Enslaved by the Wolves Read online

  Kristoff waited for her to finish but she apparently had nothing that she could threaten them with. Not surprising. He snorted as he shook his head. “You’re not going anywhere. This is for your own good, Miriam. Just do what we tell you and everything is going to be fine. Understood?”

  Miriam’s shoulders hunched. Slowly, she sank down to her knees and nodded. “Yes, Master.”

  If she didn’t look so scared, Kristoff might have enjoyed that. He let out a surprised yelp when she reached for his jeans. Grabbing both her wrists, he yanked her back to her feet. “When did I say I wanted you to do that? Now is not the time!”

  Implying that there would come a time. Kristoff caught his breath as the image flashed in front of his eyes. It was appealing, he had to admit that—that was the one thing he wouldn’t be able to do if he was off living with himself. Wanking just wasn’t the same as a warm body in his arms.

  Miriam blinked rapidly as her arms hung limply by her sides like she didn’t quite know what to think.

  “Go back to your room,” Kristoff turned her and prodded her down the hallway. “I don’t want to see you again until morning.”

  After she disappeared, Lucas turned to Kristoff grimacing. “So, you’re staying the night?”

  “Go fuck yourself,” Kristoff snapped back at him.

  He marched outside, returned the clothes to where he’d gotten them, and shifted back to his wolf form. Then he settled down across the front porch and rested his head on his paws. The image of Miriam on her knees kept coming back to him and he groaned. It was going to be a long night.

  Chapter Four

  The boys were all talking and laughing about their scare last night when Miriam got them up for school in the morning, so she put on a calm, happy smile and played along with it. The worst she feared had not happened, and the short conversation she had had with Kristoff had assured her of one thing.

  Whatever else they were playing at, Lucas and Kristoff weren’t going to kill her.

  They also, it seemed, weren’t about to let her out of their sight. Both of them went with her in the truck to drive the boys to school, although Kristoff rode in the back until they’d dropped the boys off. On the way back to the cabin, Miriam leaned against her seat, staring out at the pines and wondering what the day was going to bring. They could be waiting until the boys weren’t around to punish her for last night.

  And she hadn’t gotten any sleep, so her nerves were already worn to a fucking frazzle. She didn’t know what to expect, and she didn’t know how much waiting she could take either.

  “So what happens today?” she asked bluntly, because if they were going to punish her they’d certainly say it.

  “What happens?” Lucas repeated, glancing in the rearview mirror at her.

  “You know what I mean. For what I did last night.” She deliberately kept her voice flat. If she didn’t, she was going to burst all over the place. The hold she had on her control was fragile at best. The slightest breeze could send her spiraling off into nothingness.

  Kristoff hummed, the sound rumbling and deep. “You mean what are we going to do to discourage you from trying it again?”

  “Sure, if that’s the way you want to put it.”

  “We’re installing an alarm system.”

  Miriam frowned. “That’s it?”

  Kristoff twisted to look back at her. “Was there something else you wanted us to do? Chain you up and whip you, perhaps? Spank your ass until it’s red and then fuck you raw?”

  Miriam’s eyes widened and she shrank back from him even as… something happened in the pit of her stomach. Something that wasn’t entirely unpleasant. Something she didn’t want to feel all the same, not with these two, not with those threats. She clutched at her seatbelt, trying to make herself look small and unappealing.

  “We aren’t going to hurt you,” Kristoff rumbled, almost sounding agitated that she would think he’d do what he just said he wanted to do. “When we fuck you, it’ll be because you want us to.”

  Miriam swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. “When?”

  Kristoff turned back around. “If. And we know you’ve been stressed lately, so today while we’re doing our work, you can go about your own work. Which reminds me, when are you scheduled to work at the diner?”

  “I... don’t work there anymore.” Miriam struggled to pull her mind from what he’d said. When. How arrogant was he to think that she would want to sleep with her captors? Not to mention want to get beat up by them? “Bill was an ass about me not being able to work last week when Rick wasn’t feeling well so I quit. I don’t have a job.”

