Page 3 of Born of Blood and Thorns

"Great, the day just keeps getting better," I muttered. I knew he heard me. Wolf shifters had exceptional hearing. They could hear a pin drop in the house next to them. My hearing was good but not half as good as theirs.

Gideon had been my tormentor since day one, and not in the way you would think. He decided he would make me his mate once I moved into town. Some odd idea that I was meant for him, that I was too pretty to be left in a shack with my father. He was rescuing me from my predicament and making me his mate. The only problem was that I didn't want to be his mate, and I didn't want his rescuing. I'd rather starve than let him claim me.

I had been weak one night, and I had wanted to feel something. Anything but loneliness and hunger and heartbreak. I had let him take the last thing I had kept as mine; my virginity. It had been the most disappointing night of my life. Now, he thought I was his because he’d bent me over like a dog. Men were so stupid.

I almost groaned aloud but instead, I put on a fake smile that showed far too many teeth. For a moment, I wished I had fangs to scare Gideon off.

"Good afternoon, Gideon." I tried to stand as I smoothed the wrinkles from my dress and then proceeded to tame my hair. Not because I cared what I looked like to him, but to give my hands something to do rather than to wrap them around his throat. That would be suicide. Fun suicide, but it would end in death all the same.

"It looks like you need saving." He smirked before strutting in, taking up the room with his massive size. He was a big lump of muscle; most of the women and many of the men in the town found him attractive. But his brain, the size of a pea, made me want to escape him as quickly as possible. That, and he was unbearable to be around.

A dumb alpha was a dangerous combination.

"No, I'm okay. It's just an accident I intend to clean up." I smiled tentatively as I reassured him, keeping my voice calm and mellow, my gaze not meeting his—anything to keep him calm. I was careful not to antagonize him or call the beast that lurked just under the surface.

Even in my peripheral vision, I could see the creature barely contained beneath his skin, a monster struggling to break free from its bonds. One that would leave carnage just as the people in the article had found themselves. This beast meant harm to me, and I knew it.

It made me want to bare my teeth and growl, but I clutched my hands tightly and forced my breathing steady. Refusing to submit to my desire to meet his challenge of dominance. I repeated in my head—Choose your battles. Live to fight another day, preferably on a day you can win. I chanted this in my head until the tension began to unspool itself.

He lifted an eyebrow, moving slowly forward while trying to catch my gaze. I backed up against the ruined shelf, slipping over a book on my way as I righted myself. His towering body boxed me in as I pressed my lips tightly together.

Do not react, Isabella, I cautioned myself before lifting my chin and glaring at him as I held his stare. I knew he would take it as a challenge, but when cornered, I had to do whatever I needed to get out of it. Even if it pissed him off.

I was doing what I swore I wouldn't do, challenging him. It wasn't a good idea to hold the stare of an alpha wolf, but I was tired of his bullying. His beast snarled, his eyes shining bright amber in the dimly lit shop as he leaned in to breathe in my scent.

"I can't wait to claim you, break you, and make you mine," he threatened as he pushed his massive body against mine.

I gritted my teeth and fought the urge to scream out of sheer disgust as he pressed his bulky frame against me. His thick hands moved to my hips, forming a vice-like grip that made me wince in pain. A wave of adrenaline surged through me, and my anger bubbled up. My arm whipped around before I could contain it, connecting squarely with the side of his jaw. He released his hold and stumbled back at the force of the blow.

"Just because we slept together once doesn't give you the right to harass me at every turn," I snapped, pressing my lips together as I realized what I'd said.

"On the contrary, sweetheart. It gives me all the rights." He trailed his fingers down my jaw and then my neck as he stared at me, his eyes glowing golden from the wolf within him. He and his wolf wanted to take me, bite me, and tell the world I belonged to him, like property. "I think we can make that claim here and now."

Wolves had to claim their mates in a two-part ritual. They first had to mate with them physically, and while their bodies were connected, the wolf's soul would connect to his mate's as he bit her. Or she bit him with a mark imbued by magic on a full moon.

There would be a ritual where the mate would share with the other pack members. Usually, the female would get passed around. It was disgusting and disturbing, and I wanted no part of any of it. If I could take that night back so long ago, I would because, not only had it been short, regretful, and disappointing, it had also brought me trouble ever since.

"I've been patient with you," Gideon whispered next to my ear. "I have been good."

I almost rolled my eyes. Good meant he had, on a few occasions, given me food when I was close to death.

I slapped him hard across the face when his lips began to caress my jaw and neck, and his hands reached around my back.

"Get off me," I snarled, half begging. A small voice in the back of my head whispered, maybe this will be a better trade. Give him your body, and you can have food and more warmth. I shook my head, refusing to let that dark thought take credence within me.

The smirk that crept across his face was my first sign of danger. He grabbed my wrists and pulled me closer, using one hand to hold both together until they ached. In an instant, I snapped my head sideways, smashing his nose with a sickening crunch. His grip loosened ever so slightly as I kneed him hard in the groin, freeing myself from his tight grasp. He dropped to the ground, whimpering and then howling in outraged pain.

"I am not yours," I spat before picking up the sizeable hardback book I'd dropped earlier and slamming it into his head repeatedly before he lay motionless on the ground. He wouldn’t remain so for long.

The door dinged again. I turned to see Mr. Bingsley with his mouth open, staring in abject horror at my violence.

"Isabella!" he exclaimed, his eyes widening as he looked around the room in disbelief. His face turned an angry red hue, and his nostrils flared as he seemed to wrestle with himself. For a moment, I thought he would defend me, but instead, he shook his head. "Get out!" he shouted, an unfamiliar bitterness coating his words. "I should have known better—you vamps are all the same. Cockroaches of death."

I cringed and stepped back as if he had struck me. “Please, Mr. Bingsley. I didn’t ask to be touched. He attacked me. He did this!” I pointed at Gideon, pleading.

I couldn't lose this job. I watched as Bingsley's eyes softened for a fraction of a minute before his gaze flicked to the tall, imposing figure of the alpha wolf behind me. His eyes turned back to me, hard as steel.

"I said get out." His voice rumbled through me, searing through me in a painful burn that made me almost clutch my chest to see if it were an actual wound.

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