22. Raine
22
Raine
“Surely you’ll at least send her with a key for these?” Nyx’s beta loops a single finger around the chains linking my wrists together, lifting them high in the air above my head.
There’s a subtle shifting behind me, the sound of one or two of the enforcers patting themselves down as they search for said key. I doubt they even brought one, probably banking on the fact that my new owner would appreciate me chained up and compliant.
It’s a surprise to all of us that the Soleus pack would even want me able to walk around freely.
Nyx’s beta frowns deeply, his eyes fixated on something over my shoulder while he continues to wait with his finger still looped under the chain. I’m desperate to know what he’s thinking—what Nyx is thinking, for that matter.
The alpha’s expression is carefully blank, almost bored while he watches our exchange.
Even though all of this makes my pack look bad, and by proxy me too, I’m also delighted in the fact that this feels like a shaming ritual. I have no doubt that if he wanted to, Nyx’s beta could easily rip these chains apart and free me.
But instead of doing that, showing off the ridiculous strength his large muscles possess, he’s gone out of his way to ask for a key that’s obviously not been brought along.
Maybe it’s a small victory for me after being treated so poorly all these years. A kind of karma that will only happen once in this lifetime for me, but means everything to me all the same.
Something is finally tossed his way quickly, a silver fleck that he swipes out of the air with a flick of his wrist. He rotates it between his fingers until the key is held between his thumb and forefinger. It glints a bit in the soft morning light.
He lowers my arms again, holding them out between us as he works the key into the lock, twisting once to pop the cuff on my right wrist open first, and then the left soon after. It’s a relief to have them off of me after having to sleep in them all night.
The skin underneath them is sore, raw from how hard I’d been dragged out of my cell this morning, the fight in me still apparently undying even as my last ditch effort had been unsuccessful.
Nyx’s beta pauses at the sight of it, his hand hovering just under mine while he stares down at the harsh red marks.
I wish I could know what this says about me—about my pack. Does he find it wrong too? Or is this just another practice that seems petty in the eyes of the Soleus pack and I’ll soon be facing worse when I get there?
He tosses the cuffs to the ground carelessly.
I’m surprised when he lowers himself in front of me to get down onto his knees.
His fingers work quickly to free me from the cuffs secured around my ankles, tossing them too. The metal clatters against the other set, and when he finally straightens back up to his full height, he lets out a soft sigh.
My wolf snarls at me to run, to shift and make a break for it into the forest where I’ve run all my life. I’d have the advantage of knowing the area better than these foreigners. I could get a head start and hide somewhere until they gave up searching for me.
Daniel would have to give them their money back, as long as he hasn’t already spent it on something fruitless.
At least, that would be my pipe dream.
The reality is that I’d be easily outrun before I could get even fifty feet away. Just the sheer size of this beta in front of me, not taking into account how massive Nyx himself is, I’d be cooked.
There’s no doubt in my mind that I would be punished severely for it. Who knows—perhaps Nyx would be sick enough to chase me down himself and then once he caught me, he’d roll me over and mount me right then and there to show me what being sold to him really entails.
It would be his right to, as my new owner.
My body stiffens when his beta grabs my wrist and flips my hand over. The key that had been used to free me is pressed into my palm and then my fingers are bent closed around it by his own. The metal is warm from his hand.
Confused, my eyes dart up to look at him, but he’s already turning away from me in order to join his alpha.
“Shall we?” Nyx says, his dark eyes boring into me.
We could run, my wolf whispers.
He’s statue-still as he watches me, almost like he’s daring me to do exactly that. Would he enjoy hunting me down like some kind of rabbit? Sinking his teeth into my flesh and snapping the life from me as soon as he got ahold of me?
I shudder, a sudden chill freezing me down to my bones.
He huffs softly, much like he had when he first arrived. “Wren, give her something warmer to wear. The poor thing is shivering.”
Instantly his beta, Wren, turns back to me and sheds off his overcoat to wrap me up in it. My body shakes again, but this time from how warm the inside of it is as it’s wrapped around me tightly and secured with a belt around my waist.
It’s fur-lined around the collar and fleece-lined on the inside, made for the deep cold months that aren’t typical of the South. Why in the world would Nyx’s beta be dressed in something like this when he is from a warmer climate?
Maybe they’d figured the negotiations to hand me over would take longer than a few hours, predicting that to settle the price Daniel had been asking for, it would take some time to hammer out the details.
Whatever Daniel said to them to get them interested in buying me in the first place will probably always haunt me. None of them knew what they had been getting into when signing a deal with my alpha. Or did they, considering they already knew about the pregnancy?
I’m moved by this gesture, though. Wren had been ordered to give his coat to me and he’d done so without any hesitation, so I hope that means good things in my future.
Without another word, my new alpha turns and heads into the forest. I follow after him, leaving my old life behind.
