"You sure about this?"
I turned away from the scenery flying by the window of the Mercedes my sister, Clarke, drove. Frowning, I answered, "What else would you have me do?"
Clarke continued to watch the road ahead of her, silently, as I waited for her reply.
"I just… I wish there were some other way, you know? Are you sure we can't come up with some kind of rescue instead?" She rushed the last part, chewing her lip as she did so. I winced, lip chewing for a werewolf was never a good habit and Clarke was the worst about it.
I shook my head, "You know it wouldn't have worked out. They were masking his scent with their damned voodoo night powers and we couldn't have known where he was without this agreement."
Clarke sighed.
"I just… It doesn't feel right. They gave into this too easily. I mean, whoever hears of vampires kidnapping a wolf cub and then demanding the first-born of the Alphas as exchange in order to get him back? It just seems so…. I don't know, why kidnap werewolves in the first place? And why in Wolf-Mother's name would you agree to it?!" She huffed as we turned into the parking lot of a fancy skyscraper-type condo building.
I watched as she drove up into the multilevel lot. Level 4, the vampire's lackey sent to make the agreement had given specific directions to meet at the 4th level elevators, 1900, no pack, only one family member could accompany me if I chose, and nothing else. Upon meeting the vampire awaiting me there, I would be cuffed and would be unable to transform. A slight sense of apprehension filled my stomach. If I wanted my only brother to be free again, I needed to stick to this agreement. I just couldn't see any way out.
As Clark pulled the car to a stop, I turned to her. She was the second-born of the pack and would be taking my place as Mother's second in command, as our father had died 6 years before and mother refused any and all males who would attempt to claim a place in our pack as alpha male. She would struggle with it at first, I knew, as she was hot-headed and could have trouble seeing the bigger picture.
"It's Henry, Clarke. If it were any of you, I would do the same, but it's just so much worse that it IS Henry they have. If they ever learn what he can do…."
Clarke nodded.
"I… I know. It's just going to be tough without you around, Emma." She bowed her head and turned in her shoulders. As much as we were in our human forms, sometimes, Clarke showed her emotions in the most wolfish of ways.
I placed my hands on her shoulders. Like myself, she had blonde hair, I drank in her image, allowing her to be placed upon my memory, that I may never forget what she looked like.
"I'll miss you too sis." I whispered, squeezing her shoulders.
My ringtone, a riff off of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir went off on my cell phone. I yanked off the seatbelt and pulled it out of my pocket and clicked the answer button as the contact name, Those Vamp Bitches popped up on the screen.
"Yes?"
"It's about that time." A smooth, elegant, accented voice spoke over the device. I rolled my eyes. Why did they all sound like that?
"I was keenly aware. I will be walking to the elevators soon." I replied in my gruffest tone.
The phone clicked. The prick had hung up on me! Me, a second to an Alpha! I growled deep in my throat. These vampires had no respect for a pack.
"Sounds like they're getting impatient," I sighed. I glanced over to my sister. She gripped the steering wheel, hard.
I patted her shoulder.
"I'll be okay, sis. If anything, I'll find a way to break free." I reassured her.
She nodded, chuckling to herself. Knowing me, I'd probably escape in a few weeks at the last, two months at the most.
I smiled at her, despite my apprehension. I would think of something. I always did.
I gripped the door handle and pushed open the door. Time to go, I thought to myself.
We walked along, quietly through the lot, until we reached the elevators mentioned in our instructions. A handsomely blonde young man stood, waiting by the doors to one of them. His paleness, and the clinging scent of blood and near-death hanging about him quickly identified him as a vampire to our heightened wolf-senses. Upon our approach, he smiled.
"It seems our wolves kept to their end of the exchange after all," he smirked as he spoke.
I wanted to growl low in my throat. Wolves always kept their promises, be they threats or deals, we kept our word. For some measly nightwalker to speak as though we wouldn't do as such made me want to tear him apart.
My eyes must have shown my desire, for the vampire quickly dropped his smirk and glared back, his eyes going from dark blue to bright red in seconds. He pulled a pair of cuffs from his back pocket.
"If you would like to say your goodbye to what is undoubtedly your wolf-sister, we can cuff you then get on about our way," he said, his voice gone cold as the tension in the air increased.
I growled at him, but turned to hug Clarke anyway. I slipped my cell into her pocket as I stepped back. No more contact with my family from the moment those elevator doors closed would be allowed.
