Chapter 6; Domineering Alpha

POPPY’S POV

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

The words came out steadier than I felt, which was a miracle, because every part of me was trembling. 

Grey stood in front of me with that insufferable half-smile and those amber eyes that had no business being as beautiful as they were on a man this terrible.

He tilted his head slightly, studying me the way someone might study an insect that had wandered onto their shoe. "That wasn't a question, pet."

"Stop calling me that."

"No." He turned and said something to the golden-haired man beside him, completely dismissing me mid-conversation as though I hadn't spoken at all. 

It was like I was just furniture that had briefly made a noise. His attitude infuriated me beyond measure and I curled my fingers into a tight fist. 

I stepped forward. "I said I'm not leaving with you. I am Poppy Voss and my father is Beta Voss of the Darkwood pack and if you think for one second that—"

"I know who your father is." He didn't even turn around when he said it. "Beta Voss of Darkwood pack. That place is a small territory with moderate influence and no particular distinction." 

Now he looked at me, and the complete disinterest in his eyes was somehow worse than cruelty. "Is there a point coming?"

My mouth opened and then closed. He was a jerk, I knew it! There was no way someone this handsome could be nice too. 

He truly lived up to his name… maybe worse. 

"I thought not." He turned back to his companion and I stood there with humiliation burning up my throat like acid.

I had spent the last several hours surviving something that should have broken me, and this man—this person who I had shared something with—was looking at me like I was an inconvenience he had paid too much for. 

The memory of that night tried to surface and I shoved it down violently. That had clearly meant nothing to him. 

Maybe even worse than nothing. I was two hundred thousand dollars worth of property and that was the beginning and end of what I was to Alpha Grey of the Nightfang pack.

Fine.

I would rather walk into traffic than get into that car.

I took a step backward and the golden-haired man, Cade I thought I heard Grey call him, noticed immediately. 

He glanced at Grey and something passed between them without words the way it did between packmates who had known each other long enough.

Grey didn't even look at me. "Cade, open the door."

That was all he said. One word and Cade was already walking toward the car but not without shooting me an expression that was almost scorching.

And it was insulting in its own right. But before I could blink, Grey was already reaching for me like this was a completely reasonable thing that was about to happen.

"Don't." I backed up again. "Don't you dare touch me!"

He was faster than I anticipated. He caught me with the ease of someone who had done this before. 

And in one smooth motion I was off the ground with my stomach over his shoulder and the blood was rushing to my head and I was so furious I couldn't form words properly.

"Put me DOWN!" I twisted and kicked and his arm tightened across the backs of my thighs. “I said put me down, you perverted bastard!”

Grey growled and then his hand came down on my ass with a sharp crack that split through the air and I went completely rigid with shock.

“Shut up, Poppy.” He hissed. “Or I won’t be as nice next time.”

Did he just… did he just spank me? 

The heat bloomed immediately and I stopped struggling, not because it had broken me but because the embarrassment that flooded through me was so intense that my body simply ceased to function in protest. 

My face was on fire and my ears were ringing. 

Every single person still lingering in that building had just witnessed that and I wanted the earth to open and swallow me entirely.

The girls shot me pitiful looks, the administrators looked smug and I was boiling inside. 

Grey carried me to the car like I was luggage, and I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth ached because I absolutely refused to let a single sound out of my mouth.

“In you go.” 

Cade opened the rear door for us and Grey deposited me with considerably more care than the journey had suggested.

I immediately scrambled to the far side of the seat and pressed myself against the door and stared straight ahead and said nothing.

Grey got in after me.

I expected him to sit beside me like a normal person but he reached over without ceremony and pulled me across the seat.

“Arrgh!” A yelp tore from my throat as I found myself deposited onto his lap before I could process what was happening.

Every nerve ending in my body lit up in outrage. "Absolutely not! Let me fucking go!" 

I shoved at his chest and tried to stand but I slammed my head against the roof of the car. A pained whine left my throat while I felt ridiculous on top of furious.

"Sit still." Grey muttered into my ear. “You’re only going to hurt yourself more.”

I struggled against his hold. "I will not sit on your lap like some kind of hooker.”

He actually had the nerve to laugh, his amber eyes dancing with glee while I glared at him. 

"You would prefer my shoulder again?" The amusement in his voice made me want to scream. "You're welcome to it."

I looked at Cade in the front seat who was very deliberately looking at the road ahead like none of this was happening.

My gaze shifted to the space beside Grey that he was occupying with one arm spread across the back of the seat.

Damn him!

I knew what he was doing. He was making it clear that he had absolutely no intention of moving.

There was no way out except through the door and that was locked. With a begrudging sigh, I stayed still.  

But I sat as far forward on his lap as I could manage, which wasn't very far, while I folded my arms and fixed my eyes on the window and said nothing.

His hand settled on my waist with a casualness that made it worse somehow. Like I was already something that belonged to him.

"There you go," he said, and I could hear the smirk in his voice without looking. "Not so difficult."

My teeth clenched together. "I'm going to make your life absolutely miserable. I promise you that, Alpha Grey.”