The Alpha's Toy (11 page)

Zeke knew Mary was more, but for now he
was going to enjoy what she’d given him. Jessica wouldn’t have died
that night unlike the rest of the pack. Mary also would have
survived as well. He was damned for keeping her to him.

One month.

He had one month to make her his
mate.

Chapter Eight

One week into her stay Mary sat
in the garden playing cards with Jane. Jessica was on the swing
staring up at the sun. The girl was taking
the death of her family really well.
The rest of the men were inside having a meeting. Four cars had
arrived that morning, and Mary knew they were all Alphas from
different packs. Jane placed her palm on top of the deck as the two
cards matched.

“
What’s going on with you,
Mary?” Jane asked.

“
Nothing. I’m just
wondering what the meetings all about,” she said, pressing a card
on top of the others. Glancing toward Jessica, she couldn’t help
but be worried about the young girl.

“
She’s doing fine, you
know.”

“
How do you know? Her
family was killed before her eyes. She should be feeling
something.”

“
The men have been talking, and
Jessica was considered a mutt amongst the pack.”

Mary frowned, looking back at Jessica.
Whenever she’d been at the house, Jessica was treated like a
princess even though she recalled the young girl not smelling like
the rest of the pack. In fact, Jessica smelled a lot different from
the pack she’d been part of.

“
A mutt?”

“
Yeah, Roger and Dani were not
her real parents. She was a half breed they took in, or at least
that’s what rumor is saying.”

Smacking her hand on top of the pack,
Mary won the round of cards. Jane chuckled.

“
Jessica was not a half
breed. She was their daughter. It’s what I was told.”

Jane was looking at her with
sympathy.

“
What?”

“
Mary, you weren’t there
all the time. From what I heard you were not allowed to mingle with
the group. Jessica talked to you and was punished for
it.”

Jerking at what Jane was telling her, Mary
knew she’d missed a hell of a lot in her time at the pack. Putting
her pile of cards down, she walked over toward the other girl.
Jessica didn’t pause in her swinging, and there were tears in her
eyes.

“
Is it true?” Mary
asked.

“
About me being a half
breed?”

“
Yes.”

The young girl nodded. “Yeah. I was never
allowed to say anything. I can turn at will, but Roger and Dani
threatened to hurt me if I told anyone about what I could do. No
one knew half breeds could turn at will. They killed my parents,
and my father was a full breed. He mated with my mother, and I was
born nine months later. I saw them kill my parents, and they
terrified me. When I met you I thought you could save me. I was
right. They were all prepared to let me die that night with
them.”

“
How come you’ve never said
anything to me since then?” Mary asked, feeling slightly
hurt.

“
We’ve not really had time to
talk.” Jessica shrugged. “I couldn’t tell anyone, and it was easier
to keep the truth to myself.”

Mary couldn’t argue with
her.
“Why
make you pretend to be their daughter?”

“
I always wondered about
that
, but I
guess it probably had to do with Zeke and other Alphas visiting.
They’d start to ask questions if they saw a ten year old without
her parents wandering about the house. They did it to stop being
suspected of something.”

“
Does Zeke know
this?”

Jessica nodded. “They kept files. I didn’t
even remember, but without the injections and reading those files I
was able to remember everything. I’ve been a wolf a lot longer than
you. I was born into it even though I’m a half breed. My dad didn’t
turn my mom until after I was born. I have his blood inside me and
my mom’s human side whereas you were changed a lot later in
life.”

“
What the hell happened?”
Wrapping her fingers around the metal pole of the swing she
listened to Jessica talk.

“
They took me when I was
ten years old. Roger and Dani made a file up with everything. They
experimented on me as well.”

“
Did they discover
anything?” Mary asked.

“
No. They didn’t discover
anything, but they couldn’t risk me leaving. For some reason they
didn’t kill me and decided I’d serve them well.”

She stopped swinging, and Mary wrapped her
arms around the young woman. “They killed my parents, and I was
caught up in the fray.”

“
It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
Mary saw Jane had disappeared inside the house giving them some
privacy.

“
I’ve heard what they’ve
been saying. Roger and Dani are responsible for kidnapping other
wolves. They were experimenting on them in the hope to gain power.”
Jessica was sobbing. Stroking her blonde hair, Mary listened as
they had it all out.

“
Jane said you were
punished for talking to me,” she said.

“
They didn’t want anyone to
slip up. They said you were special because of who bit
you.”

“
What did they do to you?”
Mary asked, hating herself for not knowing what was happening when
she visited.

“
They put me in a cage without
food for a couple of days. Others got
it a lot worse than I did.”

“
If you’d told me I would
have put a stop to it,” Mary said.

“
I know. They were scary. I
couldn’t tell you what was happening. What if you never came back?
The best time I remember was when Zeke came for dinner.”

Mary paused. “What?”

“
They would spray the house in
all different scents, and no one would disappear to the basement. I
don’t remember being in the basement, but I must have for them to
have experimented on.”

Nothing was making any sense, and Mary
knew she would need to talk with Zeke.

“
The injections you talked
about, what were they?”

“
They were supposed to
relax us. Tranquilizers with hints of silver to keep us docile so
we wouldn’t fight. I’ve read some of the research.”

Mary stared up at the sun. The heat did
nothing to warm her bones. Whatever had happened with Roger and
Dani, she felt it wasn’t at an end.

“
It’s time for dinner,”
Jane said, calling out of them.