  Lucas hummed this time. “Well, that makes it easier for us. This arrangement will give you more time to work on your writing, at least.”

  Miriam froze.

  No. They couldn’t possibly know… she had been so careful! Her laptop was password protected. Those files protected by another password. She made sure that nobody knew. So how did they…? She’d only told her book club! They wouldn’t go telling people about it.

  “Writing?” she squeaked.

  Lucas chuckled as though he knew what position he’d just put her in. “Yeah, your writing. You write about the sexy exploits of Captain Wilma and her all-woman pirate crew, don’t you?”

  “No, that’s…” Miriam hid her face in her hands. “But how did you know?” she wailed. “I’m careful to make sure nobody knows!”

  “Careful enough for the casual person,” Lucas replied. “But when you’ve got two former black ops wolves—”

  He cut himself off as Kristoff growled. Miriam slowly lifted her head again. It was just one thing after another, wasn’t it? But her humiliation was nothing compared to what Lucas had just revealed. “Black ops?”

  “Not so much black ops,” Kristoff grumbled. “We worked an undercover mission. And it’s classified so you’re not allowed to know more than that. But yeah, we found out about your self-published erotica. I haven’t read any of it,” he added, then almost as an afterthought, “seems too weird when I know the author. But from what I saw when I flipped through, it looked good.”

  Miriam dropped her hands to her lap. That was the last thing she had been expecting. Even though her face still burned, she found herself wanting to press more. What specifically did he think looked good? The prose? The dialogue? What about the grammar? Did he like the cover she had chosen for it? Were there any suggestions he could make to improve it?

  “Kristoff might not have read it,” Lucas said with a laugh in his voice that made Miriam freeze up again. “But I did. Downloaded the whole series. Read them all in a week.”

  Miriam sat there, her brain sloshing around in a pit of mush that used to be her mind. What. The. Fuck? She opened her mouth and closed it again several times before finally managing to squeak and fall over. This was exactly why she didn’t want anybody to know what she was writing! Somewhere in her melted brain was the fact that Lucas read them all in a week which had to mean he liked it… right?

  “The sex scenes sound a little rusty, though,” Lucas continued, growing ever more amused. “If you want to do a bit more research for them… well, I’ve got a camcorder and—"

  There was a thump and Lucas yelped. Had Kristoff hit him? Miriam didn’t care. She kept her head down, wishing that they’d crash into a tree that would send her through the windshield and she’d spend the next month in a coma. Ugh! Why did they have to bring that up? Lucas was mocking her. He had to be…

  But they told her to do everything they said. Was that an order he’d just made?

  It wasn’t long until they were at the cabin again. Kristoff opened the door for her, but she was still too wrapped up in her internal dilemma. She took his hand when he offered it but released it quickly as soon as her feet were on the ground. She marched toward the cabin, her back rigid.

  Ah, hell. Agonizing over every little thing they said wasn’t worth it! She had no idea what they really wanted with her, but she was certain of one thing. If
they wanted to fuck her, she deserved to know that. Taking a deep breath, she spun on her heel to face them. They were both so close she jumped—they did, too, surprised at her sudden movement.

  She clenched her fists at her side as she looked at Lucas. “Was that an order, Master?”

  Lucas furrowed his brow. “Was what an order?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  Kristoff rolled his eyes and walked past her. “I already told you, it doesn’t happen unless you want it.”

  Miriam watched him stride toward the cabin. “But a slave doesn’t get to decide what she wants.”

  “Hey.” Lucas took her hand and she let him. Partly because she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to pull away, partly because she didn’t want to. With everything that was happening, these two were the only ones she could actually talk to about it. And she was just so confused about it all that she had to talk. She wanted some comfort, and Lucas was offering that comfort. “This is just a game. You know that, right?”

