Chapter 7: Husk

I didn’t move as she stared at me like I was the craziest person she’d ever seen. If she only knew half the things I’d done in my life, she wouldn’t be far off.

“Are you saying my husband sold me to—to the three of you?” She shook her head as though she couldn’t believe what I’d said.

“Yes. And you will stay here with us for the next thirty days.”

Finishing her beer, she stood and walked out of the video room while I watched her intensely, waiting for her to break out as she had done before or show some kind of rage. I could only assume the reason she was so calm was from the two glasses of wine, and now her beer. I followed her as if she’d memorized how to get here and ended up back at the lobby. I signaled for her to follow me to the living room.

She stopped as she stared at the view, the glass wall facing the swimming pool. I could tell she wanted to go out for some fresh air. So I opened the door for her. With the click of a button, it slid open. It used to be automatic, but then Sky would run past it and nearly drown in the damn pool, one too many times. He roamed around this place like a caged wolf, especially, because he didn't know how to swim. Crazy, he could fly, but couldn’t swim.

“The view from here’s amazing. I’ve never seen something so beautiful.”

I shook my head as the once frightened woman who had stepped into the penthouse, turned with bright eyes as she looked over at me.

The strange part was until she mentioned it, I’d never thought of the view as beautiful. I looked out, not thinking about anything, but trying to see the same beauty which she had described a few seconds ago. As the sun set, the Vegas strips lights all came alive at the same time. Every building ranging from gold, to white, to blue, it was as if the bouncing of the lights from each building made it seem as if the buildings were dancing to music built from the buzz of the city.

I stood beside her. “I’m sorry about Keith.”

Keith had married her without our approval, and then demanded more money for bringing her to us. I hated him, and I just hoped to never see him again or I would lose control.

“I don’t even have a ring to hock.” She wiped at the corner of her eye.

“No?”

I wanted confirmation. He didn’t not have a ring, but there was something else missing to confirm the marriage to him was real.

Had she fucked him?

She leaned against the railing, looking out across the city with the twinkling lights below us. “I pay my debts even if they’re someone else’s. I have nowhere to go. I don’t even know if I’ll be allowed back home, or even if I want to go back there...” Her shoulders hunched slightly. “Should’ve known never to trust a stranger.”

“We’re strangers, Fagua.” I faced her, leaning my side against the balcony’s railing. “And I trust you.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t.” Her dark gaze challenged me.

A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth, and I fought the urge to draw her into my arms and kiss her until she clung to me and moaned my name. “I can handle anything you dish out.”

Then, she looked back out on the city. “Could be worse, I guess. At least I’m in a hotel casino’s penthouse and not chained up in a basement.”

“That’s for next week,” I teased, and she laughed.

She was ours, and I was never going to let her go. Never going to stop making her happy and spending the rest of my life making up the fact we paid to have her brought to us.

I held out my hand. “How about I give you a tour of everything, then I’ll let you get settled.”

For an instant, I thought she’d balk and demand to be freed to go home. Instead, she turned to me and lifted her head, taking my hand. I drew her over to the pool’s bar and pushed the remote and opened the big screen dropped down.

“We even have our own outdoor cinema.”

“Oh my God!” she screamed as she drew near to the hot tub, her hand pulling from mine. “And a jacuzzi too? Holy cow!”

I was about to tell her to be careful, she could slip on the tiles, and knowing Winter he would probably blame me for the accident and claim I scared her somehow.

“I could sit in this all day and just watch the view. I wouldn’t watch TV. I mean what’s the point of being out here if all you’re going to do is watch the big screen?”

She waited for an answer, but I didn’t give her one, because part of me knew she had a valid point and the other part of me hated her for making it. We were privileged, and we did nothing to enjoy it. I had to get myself under control, so I did what I always did in these types of circumstances, I lit up a cigar and as the fumes started to move down my throat and calm my nervous system. Giving her space, I lay down on one of the lounge chairs while she looked around outside.

Closing my eyes, I wanted to tell her not to worry about Keith, about what an asshole he was for leaving her. But then I would be tempted to tell her the truth...how we paid him to bring her here. How no rival wolf could get within a mile of her dad’s little town. But then I’d probably blow any chance with her to heal us.

“Are you sleeping?” she asked as she stepped up to me and prodded me as if I was dead.

“No, just reflecting,” I barked back. I expected her to be scared, but she surprised me by sniggering as she carried on taking in the view as she walked up to the hot tub.

She sank into the sun chair next to me, and it was as if she was doing it to lose her thoughts.

I spoke to break the silence, I wanted to know what was on her mind.

“Are you okay being here for thirty days?”

I got right to the point.

“Yes.” She closed her eyes and looked so much like a goddamn angel my heart squeezed.

The patio door slid open, and Winter came out and joined us. Might as well let him in on our conversation.

“Winter told you the time you would be staying here?”

“Yes.”

He crept behind me and shook his head, which meant he hadn’t told her. I wondered what he had told her, but then I could tell she was either exhausted from today, or she just wanted to be left alone.

I motioned to Winter and stood. We’d go back inside and talk, leaving her to rest. He started heading back.

As I started to join Winter, she blurted, “You’re a wolf aren’t you?’”

I stood frozen, unable to look at her.

I kept on walking, she knew the answer to her own question and as we arrived safely back into the penthouse I said to Winter.

“She knows.”

He didn’t say a word. Instead he beckoned for me to follow him, and I did just as I stumped out my cigar and went to Sky’s room.