Chapter 2 The Alpha’s House Rules

The Ridge lodge closed around me.

Iron and smoke clung to the air, wolves patrolled the parapets high above, and torches blazed until the stone walls were streaming with light. My wrists ached from the ropes, but I refused to let anyone see the sting.

I stumbled once when the trader pushed me forward with an elbow, but I adjusted. Pride was all I had left.

"Outer quarters," one of the guards snarled, bored, already dismissing me.

I snapped before I could stop myself. "I want to see the Alpha."

A voice out of the shadows answered me. "You'll see me when I decide."

The voice cut through me like a blade. I knew that voice. I’d have known it even if I was deaf.

Garrick.

He moved into the light of the torch, and the corridors adjusted to fit him. Guards bowed their heads in respect without being told. Wolves backed off, faces pushed into the shadows as if his presence there had created some unseen boundaries. He was taller, broader, keener than the lad who kissed me at the millhouse. His jaw was carved out of stone, his shoulders carrying the weight of command like they'd been made for it.

And his eyes; wolf-dark, steady, burning, met mine as if they’d never forgotten.

My body betrayed me. Heat seeped into my skin, sharp and urgent. My pulse also betrayed me, stumbling and thudding.

"Garrick," I croaked, the name heavy and bitter on my lips.

His jaw hardened. "You're mine now."

I pushed up my chin, though my legs threatened to give out. "I'll never be yours."

He advanced. The torches danced in his eyes. He smelled of leather and smoke, of something raw and male that churned low in my belly. He was close enough now that the heat of him enveloped me like a second skin.

His gaze dropped to my lips, lingered, and drew back upward. "We'll see."

Every muscle in my body contracted, furious that my body still reacted to him. Angry that the same spark that used to undo me flared hotter now, forbidden and dangerous.

"You've lost your mind," I snarled, attempting to infuse steel into my tone. "Purchasing women like livestock? That is not mastery. That is desperation."

His lips curled, slow, dark, the kind of smile that promised he was already playing a game I hadn't caught up to. "You still talk too much."

I moved a step forward, closing the inch he left between us, allowing my defiance touch his chest.

"And you still hide behind power."

The guards stepped back uneasily at the closeness, but Garrick didn't even blink. His gaze locked on me, the warmth in them burning so fiercely that I felt bare. For a second, I thought he'd close the gap completely and kiss me just to prove a point. My lips tingled in anticipation.

Instead, he leaned in close, his breath hot against my ear. "Rule number one. You don't speak unless I allow you."

I pulled away from him, my cheek grazing the edge of his jaw. "Then get ready to punish me daily."

His hand came up, reluctantly and hesitantly, his fingers brushing my chin just far enough to tilt it up.

Sparks shot down my spine. The hall, guards, torches, all faded from my mind until there was only him. His thumb rested on the edge of my mouth, not quite touching, and my lips parted before I even realized.

He let the moment stretch until I hated myself for wanting it. Then he stepped back, breaking the tension like a tightened rope.

The guards exhaled as if they had also been holding their breath.

Garrick's gaze never wavered. "Take her to the outer quarters. She will learn her place before the moonset."

I wanted to lunge, to demand answers for the past, to rip the smug calm off his face. I scowled and folded my arms instead, for anger was safer than pleading. "Be careful, Garrick. You're playing with fire."

His gaze darkened, his lips twitching as if he wanted to smirk, or kiss me into oblivion. He said nothing. He merely gazed at me while the guards tugged me away from him, his eyes hotter than the torches.

And that was the problem, I wanted him to look back.

The guards shoved me towards the stairs, but I didn't move. "I'll walk when I'm ready."

The guard beside me encircled his fingers around my arm, but Garrick's voice resounded down the hallway. "Touch her again, and I'll break your hand."

The guard teetered in the air. His hold melted like I'd burned him.

I didn't look over at Garrick. "Protective now, are you?"

His eyes were inscrutable, a tempest raging behind calculating eyes. "No one touches what's mine."

The words hit me like a punch to the gut. Possession. Claim. Heat licked through me, unwanted and crushing. I curled my fingers into fists so that I would not reach for him as I used to.

I stood tall, with my head held high. "You're so quick to call me yours. Does your pack know their Alpha buys women at market stalls?"

The hall went silent. Wolves stiffened, sensing the challenge. His Beta, scarred enforcer Calder, strode forward. "Watch your mouth, girl. You're in the den of the Alpha."

I gave him a hard, glass-breaking smile. "And what? Should I curtsy?"

Calder growled, but Garrick’s hand shot out, holding him back. His hand was inches from my throat, fingers flexing before he dropped it. My breath caught anyway.

"Enough," Garrick growled, his voice dark silk. His eyes never left mine.

"She forgets herself."

"Do I?" I panted.

The air around us snapped. His chest brushed mine as he moved closer, occupying the final gap of space. I sensed the coiled tension underneath his shirt, the warmth radiating off him like a flame. My lungs compressed with every second that he didn't step back.

“You challenge me," he panted, so softly that I was the only one who could hear. His lips kissed my temple, then moved lower, close enough his soft breathing tickled my cheek. "Rule number two. You do not challenge me in front of my pack."

My pulse throbbed in my throat. "And if I do?”

His fingers rose once more, tracing the shape of the air inches from my skin, stopping at the curve of my jaw. He didn't touch me, but I could feel his touch as if he did. His eyes dropped to my mouth, stayed there, then drew back up with desire that made my knees almost buckle.

"Then I take what's mine," he said to me.

I exhaled a serrated breath. "Try it."

The corners of his mouth crunched in a quiver of pleasure, a hunter watching the temerity of his prey. But instead of kissing me, he drew back from me, slow and deliberate, forcing me to feel the absence of his ghost touch

"You still shake when I get close," he said.

