Wolf's Captive (7 page)

*****

Josh was shaking with anger. However, it wasn’t directed toward Sidney at all. He was angry with himself. He had no idea where what he had said came from. He had just been angry at her defiance, the mouthy replies and his words just all spilled out.

When he had said she was inferior because was human, he could see the fight drain from her. Then he had threatened to punish her in front of the rest of the Pack, and she slumped in his arms as if she could no longer hold herself up.

He hadn’t meant any of it. He would never humiliate her like that. However, he had just gotten so angry when she spoke of Tricia in that manner.

He and Tricia had been together in their younger years. However, they were nothing but close friends now. The accusation that Josh used his position in the Pack to take advantage of the females made him see red.

When they had woken up and she allowed him to do the things that he did, he thought that maybe things would become easier between them. However, as soon as he said something about her being his mate, she ran away from him and tried to argue against it.

He knew she was human, and after all that had happened, it would be hard for her to accept this. But he had just grown so impatient and frustrated that he blew up at her.

He had never had someone argue with him, and stand up to him the way she did. It both impressed and annoyed him.

He slumped in his chair as Tricia walked in with his plate. She set it down in front of him and smiled, putting her hand on his shoulder.

“What’s up, Josh? Why do you look so down?” she asked.

He looked at her pretty face, which he used to be attracted to, and only saw Sidney.

He sighed and smiled at her, “Just having a bit of trouble convincing my mate to behave.”

Tricia chuckled, “I’m sure she’ll come around. She’s such a sweetheart. We talked for a little while when I brought her clothes to her. She’s just not used to all of this and afraid. But I’m sure, once you work your charming magic on her, she will be happy to be your mate. You are a charmer. I can’t wait until you two are mated. I can see Sidney and me being best of friends.”

Tricia patted Josh on the back, and walked back into the kitchen, leaving Josh feeling even more ashamed of himself. He had accused Sidney of treating Tricia like a maid/servant and then told her she was inferior to Tricia when she responded with her accusation of him using Tricia for sex. He could understand why she said it, now, but now was too late. They had both said some pretty nasty things to each other, but Josh was pretty sure if he hadn’t been so pushy toward her, she wouldn’t have responded the way she did.

He didn’t feel much like a charmer right at that moment—he felt like a heel.

Minutes later Richard walked in, with Sidney, “Look who I found standing in the middle of the foyer. She didn’t know where the dining room was.”

Richard was smiling, but Josh could see the reprisal in his eyes. He had been so angry with him because he had left his sobbing mate in the room alone and not even told her how to get to the dining room.

“I’m sorry, I’m late, I didn’t know where to go,” Sidney said in a small voice, barely meeting his face, as Richard pulled her chair out and she sat down.

She smiled at Richard and thanked him, and then just proceeded to stare at the empty place setting in front of her.

Josh wanted to climb under the table and hide. He had put that look on her face and that fear of being late inside of her with his threats of punishment. When he had first said he was going to punish her, he had something different planned in his mind. Something they would both end up enjoying. Now, he was afraid of even touching her and terrifying her even more.

He had completely fucked up, and had no idea what he was going to do to fix it.

He watched as Tricia walked out of the kitchen with Sidney’s plate. At first, the woman was smiling and eager to greet Sidney, but, as she looked between them both, her look went from remorse to glaring daggers at Josh.

She put the plate down in front of Sidney, and gave her a sympathetic smile. “Emily made this special for you,” she said, her voice a low, comforting tone.

Josh watched as Sidney gave her a sad smile and whispered her thanks before she turned her head and just stared down at the plate again.

Pain lanced his heart, watching his mate, so fearful of him she wouldn’t even dare look anyone in the eyes.

Tricia left, but not before glaring at him one more time, and not without slamming the kitchen door behind her.

“Did I do something wrong?” Sidney’s voice was small and frightened.

Josh looked at her as she looked at the kitchen door and refused to look at him.

He sighed as he shook his head, “No, Sidney. I did.”

That
made her look toward him. She had a confused expression on her face as she looked in his direction. Josh noted that she still wouldn’t meet his eyes, and she seemed to be looking over his shoulder.

He couldn’t stand it anymore. He pushed his chair back and stood before bringing himself to her side of the table, where he knelt down beside her and cupped her cheek pulling her face so she was forced to look directly at him.

“I owe you an apology for what I said,” he began, swallowing down the lump in his throat. It wasn’t easy for him to apologize. He was the Alpha and, usually, never had to apologize because he was never wrong. However, this time, he realized he was very wrong for what he did to her, and if he wanted her to agree to be his mate, he needed to fix it. “I shouldn’t have said what I did. I was angry and didn’t mean it.”

