Alpha Menz Snippet Part 2

Part 2:

Again:

Blah blah blah, read at your own risk.

Chapter 5

Karina escaped into the kitchen.

The kitchen was always a source of great comfort to her.  In her memories it was a place of warmth, a spot where heat, water, and aroma of spices combined to make her feel safe.  The kitchen in this house stank.  The grease smoke, still present despite the open window, and the odors of old food combined into a foul miasma that covered the counters and the stove.  The garbage disposal reeked.  The inside of the refrigerator greeted her with a mess of crumbs and syrup.

I must’ve been insane to cook here.  She searched through the cabinets until she found a bucket, a can of Barkeeper’s Friend, and a couple of rock-hard old sponges.

Emily was gone.  They took Emily away from her.  And she could do nothing.  She cleaned because if she didn’t scour and rub, she would slide to the floor hugging herself and cry.  And she couldn’t afford to show any weakness.

Karina scrubbed the kitchen sink with barkeeper’s friend, cleaned the counters, wiped the stove, ran the garbage disposal with dishwater soap until it now longer stank like a sewer,  swept the floor, mopped it, and stopped in the doorway.  The kitchen opened into a dining room.   Wide and rectangular, the dining room contained a long table, eight chairs, and nothing else.    The far wall featured an enormous, floor-to-ceiling window and through the glass Karina saw a small pond, its surface dark, almost black.  A weeping willow leaned over the water, sheltering a low bench with its branches.   She wiped down the table and the backs of the chairs and scrubbed smudges of dirt, randomly dotting the doorframe.

The dining room connected to a small hallway, which led her into another large room, the first room one would find himself in upon entering the house.  Bookshelves lined three of the walls, broken by a large flat screen TV.  The fourth wall consisted of another floor to ceiling window, split in two by the front door and blocked by the dusty Venetian blinds.  She had led Emily through this space to go to the porch.

At the memory of Emily’s scream, Karina’s chest tightened and she clenched her hands in response.  Where was she?  Was someone taking care of her?  Karina glanced at the door.    If she threw it open and ran down the path to the main house, how far would she get?  Suppose Lucas let her run those two miles to her daughter out of his amusement.  What then?   She wouldn’t see Emily; they wouldn’t let her.  Vanessa had looked through her as if she didn’t even exist.  Karina bit her lip.  Of course.  She was a slave.  A nobody.

Helpless.  Both of them so utterly helpless.  At the end of that thought lay desperation.  She forced herself away from it and concentrated on the room.

Several floor lamps rose from parquet, offering clusters of bulbs on thin metal stalks.  No furniture.  Instead oversized floor pillows lay scattered here and there, between piled of random trash: old papers, used paper plates, free weights…  She picked up the pillows, stacked them in a corner, and swept the floor, gathering the refuse into a giant pile.   As she leaned to the trash, she felt the prickling of someone’s stare on her back and turned around.  Daniel.  His beautiful face twisted with derision.  He looked at her for a long time and went on, replaced by Henry, who waved around a big shiny rectangle of black plastic.

“I brought you a garbage bag,” he announced and jerked the bag, trying to get it open.  It stuck together.  He waved it frantically.  “Cursed thing!”

Lucas loomed behind him, took the bag away, and snapped it open with a deft flick.  She felt his presence a fraction of the moment before she saw him, like a heavy hand clamping on her throat.  Mine.  That’s what he’d snarled the first time she saw him in his human form.  She was his.  Branded by some invisible force.  He offered the bag to her and she took it, wishing desperately to be back home, miles away, just her and Emily back in their little apartment.

#

Lucas crossed the floor to the windows and pulled the blinds up, one by one, revealing the glass, and saw Karina blink against the bright daylight.   She smelled of chemicals, something acidic and vaguely unpleasant, but he still remembered her scent from this morning, when he awoke among the pile of his pillows and blankets to find her curled on the edge of the bed, legs drawn to her chest.  He’d thought about pulling her to him, stripping her clothes while she still hovered on the edge between the dream and reality, and mounting her.  By the time she awoke, he’d be inside her.

