Alpha Blood Box Set(7)

“Wait!” I cried out. He paused with several loops of the rope wrapped around me and the back of the chair. “I’ll behave.”

“You swear it?” he asked me.

“On all the donuts I’ve eaten in my life, I swear it.” Alistair raised an eyebrow. “Believe me, that’s a lot of swearing.”

“I don’t doubt that, but haven’t you something more important than food on which to swear?”

“I was trying to keep consistent with the theme here, but I’ll swear on my life if you want that.”

“That will do.” He unwrapped me and pushed my chair up to the table. Then he just stood there watching me.

I scowled at him. “Don’t you have someone else to torture?”

“I’m afraid you’re my only available victim,” he replied. I didn’t know which was more annoying, what he said or the calm, smooth voice in which he said it.

“So you’re just going to stand there and watch me eat it all?” I asked him.

“Precisely.”

“I can’t eat if somebody’s watching me.”

“You must try.”

“Or else you make me eat?”

“Or else you break your word,” he reminded me. I groaned, picked up my fork and shoveled some food onto it. I lifted the food to my mouth and my eyes inadvertently wandered up to Alistair. He stood perfectly still at my side with his eyes staring unblinkingly down at me.

I dropped the fork on my plate and nodded at the other chair. “Sit down.”

“Beg your pardon?”

“At least sit down so you don’t make me a complete nervous wreck.” He obliged by sitting down and staring at me from across the table. Not a great change, but definitely an improvement. I decided the room needed some noise. “So how long you been working for this Luke guy, if that’s his real name?” I wondered as I picked up my fork and raised it to my mouth.

“It is, and I have been with the family for some seventy years.”

The fork stopped mid-mouth as I stared at the senile old man. “Seventy years?” I repeated.

“Yes, miss, give or take five years.”

“Funny, you don’t look a day over a hundred. Must have started your employment with them pretty early.” I took a bite of the fork.

“Not very early, and I am well over a century old.”

I choked out my bite of fork and dropped the utensil back on the plate. “Can’t either of you two stay sane for more than five minutes?”

“I’m perfectly right in the head, if that’s what you’re implying,” Alistair calmly answered.

“That’s exactly what I’m implying, and anybody who says they’re over a hundred years old when they look like you either has a great plastic surgeon or is lying their ass off.”

“I am neither lying, nor have I had plastic surgery.”

“Then how do you explain it? Your werewolf powers?”

“Precisely.”

I slapped my forehead and growled. I froze when he growled back, and I whipped my head up in time to see his face change from a sneer to his stoic expression. “Did you. . .did you just growl at me?”

“Merely instinct. A male will naturally try to subdue the female.” I leaned back in my chair and stared at the man with a touch of fear in my eyes. “You needn’t worry, miss. Now that I am aware of how far along you have progressed I will make sure to keep myself contained.”

“Progressed?” I repeated.

“Toward the change, Miss Rebecca.”

“Becky.”

“Beg your pardon?” he wondered.

I rolled my eyes. “You guys keep calling me Rebecca, but I prefer Becky.”

“Ah.”

“And this change is about me becoming a. . .a-”

“-werewolf,” he finished for me.

“Yeah, that.”

“Yes. The more interaction you have with other werewolves the stronger your Beast grows inside of you.”

The conversation took a turn too weird for me. I glanced down at the plate, then back up at him. “If I finish this plate will you leave?”

“Yes.” I proceeded to shovel the food down my throat as fast as I could, and in record time he was packing up breakfast and leaving the room. He paused at the door and turned back to where I sat in my chair, gorged and grateful to see him leaving. “Master Luke asked me to tell you that we will be leaving for the train station at six o’clock.”

“Ah don’t haf a clock,” I garbled through my stuffed mouth.

“He thought not, and wanted you to have this.” He stepped back over to the table and pulled out a solid gold watch locket which he presented to me. “It is an heirloom of the Laughton family. He thought it would perhaps gain some of your trust if he entrusted you with it.”

