4. A new bed partner

Lucy

They got me off the bed and ushered me out of the room. I wasn’t paying much attention to anything else they were doing, but I listened to the way they talked to the people at the counter. Matt seemed really nice. Tony seemed really cold.

“Have our car brought around immediately. We won’t be staying here.”

“Oh, but typically, that price is only for–”

Tony growled at the man behind the counter. “We do not share. The price was set, and no stipulations were discussed prior to purchase. We are leaving. Give me her things.”

 Matt turned to me. “Is there anything you want to keep from… wherever you’re from?

 I couldn’t think of anything, so I shook my head.  It wasn’t as if I owned a lot of things anyway.

“There was nothing with her. She hadn’t been here long, no more than a few minutes before she was put on auction.”

Tony turned and led the way to the front doors.  Other people in nice clothes milled around and watched as we passed.  I thought maybe one of them would help me, but none of them looked like they were going to step in.

A nice car pulled up, and they put me inside the car between them in the backseat.

“Roll up the divider,” Tony said. “We’re going to the house in the city.”

“As you wish,” the driver replied.

“She hasn’t said a word,” Matt said.

“Did you expect her to speak?” Tony asked. “She’s more mouse than wolf.”

Matt laughed. “Now you’re just being mean.”

One of the men who had taken me had said that, but when Tony said it, it didn’t feel much like an insult.  His tone was cold, but it wasn’t mean exactly. I looked out the window, watching the scenery go by. I didn’t recognize the town, and I was sure that it wasn’t the same town that we’d been in before, or maybe it was just a nicer side of town where I’d never been before.

“How do you like the car?” Matt asked

I didn’t know what I should say, so I didn’t speak.

“You think we scared her?” Matt asked, sliding his arm around my waist. “You probably shouldn’t have shifted in front of her like that.”

Tony said nothing, and the driver of this very nice car said nothing either.  We passed by lots of trees and buildings before we reached a very large house. It was far larger than the building I lived in with that couple or even the orphanage I had been in as a child.

Matt hopped out of the car and offered his hand to me. “Come on, we made it.”

Tony slipped out of the car from the other side, and I let Matt help me out of the car out of fear.  What were they going to do to me when we got into this house?  I already knew.  They started it in that room back then and had stopped for whatever reason.

Every step I took toward the front door felt heavy. My heart was racing. My thoughts ran wild.

“Hey, are you okay?”  Matt asked. “Your heartbeat  is really irregular.”

“I…”

I couldn’t breathe.  All the panic of the day, all the anxiety, all the fear was crashing down on me right now as I realized that there was really no way out. They were going to do whatever they wanted to me, and I didn’t even have a chance to fight them. I turned, thinking maybe I could run or something, but then my vision went dark, and everything went quiet.

Tony

Lucy’s heart raced. I could hear her taking in short breaths that weren’t enough to get oxygen to her brain. Then she turned wavered and started to fall sideways. Matt caught her before she could hit the floor and scooped her off her feet.

He looked at me. “This is all your fault. You scared her.”

“I think being kidnapped, put in the trunk, put on an auction, being sold, being bought, and then brought here is actually what did it.” I cocked an eyebrow at him. “But sure, Matt, as you say.”

I pulled out my phone it went to go look for the pack’s doctor’s information, following Matt up the stairs to one of the nicer guest rooms in the house. The woman answered on the second ring.

“Who is bleeding?”

“No one,” I scoffed. “But we have a problem. Come to the house in the city. There’s a patient here we need you to see.”

“.... should I be prepared for something specific?”

“No, she just fainted.”

Matt lay her on the bed and sat beside her tucking her in. She looked frail, as if she hadn’t been eating enough.

“She’s too skinny. Maybe she just fainted from hunger?” Matt asked.

“I thought it brought you some comfort to think that I scared her.”

“Maybe a little,” he said, his lips twitching.

When the doctor arrived, she shooed us out of the room. The only reason I allowed it was because I knew she would never harm Lucy. 

“Who is she?”  the doctor asked before closing the door behind us.

I looked at Matt as he looked at me. The doctor was sort of affiliated with the pack, but she wasn’t actually pack yet. Should we tell her?

“A new bed partner,”  I said.

She looked suspicious as if she didn’t believe me, but she didn’t ask and closed the door softly.

Matt looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“What?”

“That’s the best you could have come up with?”

“I didn’t see you offering any suggestions.”

He shrugged. “I would have just told her the truth.  It’s not like it’s going to change our lifestyle at all.  She’s only half.”

“That’s true.  Even if we wanted, we couldn’t expect her to keep up.”

I took a seat in the sitting area down the hall. Matt joined me. We poured drinks and waited. I had no idea what kind of exam she was administering, but I hoped the results didn’t mean she had some terrible disease.

The doctor came down the hallway a while later and stood in the doorway with a disapproving look.

“So?”

“Stress,  malnutrition,  exhaustion– she needs rest and food.  I’m not sure when you two planned to start inflicting your ridiculous sex drives on the girl, but you’ll have to wait a while until she’s strong enough….  She’s a bit young for your taste, isn’t she?”

I flashed my teeth at her. “Thank you. That will be all.”

She scoffed and set a stack of pages on the table between us. One page was the bill the other two were care notes.

“I don’t know how to cook,” Matt said. “Hell, you don’t know how to cook.”

“Then call the chef and have his assistant come here to make sure she’s fed.”  I stood and walked down the hall toward the room she was in. “Are you coming ?”

I didn’t really need to ask as I felt him coming up behind me.

Lucy

By the time I realized that I had passed out, I was waking up. My head was throbbing. My whole body ached like I had been tossed around. Then I remembered everything that had happened. I’d been sold, bought, and kissed by two strangers. I’ve been driven to some strange house with the knowledge that they would be doing whatever they wanted to me, and I had no way out.

I almost didn’t want to open my eyes.

Then, I did because my stomach grumbled. I opened my eyes slowly and realized I was in a bed. I tried to sit up and felt the weight of something holding me in place. I gasped and looked to my left and right.

Matt was there with his arm over my waist, and Tony was on the other side with his arm just above Matt’s. 

They were both sound asleep, and other than the aching in my head, nothing else hurt. 

“You’re awake,” Tony said. I flinched as I felt his eyes in the darkness. He sat up. “Stay here. I’ll get you dinner.”

He left without another word. Matt murmured something and pulled me closer, and all I could do was lie there in shock.