Feral Heat - Feral Hedonism Part 5

Ali's pulse hammered in her ears.

If not for him, she wouldn't even be here. If he hadn't come up with his ploy to eradicate the Zante pack from the face of the earth and leave the Kolen pack as the sole surviving tribe of weres in Connecticut, Ali would be celebrating the success of some mundane bounty hunter job in a dark bar somewhere.

And she certainly wouldn't be fighting her feelings for a wolf who wanted to change everything about her.

Without another second's hesitation, she shoved her paw through the bars and yanked the gate open further. It obeyed with a loud squeak that floated through the air, making her wince. Fury rolled through her as she lunged through the opening.

The claws that raked down her spine came with no warning. She yelped and spun around to defend herself, but Victor was quicker. He pulled her down on the ground by her hind legs and pinned her there. His breath came hard and fast, and the savage anger in his dark eyes bore right through her.

For the first time since he'd captured her, Ali was genuinely afraid of the intensity she saw in his face. She struggled against him, but she was no match for his strength and skill. He didn't budge as she fought him, but he didn't sheath his fangs, either.

Instead, he waited until she began to s.h.i.+ft, and then did the same. For the third time, Ali found herself trapped beneath him, her thighs spread wide on either side of his powerful legs, her p.u.s.s.y open to his demands.

This time, though, he made no promises of pleasure. Only hard disappointment shone in his eyes as he grabbed her wrist and yanked her to her feet.

"I warned you not to try to escape." Grabbing her around her waist, he once again tossed her over his shoulder as though she weighed no more than a sack of potatoes, and was just as much fun to carry.

"I didn't try to escape."

His growl left no doubt of what he thought of that line of argument. "Like h.e.l.l. Soon you'll be telling me you were running out the back gate to pick flowers."

She squirmed, heat creeping up her cheeks at the indignity of being carried into the mansion like this. She could only imagine the amused glances of the guards. "Listen to me. I saw --"

The blow Victor landed on her a.s.s wasn't cruel, but neither was it teasing. The pain shocked her, spreading through her flesh with a fiery intensity that left her breathless.

"Stop." The menace in his voice sent a s.h.i.+ver through her naked body. "I said I wouldn't hurt you, but I won't be able to keep that promise if you insist on lying to me again. So do us both a favor and stop talking. You've lied enough for one night."

"I didn't --"

The second slap came harder, and Victor followed it with another smack. He was careful to land the blows in different places each time, never hitting the same segment of flesh twice. She knew the spanking wouldn't leave bruises, and her skin would remain unblemished, but tears came unheeded and spilled down her cheeks regardless.

So much for trust, and openness, and nothing but infinite pleasure.

Who was lying to whom, anyway?

If there had been any doubt in Victor's mind of Ali's ability to change based on learning the pleasure of submitting to a dominant Master's will, there wasn't anymore.

d.a.m.n, but she was good. She'd actually managed to trick him into believing she understood the lessons he'd been trying to teach her. For a moment, he'd allowed himself to think that he'd been able to get through to her, to open her eyes to the cruel torment she'd caused and to the joy redemption would bring.

He'd been such a fool.

Standing outside the door to her room, Victor clenched his fists at his sides. After unceremoniously dumping her on the bed, he'd turned and walked out of the guest bedroom without another look back. As he'd slammed the door behind him, he thought he heard a sob. The sound had gone through him like a spear, piercing his heart. He'd gritted his teeth and steeled his emotions against getting the better of him. There'd been no sob, he convinced himself. It had simply been the squeak of the hinges echoing in his wake.

Even if he was wrong, that still wouldn't make the fabricated whimper anything more than another of Ali's futile attempts to play games with his mind.

With his heart.

f.u.c.k.

"No one goes in. No one comes out. You got it?"

Two guards stood on each side of the door. They nodded silently and snapped to attention, hands tightly clenched around the hilt of their weapons, fur-lined collars glistening in the bright light of the hallway.

They were four of his best. He'd trained them all to fight as he'd been trained, and each man was an expert in the use of a katana, a short sword, and a staff.

