Page 20 of In the Mouth of the Wolf (Of Wolves and Kings #1)

20

MARLOWE

P anic rose in my gut. I was naked on the cold, dirty floor of a barn, while an older man, dressed in flannel and thick snow pants, stared at me in awe. The dominating scent of black truffle and grass enveloped me, and I shivered in disgust.

“Well, what do we have here?” he chuckled. I tucked my legs into my body and wrapped my arms around them, trying to cover as much of myself as possible.

“Can I please use your phone?” I asked meekly. I didn’t know any of the guys’ numbers by heart, but I could at least call information and ask for the number to Wolfcrest Construction or Maiingan City Hall. Both should lead me somewhere.

“Sure thing, sweetheart. Why don’t I take you into the house?” He grabbed a scratchy-looking blanket and wrapped it around my shoulders, then placed a spare pair of rubber boots in front of me to slip on. “It’s a good thing I found you,” he said. “Was that your first shift?”

I nodded dumbly. “Yes, I need to get in touch with my pack.”

“Your pack?” His eyes scanned my body slowly. “I don’t see any bond marks.”

With a burgeoning beer gut, thinning hair, and leathery skin from a lifetime of working outside, this guy looked old enough to be my dad.

The way he looked at me was anything but fatherly, though – he was an alpha, and I needed to be careful.

“We’re bonding soon, just working out the arrangements. They, um, wanted to finish my nest first.”

I had no clue what that even meant, but I remembered flashes of the guys mentioning them when I’d been in my heat. I needed to at least fake like I knew what I was talking about.

“Of course.” He nodded slowly. “Gotta impress you, right?”

We walked up the slippery, worn wooden steps onto the porch. “If you have a cell phone, I can just call from out here…” I said.

He pulled me inside. “Nonsense, you’re going to freeze to death, little thing that you are. I’m sure you’d love something hot to drink, right?”

The house was warm, and the smell of the coffee soon drowned out his alpha odor. “Sit right here, I’ll get ya a cup. How do you take it?”

“Um, black is fine,” I said nervously, looking around for a landline. An old guy like this in the countryside would definitely have one. I finally spotted it on a side table in the living room. “If you don’t mind, I’d really like to call my pack now, they must be worried sick.”

He handed me the drink and sat down next to me at the old linoleum table. “I bet they are. If you were my omega, I’m sure I’d be tearing the county apart looking for ya.”

I retreated further into my chair, looking into my chipped Milwaukee Brewers mug as I felt his gaze linger. “So, can I?”

“What’s the rush? I’ve never had the chance to see an omega in all her glory before, at least let me enjoy the company while I got it.” His voice turned rough, and I shuddered at its bite.

He sighed, reaching over to clumsily pluck a piece of straw from my hair. “And you shifted too, that’s incredible. The last one who could shift in my family was my grandfather, I think. I felt the drive, but nothing ever came of it. How’d you do it?”

I took a sip of the burnt, bitter coffee. Of course, it would be better with lots of cream and sugar, but I just needed something warm in my belly. I kept my eye on the phone. “I really don’t know. I wasn’t even trying, it just happened.”

“Hm,” he grunted. “I wonder if you’d pass the power on to any pups.”

The little heat that had accumulated in my body rose to my cheeks, and he chuckled. “Aren’t you the cutest thing, blushing at the thought of it? Me, on the other hand… let’s just say the idea of filling you with pups is giving my body a very different reaction. What do you say? That pack’s wasting their time with you, sweetheart. I could have you bonded to mine by the night, birthing your first by the summer.”

I coughed, trying to disguise the visceral reaction of puking at the idea of doing anything with this man. “Please, I already have a pack…”

“You don’t if you aren’t bonded yet. It’s finders-keepers at this point, and now that I’ve found ya, I think I’ll keep ya.”

I threw my coffee in his face and bolted for the door. He screamed in a rage, slamming his body into mine just as I’d reached the handle.

“I was gonna be so nice,” he snarled. “Take real good care of you.” He picked me up with ease and threw me over his shoulder.

I kicked and screamed, willing my wolf with all my power to come back, but she was exhausted, sleeping off the all-night run.

He headed up the stairs, pushing us through a door into a bedroom. Then he grabbed two belts from on top of his dresser and threw me on the bed. While sitting on my chest, he secured my wrists to the metal headboard.

“But if you wanna act like a bitch, I’m gonna treat you like one.”

“Please,” I begged. “Let me go, I don’t want to bond with you. I have a pack!”

He spat on the ground and then grabbed me by the throat. “You’ll be begging to bond with us once your heat comes. Until then, you’re going to learn how to act like a good omega.”

He closed the door, turning a key and locking me in. I growled my frustration and pulled my hands as hard as I could, but they wouldn’t budge.

I heard him chuckle as he headed back down the stairs, then the sound of his voice on the phone.

“John, you’re never going to believe what I found…”

I had writhed and wriggled myself into a tired so deep I couldn’t fight it any longer and fell asleep soon after my capture.

I was woken up with a slap, yelping in pain and surprise to find three men now standing around the bed, their pupils blown and mouths salivating. Next to my captor was a bald man, his face covered in a thick beard. He was large, his muscles threatening to bust through his work shirt.

The third man also appeared to be in his fifties, tall and gangly with a greasy comb-over. He sat down next to me, hands hovering over my naked body. The blanket had long been taken away from me.

