5

HOPE’s POV

“I want you…”

I think my heart just got stuck in my throat. For a moment, all I can do is stare into Blake’s stormcloud eyes. Funny how I never noticed the swirls of red in them, they are so enchanting, almost like the embers of an all-consuming flame.

“To wear contacts.”

Huh?

I blink.

What?

“I want you to wear contacts from now on. You look much better without your glasses. I get to see the emerald behind those specs of yours,” Blake practically whispers in my face and my breath hitches.

He makes no attempt to move away, choosing instead to hold my gaze. My heart starts to go thump-thump-thump. Oh Moon Goddess, please do not let his super-sensitive ears hear this.

“Your heart’s beating extremely fast, Hope.”

Damn.

“Are you nervous?” he teases, leaning further in to speak into my ear, letting his breath tickle the nape of my neck. Quickly, I avert my eyes, choosing instead to look down at my fingers interlocking one another on my lap.

All I can do is sit like a statue in his chair. Not moving, not breathing, not blinking.

“You, know…” he continues, letting his breath travel further down to the nape of my neck. “You look a lot sexier like this. A lot hotter. I like it.”

A hand, soft and warm goes to the back of my neck and starts massaging it. Goddess.

His touch is electric. Blake’s thumb gently slides down the spine on the back of my neck, practically electrocuting me. Shit. I need to get out of here.

Fast.

“Promise me you’ll wear contacts from now on, Hope.”

“I..” Suddenly, I have a vocabulary of a five-year-old. “I can’t.”

His gentle touch evaporates the minute I tell him I can’t and the warmth of his hand disappears.

“Why not?” There is a low growl in his voice and I dare a peek at his face. His expression has gone dark. Blake does not like it when someone defies him.

Maybe I shouldn’t tell him. It’ll be so embarrassing. I’m embarrassed enough already. No shifter should ever need to wear glasses, I am probably a one-in-a-million kind of case. Or maybe one in a billion. I don’t know why I was born wolfless with short-sightedness.

“I’m short on cash.”

There. I said it.

A snort escapes Blake’s lips. Then a giggle, followed by laughter. I hear Blake slap his thighs and for a second, my temper flares. What right does he have to laugh at me?

I spring up from the chair and poke him squarely in the chest, this time, I do not hold back. He hurt my feelings, my pride. He knows mom and I are not rich.

“Go ahead, laugh all you want, Blake. You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You never had to work a day in your life! You’ve had it all handed to you on a silver, no, platinum platter. What do you know about poverty? All you do is….” I fling my hands in the air in frustration, “playing your video games and flirting with Sara Carter! What do you know about having to work for every single penny? What do you know about having to fight for your life every day of your life just to see the sunrise for another day?! You…you’re just a spoilt rich brat!”

Oops. My hand goes to my mouth.

I went too far.

Blake stares at me. Gone are the midwinter greys in his eyes, instead, they are replaced by furious swirls of crimson. His jaws clench, as do the muscles on his body and I hear him growl.

“What. Did. You. Say?” he asks softly. All too softly. In the kind of tone predators use right before they strike their prey.

He takes a step forward, kicks the gaming chair out of the way. It rolls at supersonic speed and crashes into his bed.

“Tell me again what you said, Hope,” he demands, reaching out to grab my wrist, effectively stopping me from moving away. Another hand goes behind my waist, immobilizing me. His grip is fiercely strong and I know without a doubt that if he wishes to, he can break my wrist right this instant.

I am sooo dead.

“I…I said you’re a rich spoilt brat,” I eek out.

Then, quickly, I squeeze my eyes shut. Bracing myself for the impact. Perhaps a stinging slap across the face or a punch in the gut. Maybe even a crack of my bones.

But nothing happens.

Nothing at all.

Instead, all I can hear is the sound of crickets outside the window. That, and his steady breathing.

Ten seconds go by. Maybe twenty and still, nothing,

So I dare a peek. Cracking my eyelids open, I peek out from underneath my lashes to see Blake staring at me. With a smirk on his face.

Huh?

A dread begins to fill me and suddenly, I have this impending fear descend upon me like a smothering blanket. They say that there is always a calm before the storm.

And Blake’s deadly silence is that calm.

“Tsk,” Blake shakes his head. His grip still not loosening. “This is what I get for helping you.”

I gulp. My throat is dry.

“You need to be punished, Hope.”

Lines mar my forehead. “Punished?”

He nods. “You insulted me, your saviour, your employer, the lord of this manor. And you will pay for this.”

Techincally, his dad, the Alpha is my mom’s employer and that makes his dad the lord of this manor but I do not think that now would be a wise time to correct him.

Suddenly, he pulls me near towards him, crushing my chest against him and I almost jump out of my socks. Goodness.

He is naked underneath his robe. I can feel the rising and falling of his chest, rubbing against the cotton fabric of my Mickey Mouse t-shirt. Mickey Mouse seems to like this, he keeps smiling.

