~ Chapter Five ~

Dimitri Stone

She always lit up my day when she visited.

No matter how many beatings I'd been dealt, or how long the warriors had played around with my food, as soon as she walked down those stairs, I was swooning. It was nothing like me, which I guessed had a lot to do with who she was.

Erica would be gorgeous to me regardless of the mate bond. Her caramel skin tone, thick, curly dark hair, big brown eyes, and a curvy body to match the pretty face, all made me weak at the knees... if I'd been able to stand ever since they took me down in the woods. It amazed me how her waist dipped in, her hips flared out, and her breasts and behind protruded so plentifully. Perhaps I was just touch-deprived, but I was dying to have her; that could also be the mate bond working its magic between us.

Normally, she was dressed in some kind of conservative clothing, which she told me my second day here was to try to make it easier on me, considering I could do nothing but look at her. Today was no different, as she walked quickly down the steps into the basement with a pair of thin white sweatpants and matching sneakers. Her top was a pale blue shade, reaching to her waist but not quite meeting the waist of her pants. It was short-sleeved and had a rather high neck, avoiding any cleavage showing.

When she stopped at the bottom of the stairs to make sure I was there, she looked at me through the two loose curly strands from her tight bun, and I couldn't help but smile widely at her. Once again, everything felt so much better because she was here giving me those eyes to stare at.

"Hey," she said, sounding slightly upset about something. "Have the warriors been down here today?"

I supposed she couldn't tell that their form of torturing me hadn't been beatings, but dropping my food purposely on the ground numerous times before finally giving it to me. They'd also pulled my pant legs up to leave my shackles against skin that hadn't been burned, so it was torture to eat, then putting them back on my almost-healed wrists for the full effect.

"Barely," I lied to Erica. "Maybe they're getting bored."

"Ha! I wish." She solemnly walked over to take a seat just beside me, her back to the wall. As was normal now, she reached across to place just her hand to my bicep, which tingled from her touch. "You're doing okay?" she questioned.

"I'm okay."

"No injuries I have to check out?"

"Any that were there are being healed now," I smiled, "so no."

She sighed. "I really fucking hate this. It's so... unfair. Why do you have to be down here? You're an alpha, you should be up with your pack doing whatever you guys were doing before."

We'd had this conversation every day so far. She used me to rant about how unfair it was for me to be down here, but she didn't know that I wasn't all that upset about it at all. I wasn't pleased, yet I could appreciate that, without being captured, I never would've met my mate; never would've met her. And it wasn't like I didn't have any contact with the people back home. The one thing you couldn't take from a wolf in a pack was its ability to mind-link. No matter the distance, no matter the state of mind and body.

I hadn't been completely alone down here even when she wasn't there. But I worried that if I told her that, she'd somehow leak it to her alpha. The guy was manipulative and she'd grown up thinking she had to trust him because he was her alpha. If he asked, she'd tell him almost everything we'd talked about so far, which had just been personal stuff like, "Were you brought up to become alpha?" The answer was yes and I discovered she'd been practically forced to be a doctor by her father and Roger - which kind of just proved my point that she had to do anything he asked.

As I didn't want to waste our time together ranting about my current situation, I said, "I know it's unfair but it's how it is right now. Things'll change. In the meantime, what did you do today?"

Erica turned her head to look at me, a ghost of a smile on her face until she lost it and giggled slightly. She shuffled closer, pressing our arms completely together, and started to explain close to the same day I'd heard about for the last couple. It seemed this pack had a very strict regimine, whilst mine trained daily whenever we felt like it and other work out activities were up to them. As long as I got a minute to complete my own work and to relax, I didn't care.

But Alpha Roger was an asshole, so I couldn't be surprised.

"Have I ever told you about the garden?" Erica asked at the end of her swift story about Nola, the cook, this morning.

"No," I murmured, distracted by admiring her beautiful face.

"It's the only thing about this house I like," she laughed, though there was little humour in the sound. "It's this huge chunk of land at the back of the house. I always go out there after dinner, or just before I go to bed. It's got all the fresh veggies Nola uses and so many flowers. I'm not a flower girl, but the view is beautiful from anywhere you stand. I always feel really safe there."

I was too busy staring at her to really notice how close we were now, how much we'd naturally starting leaning toward one another. I certainly wasn't going to fix it when I did notice, but Erica was dead-set on not getting too personal until I was out. A part of me didn't think she believed I ever would get out, so she was saving herself the heartbreak physical affection would bring her when I died. If I died.

"Maybe I should take you one day," Erica whispered and broke me from my reverie.

"I'd like that," I told her.

She breathed a sigh, reaching her other hand up to my bicep. "I want you to know that I would, if I could, take you right now."

"I know." I smiled at her. "I'd take you to my favourite place right now, too. I think you'd quite like it."

"What and where is it?" she questioned.

I laughed. "Nope, you'll have to find out for yourself when I get out of here." A sadness came over her eyes that made my heart wrench in my chest, so I lightly nudged her still smiling. She smiled back, though I knew it wasn't sincere, and laid her head on my shoulder for a moment of blissful silence.

Although my own demise didn't worry me, I wished I could take her away and give her the life she so deserved. With me, free of Roger. Even without me, I wanted to send her to somewhere she'd be respected and loved unconditionally, given a place she felt she could fit in. There would be no doctor requirement there, she could just be a warrior. But if she was with me, she could be a goddamn luna.

Oh, how I hated the Moon Goddess for putting us in this position instead. What a bitch.

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