Chapter 6: Strawberry & Lavender~

The Lycan Enforcer ~

~ANNABETH'S POV~

The sun didn't just rise over the mountain peaks, it invaded the entire room.

I woke up to a room flooded with a light so bright it felt sharp in my eyes. For a heartbeat, I forgot where I was. I reached out for the rough wool blanket of my bed in the old pack house, expecting to hear Tommy’s muffled morning curses as he tripped over a stray boot. Instead, my hand met the cool, impossibly soft surface of silk and high thread cotton drape.

The memory of yesterday suddenly hit me like a tornado. The SUV. The kidnapping. The Enforcer..... Mate.

I sat up abruptly, my breath hitching in the hollow of my throat. The room was silent, too silent. I looked at the door. It was closed, but the light spilling underneath suggested the world was moving on without me. I refused to touch the expensive clothes that was laid out probably for me to wear. To touch them was to accept his charity once more. I couldn't accept it a second time. Instead, I stood up and scanned the room for any sign of a weapon.

The dresser was heavy oak, the mirrors polished to a frightening shine. I opened the top drawer, but it was empty. He had scrubbed the room of anything sharp. My gaze fell on the chair where he had left probably one of his suit jackets. I walked over, my bare feet silent on the amber floors. My fingers brushed against a cold, heavy object in the side pocket of the jacket. I pulled it out, my breath catching.

It was a small, silver folding knife with an ornate wolf head crest.

A small sob of relief escaped my lips. The weight of it in my palm gave me something that felt like hope. Silver was a weakness to wolves, and hopefully it would affect a powerful Lycan too.

I tucked the knife into the waistband of the oversized white t-shirt I was wearing, then grabbed a heavy knit cardigan from the foot of the bed. It smelled overwhelmingly like him, which made me shudder in disgust.

I crept to the door and eased it open. Seeing the house this bright made me realize how truly beautiful it was. The house was a gallery of Lycan history and portraits, it's walls were mixed with all white glass, steel, and stone. I tiptoed down the stairs and reached the landing and looked up to check if I was slick enough. I gasped in shock, clutching my chest when I saw The Enforcer. He was standing at the top of the stairs. Staring down at me.

He was standing still with pure amusement written all over his face and was dressed in a Charcoal black suit, his broad shoulders stretching the fabric to its limit.

"You're awake. Nice of you to finally join me out here, Annabeth," he said with a smooth voice.

I froze in my stance.

Of course he could hear all my scheming movements upstairs. Stupid shifter's enhanced hearing.

His light blue eyes locked onto mine. "I could hear your heartbeat fasten from the moment you woke up from sleep. Very pleasing sound, I might add." He ascended the stairs with a grace that shouldn't belong to a man his size. He stopped four steps above me, so we were eye to eye.

"You're wearing my clothes again," he noted, looking at the cardigan I had wrapped around myself due to cold. He stepped closer, invading my space until I was trapped against the railing. Suddenly, he leaned in, his nose brushing the curve of my neck. I felt his chest expand as he took a deep, dragging breath.

He stiffened. His eyes, usually a cold light sapphire blue, flared with a sudden silver light. He inhaled again, his lips nearly grazing my skin.

"Strawberry..." he whispered, his voice a low, vibrating rumble that made my toes curl against the floor. "And lavender."

The air between us seemed to thicken, charged with a sudden, electric tension.

At the moment, his predatory mask slipped, and was replaced with a primal wonder in his gaze.

He looked at me as if he were seeing me for the first time, his hand trembling slightly as it reached for my jaw.

"I didn't think the scent would be this... intoxicating," he murmured, more to himself than to me.

I shoved his chest, my heart rate increasing. "Get away from me." I mumbled.

The soft silver in his eyes receded, replaced by that cold, impenetrable mask again.

He straightened his tie, though his breathing remained shallow. "I'll be having a Council meeting at noon and I'll be gone for a few hour or so. You will stay upstairs in my room, and I'll have someone assigned to watch over you till I return. Do not mention a word to anyone here about what you are to me. Understood?"

"Why? Are you ashamed of your human mate?" I spat.

"I am protecting you Annabeth," he growled. "To them, you are vulnerable. If you have forgotten, I am an Enforcer of the King, which means I might have a few to lot enemies who would do anything to bring me down. If any of them got an idea to what you were to me, they would use you as leverage against me before the sun sets. I really do not want to have to lose control and massacre anyone who tries to hurt you, not until I've made you stronger myself. For now, in front of others, you'll be nothing more than a stray I picked up on the road."

After speaking, he walked down the stairs with his hand folded into tight fists, with a strained look on his face, like he was finding it difficult to move away from me, he left me trembling at the last step as I followed his movement with my eyes. I waited until I heard the front door slam before I let out my breath.

After a while of angry pacing, back and forth, I wandered down to what looked like a kitchen, my stomach groaning with hunger.

I sat down, thinking of how my escape plan would go. Thanking the goddess he had left. It'd give me a better chance at it.

I found a spread of assorted fruits, toast, fried eggs and pastries, with fresh juice neatly placed on the table and covered with a letter on the top, "Make sure to eat everything on this table." I scoffed and tore up the piece of paper, but as I reached for a piece of toast, I heard the sound of a female voice, calling for Kael, the Enforcer. The voice was Melodic, sharp, and dripping with a confidence I could never hope to possess.

"Well well, what do we have here? So this is what they were saying Kael dragged in last night."

I turned. Standing in the archway was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She was tall, with skin like polished bronze and hair that fell in a shining sheet of platinum blonde. Her eyes were a piercing sea green, and she wore a leather outfit that hugged curves that looked sculpted by a goddess. Beside her, in my oversized t-shirt and messy lion's mane curl of a hair, I felt like a peasant girl standing before a queen.

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