Hunting The Alpha Wolf (Dark Paranormal Romance (Erotic Horror, Erotika)) (4 page)

She followed Gary’s
back, he was confident, at home in the environment.

She admired him for
that.

After half an hour they
came to the edge of the forest, ahead of them the grass sloped down leading to
a small lake. She could just make out in the distance the lights of the house;
well she reflected, it was more of a castle than a house.

"That’s Hanbury
Castle," Gary said, pointing, his mouth close to her ear. She nodded and
squatted on the ground, taking the camera out her backpack.

Adjusting the camera,
she changed it to night settings and peered through the eyepiece. The camera
viewfinder changed everything to a ghostly green and she scanned left and
right, taking pictures of the castle and the grounds as she did.

She looked across the
grass, snapping shots as she went, then something flitted across the screen,
something glowing white, something really quick.

"What was
that?" she muttered and tried to follow the shape, but she couldn't
capture it again, it had moved too fast.

Something had shot
across the lawn, at the very edge of her vision. She lowered the camera and
looked at Gary, he had seen something too.

"What was
that?" she asked.

"Dog?" he
said, "not a fox anyway, far too big, too fast."

He squatted next to her
and pointed down the lawn. They were invisible at the edge of the forest, but
they still felt incredibly vulnerable as they saw a line of men, illuminated by
handheld torches, marching almost in step across the field.

To the left, far-off in
the wood, they heard shouts and the sounds of sticks beating the ground.

Sarah looked at Gary,
the beaters on their left would be at their position within ten minutes, and
the men on the lawn were approaching slower. The beaters were trying to drive
something out of the forest towards, what she now knew to be, the firing line
across the lawn.

"Fuck," she
mouthed at him and he nodded. Turning right they started to creep through the
woods. She, carefully following him, keeping her head down low.

Her head bumped into
his back, he had stopped suddenly.

"What's up,"
she hissed. Gary held up his hand, and reached back to grip her arm, squeezing
it.

She looked past his
shoulder and froze in terror.

Ahead was a small break
in the woods, and squatting in the middle was a large black furred animal. It
had its back to them and was staring at something in the darkness ahead. The
creature turned its head slowly towards them, two green eyes, vicious and slit
starred at them.

Huge teeth, a huge
mouth and steaming breath held her frozen in place.

She was looking at the
biggest wolf she had ever seen in her life.

Well, she had never
seen a wolf before, but she was still looking at the biggest wolf she had ever
imagined in her worst, darkest nightmares.

Fenris, she thought, I
am in bloody Narnia.

The wolf met her gaze,
there was, she imagined at least, some intelligence in its face. It was
shoulder height, wide and incredibly dangerous looking. The snow on the ground
around it was steaming with its body heat, it's every breath loud and harsh in
the still night air.

Around its leg, looking
out of place against the dark fur, was a small metal box, strapped just above
its paw.

Gary squeezed her
shoulder, and took a careful step backwards away from the creature in front of
him, she could smell the sweat, the fear emanating from his body.

A harsh white light stabbed
across the clearing from the exact position the wolf had been starring,
followed by three low thuds, like someone popping bubbles on bubble wrap.

The wolf howled and
shot off down the lawn towards the firing line.

Sara heard the
distinctive sound of shotgun blasts, reminiscent of the grouse shots she had
attended with her dad years ago, followed by more howls of pain.

Gary slumped against
her, his weight resting on her as he stumbled back.

"Gary," she
hissed angry with him, they needed to keep still if they had any chance of not
being seen.

He slumped over her,
rolling off and falling to the floor, "Gary," she hissed, concerned
now. She reached down and grabbed him, her gloves and her hands were wet, warm
and wet.

 "Shit," she
muttered, "shit, shit, shit, shit," there was a gaping hole where
Gary’s face had been, and another through his chest.

Bile rose in her throat
as she realised her hands had been deep inside his body cavity.

Gary had been shot. The
sounds she had heard was the sound of a silenced rifle.

She kneeled beside him,
tears running down her face, trying in vain to find a pulse.

The rough burlap sack
that was thrust over her head and the smack of a rifle but against the back of
her head were almost a merciful release from her anguish.

She was unconscious
before she hit the ground.

"I'm sorry about
your friend," Sara had got so used to the naked man lying in the corner of
her cell's silence that when he spoke it sent a shiver of fear running down her
back.

She shifted her position
for the hundredth time, dragging her legs up so she was kneeling. Doing so
rubbed her wrists against the manacles, and she felt a drop of blood run down
her arm. The cheap carpet rubbed against the cut on her knee, and she winced in
pain.

"I'm sorry about
your friend," he repeated. He clearly wanted an answer or a response of
some kind from Sara, but considering he was still lying curled up with his back
to her, she couldn't think why.

"He was
nice," she said, lamely.

The man unrolled his
body; even lying down Sara could see how big he was, 6-foot 2 at the least, she
thought, and not an ounce of fat on him. Over the last few hours she'd had very
little to do but watch him breathe,  and had noted early on the lack of any
rolls of flesh.

As he stretched it
became clear just how hard and muscled his body really was.

"How long until
moonrise?" he asked.

Moonrise, what an odd
way to put it, "You mean nightfall?" she said.

Sara looked at the
window. The sky had taken on an orange cast, fiery and beautiful.

Well it would be if she
wasn't chained to a wall in a child’s playroom with a naked man. Admittedly a
naked man with an exceptional body, but still a naked man nonetheless.

