Page 20 of Brutal Alpha

Chapter 9 - Julia

Ethan.

The breath left my lungs in a great rush. He’d looked for me. He’d come for me. He was going to take me home. My legs trembled beneath me, so relieved that I could have dropped to the floor then and there, but I couldn’t show that I knew him, couldn’t show that I’d been desperately hoping he might care just enough to come after me. I kept my head high, and if my body shook, that was surely understandable: I was about to be married to a stranger who had bought me as a curiosity.

Ethan shoved a briefcase into Axton’s arms, not making eye contact, and said,

“Keep the change.”

I held my breath as Axton clicked the briefcase open, smiling at the contents. As with the other humans, he didn’t count the money handed to him, no doubt assuming that the humans’ fear of him would protect him from being short-changed. Nonetheless, the briefcase must have contained a shit-ton of money if Axton wasn’t questioning Ethan at all.

Where the hell had he gotten that money? And where had he gotten that suit? It didn’t fit him well, and as I approached, my nostrils were assaulted with an overpowering artificial scent. He didn’t address me, didn’t touch me, but made a show of examining me, leaning in close so he was close enough for me to speak without anyone else hearing.

“You reek,” I told him, because he did, and because I was too shocked to say anything else. Graciously ignoring that, he scanned me from head to toe, his eyes lingering on the slight bruising on my ribs and the redness on my cheekbone that Rosie’s salve hadn’t entirely prevented.

“Who hurt you?” he whispered. I could hear the fury in his voice, and my wolf preened.

“It doesn’t matter,” I replied—I couldn’t risk him going feral on Axton right now. Getting out had to be the priority, and I hoped to hell he had a plan for that.

“Later,” he promised, his grey eyes dark with violence. I nodded. Later, I would tell him everything. Later, when we were free. For now, we were being watched by dozens of eyes, and Ethan’s show of inspecting me was coming to its close. I needed us to be gone, to be away from the hungry eyes that never left my naked body and the envious jeering of the crowd.

“Are you pleased with her?” Axton’s voice made my skin crawl, and Ethan instinctively put his body between us.

“I see one of your men took some liberties,” Ethan said, his voice tight and angry. Axton only shrugged, smirking in a way that made it abundantly clear who was responsible for my bruises.

“She’s feisty, what can I say? You might have to give her a few bruises yourself.”

Ethan’s whole body tensed, and I tilted my body away from the audience, hoping they didn’t see me brush my fingertips against his wrist. He might not have marked me, might not even accept that a bond existed between us at all, but I knew the shock of my touch would be enough to distract him. Sure enough, he startled at the brush of my skin against his, momentarily distracted from his rage.

Mercifully, Axton liked the sound of his own voice too much to let silence lie.

“Shall we go ahead with the ceremony, then?” he asked. “I’m sure you and your Packmates are keen to get your new brides back to the mainland.”

It was a nice touch, suggesting that the humans were a part of their own Pack. They might look down on us, calling us savage and backward, but they all wanted to be like us. Why else would wealthy human men spend their hard-earned money on illegal shifter brides?

Ethan nodded, clearly not trusting himself to speak without a growl. God, he was a terrible actor—if the two of us got out of here undetected, it would be a miracle.

I supposed I had the easier job out of the two of us: there was no need to disguise my flinch when Axton took my hand, lifting it up to offer it to Ethan, who looked about ready to rip Axton’s arm off for daring to touch me. My heart pounded against my ribcage, willing him not to blow cover for the sake of his Pack’s old-fashioned ideas about who gets to touch a female. He’d broken those rules himself, pretty damn thoroughly, only a few hours previously.

As he took my hand, I felt the rush of the bond between us, and I knew he felt it, too. My wolf howled within me, wanting him to simply pick me up and carry me out of here, to stake his claim where everyone could see, where everyone could know I was his. I was a woman of more modern sensibilities, and I was mostly concerned with staying alive for the next ten minutes. Still, it was difficult not to squeeze his hand, to draw him close and take comfort in knowing that I was no longer alone.

The ceremony was a farce: the human buyers needed to remain anonymous, so no names were asked for or given, which worked in our favor, at least, and no rings were exchanged, no hands fasted. It was barely a wedding, but enough to scare theignorant females into believing they belonged to the men they were sold to.

Still, even for this absolute non-event, I would have picked anyone in the world but Lowell Axton to carry out the ceremony. His presence loomed large between us, his voice slimy and venomous.

“Do you take this woman to be your wedded wife?” he asked Ethan. “To keep her under your care and consider yourself bound to her?”

“I do,” lied Ethan. It was funny, really. He’d refused to be bound to me under the old oak, and so he was bound to me by force in a cave on Arbor. Like the elders said, fate always got her way in the end.

Axton turned to me next, and no matter how many times I’d heard the words over the last hour, they still made me sick to my stomach.

“Do you take this man to be your wedded husband? To be kept under his care and be obedient to him?”

Looking up at Ethan, I expected to see rage still simmering in his expression, but when my eyes met his, there was something almost playful there. Obedient. He knew better than anyone that I would make no man an obedient wife. Trying to keep the smile from my lips, I breathed,

“I do.”

When Axton spoke the ceremony’s final words, I could hear the triumph in his voice:

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