The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

I ended up face down on the floor, bleeding from my mouth and face with a few broken ribs. “I had planned to give you food, water, clothing, and a bucket to piss in. Your attitude will keep you from any of that today.”

I crawled up onto the mattress, unable to hide the pain from my ribs as I moved. “My family will find you, and you will suffer for your actions,” I promised.

The father just laughed. “No one will EVER find you, Vicki. And no one will ever know what happened.” He walked out, with Todd following quietly behind him. I heard the door lock as I managed to roll onto my back on the mattress.Property © NôvelDrama.Org.

They hadn’t bothered to hide their identities, I realized.

That was bad. If my capture is for money or political reasons, they would have hidden their faces and their scents, ensuring it couldn’t trace back to them. Todd and his father weren’t worried about it because I was never going to leave this room alive.

My face was throbbing, and my left eye started to swell over as I thought about what might be going on. Killington was Timothy and Traci’s Pack. The Alpha of Killington, Theodore Lords, had been furious at his son when he found out he’d rejected me in favor of his chosen mate. Was all this a means to fix that mistake, and force me to mate Timothy after all?

As I thought about it, I saw all the reasons why that would NEVER happen. The first problem was Traci; she was now the future Luna of the Pack. The only way to put me in the job would be to have her killed first. Todd’s father would never kill his eldest daughter to put me in place. That doesn’t even count the whole “gotta get my wolf to agree to it and bite him” thing. After he claimed Traci, the bond Luna had for us broke and wasn’t coming back. No, if they wanted me to cooperate, they would have taken Amy instead of me.

Amy. I started to cry as I thought about my best friend and my last glance at her. She had no idea it was coming and was out before hitting the floor. These assholes might have KILLED her with how hard they hit the back of her head. I couldn’t imagine what Kai was thinking when he saw his new mate lying on the carpet. What about Susan? Hell, my Mom and Dad were probably on their way to Florida already!

I had to keep my wits about me. They would NEVER stop looking for me, and they would tear the Werewolf world apart to get me back.

So if mating wasn’t the long game, what was?

Revenge? Was this Alpha so petty that he would take me to get at Leo? For what? Leo had a son and heir; I was close to him, but they had to know that Leo would stop at nothing to avenge me. There was no need to abduct me, just to kill me, unless they wanted to torture me to death and send him the tape. If THAT was the case, why have food and drink in the room?

As if I didn’t have enough of a headache, the two started talking in the other room. I rolled over until I could put my ear to the floor and listen in. “I’ve got to get back to the Summit before the Council questions my absence. The Alpha can only pretend I’m out searching for so long,” the father said. “Take her temperature every morning as Doc told you, and call me when it is time. Don’t even turn on that burner phone until then, got it?”

“Yes, and only say that Mom is coming,” Todd said. “If anything goes wrong, call and let you know Mom is sick.”

“Don’t leave the house; you’ve got everything you need for weeks here. You can use the bitch’s mouth if you need to get off, but don’t dip your wick. We need to make this work for Traci. We’re all fucking dead if you screw this up.”

“I know, Dad.”

“I’m proud of you, son. Everyone thinks you are training with a Russian Pack so they won’t question your absence. Do this right, and you’ll be home by the end of the year.” I heard a door open and close, then a vehicle started and pulled out.

It all made sense now.

They didn’t need me as more than an incubator. Impregnate me, take my mantled baby, then kill me and toss my body to the alligators.

I tugged at the collar, the exposed silver burning my fingers slightly. This kidnapping wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing; their Pack had found a remote home, stocked it with food, prepped a cell for me, and planned their exit strategy. They had been planning this for months, maybe years.

Timothy and Traci were going to mate after this weekend, and Timothy could have a mantled heir. Why bring me into the picture?

I felt a pit in my gut as I realized why. Like my biological father, he must have given his mantle to another child, one no longer in the Killington Pack and beyond Alpha Theodore’s control. Without me, the only female Alpha-mantled to come of age for the next twelve years, his Pack could be left without one.

Timothy and Traci wanted to steal my baby and raise it as their own, and Traci’s father and brother were going to make it happen.

I lay there, trying without success to poke holes in the logical conclusions I’d made. My anger built as I felt my life slipping away. It was worse than my worst fears; I’d turn into Princess Puppy Mill without the Princess part.

