Page 5

five

ASPEN

My wolf was itching to get out and walk around, but for whatever reason, she was refusing to shift while we were alone in the Alpha’s room.

Hopefully she’d finally decided to be afraid of him. She needed to.

Since she wouldn’t shift, but wouldn’t calm herself down either, I ended up pacing the room.

There was no clock on the oven, and the one on the microwave was stuck at 12:03. I had no idea how much time had gone by. The sun had set completely, but it had already been setting when I made it back to the room.

So, I paced.

Eventually, the door opened.

I spun immediately, and came face-to-face with the Alpha King.

Enzo.

I forced myself to stay calm.

My wolf got up and stretched, her tail wagging slowly.

That was a bad sign. A very bad sign.

Enzo’s honey-eyed gaze lowered to my chest, and back up. “We’re going to the pack’s dinner. Clay says we need to.”

“I’ve been told.”

His gaze lowered and raised again. “Don’t you have a bra?”

“Some asshole threw me in the shower while I was wearing it. Those things take forever to dry.”

His jaw set. “No, then.”

“No.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face, and his stomach growled loudly. His hair was wet, and he smelled clean. He must’ve showered off after he got back from dealing with the rogue wolves—whatever they were.

Something told me I didn’t want to know how he dealt with them.

“That shirt’s not going to work,” he finally said.

“If you’re referring to my tits, none of your shirts are going to work. None of them are made for triple-D breasts.”

“There’s a black one. It has to be better than this.” He strode past me, and I stepped back to give him space.

I didn’t want to touch him if there was a way around i?—

My wolf tore through my skin suddenly, without warning. We had always shifted fast, the way the strongest wolves could. Weaker wolves took a few minutes.

She ducked out of the shirt and kicked off the boxer-briefs before she jogged down the hall, shaking out her highlighted brown fur. Like my hair, it was much lighter around her face, blending out naturally darker.

I heard the Alpha growl behind us, and then a gigantic black wolf was stomping behind us, growling and huffing like an angry kid.

He bumped my wolf’s side roughly, and she snapped her teeth at him. His growl cut off immediately, and he gave a whine, licking the side of her face. She rubbed up against him for a moment, until his stomach made a noise.

Then, she growled at him, and followed her nose down a few hallways.

I half expected the Alpha to reach out to me mentally and say something. He’d forced me into the pack when he scratched me, so we would be able to communicate that way if he wanted us to. Or if I wanted us to, I supposed.

But he didn’t say anything.

And I definitely wasn’t going to try to start a conversation with him. Even if I’d wanted to, I was shit with small talk.

The noise in the pack’s dining room died down as soon as we entered.

For some reason, their groupies and pack women weren’t there. Everyone in the expansive room was male, except me.

My wolf purred at the respect everyone showed with their sudden silence. Her mate nuzzled her side and lifted his head to glare around the room before he led her to a table nearby.

Someone loaded it with food quickly, and the wolves tore into it without manners, pause, or class. The noise in the room slowly returned, though never to its previous level.

My wolf was in heaven. Utterly in heaven. People were staring at her, and she didn’t have to be afraid. It was a truly terrible call, but she trusted the Alpha.

She was insane.

But she watched in admiration as Enzo’s wolf consumed far more food than she’d ever imagined anyone eating. Every time he noticed she wasn’t eating and nudged her back to the food, she ate more, with him.

When the Alpha finally slowed down, my wolf stepped off the table and down to the floor.

Then, she shifted.

Panic coursed through me.

I tried to yank the reins back, to stop her from giving me control, but had no luck. Skin replaced fur, leaving me bare-assed on the floor.

Silence struck again.

Every eye was on me.

The Alpha snarled viciously, and everyone looked away. Quickly.

His wolf leaped off the table and landed on top of me, his paws on the floor but his ginormous, furry body over mine.

He forced me to my back, and plopped down right on top of me, still snarling.

One minute passed.

Then another.

Panic gave way to irritation, then anger.

Who did he think he was? I wasn’t his mate. Sure, he was the king. According to his brother, he was the reason the city functioned at all. That was great. Wonderful.

But it didn’t give him any right to claim me. Even if there wasn’t really anything I could do to fight back.

My wolf’s pride told me she’d done this for a reason. Her head was up, her nose in the air.