Even now, with the stink of chemicals and her hair rolled up into a messy knot, she tempted him.  He sensed her fear, intoxicating as it was, but under it he sensed will.  She wanted to shy away when he came near, but instead she gritted her teeth and stayed where she was.   He wanted to reach out and pull her to him,  make her feel him.  Put her against the wall and grind against her until he worked her into slick, moist heat.

Fresh air would do him some good, he decided.  Lucas opened the door.  A gust of cold mountain air hit him and he stepped into it and out onto the porch.  Henry followed him, reaching to close the door.

Lucas shook his head.  “Let it air out.”  He headed to his favorite tree, an old walnut spreading its branches over the dying grass on one side and the sheer slope on the other.  Lucas took a running start and climbed up the trunk, his hands finding familiar holds in the bark.  In a couple of breaths he was sitting on a thick lower branch, his back against the bark.  From this vantage point, he could see straight into the house.

Under him, Henry leaned against the trunk.

Karina had gathered the last of the trash and straightened, pulling the bag closed.  He couldn’t pick up her scent, because the house lay downwind, but he could watch her putter around unhindered by his presence.

“Interesting, this sudden urge to clean,” Henry murmured.

“She’s scratching.”

Henry turned his head to the left.  When something truly intrigued him, he had a habit of watching the object of his interest while rolling his head first to the left then to the right, as if by changing the angle of his view, he could discern some new dimension.  Lucas felt a mild pang of annoyance.   His was his private moment, him and her.  He wanted to sit here and think of her naked.  Henry interfered.

“What do you mean, scratching?” Henry asked.

“Like a cat in a new house, Henry.   She’s making this place hers.”

“Perhaps she merely thinks we live like pigs.”

“It’s more than that.”  Irritation grew.  Indulging his inner pervert proved difficult with Henry insisting on making conversation.  Lucas frowned but condescended to explain.  “She controls nothing.  Her time, her body, her life, her daughter’s life are mine.  I’ve ripped away everything she took for granted.”

“Her existence must seem terribly chaotic to her,” Henry agreed.  “She seeks to reinstate the order.”

“No, she’s taking control of her new home.  Trying to make it feel safe by touching as much of it as she can and leaving her mark.”

Karina carried the full bag on to the porch.

“I suppose you’re right.  She’s scratching.”

Daniel entered the room.  Lucas watched him through half-closed eyes.  One false move…  Make my day, Daniel.

Daniel said something.  Karina answered.  Lucas heard the murmur of voices but not the words.  Not in this shape.

“What do you suppose they are talking about?” Henry asked.

“Nothing important.”

#

“What should I make for dinner?” Karina asked.

Daniel smiled.  The smile illuminated the half of his face she could see.  His deep blue eye sparked with amusement and for a moment he looked uncannily perfect.  “Ham,” he said.  “You should make ham.  Lucas loves it.”

She nodded.  “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

He favored her with a long look and disappeared into the depths of the house, walking with light elegance of a dancer.  Karina picked up her broom to sweep the last of the trash into the dust pan.  She would have to cook anything but ham.  Lucas probably hated it.

Chapter 6

“Cubed steak.”  Henry slid into his seat.  “Beef.  It’s what’s for dinner.”

Lucas sat to the right of her.  Too close.  She should have served the dinner in the dining room instead of the kitchen.  The bigger table would’ve given her more space.

Lucas crowded her, drinking in her anxiety.  Karina swallowed, unable to help herself.  He was simply too large and he watched her constantly.   Even when she couldn’t see him, she couldn’t get rid of the pressure his gaze brought.   He leaned to her, emanating menace that made him impossible to ignore.   His lips stretched and he showed her his teeth, large and sharp.  “Am I scary?”

She met his stare.  “Yes,” she said.  “But you know that already.  Making me admit it makes you cruel.  Corn or beans?”

He drew back.  His eyes widened and for a moment the burden of his presence eased.  “Corn.”