“Paul, you weren’t exaggerating. She’s a beaut,” he said. His fingers lightly grazed my collarbone, and he leaned into my neck and inhaled deeply. “I’ve never smelled anything so sweet in my life.”

“Let me go!” I screamed. “This isn’t right. I have a pack!”

“ Shut your mouth! ”

The alpha’s command robbed me of my voice, but I was able to still release a pathetic sounding whimper.

The three men simultaneously groaned, grabbing their crotches. “Fuck, my dick hasn’t been this hard in years,” said the third one.

Paul, my captor, grinned. “It’s fate, I tell ya. All these years, saving myself for an omega, and one finally just shows up on my doorstep. Naked as the day she was born.”

The thin man’s hand traced down my chest, slowly circling my breasts. His touch made me sick. “When’s her heat coming? I’ve always wanted to experience a true omega heat.”

I pulled at the restraints again. When my wolf woke up, he was first. “I’m going to rip your fucking throats out.”

Paul’s hand rose to strike me, but the larger man growled, pushing him against the wall. “Don’t you touch her like that. Don’t you know anything?”

Paul sneered. “Bitch needs to learn her place.”

The thin man next to me sighed. “She’s an omega. All cute little bark and no bite. You really that threatened right now? She’s naked and tied to your bed. What’s she going to do?” He turned his attention towards me. “Don’t worry about him, we’ll get him in line. What do you like to eat? I’ll get you whatever you want.”

I weighed my options. The large one was protective and didn’t like the way Paul was treating me. The thin guy didn’t like it either, but he certainly wasn’t against touching me without my consent.

They didn’t seem smart enough to knowingly play a good cop/bad cop routine, which meant I needed to use their group dynamic to build a wedge.

I sniffled, turning to look at the thin guy. “What’s your name?”

He smiled, his teeth yellow and crooked. “I’m Greg. What’s yours?”

“Marlowe,” I said softly, batting my eyelashes. “Could I just have a coffee? With cream and sugar?”

His hand brushed the hair out of my face while he looked longingly into my eyes. “Anything for you.”

Paul grumbled. “She told me she took it black.”

Greg snapped back. “That’s because she doesn’t trust you, dumbass! Marlowe,” he purred, looking back at me. “John will stay up here and keep you company while Paul and I get your coffee. You sure you don’t need anything else?”

I shook my head and smiled. “No, thank you.”

Paul shuffled out angrily and Greg followed, leaving John and me alone. His hands were balled into fists at his sides, and he eyed the door before he came around and took Greg’s place on the bed. “I’m real sorry about this. You gotta understand though, we’ve never had an omega before. We thought you’d gone extinct or something.”

He chuckled softly and then his face became serious. “We can’t lose our one chance to be happy. But we’ll make you happy, too. And don’t worry about Paul. I won’t let him touch you like that again.”

His sweaty, meaty hands gently grazed my cheek, and I leaned into his touch. A shudder ran through his body, and he composed himself as he withdrew.

“John,” I whispered. “Can’t I at least wear something? I’m so cold, and Paul didn’t even let me…”

“Oh shit, yeah, of course.” He leapt off the bed so quickly the mattress bounced, and he stuck his head out the door. “Paul! You got anything she can wear?”

Paul’s frustrated voice called from the kitchen. “Shit, I don’t know. Shouldn’t we just keep her naked? You know, until she’s bonded?”

John turned towards me and I let out a whine. He bit his lip and yelled louder this time. “She needs clothes, NOW!”

He came back to my side. “We’ll get you something to wear for today, but I can pick up something nice from the store later. I bet you like dresses, right?”

I fought back the urge to roll my eyes. Dresses were fine and fun to wear sometimes, but I lived in jeans. Instead, I giggled. “How’d you know?”

He blushed, rubbing his hand along his head. “Just a guess. Omegas like pretty things, so…”

I was almost expecting him to start asking me about the rabbits when Paul and Greg returned. “One coffee with cream and sugar.”

Greg set it on the nightstand and then helped me sit up as best I could with my hands still tied with the belts. John cleared his throat. “Maybe we should let her get dressed first? And we can undo her hands while we’re here, can’t we?”

Paul crossed his arms. “She stays restrained whenever possible. I forgot to tell you, she can fully shift.”

Greg and John looked at me and laughed. “Well, you’re just full of surprises,” Greg said. “I guess those threats to rip out our throats had some oomph to them after all.”

“She still deserves clothes,” John grumbled.

Paul sighed and went into his closet. “I think I have a box of Suzanne’s old things in here…”

A few minutes later, he’d managed to find me a large old house dress that smelled like mothballs, but it was certainly better than nothing. They only released one hand at a time to help me put it on, and then Greg pulled me up slightly so I was sitting up.

“Here, your coffee’s getting cold.” He held it up to my lips and tipped it slightly to allow me a sip, and I took it gingerly.

Paul’s anger simmered in the air. “Where was all that sweetness when you nearly burned my face off this morning, huh?”

I took delight in the red, puffy skin on his cheeks, but pretended to cower, and a growl reverberated through John’s chest. “Watch the way you speak to her!”

Paul threw his hands up in the air and stormed out of the room.

Greg and John shared a knowing look and then followed him.

I looked out the window into the gray sky, sending a plea for my pack to find me.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m ready now.”