She was showing him that he couldn’t control her. She might like him, and she might be okay with him claiming her, but he wasn’t her Alpha and didn’t get to call the shots.

Which I might as well take advantage of.

“I need my clothes,” I said into the Alpha’s furry throat. “That’s why she did this. She’s making a statement. She likes you, but she won’t let you control us.”

The wolf growled, his entire body rumbling against mine as he threw extra dominance into the air. More than usual. The electricity of it slid over my skin and warmed me, but otherwise didn’t do a thing.

Silence still rang through the massive dining room.

“That doesn’t affect me,” I said into the king’s fur. “I can feel the power, but it doesn’t do anything.”

He growled again, and I heard choking in the room behind me as he hit me with more of his power.

“We get it, Enzo. You’re the Alpha. Knock it off,” I lifted a hand and batted the wolf on the side of the head before my hand froze, and I realized he might bite me.

He licked my palm instead, and the power eased up.

Someone brought him a blanket, and the wolf finally lifted his head off my face and licked my cheek. He took the edge of the blanket, and dragged it over my body as he climbed off of me. He didn’t give up until I was entirely covered, from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes.

I pulled it off my face, holding it to my chest as I finally sat up. He stepped around my back, growling at me yet again. “You know nudity is unavoidable for werewolves, right? Your brother carried me while he was naked. I was in a vehicle with him for almost an hour. We?—”

“Let’s not get me killed by the Alpha,” Hunter interrupted, from beside us.

Apparently he was the one who brought the blanket.

Enzo’s wolf snapped his teeth at his brother.

Hunter lifted his hands. “If I’d known she was yours, I would’ve put pants on.”

The wolf snapped his teeth again anyway.

“Aspen, can you lead the Alpha back to your room?” Hunter asked, eyeing the wolf with something that looked like uncertainty. “He seems to like you.”

Enzo’s wolf snarled, stepping toward his brother threateningly.

He hadn’t cared when I smacked his head, so he clearly didn’t mind it when I touched him. I put a hand on his side, rubbing lightly, and the wolf’s anger vanished immediately as he stepped closer to me.

“You don’t need to scare anyone else. They know you’ve claimed me,” I said.

He licked my face, and I fought not to wrinkle my nose and push his head away. I was trying to calm him down, after all.

“Will you please let your human take over for a minute?” I asked. “There’s a lot of dominance flying around the room.”

He ignored my request.

Clearly, he didn’t care that he was stifling his pack.

“It would make me happy,” I threw out there, just to see if he cared about that.

He turned toward me, letting out a huff.

Then he licked my cheek again, snuggled up against me, and shifted.

The fur under my hand gave way to warm, smooth skin. Enzo’s face replaced the wolf’s, his gorgeous, honey-colored eyes narrowed and only a breath away from mine.

His bare chest was pressed against my blanket-clad one, his knees on the floor, on either side of my legs.

The man was straddling me. It was the wolf’s fault, but still.

Being straddled was… new.

I wasn’t a virgin, but there had never been any love or romance in sex for me. Having him straddle me that way wasn’t romantic, obviously, but it was different. Sort of intimate.

Enzo let out a harsh breath, then stood.

My gaze remained where it was, eyes widening slightly as his thick abs, then cock, balls, and muscular thighs moved directly into my line of sight, inches away from my face.

He was hard.

And wow .

That thing was not small. He was at least a little bigger than the one guy I’d slept with.

“The female wolf belongs to me,” he said, stepping around me. When he kicked part of the blanket behind me, I got the message.

He wanted my back covered. At least my lower back.

Though I wanted to roll my eyes, I did wrap it around myself.

“Anyone who looks at her, scents her, or touches her will die.” He didn’t bother raising his voice. He didn’t need to. He had everyone’s full attention, and all werewolves’ hearing was better than humans’.

I looked over my shoulder as he crossed the room behind me in strong, confident steps.

Damn, that was a nice ass.

Enzo walked up to one of the men sitting down. The man jerked his chin downward as his Alpha approached, but Enzo grabbed him by the throat anyway.

My face paled as the scent of blood tinged the air. Enzo said something in a low voice, and the guys around him exchanged grimaces.

The guy he was choking nodded roughly, gasping something out.

