Chapter 1
“Welcome home.”
This place was beyond imagining and as ugly as sin.
“Here.” Toby urged her to step deeper into the room. “Come see what I chose for you.”
Despite her reluctance to abandon her home, the males had made her carry an armload of the new bedding Caspian had dumped in her room. They had refused to let her bring anything personal.
They had made her march with their First Alpha’s cum dripping between her legs.
They had brought her back to where it all began.
Clean water flowed through the pipeworks like drugs in a junkie’s veins. It was everywhere, raining down until the air was too damp to breathe. Coughing, a deep, wracking wheeze did nothing to clear it from infected lungs.
Two minutes in, and Wren hated it here.
More importantly, she was terrified swamp-lung would fester in this environment before Mikael might be healed. She needed dry air. Needed it. And this place was humid with wet.
“Pretty, isn’t it?”
Toby grinned as he pushed open the door, bouncing his eyebrows as if everything in Caspian’s wasteland might impress her.
She made the sign for yes.
It was a lie. Her blank expression gave her away.
Expression suddenly frosty, Toby said, “You don’t like it?”
Carefully placing the folded bedding on a nearby chaise, Wren took it all in. Everything looked clean, but under the smell of furniture polish was the saturated aroma of many, many males’ cum and many, many females’ juices. All three of her owners’ scent markers were pungent.
This was their brothel where they fucked their whores. Of which she was now one.
The furnishings were rich and silly. Leather couches with deep purple pillows, a huge bed.
Wren couldn’t even remember the last time she’d slept on a bed. Her nests had almost always been arranged on the ground. No way was she building one on that thing. Nope. The spot by the windows would suit her much better.
The bed could be used for other things, and maybe they would leave her nest alone.
Toby was still waiting for an answer, the disappointment at her lack of enthusiasm palpable. She gestured slowly, so he might see the distinct movements and possibly understand. “It’s big.”
And needed to be scoured with bleach.
“Is it the color you don’t like?” He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back to the wall to glare. “I chose purple to match your eyes.”
Well, that was… sweet? She gave him a smile, hoping it would be enough to smooth ruffled feathers.
A big purple room in which to have her body and life fucked over.
“There’s clothes for you in there.” He gestured to an honest-to-god armoire.
Like a good little plaything, Wren marched over, opening it up to find it was indeed stocked full… of clothes that smelled like other women. This was dress-up and she was the latest doll.
“Do you like them?”
Not even a little bit. Yet, she nodded, careful to keep her face turned away. Wren even went so far as to run her hands over random articles, pretending to admire the fabric.
She felt Toby ease up behind her, startled that she hadn’t heard the Alpha cross the room. He took handfuls of her hair, holding the white strands up to his nose for a sniff.
“I like to spoil my girl. Tell me one thing you want and you’ll have it.” An arm slipped around her middle, his hand spreading to palm her belly. “Something pretty? A special thing that will be our secret? Hell,” he chuckled, “you keep smelling like you do and I’ll kill a man for you.”
She let him paw and sniff, turning in his arms to motion what she needed: something to write with.
He jerked his chin toward the desk. “Write down what you want. There’s paper in the desk drawer.”
He let her wander over to another piece of ostentatious furniture that had no place in a random room atop the pipeworks. Coughing into her hand as she searched, Wren wrote down a simple request.
I want to see Mikael.
Scowling down at the paper, Toby pursed his lips. “I meant something special for a girl. Jewelry? Something shiny you can wear that I gave you so everyone knows that I think you’re special.”
Then it wasn’t much of a secret was it…
There was so much more at stake here than just a shiny bauble she didn’t want or need. Alec knew she’d struck a deal for his life, and when he got over his temper and returned home to find it empty… and reeking of sex, he’d sort out how to find her. But Mikael had been so sick he might not remember a thing. What if the doctor released him and he wandered home only to find it abandoned? He’d think she didn’t want him.
Please.
Wry smile tugging at his lips, he tossed her pad aside. “We’ll talk about the kid later. Scout’s honor.”