Adrienne wondered how long she would have to be tied to a chair in a cave. The thought displeased her as well as the idea that Bane would relish doing this to any woman. It was the worse she ever felt. At first she thought she was reaching Bane, but there was no hope for him. There was no reasoning with an animal like him, she thought. Tying her up, feeding and treating her like a dog, he wouldn’t treat a dog like that. What next?
Then she heard a sound. A gruff sound coming from the opening of the cave. It was too dark for her to see. The fire had gone out in the pit minutes before. Aside from her being cold she was hungry. Bane had placed her in a chair in the far back of the cave and with her hands tied. She couldn’t do anything. He had promised her that it wouldn’t take long. Had he used her to catch Wilder and the others? Her mind took a curious turn.
Why had he left no light and had her in the dark. When she tried to ask, he had said that light would attract animals. “That didn’t make sense,” she had said to him. He sternly forbid her to ask another question, and said she would be okay, and he would be back soon.
“Get some sleep we have a long day tomorrow,” he had said to her dismissing her questions once more.
“How do you expect me to sleep like this?” she had said moving in the chair showing her hands bound behind her back, and her ankles tied tight.
“That’s not my concern. Do as you wish,” he had said and he shifted in front of her and was gone. She tried to sleep and think about the wonderful times she had with Wilder, Lycell, and the glorious honeymoon with Drayton, and her children she thought she would never have. Now she had an abundance of them and more coming. She hoped she would survive long enough to see them being born and to see them become handsome werewolves like their fathers. Then she heard an ear numbing thundering sound heading her way. It appeared to shake the floor of the cave.
Adrienne glanced up to see what she thought was the largest bear she had ever seen. It was the only bear she had ever seen, and it was real, and not in a zoo. She tried to think. What did Wilder teach her about bears? “Don’t look them in the eyes. Is it a female? Did he say how I would know? Something about having her cubs nearby. But it’s alone. Maybe it’s not a female. Does that make the bear any less ferocious? He didn’t say. Make noise maybe it will go away. I can’t wave to it. I’m sitting here like food waiting to be wolfed up,” her mind is telling her. Adrienne began rocking back and forward, shouting, cursing, and grunting.
“That’s not scaring him. It’s making him angry. He’s standing on two feet hulking above me. He’s not afraid of me. Bane left me here to be eaten like those rabbits he’s planning on having for dinner. Maybe that’s how he came by that large rug in this cave,” Adrienne thought. “Bring his women here, and use them as bait, then go back to his pack and brag about what a hunter he is.”
Her mind overcome with fear, anguish, and a sense of helplessness couldn’t think of what to do. That’s it. It’s all over. It was a sweet life while it lasted, she thought. She knew living with werewolves had its dangers, but she never thought it would come to this.
Adrienne had made up her mind that it was the end, and she sat quiet closing her eyes. Then when the death blow came, she wouldn’t feel anything. She waited and opened one eye and that’s when she saw Bane. He’s a large white werewolf like Wilder. Maybe it’s her Wilder, but Wilder’s eyes are blue, and Bane’s are glowing amber and red. This werewolf to Adrienne’s disappointment is Bane, but he’s her hero for now, and she’s happy to see him.
He stood as if trying to decide whether he should run.
There was no way he would fight a bear for her. What did he have to gain? He looked like someone who didn’t have a dog in that fight, and there was no reason to risk death.
To Adrienne’s surprise, Bane’s fur bristled on his body, and he snarled and made menacing sounds and showed his sharp fangs to the bear. It turned back to face Adrienne advancing in her direction with his back to Bane, not worrying about him. Maybe the bear had never come into contact with werewolves. Maybe it thought he was an overgrown wolf.
But Bane had been in close counters with bears, and if he could help it, he knew it was better to distract them. He let out a ferocious wolf call which rang with rage and bounced off the walls of the cave. But the bear focused his mind on one thing, his night snack, sitting tied to a chair.
The appearance of Bane as a werewolf was far more threatening to Adrienne than the bear. Bane is as tall as the bear, but the large black bear was undeterred by Bane. He had his mind set on Adrienne.
