Chapter 3

In the back of his mind he wondered if they were being taken hostage – everyone knew that young people from the Moon would have supremely wealthy families, and it did happen every now and then – or something worse. He'd always discounted the idea that the Wolf might actually take someone like him, he usually dealt in couples traveling alone or young men or women who were in a large group but were unattached. The whole point of traveling with Ken and Bella had been to ensure a kind of safety in numbers strategy.

Jordan sliced the clothes from Alex's body with the same brutal efficiency with which he'd eradicated Bella's. Bella with her fantastic curves and those beautiful dark pink nipples, that little strip of dark hair on her mound - Dammit stop it!

He tasted bile in the back of his throat. It didn't matter how beautiful Bella was or how fantastic she looked naked, he was just as much of a dog as Ken was to even be thinking about that right now. Hell he was worse than Ken was.

"Don't try to be a big man or you'll just get yourself and those girls hurt," Jordan murmured, his voice low enough that Alex knew it was for his ears only.

Then he moved away again.

All three of them were washed down with lukewarm water and soap by Jordan's indifferent hands. Well, indifferent to Alex and Bella; he lingered over Trish. Alex had managed to exchange a few words with her when he'd first woken up so he knew that she was a scholarship exchange student in her second semester of college abroad. The little whimpering cries she made as Jordan washed her had Alex yelling again, but the big man just ignored it. Bella was crying too. Alex hated himself for watching the tears dripping onto her breasts, especially when he felt a stirring in his groin as he looked at the creamy mounds with their pretty pink nipples.

Afterwards they were given mouthwash to rinse the taste of their dr***ed sleep out. It was strange how little things like a wash and a clean mouth could make his brain. Or maybe he was just finally waking up again.

They were hobbled with a bar that attached to their ankles, wrists tied behind their backs, and marched down a hall. The buzzing sounds of muffled voices came from a door at the end of it and Alex could feel the muscles in his stomach tightening with tension. He couldn't even imagine how the girls must be feeling, considering their naked and vulnerable position and the abundance of lower, masculine voices coming from the end of the hall.

The stories of the Wolf rippled through his mind, the rumors and the interviews of the released victims. The ones that had been willing to be interviewed had worn their time in captivity like a badge of honor, the others had returned to as normal lives as they could without ever talking about what had happened to them. Alex prayed that they had been taken by the Wolf and that he would only be interested in them for a few days. Orgies and deviant sex for a couple of days didn't sound so bad. Much better than some of the possible alternatives, and it was a well-known fact that the young men and women taken by the Wolf were always returned in good health physically, even the ones that were kept for months.

Horrible to know that he was hoping for them to be put in a position where they would be unwilling sexual participants in some seriously kinky shit, but that was better than being dead or maimed, right? Especially when they knew they would eventually be released, intact and basically unharmed.

***

The room they were led into was almost empty despite the fact that it was large enough to hold a multitude of people. It reminded Bella of her history lessons, when they'd studied ancient earth and the royalty that had ruled over the time period. There was even a dais at one end of the room, a slightly raised platform on which there was a table. Chairs were scattered around the table, six in all, but only one man was currently seated there.

Bella's breath caught in her throat. No one had ever seen a picture of the Wolf, no one even knew what his real name was or where he had originated from, but everyone knew the description. Tall, dark hair that had been allowed to go silver at the temples (shocking in an age where almost no one retained their true hair color past the age of forty, preferring to use the various applications that were available to keep the appearance of youth), bright piercing green eyes that were hard as jade, muscular, and with cruel lips. She'd always wondered how lips could be described as "cruel," but seeing this man she suddenly understood. They were thin, mobile, and yet the smile upon them was somehow threateningly cold.

She shivered, and not just because of the chill in the room or because she was naked. In fact, she'd almost forgotten about her nude state, she'd been so ensnared by the powerful man at the end of the room. Now she shivered again, hunching her shoulders forward, all too aware of the ropes that kept her hands behind her, of the hobbles that kept her from fleeing.

Beside her, Alex growled under his breath. She flicked a glance at him, trying desperately not look anywhere below his shoulders. Beyond her boyfriend - now ex - she didn't have a whole lot of experience with men so she hadn't seen a lot of penises. The urge to look at one which was swinging so close to her was nearly over whelming, but it felt way too intrusive since it wasn't exactly like he was unclothed by choice. And she could tell that he'd been doing his best not to look at her or the blonde young woman.

Jordan was leading them by the blonde, his hand wrapped almost possessively around her upper arm, towering over her in a way that might have seemed protective in another situation. Right now Bella didn't know what to think of it. She really didn't know what to think of anything... her head rang with the words "We should have stayed at the hotel" over and over again, but it's not like hindsight was any help to them now.