Sloane

My stomach grumbled loudly but not as loud as the wails of my brother. He was hungry and I hated that. I hated that ever since that day in the woods I couldn't bring myself to go back into the forest. 

It meant we ate nothing but bread, I managed to trade some of my mothers art for milk to mix with it for him but it wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough and I knew it.

If I didn't do something soon then my brother would die. It wasn't like my father would do anything to help. He had slipped even further into depression and alcohol now.

"He's hungry Sloane."

"I know." I couldn't meet my elderly neighbours eye. She was at least eighty and struggling as much as I was but she was always willing to help. Especially since my mother had passed. 

"Your father is a drunkard." She seethed from her place by our fire. It was only glowing embers but it would keep her and Dillon warm enough if they stayed close to it.

"I know." I couldn't deny that so I didn't try to. "I will try and bring some food home from the choosing."

The lines around her eyes deepened as she squinted at me. "They find out you have stolen food and they will take your hand."

Again I sighed. "I know but what choice do I have? And I'll only take a little bit. They won't miss it."

"I want to pool my supplies with you Sloane."

I stared at her in shock. What she was offering was insanely generous and it would really help but I knew deep down that she didn't have enough for herself. Let alone enough to feed three extra mouths. 

"That's kind of you Malli but I couldn't-"

"It wasn't a request ,Sloane. We are sharing supplies. That's the end of it. Now get out of here. You know they will be mad if you are even a second late." She bounded Dillon on her lap. "Me and this little man are just fine."

"Thank you." Again I reached for the door, only to pause again and glance over my shoulder at her. "If my father comes back drunk-" I began to say.

"Don't you worry about that child. I have my frying pan at the ready." She wiggled her eyebrows.

I couldn't help it. I laughed. "Thank you Malli. I shouldn't be back late." 

I rushed into the falling snow. Shivering uncontrollably as the icy wind bit into my bare arms. Ever since I had lost my mothers shawl in the forest I hadn't managed to find anything to replace it.

It wasn't far to the long, low building the village used as a meeting place. Usually it was dark and hardly used but tonight it was lit up and festive.

The choosing. I remembered mine from last year. I remembered how awkward and nervous I had been. I could see the same looks on the girls faces who turned to greet me as I pushed open the door.

They were huddled together in their best dresses. Chatting nervously to their families who surrounded them.  And waiting for the men to arrive. Which hadn't been yet so I wasn't late.

"Sloane."

I hurried over to the corner where the other unchosen were huddled. The youngest one must have been in her late forties. Well the youngest apart from me.

They turned confused eyes to me as I slid into their group.

"Sloane? Siennas daughter?" One asked, lifting her eyebrow. I  wasn't surprised she knew my mother. My mother had been well liked in the village.

My father? Not so much?

I had a feeling her name was Gem. "What are you doing here?"

I shrugged. "Same as all of you would be my guess. Reporting for duty."

"But you're too young. You should be out there getting yourself a husband." She jerked her chin out in the direction of the other groups of gathered people. 

"I wasn't chosen." It kind of hurt to even admit that out loud but it wasn't like it was a secret. Everyone already knew. "And Lana asked for me personally." I rolled my eyes.

A murmur went up. "Well that makes sense."

Lifting my eyebrow I waited for her to continue. "It does? I mean she's always kind of hated me but-"

"You were her betrothed first choice."

Her words hit me in the lower stomach and winded me. "I was?" I couldn't help it my eyes flicked in their direction. To where Lana was standing with her arm looped around his and her body almost draped over him. She glared at me when she saw me looking and I quickly averted my eyes. 

"Yeah, you didn't know? He propositioned his father and well-" the woman's voice dropped down to a barely audible whisper. "Well he said no because you are-"

"So poor." I finished for her. "It's ok you can say it. I know what I am and I am ok with that."

My stomach rumbled at that moment and made me a lair.

"Would you have said yes?"

"If I had a choice?" Again my eyes travelled to the couple and I shivered. "No." Better to be poor and hungry than be the wife of that monster. "I would much rather spend my days as an old-" I faltered and a blush heated my cheeks. "I'm sorry I didn't mean that the way it came out."

She chuckled. "We know what we are as well Sloane, now go and get yourself cleaned up. Your hair is a bit of a mess and you don't want to give them any reason to punish you."

