Chapter 7

          Bella swallowed hard as she struggled to maintain eye contact with the furious Wolf. As difficult as it was, she couldn’t break away. 

          Something in his gaze held her fast in its grasp. It was an eerily familiar feeling that she had experienced only once before when her first-year psychology professor invited a hypnotherapist to demonstrate trance induction for the class. She became lightheaded again, but she knew that Darian wouldn’t be there to catch her this time if she fell.

       As if summoned by her thoughts, the hulking Wolf took the last empty seat, rounding out a full pack of six. Even sitting down, the size difference between him and the others was obvious. The difference was especially noticeable between Darian and the lithe man next to him, who was still watching her like she was a sheep on the horizon and he was an actual wolf who hadn’t eaten in a few weeks. 

    She recognized him as the book Wolf from the lobby when she first entered.

         Bella redirected her attention to Sandra, who was cheering along with the rest of the crowd. She couldn’t help but glance back to see Darian nudge his seat mate, who had given up glaring at her to bury his nose in his book once more. Darian leaned in to whisper something to him, and then they both looked straight at her.

                She averted her eyes and pretended like she was just watching the crowd, but she kept them both in her peripheral vision. The Wolf who had been glaring at her not a minute earlier straightened up stiffly at whatever Darian had told him.

            Now they were both staring at her. Whatever had been said, she could tell the book Wolf didn’t like it. A whispered exchange between them left her even more confused when he patted Darian on the back and smiled.

                     She couldn’t take any more. 

             She searched the other four faces in the front row for a distraction. Whatever it was about her that had the other two so fixated, the rest of the Wolves didn’t seem to notice. They looked between all of the contestants with equal interest, as if eyeing a meal that was soon to come.

              Bella knew the Wolf title was just a gimmick, a name for their club nothing special, but something in their hungry stares made her uneasy. 

             Still, it was more welcome than the strange looks she was getting from Darian and the other weirdo. She regretted ever coming to the Lodge. She should have been having coffee with her Professor and discussing her academic future, not posing on a stage half-naked like meat being dangled over a pack of wild dogs.

      The one silver lining to Jeff's jealousy had been that they never went out to clubs.

       Bella rarely had to deal with this kind of attention, and certainly never in such quantities. Now her shield was gone, and she was every bit as alone as she was exposed.

           “Okay, Wolf Pack,” the announcer began. “You know what to do. It’s time to rate each contestant—and make every vote count, because your scores will determine which of these sexy little subs gets to become your Alpha’s new pet!”

            One of the Wolves Bella didn’t recognize threw his head back and let out a cheesy howl. The crowd laughed.

     “I love you, Brendan!” someone cried from the back of the room.

     Brendan made a “call me” motion and laughed it off jovially. His buddy beside him ruffled his messy brown hair.

           “Alright, let’s settle down,” the announcer scolded. “Wolves, take a good look at our contestants and start scoring.”

         Bella could feel a few sets of eyes on her, but Amber’s name was being whispered throughout the front row quite excitedly.

            Good. This had gone far enough. She could just chalk it all up to a terrible idea fueled by some potent top-shelf wine and leave it at that.

          Against her better judgment, she looked at Darian again. He wasn’t writing at all, or maybe he had already finished scoring. She had a hard time believing there was anything particularly scientific about those ballot sheets.

         She didn’t doubt that she would have at least one vote, considering it was Darian’s fault she was up there in the first place. He didn’t look happy, though. His eyes bored into her intently, but it wasn’t the same way as before.

           The Wolf named Brendan looked at her and made some remark to the smaller blond next to him. She knew it was either insulting or too complimentary from the way Darian’s gaze shifted to him in an instant, burning fiery.

         She had to be imagining it, but it looked like his upper lip curled into a snarl. The Wolf beside him put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back.

        Darian sat back in his chair, but the calm seemed to come grudgingly. He still looked like he wanted to attack Brendan.

             Great. Now she had another would-be jealous boyfriend who acted like a Neanderthal to contend with, and they’d only learned each other’s names a few hours ago.

          Sandra had been so insistent that this night would change her reservations about BDSM, and it had. Just not in the way she had probably intended. 

             This entire evening had left her wanting nothing more than a cold shower and a few dozen cats to ensure that no man and certainly no Dom would want anything to do with her ever again. Surely she had been gifted with the psycho-drawing pheromone.

           Brendan mouthed, “What the fuck, bro?”

        Darian lunged again, and she thought a fight was destined to break out before the winner could even be announced. Poor Amber. She deserved to have a special moment, and she was going to indirectly be the reason it was ruined.

            “Alright, gentlemen and women,” said the announcer, evidently paying attention to the tension in the front row. “I know you all have strong opinions, but let’s hand in those papers to our lovely Clara and let the numbers decide.”

     Clara came around and started collecting the score sheets. Darian reluctantly handed his over.

                            Bella gulped.

            “Thank you,” said the announcer. “Now, while the results are being tallied, why don’t we let each of our contestants say a brief word about why they hope they win?”

         He put the microphone In front of Casey’s face first. “It’s my dream to be dominated by the Alpha of the dungeon,” she replied with a sultry little giggle.

      The announcer grinned. “A fine reason, indeed. And how about you, Amber?”

     Amber leaned in with a sweet, sheepish smile. “To please my Master and make him proud,” she said sincerely.

          The crowd went crazy over it. Bella’s mounting apprehension began to fall. There was no way she was going to win. Amber was the perfect submissive, even she could tell that. 

            After this, she would do her best not to die jumping off the pedestal, run offstage to grab Sandra, and drive them both back to campus. As much of a lightweight as she was, the glass of wine she hadn’t even gotten the chance to finish would surely have worn off by then.

     “And how about you, Starr? That is how it’s pronounced, isn’t it? Sta-rrr,” the announcer said carefully.

       Bella cough-laughed. “Yeah, that’s right. Uh, I don’t really want to win. I think Amber obviously deserves it. Er, sorry, Casey. I think you’re great, too.”

                Casey glared at her. Understandably.

      The announcer cocked his head to the side and gave a nervous chuckle. “What a modest answer. Well, whoever wins, the Alpha is certainly going to be one lucky dog.”

            Bella frowned at the announcer for twisting her answer into false modesty, but he had already moved across the stage to collect a folded paper from Clara. He shook it open dramatically, and his eyes widened. “Well, looks like we have a winner! Chosen by the Wolf Pack themselves, our new Alpha’s Pet is… Bella Starr!”