She passed the dish of corn to him.

Daniel sauntered into the room.  While Henry migrated from place to place and Lucas stalked, his steps soundless and full of fierce grace, Daniel strode as if his feet did the ground a great favor.  He didn’t walk but floated, devastating in his beauty and perfectly aware of being so.  He saw the dinner and grimaced.  “Not what I expected.”

“Since when are you turning down food?” Henry raised an eyebrow.

Daniel shrugged and took a seat directly opposite her.  He speared a steak and dropped it on his plate.  “Are you going to do this every day?  Cook the dinner, be the dinner?”

“Yes,” she said with calm she didn’t feel.

“Why?  Are you totally spineless?  What do you think sucking up will earn you?  Look at him.”  Daniel pointed at Lucas.  “He doesn’t care.”

“I’m not doing it for him.”

“Then why?”

“Here we go,” Henry rolled his eyes.

Daniel pushed from the table, balancing his chair on its back legs and crossed his arms.  “No, I want her to enlighten me.  How deeply did the Stockholm syndrome set in?”

Karina put down her fork.  Her instinct told her that whatever she said next would define her place in this house.  The idea of some flattering subterfuge crossed her mind and died.  She wondered if she should say nothing at all.  In the end, she decided on honesty.

“I understand that I can die at any moment.  Lucas’s cousin died at the last Christmas dinner. For all I know, Lucas might die tomorrow, killed by your enemies or by your family members.  Without Lucas I have no worth.  My daughter is here because of me.  If I’m no longer needed, I expect she won’t be needed also.   I’ve seen enough of you family to realize we won’t be allowed to leave.  You will dispose of us as if we never existed.  I have to find some way to make myself valued beyond Lucas.  Then, if he dies, both my daughter and I might survive.”

“And you do this by becoming our janitor?”  Daniel grinned.  “Tell me how low will you stoop?  If I leave some shit in the bathroom for you, will you clean it up for me?”

“No,” Karina said.   “You’ll clean your own shit.  Unless you’re sitting in the pile of it right now, you must know how to aim for the toilet and wipe your own ass.”

The amusement in Daniel’s eyes crystallized into anger.  “If you wanted to ingratiate yourself, there are much easier ways of doing it.  You can come here right now and suck my cock.  That will put you into my good graces much faster than scrubbing the sink.”

“She isn’t a fool, Daniel.”  Henry snagged another roll from the bread basket.  “These are delicious.  She knows that servicing you would put you and Lucas at each other’s throats.  You’re playing for your personal gratification, but Lucas depends on her for his survival.  She’d have to be mentally incapacitated to choose you over him.”

Daniel shifted to Lucas.  “So what does his lordship thinks of all this?  Your snack has you buried already.  Are you flattered?”

Lucas cut into his third steak.

“What would you do in her place?  Would you mop the floors, oh mighty one?”

Lucas thought about it.  “In her place I would’ve killed the two of you already.  But I’m not in her place.  And I’m not her.  I’m not smaller and weaker than everyone around me, nor do I have a child’s life in my hand.  She’s being prudent, given her situation.”

Daniel smirked.  “Never thought you’d be so agreeable with the idea of your own death.”

“We all must come to terms with it one way or another,” Lucas said.

“Maybe I’ll help you on your way then, since you’re all prepared.  Seems a shame to waste the opportunity.”

“Think you can?”Lucas asked with genuine interest.

“Careful, Daniel,” Henry said.  “That kind of talk will end with you breaking a nail or messing up your hair.”

Daniel ignored him and glared at Lucas.  “Bring it.”

Lucas put down his fork, smiled and tossed the table aside like it weighed nothing.  Karina scrambled out of the way.  Lucas’s huge hand clamped Daniel’s throat.  Daniel clawed at Lucas’s forearm.  The bigger man jerked him off his feet, shook him like a dog shakes a rat, and slammed him down onto the table.  Dishes flew.  Trapped in a corner between the counter and the stove, Karina threw her hands before her face.  A ceramic dish shattered next her, spraying green beans over the counter.

