Having been strong-armed the entire way inside the dining room of the absolutely massive mansion we were settled outside I was beginning to realise that whoever Griffith was, he was someone powerful. Strange how the manifestation of money was more compelling to me than being kidnapped.
As we were roughly forced into the room, a room that looked like like a modernised abbey living room with a show kitchenette, marble countertops and a matching table. There were some chandeliers dripping droplet style... glass, I imagined, from the ceiling in three places. Beautiful, but a certainly impractical. I wondered how often such things needed to be dusted.
"I see you're admiring our Venetian crystal chandeliers..." Came the booming voice from the entrance as Griffith stalked inside, his eyes on me.
I didn't say anything.
Lowell inched in front of me, the look he was giving was making everyone nervous, it was dark, and it seemed to resonate it too, put us on edge even given that his wrists and ankles were still in shackles, dragging the thin silver chains behind him. He hadn't broken the chains, apparently they were strong enough that ripping them out of the bed of the truck was easier than snapping it in two.
"What're you mute?" He walked further opposite us so I was plainly in view.
I nudged Lowell, I was too hot to say much and the more he postured over me the stranger our relationship would appear to the probably psychopath that was currently stalking in front of us.
Lowell's father did look like him, the hairline, the jaw, the intense eye that looked like they intended on boiling you alive at the slightest grievance, but comparatively his father had lighter skin and a very different figure. Lowell was tall and muscular, and so was Griffith, but his muscles were the sort that were designed to either impress or frighten, a prominent vein in his neck running up his jaw, with a little fat around his middle that men his age generally had.
As said, Lowell was darker than his father, with a flatter, wider nose and lips, brighter whites in his eyes, muscle that managed to look relatively harmless by comparison but was evidently strong enough to worry even his father.
The muscles under the black half turtleneck straining around his chest appeared to curve gently, and maybe that was why I desperately wanted to lean in, slip my arms around him and feel his around me. The feeling so strong that I inhaled slowly and moved an inch away, Lowell's eyes flashing in my direction as I did.
"With all due respect sir, why am I here?" I asked the man.
He laughed, seeming a little surprised. "My son was reckless around you, he turned into a wolf. And you can't possibly think why we might have security concerns?"
"He won't say anything..." Lowell gritted his teeth.
His father laughed. "You're so confident." Then his gaze turned colder. "And that's pretty worrying isn't it?"
Lowell glanced at me, my face was still burning, my skin prickly, at this point they probably hadn't seen the normal colour of my complexion so it might not have struck them as strange.
"He's a friend of mine. You know this, clearly, since you neither handcuffed him nor took his phone away from him."
My brain blanked, I looked up at him slowly but Lowell was too busy battling for most frightening glare award with his father over the massive slab of marble between us.
I had my phone with me.
I used it so little that it simply didn't occur to me to call for help with it, my brain fuzzy with this strange heat.
My eyes were still wide as I looked down, the weight in my pocket.
Well, that's fairly embarrassing.
"I agree." Griffith nodded. "They should have done that."
He sat down at the table, eyes following me even as he moved and beckoned for us to sit as well.
Lowell watched him for a moment, I felt a little sick as sat down, he gritted his teeth and sat down beside me. Someone appeared to the side of us and calmly set down some tea things from a tray in front of us and moved away.
I watched them, slightly baffled.
"Why did you kidnap us." Lowell asked in a flat tone.
"Kidnap?" He seemed put off by that word.
Lowell put his hands on the table, the shackles on his wrists jangling against the cold marble loudly, the clean silver glimmering in the light of the chandelier.
"Well, I suppose it does give off certain vibes."
Lowell glared darkly at him. "Why?" He pressed, irritated.
Griffith smiled at the him as though he was holding something back. "Someone who rips the chains out of the bed of the truck really shouldn't need to ask such a question."
"You predicted I would get stronger?" He looked confused.
Griffith said nothing.
Lowell bristled. "Answer at least one of my fucking questions."
He rapped his fingers on the table while his tea was poured for him. "Nothing too terrible, you needn't be so frightened."
"I'm not-"
"I've found a good mate for you." He spoke easily.
I wasn't sure what it meant but Lowell blinked, perplexed into silence.
"A mate?" I asked in a murmur.
Griffith's attention turned to me. "Nothing too complicated, it's really just like a wife, except you'll go into heat after engaging with each other until you're bound together and there's no divorce." He smiled.
"Heat?" I glanced at Lowell, he looked a little uncomfortable and looked away.
"Have you ever watched an animal documentary?" Griffith asked, seemingly humoured by my naivety.
