Bella
Have you ever heard the saying “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know”? That saying was playing over and over in my head as I watched the two alphas swiftly throw their few belongings into their bags. I didn’t know them, I didn’t know anything about them except the obvious… they were identical twin brothers, they were incredibly handsome, they practically oozed power and confidence, they were strong and muscular… and they had the best-smelling cologne I had ever sniffed.
They were making so much noise, but no one came to question them or stop them. I could almost picture the alpha and luna huddled in their beds, afraid to confront these powerful alphas, afraid to offend them.
My body was aching everywhere, I couldn’t move without something tearing open and bleeding, and I think my arm was out of joint. I was also hyper-aware that they had put me down on one of Luna Amber’s good bedspreads. When she saw the bloodstains all over it, she would kill me. Maybe literally.
So I threw caution to the wind and volunteered to go with the Alpha brothers. I had no idea how they treated slaves in their pack. It couldn’t be much worse, except… unless… I shivered and squeezed my eyes shut. I had heard from the omegas that some packs use slaves for sex. Luna Amber had forbidden anyone to touch me that way, saying that I was too filthy to please anyone. But only the goddess knew what these brothers did in their pack.
I was dressed only in one of the brother’s shirts. I knew my back was still seeping through the soft cotton fabric. I wondered what they would do when they realized I had ruined one of their nice dress shirts. I stayed quiet and passive while they slipped on their jackets. Then one of them pulled a clean blanket out of the closet, wrapped me up in it carefully, and then picked me up and carried me like I was a child. It was a disturbing sensation because, on the one hand, his steely arm was behind my raw back, and with every step the friction against the wound was torture, and I felt the warm stickiness of fresh blood soaking into the shirt and the blanket.
On the other hand, it felt safe there, and I was strangely soothed by the masculine scent that enveloped me.
They went right out the front door as though they owned the house. I felt eyes on us, but no one came out to stop us. I didn’t have time to tell the alphas that I wasn’t allowed to use the front door, but I didn’t know if it mattered anymore. I was their property now, not the luna’s.
They carried me to their vehicle and arranged me in the back seat, so that I was lying curled half on my stomach, half on my side, with my bad arm up. They tucked the blanket back around me. I kept my mouth shut and watched them. I saw them make eye contact, and sometimes the expressions on their faces would flicker, so I knew they were talking telepathically through a mind link.
I had never been in a vehicle before… well, maybe I have, but I was too young to remember. I was brought to Luna Amber when I was four, and I had never left her house in all these years. I wasn’t allowed to go any further than the yard. I wished I could sit up and look out the windows, but I realized that if I moved too much I would probably bleed on the seats and make my new masters angry. So I stayed still as they drove through the night.
At some point, the smooth motion of the car lulled me to sleep. I awoke with a start when the smooth pavement ended and we turned onto a rough dirt road. The bumping jostled my body and caused pain to rip through me, but I bit my lip and stayed silent. I sensed we were climbing in elevation because of the pressure changes in my ears. I couldn’t really see the brothers from my position, only the back of their heads. As if sensing my eyes on them, the one in the passenger seat twisted around and gave me a soft smile. “We have entered our territory. Welcome home, sweetheart.”
There was the slightest blush of dawn in the sky as they parked the jeep, and they came around to pull me out of the vehicle. I felt kind of like a burrito as they used the blanket to slide me half out so one of them could pick me up. I probably should have told them I was well enough to walk, but I was afraid to say anything. They were showing me kindness, and I didn’t want to do anything to change their good mood.
I got a view of their house, and all I could think was that it was huge and it was beautiful. It sprawled across a clearing like it had grown there naturally, built from local stones and timbers. I swallowed back a knot of fear as I tried to imagine how long it would take me to clean a space that big. The pack house in White Pines was nothing compared to this. I could only hope that a pack this big would have more slaves, so the work would be divided.
They carried me up the stairs, through the door, and down multiple hallways to a set of double doors under a sign that said, “Medical Ward”. I had heard that some packs were so big they had their own hospitals. White Pines had always used the local human hospital for medical emergencies. I’d never seen a doctor in my life. I dressed my own wounds and whatever injuries I sustained had been left to heal up naturally. I thought I should probably tell the brothers that this was unnecessary, but I couldn’t seem to gather my courage or my wits enough to speak to them.
They conversed quietly with a nurse, and I was brought into a small room with a stretcher and some medical equipment. An older female doctor came bustling in, wearing the traditional white coat, with a stethoscope looped around her neck. “Well boys, what have you brought me? Oh, my…” she said when her eyes fell across me. She made a tsk noise with her tongue and called for another nurse. “I’m going to need you to step out, Alphas.”
“No.” Both of them stood there, their jaws set stubbornly. “She is ours.”