Unfortunately, so was Ali.

"Good. I want to make sure she doesn't get another chance to flee. You're all personally responsible for ensuring she's still here when I return. Understood?"

"Yes, Master," one of the guards said, his scowl deepening. "She won't get through us."

After stopping in his room, just long enough to dress in his customary black slacks and long-sleeved s.h.i.+rt, Victor stormed through the garden, letting his anger and bitter disappointment envelop him like a cloak. It soothed him, in a way, knowing Ali had tried to betray him.

It would make what he had to do much easier. He might have been in love with her once, but he was now smart enough to heed the words of his Alpha. He had a backup plan, one he'd gladly put into motion now that she'd given him a reason to believe there was no hope left for her, no chance of redemption.

Still, a tremor ran through him as he pushed through the back gate and closed it with a loud metal clang behind him. He folded his arms across his chest and scanned the shadows dancing beneath the trees surrounding his property.

At last, he caught sight of a silhouette shrinking against the tall trunk of a white pine, and beckoned the man forward. "We're alone."

"Not quite." He stepped into a circle of moonlight, three more shadows detaching from the shrubbery behind him. Daniel's men flanked him from all sides. "There are another dozen wolves hidden in the darkness until I give the command."

Victor waved a hand dismissively in the air, but his muscles tensed as he tried to catch sight of the other members of the Kolen pack. "You won't need them."

Daniel scoffed. "Your b.i.t.c.h was sniffing around here not too long ago."

Victor narrowed his eyes. A muscle jumped in his jaw as a thought struck him. "Did she see you?"

"No," Daniel said, his white teeth flas.h.i.+ng for a moment in the moonlight. "She was too intent on getting the h.e.l.l out of there."

Disappointment settled like lead in Victor's gut. d.a.m.n it, but he'd wanted to believe she had another reason for attempting to push through the gate. He'd left it open on purpose, testing her resolve. He hadn't thought he'd be a.s.sessing her so soon, but after what they'd shared, he'd really believed she'd changed.

He'd wanted her to taste the freedom of the night air and then return to him, exuberant and loyal. There were no guards outside the walls. Even with the extra men he'd hired to watch Ali, he didn't have enough manpower to post guards at the edges of his property, too.

Seeing Daniel out here might have caused her to want to confront him, but why would she do it alone?

No, Ali hadn't seen Daniel. True to her mercenary nature, she'd simply spotted an opportunity to grab freedom with both paws, and she'd attempted to take it. Unfortunately for her, Victor had expected as much. He might have been enamored with her, but he wasn't an idiot.

"The plan stands, then," Victor said.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "You really want to go through with this, don't you?"

Victor shrugged, feigning nonchalance. "What choice have I got? After taking the Alpha's sister into my home and promising him I'd be able to show her the error of her ways, I can't exactly present myself in front of the circle of elders and tell them I've failed."

"So you want me to do it for you."

"I don't care what you do with her. All that matters is that she'll no longer be my concern. If you can promise me she'll never show her face in Zante territory again, she's all yours."

Daniel pursed his lips and narrowed his shrewd, calculating eyes. Victor straightened his spine and returned Daniel's careful scrutiny, his gaze traveling from the Kolen Alpha to his men. Tall and broad-shouldered, the Kolen had always been an impressive pack. Much more so than the Zante, whose lack of pack unity and the absence of male pups born of Zantean unions over the past decade had left them broken and dispirited.

The Kolen were also known for their cruelty, both to outsiders and to members of their own pack. Most of Victor's household was made up of former Kolen members who had been cast out of the tribe.

Daniel tapped his fingernail against his teeth. "Ali once told me you had a thing for her. That's how she knew she'd be able to get into J.C.'s mating ceremony unchallenged. Why would you let me have her now?"

Victor's nostrils flared, but that was the only outward reaction he'd allow himself. Ali had known of his feelings for her all along? No wonder she'd played him for a fool.