Bane immediately dropped his handful of rabbits near the entrance, picked up a log and rushed the bear. He hit it from behind over and over. The bear turned in surprise, and Bane hit him on his nose, and then Bane made a mad leap and with his sharp fangs he took a chunk out of its shoulder spitting it on the ground.
The bear cried out in pain and fell on all fours, where Bane thought he would charge him, so he stepped aside taking a menacing stance waiting for the attack. It never came. The bear shot for the opening of the cave, not before pausing and grabbing the rabbits in his teeth, and exiting the mouth of the cave. Bane breathed a sigh of relief. He had tackled a bear before, but it took his pack of ten wolves to take one down. He knew that if the bear hadn’t retreated then he and Adrienne would be food.
“Are you alright, Adrienne?” Bane asked after taking time to shift back to human form. Adrienne sat shivering and trembling from fright and the cold. When she realized that she was still alive she became angry.
“What do you care?” She says as his head lowered and he ripped off the rope from her arms and body with his sharp incisors. Then sitting near her legs naked, he untied her feet.
When he had freed her completely, she looked down at him sitting helpless at her feet. He looked like a vulnerable handsome man and she became more enraged. She raised her hand to slap him. He caught her hand in midair before it landed on his cheek.
“Do not confuse me with Wilder or Drayton. Why would you continue to enrage me? Don’t you know that I have punished werefemales for doing far less than what you attempted to do?”
“I don’t know about you and your werefemales, and how you treat them, but nothing could be worse than to set me up to be food for a bear. Now I’m starving. I haven’t eaten, and the rabbits are gone,” she says holding her stomach which appeared to be moving. She could never get used to giving birth in eight weeks. “I’ll be dead soon the way you’re treating me. I need nourishment. Something to eat,” she shouted. Adrienne’s stomach felt as if it was tightening up and the pain of hunger was more than she could handle.
“I’ll get you something soon.” He tilted his head trying to understand this female. The werefemales never complained. They caught their food and left to have their pups. These human females are too much trouble. Why would the Samsas want to put up with such disrespect coming from a lowly human? Bane thought.
But he did know why. If werewolves were to survive as a species, they needed to breed and since the majority of werefemales were sterile, then they had to put up with such insolence.
“You promised me that you would bring me food. Now the bear has it.” Bane stood and when he did, Adrienne caught sight of his hard ass and strong legs. His muscular shoulders showed signs of healed wounds crisscrossing his hard pecks.
His waist small and his shoulders exceedingly wide. Ford couldn’t build a better body than that. For a second she wanted to think that he was Wilder, or any one of the Samsas, but he was nothing like them, and her imagination had played tricks on her for far too long.
They would never treat a woman the way he’s treating her. She had suffered in that moment she thought she would die, and she is suffering now because she needs to eat. Not for herself, but for her pups.
When Bane returned he had dressed in a pair of jeans, and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. He strode over to the bag he had setting where the rabbits were. He opened it, and there was a bottle of milk.
“Where did you get that?” Adrienne reached for the container of milk and drank it quickly.
“From a grocery store. There’s a local store near here. I brought you some of those panties, too.” She slanted her head to the side, glancing at him, not knowing what he was talking about.
He held them up, and smiled as if he had just brought her a diamond ring, and he was waiting for her to say how wonderful you are, but instead she opened her mouth and gazed at him with a scoff.
“They’re too big,” she said annoyed.
“They won’t be for long,” he shot back and walked away from her. Turning he said, “Can’t you say thanks?”
“For trying to get me killed.”
“For me not killing you. Next time you might not be so lucky.” He raised one eyebrow at her. He looked undeniable sexy. She thought he was trying to frighten her by his threats, but instead he roused her passion. Why would he go out of his way to bring her panties?
“And I might not think you’re worth the trouble you have put me through. Get ready we’re leaving here.” Bane stood gazing at her. His eyes glowing with a savage inner fire. He caught himself not believing how she is affecting him. She had unlocked the heart and soul of a man he once was.
“You want me to thank you for bringing me panties. I need food. And where are we going?”
