Page 27 of Pack Captive

Then he sank into it, leaning back, putting his arms behind his head, and closing his eyes.

I tried not to look at the way the muscles in his arms flexed as he moved, or the long length of his entire body, which nearly dwarfed the chair.

"There." He didn't open his eyes as he spoke. "I'm not looking. Take your bath."

"I would've preferred complete privacy," I muttered, glancing at the steaming bathtub. There were no partitions to hide me if he decided he wanted to stand up and walk around.

The maid was looking between the two of us, her eyes wide as though waiting for a fight to break out.

"Too bad. You smell," Calian said, and I bared my teeth at the back of his head.

Completely powerless.

Besides, Ididsmell a bit. Even the basin Ryden had offered me hadn’t gone far.

I edged towards the window on nearly silent feet, just out of morbid curiosity, and Calian cracked one eye. "Ah ah ah, I don't think so."

A snort escaped me, but I moved away from the window anyway. I had no intention of plummeting to my death. "How does it feel to be downgraded to nanny status?"

My barb didn't hit home. Calian only smiled, his full lips made more appealing by the dark stubble that had appeared on his jaw throughout the day. "Still better than captive status."

Ouch. I'd walked right into that one.

He closed his other eye, still smiling. "Ass in the bath."

The maid looked at me pleadingly, and I let out an inward sigh, walking over to her with the air of someone expecting an execution.

"I can bathe myself," I told her, but when it came time to take my clothes off...I couldn't do it.

They were old clothes, worn and patched so often that by this point they were probably more ragged stitches than cloth.

And they were stained. The dark splotches over my shirt and in the knees...those were stains that had never come out.

My Warriors' blood had soaked into my clothes as I held their bodies, screaming at the dead Fenris wolves and knowing I'd have to bury the pack myself, carrying the burden of the dead on my shoulders for the rest of my life.

"Caller?" The maid's soft voice interrupted my thoughts, which had been spiraling down into a dark place.

I clenched my teeth and pulled the shirt over my head, and slipped out of the pants, practically scrambling into the bath as soon as I was naked.

Just because Calian said he wouldn't look didn't mean Ibelievedhim.

The maid had poured something in the water that created a thick, foamy layer of bubbles on top. I leaned in and sniffed suspiciously—it smelled like the soap Ryden had given me.

I couldn't lie to myself. Having a hot bath—a real one, not just one out of a basin—was my idea of heaven.

I even allowed myself to sit back for a moment and close my eyes, trying to wash everything out of my brain and just enjoy the feeling.

I twitched when the maid poured a pitcher of water over my hair, which was followed with more of the vanilla soap.

Her fingers began scrubbing into my scalp, and I found myself relaxing again.

Perhaps this was what Ryden had meant by my 'rank', although I'd always washed my own hair.

The concept of asking one of my pack to do it for me was laughable. They would've just asked if my fingers were broken if I couldn't do it myself.

I heard Calian's voice clearly, since he was less than six feet away. "I'd like to remind you again about the reward system. You please the Alpha, you live like royalty."

My eyes popped open, and the maid pushed my shoulder down, keeping me in the bath. "And I'd like to remind you again that I'm not your dog,nanny."

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