Ann H (10 page)

“I think I can hear you thinking.”

Brent jumped, and then stood up quickly.
He fisted both hands on the bars, straining to hear anything. “Missy?”

“He’s coming and I suggest you don’t
fight.”

Lights overhead came on, blinding him.
They used that to rush into the cage, stick him with something, and put a
collar around his neck that had chains going down to his wrists. Once secure,
Brent was jerked out of the cage; they had him walking a few feet away, and
slammed him down on a bed with his arms up over his head. No one uttered a
word.

He flinched with the slamming of a door.
Brent tried like hell to see what might be going on or what was going to happen.

“Oh, he is something!” another female
voice cried out.

“You like?” a man asked.

“Very much.”

“Then I’ll leave you to it.” Another door
closed and Brent lay there wondering what the hell just happened.

Once more, he jumped and this time it was
because of cool hands touching his chest. They started at the collarbone and
moved down. He sucked air into his lungs, held them, and tried not to growl
when those hands went down to his cock, stroking the hard member.

“Oh, I’m going to enjoy you without a
doubt in the world,” she said right before climbing on top of him.

* * * *

Missy couldn’t watch anymore. She turned
and left the dark room as quietly as she came in. No one saw her. Hell, no one
ever saw her. It was both a blessing and a curse. Back up the stairs to her
small room she went.

Her uncle already locked himself in his
study. She could hear him on the phone, talking to the one he paid to bring
that man here. He’d been searching for the right one for his daughter. The
right one who could still her animal hunger, as he liked to call it. He also
liked to point out how Missy had none.

No, she wasn’t one of them, but more of an
outcast. Her mother was a shifter who’d disgraced the family by marrying a
human. One of the conditions for the human to stay alive was to never breed.
Missy remembered her life then, all the moving around they did, never
understanding why, until her father was killed and her mother taken before the
Council. It was then that Missy learned about her family and what she wasn’t;
it also happened to be the day she hated them all. As punishment for having a
child with a human, her mother was killed as well, and Missy was to also be
killed, but her one and only family member stood up for her, taking her in. It
didn’t mean that she was treated like family. Her uncle made sure she knew and
understood every day that she was still an outcast and wouldn’t be nor have
anything.
 

He proved that when she moved here with
him and his daughter. Her room was nothing more than a space in the attic. She
had a narrow twin bed, one nightstand, dresser, and a tiny closet. Not that she
needed a large closet because she didn’t have a large amount of clothes. In
fact, come to think about it, she had very few.
 

One thing her uncle did do was to make
sure she had a bathroom up there. Her cousin pointed out it was because they
didn’t want a human to use theirs. Therefore, she could only use her small one
and it was very small.
 

A tiny corner shower, toilet and small
sink and one cabinet for towels that she had to wash herself and that were the
ripped, used ones from below. Not even the housekeeping was allowed to come up
and tend to her room. If it needed to be cleaned or washed, she had to take
care of it herself.

There were times when Missy would sit in
her room and ask the question of how this was better than being killed with her
family? She was nothing more than a stain on the family and treated as a nasty
secret.

Sitting down on the bed, facing the
window, Missy stared at the redness in the sky. Last night an unusual red full
moon shined brightly in the sky. She knew it affected her uncle and cousin
terribly. They both went out that night and when they came back, they looked
like they had been through hell. She heard her uncle state that they were due
to get hit with another and he refused to have his daughter go through it again
alone. Therefore, he somehow got a hold of the guy below, one of their kind, to
take care of the problem.

It didn’t affect her, the red moon. Missy
wished in a way that it did, just so she could fit in with her strange family.
She desperately wanted to belong somewhere.

How long she sat there, staring at the
sky, she couldn’t say. When the sound of her cousin going back to her own room,
which happened to be right below Missy's, she stood up and went to her
bathroom, got out one of the ripped towels, washcloths and a bucket of warm
water with soap. Leaving her room, she headed back down and snuck into the
basement where the guy was caged.

She waited in the shadows until the men
who her uncle hired to keep the man under control left. They left the light
overhead on, so she was able to see him clearly. He still had the collar around
his neck that connected to the chairs around his wrists. Naked, Missy got to
see his whole body and she had to admit it was very impressive.

His wide shoulders, muscled chest, and
stomach, even his legs and arms had the brick look to them. A strong guy, one
that didn’t deserve to be treated such. He had his knees drawn up, arms
dangling over his knees and head down. His dark brown hair wasn’t long, but the
locks on top were long enough that they slid down slightly past his eyes.

“Are you okay?” she asked, causing him to
jump. His head came up, dark eyes searched around, but she knew he couldn’t see
her. She also knew that with the drug they gave him to perform he wouldn’t know
she was here like before. “Don’t worry. The drug will wear off soon. I thought
you might want to clean up.” She moved to the darkest part of the cage, knelt
down, and slid the water with towels towards the cage in order for him to reach
it and clean himself.

“Thanks.” He moved on his knees to the
bucket and dipped the washcloth in. Missy stood back and watched him.

“Do you know why you’re here?” she asked.

“To be a pet,” he smarted back.

“To relieve her.”

His hand stopped at his chest, head came
up. “From what? Not enough sex?”

“You know about the red moon?”

“Yes, it came last night.”

“It’s coming again.”

Once more his hand stopped, this time
between his legs. “What?”

