Chapter 4 004

SELENE

I braced for the blow, or the back hand or the shave. The kind of punishment prideful men delivered when lowlives like me bruise their ego. If it were back at the brother, a comment like that would have earned me bruises I would have to paint over for days.

But Alpha Iver did nothing and just looked at, that is until his hand roughly closed around me and he started dragging me down a dark hallway. His grip tightened when I pulled back, like I would vanish from his grip if he blinked.

“Let me go, you impotent bastard!” I snapped, twisting my wrist and digging my nails into his skin. But Alpha Iver is still silent.

“If it’s a child you want, why don’t you hire a surrogate from your pack and leave me the fuck alone? Just you wait,” I hissed, stumbling as he yanked me around a corner. “By tomorrow morning, the entire pack will know what an incomplete man they have as Alpha.”

I sucked in a breath and stood on tiptoe. “Just. You. Fucking. Wait.” I say, each word coming out strained, yet Iver didn’t even look at me. 

We stopped at the end of the corridor. He pushed open the heavy wooden door and shoved me inside. I staggered, catching myself before I hit the floor. 

“Go ahead and fucking find out why people call me a monster.” He warned before locking the door shut and leaving.

“Open this door you shmutz!” I shouted, but it was all in vain. 

I stepped back and began to scan the room. It was larger than I expected. The room was bare, safe for a bed, a fireplace already burning and a single narrow window too high to reach without effort.

I moved to the window, dragging a chair beneath it. I climbed, my fingers curling over the stone ledge. The courtyard below was filled with wolves patrolling. I ignored them and began trying to open the window.

The window didn't open. I spent an hour trying before I admitted defeat. The door was solid oak with a lock too complex to pick with the hairpin I'd found in the vanity. But the air vent in the bathroom looked promising.

I waited until it was fully dark and the wolves in the yard had reduced in number. I ate the food they brought because I'd need my strength. 

I dragged a chair into the bathroom, climbed up, and got to work on the vent screws. My nails broke and the blood made the metal slippery, but I got it open.

The shaft was tight and I barely fit. Dust choked my lungs as I crawled through the dark, following the faint current of fresh air.

The vent opened to the outside twenty feet up a stone wall. I hung from the ledge, fingers screaming, and dropped. I hit the ground hard enough to rattle my teeth and pain shot through my ankle.

But it didn't matter because I ran.

The forest swallowed me whole. Trees thick enough to hide an army. My bare feet hit pine needles and rocks and I didn't slow down. A weird sensation settled as I ran, trying to drag me back, but I shoved it down the drain and kept running.

I made it maybe two miles before I heard a loud howl that made my blood run cold. I pushed harder though, my lungs burning. Another howl rang closer this time. Then another. 

That fucking bastard had sent his wolved after me. 

I could see open ground and the road beyond that. If I could just… Something slammed into me from behind. I went down hard, my face hitting dirt as a heavy weight crushed me into the ground. 

Hot breath fanned against my neck and I knew it was him.

I bucked and tried to throw him off. He growled, and the sound vibrated through my entire body while his teeth closed on the back of my neck. 

"Get off me," I gasped. I heard his wolf shift, bone cracking and the weight on me change to a man’s weight pinning me down. 

He flipped me over so fast my head spun. Suddenly I was on my back and he loomed over me, naked. 

"You're my hunt, remember?" he snarled.

"Fuck you."

His hand closed around my throat, just holding me in place. That funny sensation returned, begging for this, wanting this, and I hated it so much I could scream.

"You'll never make it past those trees," he said. "I'll always catch you."

"Then I'll die trying."

Something in his face cracked. The fury twisted into something rawer. Hungrier. His grip on my throat tightened just enough to make my pulse pound against his palm.

"You don't get to die," he said. "You don't get to leave. You're stuck with me, and I'm stuck with you, and we're both going to hate every second of it."

His other hand grabbed my jaw and tilted my face up and I saw the exact moment he cracked. Then his mouth crashed into mine.

It wasn't a kiss. It was a punishment all teeth and fury and my wolf kept screaming yes yes yes. He kissed me like he wanted to hurt me. Like he wanted to crawl inside my skin and make a home there.

I bit his lip and tasted the crimson. It sent a jolt straight to my center. He groaned, and the sound almost made me combust on the spot. 

Wrong. This was all wrong. I should be fighting. Should be clawing his eyes out. But my body arched into him anyway. His hand slid from my throat to my collarbone. Raw, undiluted heat pooled in my stomach.

He pulled back suddenly, breathing hard. His eyes are still glowing and there’s blood on his mouth from where I had bitten him.

"You're mine," he said again, quieter this time, almost like he was trying to convince himself.