Mari’s POV
When I come to, the lady from before, the housekeeper, is sitting by the bed. There’s a certain scent in the room, like some sort of herb or something.
“Ah, you’re awake! That always works!”
She comes to her feet, and that’s when I notice the incense burner on the cabin beside the bed. That’s where the fragrant smell is coming from.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing harmful,” she assures. “How are you feeling? You went faint earlier.”
Earlier…
I scramble out of the bed, getting to my feet on the other side from her. “Where are my car keys? I want to get out of here.”
“Miss, I know what you saw could be shocking—”
“Could be?” I scream. Then I shake my head. Stay calm. Get out of here. “My keys.”
“The Alpha said—”
“Fuck the Alpha! I want my keys and I want them now. If you people hold me in this house on second longer, I’ll call the police!”
She shakes her head. “Please don’t do that.”
“Get me my car keys, then.”
She wrings her hands together. “Only Alpha Stefan knows where they are.”
“Where is he?”
“He just left. We got attacked and…” she trails off, biting her lip.
“Attacked? What do you mean attacked?”
“Miss, as you saw earlier, we are werewolves. Our pack has been—”
“Did you say werewolves?”
She nods.
“Like…the mythical beings?”
“We are not mythical. You saw one earlier, clearly.”
Yes I did. I did, didn’t I? I wasn’t dreaming. I saw, with my own eyes, a wolf, an animal, turn into a man in front of my eyes.
“Alpha Stefan is our leader. He brought you here to become his Luna.”
“Luna?”
“His wife.”
“Wife?” I scoff. First to find out men who can turn into wolves exist, then that one of them wants me to be his wife? He abducted me to make me his wife? Why would a man like that…
Never mind. What’s important right now is getting out of here.
“He has been looking for you for years,” the housekeeper provides.
Looking for me…
I recall the photo.
No, not me.
He has been looking for my twin sister.
The sister I last saw when we were both five years old. That’s the Mari Angela who was with our mother when he knew her.
Not me.
He needs to keep looking for her and leave me alone.
“Look, I really need to go,” I say, shoving my feet into my sneakers, which are on the floor next to the bed. Done, I head for the door. “What about that guy…Andreas, is it? Surely, he knows where the keys are?”
I pull the door open. Only to come to a halt when I run into the said Andreas guy right outside. He’s huge, his over six feet tall frame filling his dark clothes nicely.
But he’s not going to intimidate me.
“Can I get my car keys back, please?”
“Stefan said you can’t leave until he gets back,” he tells me.
“How about you tell him I’m not interested in becoming his wife? I want to leave.”
Andreas’s eyes go over me to the woman behind me.
“I’m sorry,” she calls out, a tremble in her voice. “I thought—”
“Leave,” Andreas orders, cutting her short.
I step to the side as the woman hurries by, head bowed. She’s so nice, did he need to be so curt?
“If you don’t want to be his mate, you’ll have to tell him that yourself.”
Mate? Like animals mating?
I shake my head. I get it.
“When is he gonna be back?”
“Soon.”
“I heard you got attacked.”
“Nothing to worry about.”
I cross my arms across my chest and stand as tall as I can. “Are you a werewolf too?”
He nods.
“Shift.”
“Sure you won’t faint again?” he asks, his voice full of mockery.
“You won’t bite, will you?”
“That’s what I do best.”
I roll my eyes. “So what, am I imprisoned in this room until he gets back?”
“Yes.” He takes a step forward, and I fight the urge to step back. “Honestly, if I were you, I would go back inside and lock myself up. Who knows, an hungry wolf might jump out of nowhere and make dinner of you.”
My hand instinctively jumps to my throat. He’s kidding, right? I mean, Stefan, who seems to desperately want to make me his wife, wouldn’t leave me here if I could get eaten by some random wolf, right?
“Seriously, Andreas? What are you, the boogeyman?”
I look down the hallway to find the owner of the new voice. It’s a woman. She’s dressed in a long flowy skirt and a white knitted crop top. Her long dark hair is swept over one shoulder.
Andreas takes a step back and folds his arms across his chest. “What are you doing here, Naya? Who let you in?”
“Waltzed right in,” she tells him. Then her attention turns to me. “Oh, so that’s her.”
“Jealous that some human girl scored the Alpha?”
Naya rolls her eyes. “You’re totally right.” She comes to a stop, eyeing me up and down. “Martha wants to meet her.”
“That’s a no.”
She turns back to Andreas. “You can’t keep her from meeting her future daughter-in-law.”
“Stefan said she can’t leave this house until he gets back.”
Naya crosses her arms across her bust. “I’m taking her to his mother’s house right in this compound, not across the country, Andreas.”
“Still a no.”
Naya makes a sound of annoyance. “You really are totally his dog, aren’t you? Do you know how to use that brain of yours outside–”
“I dare you to complete that sentence, Naya.”
“And if I do?” she challenges, looking up at him.
What follows is what I’d call a stare off. With a little sexual tension thrown in, I swear. With the way he’s looking at her, it seems like if I wasn’t around, he’d press her to the wall and kiss that sassiness right off her mouth.
Unfortunately, this is not a telenovela.
It’s my life.
I clear my throat, and that brings their attention back to me.
“I’m not interested in meeting his mother,” I let Naya know. Looking at Andreas, I say, “I’ll be in my room until he gets back. Whether he’s here by tomorrow morning or not, I’ll leave. He can keep the car.”
I don’t mean that, given that my car is the only belonging I have to my name right now, but he doesn’t need to know that. These people need to start taking me seriously.
Naya blinks. “Did you reject him?”
“He hasn’t proposed yet,” Andreas says.
“I heard he looked all over for her for five years. What a waste if she doesn’t want him.”
Hello? I’m right here…
“Naya, beat it back to your hut,” Andreas growls, sounding impatient.
Naya scoffs again and addresses me. “Look, little human. You better be sure you’re not going to be his Luna. Because if you do, Martha is going to make you regret refusing her summon.” She gives me a once over. “Though I have a feeling she’d rather die first than have a human daughter-in-law.”
Makes two of us. I don’t want a werewolf mother-in-law either. Let alone a werewolf husband.
What the fuck is this world?
“Fuck off,” I tell her, not liking how she’s talking to me. Turning back to Andreas, I say, “Call me as soon as he gets back, I don’t care if it’s midnight.”
I slam the door in their faces before he can say anything else.
A pair of meanies.
They should totally hook up.