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Drip… drip… drip… The blood fell in a monotonous rhythm. My back was cut from the whip and my front was covered in tiny cuts from the rough wall. My wrists had matching bruises and my arms were screaming in pain from nearly being pulled out of their sockets. My feet dangled uselessly just above the ground.
Calloused hands gently unlocked the shackles and caught me before I fell, cradling me carefully against a smooth, sweat covered chest.
“Shh… baby.” His gentle words soothed me. “You’re down now. You’re okay.”
I curled into a ball in his arms, and he massaged small circles into my back. I was only vaguely aware that we were moving down the depressing hallway. All my attention was concentrated on remaining as close to my comforter as possible.
He carried me out to a waiting car and slipped into the backseat with me. He never let go of me. When we got to a house, the driver got out of the car and opened the door for him. I had my eyes shut tightly; I didn’t want to know where I was. I only wanted to know that I was safely pressed against his chest. The same person that opened the car door opened the front door of the house. I was slightly aware of being carried up a flight of stares. The person who’d been opening doors didn’t follow.
When we reached the next door, he untangled on hand to reach out and open it. Terrified of falling and being put into more pain, I clung closer to him. He chuckled quietly and wrapped his other arm back around me. I relaxed a little. He carried me through the doorway to the huge bed on the far side of the room.
“No!” I gasped as he started to put me down. I tried desperately to hold onto him.
“It’s okay baby.” He promised as he gently untangled me and laid me on the bed. Still, I wasn’t comforted until he sat down in the chair beside the bed and took my hand. “You’re okay. Rest now.”
I clenched his hand tightly between both of mine and curled up as close to the side of the bed as possible. He laughed at my obvious attempt to get closer to him, but made no move to help or prevent anything. I slipped gratefully into a deep sleep.

When I woke up, my shirt was missing and the sheets were pulled back. I was thankful that I still had my bra. I was lying on my stomach, and I could feel dried blood on both sides of my body. But, the only soreness came from my muscles. It was as if I hadn’t been battered at all. Both of my hands were empty.
“Ares!” I called out, being careful to move as little as possible. He melted out of the shadows.
“I’m here baby.” His voice was deep and cultivated.
“Want to know what’s not here?” I growled, rolling over to expose my mostly bare torso. My muscles screamed in sheer agony.
“All of the cuts that covered your body?”
“For which I’m thankful, but where the Hell is my shirt?”
“I couldn’t get to the cuts with it on you.” He shrugged. “Besides, it was filthy.”
I couldn’t disagree with him on either count. “Could you get me another one then?”
“It would get dirty.” He sounded shocked. “Don’t you know what you’re covered it?”
“Can I at least take a bath then?”
“Sure thing.” He said as he came over and scooped me up.
“Ares! Put me down!”
“Your legs are in no condition to support your weight.” He stated. “And you were happy enough to have me carry you last night.”
“Last night?” I couldn’t remember anything that had happened exactly. I knew that I’d gotten caught and somehow I’d gotten really cut up, but most of that knowledge came from the fact that there was crusted blood on nearly every inch of my body.
“Later baby.” He whispered as he sat me down on the toilet. It was hardly a comfortable chair, but at least the lid was down. He started to run the bath. He waited until he knew it would be a comfortable temperature before coming over to me. He started to unbutton my pants.
“What the Hell do you think you’re doing?!” I snapped at him.
“I didn’t get a chance to attend to the cuts on your legs last night. Besides, you’ve never minded me undressing you before…”
“Before I wasn’t caked in blood and grime.” He stopped fumbling with my pants and placed both hands on my face.
He forced me to meet his intense gaze. “I almost lost you last night to your damn stubbornness. Just let me do this. Please, let me fret over you just this once.”
There was a deep hurt in his golden eyes that I’d never seen there before. “Okay.” I mumbled. “But just this once.”
He bent down to give me a long, deep kiss. “We’ll see.”

After the bath, he completely ignored my protests to him healing my legs. I was mad and didn’t want to have him touching me anymore, especially not the too intimate way he was going about it. But the pigheaded wolf wouldn’t listen to me.
“Really, Ares, I’m fine.”
“Damnit Alyssa! You said you’d let me fuss!” I flinched. He never called me by my name. He Always used pet names.
“Sorry.” I mumbled before stretching out on the bed. I still really didn’t want to deal with the manner in which he’d heal me, but oh well.
“I know this is uncomfortable for you.”
“Uncomfortable?!” I shouted. “Jesus, could you have been anymore understated? You’re going to have to lick every inch of my lower body!”
“’S not the first time.” He smiled wickedly.
“Cute.” I grumbled as he crawled onto the bed beside me. He paused only to give me a quick kiss before he set out to heal every cut. Of course, I’m not completely sure he was only licking cuts.
A werewolf’s method of healing, especially a sexy wolf’s, can only be described as sensual. When that wolf was also a bit horny and was focused on his mate… well, let’s just say the healing was far more excruciating than any cut. It was all I could do to keep from passing out, but there was no way I was going to miss the sensations. I’d forgotten all about being mad at him by the second lick.
When he came up his eyes were glazed, no doubt a perfect mirror of my own. I tugged his hair loose from its holder and smiled when his long black hair spilled over his shoulder in a silky cascade. He bent down and kissed me, leaving a fiery trail along my jaw line. His breath hitched when I nipped at his ear.
Everything was going more than wonderful until there was a soft knock at the door. We groaned in perfect unison.
“What?” Ares growled.
“Breakfast is ready and unless you want to explain to Abby why after last night neither of you has an appetite from Hell, you’d better come down.”
I cut Ares off before he could growl anymore. “We’ll be down in a bit.”
There was a small shuffling as the person at the door walked away.
