Iris' POV
I ran out of the room with my heart beating drums of fear in my head. "He's an Alpha," I repeated. The words choked the breath out of my lungs. Ludovic appeared so human to be a werewolf, let alone an Alpha.What did they say about looks again? Deceptive."How in the name of the holy supernaturals did he make a friend out of Amber?" I reasoned. They were so cool together last night. Like a mother werewolf and her were-cub_"Oh my God. Amber is a_" I closed my eyes shut to discard the thought. "It can't be. The premises is out of bound to non-humans."From the warm reception Amber gave Ludovic yesterday, it was clear they'd come from way back. They must be werewolves assassins who have been contracted by Gustav to kidnap me and bring me back to him. Hell, if I returned with them.It is either my thesis about them was wrong, or I was fucking right; but there's only one way to find out.I saw a string mop slanted against the wall beside the stairs, and reached for it. I pressed my right foot against the sliver head of the mop and detached the handle from the metal frame holding it firmly to the head.I knew nothing about close combat or self defense. All my life, I'd lived in fear of the outside world, and in the sneaky shadows of abuse, but not anymore. This time, I swore to fight to the teeth, and fight I shall.I clenched my fist around each ends of the handle till my knuckles glowed white. It was good I wore Ludovic's clothes as a survival mechanism. I knew it'd come in handy.I took the stairs that led to an empty palour that looked familiar to me. It was the motel; Amber's motel. The mild rays of the sun seeped into the palour from the large sash windows locked firmly. It perched its golden ray on the round tables and tucked chairs beside the windows.The palour was clear of a single sign of life, as it was still early in the morning. It was then I remembered what happened the previous night. I had fainted into the arms of Ludovic while we were dancing. The memory of the dance glowed brightly from the inside of my head. I wished I could have a reply of last night. The hot sex too.I heard a growling snore from behind a door close to the large horizontal liquor bottle shelf. It sounded like a tired female's snore. It was Amber's. The motherfucking werewolf. The instinctive urge to attack her with the mop stick burned my knees red, but I thought against it. It wouldn't take her half a snore to snap my tiny neck.That was the most foolish urge I've ever had.I winded to the door that displayed a 'CLOSED' signed on a small rectangular plastic slip dangling from behind it on a thin strip of cotton rope. Goodbye to Amber and Ludovic, the werewolf assassins. Gustav was going to shit in his pants when he found out that a little girl like me slipped out unnoticed from the hands of a troubled Alpha, and his snoring beta colleague.Beta? Could Amber be a Beta? I didn't care anymore. My freedom was just a turn of the door knob away from me.I pulled the door open to feel the freshness of the morning breeze brush past me, but I came to a halt at the fearsome sight that greeted me, the mop handle falling freely out of my hand.Drogo.Bullocks!***"Wakey, wakey!" A familiar voice woke me from my coerced slumber. A familiar baritone that gives me goosebumps at the mere thought of it.Gustav.I jolted awake on my knees with my heart running miles. The bright light in the midst of the room blinded my vision, which forced me to look away sharply. It was something close to the lighting used in theatre rooms. The room was small and dark with no window, reminding me of the torture rooms I see in the movies.Beside me on my right was a metal table which presented a fearful display of weapons of different shapes and sizes.Now, I'm fucking dead."How did you find me?" I groaned. I tried to move, but my hands were chained to metal stumps attached to far ends of the concrete wall. No amount of strain would break them loose, so I remained still and awaited my torture in snatches. I haven't turned yet, and even if I had, I didn't stand a chance against a proud Alpha like Gustav."I'm Gustav." There was an undertone of self glorification that accompanied his reply that irked the cold hell out of me."What do you want with me?" I gnashed, pulling the chains vehemently."Easy, dog. I'm not gonna bite" He turned to pick up a double edged dagger that lay on a spread of black cloth. "But if you want to be entertaining, I'll indulge you."He brandished the dagger in the bright light and brought his face down, inches away from mine. He threw me a mocking laughter that made me want to spit into his beautiful face, but I held back and swallowed instead."Do what you want. I'm tired of running." I bowed.If this is death. Let it come."Not so fast bunny." He dropped the dagger noisily on the table, sending echoes around the room and cold chills