Carnage Island (Reject Island)(17)

Because she decided to take a nap in the Carnage Island Alpha’s bed.

His low growl from the doorway is a warning I feel to my very core. But all it does is draw a little whine of irritation from my suicidal wolf.

She picks up her head, yawns at him, and proceeds to flop over to her other side.

And closes her eyes.

I scream at her to move. To bow. To run. Anything but just relax in the Alpha’s bed as though she belongs there.

“I see,” he says, his tone holding a lethal note that makes me wince inside.

This is not going to end well.

“I think we need to have a conversation about etiquette and common decency, little one.” He sounds calm. Too calm. And because my wolf’s eyes are closed, I can’t see his face. But I hear him prowling toward me, his presence a darkness threatening to suffocate me from the inside out.

Tieran, V called him.

A name I know very well.

A name I’ve feared for years.

Tieran isn’t just the Carnage Island Alpha.

He’s the Black Mountain Alpha’s son.

The same one who slaughtered Alpha Bryson’s daughter. That’s why he’s here—not for being rejected, but for slaughtering his mate.

And my wolf decided to nap in his bed.

Now she’s ignoring him, content to relax in his presence, utterly unaware of the growing tension in the room.

I really am broken. It’s the only explanation for her relaxing state and my inability to wake her the fuck up.

His palm comes down on my rump, making my wolf yelp in surprise. “Off,” he demands.

She snarls in response.

And he snarls right back, the angry sound loud and reverberating through my ears.

My heart actually stops. I feel it stutter. Just as I sense my wolf’s inability to breathe.

She’s terrified.

Fucking finally.

But rather than fight or run, she freezes, like she’s forgotten how to move.

“Off,” he repeats, his tone one that would bring me to my knees if I were in human form. His Alpha energy is intoxicating and overwhelming and so damn thick that I can’t see straight.

Or maybe that’s my wolf losing her sight. She hasn’t taken a breath in too long a time. Our lungs are aching. Yet she remains frozen, his snarl having rendered her incapable of functioning.

He reaches for us and I beg her to run, beg her to do anything other than sit here like a disobedient pet on his bed. But she refuses me.

She merely shivers as his hands take hold of her scruff to guide us off the bed.

He’s not rough, but he’s not gentle either.

And he curses at whatever he sees in his sheets.

“All right, little brat,” he says, lifting me effortlessly into his arms. “I think I know what you need.”

My vision is starting to blur with black spots.

My wolf is feeling unbalanced.

My lungs are burning.

She’s lost all control of her motor functions and has obviously forgotten our will to survive. Because my wolf is still frozen, just in his arms now.

At least inhale, I beg her, my heart splintering at this helpless sensation. I feel so shattered. So utterly useless. So… so… lost.

I’m not this girl.

I’m not meek or unintelligent.

I should have control of this situation.

But I… I just don’t. And I have no idea what to do.

The room is so dark now it’s black.

And my damn wolf refuses to—

Water hits my head unexpectedly, drawing a sharp intake of air from my wolf that she releases on a low whine of disapproval.

“If you want to sleep in my bed, then you’re at least going to be clean,” Tieran says as he sets me down in a space bigger than my bedroom back home.

A shower, I realize, noting the marble and various heads. Who needs a shower this big?

“Sit,” he demands, talking to me like a dog.

Which I would normally be pissed about, but my wolf is behaving like an untamed canine, so his treatment is probably deserved.

My wolf buffs, ignoring his command.

And tries to leave the shower instead.

He grabs me by the scruff to pull me back. “Oh, no you don’t. You’re filthy from that cage and the ocean. And since you refuse to let your human take over, I’m bathing you.” He uses his grip to force my eyes to his. “And if you’re a good girl, I may even brush you.”

I shiver inside.

Something about that promise feels so… intimate.

He releases my scruff to stroke a hand down my neck to my throat. “I see you in there, little one,” he whispers, his intense blue eyes holding mine. “I know your wolf has taken over. We’ll help you regain control.”

His soft voice soothes some ache deep inside me.

Until I remember his name.

Tieran Black.

The monster who slaughtered his mate.

His eyes narrow as though he can read my mind.

Or maybe he can smell my fear.

Rather than comment on it, he guides my wolf beneath the water again and proceeds to bathe her. She yelps and growls a few times, but he doesn’t snarl back like before. He just runs his fingers through my fur, massaging a woodsy scent into my coat.

It reminds me of pine trees.

I want to inhale it, to bathe in it, but my wolf is too busy sputtering as the water touches her snout. She is not a fan of this experience at all, not understanding the intimacy of having an Alpha take care of her, or respecting his patience as he rinses away the suds.