Seduction (The Journal of the Wolves of Spruce Hollow) (11 page)

I shielded my eyes as the vehicle’s headlights were on and it felt like they were going to burn a hole right through my head.
It’s morning for the love of god, why the heck do they need their headlights on?
 

I tried to squint to see who was getting out of the car but the light was too bright. I offered up a silent prayer that it would be my father, who had been killed in the line of duty when I was a baby. I prayed that he was coming to rescue me from this torment and would take me back to safety.
 

I couldn’t see because of the lights but I could hear just fine and loud, disjointed voices came from the direction of the light.
 

The voices were deafening and seemed to all be yelling at me at once.
 

“Aspen, are you alright?” the voices frantically shouted.
 

A whimper escaped my lips as the voices boomed. It hurt my ears and I clapped my hands over them to block out the voices. But it didn’t help, I could hear them still.
 

It was too much, the bright lights and the voices were overwhelming and without warning, the world started spinning again and I slumped to the ground.

 
I was falling down a deep, dark hole but I did not mind it so much. It was quieter here at the bottom of the hole. Peaceful, really.
 

Suddenly, there were strong hands on me. Big, strong hands that reached down and pulled me out of my black hideaway and forced me back into the scorching light.
 

My instinct for self preservation kicked in and I fought against the hands, snarling and swatting at those who would dare pull me out of the first small taste of peace that I’d had since Jude tore my throat open and spilled my blood all over the forest floor. But the hands were strong. They forced me onto my back and held me down.
 

 
Angrily, I cracked an eye open to see who’d had the gall to pull me back from the blissful dark.
I hated them
. Did they not know how much I had been suffering here in heaven?
 

“Jesus, look at her neck, she’s bleeding everywhere,” I heard a somewhat familiar voice say.

“Check her eyes,” another voice said.
A hard voice
. I knew this voice. This voice haunted my dark nightmares and my even darker erotic fantasies. I would know this dark voice anywhere, even in this terrible heaven.

Someone was forcing my eyes open but I moaned and whimpered against their efforts. I didn’t want to let the painful light in. I struggled against them, fighting and slapping at the big hands that tried to hold me still.

The dark voice was close, it’s darkness caressing me and coating my body like soft, warm tar.

“Open your eyes, little girl,” the darkness whispered softly as he placed his strong hands on my shoulders to still me. I could not resist the darkness. Not even if I tried. No, instead I wanted to throw myself into its silky, smooth shadow and drown in it.

I opened my eyes slowly, expecting to come face to face with my dark tormentor but in his place, stood none other than Caver and Griff.
 

What were they doing here, in heaven with me?
 

“Oh shit, her eyes. Yeah, Roan, we have a big problem,” I heard a panicked voice call out. It was Caver’s, I think. I wanted to cover my ears and block out the sound but they were holding both he and Griff were holding my arms down.
 

I squinted towards the blinding light and saw the dark creature that haunted my dreams.
Roan.
He was walking back from his truck, something in his hand, shaking his head and speaking to Caver.

“Are you sure?”

“Check for yourself.”

The dark, violent mass knelt at my feet and took my face in his hands, gently tilting it upwards. His skin felt cool and offered reprieve from the burning heat that was threatening to incinerate my flesh right off the bone.

“Look at me, Aspen,” the darkness said to me and I opened my eyes and stared right into its soul. It scorched me with its intensity and I promptly shut my eyes again.
 

It was like staring into the sun.

“Jesus, fuck!” the darkness raged, “How the hell did this happen? For fuck sake Aspen, why the hell couldn’t you have just stayed home like I told you to? You never listen to me!” I just stared up at him from my position on the ground and watched helplessly as the darkness seethed on.

“Fuck!” he barked out, his head raised to the sky with a roar. I didn’t like this version of the darkness, it didn’t coat my tongue like warm, melted chocolate, the way the other version did. This darkness was black and powerful and it frightened me.

Fear and anger is a powerful combination and without warning, I was up and trying extricate my dazed and heavy limbs from the twin metal grasp of Caver and Griff.
Didn’t they understand, I needed to run away and hide from the darkness
?

They let me go, but I didn’t get very far. Roan was on me in a flash, grabbing me and wrestling me back down to the ground. He grabbed the tranquilizer gun out of his chest holster as I screamed rage filled screams in his direction. “You can’t kill me you evil, soulless bastard, I’m already dead.”
 

The darkness got up and stood over me, shaking his head. I risked a glance up at him and his face was marked with fury and then quickly morphed into
despair?
But just as quickly as it had appeared, the look was gone and my dark tormentor was back. His voice was low and calm as he said, “I’m not going to kill you Aspen but, you know, I might just enjoy this a
lot
more than you’re going to,” then he shot me twice in the thigh.

It burned like fire and I screamed out in pain at his cruelty.
 

Then, blessedly, I fell back down the deep dark hole to oblivion as the darkness came and claimed me again.

Chapter 14

~Aspen~

Hours passed, maybe days, I wasn’t sure.
 

One minute I could hear voices whispering softly in the background and the next, I was floating in the blessed blackness.
 

In this moment, I was dazed but aware.
 

The room was dark but I could tell that I was lying on top of my bed in my bedroom at my mother’s house. I felt so weak as I looked around and saw that someone had nailed blankets to the window frame to block out the light.
 

Thankfully, Roan had brought me back home, rather dumping me in a ditch somewhere. He was pretty angry with me. I bet it was Caver and Griff that probably convinced him not to leave me for dead on the side of the highway.

