“Donnie says they are not innocents,” Sierra comments over my thoughts.
“In his eyes, no rogue is innocent.” I grumble under my breath. Mate or not, Sierra and I are rogue. Just as rogue as Andrei’s victims.
“He used to be a rogue. Donnie told me they used to be before they became an Alpha.” Sierra adds as if her words could make this situation less messed up.
“If he was a rogue, how could he do that to another rogue?” I snap back with a question.
I’m angry at my wolf, and the way the bond is blinding her already. Andrei isn’t the gift from the Goddess that she thinks he might be. If anything, in my eyes, that man is a curse.
“Donnie says it helps him sleep. It drowns out the images of his mate,” Sierra whispers.
My eyes widen a little. “Andrei said she was murdered,” I remind her, and she nods. My entire body jolts and the door opens.
Didn’t I lock it? I’m sure I did.
“He has a key,” Sierra reminds me as I snuggle under the blankets.
Andrei walks into the bathroom, not paying me any attention. I can smell the blood covering his hands, mixed with the familiar stench of rogues, we all smell the same.
Of course, I didn’t smell the same to Andrei since I was supposedly his mate. But generally, all rogues smell the same, like decaying leaves and dirt. Andrei leaves the bathroom door half-open, probably to keep his eye on me, just in case, and turns the shower on.
The light filters into the room and steam billows out the door despite the exhaust fan working away in the bathroom.
The smell of citrus soap wafts into the room, and after a while, the water cuts off. Andrei steps out with a gray towel hanging low on his hips, chest bare, and his hair dripping as he uses another towel to dry it.
Andrei’s body is all rock-hard muscle, but he is too big for abs. He has the lines, but too much muscle and too widely built. He looks just hard, like a wall of muscle. His V-line escapes underneath the towel and his pecs move with each movement as he dries his hair.
He walks over to the bedside drawer, grabs a pair of boxers, and drops the towel. I instantly roll over to my side to look away. “If I climb in there, are you going to freak out, or behave? If you are planning to act up, tell me, and I will sleep downstairs.” Andrei asks, and I hear him hang his towel over the door. “Sage?” Andrei presses, and I half roll onto my back as he crawls onto the bed. I bite my cheek, thinking of an answer when he speaks again. “Can I sleep in here, or do you want me to go?” He asks.
“Sleep where you want,” I mumble, wondering why he asks for permission to sleep in his own bed. To be completely honest, I’m scared to act up or make him leave. Who knows how he might react? And besides, he just returned from the basement. Andrei had his fun down there, but he still could crave more and decide it’s my turn to enjoy the luxuries of whatever it is he was doing down there.
“I would rather sleep in here with you, but I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” he whispers, still not moving.
“Are you still mad that I ran?” I ask while glancing over my shoulder. Fear creeps up my spine again as I worry that I might have crossed another line by questioning him.
Andrei thinks for a moment, possibly trying to decide if he wants to tell me the truth or lie, but then, he sighs and whispers.”Extremely, but I get it, you don’t know me. I am sorry I put you in the trunk. I overreacted and let the anger get the best of me. Sage, I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry I ran,” I admit, and his brows furrow before he nods his head.
“So, can I sleep in here with you?” he prods.
“Why are you asking? It is your bed,” I tell him. This man is absurd, it should be the other way around, me asking him if I can spend the night here. This isn’t my house.
“Because I don’t want to just climb in bed with you and watch you freak out. As I already said, I can sleep elsewhere, it is your choice,” Andrei explains. I’m surprised at the amount of anxiety that radiates off him, it almost matches mine.
Sighing and rolling my eyes, I toss the blanket back, and he sighs before climbing in beside me.
He doesn’t touch me, just lies on his back stiffly. He tugs the blanket up, and rolls, but I keep my back to him.
After a while, my heart rate slows, and I drift off as his scent fills the room. I find it oddly calming, and even Sierra is rather mellowed out.
The next week passes by quickly, and I never leave the house.
Andrei is keeping me prisoner, and besides the library, where I spend quite some time daily, I rarely leave the room unless called upon. Andrei leaves daily, and for the most part, when he thinks I am asleep, he sneaks into the basement.
Every time he goes in there, I hear agonized screams and pretend not to notice the whimpers that come from the other side of the door. Rarely, Andrei goes down there during the day, but never if I am on the floor.
He’s so careful when he returns from his little torture sessions. He never leaves the door unlocked, successfully keeping me out of there. And he never returns covered in blood. That’s quite surprising, given that those screams often sound like Andrei is ripping off their limbs and leaving them hanging by a thin piece of muscles, just to wait until they heal and repeat the process.
Unsurprisingly, Sierra also is becoming nervous. It took her a while to understand that Andrei and his wolf aren’t the knight in shining armor she expected. The longer we are locked in the house, the more she realizes this is just another prison. A bit more comfortable than the previous one, but a golden cage is still a cage. The forest is right there, but we can’t reach it. We can’t feel the dirt beneath our paws.
Sierra’s anxiety mingles with my own, and for the last two days, we have returned to our wolf form. Andrei has been especially quiet and moody. He barely says anything, and sometimes I get this strange feeling he is looking straight through me like I don’t exist.