“We’re to have another one. Tomorrow night
I think. It’s already half red now.”

“That’s not possible.” He finished washing
his body quickly, dried off, and pushed the bucket and towel back to her. “I
need to get out of here before it comes then. You need to help me!”

“I don’t think I can do that.” She picked
the bucket up. “I’m sorry.”

“Missy wait!” He also stood up, hands
around the bars. “Please, I need help.”

“You don’t understand,” she whispered. “I
can’t help anyone, I’m sorry.”

She walked away, only to be stopped by his
voice once more. “I can’t go through my heat with her. She isn’t my mate and
she won’t get any relief with me during her cycle.”

* * * *

Brent knew when she left. His senses were
coming back, letting him not only smell her but also getting his strength back.
Now if he could only have his strength back before the next red moon then he
could take care of himself and get the fuck out of here,
and what about her?
That was the big question here, because there
was something about Missy that he couldn’t put his finger on.

Sitting back down, he sighed, rested his
head back, and thought what the hell am I going to do? He sure, as shit was in
a pickle, that’s for sure.
 

“So we are to have another red moon,” he
said aloud. “Shit, just what I don’t fucking need.” He sure, as shit didn’t
want to mate and mark that bitch who fucked him not too long ago. She had a
scent about her that surprised the hell out of him that his dick didn’t go
down. Then, they drugged him so he would stay hard and she used him until she
dropped. “Great, just fucking great!” he growled. “Now what?”

Chapter Two

“I think he’ll be the one, honey.” Uncle
Chad said at the table early in the morning. Breakfast was one of the rare
times Missy was allowed to sit with them and eat. It was also the one and only
time her Uncle gave the orders of what she was to do, like help the servants
and all. “I think come tonight he’ll mark you and be your mate.”

Mary Jane Collin smiled big at her father,
and then turned a nasty smile towards Missy. “Oh he was very good last night.
I’m sure he’ll take care of everything tonight.”

“I’m sure he will,” Uncle Chad smiled
back.

“What if he doesn’t?” Missy simply had to
ask the question.

Mary Jane glared at her, and her uncle
sighed in aggravation. “He’ll give us what we want, or I’ll replace him,” he
snapped.

“What is it you want this time?” Missy
just couldn’t keep her mouth shut as she normally did. “Why isn’t she going and
getting herself mated the normal way for you people.” What prompted her to
speak like this to him, she didn’t know.

Her uncle moved and moved fast. The hand
came across Missy face hard, knocking her out of her seat onto the floor. “You
forget your place here, girl!” His chair skidded away from the table; he came
around to her and pulled her up by her hair. “What goes on in
my
house is none of your concern. You
should be thankful that I feed you!”

“I think she needs to be reminded,” Mary
Jane snickered, an evil smile on her cruel face.

Mary Jane was never a pretty girl, in
Missy’s eyes. Her head never matched her body. It always reminded Missy of a
boy in a girl’s body. Her long brown hair always seemed dull and lifeless. She
also was very chubby, refusing to give up the sweets, and yet, in her father’s
eye, she couldn’t do a damn thing wrong.

Uncle Chad jerked Missy from the dining
room by her hair to the cellar. She knew what was to come. This was the room
for punishment, and it had been a very long time since she had one. The belt
came out with a swooshing sound and she got shoved face forward over the wooden
beam he left in there. She didn’t cry out once as the strap came down on her.
One single tear did fall, but not a sound left her lips. He made a huffing
sound due to how overweight he was and how much of an effort it was to beat
her.

How long it lasted, she couldn’t say. Her
backside burned, and she figured it would be a nice shade of black and blue
soon. He huffed behind her when it was over, slipped the belt back around his
waist.

“Get your chores done and I don’t want to
see you for the rest of the day,” he barked.

When the door closed behind him, she
slumped to the floor.
I’m without a doubt
broken now.
She sat on the floor, not moving. She didn’t jump when the door
opened, half-expecting Mary Jane to come in and do her worst as well, but it
wasn’t, it was Annie the cook.

“Oh, honey,” she said, dropping to her
knees in front of Missy. “I thought he stopped doing this a long time ago.”

“I’m fine,” Missy tried to smile, but when
she did tears came to her eyes.

“Baby, its time you left this place,” she
whispered, helping Missy to stand. She swayed, leaning on Annie. “Nothing good
will ever come to you if you stay.”

“If I go, they’ll kill me,” she whispered
low.

“I don’t think they’ll care anymore.” Like
the others, Annie is a shifter and knew the whole story of Missy. “If you stay,
they’ll only kill you.”

“I’m already dead.”

Annie put Missy’s head on her shoulder.
“Don’t you talk like that.”

Missy couldn’t help it and cried softly.
Her back throbbed painfully, reminding her just as Annie had, that she indeed
was still alive.

“Shh. Everything is going to be alright.”

Annie took care of her back. It turned out
that this time he broke skin. Missy didn’t mind the pain; she welcomed it, and
thought of her own plan. Annie wouldn’t let her do anything around the house,
not after the beating she took. Since her Uncle didn’t want to see her for the
rest of the day, Missy decided that it was only fair for the guy below to have
some kind of say on what happened to him tonight. She might not have much of a
life, but damn if he didn’t deserve one at least. Being a pet and used by her
crazy family wasn’t right.