“No,” Henry screamed.  “Not inside!”

Red marks sliced Lucas’s forearms.  His skin bulged as if his bones were trying to break free.

“Yeah!” he snarled.  “Hurt me more.  Is that all you got?”  His hand still locked on Daniel’s throat, he pulled him up and smashed him onto the table again.  “Need some more?” Daniel’s face had grown bright red.  Lucas jerked him up.  “Not done yet?”  He drove Daniel back down.

With a thunderous snap, the table broke in two.  The two halves fell apart.

Daniel crashed onto the floor, Lucas atop of him, still crushing his windpipe.  Daneil’s feet drummed the ground.  Veins bulged on his face, his skin turning magenta.  His eyes rolled back into his skull.

“Oy,” Henry sighed.  “We lose all good dishes this way.”  He showed her the bread basket.  “At least I saved the rolls.”

Lucas released Daniel.  The blonde man lay unmoving.  Lucas stepped over him, his eyes blazing with fury.  His gaze locked on her.  “Bedtime,” Lucas growled and lunged at her.  An unstoppable force swept Karina off her feet and she found herself slung over Lucas’s back.

“Let me go!”  She struggled to pull free.

He swung around to face Henry.  “Leave the mess for when he wakes up.”

“Will do.”  Henry saluted him with a roll.

Lucas headed out of the kitchen.  Karina grabbed onto the doorframe, but her fingers slipped and she was carried in to the darkness of the hallway to the bedroom.

#

The room swung as Lucas slapped the door closed.  She expected him to hurl her on the bed but he lowered her to the floor.  She stumbled, dizzy from being spun back and forth, and scrambled to get away.  Steel fingers caught her arm.  He held on to her and sniffed at the sleeve of her sweatshirt.  “Green beans.  You want a shower?”

His tone was calm.  She glanced at his face.  All of the rage had gone out of him.  He looked worn out, his rage muted to mere smoldering coals.

“Yes.”  She hesitated.  ”I don’t have any clean clothes.”

“That’s a problem,” he agreed.

His sudden calm threw her off-balance.  She stood still, expecting him to swing at her, roaring into her face.

Lucas reached for the dresser and pulled out a white T-shirt.   “That’s the best I can do for now.  I’ll have something sent up from the main house in the morning.”

She took the T-shirt.  He didn’t offer her any underwear.  She would be naked under the T-shirt.

“Come on.”  Lucas pulled off his shirt and shed it on the floor.  Carved muscle bunched on his back.  Nude, clothed, if he wanted her, he could rape her at any point.  Clothes wouldn’t provide much of the defense.

He paused, his hand on the door of the bathroom.  “Are you coming?”

Not if I can help it. “I’ll wait until you’re done.”

“I’ll be in here for hours,” he said.   “The shower stall is closed in.  You can take your clothes off and I’ll see nothing.”

For hours…  “I thought you needed to feed.”

“Not for awhile.”

She followed him, despite knowing better, eager for any crumb of information.  “How long is awhile?”

“Couple of weeks.  Maybe longer.  Depends on how quickly you produce the antibodies I need.”  He stepped out of her way.  During the day she had used the bathroom in the hallway, near the kitchen.  She had assumed this one would be the same.

A room almost as big as the bedroom itself greeted her.  A dark green hot tub sunk into the sealed wooden floor.  Beyond it a shower stall stretched the entire length of the wall.   Its frame matched the hot tub, but the stall itself consisted of wide, dark green panels, either glass or plastic, thick and frosted from the inside.  Lucas didn’t lie – he might be able to discern her shadow, but that was about it.  To the right another stall must have hid the toilet, next to a large sink.

Lucas flipped the switch on the wall and the hot tub jets started, whipping the waters into froth.

The shower called to Karina. To go on and disrobe while he was in the tub was insane, but she was covered in food and his scent from last night still stained her skin.  She could wash him off.

Karina bit her lip and slipped past Lucas to the shower.  She closed the door and saw a latch.  Relief flooded her.  She could lock herself in and for a few minutes she could pretend she was safe.  She slid the latch closed and almost cried.