"I love you and I promise, everything will be okay." I whispered.
She rubbed her head against mine.
"I love you too."
With her reply, I turned away and walked over to the vampire. I held my hands out.
"My master would prefer if you wore them with your hands behind your back. To prevent any ideas."
I rolled my eyes.
"Whatever."
I placed my hands behind me and let him cuff me, annoyed that I was being put through this. A werewolf, in cuffs. At least it wasn't a collar I thought.
As he clicked them shut, I felt something inside of me twist and pull. I squirmed. My wolf, I realized. A wall seemed to cut me off from the animal within myself. It felt distant, barely there. I really would be unable to transform.
We stepped into the elevator. I met my sister's dark green eyes for what would be the last time in a long time. I held my head proudly despite my cuffs and my position. I refused to give up my pride, even in the face of becoming a vampire's prisoner.
The doors closed. Silence. I watched as the vampire pressed a single unmarked button at the bottom of the column. My stomach dropped. We were going down, I realized. Dread filled my stomach. I was not made for the underground. He held the silence as we rode. It seemed he was as uninterested in speaking with me as I was with him.
I did not know how far down we went, or for how long… My watch was behind my back. The elevator finally came to a stop with a ding. The doors slid open as the vampire gripped my bicep, thrusting me through. He led me down a stone passageway, the hanging fluorescent lighting was dim.
How typical, I thought as he guided me beyond door after door. I wondered at which held my brother, Henry behind. Finally, he stopped me at a set of carved wooden double doors. The stench of blood, near-death and a recognizable husky scent hung in the air. My eyes widened. I knew this scent.
The vampire knocked. I held my breath. The doors opened on their own. I stumbled as I was pushed forward unceremoniously through the doorway. I was not followed in.
I felt anger. Foreboding. I kept wondering if I would see Henry.
A crash beyond the entry room I had been thrust into brought me back to the present moment. My hands still cuffed behind my back, I walked towards the noise. Another crash, then, yelling.
"Get down from there at once, young man!" An elegant, male voice called out indignantly.
I followed the sound. A familiar mischievous laughter filled me with warmth. Henry, I thought.
The sight of a young, male, werewolf pup atop a chandelier greeted me as I passed through a set of glass doors into a cavernous room. A white-haired, male vampire stood below, scowling up at him. I smiled at the sight. It seemed my younger brother was giving the bloodsuckers a difficult time.
Henry turned his head, sniffing the air. He howled, happily as he spotted me and leapt from his perch. He raced forward, outrunning the vampire as he reached me, wrapping his 9-year-old arms around my waist.
"Emma!" The little mass of brown hair around my waist exclaimed. "I knew you would come!"
I wished then that my hands weren't cuffed behind my back. How long had it been since I last held my baby brother? Two months? He wasn't our youngest, but he was still my brother and my little protégé.
"Why are your hands cuffed?" Henry questioned as he pulled back. His brown-and-green eyes held my own blue-green ones as he awaited my answer.
I hesitated. How did I tell a little cub that we failed? That his own pack had been unable to scent him out and had given into to the demands of his kidnappers, who turned out to be vampires, just as supernatural as they were? How could I tell him because of this failure, I had been traded for his life so that these creatures might never learn his secrets?
Henry backed away. His eyes filled with tears.
"No…" He whimpered.
"You didn't. Mother didn't. She couldn't have. Could she?"
"Henry-" I began.
The clicking of heels drew our attention toward the grand staircase beyond the chandelier that had served as my brother's momentary perch. I tightened my mouth against the jaw drop that threatened to fall at the sight of what, no, who had caught our attention. A woman, who seemed to radiate sensuality with her slightly curving figure, lush, red mouth, and chocolate brown eyes descended the steps in a most dramatic of ways. Dark brown hair, which I would bet was curly when left down, was piled sophisticatedly at the back of her head, accentuating the corded muscle of her long pale olive neck. She wore a tight, wine-colored dress against her body like a second skin. My mind knew her to be vampire, but something within me still struggled against that knowledge. I felt lust sparking at the edges of my body and knew I might be in trouble in her presence. Something within me seemed to crack.
With a final step she reached the bottom of the staircase. Brown eyes met my own. A shiver passed through me. Resist, I thought to myself. I willed myself to hold her gaze defiantly.
Red lips smirked as she turned her away to look at the white-haired vampire that had been yelling at my brother.