down my spine.Am I in a dungeon at the basement of his mansion? Judging by the lack of windows in the dark room, it seemed my assumption was true."What do you want?" I repeated between gritted teeth."Unlock your wolf!"I let out a laughter that could mean 'stop-fooling-around'. "Unlock my wolf? You think I've not tried doing that even before I met you? Jesus, Gustav! I don't even know if I was lied to that I have a fucking wolf." I spat.The 'fucking' was not apparently necessary. I added it to play tough for my own good... or detriment."Your wolf is caged.""What?""You heard me." He sat on the edge of the metal table, with one of his legs swinging languidly."But... But how is that possible?" I was puzzle at the incredible revelation. I slanted my head forward to settle my eyes on my stomach, waiting to see if a movement from it would prove Gustav right, but nothing out of the ordinary happened."Explaining shit isn't my kinda thing, but I'll try." He straightened his back and tore his gaze away from me. "You see, when a werewolf who hasn't turned goes through a very traumatizing experience can't be shaken off so easily, the trauma builds a partition between the werewolf and the wolf inside him. The partition separates him from his wolf, which invariably leads to him binding his wolf within a mental cage." He got up from the table and slipped his hands into his black corduroy pants."You mean_" I essayed to speak, but he cut me off."Yes, Iris. Yes." He nodded and brought his face down to glare at me again. "And we are going to unlock the beast inside you together.""Wait, what do you mean 'together'?" I asked, unsure of the remedy he was proposing."We're gonna have to make love to each other." He wetted his lower lip, and grinned monstrously at me."What?!"Iris' POV"What in the fucking hell?" Let's say what he said was true about my wolf being caged, how is having sex with the nitwit the 'only' solution to unlocking my wolf?I snarled in anger and disgust, wringling the chains with the last drop of strength in me. I was weak. I hadn't had anything solid for a couple of days. I was hungry, and the antidote to my weakness was a good meal and a hot shower blasting over my naked body. Those were all I wanted, not having sex with someone I didn't want to look twice in the face."That's the only way, Wild Dog." He rolled his eyes in sheer mockery of my futile attempts to free myself from the metal chains."First of, let's agree now and forever that you stop calling me a dog. I'm no fucking dog, Gustav. And secondly, I'm never gonna have sex with you, not in seven lifetimes." I spat, fuming with brute anger.Yes, he was fucking gorgeous. But he had called me unprintable names, and had tried to force himself on me. If I hadn't kicked him betwee
Ludovic's POV"Motheeer!" I growled awake, my eyes glowing. It was a nightmare. A horrible one. in the terrifying nightmare, I found myself in a dark ward with a bright white light blazing down on a still figure on a hospital bed. The ward was deserted and silent, except for the rhythmic beeping of the heart rate monitor and my thumping heart. Afraid of what I may find, I picked my steps to see who it was. The repulsive sight that stared me back in the face rendered me weak and powerless. I feel helplessly to the tiled floor beside the bed weeping uncontrollably like a child. It was my mother.A part of her face was dripping with fat worms and maggots. The once beautiful long wavy hair on her head which I inherited had all turned white and tousled. Her limbs had thinned out to the point of revealing her skeletal frame. I could see her rib cage heaving slowly up and down beneath her hospital robe."My sweet baby boy." She turned to face me, but I was too ashamed to look her in the fac
Iris' POV"Where did you get that claw mark from?" Gustav was everything except calm. His nostrils flared wide and his ears puffed out angry fumes to intimidate me into telling him the whole truth. He reached for the serrated Muay Thai dagger, and stood inches away from my pounding heart.Damn it! How did I not see the mark in the first place? And why doesn't it hurt the way normal bruises do?Telling him his henchman marked me while giving me the best sex of my life would infuriate him and bruise his already crucified ego. I could lose a limb or have my eyes gorged out. I thought against it, and decided to corner him in his own turf."Your henchman did this to me," I spat, hiding my fear as subtly as I could muster."What henchman?!" He squinted in confusion, and relaxed a bit."Don't play that card with me, Gustav, I know you sent two assassins to come get me. But you know what, their lazy asses couldn't capture me." My blood rippled with courage, hoping I could buy myself some time
