Wyatt
I gave up the pretense of trying to get work done and decided to go upstairs and catch some sleep before dinner. Of course, I couldn’t pass Bella's door without stopping to check on her.
Hailey had reported back that Bella had eaten breakfast, bathed, and taken her medicine before she crawled into bed to sleep. Hailey had also given us an earful of what she thought about the decrepit lowlifes that had done such horrible things to another person. I was glad to see that Hailey had taken a protective, motherly stance on Bella.
Since our own mother had passed, the former Beta’s mate had become our stand-in.
I eased open the door and peeked my head in. Bella was curled up in a tight ball, as though she were trying to protect herself, even in her sleep. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and I was glad to see that some of the swelling was already going down in her face. Although there was no sign of her wolf, she seemed to be healing faster than an ordinary human.
I quietly crept closer, leaning down to kiss her forehead, feeling awed when I felt the warm sparks the moment my lips connected with her soft skin. My rational brain insisted she was all wrong for us, but my inner wolf was purring with contentment. I sighed and retreated to my own bedroom.
I needed to stop overthinking this, and just let it unfold.
My phone vibrated in my pocket as I crossed the threshold. I answered tiredly. “Hello.”
“Good afternoon Alpha Wyatt.” The gravelly voice of the head Councilman growled in my ear.
“What can I do for you, Councilman?”
“We received a complaint this morning from the White Pines pack – its so outrageous, I can’t believe that it's true. They said you entered their territory under false pretenses and kidnapped one of their members.”
“That’s preposterous,” I said easily.
“Of course, I thought so--.”
“She wasn’t one of their members, she was a slave, and she left with us willingly.”
I heard the councilman groan in frustration, “Alpha Wyatt-“
“Wait, there’s more. They attempted to murder her while we were there under their roof. She has endured a lifetime of abuse at their hands, and… “ I saved the best for last, “She’s our mate.”
“Your… you mean the both of you?” I could hear the shock in the old codger’s voice.
Yeah, that’s right, chew on that Councilman. I could just imagine his dusty, conservative old brain trying to wrap his mind around the idea of the threesome we were going to become.
“Now, if I’ve satisfied all your inquiries, Mr. councilman, I’m rather busy. Have a good afternoon.” I cut the call without giving the old man a chance to answer. I don’t give a rat's ass about the council, or the White Pines asinine complaint.
The council was meant to be a peace-keeping body, to negotiate and keep the packs from fighting with each other– but their ability to police the packs was next to NIL. They were all bark and no bite. The worst thing they could do was rally packs together to impose trade sanctions against offending packs. Valiant Mountain was financially independent, so we had no fear of the council or its sanctions.
If White Pines wanted their girl back, they would have to come to our doorstep – and take her over my dead body. And, I reckoned, over Byron’s dead body, too. In fact, Byron seemed to be even more bonded to the girl than I was.
I entered my bedroom, stripped off my clothes, and stretched out on the king-size bed. I couldn’t help but wonder, perhaps selfishly, when the girl would be strong enough, mentally, physically, and emotionally – to complete the mating process. Even in her sad and broken state, my body stirred at the thought of her.
I still wanted her, needed her, desperately. My body obviously didn’t care if she was fit to be a Luna or not. She was everything we needed, and I knew no one else would ever satisfy our desires. F.uck it, I already knew I couldn’t reject her. I rolled off the bed and went back to her room.
Bella
I woke up slowly, my head felt thick and heavy, and my brain was definitely processing things very slowly. I thought I was in the closet under the stairs. So I couldn’t quite understand why I was so warm and comfortable. It literally felt like I was lying on a cloud, being hugged on every side. When I tried to stretch, I found that my body ached everywhere…and I was being restrained by heavy bands around my torso. What on earth? I peeled open my eyes and stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling with a pretty ceiling fan and flower-shaped light fixtures.
Not my closet.
I looked down at my restraints and found that I had not one, but two huge, muscular arms draped around me, one just under my breasts, the other across my belly from the opposite direction. I turned my head and came nose to nose with one of the Alpha brothers. I tried to sort out their names in my head. Wyatt, with the ponytail.
When I turned my head in the other direction, I found that Byron had nestled his head on my shoulder, and was snoring softly. They were fast asleep, and I was sandwiched between them.
Slowly, everything dribbled back into my sluggish brain. I remembered all the bizarre incidents from the night before, and the strange events of that morning. What I didn’t recall was how the two brothers ended up in one bed with me. Was this their room? Did two grown men share a bedroom? That seemed like odd behavior, even for brothers, but what business was it of mine? My business was to serve them… right after I went to pee.
However, escaping from their double embrace was a lot harder than I expected. I tried to move one heavy arm, but I had barely budged it a few inches when the owner grumbled and tightened his hold on me. My need was urgent, so I resorted to wriggling backward, and crawling off the foot of the bed.
It was dark outside the window, and I had no idea what time it was. Had I slept the whole day? Would the brothers be angry with me for being so lazy? I crept to the bathroom and shut the door before I flipped on the light. I finished my business and then looked at myself in the mirror as I washed my hands.
My face was starting to look more normal. The swelling was down, the bruising was changing from ugly purple to more of a greenish yellow. My hair was escaping from the braid and curling around my face and neck.
I still had no idea what kind of trouble I had gotten myself into by coming with the Alphas, but I was well enough now to attend to whatever duties they had planned for me.