"It's precisely for that reason I can't kill her myself." He took a deep breath, released it in a huff. This was it. If Daniel didn't believe the reasoning he offered, his plan would fall apart. "Because of her, our pack is dying. You have what you've always wanted. The destruction of the Zante pack, once and for all. I need to let my tribe meet their end in peace. Surely you can understand that."

"I would have never allowed Ali to take off with her payment after she'd accomplished her mission," Daniel mused. His tongue snaked out between his lips. "She was always part of the payoff. My payoff."

Bile rose in Victor's throat, and he fought the urge to wrap his hands around Daniel's neck and squeeze the life out of him right then and there. Another look at the men flanking their Alpha and the shadows sweeping through the forest cautioned him against any rash moves. If they killed him, they'd go after his household next. He'd sworn to protect those inside, and there was no way he'd allow the Kolen to lay a hand on any of them.

"You want her for yourself, then," Victor said.

Daniel smiled. "Wouldn't you? Come on, you can't tell me you haven't f.u.c.ked her sweet p.u.s.s.y at least once. All that time having her under your roof... I'll bet she moans like a wh.o.r.e when you stuff her full of c.o.c.k." He rubbed his hands together, his grin widening further. "I can't wait to find out."

"Tomorrow, then," Victor said, surprised to find his voice steady. "Let's not delay this any further."

"Bring her. You'll be given safe pa.s.sage through Kolen territory. If you behave yourself, I might even let you watch as my men and I teach little Ali Hill what it really means to learn to obey."

Chapter Six.

Ali's stomach lurched as Victor gunned the motor of his metallic silver luxury Jaguar sedan and pulled out through the front gate of the mansion. She lifted her head through a haze of denial. From where she lay in the back seat, she could only make out his eyes in the rearview mirror, glittering harshly as he glanced back at her.

A litany of curses settled on her tongue. She yearned to tell Victor exactly what she thought of him and his latest attempt to command her obedience, but the thick cotton strip of fabric he'd stuffed between her lips and tied behind her head prevented her from uttering all but the lowest of moans.

"I hope you're comfortable back there." The glint in his cold, black eyes told her he wished her to be as comfortable as a skewered boar roasting over an open flame.

Unable to respond, Ali kicked out her feet. He'd bound her ankles, but she managed to smash her toes against the backrest of the empty pa.s.senger's seat.

"Feisty. And to think that was one of the things I'd always liked about you."

Victor's chuckle sent an icy jolt slithering through Ali's veins, freezing her blood. She'd never seen him like this before. Even when he'd captured her after learning of her crime against the tribe, he hadn't been this cold, this cruel. Then, he'd been furious, burning with an intensity that both enraged and aroused her. Now, he seethed with a raw inner wrath that flickered beneath his calm demeanor, aggressive and inevitable.

When enough pressure finally built inside him to warrant an explosion of all that pent-up ire, Ali knew she wouldn't be able to avoid it. Bound and gagged as she was, she doubted she'd be able to do anything about it, either.

Despite her best efforts to keep tears at bay, they p.r.i.c.kled her eyelids, tormenting her further.

d.a.m.n him.

d.a.m.n him for letting her believe he was more than simply a man bent on obtaining her submission at all costs. She might have been able to see this coming and defend herself if he hadn't spent so much time making her buy into a charade.

But that had been the point, hadn't it? His victory would be that much sweeter if he managed to break her first. And he'd done it. The old Ali wouldn't be lying here, bound by her wrists and ankles like a Thanksgiving turkey to be carried off to G.o.d-knew-where to meet her end. She'd have preferred to take her chances with the elders. The end result would have been the same, but at least she wouldn't have had to taste the honeyed sweetness of true bliss before meeting her demise.

Ali closed her eyes and gritted her teeth around the gag to keep the nausea roiling through her stomach at bay. What in the world had she been thinking? If only she'd given Victor more credit, she might have been able to elude him before he caught up to her. If only she hadn't given in to his tantalizing promise of pleasure beyond belief, or to Emma's soft touch, or to the breathtaking sensations that swirled through her when Victor's lean body pressed against hers. If only she hadn't spotted Daniel lurking in the shadows and gone to investigate.