I looked from the locket up to Alistair’s face and swallowed the food in my mouth. “Really?” I asked him.

“Yes, miss.”

I hesitantly reached out and took the locket. After a brief struggle I opened the clasp and found a white clock face with hands that slowly ticked the time. There was a jewel at each of the hours cut into the shape of the numbers, and they glistened in the light. My voice reflected my awe. “It’s beautiful.”

Alistair bowed at the waist. “I shall inform Master Luke of your pleasure with his gift when he awakens.”

I looked down at the time, saw it was nearly ten and raised an eyebrow. “That bum isn’t awake yet?” I quipped.

Alistair coughed into his free hand to hide his choking laugh. “I’m afraid not, Miss Becky. He generally keeps late hours and sleeps until noon.”

“Well, tell him I like it and, well, thanks,” I grumbled.

“Very well. Oh, and if you don’t mind my asking, what size of clothes do you wear?” I whipped my head up and glared at him.

“Why?” I slowly drawled.

“Merely to acquire some clothes for yourself for the trip.”

I turned away and hunched over. “Maybe that info’s a little private.”

Alistair stepped into my line of sight and looked me up and down. “Then I will be forced to guess, and I guarantee the outcome will not be to your liking.” I gritted my teeth and told him the sizes he wanted to know. “Good morning to you, then, Miss Becky,” he replied, and left me alone with my present and my thoughts.





7





I took another look at the inside of the watch and the face opposite the clock. Something caught my eye, and I could barely make out a faded name etched ever so slightly into the metal. “Ezekiel Laughton,” I read aloud. I furrowed my brow. “Laughton.” I snapped my fingers as I recalled that was the name Alistair had given to Luke’s family. “Wonder who this Ezekiel guy was. . .”

I stood up and turned to face the boarded up windows. That reminded me that I was still a prisoner in that room, and that I needed to find a way out before they dragged me to that mentioned train station. I stuffed the watch in my pocket and checked the windows. Definitely wasn’t going to get through those without a crowbar. I whirled around and glanced at the door. That had potential because it didn’t have boards on it. I went up and knocked on the wood. It sounded very solid, so breaking through wasn’t an option. The hinges and the knob were my best options, the latter of which was well-oiled and made of thick bands of metal.

I turned to the knob, my last, best hope for victory. That turned out to be relatively unbarred, and unlocked. My mouth fell open when the knob turned in my hands and the door opened, wiping away all my careful efforts at escape in a single swing of mockery. I didn’t have time to yell at myself for not trying the door sooner, though, because I didn’t know where Alistair was. I snuck out into the hall, closed the door behind myself and crept down the passage.

I was halfway to the stairs when I heard the soft clank of shoes on the metal steps. Somebody was coming, so I whipped my head left and right to find a hiding place. I noticed a door on my right was slightly ajar, and jumped into the dark room. The shadow of Alistair walked up the hall and paused at the room I’d entered. I slipped behind the door and held my breath as he stepped inside and flicked on the light. Fortunately, the door hid me from sight, and I peeked around to see what he was doing.

There was a bed on the opposite wall between two windows with heavy curtains. On the bed lay the ruffled, sleeping form of Luke with his hair messed up and his limbs strewn about the tangled covers. Alistair set a breakfast tray on a nightstand beside the bed, stepped over to one of the windows and drew the curtains, casting the room in bright, natural sunlight. It really was a nice day outside, and I hoped I could get out of the house to enjoy it.

The sunlight hit Luke full-force, and he groaned and tucked his head beneath a large pillow. I would have laughed if I hadn’t been trying to escape from his company. He looked like a little boy who didn’t want to get up. “Sir, it’s time to get up,” Alistair spoke up.

“No,” came the muffled reply. I changed my mind. He was a little boy who didn’t want to get up.

“Perhaps next time you will allow me to protect the estate grounds,” Alistair scolded.

Luke sighed and peeked his head out from beneath the pillow. “I hardly had a choice in the matter, Alistair. With that girl here I can barely keep my hands off of her, much less fight the urge to protect her every waking moment.”