02.

OLAMIDE

  I was sure that was all the world would have heard from me. I did not expect to wake up and certainly not naked and cold. My eyes fluttered close and open as I tried to picture if the maidens touching me were angels in the afterlife preparing me to meet my maker.

"Where am I?" I asked, pushing the hands of a woman scrubbing my lathered body off.

"Shut up and let us do our job!" A woman with short back hair retorted glaring at me like I was making life for her hell.

Perhaps that was true but I did not get why I was being cleaned. Did the monster from before have some demented compassion for me and decided to keep me? No. I pushed the thought off. I tried to scramble out of the tub but the short-haired bitch held me down with an iron grip and slapped me senseless.

"Keep doing stupid shit like that and you are going to wind up dead regardless of your status as the first mate. If you smell like rotten eggs, even Jonas won’t have mercy on you." She warned, dumping the sponge in her hands into the milky water. Her steel-blue eyes flicked in the direction of the other women in the bathroom, three in total. "Leave her. Now that she is awake. She should be able to clean herself up."

The girls bowed and left the room leaving me with 'Hellfire'- A girl that clearly hated me for unknown reasons. She gave me a glare that almost looked murderous before exiting the room.

  Fishing the sponge out of the water, I wasn't even sure what I was to do. My instinct told me to flee but I was butt naked and on top of that, I wasn't in a safe zone. The woman, the maids, they were all affiliated with that man. I could not even begin to comprehend what they planned to do to me. I managed to slip out the tub and tiptoed my way to the door when I heard what sounded like a hushed conversation.

"...She cannot adjust to this life. What was Jonas thinking? Second mates exist."

It sounded like the woman from before. I pondered on what she meant by mate. Bile rose all the way to my throat just considering that they might be seeing me as an incubator. Good Lord! The man who brought me here wasn't human. There was a chance they were all just like me. If I was right, which there was no denying, I was fucked.

"...Nah, Sounds like you are just jealous the goddess did not see you as a suitable mate to Alpha Jonas."

The voice, It was the man from before. Awful images flashed into my head just thinking about the word Alpha, Mate. Was this a sex ring? Was I about to be prostituted? I was about to be passed around and used up until all the vibrancy was gone. Then I would no doubt the dead meat.

"...Speak of the devil." I heard my captor say.

It sounded like the Jason guy had arrived. I immediately ran into the tub, shivering and practically going insane as the bathroom door opened and an attractive man in a tailored suit walked in, followed closely by my captor.

This was why he spared me. He kept me alive for this man. Even in his sleek clothing, I could tell it was a facade to hide his desires and the sincerity of his being. He might have been the one to keep me alive but that did not make me safe.

"She looks cold," Jonas noted. "Get her a robe."

My heart thudded loudly as he approached me. Not because of what was about to transpire but my eyes could see a bulge twitching in his pants. I was doomed. He crouched before me and broke into a warm smile that made him look attractive if he wasn't a kidnapper's associate.

"Are you okay?" He asked me.

Wow. He pulled the good guy act really well. I wasn't even sure what cards he was playing but he was a sticker to character or maybe he was as demented as his throat-slitting friend who stood across the room like an ominous shadow.

"I want to go home." I pleaded.

He ran a finger past his pursed lips and instead of answering me ran a finger through my hair.

"Curly." He commented, practically ignoring my request. 

I was not that easy to throw off and with the way things were turning out, I was beginning to believe I might even welcome death instead of being raped by a creep.

"Please let me go home," I repeated. "I won't tell anyone about what I saw." I looked at the shadowy figure of the killer lingering above me and continued. "He knows where I live. There is no way I will run my mouth."

Jonas' scanned through my face as if reading them before he spoke.

"I wish I could but it ain't that simple anymore. I might have accidentally kissed your soul and you, mine. Even if I let you go now, I'm sure word would have spread and hawks are already out there watching your family and friends and waiting for the perfect opportunity to hurt me."

I noticed he had three gaping marks on his neck. They looked like something that could only have been inflicted by claws.  I had a flashback of the damning damage these people could do. They lived by violence. They were violent. He noticed me staring. He was feral-looking and handsome, with -black shoulder-length hair, grey eyes, and impossibly white teeth bared in either a grin or a grimace, I wasn't sure which.

"These, " He said, pointing to the scars on his neck. "were inflicted upon me by a rival pack who I hurt pretty bad. He has been looking for revenge pretty bad and I fear for what awaits you when he does."

It was too much to handle. I felt my mouth open before I could clamp them shut.

"What are you people?"

He smiled. "What if I was to tell you I am a werewolf and soon we will be bonded telepathically, emotionally, and eventually even physically, inseparable as long as we both live?"

I fell back on the worst of all my habits. Denial. I wanted to laugh this off and tell myself it was a bad dream. This could not be real. I could not have lived my life the way I did for this moment. It just couldn't be but I reflected on what he said and I realized his mouth never moved. His eyes were also bright red, a glaring contrast to what they were before. I shrank further unto the tub at the unholy sight. But he wasn't done.

"You don't have to be afraid." He sent, again, his lips were not moving. "You'll be safe here."