"I don't think she needs much of an excuse." I said.Shaking my head with a chuckle I slipped out of the hall and into one of the tiny indoor bathrooms. It was always a thrill to have inside plumbing. When I needed the toilet I had to do the run to one of the communal toilets. Which always stunk.

I had barely began to close the door when a hand lashed out and stopped me. Forcing the door open Gentry stepped into the tiny space. I retreated quickly. Putting as much distance between me and him as the small cubicle would allow

"Gentry." I squeaked. "What are you doing here?" My back hit the wooden wall and I couldn't go any further.

Ignoring me completely he stepped fully into the room and closed the door behind him. "The same thing you are." He crept closer. "I saw the way you were looking at me Sloane."

He was so close now that I could see his lips were chapped. 

"I wasn't-" my words died as he reached for me. Curling one arm around my shoulders, he reached for my skirts with the other and began to drag them up over my knees.

Fear tightened my chest. It closed my throat. "I wasn't. I'm sorry but your mistaken."

"I don't think so." His face dropped to my throat and he latched his lips to the skin just below my ear. 

Pushing at his shoulders , I drew back my hand and slapped him straight across his face. "You are wrong Gentry. I wasn't looking at you like that and you are betrothed to Lana."

Holding a hand to his red cheek , there was a moment where he looked shocked and then anger flooded his eyes. 

"You dare to hit me?" He grabbed at me cruelly. Slamming me back against the wall so my head rebounded. My vision swam and blurred. 

"I was going to be gentle with you, but I'm not now you little bitch." Roughly he tried to kick my legs apart. 

I couldn't let this happen. I couldn't. Only a husband got to see under a woman's skirts, only-

A sinking feeling of dread flooded me. He was too strong. And he was mean as well. I didn't stand a chance. But I would fight anyway. Because if I gave up now then my life would be even worse than it was now.

From the other side of the door, back in the hall something crashed. Gentry froze as a scream went up.

But it was the deep gravelly voice that spoke after it that made my blood run cold. It was like  no man's voice I had heard before. More a growl than anything else.

"Where is she?" 

Sloane 

Gentry left the bathroom first, I followed more slowly, trying to fix my clothes before I got to where anyone would see us. 

I knew it was too late the second I pushed into the room and Lana's eyes narrowed at me. She didn't have a chance to do or say anything though as the man who had caused all of this commotion growled out again.

I turned my eyes to him, and almost fainted on the spot. He was huge. Filling the double doorway with his impossibly wide shoulders. And it wasn't just the width of his shoulders or the ridges of his hard muscles under this shirt that made it impossible to look away from. It wasn't even the fact he was so tall that the top of his dark hair brushed the top of the doorframe.

No it wasn't any of that.

It was his eyes. His bright golden yellow eyes. Eyes that turned to me and narrowed. 

"There she is-" he took a step into the room and chaos insued. Women and girls ran screaming out of his way. Men rushed to find weapons to defend their families with. Shouts rang out.

And the giant stranger ignored all of them as he came rushing towards our corner. 

It was like he didn't care about the knives that were brandished  in his direction. All he cared about was getting to me.

I shrank back, but just like in the bathroom there was no where to go and no escape. 

"You are not welcome here wolf." Someone yelled and he ignored him and kept coming for me.

"Shit it's a wolf." Someone mumbled next to me. Her voice laced with fear. 

Wolf? My hand clutched my throat. Did they just say Wolf? As in the Wolf I had been seeing since I was a kid. 

"What are they doing here?"

"Are we under attack?"

Everyone's warbled voices barely registered. I couldn't keep my eyes off him. Lifting my head as he got closer so I could look at his yellow eyes.

He was my wolf. 

The one who I had seen under the tree in the storm. The one who had been watching me for a quarter of my life.

"Get away from here-" that was from Gentry. I couldn't see him because the stranger blocked my entire view. Even if I could look away I wasn't sure I wanted to. 

His face was mesmerising in a weird sort of brutal way. 

Craning my neck I stared up at his face. "What do you want?"

He didn't answer me, instead he bent his huge frame over mine and thrust his nose into the crook of my neck. In the exact same spot as Gentry just slobbered on.

"It's you." He grumbled against my skin and I felt a shiver run through me. 

"I-uh." What was I meant to say to that?  He was a wolf, a barely human barbarian. Our enemy for centuries. One hadn't even been seen in this village in almost a hundred years. They left us alone and we tried to forget about the threat just beyond the wall.

