C2

Evelyn Carter POV

"Can you scrub your own skin if I back out of this room, or are you going to slip and break your neck the second I close the door?" I pull my hand out of the warm water, my plus-size frame trembling. My dark skin slicked with the rising vapor.

Alaric does not say a word. The air in the wash basin area drops ten degrees. His white complexion looks lethal under the dim light, his chest heaving with slow, predatory breaths.

"Fine, keep your secrets, Alpha," I mutter, shoving the fiber cloth onto the stone ledge. "Just shout if you start drowning. I am right outside."

I slide past the heavy oak door and press my back against the wall of our chamber in Wolfhart Moon Manor. My feet are cold against the floorboards. I am only four-foot-two, and everything in this werewolf fortress feels built for giants. My mind is spinning. If he falls in that tub and dies, the Wolfhart Alpha Council will hunt my family down. I just sacrificed my virtue to save Margaret Carter from the rotting sickness, and I am not about to become a cursed widow on night one.

Buzz.

The cheap, cracked phone in my hand vibrates hard. A message from Chloe Bennett flashes on the dark screen. It is an attachment labeled 'Essential Ritual Guides.'

"What the fuck is she sending me training tips for now?" I whisper, tapping the link.

A high-pitched, filthy wail blasts out of the speaker. “Ah... fuck, deeper, give me the knot...”

My face burns so hot the heat flashes down to my chest. On the tiny screen, a massive rogue wolf is pinning a human female against a tree, his thick, wet tongue dragging up her throat while their bodies slick together with sweat. I slam my thumb against the power button, but the junk phone freezes completely. The moaning gets louder, sharper, filling the quiet bedroom with the raw sound of wet flesh slapping against flesh.

The bathroom door rips open. Alaric stands there, his leather glove gripping the frame, a freshly lit cigarette dangling between his lips. His dead, sightless eyes lock exactly where I am standing.

"What kind of foul game are you playing in my quarters, human?" His voice is low, a dark rumble that makes my thighs shake.

"Nothing!" I gasp, shoving the screaming phone deep beneath the heavy furs of the mattress.

The sound softens, but the female's muffled, breathless screams keep leaking through the thick wool. “Yes... bite me there... split me open...”

Alaric steps closer, his massive six-foot-eight frame casting a shadow that swallows me whole. He wears nothing but his dark trousers, his thick, white-skinned muscles gleaming from the wash. "Tell me the truth before I rip it out of you."

"It is a guide!" I lie, my voice squeaking as I park my heavy hips right over the spot where the phone is buried. "A guide on how to scrub a wolf's back! The female in the video is just... really enjoying the pressure of the brush! She is making sounds because her muscles are relaxing!"

Alaric halts. The single red cufflink on his wrist catches the lamplight as he tilts his head. "A rubbing guide?"

"Yes," I say, wiping the sweat from my forehead, my heart drumming against my ribs. "It is very intense labor. She was getting her skin cleared of old silver-dust. It makes people cry out."

He doesn't say a word. He just stands there, letting the silence stretch until the only thing left in the room is the wet, rhythmic panting coming from beneath my thighs. The amber light of the candles hits my dark skin, my sheer white lace sleepwear stretching tight over my curves. Alaric’s chest hitches. His breath turns ragged, his nose flaring as he drinks in the scent of my fear and the heat rising between my legs.

The video finally clicks off. I pull the boiling hot, glitching phone from under the blanket and immediately wipe the file from my storage.

I send a furious text to Chloe: 'You almost got my throat ripped out by the Alpha!'

Chloe replies instantly: 'I am trying to keep you alive, Cherry! The man is a beast. Did you learn how to handle his size yet?'

My fingers fly over the keyboard: 'He heard the whole fucking thing! He asked questions! I told him it was a back-scrubbing lesson!'

Alaric doesn't move from the edge of the bed. He can see every single letter bright and clear through his pretend blindness.

Chloe's text pops up: 'Haha! I am screaming! You absolute idiot! Enjoy your beautiful, blind monster. Don't let him break you on the first night!'

I shove the phone face down onto the wood. I turn to face the giant. "Let us finish what your grandfather Magnus paid for."

Alaric stares straight through my eyes. "You have no idea what you are asking for, human."

I tighten my hands into fists. I have known this killer for less than a day. He wants me gone, but Nathan Carter told me if I do not seal this bond tonight, the pack will cut off the medicine to Carter Cottage. I take a deep breath, launch my plus-size body forward, and wrap my short arms around his thick, scarred neck.

I press my mouth against his cold lips. It is clumsy, wet, and frantic. I shove my tongue past his teeth, tasting the bitter ash of his cigarette and the raw, heavy copper of his inner wolf. I am moving like an animal, desperate to make him feel the heat burning inside my small frame.

Alaric's large hands drop onto my waist, his fingers digging deep into my flesh. "Are you going to weep when I take your blood, girl?"

"Never," I pant against his mouth, my chest rubbing against his iron pectorals. "You own me now."

A dark, savage hunger flashes in his dead eyes. He twists my wrists behind my back with one hand, pinning me to the mattress beneath his massive weight. "Then lie still. A wolf always drives the stake."

The next morning, the heavy iron doors of Wolfhart Moon Manor creak open as Edith and Simon shuffle into the lower kitchen, their eyes heavy with sleep.

"The new little human girl looks like she doesn't know a wolf from a sheep," Edith whispers, setting down a basket of wild roots. "And Alaric is half-broken. You think he actually took her down last night?"

"The pack guards at the Silverpine Forest border heard everything," Simon grunts, stoking the hearth fire. "Owen said she started out screaming like she was being slaughtered. Then she went quiet, like she was muffled under the furs, but the heat coming out of that window was wild."

"Innocent, my ass," Edith chuckles, turning toward the table. "She looks like a quiet thing, but these village girls know how to hook an Alpha."

"Good morning, elders," I say, stepping out of the shadows with a tray of steaming mugs. I am wearing a bright pink apron over my clothes, my short hair pinned back. "The sun is barely over Frostfang Ridge. You are early."

Edith snaps her mouth shut, her face turning pale as she looks at Simon. Once they realize I didn't catch their filthy gossip, they rush forward to grab the heavy iron pots from my hands.

"Bless you, Lady Evelyn," Simon stammers. "You shouldn't be working the hearth on your first morning as Luna."

"It is fine," I say with a wide grin, checking the clock on the stone wall. "It is already past six. Back at Pine Hollow Village, I am usually out in the fields by four."

The two servants look at the massive spread already laid out across the long wooden table. There are boiled forest fowl eggs, thick bowls of hot grains, and a stack of golden, grease-dripping cakes.

"Did you do all this yourself, mistress?" Edith asks, her eyes wide.

"I didn't know what Alaric likes to tear into for his morning meal," I say, sliding a plate of hot cakes toward them. "So I just made what I used to cook for Margaret when her bones were stiff. Eat up, there is plenty more in the fire."