“Oh. Ohhh.” She said, her eyes growing wide. She shared a surprised look with her young nurse but they kept quiet. They unwrapped me from the blanket and then attempted to peel off the shirt. It had half-dried to the wound and had stuck to my back. “Let's get some sterile water in here, we’ll have to soak it off…” The next thing I knew they were pouring cold water down my back until the fabric was saturated enough to loosen and separate from my raw back. The doctor went to work cleaning the mess as best she could, and then slathered the whole thing with some kind of antibiotic cream. She covered it with gauze and wrapped my torso with bandages to hold it in place.
She turned her attention to my arm, carefully feeling down the bone. “I don’t think it's broken, dear, but this is going to hurt…” and with no warning, she twisted my arm and forced it back into the socket with a sickening and audible “pop”. I saw the faces of the brothers grow tense and pale, as I tried my best not to whimper at the pain.
Lastly, she looked at my face. I couldn’t see myself in the mirror, but it felt like it must be pretty bad. The belt had caught me diagonally, from my temple to my mouth. “I don’t think it needs any stitches,” the doctor said thoughtfully. “We’ll just use some butterfly bandages here to minimize the scarring…” Her gloved hands worked gently on my swollen face.
She looked down at the rest of my body skeptically. “Are there any other injuries, dear? Anything we can’t see?” I felt like there was some hidden meaning behind her inquiry, but I didn’t understand. I shook my head. She looked at me for a long moment and then turned to the brothers. “She can go then. Do you have any clothes for her? If not I can see if Sandra has anything in the back. The bandages on her back will have to be changed twice a day, and we’ll have to keep a close eye on it to make sure no infection sets in.”
The brothers thanked the doctor, and the nurse Sandra came with some clothes, a t-shirt, and a pair of sweatpants. The clothes were much too large, but the sweatpants had a drawstring, so I was able to tie them on. The brothers didn’t even give me privacy to get dressed, but I guess it didn’t matter. They’d seen the clothes come off, what difference did it make if they saw them go on? I slipped off the bed and stood a bit unsteadily.
“Are you strong enough to walk?” One of them asked, the one with the ponytail.
I nodded but he still slipped an arm behind me, careful not to touch the bandaged area.
The two of them walked me back through the house. I tried to orient myself to my surroundings but I felt like I was being pulled into a labyrinth of doors and hallways and stairs. “This will be your room… for now.” The other brother said, pushing open the door to a beautiful room decorated in soft earth tones and shades of green.
It was the prettiest room I had ever seen, even bigger and better than the Alpha and Luna’s suite at White Pines. It had a big four-poster bed, a sofa in front of a real fireplace, a big dresser, and a vanity table with a mirror and stool. This was a room for royalty, it was not a room for a slave. I felt some fear grip my heart because I didn’t know what game they were playing. I shook my head and backed away from the room.
“What’s wrong?” they looked at me with concern.
I cast a panicked look at the room. “I cannot sleep there.” It felt strange to talk to them.
They looked puzzled. “Why not?”
How could I explain to them? Didn’t they know that I wasn’t allowed to sleep on the beds? I was too dirty, and therefore only fit to sleep on the floor. Not to mention my wounds might seep through the bandages and ruin their sheets. I shook my head vehemently.
One of the brothers groaned. “The closet,” he said, “She’s used to sleeping in a closet.”
The pony-tailed brother led me over to the side of the bed and gently forced me to sit down on the soft mattress. He squatted in front of me so that we were face to face. I looked down, knowing I must not look the alpha in the eye. He used his fingers to urge my chin back up, but I kept my eyes downcast. “Sweetheart, I know this is a big change for you, but just trust us, okay? Everything is going to be okay. This is your room. This is your bed. This is your home now.”
I knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help it. I lifted my eyes to stare at his face. He was so handsome, with beautiful blue eyes under full-arched brows. His face was angular, with a strong jaw and a straight, narrow nose, and full lips. I had this crazy, errant thought about leaning forward and pressing my mouth against his, and I was shocked at myself.
He smiled and the corners of his eyes crinkled. “That’s it.” He said softly. “What is your name?”
I blinked. They kept asking me that. I hunched my shoulders and stared back down at the lush, forest-green carpet. Did I tell them? Did I tell them the name I so vaguely remembered? Couldn’t they just call me “Girl” like the White Pine’s pack?
“Bella,” I whispered at the carpet.
The alpha grinned triumphantly and shot a look at his brother, who was hovering by the door. “Thank you, Bella… a name as beautiful as you are. I’m Wyatt. This is Byron.” I don’t know why he was telling me their proper first names. I could never call them that. I must call them “master,” “sir,” or “Alpha.” Knowing their first names was only useful to differentiate between the two. Wyatt had a ponytail. Byron had the neat, short hair cut - the kind I sometimes saw in the fashion magazines that the twin girls at White Pines liked to pour over.
Byron took a bottle of pills out of his pocket and set it on the nightstand. “The doctor prescribed these for the pain. I’m having Hailey bring you a snack and some water. For today, we just want you to rest, relax and heal.” Then he did the strangest thing. He reached out and stroked my hair, brushing it out of my face.