He pulls my wrist to his chest, flattening my palm against his smooth warm skin, allowing me to feel the beating of his heart.

“Blake, please. Let me go.”

His grip around my waist tightens even as I struggle to push him away.

“Poke or push me away one more time and you and your mother will sleep on the streets tonight.”

His tone is menacing. His eyes are blazing and the strange look that he had moments ago when I had just entered the room takes over once again. It is a look that I do not quite comprehend.

Blake’s jaw clenches and his eyes narrow. My heartbeat picks up and blood pumps like crazy throughout my whole body when his hand that was at my waist suddenly slides down over my ass and under the fabric of my red boxers.

“Do you know what I’m going to do to you, Hope?” he asks, caressing my bare skin. My breath hitches, I cannot break away from his gaze and try as I might, I am suddenly frozen in spot.

“I’m going to punish you now, Hope. And if you make a noise, even so much as a whimper, you know what will happen,” he breathes and both hands go to my backside and he squeezes it hard, pushing me even closer to him, so much so that I can feel his erection through the robe. Thick and hard.

Blake does nothing to pull back.

Instead, he grazes my ass once more even as a hand slides lower, pulling my boxers down, his fingers skimming my now naked ass in a caress.

Goodness, what is he doing?!

SLAP!

A tidal wave of searing pain spreads across my skin and I sink my teeth into my bottom lip to stop myself from screaming out. What the heck?

Blake has slapped my back with a colossal strength, so much so that my leg buckles from the pain and I almost fall to the ground but he yanks me back up with a vice-like grip.

The pain.

I have never felt anything like this before. The strength of the Alpha’s heir is not something to be trifled with. I swear if I were a human, he would have broken my spine.

SMACK!

Sweet mother of the moon. I am screaming inside. The pain pulses at lightning speed and echoes all along the outline of his palm.

Another slap. The third. They say the third time’s a charm but this does not lessen the pain. This is no ordinary smack in the butt. I feel as if I am being hit by an oncoming truck over and over again. Blake’s expression is unreadable.

My skin is on fire and I become slightly lightheaded. It hurts. It freaking hurts. The bite of his fingers and nails is like fire burning me and another tear finds its way out of my now-closed eyelids.

I brace myself for a fourth but just as he suddenly started to hit my back, he stops.

“Open your eyes, Hope,” Blake orders, his voice calm as opposed to my now laboured breathing. “From now on, no one touches you but me. Do you understand?”

I force my eyes to open but I do not meet his gaze.

“Look at me.” His eyes are dark, like a turbulent storm.

“Do you understand?”

I don’t.

But I nod anyways. He could have been rambling off some algebra equations for all I care. All I want right now is to run away from his room. Blake is cruel. Too cruel. Why save me earlier on when all he is doing now is inflicting pain on me?

“Good.”

He lets go of my ass and I wince a little. Then, turning around, Blake pulls out his top drawer of the gaming desk and picks up a tiny bottle before opening the cap. A fragrant aroma starts to make its way to me and fill my sense of smell.

I can smell lavender, mint and some other spices coming from the bottle. Silently, Blake pours out the scented oil into his hand and rubs his palm together. And then, without a word, he wraps both hands around my back again.

A hiss escapes my lips. It stings. I had no idea the slaps had broken my skin but as Blake gently rubs his palms against my back, the pain starts to recede.

Strange. What kind of ointment is this?

I thought only those who have their wolves can heal.

“Better?” he asks, his voice sounding surprisingly gentle.

I swallow a lump in my throat and nod. I should be scared, petrified, angry even but for some unknown reason, I flush. Blood rushes to my cheeks, heating them up and somewhere, deep down, my muscles clench with a strange feeling.

Desire? A yearning for more? The heck am I thinking?! Blake had just hurt me!

I should be screaming, smacking him in the head for what he did. But why is my body reacting like this? He continues caressing my skin in slow, sensual strokes.

“It’s a special ointment concocted by the pack doctor. Helps accelerate healing,” he explains as a matter of factly, as if him touching my bare ass is the most normal thing to do.

A moan threatens to escape my lips but I stop myself before I do anything stupid.

Then slowly, but surely, the pain recedes into nothingness…as of the torture had never taken place.

But it did.

Blake gently slides my boxers back up and stares at me with a dangerous glint in his eyes. “You belong to me, Hope,” he says with a smirk.

*****

It is two hours and twenty-five minutes after I left Blake’s room. I am hiding under the covers of my blanket crying while mom is snoring away, tired from a hard day’s work. I am glad she cannot hear me.

I wipe the snot from my nose. Blake had humiliated me, he had hurt me and yet, he had taken away the pain in the end. Why? Why does he torture me this way? Because I hurt his pride and called him a spoilt brat?

A shudder takes over me. I dare not think what kind of bullying he has in mind for tomorrow. I do not want to know.