The shower stall was split into the dressing area and the shower itself, separated by a curtain.  Karina pulled off her clothes, dropping them into a rumpled pile on the shelf.  An array of shampoo bottles and soaps waited her selection.  She took the bottle with the picture of green apple on the side, picked up a bar of soap at random, and stepped into the shower.  Jets surrounded her on three sides.  She pulled the big wheel of the faucet and a wide sheet of water spilled on her from above in a warm, soothing waterfall.  She dropped the shampoo and the soap.  All around her water sprayed and cascaded, drenching her, washing away the scent of warm copper.  She stepped into the deluge, closed her eyes, and swayed.

#

Lucas slid into hot water.  He liked it near scalding.   It wasn’t quite hot enough, but it was getting there.  The jets pummeled his body.  He switched the two nearest jets off.  The sharp claws of pain that scraped his ribs dulled to a low ache.  His right arm throbbed too.   Daniel was getting stronger.

One day one of them would get careless and they might finish each other off.  Lucas closed his eyes and submerged.  There were worse ways to go than being killed by your brother.

The rage that drove him these past few days was gone, burned in an adrenaline rush of violence.

He came up for air and settled with his head on the ledge, positioned in dip of shelf, the only place he could sit with the water lapping at his neck.  So tired…  The healing drained his inner resources and he felt thin and weak, as if his muscle was a threadbare shirt hanging off his bones.  From here he could see the door and the shower stall.  She was in there.  Naked.  Wet.  A fruity synthetic scent teased him – she was washing her hair.  He pictured her body under water, her hands sliding over her breasts and down…

A dull thud made him lift his head.   In the shower, a dark shadow slumped, pressed against the glass.

It hit her finally.  He’d waited the whole day for it.

Lucas climbed out of the hot tub.  The shower stall door was locked.  He hit it with his palm and the lock popped open.

She lay curled in the corner of the shower, a small wet clump.  Her legs shivered.  Her skin had gained a pale, almost grey tint.  He scooped her off the floor.

“No,” she stuttered.  Her lips had turned blue.  She pushed against his chest, but he quashed her weak resistance and carried her out of the shower.

She fought him even as he climbed into the tub and lowered her onto the shelf, sinking her up to her chin into the hot water.  ”Let me go…”

Afraid to agitate her any further, he put the full width of the tub between them, giving her room.  No need to strain her.  If she passed out, chances of her survival would drop to almost nothing.

It took full three minutes before her teeth stopped chattering.  She looked at him.   “Everything hurts.”

“Your body is reacting to the venom,” he said.  “It’s normal.”

A short bitter laugh slipped from her lips.  “Normal?  Nothing about this is normal.”

True.  Not for her anyway.  For him, it was business as usual.  “Thirsty?”

“Yes.”

He waded through the tub, reached for the small fridge, and extracted a bottle of water.

She took the bottle, clamped the plastic cap in her teeth, twisted it off, and drank, draining nearly a third in a single long draught.  That’s it…  Drink, Karina.

He recalled Galatea’s first time.  She’d known exactly what would happen.  She had been raised for precisely this purpose: to support him.  And she loathed him for it.  Hate would’ve been too strong of a word; he didn’t rank that high in her mental roster.  Galatea hated the family, she hated Arthur, but him she merely despised, disgusted with his touch.  The older he got, the more he realized that sex with him was her way of revenge.  In feeding he dominated her and she had no choice but to submit.  In bed for a few fleeting moments Galatea dominated him.  That first time when she cried and screamed as her body struggled with its initial dose of venom, he had tried to hold her.  She was so pretty, so fragile…  He didn’t want to break her.  She had sense that small spark of compassion in him, clutched on to it, and twisted, again and again, until finally he could stand it no longer.  Living with her meant fighting a constant war.

Lucas sank down into the water and closed his eyes.  Thinking about her left a foul taste in his mind.  His ribs ached again.  Drowsiness came, threatening to smother his mind like a heavy blanket.

