2.

I swallowed hard, squared my shoulders and rang the bell. After a short while the door opened and the dark-haired, blue eyed Alpha stood there. 

The blue eyed Alpha silently studied me.

I am blonde haired and grey-eyed, above average height. And I have a slender build. I'm sixteen years old. I was wondering why he was studying me. Was my face pale or what? 

" I'm___ " 

He chimed in. " Jenna, right? " he said with a look of toughness there in his eyes that suggested ' DON'T TANGLE WITH ME OR ELSE YOU ARE UP TO IT '. 

" Come in, " he invited. 

I crossed over his threshold and he closed the door. I waited and then followed him from a most elegant hall into his drawing room, which was the last word in elegance___ 

" Take a seat, " he suggested when I stood in the middle of his plush carpet wishing I could remember just a little of how I got here. 

" Thank you, " I murmured. 

 " Do you remember the last thing that happened before you got here? " he enquired as I settled myself on one sofa and he did likewise on an opposite. 

" No, not much, " I said. " I was looking for something before I found a lost wolf and I had the interest of getting him back to his pack and then I met a woman. . . I don't remember much. She hit my head and I fell and the next thing is blackout. Then I open my eyes to find myself here___ " 

" That's much to remember, " he said shrewdly. " Fortunately for me, I was there to save you___ " 

" You were the wolf? " I asked immensely. 

" If that's a guess, it's a correct one my dear, " he said with a fleeting smile. 

" I want to go home! " I snarled. 

" Home? " he laughed hoarsely. 

Did I say something FUNNY?

He stared at me. " No going back darling. You owe me that. " 

" I don't! " I snapped. 

" You could have died___ " 

" I couldn't___ " 

" Oh yes, you could have, if not for me___ " 

" You can't keep me here against my will, " I sneered. 

" I can. . . " he paused. " I don't want you arguing with me. . . " 

I stood angrily. " You jerk! You can't tell me what to do! You will release me now or___ " 

" Or what? " he asked standing. " What can a possibly weakling like you do? " he asked walking to me with every strictness he could gather. " Start talking darling___ " 

I battled the urge to back away as he breached the gap between us, his body close enough that I could scent his earthly male aroma. " You are just like her. . . And that makes me hate you. . . " Alpha Darrell said so softly that I shivered. " I have the right to throttle the life from you for being very much like her. But all I want from you is loyalty! Or I will be forced to force loyalty from you. " Darrell stared down into my beautiful but frightened face and blinked in astonishment. There was little more than an inch separating us. In fact he was standing so close, I was arching my back in an effort to maintain the distance. 

He was stunned. The red-hot rage had surged up out of nowhere, catching hold of him the moment he'd seen me standing at the door looking like his Luna, perhaps. 

   On a deep throated curse he spun away from me, put a hand to the back of his neck and gripped. 

{ALPHA DARRELL POV} 

Behind me, I could hear the uneven tug of her breathing, I could feel her wariness, I could feel her fear. I closed my eyes and tried to get a hold of what was threatening to overwhelm me. I was a mess inside and the feeling was so alien that I didn't know how to deal with it. 

" I apologise, if I have to look a little like your Luna___ " 

No! Not a little! She was completely like my Luna. Her eyes, colour of hair and behaviour. Only that my Luna was taller than her and not as beautiful as she was. Apart from that they were both slender, looking innocent and weak. But I wouldn't fall for it, Luna Selena was never what I thought she was. I thought she was good, kind, loyal, loving, caring, trustworthy, innocent but she was nothing compared to any of the things I thought she was. So why should JENNA be different? 

" It's all right, " she said, but it was still the voice of fear. 

I heard her movements as she edged warily sideways, a sense of pained horror filling me with dismay. 

" Please don't hurt me____ " Oh that sounded a lot like my Luna Selena. So sweet! So innocent! 

I turned back to face her. She was shaking. Perhaps, inside and out she was shaking. " Why would I hurt you? " I asked. 

" I saw the look in your eyes before you looked away. You want to kill me___ " 

" I didn't save you to kill you. I won't kill you, " I promised. " I don't want to hurt you. . . " 

" Then just let me go please, " she pleaded. 