Tears welled in her eyes as she spoke, “Please let me go home, Josh.”

He flinched as if she had slapped him, but he forced the wolf inside him not to rage at her desire to leave him. He closed his eyes and breathed in and out for a moment, expelling the tension in his body. He didn’t want to let her go. She was everything he had asked the gods for when he asked for his mate. However, if he truly cared for her, he would give her the freedom she so desired.

“I tell you what,” he said, opening his eyes and trying to smile a bit. “Stay here with me for a month. I will give you the freedom to roam the village and you can get to know everyone here. I won’t push you to do anything you don’t wish to do, but I will ask that we at least sleep in the same bed together.

"I want to get to know you, Sidney, and have you get to know me. So, stay with me just for a month and, if you still feel you want to leave—I will let you go.”

“But what will happen to my job and my apartment while I’m gone? I will leave and not have anything to go back to,” she questioned.

“I will keep up the payment on your apartment so you have that to go back to,” Josh answered. “As for your job, didn’t you want to break away from the cheating bastard you work with? If you stay and then decide you don’t like it here, I will give you the money to start your own firm.”

“How did you know about Brian?” she asked, giving him a suspicious look.

“I know some people,” he admitted. “I called them and they did some quick investigating to give me details about your life.”

He watched the anger fill her eyes, but he knew if he wanted her to trust him, he had to be honest.

“You had no right to do that,” she accused. “I didn’t ask for this.”

“I know,” Josh tried to keep his voice calm and passive. “If there was another way for us to have met and gotten to know each other, I would have loved it. I would have welcomed being able to take things slow with you and introducing you into my world slowly. However, that just isn’t the case, and now we have to make the best of it.”

She still glared at him, but didn’t say anything in response, so he continued.

“Just give me one month, and if I haven’t convinced you that you are my true mate and this is where you belong, you can leave and I won’t stop you.” His body shook from how nervous he was. He hoped he would be able to convince her because, if she turned around and said she wanted to leave after a month, he would probably die.

“Fine,” she said after long agonizing moments. “One month and then you let me go.”

Josh didn’t feel any relief from her accepting the deal. If anything, he felt more tense and nervous. Now was when the real work began and he would have to do everything in his power to make her happy enough that she would want to stay with him.

It had been two weeks since Sidney had accepted Josh's deal for one month. Since that time, Josh had allowed her free reign of the village.

The day after she had arrived in the village, Josh took her on a tour. Everywhere she looked the villagers would stop whatever they were doing to come and greet Josh. They all seemed to love him and the children wouldn’t leave him alone. They would climb all over him, begging him to play.

At one point, they stopped at Tricia’s house, and Josh relented to the children to play catch with them, while Tricia talked Sidney’s ear off. She met Emily, the cook, while she visited with Tricia, and couldn’t have been more surprised by her appearance.

Emily wasn’t a large girl by any means, but she was certainly a lot curvier and fuller than the other women Sidney had seen so far. She was Sidney’s height, with long, auburn hair, and bright aquamarine eyes. She was absolutely stunning to Sidney.

She acted really shy at first, not even meeting Sidney’s eyes to talk to her. But Tricia soon had her opening up and talking about all the great things about the village, and especially Josh, right along with her.

Josh had come in after a while and rescued her from the women. It wasn’t that Sidney didn’t like the women, they were really fun and Sidney could see them all becoming fast friends. They just talked so much and asked so many questions, she felt like her head was swimming.

Josh took her back to his home, where he left her to take a bath and a short nap before dinner. Then that night when she went to bed Josh followed her, climbing in beside her, but making sure not to touch her in any way.

As the days went by, Sidney began touring the village by herself while Josh did work. She would sometimes find herself playing with the kids, or just sitting and chatting with Emily and Tricia. She and Josh would always have dinner together, and he would ask about her day. At first she only answered saying it had been a nice day, but as time went by, she began to elaborate.

She found herself opening up to Josh more, and he to her. They would spend most of their dinner talking about their days, their lives, and anything else that came to mind. Sidney was beginning to enjoy Josh’s company.

He even asked her to help him with the accounting side of running the Pack, which gave Sidney plenty to do. He told her for some reason the books weren’t coming out right, and he needed her help to figure out why. So she would work with him going through old logs and paperwork, trying to pinpoint when the error occurred. He seemed to really respect her advice and opinions when it came to working with her, and she began to notice he considered her opinions when it came to the Pack as well. It made Sidney feel like she belonged and she was beginning to feel like she didn’t really want to leave.