“I brought the panties to keep from smelling your scent. It’s for your own good because if I keep sniffing you, I will have to take you hard even if you are pregnant. When the moon is full and you are the only female around I will have no choice.” Bane’s stare wanders out past Adrienne as if he’s in a daze. “It’s the moon tide. The Earth and Moon are attracted to each other, like I am to you,” his voice is low and calm.
Adrienne’s shrill voice release him from his day dream. “You have control over your body. If you harm me in any way, it’s because you want to.”
“I said I would not fuck you unless you wanted me. I said you will have to beg me to take you.”
“That will be the day,” Adrienne said with a sly smile. “We won’t be together that long. When Wilder and the others come for me, you will be a thing of the past.”
“Don’t count on it.” Bane puts his shirt on and is buttoning it up when he looks at Adrienne gazing at him.
“Those wolves of yours have been sleeping, and eating in luxury. They have gotten soft. They don’t know how to exist in the wild. I’m going to take you with me and naturally they will come for you, and they will have to take you from me, and that won’t be easy.”
Adrienne stood for a moment and watched at Bane. Could he be right? Will they have difficulty finding her before Bane takes her away with him? He walked up to her, and after she was dressed and wearing her fur coat, her strength began to fade.
She teetered side to side. “I’m not feeling well,” she said weak of voice.
Bane thought that Adrienne was using a ploy to slow him down. He took her hand and pulled her out of the cave. “I need to rest for a few seconds.”
“This is not a game, Adrienne, and you can’t manipulate me like you have done the Samsas. I don’t live like they do with their estates. I live out in the wild. And I’m bound by the laws of the wild. If you aren’t strong enough to walk, I will leave you here for wolves, or I will put you out of your misery. What will it be?”
Adrienne couldn’t tell whether Bane was serious or frightening her. And if it was the latter, she was good and terrified. “I’ll walk. But how much further will we have to go?”
“You don’t have to walk. This is what we’re riding in,” he pointed to a rusty old beat up Chevy truck with some remnants of red paint still visible. “We’re heading north where I will test those werewolves of yours. You want to know where we’re going,” he said standing looking down on her with an emotionless expression. “We’re headed for Alaska.”
“I can’t go.” Adrienne backed up, her feet falling deep into the soft snow.
“You will go. Now get in the truck. There’s no use resisting. You will go, or I will make you.” Bane’s face turned from smooth to a furrowed brow and his thick eyebrows meeting together every time he had a disagreement with Adrienne, and every time she tested him in ways he found objectionable. And every time she refused to follow his orders she offended him with her human behavior. As a werewolf, the most feared animal in the forest, she was making a mockery out of him by not obeying.
Her disrespect of him was more than he would take any longer.
The thought of what had happened to her with Paul’s frat friends that night he lay past out, and his friends were drunk out of their minds, came back to her as she watched at Bane’s face. The whole sickening recurring nightmare stayed with her every day she lived with Paul, and that’s why she left him that fateful night when she would enter the world of werewolves and fall in love with Wilder. But Wilder was different. He was patient with her. He understood her and he loved her.
She reminded herself that the werewolf standing before her didn’t love her. Bane’s voice and words recaptured that night which changed her destiny. If she didn’t obey him, she could be in mortal danger. His words paralleled Paul’s friend’s words, “If you don’t lie still and close your mouth, then we will make you,” they had said to her as one held her mouth and the other opened her legs all the while Paul lay passed out in the next room.
A chill came over her. If she resisted Bane then he could force her, and she would be taken eventually and broken. She couldn’t push him to the point where that would happen, so she quietly walked to the old Chevy pickup, opened the door, and climbed in.
Bane glared at Adrienne with a satisfied grin crossing his face as he climbed into the truck. For once she listened to him. Maybe she could be broken after all, he thought. Maybe she’s understanding that she will have to put away the notion that she will be back with the Samsas. Maybe in time she will love him if he treats her with care. But that’s not his way. He could do this for a short time, but it wouldn’t last long because it wasn’t in his nature. His nature was wild and uncontrollable, and he knew it. He alone had convinced himself that she could love him after what he had done.
Looking to her he put the key in and started the motor, a loud bang came from the exhaust pipe, Adrienne jumped from the noise, he glanced at her, and they took off in the truck heading north.