  Her brows furrowed together.

  “I’m not going to start beating you if you tell me no,” Lucas continued, his own face falling into a heavy frown.

  “A game?” she repeated, hesitantly.

  “Yes. A game.” Lucas shrugged. “I like to be in control and power. I like being dominant. But you’re allowed to say no.”

  Relief washed over her, so strongly that she had to sit down on the porch. Kristoff lingered in the doorway, watching.

  Allowed to say no. These past two months had been so crazy. She had been so afraid of them. Of what they’d do to her. It wasn’t just murder that she’d been fearing. Her hands started to tremble, but she didn’t even care. If this was all a game to Lucas, then maybe she wasn’t quite as powerless as she thought.

  “So that means I can move back to town?” she asked lifting her head.

  Lucas frowned. “Let me revise that. You’re allowed to say no to certain things.”

  She picked a loose thread on her jeans.

  “Personal choices you can say no to. What you do during the day. What you wear, what you eat. All that stuff you’re allowed to say no to. But where you live, no. And you are not allowed out at night without at least one wolf accompanying you.”

  Miriam rubbed her temples. “So, it’s not a game.”

  “I guess not fully. But as Kristoff says, the sex is up to you. That being said…” Lucas gave her a devilish grin that set her body tingling, even though she fought that feeling. “I’m just waiting for the word, Miriam. You’re one fine woman, and I want to do some nasty things to you. Would you like to know the details? Maybe you can use it in one of your books.”

  Her mouth fell open and she nearly said yes. There was no denying that she felt a certain… draw to Lucas and Kristoff. They were both sexy, muscular, with the type of tattoos spiraling on their hard bodies that she just adored. Before all of this happened, she had heard about the sorts of things they did and wanted a taste of it. But it wasn’t… right. She had seen them burying a body. And she was their prisoner, their slave. They said she could say no and then said she couldn’t say no. So which was it?

  “No,” she mumbled, just to test it out. “No, I don’t want to hear that. I want you to go away and leave me alone.”

  “That isn’t going to happen, Miriam,” Kristoff rumbled from behind her. “Now go get some rest. I know you were tossing and turning all night.”

  She didn’t ask him how he knew. Instead, she meekly nodded and got to her feet. Brushing her jeans off, she headed into the house. But the thoughts and feelings kept plaguing her, no matter how much she tried to force them away. She was going to be getting no rest, she knew that, so instead she grabbed her laptop and sat on the bed, writing down exactly what she wished Lucas and Kristoff would do to her—if only they weren’t kidnapping murderers.

  Chapter Five

  Thwack!

  The log cleaved cleanly in half. Lucas kicked the one half out of the way and set the other back on the chopping block, cutting it down into fourths.

  After he and Kristoff installed the security system, including an electric fence around the inside of the trees to give him extra warning, Kristoff had taken him aside and chewed him out thoroughly for his mess up the previous night. And Lucas got it—if it had been someone sneaking into the house rather than Miriam sneaking out, things could have been a lot different.

  Thwack!

  Then, of course, there was that whole thing that happened with Miriam after they got back home. Her asking if she was allowed to say no in sexual situations. He hadn’t realized just what sort of situation she thought she was in. He hadn’t realized that she was so afraid. He knew she was nervous, but nerves made things that much more exciting. Fear, though? No. No, he didn’t want her to be afraid of him.

  Thwack!

  It made sense now why his seduction plan hadn’t been working. Why she didn’t flirt back with him. Why she was always looking at him with that uncertain, wide-eyed expression. Because she took them moving her up here as something other than it was.

  She was the one to suggest being his slave, but she clearly didn’t understand what it meant to him. And he didn’t understand what it meant to her.

  Lucas paused in chopping wood, wiping sweat from his brow. The first rule of this sort of thing was open conversation. Making sure everything was on the level. Consent and all that. Sure, he dabbled with toying the line—he liked to rely on his gut, after all. But he ought to have had a conversation with Miriam first. Did she feel violated at wearing the harem outfit? Calling him master?