Enzo dropped the man in his chair. As the man wiped blood off his throat and caught his breath, I studied him.

There was something familiar about…

Oh.

Crap.

He was one of the guys from the hallway, who had been waiting outside the bedroom door when I left.

My gaze jerked to the next guy Enzo had already grabbed by the throat, with his clean hand. The fingers at his side were already dripping blood.

It only took me a moment to place him as another guy from the hall.

All of the blood was gone from my face as the king repeated it with the third man, and the fourth. The amount of blood that dripped down their throats and coated his hands told me the cuts were far from shallow, and I hoped he hadn’t done any permanent damage.

When he came back over to me and put a bloody hand to my back, then walked me out in front of him, I didn’t dare hesitate or protest.

How had I forgotten who and what he was?

Enzo wasn’t just the Alpha.

He was the Wolf King.

He was the nightmare human females told stories about to get their pups to obey. Everyone feared him.

And he’d claimed me as his mate. His possession. Something no one was allowed to look at, smell, or touch. His fucking princess .

My wolf preened at the idea, despite her own show of dominance earlier. She wanted to belong to him.

I just wanted to be free.

When we reached his room, I knew I should give him space and try to gauge how best to avoid pissing him off. My wolf had thrown away my plan to play along.

If I wanted to avoid making him mad in the future, Enzo and I had to exchange at least a few words.

So, I followed him to the kitchen as he stalked over to the sink. I remained silent as he used the base of his palm to turn the water on. There was a large bottle of soap next to the faucet, and he pumped some into his hands. It had no scent, and slowly erased the smell of blood from the air.

I waited while he scrubbed.

Hopefully if I spoke after his hands were clean, he wouldn’t want to get them dirty again with my blood.

After a few minutes, he finally shut the water off and grabbed the towel from the countertop, drying them.

“I can wear your clothes, if you want,” I said. “But what I told your wolf was the truth. Mine doesn’t like to be controlled. Now that she knows she’s not in danger for existing, she’s going to assert herself. If I don’t have my own clothes, she’s going to keep putting me in uncomfortable positions to piss you off.”

“I’ll deal with it.” He dropped the towel on the counter again and stepped past me.

“I’m going into heat next week,” I added, following him out of the kitchen. “I track the date on my phone. I’ll need it back so I know when to expect it. So you know, too.”

He grunted.

Definitely wasn’t going to give me my phone.

His mom was like me… but she had died when he was a kid. He likely had no idea what heat entailed.

“Do you know what will happen when heat hits?” I asked him.

Enzo ignored me.

I’d take that as a no.

I followed him to the bed, where he plopped down on the mattress and grabbed a remote off the nightstand, turning on the large TV across from the bed. There was a book next to where the remote had been, so I knew he liked to read, but I didn’t bring that up.

The blanket I’d been given earlier was still wrapped around me, and I remained standing a few feet away from the bed. Though the blanket smelled lightly of Hunter, the scent was faint enough that it didn’t seem to be bothering the Alpha.

If he was going to ignore me, I was just going to have to keep talking. “My body gets hot and sweaty. My scent gets much stronger, and pulls in unmated wolves like a magnet. Since human women can’t actually seal a bond with male werewolves, that includes men who have been paired loyally with humans for decades. The only one it doesn’t pull in is my brother. He guards me.”

I had Enzo’s attention, now.

There was a commercial playing on the TV, but neither of us watched it. The Alpha was focused on me, and I was watching him.

I continued, “Everyone who catches my scent loses all sense of reason as nature tells them to find me and breed me. The first man Fletcher killed was a trusted, mated male pack member who was close to me when my first heat started. I was fifteen. It hits suddenly, and when it does, it’s too late to stop it. I saw how many doors were in this hallway. If I’m here when it starts, there will be dozens of men breaking through your door, trying to kill you to get to me. Logic won’t matter. Your dominance won’t matter. People will die.”

He studied me for a moment.

I gave him time, not rushing him. He would talk when he was ready.

And hopefully, he wouldn’t kill me.

His wolf wouldn’t, at least.

“How long does it last?” he asked.

“Three days if I spend it alone.”

His nostrils flared. “If you spend it with a male?”

“A few hours.”

“Who?” His voice was low.