***
“This is where we’ll be staying for the night,” Nyx tells us all once we reach a town a few hours away from Andromeda’s lands. My stomach flips again when Nyx’s attention is then focused on me. “Tomorrow morning we’ll make the rest of the journey to my packlands.”
My mouth opens to question him on why we’re stopping if we’re less than a day into this trip. What would be the point in prolonging this…unless he’s left his lands for more than just retrieving me.
Slowly, I shut my mouth.
Asking him seems like suicide and a good way to show him that I can be disobedient. Laying my head low for the time being will hopefully spare me being punished, at least for a little while.
Nyx seems to find something funny because his lips slowly tilt up into a smile when he turns to me. “Not to your liking?”
“N-No.” Fuck , just what I need, for him to think I’m being ungrateful. “This is fine, Your Grace.”
Honestly, the motel we’re staying at isn’t half bad. Sure, it’s a little shabby, but what could be expected as a cheap option when traveling with twenty-plus shifters?
“Ah, so she does speak,” he muses.
I swallow. It’s back to that teasing again? He strikes me as the type to like to play with his food.
Inside my chest, a rumbling rattles me. My wolf isn’t too pleased either.
The stark contrast between these alphas, Aiden and Nyx, is still somewhat shocking. Aiden still has a lot of growing up to do, only having just come into his role and with no other experience outside of whatever his advisors are telling him to do.
Nyx, though, has had this alphaship for a long time—since I was a teenager, at least according to the rumors. And if the rumors are true that he ascended to his position as a teenager, then he’d been king for a long while now. Which shows in his unabashed amusement, whereas it felt like Aiden had constantly been trying to prove himself.
And maybe he had been. Who knows, it’s not like he ever talked to me about anything.
I face my eyes toward the ground again, not wanting to give him any more reason to think I’m being disrespectful. He can play around with me all he likes. All I’m here to do is become his living womb once they decide on killing my first child.
“That’s all, hm?” He hums softly to himself. “Surely you aren’t that much of a doormat.”
My fingers idly play with the ends of Wren’s coat while my face heats.
He’s quiet for a short moment before saying, “I see.”
I brace myself for the same humiliation he’d given Daniel. Or worse.
It isn’t until I hear his footsteps retreat that I take the chance to look up, watching his retreating back. He finds Wren among his pack, nodding to him as they both step off to the side, enter one of the motel rooms with a key, and disappear inside.
My throat grows dry.
Even though there’s no chance of me getting pregnant right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nyx plans on breaking me in tonight, or at least sampling what he’s purchased. It would only be fair, right?
Too bad for him I’m going to completely disappoint. With no experience outside of being with my fated mate—a connection that can quite literally never be replicated—I have no idea what I’m doing.
“Hey.” I jump at the sound of a female’s voice as she suddenly appears next to me.
She squints at me, a pretty brunette with long curly hair and dark eyes to match. Her tan skin and rosy cheeks make her look rather sun-kissed, a pretty combination that has me outwardly staring.
She snorts at me. “I don’t know if he told you, but you’re going to be staying with me.”
I’m about to ask “who” but think better of it at the last second. “Oh. Okay.”
She looks me up and down slowly, letting out a slow breath through her nose, clearly unimpressed by whatever she sees. “Yeah, so they’re just checking out the room now to make sure there are no cameras or anything.”
“C-Cameras?” What the fuck?
“Yeah, you know humans. They’re fucking creeps sometimes.” She says it so casually that I’m struck with wonder.
Does the Soleus pack interact with humans a lot?
Truth be told, I rarely have, aside from the occasional trips into town back in Andromeda where all of us are treated like pariahs. I think a lot of the time, humans see self-sustaining groups of people and automatically assume “cult.”
Which has always been fine with shifters—at least we get left alone.
“Guess not,” she says after my continued silence. “Well, that’s your first lesson. These kinds of motels attract creep-Os, so just be aware of your surroundings. Though I highly doubt Nyx is going to let you out of his sight for very long.”
My lips press together while I nod. Strange that she isn’t using a proper title when talking about him, but maybe she’s trying to make me feel more comfortable. If she is, I appreciate it more than she’ll ever know.
She blows out another breath. “Wow, you really don’t talk much, huh.”
Actually, she kind of reminds me of Delilah in a way.
“S-Sorry,” I mumble.
“It’s fine. Wren says I can be a talker but whatever. He’s like trying to converse with a brick wall, so…”
I choke out a small laugh, surprised she’d even say that about her pack’s beta.
She smirks at me. “Anyway, I’m Rose.”
I clear my throat. “Raine.”
“Yeah, I know.”
I can’t help but smile a little bit. Rose may be a little brash but at least she’s not treating me like a pariah.
Rose steps back just enough to turn and look over her shoulder. Both Wren and Nyx step out of the room, their attention focused on whatever deep conversation they’re wrapped up in. “Well, it looks like our room is ready.”