I stared into the mirror for a long time. I nearly jumped out of my skin when there was a light knock on my door, and one of the brothers called softly, “Bella? Are you okay in there?” It was funny, even though I couldn’t see his face, or his distinctive hair, I was pretty sure that it was Byron on the other side of the door. I shut off the water and opened the door sheepishly. Sure enough, when I opened the door, there he was, offering me a sleepy smile. I looked past him and saw Wyatt sitting up on the side of the bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
“I hope it didn’t frighten you, waking up with both of us.”
I looked between the two of them. It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t think I actually had to answer them. Wyatt had switched on the lights in the room, brightly illuminating everything.
Strangely, I hadn’t been scared when I woke up squeezed between them. I felt comfortable and safe. I would have enjoyed it longer, had I not had to pee so badly. I wasn’t going to tell them that, though. I stood, head down submissively, waiting for them to give me orders.
“How is your back feeling?” Byron asked. “It's time to change your dressings.” Even as Byron was speaking, Wyatt was producing the supplies. More gauze, more bandages, more ointment.
“Come sit down, and we will help you.” I looked at the two uncertainly, but in the end, I could only shrug. It wasn’t worth being modest now, they had already seen everything.
I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled my pajama top off. I held it over my breasts and exposed my back to them. Wyatt gently peeled away the old dressing. It stung a bit when he pulled away the gauze, but it wasn’t that bad. Both of them examined my back like it was the most interesting painting. It made me want to squirm.
“It is already improved,” Byron said approvingly. Wyatt pulled on a pair of gloves, and gently smoothed a fresh layer of antibiotic ointment over the lacerations.
While Wyatt pulled off the gloves, Byron layered on more gauze and used the bandage to secure the dressing in place. “There we go. I guess in a couple more days, you won’t even need the dressing.”
“That’s done, let's go down and get some food.”
I almost sighed with relief. Finally, I could get to work. At least in the kitchen, I knew where my place was. But all this… this attention and kindness, the nice clothes and the comfortable beds… this was strange, unfamiliar, and worrying. Those brothers were confusing me. In my life experience, anything resembling kindness came at a price, and I hadn’t figured out exactly what kind of payment the alphas were going to demand from me.
They led me down the stairs, but instead of taking me to the kitchen, they took me to a dining room. They held out a chair and looked at me expectantly.
“Um. What would you like me to cook for you?” I stared down at my bare toes, and barely peeked up from underneath my eyelids to watch their reaction.
They passed a strange look between them. “Sit down, please, Bella.”
It was so weird how they kept calling me that name. I thought perhaps they wanted me to sit down while they gave me instructions. I perched on the edge of the chair and gripped the edges of the seat until my knuckles turned white.
“Bella, you aren’t a slave anymore. You are a free woman.”
My head swiveled back and forth between them until I thought my head would come unscrewed from my neck. Not a slave? What did they mean? Freedom? Hadn’t the wolves at White Pine told me I would never be free? They said I was fortunate that they even let me live. Having freedom wasn’t even something I had hoped for.
There were some things that were so impossible and so unreachable that you couldn’t let your mind dwell on them, or you might die from the pain of disappointment.
I really didn’t understand those men. Were they teasing me? This seemed like a crueler punishment even than the belting I had received from Amber Luna.
Wyatt picked up my hand, practically prying it from the chair. I felt his eyes on me, but I kept mine lowered submissively to the floor. “I know this is a big change for you, sweetheart. This is the Valiant Mountain Pack, and we do not keep slaves. Anyone who does work in this house does so of their own volition, and they are paid for their service.”
He was smoothing his thumb back and forth over my knuckles, and it felt so odd, like static electricity was jumping between us. “No one will ever force you to do anything you don’t want to do, ever again.”
Can something sound so wonderful and be so terrifying at the same time?
“Bella, do you know what a mate is?” Byron asked.
I looked up, frowning. Of course, I knew what a mate was. A mate was a sexual partner, like a husband or a wife. I saw another funny look pass between the brothers, and Wyatt gave the slightest negative shake of his head. Byron pursed his lips for a moment, but then he continued easily. “Well, never mind, sweetheart. Right now we want you to focus on getting well, and getting to know our pack. Ah, here comes Hailey.”
Hailey’s smiling matronly face peeped into the dining room, and then the rest of her followed with a tray laden with food. I couldn’t help but stare at it. There were hot steaming bowls of chicken vegetable soup, crusty, toasted bread slathered with butter, a platter of meat and potatoes, and green beans. I swallowed and looked away, unsure of what I was supposed to do.
They’d just dropped this bomb on me that I’m not a slave anymore… but what am I? I felt panic rising in my gut.
It wasalmost like I was… nothing. They had taken away my whole identity. I didn't know my place. I didn’t know if I was allowed to sit at this table between these brothers, I didn't know if I was allowed to eat their food. I didn't know if I was even allowed to be seen in the formal dining room.
My eyes darted around, looking for an exit, trying to gauge if I can make it to the door without one or both of the brothers tackling me.
“Bella,” I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder. Wyatt was looking at me intensely, his eyes both kind and concerned. I gasped when I realized that I was looking an alpha in the eyes, and dropped my gaze back down onto my lap.
“Relax sweetheart. You are safe here. I swear on my life, no one is going to hurt you. You are under our protection. Now please, try the soup, it will give you strength.”
The brothers began piling food in front of me. A bowl of rich, fragrant soup, bread, and a plate of meat and vegetables. I could never eat as much as they put before me. It smelled divine, and my stomach rumbled in protest. I picked up the spoon with shaking hands and dipped it in the broth. It was hot and delicious and a little salty. I closed my eyes in wonder.