Free Web NovelChapter 12: Strip
Lilith said nothing.
"Take off your jacket," Nicholas said.
She blinked. "What?"
"Your jacket. Take it off." His tone didn’t change. Still that same cold control. "We want to see what we’re working with."
Her hands moved before her brain fully processed the command. Slipping off the thin jacket she’d worn, letting it fall to the floor.
Nicholas’s eyes moved over her slowly. Memorising. "Turn around."
She turned.
Felt their eyes on her back. On her body. Assessing her like she was livestock at market.
"She’s wolfless," Lucian observed. "I can’t sense a wolf at all."
"That’s what the report said," Nicholas confirmed. "Completely wolfless. Which means she can’t shift. Can’t heal like we do. Can’t defend herself if things get rough."
"Good," Sebastian said. And there was something dark in his voice that made Lilith’s stomach twist. "Means every mark we leave will last."
"Face us," Nicholas commanded. freeweɓnovel.cøm
She turned back around.
He was closer now. Had moved while her back was turned. Close enough that she could smell him...pine and something sharp, something that made her hindbrain scream danger even as her body responded in ways she didn’t want to accept.
"Do you know why you’re here," he said quietly.
"To pay my father’s debt," she said. Her voice came out steadier than she felt.
"To pay for his crimes," Nicholas corrected. "Your father leaked the location of a treaty meeting to hunters. Because of his betrayal, my father is dead. Along with everyone else at that meeting." His silver eyes bored into hers. "Do you understand the magnitude of what he did?"
"He didn’t do it," she said before she could stop herself.
The temperature in the room dropped.
Nicholas’s hand moved so fast she didn’t see it coming. One second he was standing in front of her, the next his fingers were wrapped around her throat.
Not squeezing. Not yet. Just holding. A reminder of exactly how easily he could hurt her.
"Let me make something very clear," he said, his voice deadly quiet. "While you are in this estate, you do not defend your father. You do not make excuses for him. You do not speak of him at all unless we ask you a direct question." His grip tightened slightly. "Do you understand?"
She couldn’t speak with his hand on her throat. Could only nod.
"Use your words."
"I understand," she gasped.
He released her and stepped back.
She took a shaky breath, her hand going to her throat where his fingers had been.
"You’re here because we demanded it," Nicholas continued, his tone returning to that clinical coldness. "You’re here because Shadowmere Pack was too weak to refuse. You’re here because your Alpha valued pack survival over your wellbeing." He paused. "And you’re here because you signed a contract agreeing to be our property for thirty days."
Property.
There was that word again.
"The contract was very clear about the terms," Nicholas said. "For the next month, you belong to us. Your body, your time, your choices....all of it belongs to us. We can do whatever we want with you and you have no say in it." His silver eyes never left hers. "Do you understand what that means?"
She understood perfectly.
"Yes," she whispered.
"Good." He stepped back fully now, rejoining his brothers. All three of them stood there looking at her. "Then let’s establish exactly what you are to us."
Sebastian moved forward. "You are not a guest. You are not pack. You are payment. You are a warm body we’re using to settle a debt." His dark eyes moved over her slowly. "Nothing more."
"You will do what we tell you," Lucian added, his golden eyes bright. "When we tell you. Without question. Without hesitation. If we want you on your knees, you get on your knees. If we want you spread open on a bed, you spread open. If we want to use you until you can’t walk, you endure it." His smile was sharp. Feral. "Because that’s what you agreed to."
Lilith stood there and tried to process what they were telling her.
Tried to prepare herself for what was coming.
"Strip," Nicholas said.
The word landed like a bomb.
She stared at him. "What?"
"Strip. Take off your clothes. All of them." His voice was completely even. "We want to see what you are paying your debt with."