"Must we yell at the young pup in the middle of the evening Ser Glass?" She spoke smoothly, her voice came out in a sensual husk. I fought to suppress the shudder that ran through my spine at the sound.
The whitehaired dark-skinned vampire, Ser Glass, bowed as he spoke, "Mistress, I apologize, the young sir got away from me and it would also seem that we have a guest."
The woman smiled at this.
"That is hardly his fault, now is it? We must do better at keep a handle on my pets, no shouldn't we, yes, Glass? I trust you will do better in the future." She admonished the vampire. He bowed deeper and stood, face blank as she, the Mistress turned her attention towards us. Something in my left hip squeezed.
Running a fingertip over a scar on her lip, the woman seemed to contemplate Henry.
"Now what to do young man? It seems that your pack has sent someone to take your place." Her eyes flicked up to me before returning to Henry. "It's too bad. We were just beginning to enjoy ourselves. I mean, I've never had the fortune of the company of children, and you are quite a child, though I must say, you do give Glass quite the run around."
Henry actually laughed as this strange and sensual creature chuckled, a sound that made the hairs on the back of my neck raise and goosebumps flash across my skin. By the wolf-mother, I thought, what is wrong with me?
Her gaze turned to me next as their laughter ended. I felt my heart momentarily stop. The woman, the vampiress, I reminded myself, moved closer to me in a flash. She looked me over, her eyebrows knitting together in thought. Her scent filled my nose. The familiarity of it, its strength overwhelming my wolf-senses. Memories stirred in my mind. Suddenly, I backed up on instinct, the wolf within me fighting through the wall created by the cuffs. My hackles raised as I fur erupted along my arms and I fought against my bounds.
The vampiress gasped as she recognized me and I her. I continued to half-transform as the wolf's memory took over.
It was the first full moon of autumn, a time of celebration for wolves of the pack. I was on a full run ahead of the other runners in my family, my mother had chosen to stay behind this time to watch the little ones, allowing me to lead the group on this sacred run for the first time. I felt glee as my sisters and brothers ran behind me, through the trees of the forest and along the mountainside.
We reached the mountain's peak and I began the call. We howled. I howled until my throat grew dry, then I led us back down the mountain toward a stream I had spotted on our run that we might drink from before returning to the city.
That's when she happened. My ears perked. A low whimpering. A human in pain. In wolf form, we stayed away, but a human already in pain was usually of very low threat. Curiosity got the best of me.
I followed the sound. Human. Female. In pain. I sniffed the air. Blood. Lots of blood. My siblings were playing by the stream and hadn't noticed me walking away.
Finally, I found the source of the sound and the scent. A woman, beautiful, brunette and olive-skinned, covered in her own blood lay whimpering in the leaves. She wore a pantsuit, boots, and an expensive looking coat. She didn't look far from death.
I whined as I moved closer to her. There was little I, a wolf could do at Wolf's Time to save her. The dawn was when I would return to my human form and who knew if she would make it until then?
My siblings found me. I told them to go on without me. They argued. I pinned first my sister, then my cousin in a show of whose boss to get them to go on. They left.
I watched as she struggled for breath. Lowering myself, I crept closer to her. I crawled to her side. She slid a hand into my white fur. I whined as she tried to speak.
"N-nice wolf. Thank you." She barely managed to husk past struggling lips. I think I only heard because of my wolf hearing.
I lay there with her as she gave her last breath. I whined again. Then, as I began to move away from her, she began to convulse, then to seize, and as dawn burst over the horizon, her eyes opened. My transformation had occurred during her convulsions. Her eyes, brown before her last breath, were now dark red. I scrambled back in all my naked glory and fought to transform back into the wolf, but it was too late. Before I knew what was happening, the newly made vampiress was on me, her teeth missing my neck quite a lot as I fought back. I scratched her lip, fighting, but still, she latched on. She instead suckled in an area just above my left hip. I cried out, both in pain and arousal.
She drew on my blood until she was thoroughly sated. My particular wolf power healed me instantly, but a scar remained, the mark of a vampire never left a creature, no matter their abilities. I growled at the realization of what had just occurred.
The woman, no, newly made vampiress, just smiled and wiped her mouth as I glared. I knew I wouldn't be able to return to wolf's form after that, and with a final growl, I leapt onto the woman and threw her back into the leaves. Inches from her face, I raised my hackles, before wrestling the coat from her, that I may cover myself and return home.