Karina’s voice tugged on him before he passed out.  “Why are you being nice to me?”

“Nice isn’t in my vocabulary.  I’m just tired.”

“Your ribs are bruised.”

“Daniel.”

“I didn’t see him hit you.”

“He doesn’t have to.  He can wrench bones from my body with a thought.”  He raised his arms and stood up, showing her the long angry welts outlining his ribs.  “If he really pushed, you’d see bones shards puncturing the skin.”

She stared at him in horrified silence.  He sank back down and closed his eyes.

They sat in silence for a long time.

“Why do you fight like that?” she asked.

“There is no single reason.  Sometimes he doesn’t like something I’ve done.  Sometimes I do it because he annoys me.”

“What about today?”

Lucas sighed.  She wouldn’t let him be.  “The prime shape… it does things to me.  Makes me harder, meaner, less patient.   Takes a few days to wear off.  Daniel tolerates it until I start to relax, because he knows better than to jump me while I’m keyed up.”

“He waited until you calmed down?”

“Yes.”

She frowned.  “So twisting bones out of your sockets is the way he demonstrates his displeasure at being pushed around?”

“Pretty much.”  He thought of leaving it at that but something nagged him to explain.  “It’s complicated.  There is baggage attached to it.”

When he opened his eyes, he found her looking at him.  She sat submerged so deep, only her face floated above the water.  Warm color had returned to her cheeks.  Her hair, slicked by the shower, swirled in the roiling water.

Mmmmm.  Mine.

He could reach out and pull her to him, and run his hands up and down her body, to feel the heavy fullness of her breasts, the curve of her butt…  If it wasn’t for fatigue anchoring him to the spot, he might have done it.

His thoughts must’ve reflected on his face, because she shrank back, her back pressed against the wall of the tub.  A haunted look claimed her face, sharpening her features.  Like a stray dog, he thought, shivering, scared, and ready to bite.  He held the key to her: turn it one way and break her, turn it the other and the pressure would ease.

“What would you do if I let you have your daughter, Karina?”

She froze.  He read the answer on her face.  Anything. She would do anything.  She would let him do anything, and if he demanded, she would pretend to like it.

It was the answer his mother would’ve given.

“What do you want?” she asked hoarsely.  He felt the tension hidden in her words, as if she stood on the edge of the chiasm, waiting for him to push her in.

“Can you bake a chocolate cake?”

There was a tiny pause before she answered.  “Yes.”

“Make one.  For Daniel.  It’s his favorite.”

She waited.  When he didn’t say anything, she finally asked, “That’s it?”

“Yes.”

He waited for relief on her face, but she just sat there, clenched up.  Still looking for the catch, he realized.

“Daniel, Henry, and I aren’t going to stop.  We’ve done this since we were children.  Neither one of us is above slapping a child out of the way to get to the other.  If I slap her, I might crush her bones.  If you’re counting on compassion or kindness or hoping we would mind ourselves around the kid, you’re out of luck.  Watch her.  If you see something starting, grab the kid and run into another room.”

“You’ll really let me have her?” He barely heard her voice.

“Yes.”  And he was a fool for doing it.  Nothing good would come of it.  Henry would think him insane.  But Lucas felt weary.  He didn’t have the strength to fight another war because he made her miserable.  “We’ll cut a door between my bedroom and the side room.   You can set her up in there tomorrow…”

Karina covered her face and cried.

He sat there and watched her shudder and sob, not knowing what to do with himself.  Uncomfortable, as if he had intruded on something private.

“Stop,” he growled finally.

Her sobs died gradually.  She splashed some water on her face.  “Can I stay with her in her room?”

“No.  You’ll stay with me.”

“Can I sleep on the floor?”

“No.  You’ll sleep in my bed, just like last night.”

“Why?”

Because you’re mine. “Because I want it that way.  Don’t push it.”

“I could…”

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back.  “Quiet.  No more talking.”

“Thank you,” she said softly.

“You’re welcome.”