off, I’m sure.”

“Don’t let Night hear you say that,” she chuckled. “He’d never forgive you.

“He’s probably already upset at me for something unrelated,” Dom said. “You know that man has a short fuse.”

“We have that in common then,” I said, surprising myself with my ability to keep up. It had seemed impossible to participate in conversations on the Kings’ compound, but here it was much easier to join in. “Seems we’re both in the line of fire for your Alpha’s anger.”

Dom threw back his head and gave a deep, loud laugh. Violet and I couldn’t help but join in.

“When you put it like that,” he said, wiping away a tear, “I guess we’re in similar boats.”

Violet’s cabin was just a few yards up from Night’s, and both were on the far corner of the living area. A few trees separated their homes from the rest of the pack. The wood was painted canary yellow, and the windows were trimmed with white.

The front door was a deep ocean blue, and there were empty flower boxes in the windows on the ground floor.

Below the windows was a beautiful pinewood deck that wrapped around the front of the cabin—one that I couldn’t help but admire.

On either side of the front door, there were two large clay planters that both held rose bushes.

The branches were just beginning to bud as the weather warmed, and I had a feeling that soon they would boast gorgeous blooms.

Violet opened the door and held it for us to walk inside. “Alright, let’s give you the tour,” she said.

The cabin was smaller than Night’s—two bedrooms, one bathroom, a small sitting area, a kitchen, and…

that was it. It was quaint, with dozens of homemade pottery pieces and art from either Violet herself or another wolf.

The furniture was brightly painted in eclectic colors, and yet somehow, it all fitted together.

I smiled as I took everything in. Mom would love this!

With that thought echoing in my mind, my smile immediately disappeared.

Sadness and the painful reality of my situation yet again fell over my shoulders.

Violet and Dom chatted and joked around behind me, but I couldn’t join them.

It didn’t matter how nicely the two of them treated me—I was still a prisoner, and they’d essentially told me as much.

I was alone, without my mom or anything familiar, and I couldn’t let myself get pulled in by the banter or the beautiful deck or the supposed kindness of these wolves.

I needed to keep my eyes and ears open for a way to escape.

Dom stayed around for another hour while the three of us drank tea and ate bread with delicious fruit preserves. I kept my pillow in my lap and tried to stay engaged with the conversation. By the time Dom left, I believed I’d managed to hide my sadness well.

“Bryn,” Violet began, turning to me. “I didn’t want to say this in front of Dom, but I don’t want you to think of this place as a prison, no matter what my son or his team says.”

“Do you know how long they plan to keep me as a prisoner?”

“I really can’t say.”

I stared at her. Violet seemed like such an open, soft person, but she could be as unreadable as her son when she wanted to be.

And right then, I couldn’t tell if Violet knew the answer to my question.

Then again, the fact that Violet was being obtuse at all meant that she was hiding something from me, didn’t it?

“I want you to feel as at home as possible while you’re here,” Violet said.

“So, you are free to use all of my home. There will be no locked rooms unless you decide to lock them yourself. Of course, the front and back doors and all of the windows will be locked, and you won’t ever be alone, but you’ll at least be able to use the restroom or cook or get a drink of water when the need arises without having to ask first.”

That actually sounded pretty nice—at least compared to how I was living in Night’s cabin. It was a bit of freedom, and it would surely make my escape so much easier.

“One other thing.” Violet pushed away from the table. “You sit tight for a moment. I’ll be right back.”

I thought I’d have a bit of time to myself to explore on my own, but Violet really was gone and back within just a few seconds. The older woman was much sprier than I had thought.