At night, he would follow her to bed and, each night, he would get closer and closer, until finally he was spooning her, holding her close to him, but not doing anything other than that. She was beginning to get frustrated because every time he would touch her, her body would start heating up and she would become so aroused, but he would do nothing other than hold her.

Sidney sat on the porch and watched the activity of the village. She had noticed that Josh had stopped following her to bed a few nights before. She wondered if it had to do with all the accounting logs, or if he were just losing interest in her.

She would go to bed alone, and wake up the same way. She never felt him come to bed, either.

She was kind of surprised at how hurt she felt that he had stopped cuddling her at night. She always felt so secure in his arms, and now he barely even touched her.

She also noticed he seemed to avoid her during the day, as well. Running off to do Pack business when she came to work on the books with him, and he had missed dinner for the last few nights.

Sidney had really started liking the village and the people. She had completely forgotten about wanting to leave. She had even begun to fall in love with Josh.

However, if he had changed his mind and didn’t really want her here anymore, she would have no other choice than to leave. She wouldn’t stay and risk the chance of seeing him mate with someone else, and leave her broken hearted. As much as she would miss everything there, she would have to leave, and forget she even knew about the place. Not just for the safety of her heart, but for the safety of the Pack, as well.

One of the little boys from the Pack, Tommy, ran up to the house and onto the porch. Sidney sat up, noticing how panicked the child looked.

“What’s wrong, Tommy?” she asked the pale faced boy.

“It’s Adam,” he exclaimed. “There is something wrong with him. Please, we need your help.”

Sidney didn’t even think about it, she just followed Tommy off the porch and toward the woods. However, as she got closer she began to hear a lot of strange noises, growling, whimpering, and a boy crying. Tommy guided her to a clearing where she saw a small group of children standing around something, screaming and crying. She pushed past the children to see what it was, and saw the most horrific thing she had ever seen. Adam, one of the older boys, was writhing on the ground, his hands had turned to paws, and sharp claws sprang from what used to be his fingertips. His face was crossed between the young boy she knew, and that of a wolf’s. His nose had elongated and he had sharp teeth. Hair had sprouted all over his body, and he seemed to be in a lot of pain.

Sidney pushed down the fear she was feeling, and sat next to the boy. She instinctively pulled the boy into her lap, wrapping her arms around him, and comforting him as a mother would a baby. He fought and tried to scratch her, but she held his arms as she continued to whisper in his ear that everything would be okay.

She cooed and hugged the poor boy as he cried out his agony, kissing his forehead, and crying with him.

She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be in that much pain, and she wished she could do more than just hold him.

However, after long minutes, Adam began to settle in her arms. His body becoming limp and the hair on his body receding. She watched as his nose went back to its original shape, his paws became hands again, and his teeth retracted back to the blunt shape of a human’s.

Tears no longer streamed out of his closed eyes, and he looked as if he had finally found relief from the pain.

When he opened his eyes, he looked up at her and she could see that they had gone from amber, wolf-like eyes, to his large chocolate brown eyes. He smiled at her and looked at her adoringly.

“Thank you, Alpha,” he whispered repeatedly, as he hugged her.

She was confused from his statement, but didn’t want to correct him after all the pain he had endured.

After a while, he pulled away from her, and she noticed the adults standing around them now. Adam’s parents welcomed him into their arms as tears streamed down both their faces.

They looked to her smiling with looks of adoration on their faces.

“Thank you, Alpha,” said the mother, momentarily letting go of her son to hug Sidney. “You helped my boy.”

The mother, Anna, went back to her son, and the father came to Sidney, who stood stunned and hugged her as well.

“Thank you, Alpha,” he said, pulling away and smiling at her as tears streamed down his face. “We are in your debt.”

“I didn’t do anything, you don’t owe me anything,” Sidney replied, but the man didn’t seem to listen because he just nodded and then returned to his family.

Sidney turned from the odd scene to see Josh watching her with anger etched on his face. The group dispersed and only she and he were left standing in the middle of the forest clearing.

“Back to the house, now,” Josh commanded, in a rough and angry voice.

Sidney didn’t retort she just began walking back to the house, making sure not to brush past him and possibly touch him.

She felt him on her tail and as they entered the house, he proceeded to pick her up and carry her up the stairs to his room. After entering the room, he dumped her on the bed, and then locked the door.

“What the hell were you thinking, Sidney?” he almost yelled.

“I wasn’t thinking anything. I was just helping Adam,” she explained, confused by his anger and getting angry about it, as well

“Exactly,” he stated, coming to stand in front of her. “You weren’t thinking. Do you even realize you could have gotten yourself killed being that close to the boy in the middle of his first change?”