Heat. As in constantly feeling needy for the other person, wanting him to touch me, his hands on you, pinned down by him, impaled so deeply I couldn't breathe, needing more, seemingly addicted, itchy, nervous, and each earth shattering orgasm then too soon my body begins to want more again. My face burned.
"Why are you explaining this..." He hissed. "If you want a leech to wipe his mind why bother?"
I looked up at Lowell slowly with a sort of confused horror that I'd never felt before, but I swallowed it all and cleared my expression, turning back to Griffith.
"Whim." He replied easily.
"You choose your mate and then... How? How do you do it?"
He seemed pleased I was interested, as though it was merely a cultural thing. "Well, forced matings are a little different. One needs to bite first in order to feel the heat."
I blinked. "I see..."
Lowell glanced down at me,
I kicked his leg hard and he winced and jolted, frowning at me. "Max."
"No." I replied sharply, flushed as anything.
I got up and reached for the teapot, pouring us tea as though it would help me calm down.
Griffith seemed interested by me but his eye slid back to Lowell, giving him his full attention.
"She's quite a beautiful girl, and she tells me she's always liked you." She cocked his head, his hands resting the top knee of his folded legs.
"What..." Lowell took a deep breath. "Are you actually mental or something? What is this? Why try to arrange a mating now? I'm only barely past the age anyway, I- I might still find my true mate." He glanced at me and I couldn't help the little sliver of panic in my eyes tell him to keep his eyes off of me.
"I wouldn't keep anything from you Lowell, I'm doing this for her sake."
"Whose."
"The little she-wolf, Aleena. Powerful thing, good enough to be beta at least."
"Why would she want to mate with me?" Lowell frowned.
My stomach churned, I tasted the tea and set it back down.
"She's admired you for a long time, she missed you when you left, for her sake I bring you back. You'd break her heart if you didn't at least give her a chance..." He sipped at his tea.
"Give her a chance... I'm not doing shit. If... If she was my mate I'd have scented that already! Fuck off, let me go back home!"
"Back home?" He scoffed. "Unless you're particularly clever I don't believe you have one."
My eyes went wide and Lowell looked at me, annoyed he looked away.
He stood up and I followed suit. "I'm not doing shit. You cast me out. This rogue doesn't wish to illegally trespass on your land, Alpha." He sneered, bowing his head.
Griffith looked annoyed, deadly annoyed, as he stood up as well. "You grew up here, stop being such a little shit."
I frowned. "On the contrary, what Lowell's saying sounds sensible. You kicked him out, he has no responsibility to make you happy anymore, not that any of this sounds like it would have qualified as filial in any case."
His dark gaze turned to me. "He's my son bitch, he'll do what I say."
My anger flared past the point of seeing just how scary he looked at full height. "If you wanted a gigolo for a son you ought to have raised him differently." I snapped.
Lowell looked at me, shocked, as though he expected me to be on the floor kneeling at this point or something.
Griffith stepped back around the table and began to approach us. The guy was intimidating, as much as I wish he wasn't, but even I was surprised when Lowell roughly pushed me behind him and squared up his shoulders growling low.
"Be quiet!" Griffith ordered in a tone of voice that caused me to jolt, pressing into Lowell's back, heart racing uncomfortably.
But Lowell continued growling, a low dangerous warning growl that sent my heart jogging as well.
He scoffed. "Disobedient little..." He stepped closer and the growling got louder, I grabbed Lowell's bicep, though I wasn't sure what I was hoping to do.
"I don't believe you'd go through all this trouble of forcing me back just for some pack girl that says she misses me, who I've never gotten to know." He stated mistrustfully.
"In this situation, son." He leaned in closer. "You're better off submitting quickly. I'm impatient." Then he turned to me and my heart jolted. "Although there's something more pressing nagging at my interest..."
"What?" Lowell asked darkly.
"When we initially met your little friend we thought he was human," He circled us, getting closer to me. "But he seems unsurprised that werewolves exist and..." He sniffed the air. "Even humans have a certain scent to them, so why is his so faint?"
Lowell laughed nervously, glancing at me. I narrowed an eye back at him, trying to figure out if he was keeping something from me.
"Faint or not he's got a human scent, you know he's not a lycan."
Griffith seemed to be closing in even without stepping closer, his presence reaching out, and the both of us felt it.
He hummed. "No matter!" He said finally. "You'll both be here a while," He told Lowell.
We both glanced at each other, alarm growing.
He smiled at us both as he began moving away, the pack members acting as enforcers spilling into the room slowly, surrounding us.
"Don't try anything Lowell, for your own dignity."
[A/N] Hugs to my patrons for supporting my work (˵ - ᴗ - ˵ )♡
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