I knew exactly what he was asking, and had a pretty clear idea of what would happen to the wolf whose name I gave him.

“It doesn’t matter.”

His honey eyes flashed gold. His wolf wanted an answer. “Like hell it doesn’t.”

“No one who will challenge you,” I said.

He stood up, the remote forgotten on the bed as he prowled toward me. “Who, Princess?”

“Fuck off,” I whispered.

His responding growl was deadly.

I tensed, but didn’t move.

He used his knuckle to tilt my chin back and to the side, then lowered his lips to my ear. “You can give me his name, or I can start killing my way through your brother’s pack until I find out who he is.”

“He’s not from my brother’s pack.”

“Then I’ll start with the nearest pack to him after I’m done with them. I’ll make sure to plate Lucas’s head for you, too.”

My hands trembled. “If you do that, you’ll lose the taxes they pay. The respect of the packs around them. Someone could challenge you.”

“I don’t need the money, and I’d enjoy the fight.” His lips brushed my ear.

“Your wolf wants me happy. Killing my brother’s pack won’t accomplish that. He’ll fight you on it.”

Enzo finally lifted his head, and stepped back.

I fought the urge to frown when he disappeared into the closet, still bare-assed and way too attractive for anyone’s safety. Especially mine. His cock was hardening, so apparently he was getting turned on by our little argument.

Which was just lovely.

But backing down really didn’t seem like something he would do, so he had to have gone into the closet for a reason.

He stepped out with my phone in his hand. Still naked.

“Code,” he said.

It wasn’t a question. It was a demand.

And nothing on there was worth the fight, so I gave it to him.

“0913.”

“Your birthday.”

I flashed him a look.

His brother had told him I was almost twenty-six, but I wasn’t going to confirm his theory. Even if it was right. He hadn’t said it like a question, anyway.

He typed it in, and a moment later, had the phone to his ear.

My heart squeezed when my brother answered.

“Aspen? Are you okay?”

“She’s fine,” Enzo said flatly. “I need the name of the man she’s spent heat with in the past.”

There was a long moment of silence.

“Is the connection bad? I would be thrilled to have this conversation in person. We can address any rules your pack is breaking by having groupies around while we’re at it, if you’d like. Kill two birds with one stone,” Enzo rumbled.

Fletcher growled.

I closed my eyes.

He needed to be careful. I wasn’t confident that my potential sadness would dissuade the Alpha from killing my brother or his pack, even if it put him at odds with the monster within him.

“It’s Silas Rhodes,” Fletch gritted out. “We grew up with him. If you kill him, she’ll hate you for it. He’s one of very few people who know what she is, and he has a secluded cabin they use. It’s severely painful for her to spend heat alone, on top of being dangerous, so they fuck. There’s no emotion behind it for either of them. They clean everything thoroughly afterward, so there’s no evidence when it’s over.”

“Send me the location.” He gave Fletcher a phone number.

“Alright, I just sent it, but the locks are good. You’ll want the key.”

“Fix your groupie situation before I stop by to pick it up. You have an hour.”

With that, Enzo hung up.

He tapped the screen, and I watched him find the app I used to track my heat. He hit the share button, and sent the information to another phone number. I hoped it was his, not one of his brothers’, but didn’t ask.

“Silas doesn’t deserve to die for helping me,” I said. “He’s family, and he has a strong pack. They respect him. None of them can take over as Alpha. He has no feelings for me. You saw my skin in the shower. He hasn’t ever claimed me, in any way.”

I thought Enzo was going to hand my phone over, since he’d given Fletcher his number. Instead, he took it with him to the closet as he put on a pair of black sweats and nothing else.

Black to hide the blood, probably.

My heart sank.

He was going to kill them, and leave me without a way to contact the people I loved. I?—

He finally gave me the phone as he stepped out again. “Hunter will be monitoring your texts and calls. Do or say anything you shouldn’t, and you’ll lose it for good, Princess.”

“Fine.”

After a moment’s pause, he grabbed the blanket off me and tossed it to the side of the room. “Don’t touch that again. It smells like my brother.”

Then he strode out of the room, closing the door behind him. He didn’t lock it, but I knew the situation.

Anyone who tried to help me would bleed. Maybe die.

I wasn’t locked in, but I was trapped.