The tears she'd been trying so hard to swallow back spilled unheeded down her cheeks and sank into the cus.h.i.+oned fabric of the back seat.

If only you'd listened to me.

"If only you'd listened to me."

Victor slammed the heel of his hand against the steering wheel, but it was the way he echoed her thoughts rather than his sudden violent action that made Ali snap her eyes open and suck in a sharp breath.

"Why did you have to head for that open gate? You're too smart to fall for such a lousy test. You had to have known I'd left the gate open on purpose. Yes, I'd wanted you to taste freedom, but I also wanted you to prove to me that you were capable of learning. Of changing."

Ali's heart hammered against her ribcage. Her pulse pounded in her ears, drowning out the sound of the motor as they flew down the highway, dimming every background noise and focusing all her senses on Victor. She wished she could see his face. The anguish in his voice was almost more than she could handle.

Her thoughts spun as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing. Swift comprehension dawned in a flash. She'd betrayed the trust he'd placed in her. When she'd betrayed the entire pack, he'd known how to handle it and had made it his mission to make her see the error of her ways. It was deceiving him -- Victor, the man, the wolf, not the head of security of the Zante pack -- that he couldn't bear.

She had to make him understand.

Not knowing what else to do, she banged her feet against the seat in front of her. The dull thud of impact echoed through the car. He ignored it. She tried again, and again, slamming her bare toes into the soft upholstery until they ached. He'd allowed her to dress in a tee s.h.i.+rt and a loose pair of jeans before storming into her bedroom and tying her up, but he hadn't given her any shoes.

It didn't matter. She'd make him listen if she had to break the backrest to pieces with nothing more than her toes.

After a dozen frenzied blows, Victor met her gaze in the rearview mirror. She didn't know what she looked like, teeth wrapped around the saliva-soaked gag, eyes wide, decades' worth of unshed tears staining her cheeks, but whatever Victor saw in her face stopped him cold.

He swore loudly and swerved, pulling the car off the highway with a sudden jolt that sent Ali rolling against the backrest of the seat. The texture of the upholstery bit into her cheek. She held her breath while he stopped the car, yanked the keys from the ignition, and got out.

It felt to Ali like an eternity pa.s.sed between the time he slammed the driver's side door and the moment he opened the back door closest to her head, but it couldn't have been more than a second or two.

A rush of cold, crisp air blew inside the vehicle. Ali barely had time to suck in a breath before Victor grabbed her upper arms and dragged her out. Her knees buckled as her feet hit the pavement, and he slammed her against the side of the car hard enough for the breath she'd just inhaled to whoosh out of her lungs.

"I swear to G.o.d, Ali, if you're playing me..."

He let the threat hang in the air, unfinished. She could see his canines already beginning to extend as his claws bit into her upper arms. She shook her head wildly and moaned through the gag, silently pleading for him to listen.

He swore again, even louder this time. Though it had to be past midnight judging by the position of the half-moon hanging just overhead, a few cars still whizzed by them down the highway. He glanced behind her shoulder, and she saw the inner battle that waged within him in the set of his tense shoulders and his furrowed brows.

At last, he reached behind her head and loosened the knot that tied her gag, then slipped it down to hang around her neck.

"I saw Daniel." His eyes widened, but she didn't want to risk unleas.h.i.+ng his ire before she could finish what she had to say. "I didn't betray you, and I didn't try to run. I looked for you, but I couldn't see you anywhere. And I smelled him, Victor. I knew something was wrong. When I spotted him beneath those trees, I couldn't believe my eyes. I had to find out for myself if what I was seeing was real, or just a figment of my overheated imagination."

He raised both hands, and Ali flinched as he brought them up to her face. She didn't know what she'd expected, but the whimper that escaped her lips when he cupped her cheeks told them both that tenderness hadn't been it.

"You weren't trying to escape?" Victor asked, as though not quite believing what he was hearing. "Really?"

"I tried to tell you. You wouldn't listen."

He sank his teeth into his lower lip, his eyelids drooping over his impossibly dark eyes. "G.o.d. I am such a fool."