Page 6 of Ruthless Alpha
Xander didn’t let me linger long, jerking his head up the stairs as he made to mount them himself.Fuck.Was it going to be this soon? Would he let me wash first? I’d known this was coming from the moment he bought me, but the reality of it hadn’t hit me until that very moment, standing in the strange hallways of a cold home on an island that I’d only ever known as a cautionary tale.
Catching my hesitation, Xander frowned.
“Oh,” he said. “Right. Are you hungry?”
That wasn’t what I had been expecting. I knew Ishouldeat—Uncle had given me nothing since breakfast that morning—but my stomach was turning somersaults.
“No, thank you.” It was better to just get it over with. The first time would be the worst, and eventually I would grow used to it, or he would lose interest in me. I found myself hoping for the former. Whatever I was about to endure in here, it would surely be nothing to what I would endure as a lone, unprotectedfemale in this Pack. As much as I resented him, I had to keep his attention on me if I wanted to survive. My wolf, too, was eager about this plan, but not for the same reasons I was. She simply failed to comprehend the danger, seeing only a strong male who’d saved us, and she panted for his attention.
It could be worse, I reminded myself. In another life, in a world where he didn’t literally own me, Xander Knox was the sort of man I would steal glances at. If I were honest, he was the sort of man I expected to be far above noticing someone like me. But he had noticed me. He’d noticed me and he’d bought me, and now he was going to get what he paid for. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heartbeat. Could he smell the fear on me? Did he like it?
“In here,” he said, pointing to a darkened room at the top of the stairs. He didn’t enter; instead, he stood back so I had to squeeze past him to get inside.
In the weak evening light that filtered through the curtains, I could see that this room was just as sparse as the rest of the house. A small dresser and a single bed were the only items of furniture, and they looked so sad and small in the spacious room.
“This can be your room for uh—for the time being.”
“My room?” I echoed. This was not going the way I’d thought it would.
“Yeah. There’s a shower down the hall if you need it, and we’ll get you some clothes tomorrow. For now, you can have one of my shirts.” He was out of my sight before he’d even finished the sentence. I heard a few doors open and close, and then he was back with a soft-looking black tee in his hand.
“Here,” he said, handing the garment to me. It was as soft as it looked, and large enough to provide me with more modestythan this awful, too-tight dress. It was a pleasant surprise, but I didn’t understand it: would he not want me naked?
“Thank you,” I said automatically, cringing inwardly even as the words left my mouth. What was I thanking him for? Feeding, housing, and clothing me? It was only his duty as the man who now owned me. None of it was kindness.
“See you in the morning,” Xander muttered, then his back was turned to me, and nothing about the last five minutes made any sense at all.
“You’re not going to—” I blurted before I could stop myself. Xander frowned.
“Not going to what?”
“Nothing,” I said quickly, but a mortified blush was already staining my pale cheeks and creeping down onto my chest. It was enough to tell him exactly what I had been expecting. His dark eyes widened for a moment, and I could have sworn I caught the hint of a blush beneath his own tanned skin.
“Shit,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Look—what’s your name?”
Five hours. We’d been married five full hours before he thought to ask me that. If I were braver, if I were more stupid, I might simply refuse to tell him.
“It’s Rosie,” I said, because I was neither brave nor stupid.
“Look, Rosie, I didn’t buy you to do whatever it is you think I’m going to do to you, okay? You’re safe here.”
Safe.It took everything I had not to scoff at that word. I’d never been less safe in my life. I didn’t even know what this Alpha wanted from me, if not to keep me here and fuck me whenhe wanted. Was it worse than that? Was there something I was missing? Desperate and confused, I couldn’t help asking,
“Why did you marry me, then? If you don’t want…” I trailed off, embarrassed, but Xander only smiled again.
“That’s a great fucking question,” he said, like it was nothing. He didn’t even know why he’d bought a person, uprooted my life, and brought me to his brutal, barren, awful island, and he thought that wasfunny.
I couldn’t stand him. Even if he seemed kind enough, even if he seemed gentler than I’d expected, he was still a male like any other. He was still anAlphalike any other. My life meant nothing to him, and my freedom was just another thing that could bend to his whim. He was callous and awful, and I wasnotdisappointed that he’d left me here, standing in this strange room in nothing but my towel. He didn’t want me, and that wasgood.It was good. It was good.
Chapter 3 - Xander
I woke up the morning after my marriage—the morning after I purchased a bride for myself—and somehow the world hadn’t ended. The sun was rising behind the mountain as it always did, and my alarm clock was just as annoying as ever. Like every morning before, I dragged myself out of bed and padded to the kitchen to mix up a pre-workout shake. The stuff tasted like ass, but it was worth getting it shipped from the mainland just for how easy it made the mornings. Humans really had a way of making everything convenient.
That morning, though, I didn’t go straight down to the basement to start my morning workout. That morning, I crept back up the stairs to put my ear to the door of the spare bedroom, listening for the soft sound of Rosie’s breathing. I could only just make it out, but the faint sound satisfied me that she had stayed put and she was safe, for now.
Why did I even care if she was safe? Why had the mere sight of her given me such a burning need to care for her? Why had I given away valuable resources in exchange for her freedom? The questions chased themselves around my mind as I descended the stairs, and there was only one way to make them stop.
The punching bag in my basement gym had seen better days; I’d beaten the crap out of it almost every morning for the last fifteen years, and I was no longer certain what color it had originally been. There was something meditative about wrapping my hands and sinking into the boxing stance. Thethump, thump, thumpthumpthumpof my knuckles against the leather cleared my mind like nothing else, and for a glorious half hour, I was nothing and no one. I had no island, no Pack, no reputation, and no terrified young wife in my spare bedroom.