"I’d say about an
hour before dark," she said, wondering why he wanted to know.

"Then we don't
have very long," he said and turned around crouching down in front of her.
Sara could not help it, her eyes were drawn slowly down his body, he was the
first man she had seen with a real 6-pack.

He stood, either
unaware, or complexly unashamed by his nakedness. And Sara had to admit,
judging by the size of his cock, he had no reason to be ashamed at all.

He stretched his arms
above his head and shook his legs vigorously, restoring circulation.

He had short black hair
which was very closely cropped and other than a thatch of black hair (trimmed,
Sara noticed) in his groin, his body was completely hairless. Legs, chest and
arm all looked as smooth as an Olympic diver’s.

"We don't have
much time I am afraid," he looked at her, chained, muddy and disheveled.
"My name is Constantine, you are?"

"Sara, Sara
Buchan."

He titled his head to
the left, as if he recognised the name, then smiled, it was a rough hard,
smile.

"Well Sara, I
imagine that like me you have no desire to be here. So are you willing to try
to escape?"

"Willing
yes," she said, "able no. I’ve been chained to the wall for at least
sixteen hours. I think that if they let me out of these chains I couldn’t run
more than twenty feet. My legs are on fire and my arms are numb. They feel like
they are ready to drop off, so I'm willing, more than willing. But I'm not sure
that I can move."

"Well, we can deal
with most of those problems, but before we do I want to know something about
you, about how you ended up here."

"I thought we
didn't have much time," Sara said. "Anyway I’m still chained to the
bloody wall, so escape is impossible."

"We have about 50
minutes, that’s enough. I need to decide what to do with you. So tell me, how
did you end up here in this most unenviable, if rather sexy, of positions?"

Sexy, Christ, he
thought a woman chained to a wall, scruffy and covered in mud was sexy, he was
clearly one screwed up human being. He squatted in the corner with his back
against the wall, casual and seemingly relaxed. His legs were wide apart, and so
she had a full frontal view of him. His cock, hanging between his legs almost
touched the carpeted floor.

Constantine saw were
her eyes were being drawn, and glanced down and laughed. The sound of his
laugh, deep and genuine in this cell was incongruous, and shocked her.

"Sorry," he
said, sliding down the wall and pulling his legs together, "I am not
usually this brazen. I have not worn clothes in so long now that I forget
sometimes, sorry. Please be assured that although I have not seen a woman in 4
months, well not one who isn't trying to kill me anyway, you are safe in that
regard. Perhaps saying I that found you chained to the wall was sexy, was a
little inappropriate."

Sara smiled back,
"You have been here for 4 months?"

"Yes, 4 months, it
has not been altogether pleasant I can tell you. Now please tell me how you
ended up in this cell with me, why our captors want to kill you."

"Do they want to
kill me?"

"Well actually I
suspect that they want me to kill you."

Sara swallowed,
"So what am I, a virgin sacrifice or something, because I’m telling you
that I’m long past that particular qualification."

Constantine smiled,
"No, I suspect that you are dinner, but don’t worry, they have mistaken
the nature of my beast. I have absolutely no intention of hurting you. I merely
want to see if we can help each other to get away from this place. So tell me
please Sara, what are you doing here?"

Sara sighed, and
started to tell him, at least it would fill the next 20 minutes or so. As she
told him she realised that she had stumbled into a story that was far bigger
than she had ever expected. She also realised that if she was to get out of it
alive, which she doubted, she would have no proof at all. In quick succession
she had lost her car, her camera and soon perhaps her life.

She ended with a
description of the large wolf, and the metal box around its legs before
retelling Gary’s death. A tear formed in her eye when she did, she had only
known him a short time, but to have his life cut off like that, for no reason,
it was unbelievable.

"So he died, I
told him that he could stay on the other side of the wall, but he thought he
could help me. I played up to him, he fancied me and I led him on, to get him
to help me. I really did not want to do this on my own. So it is my fault that
he's dead."

Constantine had sat in
silence though the entire story, and now, unlike most people, he offered no
immediate words of condolence. He offered no sympathy.  He just sat and looked
at her in silence for five minutes.

Then he smiled sadly at
her and said, "Perhaps Sara, perhaps that is true, but the world is a far
more dangerous place than you imagine. It seems to me that Gary wanted some
excitement, and yes he wanted you as well. Who can blame him, you are
exquisite, even to my tired, worn down eyes. But, remember, those were his
choices not yours. I learned long ago that you cannot be responsible for other
people decisions."

"But I manipulated
him; I never flirt like that usually."

Constantine laughed,
"Do you think all men are stupid, that we are just led by our cocks?"

"Yes.." she
said, hesitantly, "well no actually."

"No, we are led my
many desires and many needs, our cocks being just one of them. He did what he
wanted to and that’s that, he has paid the price for it. But he knew what he
was doing at the time, and he knew full well what you were doing. He had to
know there was some risk, not the full extent of it, true, but some. He went
along with it willingly. Perhaps the hope of a night in your arms was enough
for him. We all have to die sometime, and there are many worse ways, many
slower ways."

Constantine rubbed his
hand through his short hair, and frowned, "So you have no idea what is
going on here do you. Well, believe me Sara you have stumbled down the rabbit
hole and are well and truly lost. There is no point looking for a bottle labelled
'drink me' to escape."