With that, I left, without a glance back. The scar of the vampire's bite as the only reminder left of that night.
My near-transformation ended as the vampiress gripped above my left hip hard. I gasped as both pain and arousal shot through me in an instant. Blood thundered in my ears as I tried to make sense of what effect it was she was having on me.
"Enough." She commanded, her voice a dangerous silk to my ears.
I wanted to struggle. I knew I did, but the familiarity of it, the arousal I felt at her touch snapped something in my ability to fight against her.
I held still as long fingers gripped my chin and pulled my eyes to meet her gaze. Her eyes were no longer brown, but red, the color that any vampire's turned in anger, lust or when tasting blood. I gulped, wondering at which she felt in this moment in time, was it anger or lust?
A dark, sinister smile graced those red lips.
"It seems that the Dark Ones have blessed me most pleasantly. The pet I caught was the child of the pack of the very same wolf I marked the first time I tasted blood." She chuckled darkly as she spoke. I suppressed the growl that fought its way into my throat.
Henry gasped, looking back and forth between the two of us.
She stroked my cheek as she continued, "Yesss, I cannot wait to make you my pet. You will do most nicely. Particularly if the memories I couldn't stop dreaming about for months after my turning hold any real… accuracy."
My heart rate quickened. What did she dream of? Then I snarled as I realized the implications of what she had said.
"Pet?! Is that why you stole my brother? To keep him as your pet?" I spat, my anger and the wolf breaking through the walls again. "I, we are no pets. We are wild. Untamed animals. We are people. We are free. We cannot be kept. I will not be kept!"
I growled and whined as my body transformed painfully, my hands were still cuffed to my back.
A deep and powerful, almost puncturing squeeze to my old vampire's bite scar stopped the transformation again.
I howled in rage. The damned woman stood behind me now, one hand on my hip, the other she used to pull my head back by ponytail.
"I said enough." She growled into my ear. A shiver passed through my body despite my anger. "You will learn to obey me. One way or another."
I struggled again. She jerked my head further back by my blonde curls.
"Continue this and I will mark your neck this time." She threatened into my ear.
"Stop it Emma! Stop it, Mistress Regina! Please! I just…. Please, don't hurt her!" Henry cried out. In our power struggle, my brotheer had watched as we fought and remembered one another, trying to catch on to the whole exchange.
The hold on my hair loosened.
"Well, ask your sister to behave, won't you Henry?" The woman, Regina? Asked him sweetly. I felt sick.
Henry nodded at the woman as I wondered at the obedience he seemed to feel towards her.
"Sis, I promise, she has never hurt me, and she's only ever been good to me. Why can't you be good too? Just for now? Please?" Henry begged, his face twisted with desperation.
I felt betrayed as I watched my little brother, but I knew I could only give him one answer. I let my head and shoulders fall in submission.
"Sure brother." I grumbled. How did the vampiress manage this in my own sibling? Henry never did what people told him just as I, but I had always been wrapped around his finger from the day he was born. Was it brainwashing?
"Very good, Henry. Would you like to return to your family soon? I would hate to see you go…. I've always wanted a son of my own, but alas, I'm sure your pack misses you. Not to mention, they gave up their next alpha for you…. I mean, I will miss you, but we did have an agreement and I am not giving back what they gave, I am sorry about that." Regina told my brother. I rolled my eyes. She was an obviously good manipulator.
Henry danced from foot to foot as though he were really thinking about this. I suddenly realized with horror that this exchange was not as simple as I had thought it would be.
"Can I have a few days to think about it?" Henry, the little shit, finally answered. I gasped as I realized that the vampire's had really, truly won. Somehow, they had won the allegiance of this 9-yr-old and now, I would have to ensure two escapes. My insides were raging.
I felt Regina nodding behind me.
"Very good. I'll be sure to notify your family and you may take as long as you like. For now, I think it is best that you and your sister take some time to rest. Separately, I apologize, but she must be introduced to her own rooms and then she must get ready for dinner…." She trailed off. A snap and two dark-haired people, a young man and woman appeared from the shadows. Thralls, I realized as I recognized them as human.
The coppery-haired human female, dressed in a white blouse and vest bowed her head towards me.
"If you would follow me, I will lead you to your room." She told me quietly.
I looked back at Henry again before turning back and nodding to the woman. I followed as she led me up the staircase, onto the landing and off down a hall to our left. She led me beyond door after door, turned me down two more hallways before we came to a stop at a set of frosted glass doors. I frowned. She had to be kidding me.