“Why did you say that? I’m quite content to stay up here!”
“Because, Abby will kill us both if she thinks that we ate anywhere but here. You know how she prides herself on her cooking. She kills anyone who doesn’t approve of her food as much as she does.”
He was still grumbling as he rolled out of bed.
“I’m hungry anyway.”
“Yeah, so am I.” He said quietly, looking pointedly at my lack of clothing.
“Later baby.” I turned his favorite phrase against him as I started pulling on clothes. He followed me sullenly out of the room.
“’Bout time you two showed up.” Evan laughed as we walked into the dining room. Ares very nearly skinned him alive.
“You were so kind as to not give us a choice.”
“That was all Abby’s design. She was tired of waiting on the Alpha to come down. She won’t start a meal without him.”
“A cruel punishment if you ask me.” Ares growled.
“You nearly tore my throat out the one time I didn’t wait for you.” Abby said as she bustled into the room with a cart filled with all kinds of food.
“I was joking.” Ares insisted.
“Well I would hate to upset you.” She smiled sweetly.
“And I wouldn’t dare upset you.” He replied.
Evan walked over to the cart and got himself a heavy serving of pancakes. I followed suit, but instead of getting a huge serving of pancakes, I got two pancakes and two thick slices of ham. Ares filled up a plate of all the different meats and avoided everything else. You’d think that he was only capable of eating meat the way he inhaled it. Abby settled for pastries, by that time, there wasn’t much else left.
“Where’s the rest of the pack?” I was sure that everyone was supposed to be here this morning. Three sets of golden eyes stared at me.
“Do you really not remember anything from last night?” Evan asked.
“I told you that she was heavily medicated when I found her.” Ares growled. “They’d given her something to keep her fully awake and aware to the pain, but it was like she wasn’t there. She seemed muted somehow.”
“What happened last night?” My eyes were wide.
“I’ll explain later baby. I promise.”
“Damnit Ares, I don’t want to wait until later! What the Hell happened to me that has all of you looking at me like I’m insane?!”
“Please baby…” His golden eyes were pleading with me.
“Fine.” I hissed. “I’ll be waiting for you in your room when you get done.” That was a bit of a slap. Ever since I moved in, he’d been really insistent on me referring to everything as ‘ours’. I slammed the bedroom door behind me. I grabbed a book off the shelf and curled into a defensive ball on his bed. His. I’d decide later whether or not I could still call it ours. I couldn’t believe that he was trying to hide what happed to me from me. I heard the door open and shut quietly. I refused to look up at him.
“Baby please…” He said softly as his sat down beside me. “I was going to tell you.”
“Were you really?” I snarled. “You let me go down there, expecting a usual morning, without telling me anything!”
“I didn’t expect you to remember that I’d called a pack meeting.”
“I always remember!”
“I didn’t think you would after last night!”
“Why? What the Hell happened last night Ares?!”
He winced. “The rival pack kidnapped you. They wanted to use you to get me to leave the city.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Would you have?”
“Yes.”
“You foolish wolf!” I hit him. “How could you even think about doing that?! This is the pack’s home! You will not leave it because of me!”
“I’d do anything for you. The entire pack would. They all love you.”
I changed the subject a little. Pack love was not something I wanted to be reminded of after I’d obviously put them in danger. “How’d you get me out?”
“We attacked them. Their pack had more members, but ours was stronger, and we had a lot more to fight for.”
“Tell me everything Ares.”
His eyes were swimming with emotion. “While everyone was fighting, I slipped passed the battle to find you.” He grabbed my hand. “They had you deep in the caves. When I found you, there were two guards standing watch. You were chained to the wall of the cave. The site of you drove me into a murderous rage.” He squeezed his eyes shut against the memory.
I squeezed his hand. “I’m fine now.” He didn’t seem to here me.
His voice came out in a choked whisper. “Seeing you chained facing the cave wall almost killed me. I couldn’t tell if you were alive. Your feet were dangling off the ground and there were whip mark etched into your back.” His eyes were wet. “I got the key from one of the guards and unlocked the shackles. Your eyes were so shadowed. I thought they’d driven you insane. There was no trace of you. You were so scared and small. You clung to me. It was like all your fire was gone.”
I crawled over to him and wrapped his arms around me. He pulled me into a fierce embrace. “I was able to relax a little though because when we got home and I had to open the bedroom door, there was a fierce fire in your eyes because you thought I was going to let you. You seemed to trust me and want to be near me, and you seemed mostly oblivious to everything else. You recoiled when Evan opened the car door. You were afraid of him, but you were enough yourself to know that you could trust me. I could only hope that you’d be okay when whatever they gave you wore off.”
“I am fine.” I assured him as I snuggled closer.
He kissed the side of my head. “No one will ever take you again.”
“Okay… but I don’t think they ‘gave’ me anything.”
“What do you mean?” His body tensed behind me.
“I think it was a spell.”
“Why do you think that?” His voice was low with tightly leashed anger.
“Pills don’t really work on me. I have a natural immunity against all kinds of drugs.”
He snarled. “Why didn’t I know that?”
“It didn’t seem important.”
“If I could I would kill those bastards.”
“If you could?” It wasn’t like him to say that he couldn’t do anything. He was more than a little arrogant.
“They’re already dead.”
“Surely not all…” I whispered as I turned around to look in his eyes. They were golden rocks in his face.
“All.”
“But the pack?! Is everyone okay?”
“They are by now. They’re just resting. You know how we heal.”
I turned back around and sagged into him numbly. They’d killed an entire pack over me. I suddenly felt very sick. I ran to the bathroom and made friends with the toilet. Ares followed me and held my hair out of my face.
“We had to baby…” He whispered. I didn’t believe him.