Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
I haven’t really had that much time with Rex. Not really. But the limited time I’ve had has let me see what a real man is like, a true alpha. Not a twisted fuck who lures the weak and vulnerable with promises he cannot fulfill.
“You’re looking at me in that way you used to when you stopped loving me,” he says.
“I didn’t stop loving you. I just wanted to have a life that didn’t involve mass amounts of murder,” I say. “Pretty reasonable really.”
He laughs. A little at first, and then far too much and I realize I have got to stop pretending I am talking to a normal man. This may be my father in shape, but whatever is inside him has been hollowed out and occupied for some time.
“You can’t murder what doesn’t matter,” he says. “We are wolves. We are creatures beyond any human cattle. The same way people run slaughterhouses, we should run farms for them.”
“I don’t think the idea is going to catch on, Dad,” I say.
“Probably not. Too many wolves belly crawling in fear of their human tormentors,” he says. “Your little pack of strays could hold the seeds of greatness if you would allow their rebellion to shine.”
I keep my mouth shut on that topic. There’s nothing I can say that will change his mind. He is a murderous zealot. The kind of person who can kill in cold blood, then consume the aftermath as if it is no different than a Happy Meal cannot be engaged in meaningful debate.
“Ow!”
There’s a sound outside. Sounds like someone just stumbled. I hear a little feminine gasping ouch, as if someone hurt themselves. A skinned knee, maybe.
What follows is a whine, a sound of pain and self-pity. A moment later, a female voice is raised in distress.
“Hello? Is anyone there? I’m lost.”
I recognize Laura’s voice instantly, of course. I stiffen in response. What is she doing here? She’s in danger. My father will take her. He will do unspeakable things to her.
My father picks up her scent immediately. Young, female, unmated.
He gets up and starts moving toward the exit without so much as looking at me, following impulse and instinct as he always does. He does not stop to consider if this is a trap. We just finished running from Rex’s pack. Surely he realizes that… no. He is too feral, too animal to care.
“Stay where you are,” he calls. “I’m coming. I will bring you something to eat.”
“Oh, I’m so relieved! I came off the trail and I didn’t…”
“Argh! Fuck! You bastards!” Those words are my father’s screeches of agony as a net is dropped over him. Silver will do that to our kind.
I come out slowly. I feel a strange sense of shame and guilt, knowing I have caused all this trouble. Rex wanted me to talk to him over ice cream, and I detonated his bedroom, killed a man, and led them all on a wild hunt. I think it is safe to say I am going to be in trouble.
My father takes their attention for the most part. I think about slinking off. I could get away. Save them all the trouble. I decide to see if I can sidle out of the mouth of the mine while they are all trying to contain my father’s feral rage.
“Do not. Fucking. Move.”
I feel Rex snarl at me.
I stop, I turn, and I look at him.
He is naked. And he is powerful. He has always had a naturally dominant presence and now he is more alpha than ever. He glowers at me with an expression that hovers somewhere between possession and relief, and I know that every little instinct I had about being in trouble was just the beginning. I am in very big trouble.
“Let me go, idiots!” My father is flailing inside the net. “You can’t take her!”
“She’s mine,” Rex says.
“She was mine first,” my father says. “And she has me in her. You’re too rich. Too soft. Too used to the finer things. That’s not what she is. She’s a feral wolf who will kill and feed every time she shifts.”
I start to sob. I hate that he is saying these terrible animal things in front of Rex and his hunters. They will all remember this. Laura, too. She is looking at me with a shocked gaze. She’s always seen me as a fashionable powerhouse. I don’t think she knows how to deal with me this way, filthy, bloodied, wearing an old, stained hoodie that smells like dozens of kills. This is perhaps the worst humiliation I can imagine.
“Take him away,” Rex says. “And bring the helicopter in here. I’m flying her home.”
* * *
Rex
She looks so small. So pitiful. The tears that course down her cheeks leave streaks from the filth she has been subjected to. I snapped at her when she tried to sneak away, because she will not be allowed to avoid any of this. She has done a great deal of bad things in the last few days. She has made me afraid in ways I never knew I was capable of feeling fear.