As I walked towards her, she took few steps backwards. But she couldn't run. Where would she run to? So she picked up a brass poker lying close to her. My eyes turned dark and I stilled my legs. Did she believe me to be dangerous that she armed herself against me? 

" You don't need that, Jenna, " I said huskily. 

* * * 

He wasn't standing in her shoes, Jenna thought anxiously. " W-when you calm down, I will put it down, " she promised. 

   The way he ran those eyes over her, she had a horrible feeling it would take him less than a second to disarm her if he decided to. He was big and he was strong and perhaps, an expert in unarmed combat. 

Then he continued walking towards her. So she tightened her grip on the poker until her knuckles showed white, then made ready to defend herself. 

   His eyes were dark, his eyelashes lying thick against his cheekbones, his mouth a grim straight line. She sucked in a gulp of air as he reached out and closed a hand around the poker. With a gentle twist it was taken from her fingers. 

   " Never brandish point-on, " he said gravelly. " The first thrust will tear your arm from it'ls socket. Use it like this. " While she stood too dazed to stop him, he took hold of her hand, placed the poker into it, angled it across her breasts, then, with a speed that set her gasping, he jerked the poker in a slashing arc towards his body. It came to stop with the point a breath away from his neck. " This way you have a chance of doing me some damage. " 

It was mad, really stupid, but her mouth began to wobble and tears suddenly filmed her eyes. " I don't want to damage you, " she breathed shakily. " I just want to go home. " 

" I know. " He released his grip on the poker. " It was my fault. I frightened you. " With that he turned and walked away. 

" Wh-where are you going? " 

" I will go and leave you with your. . . safety. " 

    " N-no! " she cried, and wondered why. She wished she could stop trembling and tried to hold herself. " What do you want from me? " 

He stopped halfway across the room. Silence arrived. It pulled and it prodded. 

" I want your loyalty. I don't want you to treat me the way my Luna did, " he said. 

" How? I don't even know your Luna___ " 

" If you know yourself, then you know my Luna. . . " he paused. " I want you to always keep in mind that you will forever be indebted to me. And. . . And that means you will have to do whatever I want you to do. My father is coming back very soon. If he doesn't see my Luna, his favourite, he will strip away my Alpha title and give it to someone else____ " 

" You want me to act like your Luna? " Jenna enquired. Oh, heck___ was she supposed to do that? 

" I'm not saying anything of the sort! " Alpha Darrell replied sharply. " But I'm saying, I want you to be my Luna until I get my Luna back. " 

Jenna mused unhappily, not liking to have her head bitten off for her trouble. She fought to pull herself together and to hide that she was in panic mode. " The th-thing is, " she began stiltedly. She was here now, there was no sign of her able to escape and there was no point in worrying herself silly. She must try to get something said, sorted out, and settled here and now. 

" Yes? " he enquired politely when she had got no further. 

At that point Jenna started to actively dislike this man. She had a feeling that she was in a very big mess. 

She swallowed hard. Be fair. He had been wandering in the wood, minding his business before she came to him. Perhaps, she could have left him and mind her business of looking for her ticket. " I was wondering___ er___ if you would___um___ consider___ " She broke off. He must have the central heating on____ she was all of a lather. " Consider letting me go after some days. I will try my best and find your Luna for you. " Hells bells, at finding his Luna____ the very maximum excuse she could scrap together____ it would take her years to find someone she knew nothing about, only that she was her look alike. 

" If I let you go, will I be confronted by yet another blonde haired, grey-eyed Jenna in the wood? " 

Wood? 

He smiled. " What do you take me for? " 

Jenna stared at him. This interview wasn't going anywhere near as well as she hoped. They were supposed to be talking about how she would get home. . . " I have a family. . . " 

" Who are they? " Cheeky devil! It was none of his business! Though. . . She stopped short. Of course it was his business. If he was considering allowing her to go home____ which meant he would have to find his Luna himself____ then she supposed he had every right to access who her family was. He needed to know that she had a family to return to. Oh heavens, her parents would be most perturbed about her whereabout. She told him her family. She hadn't expected him to be impressed. He wasn't. Especially when she told him she had a boyfriend.