Page 27 of The Alpha's Gamble
More soup. Mmm.
Or travel. I liked traveling. Except that I could only go to places my mom thought were suitable. Las Vegas was borderline for her, but I’d escaped here as often as I could, because it was the closest I could get to seedy anonymity. People here didn’t care what pack I belonged to. They only cared if I could pay for their drinks. It was honest, in its own way.
Getting high and eating what I liked. Those things I could just enjoy, without any baggage attached.
Except for now, because every bite reminded me that MacKenna was playing mind games with me and might still turn me over to the police.
Good times.
After the last bite of cake, I cocooned myself in bed again.
Fuck it. If anyone needed me, they could damn well shake me awake.
Chapter 9
Malicious, Petty Fun
MacKenna shook me awake.
I popped up like a Jack-in-the-box, shouting something incoherent—about my father and my brother, I realized as I blinked into his wide-eyed face. MacKenna took a quick step back, his hand falling from my shoulder.
“What time is it?” I rasped, rubbing my hands over my face. Gods. I had crud in my eyes and could barely focus them, and my heart pounded as if I’d been woken from a marathon, not a nap. At least the headache had gone away.
“Almost seven,” he said. “In the evening, in case that wasn’t clear.”
The light of sunset through the uncovered window had tipped me off, in fact, and I glared at him, the only answer I had the presence of mind to muster. He chuckled, which only pissed me off more. MacKenna looked so handsome when he laughed. Too bad he was always laughing at my expense, or I might have enjoyed the view.
“Anyway, I’m taking a couple of hours from work,” he went on. “Dinner. Fucking you. Good news, Castelli. You get to get out of this room for a while. Take a shower first.”
And with that, he left again.
Fuckingasshole.
I threw the covers back and lurched out of bed, stretching my back and scratching my stomach while I contemplated what tack to take with MacKenna. The nightmare I couldn’t remember had left me edgy and fidgety, not in a great state of mind to make any decisions. Shit. I really couldn’t afford to antagonize him any further, and frankly, I didn’t have the energy or the will for it.
The last…two days? Fuck, I was losing track. Anyway, they’d drained me. Fighting back probably wasn’t in the cards anymore.
So I went and took a shower. I washed extra carefully, admitting if only to myself that MacKenna had a point and that no one would’ve wanted to be in the same bed with me. I hadn’t even wanted to be in the same bed with me. Washing my ass took concentration and teeth-gritting determination. I had to stick my fingers in there, or at least that seemed like the most logical way to proceed, anyway. When I twisted them, arm at a super uncomfortable angle, I brushed against—fuck, fuck, no, and I yanked my fingers out a little too roughly, leaning against the wall of the shower and closing my eyes for a second. My cock had gone half-hard at that slight touch on the right spot. MacKenna was going to light me up like a Roman candle with that huge cock of his. At some point, he’d start openly mocking me for it, and then…I didn’t know what I’d do.
Everything from the night before swirled through my head, the parts that had gotten to me the most replaying like a highlight reel. His knot swelling inside me. Coming like a whore when he spanked me, for fuck’s sake.
Gods.
I really had to find a way to hold my own against him. Exhausted or not, I couldn’t let him walk all over me without even trying.
And then I remembered what he’d said to me.
I’m glad you didn’t like it, actually. That makes this easy. You’re just a fuck toy. And that’s all I want from you.
If I’d been in a cartoon, I’d have had a giant lightbulb suspended over my head in midair.
That’s all I want from you. I’m glad you didn’t like it.
He wanted to humiliate me. He wanted revenge. And he could have that, he’d already gotten a damn good start, except…I could turn the tables on him in a way he wouldn’t be able to argue with. What was he going to say if I transformed myself into his eager slut, whether or not he wanted it?I’ll call the cops if you come? OrNo, stop, you’re being a better fuck toy than I expected?
Ha!
I finished washing up in a much better mood. It helped that the Morrigan’s branded shampoo smelled amazing and that MacKenna had mentioned dinner, the magic word.
