Nowhere To Hide

~Sable

Before I could even process the noise.. the room was full of them... large grim-faced men in suits that did nothing to hide their thick necks and rude attitudes.

I gasped, scrambling upright and clutching the soft white sheet to my chest. It was the only thing between me and total nudity.

“What the hell?” I managed to sputter with my voice still raspy with sleep.

The lead guy who was a bulldog of a man with a broken nose didn’t even look at my face. His eyes scanned the room... the rumpled bed, my torn dress on the floor... and his lip curled in disgust.

“What do we have here? Grab her.”

“Don’t you touch me!” I hissed, yanking the sheet tighter as two of them advanced.

They didn’t listen.

Rough hands grabbed my arms, pulling me from the warmth of the bed. The sheet tangled around my legs and I fought, kicking out with a stream of curses flying from my mouth that would have made a sailor blush.

“You idiots! Let go of me! Get your filthy hands off!”

The one holding my right arm sighed like I was a toddler throwing a tantrum.

“Just hold still, would ya? We’re not here to look at the merchandise. We’re here to collect it.”

“I’m not your goddamn merchandise!”

My bravado was a thin shield and it was cracking fast. The memory of Knox’s gentle hands and his low voice asking if I was sure, was a painful contrast to these gorillas manhandling me. I was sore in places that were a beautiful reminder of last night and now it was being fucking ruined;

After a minute of my furious struggling, the bulldog guy snapped.

“For Pete’s sake, let her get dressed. We don’t have all day.”

They released me, turning their backs with a theatrical roll of their eyes. I stood there, trembling and clutching the sheet. My beautiful torn dress from last night was tossed onto the bed as my only option. The humiliation burned as I pulled it on with the fabric feeling sad now. I couldn’t even find my shoes.

They marched me out of the room, each one holding an elbow. I held my head as high as I could but I could feel the stares from people in the hallway. A maid quickly looked away, a guest peered out from his door with his eyes wide and I felt like a convict on a perp walk.

The ride in the black car was silent and tense. Bulldog sat up front, grumbling to the driver.

“Stupid girl. Doesn’t she know what she’s done? Running off like that. We’ll be lucky if this doesn’t start a damn war.”

I stared out the window with my stomach churning. A war? What were they talking about?

All too soon, the car pulled up to the house I’d run from just yesterday. It felt like a lifetime ago. The door was yanked open and I was pulled out and marched up the path. The front door swung open before we even reached it.

And there he was. Corvin. My stepfather. His face was purple with a rage so intense I thought his eyes might pop right out of his head.

The men shoved me forward.

“We found her,” Bulldog said with his voice all business. “At the Regency Hotel. Room was registered to a John Smith. Obviously fake.”

Corvin’s eyes locked on me and widened in pure alarm. The color drained from his face then flooded back darker than before. He took a step toward me with his voice coming as a low and dangerous whisper.

“The hotel? You spent the night there? With someone?”

I said nothing. I just stood there in my torn dress and dirty feet.

He grabbed my chin, forcing my face up.

“Answer me, you wretched girl! Did he touch you? Did you… is it gone? Is your virtue gone?”

The word ‘virtue’ sounded so ancient and stupid coming from his snarling mouth. A strange calm settled over me and I looked him right in the eye.

“Yes,” I said with my voice surprisingly steady. “He forced me though. I was drunk and I don’t really remember what he looked like.”

It was a gamble, a lie served on a silver platter to save my own skin and secretly, to cherish the truth. I chose. It was my terms and it was beautiful.

For a second Corvin just stared, processing the words. Then, he erupted. Spit flew from his mouth as he roared with his hands clenching into fists at his sides. He looked like he wanted to strangle the life right out of me as he took a shuddering step forward and I flinched, bracing for the blow.

It came suddenly in a sharp open-handed slap across my face that snapped my head to the side and my cheek exploded in fiery pain.

“You foolish, ruined...!” he screamed.

“Corvin.”

A new voice cut through his rage cool and calm. It wasn’t loud but it commanded absolute silence. Corvin froze with his hand still raised for another strike.

We both turned to where a man stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame as if he’d been watching the whole show. He was tall, impeccably dressed in a dark suit and he radiated a quiet power that made Corvin’s bluster look pathetic. He was definitely a werewolf. You could just… tell. It was in the way he held himself.. the sharp intelligence in his eyes.

Corvin immediately dropped his hand and his anger vanished, replaced by sheer groveling panic as he actually bowed his head.

“Sir! I... I apologize for this unpleasantness.”

He grabbed my arm and yanked me down into a clumsy bow.

“Bow to your betters, you idiot girl!” he hissed at me.

The man just watched with a slight unamused curve to his mouth.

“I'm Octavian and I’ve come to collect the Alpha’s property and finalize the accord,” he said with hhis voice sounding like smooth steel. “I trust she is ready.”

Corvin began to sweat and I could see it beading on his forehead.

“About that, sir… there was a… a minor complication last night. You see, the Alpha himself came to collect his bride, a great honor, of course… but the girl… she… she ran off like a wild fucking bird and.. and..!”

He was stammering and unable to say the words.

Octavian’s eyes flicked to me and for a split second, I felt like he could see right through my lie, right through my dress and right into the secret happy place in my heart where I kept the memory of Knox.. a cold dread trickled down my spine.

“Take her to her room,” Corvin ordered at the bulldog men, seizing the distraction. “Make her presentable. Now!”

I was hauled upstairs and shoved into my bedroom.

“Don’t try anything funny,” one of them grunted before closing the door. I heard the lock click and their heavy footsteps right outside.

Funny? What was funny about this? I went to the window, planning my next great escape and looked down. Two more men stood directly below, looking right back up at me. So much for that.

With a sigh, I peeled off the torn dress and put on a simple, modest navy blue one. It felt like a uniform and as I changed, I could hear more voices downstairs... deeper, more authoritative than Corvin’s nervous sputtering.. more wolves had arrived.

I took a deep breath, unlocked my door and walked out. The men outside fell in step behind me like grim shadows.

The scene in the living room had changed. Corvin was on his knees now with his head bowed so low his forehead almost touched the floor and he was apologizing over and over to a group of three new men who stood with their backs to me.

“...deepest regrets… the girl is willful… we will compensate…” he was blubbering.

One of the new men, the one in the center, turned at the sound of my footsteps. His gaze swept over me, assessing an calculating and I gasped and faltered the moment I met his eyes…