Chapter 6: Will you do as I say?
Pandora
I clutched the robe tightly, remembering what the pack had taught me: how to please my new master. I was supposed to remain silent and obey. But I couldn’t. Maybe it was a survival instinct, or something else entirely. It wasn't instinct; I had none. I had no wolf.
"Calm, child. I only want to make sure you haven't been touched. It’s a simple procedure. The councilman is here only to confirm the accuracy of my report. He will be a witness.”
“She is not even a wolf,” the other one sneered.
I clenched my fists as they closed in on me, pushing me back until I hit the edge of a cot.
"That's right," the doctor said with a malicious smile. “Lie down there. Make yourself comfortable.” His eyes slid over me like oil. "You're young, those firm little breasts are visible even from here."
"What are those marks?" the councilman asked, lifting my robe until it reached my thighs. I curled in on myself and pulled away.
"It's a condition from her pack," the doctor explained with disdain. "Their skin is often flawed. They refuse to mingle their blood, so the same patterns of weakness and misfortune. Those savages even take pride in it.” He spoke of me, of my people, as if I weren't standing there, shivering in his shadow. His lips curled. "A gift from her pack to Alpha Drogba. A woman educated to please”
"The Alpha must be disgusted. Malnourished. Ugly."
"No wolf would discard a virgin girl, especially when she's a gift," the doctor countered smoothly. "Relax, child. Now, open your legs and show me your pussy. I only want to see if you’re tight down there” His voice fell to a whisper, venomous and intimate. My head shook violently.
"Of course you will," he hissed. "You want to please your master, don't you? Open your legs. Open wide so I can see...and touch"
The councilman watched, his eyes glinting, as I refused to yield. Suddenly, the old man seized my ankles and forced my legs apart with brutal strength.
"Hold her!" he barked at the councilman. I screamed.
"Let me go! Let me go!" The doctor pinned my knees wide apart.
"Let me see that little pussy," he snarled, his voice dripping with malice.
Something surged in me then, raw and untamed. I didn’t know if it was panic or despair. Perhaps for the first time in my life, the reality of being utterly alone, far from home, had broken something inside me. I wrenched one ankle free from his grip and kicked hard, striking the old man squarely in the face. He howled, blood spraying, and collapsed to the floor.
“What are you doing, whore?” the councilman shrieked, clamping his hand around my throat. I thought he meant to kill me. His hands were hot and crushing when, suddenly, a sharp, brutal sound cracked through the room. His grip fell away.
I gasped and raised my eyes just in time to see him stagger backward and collapse to the ground with a dull, lifeless thud. A knife was in his head.
I pulled myself upright and clutched the robe. I froze when I saw Tristan standing before me. His eyes were strange again, one burning green, and his chest rose and fell with labored breaths.
"Did they touch you?" he demanded.
I shook my head quickly. His gaze traveled down my bare legs, up my face, and to my feet. There was a fire in his expression. Perhaps it was hatred.
"What the hell..." the doctor groaned, struggling to get up from the floor. But Tristan was already there. He seized the man by the throat, twisted it violently, and snapped his neck. I clapped my hands over my mouth to stifle a scream.
"Come with me," the alpha ordered, his voice like steel. "Now!"
He dragged me out into the corridor. Piero was waiting there, his eyes wide with fear.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I killed them," Tristan spat.
"You what? Who?"
"All of them," the Alpha growled, his chest heaving.
"Mother Moon..."
"Clean this mess," Tristan snapped. How can he clean this? They are dead! And it would be my fault! I was terrified.
Tristan took me back to his chambers. Once there, I changed my clothes. First, though, I bathed, scrubbing myself until my skin was sore, desperate to rid myself of the filth of their touch, even though none of them had truly touched me. When I emerged, he was waiting.
"You're not leaving this room until we've resolved this," he said. Perhaps it was shock or mere reckless curiosity, but I found myself daring to ask,
"Why did you save me?"
He paused mid-step and shut the door with a decisive thud.
"Because we need a virgin for the game. And believe me, I intend to win this game.” His tone was sharp, but there was sincerity beneath it. Something told me he wouldn't deny me answers, not now. Of course, it was for the game. Not for me. Why would I matter to him? He destroyed my people. He only needed me as a tool.
“How do you know I’m a virgin?” I asked.
"I know your people," he replied coldly. "I know they are weak, and I know women mean nothing to them. They’re used as toys.” But a tribute is a tribute; it's as old as the world itself. He offered you up; Drogba could have you." But he didn’t. Everything changed, and it favored me."
It was perhaps the longest conversation I had ever had with him. His hand trembled faintly as if he were straining against himself, desperate to leave this place by any means. Then, suddenly, his gaze fixed on me.
"You fought back, didn't you?" he said.
"Yes... I was afraid,” I admitted. For a moment, concern flickered in his eyes, but it quickly vanished.
"Will you be a problem for me? Or will you obey me?”
Of course, that was all he wanted to know: Whether I would serve him without question. Whether I would be his obedient pawn and plaything in this savage game.
I lowered my head. It hurt to avoid his strange, beautiful eyes and rough, imposing face. But this was my place: beneath him. Rejected, subdued, and serving.
"Yes, Master," I whispered. "I will do as you ask."
“Master…” He gave a low growl that I could not interpret.
"Then prepare yourself. In a few hours, you’d better follow my orders to the letter if you want to leave Point Zero alive.” He slammed the door behind him, leaving me alone with my erratic breathing, caught between relief and fear. I was still in shock; I didn´t even have the time to feel bad. It was one horrible thing after another. I tried to sleep. Then, to my astonishment, I felt the wolf close in again. I didn’t know how he had entered, but he was there, pressing against me. His great body was warm and solid. His fur wrapped me in a comfort I hadn’t known I craved.
“Slayer...” I whispered, burying my face in his pelt and collapsing into his presence.