I picked up on what the Beta had done to Todd. There was no way the Pack Beta could disappear without raising suspicions, especially since Killington would be a prime suspect. His son was stuck here with me for the next nine to ten months. He seemed like a decent guy when I talked to him at the beach party. Was that an act, or was all this dumped on his shoulders?

His father was an asshole, expecting me to be broken and raped into compliance. It was just the two of us for the rest of the year; his father might stop in with supplies every month or so. My life would be better if I could get him to see me as a person instead of a womb.

I didn’t want to be beaten and used every night.

I heard him walking towards the door and pushed my anger back. He pushed the door open, seeing me lying on my side on the thin mattress. He had a first aid bag in his left hand, which surprised me. “Vicki, my Dad has the only key to your collar, and he’s not here. If you think you can take me out and escape, you’re wrong. You’ll die of dehydration before he comes back here.”

I was weak and could see out of only one eye. If he was going to patch me up, I wasn’t going to fight him. “Don’t hurt me,” I said as I wiped a tear off my bruised cheek.

I didn’t move as he set the bag down on the table, well out of my reach. He pulled out an ice pack and handed it to me. “Put that on your eye while I clean you up,” he said. The cold helped calm the pain and throbbing. He was surprisingly gentle with the washcloth as he cleaned the drying blood off my face and neck. “That ring of his did some damage to your face,” he said. “I’m going to have to stitch it up.”

“Do you know how?”

“As my father’s son, I had to learn early to patch myself and my siblings up.” He went back to the medical kit as I considered what that meant. Warrior training could be rough, and cuts and injuries happened. The way he said it implied it was more than just ‘training.’ If his dad beat them, I needed to use that to get him to see me as a fellow victim and not an assignment. He came back with a hemostat and a curved needle with stitch attached. “I don’t have any local anesthetic,” he said apologetically.

“It will distract me from how much my ribs hurt,” I replied. Todd was efficient with his stitching, covering the wound with antibiotic cream and a band-aid.

“Won’t your father get mad at you helping me,” I asked softly.

“Fuck him,” Todd said. “He’s not stuck in this house with you. If that wound gets infected, he’s not the one at risk trying to keep you healthy. Now, let’s see those ribs. I’ll need you to sit up,” he said. With his help and a grimace of pain, he got me sitting on the edge of the mattress. I yelped in pain as he probed the bruised area, feeling the bones. “Best I can do is give you more ice packs and some anti-inflammatories,” he said. “You have two broken ribs, but they haven’t punctured anything.”

“I’ll take it,” I said. “It hurts like a bastard when I move.”

He grabbed his trash and put it back in his pocket, then went back to the small fridge. The shelf was full of water bottles. Todd grabbed two, along with a handful of granola bars. He set them all by the bed, then went over and shook out a couple of Aleve capsules. I was already drinking the water when he handed me the pills. I tossed them back and drained the rest of the bottle. “Thank you for helping me,” I said.

“Both of us are stuck in this shitshow, and I’d rather not fight you the whole time we’re here. It’s going to suck enough as it is. Make sure you eat something with the pills. I didn’t follow the ‘take with food’ instructions a few years ago and ended up shitting blood.” He walked out, leaving the door open. I opened one of the granola bars, chewing it slowly, then washing it down with the water. I was starving, my breakfast having been interrupted. From my hunger, it had been a while since the Beta snatched me.

When he came back, he had some things in his hand. He set a metal bucket and a roll of toilet paper by the bed. “Let me know when you’ve used it, and I’ll empty it. These won’t fit, but they are better than nothing.” He tossed a shirt on the bed as he held out a pair of boxer shorts. “Sorry.”

Todd moved the underwear over my legs and pulled them up as I painfully lifted my butt off the mattress. They were hopelessly big, so he twisted the front and put a rubber band over it to hold it in place. Crude, but effective. He then held out a short-sleeved button-up Panama shirt, helping me get it on and buttoned without hurting me further. “Why give me these,” I asked.

He got a little embarrassed. “You’re a beautiful woman, Vicki, but you aren’t my mate. You don’t need the embarrassment, and I don’t need the temptation.”