She gulped, feeling the blood rush from her face when she realized that he was probably right. “I didn’t know,” she whispered. “I was just trying to help. He looked like he was in so much pain.”

“Yeah he was,” Josh continued to yell. “We all go through a lot of pain during our first change. We also don’t have control of our wolves and could end up ripping someone apart.”

Sidney was tired of him yelling at her as if she had done some huge crime. She stood up and went nose to chest with Josh, and glared at him.

“Well I am fine, as you can see. So I would thank you to stop yelling at me,” she yelled at him, poking him in the chest. “Besides, Adam’s parents had no problem with me helping their boy. They were grateful for it. Which is more than I can say for you—with anything I do.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked, grabbing her hand and halting her poking.

“It means you don’t give a damn what I do, or what happens to me,” she explained, angry and hurt. “You’ve done nothing but avoid me for the last few days, and now all you seem to want to do is yell at me. So please do me a favor and back off and leave me alone.”

With that, she jerked her hand out of his and whirled around to stomp away.

“You’re just mad because they called me ‘Alpha,’” she huffed under her breath as she made her way to the bathroom.

Before she made it to the door, she was jerked up by a strong arm around her waist and unceremoniously thrown across Josh’s muscled thighs. She squirmed and screamed as he pulled her shorts down.

“I will not be spoken to that way,” he growled, and before she could come back with a retort—his hand landed on her backside in a resounding
smack
.

She screamed as the burning pain seared from her butt cheek through her body, and began to fight even harder to get off him and run. However, his hold was like steel, and the more she wiggled the tighter it got.

“Stop moving and take your punishment,” he commanded.

“Fuck you,” Sidney screamed back, and he slapped her other butt cheek even harder than the first.

“You need to curb your tongue with me, little one,” he stated, smacking her ass again.

Tears poured down her face as she screamed out the pain, and fought for freedom.

Smack
.

Smack.

Smack
.

His last smack landed between her thighs, hitting her labia, and the burn turned into something more than pain. Her nipples hardened and her clit filled with blood, and she closed her eyes tightly, feeling shame at becoming aroused by this humiliating situation.

Smack.
His hand came down again, hitting her engorged clit, and she couldn’t contain the groan that escaped.

His hand faltered and stopped briefly, and she could hear him swallow. She could also feel him becoming hard underneath her belly, and it just made her pussy leak even more.

Smack
. He hit her clit, and she knew he did it on purpose this time because he massaged between her legs when his hand landed against her flesh.

Smack
. He hit her clit directly, and pushed two fingers into her core, thrusting them in and out before pulling away and raising his hand again, and Sidney moaned in disappointment at the loss.

Smack
. She screamed out her orgasm, as her pussy gushed onto his thrusting fingers and down her thighs. He circled her clit with his thumb and thrust his two middle fingers deep inside her over and over, driving her orgasm to unbearable heights.

She cried and screamed, not being able to bear the almost painful pleasure that radiated through her body.

Before she had a chance to recover, she was flipped over and lying on her back on the bed, while her ass hung off the edge. Josh was on his knees between her thighs and his nose was buried between her pussy lips, as he inhaled deeply.

“Jesus, you smell so damn good,” he groaned, and Sidney felt his tongue swipe across her overly sensitive clit.

She tried to pull away because the sensation was too much, but he held her down with his arm across her hips.

“I need to taste you,” he growled, then continued to lick up her cream as it gushed from her core. “You taste better than you smell.”

He stabbed his tongue into her center, pulling out more cream to drink down, and Sidney’s back arched as electricity shot through her body. His tongue licked up her seam and back down, stabbing into her core, and she wiggled and writhed.

“Please, Josh,” she begged, but she didn’t know at this point if she was begging him to stop or keep going.

He growled, sending vibrations through her body and sucked her clit into his mouth where he bit it gently before he swirled his tongue around it. Stars exploded behind her tightly closed eyelids and she screamed his name at the top of her lungs as her body shattered into a million pieces.

He swallowed her cum down as if it were ambrosia as she flooded his mouth, and he continued to stab his tongue into her center and lick her as she floated above her body in a state of complete euphoria.

Finally, she came back down into her body again and slowly the tingling resided. Then she heard a ripping sound and felt hot lips wrap around her nipple as teeth bit down on the nub, shooting her into the skies again.

Her sight was fuzzy and her head was swimming as she tried to focus when she felt something thick and round prod her center.

“Tell me you’re mine,” she heard Josh demand and she focused on his face.

His face was strained and sweat poured down his forehead as he looked into her eyes, demanding her surrender.