Ludovic's POV"Awww" Amber meowed at me. She wore a cute face with her hands clasped on both sides of her cheeks."It's a title oversized, but it'll works just fine." I smiled into the full length mirror screwed into the concrete wall in Amber's small square room. The Morning Sun Motel is her home, as well as her work place.I had never seen her with a relative from near or far away. She is lonely; just as I am. We had that in common, and I took it upon myself to spend time with her every night with a bottle of whisky, laughing over old jokes. Some of them are bland, but sweet Amber had a way of re-jigging the jokes to make them come out fresh as a new born.I looked at her through the mirror and I saw why I had held back my primal instincts. She was an angel to good to be snacked upon. Order than the fact that I am in enemy territory, she had the strings of my happiness tied mischievously around her fingers. She pulled them at will, and who am to stop her?Well, I have to give up my c
Ludovic's POVKa-boom!The grenade went off, destroying every item in its radius. Shards of glass pierced into my back as I shielded Amber with my body. Unlike me, if she sustained grave injuries, she might run into shock, or bleed to death.When I noticed she was not looking, I shook off some of the glass pieces and felt my flesh closing up, but slowly. The sickness made my healing process slow, even as a Lycan. My speed had reduced; same as my strength and keen sense of smell. They were all affected."Iris, where are you?" I gnashed.I wrapped myself around her to keep her shivering body still. But it was not enough to keep her still. Her body quaked with great force like a leaf in a thunderstorm. "Are we under attack?" She gritted, her eyes opened wide.The fire crawled to the bed, licking the dry cotton and maple frame greedily with a crackling sound. Thick smoke rolled out of the burning fabric and the creaking wood, saturating the room. We must get out of the room, or I would hav
Gustav's POV"Ludovic." His name tasted sour on my lips. Thinking about him and all the hardships he had caused me and my pack made me angry at myself. Maybe it was because he had a better strategy than I did. Or maybe because he was born a Lycan, and I, a struggling hybrid.For all I cared, being a Lycan in a battle of werewolves was an unfair tool to bring into the game.I gulped the remaining glass of '74 McKinnen Scotch down my patched throat and refilled the old fashioned glass cup in a haste. Dry scotch on a patched throat- a very bad combo no one would tell you not to try.Regardless, I poured myself another glass, and leaned back into my black rotating chair in my commodious office."That cheating Lycan. He also got the girl before me." I downed the second glass, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. My body trembled with so much vexation that I feared for the vodka glass cups in my hand.I was hopeless. I was not winning the protracted war, and to make matters worse, it d
Gustav's POV'A silver bullet? Where the hell did she get a silver bullet?'My thoughts were disheveled as I marched into the dungeon in the basement of the mansion. Drogo trailed behind me panting helplessly. He was becoming old to keep up with the widening gap between us. Even as a werewolf, your glory days are numbered. Drogo's glory days ended with my father's reign. My time to lead was here.No, my time to rule had come, and I was having a field day at it. Father would look down from heaven, or up from hell in awe, that I surpassed his fears and limitations.We got to the mouth of the dungeon, and turned of a big flashlight affixed to a hinge on the wall to brighten the dark corridor. The corridor was as quiet as a graveyard, except for the tapping of our shoes against the concrete floor.The dungeon could pass for a graveyard after all. Both humans and werewolves in their drones had been tortured to death by my skillful hands in the same room Iris was being held.Seeing my victi
Ludovic's POV"I'm so sorry about your place. I know you had lots of memories established here."Amber and I stood outside the ruins of the Morning Sun Motel, hand-in-hand. Her face was as expressionless as a still lake. I could give a penny for her thought, but I was damn sure that whatever the clogs in her head were tuning were not happy moments. We watched with regret, as the flames from the building travelled up to the roof, burning half of the building. In no time, it extended its destructive tongue to the other parts of the building."You know, this place used to be Geoffrey's idea." She began. "We spent all of our lives and time building this legacy out of nothing."I shifted my gaze from the burning ruins to look into her eyes. The reflection of the roaring flames were vivid in her blue orbs. She was a strong woman, full of surprises; but no doubt, she was shaken up badly."Do you want to talk about it?" I placed my arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to myself. She rec