fearfully.
Again that damnable smile curved his lips and
she felt a chill at its appearance. “First, you will strip and wash
their foul seed from your body. I can smell it drying upon your
skin as we speak.”
Indeed, the seed from her two wolves had
dried to a thin crust along her skin. But she didn’t want to wash
it away. Her reluctance was rewarded with a sharp slap across her
face. She gasped and stumbled away, holding her cheek with her
palm.
“I do not ask. I am telling you.”
“Fuck you,” she said, blinking back
tears.
“Do not tempt me,” he said, looking away. “I
will give you ten minutes to clean yourself. You will find a
natural spring pool about twenty feet away. It is warm but not
overly so. Wash yourself. I expect to see you scrubbed clean and
ready for me when I return.” He turned to leave, but then added for
good measure, “Do not be so foolish as to try and leave. The cavern
is filled with wrong turns and deadly drop offs. If you would like
any chance of leaving this cavern alive…do as you’re told.”
Cassandra watched with open hatred as he
disappeared, moving far too quickly for a human being, but
differently than her wolves, and she wondered what world she’d
woken up in today.
She walked cautiously away from the fire and
found the bubbling pool just as her captor described. Her body
ached from the pounding given to her by the twin wolf brothers and
the water was a welcome relief. She sank in and submerged herself,
and then found a bar of organic soap waiting for her on a ledge.
After soaping herself and rinsing, she drifted over to a submerged
ledge and settled herself upon it. The water swirled around her
like a hot tub and her protesting muscles began to relax under the
soothing jets of natural jets bubbling from the depths of the
earth. She lost track of time and must’ve fallen asleep for when
she opened her eyes again, her captor was standing there watching
her.
She sank lower in the water to shield her
breasts from his gaze but he laughed at her efforts.
“Come, I have clothes for you to change
into.”
She scowled and motioned for him to turn
around. “I’m not putting on a peep show for your
entertainment.”
“My dear foolish child…it doesn’t matter
whether I see your naked body now or later. But suit yourself. I
will indulge your request because it amuses me.” He turned to give
her privacy and she rushed to cover herself. But as she lifted the
clothing he’d brought her, she realized with dismay she may as well
have remained naked. The cloth was a sheer sheath that was
certainly inappropriate for the chilly cavern and definitely
inappropriate given the situation. She looked for her old clothes
but found they were gone. As if sensing her confusion, he said, “I
burned them. The seed of those beasts was all over them. I thought
I might be ill.”
“So you brought me this?” She lifted the thin
sheath. “This is ridiculous. I’ll freeze.”
He turned and she gasped as she struggled to
cover herself. “Do you know nothing of your nature?” he asked. When
she failed to answer, he explained in irritation, “In a few short
hours you will phase again. The heat in your body will ramp up
until you are burning with fever. The sheath is simply a nod to
your modesty, however thin. You will rip it from your body when you
are in full phase.”
She swallowed, remembering the scant details
Jandin and Koris had shared before she’d slipped into her second
phase. She remembered the heat inside her body, liquefying her
bones and she shuddered in fear it at happening again. “You must
take me back to my clan. I’ll die if I phase without them.”
“Without a Breeding female, the two clans
settle into an uneasy truce, which bears well for the humans they
choose to live beside. But a Breeding female creates a lust for
dominance that is impossible to quell under the best of
circumstances; add in a Breeding female of your particular blood
line and it’s doomed