The doors had no lock. I had a feeling I would be under constant watch during my stay here.
The thrall opened the door, holding it open for me with a bow. I walked through, annoyed that I was still cuffed.
The first room was a sitting room. A couch and sitting chairs were placed around an elegant coffee table. A liquor cabinet and bar stood off to the right. I fought the urge to smile. At least there were some perks, I thought to myself.
"The Mistress would like for you to wait for her here in the sitting room so that the two of you may discuss a few things privately. She also said depending on the outcome of this meeting, she might think about putting much more comfortable cuffs on you." The thrall spoke, her voice the soft hypnotized tone of any usual vampire thrall.
I huffed, annoyed. Of course.
"Indeed. I will await her vampiressness here rather uncomfortably on this couch as my hands are still cuffed behind my back." I replied, before I stalked over to the couch and sat gingerly, careful to adjust myself so that I didn't put any weight on my arms. My shoulders were beginning to ache and my wrists to chafe.
I closed my eyes, feeling worn from the day's events. I was now a vampiress' prisoner. She wanted me for a pet. Not only that, but I had met this vampire. I had been marked by her. During her turning. I felt sick. Vampire's were obsessed with their first feed. They either killed them, or kept them forever as thralls. As a werewolf, she would never be able to do such a thing, but as I had been marked, she would still have some power over me. Then, to make matters worse, my brother wasn't sure if he wanted to leave yet. The vampires had somehow won him over. Enough for him to want to leave the pack. I frowned. Even if I forced him to go home, at the age of fourteen, he could choose to come back to the vampires, as was Wolf's Law. He could choose them as his pack.
This was so complicated. So much more complicated than it should have been.
"Lost in quite the predicament, aren't we?" That familiar husky voice drawled from somewhere behind me.
I looked over my shoulder at the vampiress.
"You know, sneaking up on guests, not the best etiquette, even for vampires." I snarked, hiding my surprise at being caught off guard.
As she stepped around the couch, Regina smiled that wide, evil grin.
"Oh, but catching werewolves off guard is my favorite activity, aren't you aware?" She shot back.
I simply stared back at her. Was this woman a fucking mind-reader?
"No, this room is simply enchanted so that those who are tapped into May be able to easily read the thoughts of others." Regina continued to smile. I fought the urge to think all of the thoughts racing through me. Those of wanting to smack that smile off of her face, to grab her and tear her… Oh no.
Lust tore through me. I fought the image of ripping her clothing apart, of dominating her, of marking her with my own bite. I knew she read the thoughts as clearly as I thought them, as her eyes changed from brown to red in an instant.
The next thing I knew, she was on me. She straddled my lap, her long, pale olive fingers threaded through my blonde hair, freeing it from its tail. Her red lips pressed against mine. I fought the moan building in my throat at the contact, then squirmed. I needed my hands free, I needed to touch this woman. Fuck this vampire vs werewolf stuff.
Regina's hips grinding into mine snapped something in me. I felt the wolf ripping through the wall, but not to transform, no, but to give me its strength. I growled, low in my throat as muscles rippled along my chest, back, and shoulders. I pulled my arms apart, the cuffs snapping apart in a sudden show of instant strength. She leaned back in surprise, but I just pulled her back to me, in a deep and fierce kiss. She ground against me, one of her hands making its way down my jeans, having made quick work of the button and the zipper. I moaned as her fingers met my wetness.
I slid my hands down her back and over her the curves of her buttocks. I squeezed. The sound of pleasure that passed from her mouth into mine, and the erratic way she pressed her fingers into my slickness told me she liked that. I slid my hands down further, gasping as she pressed her fingers inward, into my core. My hips thrust involuntarily at the feeling of being entered.
I pushed her dress up over hips. Regina wasn't wearing underwear. I whimpered at the realization. I ran a hand along her thigh before meeting her wetness. She lost her concentration on the rhythm we had going as I press my fingers into her own hot slickness, not even needing much to press into her core. Soon, we began a rhythm together. Thrusting our hips and fingers against one another, racing towards climax.
Suddenly, I called out as my orgasm hit me full force. I kept my fingers moving within her core as best I could, quickening my pace until she too came with a cry not too far behind me.
Slowly, I came out of my lust-filled daze. A vampire. Fuck. I, Emma Swan-Chaser a born werewolf, just had sex with a vampire.