"Yeah it's me." I whispered back. "I mean, I don't know you-"

His lips pulled back and sharp teeth scraped against my throat. My hands reached out, pushing against his hugely muscled arms but it was like trying to push a boulder up a hill. He was unmovable. 

He growled out and I stilled. My hands were still clutching the rock hard muscles of his biceps. 

"Why do you smell like him?" 

"What-" my voice broke and I was sure I felt a trickle of pee against my panties. I was definitely damp down there. I squeezed my thighs together in embarrassment.

His nostrils flared and I heard him inhale. 

"What do you smell of-" he whirled around and speared Gentry to the spot with his eyes. The smaller younger man paled considerably .

"Why does she have your scent on her?" He was asked again and Gentry paled even more. All the blood literally drained from his face as I watched.

"She threw herself at me." 

"I did not." My voice rose to a shriek and any fear I had been feeling evaporated. How dare he try to dirty my name like that. "You followed me into the bath-"

"Is this true?" The stranger's voice was rough but there was intelligence there. "You followed and placed your body on what is mine?"

"He's telling the truth." Lana stepped forward. Hanging off Gentry's arm like some trailing moss. "She's been throwing herself at all the men. It's because she is jealous, she wasn't chosen by anyone. She's nothing but a poor pathetic cretin. Why would Gentry go after her? She isn't wanted. She wasn't chosen."

"That is a lie." At my side my hands clenched into fists.

The crack of a bone breaking took me completely by surprise and I wasn't the only one. The stranger, the wolf that was sometimes a man, had moved so quickly that no one had seen him move. 

Gentry lay on his back, his nose flattened to his face and blood coating his chin and dripping down his neck to soak his shirt. 

Holy moly he had broken his nose. Flattened it. I couldn't help it I grinned. If anyone deserved to be knocked down by a wolf then it was Gentry. The only regret I had was that I wasn't the one to do it. I would have enjoyed wiping the smug smile off of his face.

"You are wrong. She was chosen. I chose her."

A whisper of shocked gasps went up.

"I would never be- wait what?" My eyebrows pinched together as I turned my face up to his tanned one. 

His golden eyes flicked down to me for just a second before he turned back to the crowd. 

"No one touches her" the gruff stranger reached for me and I wasn't quick enough to move away before his hand wrapped itself around my slender wrist. "She is mine."

Sloane 

Oh no, no , no. 

I began to shake my head, rolling my wrist to try and get away from him but his fingers just tightened. Impossible to shake off and even if I could get away where would I go. He would chase me down in a second. 

"She is mine." He said again more loudly like no one had heard him the first time. I continued to shake my head. 

No, no, no.

Throwing my head to the side. I pleaded to the older unchosen with my eyes. Silently begging them to help me but they were rooted to the spot with fear. There was pity and horror in their eyes though.

Not that pity was going to get me out of this mess.

"Wolves don't get to choose." Wiping his hand under his bloody nose Gentry climbed to his feet. Throwing off Lana's hand when she tried to help him. "Get off of me bitch."

Lana fell back and her face fell. She was in for a painful night , men like Gentry didn't react well to being humiliated and the wolf had well and truly humiliated him. I almost felt sorry for her.

Almost.

"Yes we do." A growl rumbled from his lips and rumbled through me. "It is our right to take our pick of sacrifices from your women. Just because we have never found one- who is intriguing enough doesn't mean we aren't owed tribute."

Golden eyes turned to me and narrowed. It was like it was my fault that he wanted me.  

"You can't take her." Gentry listed himself up to his full height. Which was a good foot smaller than the man grabbing me. "She has been chosen. I chose her."

Next to him Lana wailed. Sounding just like my younger brother. Again I felt sorry for her. It was one thing not to be chosen and quite another to be ditched just weeks away from your wedding.

"Sloane is mine."

"I am not yours." Forcing myself forward, I shouted. "I would rather die an old maid than ever be your wife."

At first I thought the wolf was growling again, it took me a moment to realise he was actually laughing. "You heard the girl." He shook his head. "She rejects you."

"She hasn't accepted you either." Gentry retorted with a weak , very human snarl.  He might as well have purred for all the good it did.

"But she has already accepted us." The fingers around my wrist flexed. "And feeding us was the last-"

It was my turn to whirl on him. Lifting my hand I stabbed a finger into the middle of his rock hard chest and pain spiralled through my finger and into my hand. Making it ache.

