I Will Not Marry Him!

Willow's POV 

Him? 

They wanted me to marry him? 

The man who walked into our living room looked older than my uncle. His hair was all white and his face had begun to crease. He seemed to be in his fifties. He was tall and still broad for an older man, but that did not change the fact that he was old.

Too old.

His eyes travelled over my body with a glint that made my skin crawl. He turned to my uncle and licked his lips.

“She is beautiful,” he said, coming closer.

A shiver ran through me at the sound of his voice. I knew who he was.

Augustus Black.

He was the town's notorious bachelor. He used money to cover his crimes and he took advantage of the younger girls. Money was not his only power. He was the older brother to the pack's Luna, and that protection meant he could do as he pleased.

No one in their right mind would marry him.

My aunt and uncle were only blinded by poverty.

“What's your name sweetheart?” His hand touched my face and bile rose in my throat. I remembered the girl in the market who had said he had raped her after her stepmother sent her to deliver vegetables to his house.

Why would they set me up with him?

“Can't you speak?” He stepped closer. His voice had risen a note in annoyance.

His hand moved from my cheek and trailed down my neck. I glanced at my aunt and uncle. They were smiling. Could they not see how he looked at me? Did they not know the vile things he had done?

“Don't touch me” I gasped as his palm slid to my lower back. 

He frowned and looked at my uncle. “This was not the deal.”

“We are sorry. She is just shy,” my aunt blurted.

My lips parted to speak but I kept it shut 

My uncle stepped forward. “Her name is Willow and as you can see, she is very beautiful and very young. She can give you good pups.”

Augustus laughed with him, then the amusement faded from his face.

“I will take her home. If I like her then we can go along with the plans.”

“No problem. She is all yours,” my uncle said, shoving me forward. I planted my feet and refused to move.

This was wrong. 

“What about…?” my aunt started, as she twirled her hair nervously 

“Here you go.” Augustus opened a briefcase and passed it to her. When she looked inside her face lit up.

They were selling me for money.

They did not even try to hide it.

“Say your goodbyes. I'll be waiting in the car,” he said and walked out. 

The door shut and I collapsed to my knees. “Please, I beg you. I'll be good. Don't sell me to him. Please.” Tears ran freely as I pleaded with joint hands. 

“Nonsense. We've already sold you. There is nothing to be done now,” my aunt said, voice flat.

“You either go to the car yourself or I'll take you there by force,” my uncle warned.

“Please don't do this. I'm sorry if I've ever wronged you… just don't…” My words broke as my uncle hoisted me up and carried me toward the door. I fought, but he held me like a sack. He threw me into the car and slammed the door. I flung at it, but it was locked.

“Don't be scared Willow. I don't bite.” Augustus's hand settled on my lap and he stroked it as if comforting a pet.

Tears streamed, but I kept my mouth closed. I was alone with him now. He could hurt me if I wasn't careful. 

*********

My tears had not stopped since I arrived. The head maid told me if I obeyed and behaved, I would enjoy my time here, but how could I accept a fate with such a monstrous animal?

They dressed me in black lingerie the maid forced me to wear. My hair was pinned up so it would not get in the way and I had been scrubbed until my skin stung, yet I felt filthy.

I wrapped the thin robe I found around myself and tried to think. I had to escape. But how?

The door opened and Augustus stepped in.

He disgusted me even more now than before.

“Are you ready to behave?” he asked in a low voice.

I nodded, not because I trusted him, but because fear had been rooted in me.  

He moved toward the bed and sat down beside me. “You don't have to be scared. I'll be gentle.” He shrugged off his jacket and emptied his pockets on the table.

That was when I saw it.

A knife.

My chest hammered so hard I thought he might hear it. The blade was small, but to me it was everything.

“Excuse me for a minute,” he said and went to the bathroom.

When he returned he was different, he was a little slow, unfocused, as if he had swallowed something that pulled at the edges of his senses, maybe he took a pill. He grabbed me from the bed and dragged me against him. His body pressed into mine. My skin crawled. 

Every nerve screamed for me to run, but I had to remain careful. One wrong move and he could end me.

“You're very pretty” he murmured and leaned in to kiss me. I turned my face away immediately. My first kiss was not going to be with a man like this. 

Annoyed, he clamped a hand on my cheek to force me still. His fingers dug into my skin and his breath reeked of wine and something sharper.

Panic turned my fingers into ice. I slid my hand inside my robe and closed around the knife. My arm shook, hairs standing on end. Adrenaline split through me like lightning. I pictured the market girl's face, my uncle and aunt's face, and the briefcase that had bought me. There was no other way.

Just as his lips bent toward mine, I drove the blade forward into his gut. I twisted it and kicked him down. He let out a grunt and fell to the ground with a heavy thud. 

I did not stop to listen to the noises of the room. I tightened my robe around myself, took some things from the table and fled.

I tore out of the house and into the woods. Footsteps pounded behind me. I did not look back. I knew Augustus's men would chase. I ran blind between trees, lungs burning, branches whipping at my face. Every snap of a twig made me flinch. My heart hammered against my ribs so loudly I feared it would give me away.

“Ouch.” I slammed into a trunk and toppled to the earth, the breath knocked from me. For a moment I thought it was over.

Then a hand grabbed mine and hauled me up. I did not see him clearly; his grip was fierce. He ran and pulled me along. 

Something moved inside me. Maybe it was the terror of surviving, maybe the fear that I could be killed in any second  but I knew, with a certainty that surprised me, that the person holding my hand was not just my savior, he was my…