Page 17 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)

AUDREY

Determined to ignore the icy hollowness until it went away — because it was going to go away — I grabbed the bar of soap on the small ledge at the back of the shower and worked it into a lather. I washed the grime from my hair and picked out the tangles as best I could without conditioner, then turned my attention to my body.

Just reaching up to my head pulled at the gashes in my torso. The wounds on my front had healed enough that they wouldn’t open up if I scrubbed too hard — and I suspected the wounds on my back were the same — but that didn’t mean they weren’t tender.

I ran my soapy hands over my chest, carefully washing away the dried blood without hurting myself. If I closed my eyes, I could almost pretend I was having a shower like normal.

Except the moment I did, I became hyperaware of the hollowness inside me. It was icy and aching and thrumming with longing that grew with every slide of my hands.

The edge of my palm brushed my nipple and the longing swelled, oozing heat into the cold, making me ache for a touch that was never coming.

It was just another thing that was cruel about tricking me into starting the mating vows and then leaving me hanging. A mating bond heightened sexual desire and I had no one to be sexual with… well there was Cyrus.

Even if he was intimidating, he was handsome. Maybe he’d be interested in a little something. I knew in my heart it wouldn’t be the same as having sex with my mate, but since I didn’t have a mate?—

Oh, my God! What was I thinking?

Even if he was interested, I didn’t know him. Did I really want to have sex with a stranger just to relieve the pressure? Worse yet, did I want to have sex for the first time with a stranger just to relieve the pressure? How did I even go about asking for that?

You’re cute and I’m a horny virgin, you wanna…?

Jeez. The situation wasn’t that bad. I could barely feel anything. Really… even if I was getting hornier by the second.

No. I was not going to ask Cyrus to have sex with me.

If things got too bad, I’d just take care of myself by myself. I’d done that before. It would be enough to get me through the worst of it while the incomplete bond faded away.

And now I was also determined to ignore the aching longing. A few more things to ignore and I’d have to change my middle name to Denial.

I scrubbed down as quickly as possible, not caring that I aggravated my injuries — pain was better than the aching longing — and hurried out of the shower. I’d just finished drying myself off and was trying to figure out what to do about clothing since the only thing I had to wear was the towel or the shirt that I didn’t — and did — want to put back on when someone knocked on the door.

“Clothing,” Cyrus said, and he opened the door a crack and set a pile of silky blue fabric on the floor along with a pair of strappy tan sandals.

I picked up the fabric and it unfurled into a backless dress that was secured at the nape of the neck and the small of the back with ties. It hung to my ankles and covered everything it was supposed to cover, but I still felt naked wearing it. The soft fabric clung to every curve and without a bra, I couldn’t hide my peaked nipples. I could only hope Cyrus thought I was cold and not turned on like I really was.

Why in God’s name would he give me a dress like that? Had I been wrong about his intentions?

And damn if it didn’t make it even harder to pretend the only thing I was feeling from the mating bond was cold emptiness.

I stepped out of the bathroom and Cyrus’s eyes narrowed, making me cross my arms over my chest, even more uncomfortable in the flimsy dress than before.

“You won’t get pity walking around like that,” he said, his voice still gruff and now edged with a hint of frustration. “You might as well shift out the rest of your injuries.”

“I’m not looking for pity.” But I also didn’t want to tell him that I couldn’t shift. He might have saved my life but that didn’t mean I could trust him, especially if he learned how weak I really was. “I appreciate you saving me.”

“Want to tell me what you were doing in Darkweald to begin with?” he asked, striding down the hall, forcing me to scramble to catch up.

“Darkweald?” I didn’t recognize the name. How far had the stream washed me away? I thought I was familiar with the names of everything on and around pack lands.

Of course, I didn’t remember a stream anywhere near the sacred grove… and I wasn’t sure what to think about that.

The hall opened into a grand front entrance with an enormous glittering chandelier, massive front doors, and a thick, red rug. We stood on the second level at the edge of an equally grand staircase that started split in two on the ground level, curving up and around a wide entrance, met again halfway up creating a broad landing, and split again to the hall where Cyrus and I stood and to another hall across from us, suggesting the building had two wings.

Every surface was clean and well kept, just like the bathroom and the room I’d woken in. This wasn’t some abandoned mansion Cyrus had found and was squatting in while he passed by, and it didn’t seem like a bed and breakfast or short-term rental, either. It was too… grand for something like that.

Except that didn’t make any sense.

There wasn’t a mansion like this anywhere near pack lands. Even if I’d never gone beyond the area owned by the pack, I would have heard from the others about a house like this, occupied or otherwise.

Of course, if I’d been unconscious for a few days, we could have easily driven across the state. Which meant I could be one step closer to getting as far away from Sterling, Royce, and that monster as possible.

“Yes, Darkweald,” Cyrus pressed, leading me down the stairs.

The entrance that was framed by the split stairs opened into a large empty room lit by indirect sunlight coming through dozens of windows. They were smaller than expected, looking like they belonged to a much older building. But I didn’t get a chance to get a good look before Cyrus headed away from the grand entrance down a wide hall and took me to a kitchen big enough for a medium-sized restaurant.

There were dozens more of the smallish windows along the far wall, but these faced a different direction and full sunlight streamed through. A door at the back stood open, letting in more sunlight along with a warm, fresh breeze fragrant with the scent of flowers and herbs, and beyond lay a garden, a tall stone wall, and a towering mountain.

I was still in the mountains so he hadn’t taken me two days east. I might not be as far away from Sterling as I’d hoped, which meant I needed to figure out how to get moving.

With literally nothing, possibly not even the scraps of dress I’d been wearing for the transformation ceremony, I was going to have to walk across the country and rely on the kindness of strangers to survive. That, or find work to earn enough for a bus ticket to get me to Union City.

“Well?” A hint of his power rolled into me with that word.

I opened my mouth to answer him but managed to snap it shut before the truth poured out. Even if I lied about my age and said I was performing my pack’s transformation ceremony, he’d still know exactly who my pack was, and I couldn’t risk him trying to take me back.

Could I even mention being betrayed and almost sacrificed to a monster?

My cheeks burned with shame.

For all I knew, this guy might think he’d get a reward for returning me.

“You’re not strong enough to resist me,” he said, opening a tall cupboard and revealing a strange looking fridge inside.

Swell. Of course, he’d just force me to talk. That was what powerful supers did to weaker ones, which only reminded me that I hadn’t stood a chance in my pack, and I wouldn’t in the real world, either.