Why did he have to be so solid?  

"I have not." I turned my attention back to the crowd that was watching this all play out intently. "I did not-" my voice trailed off and the silence was filled with the booming sound of his voice as he spoke again. "You saved us, you smiled at us, you dreamt of us-"

"You saved a wolf?" Gentry's eyes narrowed. "Just how long have you been in cahoots with our enemy Sloane?"

"I haven't done anything. I saw a wolf yes. A few times but I didn't-" my voice was wobbling now. This was going from bad to worse. If they thought I welcomed the wolfs attention, if they thought I was a traitor then they would banish me. 

I was wily and cunning but I wouldn't survive by myself outside of the safety of the village and if they pushed me beyond the walls that surrounded the human towns I wouldn't last an hour.

The wolves would tear me apart and eat-

"You saw a wolf and you didn't think to tell anyone?" Lana shrieked. "You are a traitor. I say we banish her."

"Please don't." I began to shake my head again. "I didn't know he was real. I am not a traitor."

"Traitor." She spat at my feet. "Give her to him Gentry. She is a curse on our village and our good name."

I fell to my knees with a sob. My arm still gripped in his hand so it was held above my head. "Please Gentry have mercy. I was told they were dreams."

His already thin lips thinned even more. "You let him walk in your dreams? What else have you let him do? Has he-"

"Be careful of your next words, human."

"I didn't." I was talking in a rush now. Each word jumbled into the next. This couldn't be happening to me. It couldn't.

"Please Gentry. I have done nothing wrong. I am not a traitor." Fat wet tears dripped from my eyes and hung suspended from the tip of my nose. I sobbed but it came out a strangled sound. I couldn't catch my breath. It was like he was squeezing my throat and not my wrist.

"Have you fed him?" 

I didn't know who had asked. Someone in the crowds. At the end of the day it didn't matter who. What mattered was my answer. Again I shook my head.  "I never have, please you have to believe me."

"That is a lie." The wolf shifter said coldly. "We have been feasting on your offerings of fresh rabbits for years."

A hissing shocked sound went up. "She fed him. She welcomed him. Banish her beyond the wall. Heavens knows how many more of these monsters she has been luring into our village, Gentry." Lana almost screamed in a fake scared voice. "Traitor." She pointed a finger directly into my face.

"I'm not please believe me. I won't live if you send me out there." I begged them.

Their faces looked impassive but none of them were looking at me directly . It didn't matter how much I begged they weren't going to help me. They didn't want to hear the truth. I could beg until my voice was hoarse and they wouldn't hear a single word of it.

"Take her." Gentry took a step back and motioned to me like I was a sack of spilled flour on the floor. "Sloane you are hereby-"

"Please don't do this to me. To my family. My brother will die." I reached out my other hand 

They had always hated me. Or looked down at me but I had never thought they would turn on one. 

I didn't have a chance to finish the sentence as the giant wolf picked me up and flung me over his shoulder. Again almost like I was a sack of flour. 

"Help me." Lifting my eyes I found a woman my mother had been friends with. "You are a friend of my mums , please help me." I begged.

The woman looked away. They all looked away.

Only Gentry and Lana looked at me. Gentry with murder in his eyes. Lana with triumph.

"Please." My voice was already faltering.

"Sloane you are hereby banished from our village. If you step foot inside our boundaries again then you will be executed."

At his side Lana laughed. "That might be a blessing compared to what he is going to do to her." She crooked her fingers in a sarcastic little wave. "Bye bye little freak. Enjoy being eaten alive by wolves."

Kicking out, I began to fight back. Something I should have done before. It was too late to run away because his giant hand was too firmly planted in the small of my back, and it locked me in place. But I could kick and scream. I could bite and punch.

I could fight even when I knew it was useless.

And it was useless. I might as well have been an annoying fly for all the good it did.

"Stop wiggling." He growled out as took the stairs four at a time and headed towards the darkness of the trees. "Before I drop you on your ass." 

The hand on my back moved downwards and he slapped my butt once in a hard sharp slap that caused me to cry out.

"Please."

"Please what?"

"Please don't take me. I have a family here. A father and a brother who rely on me." 

"Not anymore you don't." He said and began to run, darting between the trees like he had memorised every trunk. "You don't have any family here. The only family you have is us."