“
Are you coming?” Jessica
asked.

“
I’ll be there soon.” She smiled
at the two women as she made her way around the front of the house.
Mary heard the muffling in the background from the kitchen.
Entering the study she saw the paperwork spread out across the desk
that Zeke had retrieved. A pair of glasses lay on the top of the
paperwork. Walking closer she ran her hands over the files, and
recognizing Jessica’s name she pulled the file out and opened it. A
picture of a young Jessica looked up at her. She hated the sadness
in the girl’s eyes. No one should be sad at such a young age.
Flicking through the file she saw codes and names of chemicals
along with marks out of ten. None of the notes made sense. Flicking
through the pages she saw a daily plan of what they forced the girl
through. They beat her in order to force the change. After many
months Jessica finally changed into a wolf.

There was a note along the
bottom.

“
Serum induces amnesia. Given to
project one-zero-one, and subject shows no memory of treatment.”
Mary read the words at the bottom. After that entry there was no
other entry made.

“
They decided Jessica was not
useful, but they put her down as being an asset for future
reference. They were going to use her to lure more wolves. Her
blonde hair and innocence were going to be the lure,” Zeke said
from the doorway. He carried a plate of food. At the sight of him
alone she felt a great wave of need flood her body. She’d spent the
whole night in his bed, but it still didn’t feel long
enough.

“
I can’t believe we forgot
all of this,” she said. Closing the file she thought about what he
said. “They were going to use her virginity to lure other wolves to
claim her?”

“
Yeah, they had an entire plan
set up. My sister worked for a newspaper, and she’d been keeping an
eye on the dead bodies. Each dead body has a mark that other wolves
can detect.”

“
Your sister went out
looking for the answer to the dead wolves?” Mary asked.

“
Yes, she didn’t find anything at
first, but then she stumbled onto this pack.” He moved closer. The
scent of spicy chicken was overpowering. Her appetite had
disappeared yesterday, but now she couldn’t stop eating. He placed
the plate down on the clearest part of the desk. “Eat. You need to
keep your strength up.”

Nodding, she grabbed a piece of
chicken and a napkin. Sinking her teeth into the succulent flesh,
Mary moaned as the flavors exploded on her tongue. “Jane is one
fine cook.”

She loved
cooking
, but
it was nice to eat without worrying about anything. Zeke kept
staring at her then down at her stomach. “What’s the matter?” she
asked.

“
Nothing.” He moved behind her,
caressing her stomach as he pulled out a file with her name
on
it. “This
one is yours.”

Mary stared at the file suddenly
feeling sick. “I don’t think I want to read that,” she said,
touching his hand where it lay against her stomach.

“
Keep eating. I’ve read it.” She
took a chunk out of the chicken. He put the file down and kept a
hand on her at all times. “Your allergy against silver was a
problem. They wrote that for two minutes you had died on the table.
The doctor panicked, brought you back to life, and they gave you
the serum. There was nothing more they could do for
you.”

“
Why keep me alive?” she asked.
If it had been her she would have killed anyone who posed a threat
to any experiment. She liked the fact they hadn’t killed
her
, but it
didn’t make any sense as to why they kept her alive.

“
They have their reasons.
I’m sure we’ll find them out soon.” He was being vague.

Finished with the chicken, she reached for
some more.

“
I want to introduce you to
my father,” he said.

Tensing in his arms, she glanced
behind her. “Is that wise?”

“
Why wouldn’t it be?” he
asked, stroking her stomach.

“
We’re not exactly seeing
each other.”

He chuckled. “My father knows I’ve got
a woman in the house. It would be rude not to introduce
her.”

“
I’m the woman you’re using
as a toy,” she said, biting her lip.

“
Wolves don’t care about
that. You’re mine to show off as I will.”

She shrugged. It was his
father
, and
she wasn’t going to cause waves between family members.

****

Zeke stared at the file with her
name on. He couldn’t tell her the only reason
they
’d kept
her alive was because of him. They had known all along who’d bitten
her, but they kept Mary from him, masking her scent so he couldn’t
find her. His father knew what was happening, and he also knew
about Zeke taking Mary as a toy.

“
It’s not the best way to
get your woman to stick around you, son,” his father had
said.

Fortunately
, he’d agreed not to tell Zeke’s
secret about him being the one to bite her.

Mary
reached for another piece of chicken,
and he caressed her stomach. His seed had taken within her. She was
no longer fertile but pregnant with his baby.

“
All of these
files.”

“
There are about twenty,”
he said.

“
Does that include mine and
Jessica’s?” she asked, biting into another piece of
chicken.

“
No. It’s
twenty-two if you include yours. My
sister is in there as well.”

“
What does her file
say?”

“
It’s stamped with
‘escaped’ over
it.”

Mary tapped his hand, moving away from
him. He watched her wipe her mouth on the napkin before picking up
the tub of potato salad. He’d brought more than enough to feed her.
Zeke hated the thought of her going hungry, and after yesterday
she’d been avoiding food. He wasn’t going to let her get ill
because of everything that was happening.

She was the reason he wasn’t going to
give up on finding his sister.

“
Did they have a plan?” she
asked, eating some salad.

Looking down at the files, he
looked up at her. “We’re trying to figure everything out. It looked
like they had a plan to take over other packs. Dani and Roger were
power hungry. They were intent on rul
ing the whole surrounding area of
wolves.”

“
I don’t understand why.
They had a pack of their own.”