"I'd sooner choke than shake for you."

The lie tasted like ash. He knew, too, his smile told me that.

"Take her," Garrick commanded, finally stepping back. "But she stays under lock. No one enters without my orders."

Calder frowned. "You're going to let her run her mouth off and—"

"Did I ask for your opinion?" Garrick's voice snapped, low and lethal. Calder turned his head away immediately.

The guards pushed me along the side hall, but Garrick's stare followed, burning into my back until I could feel it between my shoulder blades.

I wanted to scream at him. To strike him. And gods help me, I wanted him to drag me back and finish what he'd started.

The corridor narrowed, torches throwing shadows on walls. Just as the guards were about to slam the door in my face, Garrick's dark form stood in the doorway.

"Out," he commanded.

The door swung shut behind us, imprisoning us together.

I gasped. "What do you think you're doing?"

He didn't answer. He stepped forward, cautiously and deliberately, like a wolf tracking a fleeing game.

I pressed my hands on the wall, gliding against frozen stone. He stopped an inch away from me, one hand beside my head, the other cupped my chin, holding me in place.

His eyes blazed down into me, his own dark and fierce. "You think I don’t see it?" His voice rumbled against my chest. "Every time I look at you, you light up like fire. You claim to hate me, but you want me."

I fought to get the words out, the words jammed on my tongue. He leaned in towards me, his mouth an inch from mine, so close that our breaths entwined.

"Say it," he demanded.

"I hate you," I growled, my body shivering under his touch.

His thumb traced the curve of my lower lip, the gentle pressure sending sparks through me. "Then why are you shaking?"

The world blurred, the torch cracked somewhere far away, but all I saw was him; his mouth, his heat, his eyes daring me to break.

I should have pushed him. I should have screamed. Instead, I held my ground, lips parting on a shaking breath that grazed his.

And then, before my legs could collapse beneath me, he pulled back again, leaving me cold and furious.

"You'll learn my rules," he said, voice steady though he was breathing hard. "Or you'll break under them."

He turned, his broad shoulders taking up the space, his stride glacial as if he'd just turned me to cinders and left me to die.

The door slammed behind him with a crash of sound, the shudder traveling through my body.

I jammed both fists into the wall, forcing air into my lungs. My heart was pounding as if it wanted to pound itself out of my chest.

And damn him, he hadn't even kissed me.

To pass time, I decided to look around the chamber, but there wasn’t much to look at, the chamber they gave me was not a chamber, it was a cage dressed in stone. A bed, a washbasin, that was all.

I paced the length of it, fidgety, annoyed, too wound up to sit. My lip still tingled where Garrick's thumb had rested across it.

The door creaked again. Louder steps came into the space.

"You can't stay away, can you?" I muttered before I turned.

Garrick stood in the doorway, his eyes burning into me with the same obstinate brutality. Firelight carved him in sharp lines.

"You are loud," he said to me. "Even when you are silent,"

I bristled. "What do you want?"

He pushed off the doorframe and covered the distance in three swift strides. I backed away until the bed hit the back of my knees. His hand extended, cupping the post inches from my head, pinning me to the wood without contact.

"I came back to set rules," he told me, his voice silky, with a burning undertone.

My chin rose. "You already did."

"Then I'll make them clearer." His eyes drifted over me, hard, hungry, and then to my lips. His nostrils flared like a wire-tight guitar. "Rule three. When I want you, you don't refuse me."

My breath hitched, rage and hunger tangled until I couldn't differentiate which one seethed hottest.

I laughed sharply. "Then you'll spend your life wanting."

His eyes narrowed. "Careful."

He inched closer, and the bed dipped under my calves. The heat of him pressed against me now, chest to chest.

"You can't scare me," I panted, but my own heart betrayed me, thudding free.

"I don't want to scare you." His thumb followed the line of my jaw, dragging to the corner of my mouth.

"I want you shaking for the right reason."

My lips parted before I could catch myself. His gaze tracked the motion, his chest heaving harder. His hand fell, his fingers tracing my skin, pausing at the crest of my collarbone. I swallowed hard, my body betraying me, curving towards his touch even as my head was screaming at me to move away.

"You feel it too," he said to me, his voice raspy. "The spark. The pull. Tell me you don't, and I'll leave."

I should have lied. I should've jeered. Instead, a gasped shudder caught, quiet enough that his eyes flashed to triumph.

His nose brushed against mine, his lips inches from mine. His lips did not leave mine, close enough for me to feel the warmth of them, the danger of everything I said I didn't desire.

"Kiss me," I gasped before I'd even realized I'd said the words.

His growl was a harsh, animalistic thing, ripping from his chest. His arms wrapped around the back of my neck, grip tight, pulling me into his chest. His mouth fell in a crash—

The door burst open.

We froze. Garrick's lips hovered a hair’s breadth from mine, his breath hot, chest rising and falling in shallow gasps.

Calder stood in the doorway, eyes dancing between us, face set. "Alpha. We have trouble."

Garrick didn't move, his eyes clashed with mine, dark and hungry, as if he could finish what he'd started there and be damned to hell for it.

"Speak," his lips brushing mine  with the words.

"The East pack came over the ridge," Calder cracked. "They want to see your purchase."

The word sliced through me like a knife.

Garrick's hands tightened around my throat in a delicious way, challenging me to try to wriggle away. His eyes seared into mine, a threat and promise.

Then he leaned forward again, his mouth over the rim of my ear. "This isn't done."

He stood back, icy, all Alpha once more, his warmth cast aside like the receding tide. "Guard her. Nobody touches her but me."

And then he was gone, his footsteps fading down the corridor, leaving me trembling, lips burning, breathless, and furious with myself for wanting him to come back.