  That wasn’t what he wanted. Sure, he wanted to dominate her, to have her at his whim and to do things to her body that nobody else had dared dream of—but he wanted her to enjoy it, too. He didn’t want her to be humiliated by this. Didn’t want her to hate him.

  He loaded the chopped wood onto the pile near the wall and set a new log on the chopping block. It was clear he had to have this conversation with her. And he had to stop himself from reverting to sexual innuendos when he did. He always did that. Couldn’t have a serious conversation if his life depended on it.

  His wolf gave a happy yip, startling him. It had been withdrawn, pouting since he hadn’t followed Miriam into the house. It was being annoyingly persistent, wanting to be with her at all times. It liked her scent, that was clear. And Lucas understood why. She was earthy, layers of clove and cinnamon. Delicious. But unfortunately, his wolf was an idiot and didn’t get what was going on here.

  He couldn’t just follow her around everywhere. That wasn’t how this worked. Even if it did, how would he be able to get anything done if he allowed some random chick to have that much power over him?

  Another yip and he looked up to see Miriam approaching him. Her hair hung damply around her face, which had been scrubbed clean. So she’d showered—Lucas hardened as he thought about her in the shower, water dripping over her ample frame. Would she let him watch her if he asked?

  Would she even be playing any of his games if it wasn’t for circumstances?

  No, he told his wolf firmly as it pranced and bounded in his chest, urging him to her. She thought I was going to rape her. This isn’t a game to her at all. I’m not going to make a move until I’m certain she’s not afraid of me anymore.

  Angry at his wolf for being so stupidly happy to see her and angry at himself for being so caught up in his guilt at what she had thought, he turned back and continued chopping wood. It was her own fault that she had been scared, for assuming things about his character that were far from the truth.

  His wolf latched its teeth around his ribs, gnawing painfully as though to say You’re the idiot.

  He grunted as he chopped the log in half.

  “I want to talk to you,” Miriam called from some distance away.

  “Then talk,” he snapped at her. Why was she staying so far away? Did she think he was going to chop her head off?

  Miriam inched her way forward, eyeing him warily. The closer
she got, the more her scent increased. The cloves and cinnamon mixed with soap, shampoo… and arousal. His ax slipped from his hand, barely missing his foot. The scent had his wolf pushing hard, growling with desire. If he had been hard before, it was even worse now.

  He turned to her and she stepped back. Only this time he understood why as he gazed down at the bulge in his jeans. Whatever. If she wanted to be afraid after he’d told her that she could say no, it wasn’t on him.

  “What did you want to talk about?”

  She stared at his crotch for so long that Lucas was tempted to just snap open his jeans. But that would only scare her more. He grunted as he picked up the ax again. “Well? Either tell me what you want to tell me or get back in the house and get to work.”

  Miriam jumped slightly when the log split. She shook herself, wrapping her arms around her middle. “Where’s Kristoff?”

  “Back at his place. Why?” But even as he asked, her gaze dropped to his bulge again and he knew why. Last night when he came into the kitchen to find them talking, she had moved closer to Kristoff. He had been the one to first say if it happened it would be because she wanted it. He was the one that punched him for teasing her.

  His wolf growled, jealousy rising up in him. It surprised Lucas more than anything else. He and Kristoff had shared women before. Lucas liked watching Kristoff fuck them. There was something extra sensuous about it, to watch their pleasure and let the anticipation build before he got a taste himself. So what was he jealous about now?

  Miriam rubbed her arms, dropping her gaze to the ground. “Can’t I please leave? I want to go home.”

  “You can’t,” Lucas snapped, his voice harsher than it should have been but unable to stop himself, even as his wolf pawed at his chest, trying to make him go to her. “That is the one thing we are not going to allow. And Kristoff isn’t going to make that any different.”