“Help,” I called out softly. My voice sounded raspy, small and quiet, even to my hypersensitive ears. My skin was burning again and I was on fire.
I was sure of it
. Unfortunately, trying to move my limbs to pat out the flames was nearly impossible as they had been replaced with arms and legs made of lead.
 

I was wearing only a skimpy t-shirt and underwear in the bed but it was too much clothing, I wanted to tear every piece of fabric from my burning skin. I attempted to pull my shirt off but only managed to weakly pull the bottom up past my stomach. My arms refused to cooperate.
 

My bedroom door opened and Roan quietly came in. His face was expressionless as I watched him stalk towards me.
 

“Please, help me, Roan,” I begged him softly as I tried to grab his hand.
 

He shook his head as he stood over me, appraising me with cold, dark eyes. “There’s nothing I can do, Aspen, I can’t stop what’s already been started.”
 

I started to cry, he didn’t understand that I was hurting and on fire. “Please, I’m on fire Roan,” I begged him through the tears, “you cared about me once. I was important to you when I was a little girl.
Please
, help me.”

“Aspen, it’s not that. You still are important to me. I would help you if I could but it’s too late for anyone to help you now, even me,” he said gently as he picked up my hand and held it.
 

“No,” I moaned softly as I shook my head. I refused to believe his lies. He was angry with me, I could feel it emanating from deep inside him. He was punishing me for running away from him, I was sure of it. Blessedly, I didn’t have much time to stew about it as the darkness rose up and sucked me back into oblivion again.

The bedroom door opened again and this time both Roan and the Alpha came in.
 

“How far gone is she?” he asked, his old wrinkled face marred with concern.
 

“Far enough, she is useless in this state. She can’t tell me anything,” Roan said as he shook his head.
 

“Does she know?” the Alpha asked as he nodded towards me.
 

Did I know what? That Roan was a heartless jerk? Then “yes”, I knew that already.

“Nope, she is completely unaware,” Roan said, running his hand through his hair in agitation.

“Have you thought of blood bonding with her. She’s more than old enough now, you know. You could have claimed her several years ago, had you wanted to, but you choose to let her have her freedom and live away from the pack.”
 

Roan turned away from the Alpha and looked down at me, whimpering and burning up on the bed. “I don’t think I have a choice anymore. I need to go in and extract her memories because the longer we wait, the further away whoever did this gets from us.”
 

“I’ll leave you then. I’ll take the others back to the big house with me,” Alpha said as he clapped Roan on the back and left us alone in my room.
 

Roan shook his head, muttering to himself as looked down at me.
 

“Jesus Aspen, it wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he said softly.

I looked up at him, not understanding the meaning behind his words.
What wasn’t supposed to be like this?

“Ok, little girl, get over here, it’s show time,” he said as he sighed deeply. His strong hands reached down and grabbed me as he gently sat me upright with my feet dangling over the side of the bed.
 

“Wh..wh..what are you going to do to me, Roan. You’re not going to hurt me are you??” I stammered fearfully through the black haze threatening to claim me again.
 

He snorted as he fished around in a military rucksack on the floor. “No more than what you’ve already experienced so far tonight. Who knows, you might even like it,” he said as he chuckled darkly.
 

I watched him like a hawk as he pulled out a small syringe and a suspicious looking bottle from the bag. He stabbed the needle through the top of the bottle and pulled back on the plunger until liquid started drawing up into the syringe.
 

“Oh my god, what’s that for?” I said fearfully, feeling my grasp on consciousness loosen, “Please don’t hurt me Roan. Please, I’m sorry I didn’t come home when you told me to.”

“I’m not going to hurt you, Aspen. Well, I’m not going to hurt you
much
. I promise. But this,” he said as he held up the syringe and walked towards me, “is to make sure that you’re much more agreeable and compliant while we blood bond.”
 

Trying in vain to pull away from him, I watched in horror as Roan wrapped his hand around my arm to hold it still, swabbed a small spot and injected me with the suspicious liquid.
 

I struggled and tried to get away from him but it was useless. I was too weak and Roan was, well Roan was
Roan
. However, one good thing was that he hadn’t been lying when he’d told me that the medication wouldn’t kill me. On the contrary, I immediately felt relaxed and calm inside, like my insides were dipped in liquid silk.
 

Even my senses were dulled from the intense sound and light that threatened to cleave my skull in two. Everything around me was muted and more tolerable.
 

“Thank you, Roan,” I whispered, as I looked up at him, grateful for his mercy.

“Don’t thank me yet, but you’re welcome,” he whispered back. “That should take the edge off for awhile,” he said as he wrapped his hands around my biceps and gently pulled me into an upright standing position.
 

I was wobbly on my feet and my legs threatened to buckle as soon as I stood up. I bunched my hands into the t-shirt at his chest to hold myself up, but Roan was right there and cradled me tightly against his chest. He may be a lot of things but I knew he wouldn’t let me fall into a tangled heap on the floor.

“Where are we going?” I asked.
 

“Well, I don’t know about you but I’d rather blood bond with you in my bed instead of your teenaged pink nightmare of a bedroom. It just doesn’t feel very manly, you know,” he said sardonically.

“I don’t know what blood bonding is, but I don’t want to do whatever it is or anything else with you for that matter. Put me back in my bed, Roan” I said, panic filling me as I struggled weakly against his hard chest.