4: Delta

                It was easier to forgive Blake for tossing me up over his shoulder now that I’d had a moment to look him in the eye. He was about my height, and didn’t have the same bulky muscles as the others. It was probably just easier to carry me this way without dropping me. If I’d been fully clothed I wouldn’t even be as exposed as I felt.

                I lost track of how many turns we made and flights of stairs we climbed, but we didn’t seem to cross paths with anyone else as he carried me through the house. We eventually came to a stop in a long hallway that had 3 sets of ornately carved double doors at the far end. He opened and carried me through the black set, into a sitting room with large overstuffed black leather and dark wood furniture. After flipping on a light, he shut the doors to the hallway and carried me through another room that looked like it was set up as another office. We passed by the desk through yet another door that opened up into a bedroom.

                Blake, set me down on a black velvet chaise at the end of a giant 4-post bed with black satin bedding. The room was dimly lit by the light that filtered in from the first room, allowing me to look around the room a little. The furniture in here appeared to be dark and oversized to fill the large space. Floor to ceiling drapes blocked out any light and the view the windows on either side of the bed might have had. I could only assume that this was the Alpha’s personal suite.

                He spoke softly, “If you swear you’ll stay calm, I’ll do the best I can to make you more comfortable,” he gestured toward the ropes. I nodded, earning a small smile from him. There was no chance that I’d be able to make it back through the maze of corridors or past a house full of wolves even if I wanted too.

                Kneeling on the floor, he started to loosen the knots along my legs. I had to roll onto my side a bit for him to get at the loops around my thighs, but he didn’t try to do anything more than undo the knots. He helped me sit up, letting me move around a bit and find a position I was comfortable sitting in.

                Once I was settled, he stood and turned away, walking across the room to a large armoire in a dark corner. After some rummaging, he returned with a pair of leather cuffs joined by a short length of chain. “I’m afraid that I can’t leave you unrestrained, but these should be less restrictive.” He waited for me to nod before setting the cuffs in my lap. He sat beside me and began setting to work on the knots holding my arms.

                Freed from the rope, I experimented with moving my arms around a little. He waited patiently for me to still, then buckled the cuffs onto my wrists in front of me. He looped the ropes neatly and put them away in the armoire, returning this time with a brush and hair tie.

                “I learned how to braid my sister’s hair after our mother passed, if you’d like, I think I can manage to tame that rat’s nest,” he offered. After I nodded, he sat back down and ran the brush through my hair. He worked all the knots and tangles out carefully, never tugging when one got caught in the brush. When he was satisfied with his work he gathered my hair together and loosely braided it. It was both comforting and weird to feel like I was being groomed like a doll. My own mother hadn’t brushed my hair since I was a little girl.

                “I can’t remove the gag,” he apologized, “but I can raise the temperature for you if the rooms aren’t warm enough.” I shook my head; it was plenty warm in here. His brows knit together as he looked me over and he opened his mouth as if to say something, but no sound came out. Instead we just sat there in the quiet together.

                 After a few minutes he stood up and offered me a hand to help me up as well. “I was instructed to have you sit over here,” he led me to a large thick cushion in a corner near the foot of the bed. It looked like the kind of thing you would need for a very large dog to sleep on. “If you sit just like this…” he instructed, kneeling on the cushion and sitting back on his feet, “and put your hands on your thighs like this,” he rested his own hands on his thighs palms up. “Alpha will be more likely to be kind if you to sit like this when he gets here, assuming you don’t want to antagonize him further.” There was a hint of a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eye.

                I was grateful for the advice, so I did my best to smile around the hard plastic ball in my mouth as I gave him another nod. He jumped back up onto his feet, and helped me climb onto the cushion myself. He even went back over his instructions, smiling as I tried to do as he had done.

                Frowning he reached around behind me to pick up a leather collar that was chained to a hook on the wall. “I would really rather not have to do this,” his fingers fiddled with the collar, “I wouldn’t even, I mean I don’t think, you could easily undo it if you wanted, but he insisted that…” I leaned forward so he could fasten the leather around my neck. “I’ll be just outside the main doors, and I’ll be able to hear if you need me, ok? You just knock on the wall and I’ll come see what you need. I’ll also do my best to let you know when he’s coming so that you can rest at ease until then.”

                I gave him one last nod to let him know that I understood what he was saying. After a short hesitation, he walked back through the rooms and closed the doors to the hall, leaving me alone.

                I tried to sit and wait, but I couldn’t tell if minutes or hours were passing. The cushion was large enough that I could easily lay down on it if I curled up with my head near the wall. Tucking my arms in against my chest, I rested my head against the soft velvet and let my muscles relax.

                The weight of everything that had happened crashed into me all at once like a semi-truck. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks and I cried muffled sobs around the gag, still in my mouth. I cried over the betrayal of my parents, how they’d watched while I was restrained, and how they let me be drug away without so much as a goodbye. I cried over the loss of my dignity, stripped down to my underwear and bound like wild beast, then inspected like livestock and paraded around like a piece of meat. I cried for the loss of my freedom and the life I had thought I was going to live. It didn’t look like I was going to make it to college after all. I cried for the fear welling up inside me, unsure of what horrors would befall me next. I cried until my eyes burned and my throat felt raw, and I had nothing left to give. Then, I just lay there, curled up in the dark, staring at the dark void above me where the ceiling should’ve been.

                How long would I be chained up like a wild animal? No one had seemed surprised to see me bound in rope, or gagged. Is this just how all women were treated in this pack? Could this all be some kind of scare tactic? I hated the not knowing. He’d said that I was the price of an agreement made between our parents when my family was granted asylum by the pack. If this was a decision made 16 years ago, why hadn’t I been told any of this? Why did he come to collect now? And what was my place here? Why couldn’t I stop asking myself questions that I didn’t know the answer too?