Filthy rich werewolves by Taylor Caine

Chapter 13

"I don't need your compliments.”

But it’s the wrong thing to say. This man slaps my face. Then he grabs my hair and jerks my head

back. He slaps me again with his free hand before I can scream.

"If I want you to drink, then you will drink! Why are you acting all high and mighty when you’re just a

f*cking convict?!"

As he speaks, he shifts his grip, grabbing me roughly by the jaw. In the next instant, he has the bottle of

alcohol and is pouring it into my mouth.

I try to push him away.

I choke and gag, and he moves again so he’s covering my face and nose. It forces me to gasp and

then a rush of wine pours down my throat. He doesn’t relent.

I have to swallow and swallow in order to breathe.

My ‘sister’ is holding my arms. I thrash but it does nothing.

She’s a wolf. He’s a male.

I'm a weak female, and I’m still bearing an assortment of bruises and injuries from my last injuries only

a day ago from when I met Jay.

Jay.

My thoughts turn to him now. If he was here, he would defend me.

“S-stop,” I choke.

When I start to gag in earnest, they let me go.

I collapse to the ground. They corner me so there is nowhere to go.

My vision wavers. In part from nearly drowning/suffocating as he covered my nose, and in part from

consuming so much alcohol so fast. I have no tolerance. And I don’t have my wolf’s metabolism

anymore.

I’m dizzy and I stay there on my hands and knees gasping for air and trying to get the room to stop

spinning.

“You're still smart," the man praises Evelyn. “I'll talk to the writers and give you more screen time."

He grabs my hair and I stand so the strands don’t rip from my scalp. “There now, he says. “Not so high

and mighty anymore, huh.” He grabs my chin. “Your face looks better with my handprint on it.” He looks

at me more closely. “Ooh, you have more bruises under this pale skin. And look at these blotches on

your neck…somebody likes it rough.”

“N-no.” I shudder. “Let me go.”

But my voice is weak and though I’m clawing at his hands, he doesn’t let go.

His phone starts ringing and he uses his free hand to silence it.

“I feel sick,” I say to no one in particular.

He shoves me away from him.

I bend over a bit and breathe. It’ll be better if I vomit. Drunk like this, I’m too slow, too disoriented.

“My sister isn't smart, so please be understanding, Director Curtis.”

My sister is pandering to a human. It repulses me.

Wolves are among the most powerful creatures on this planet. We’re stewards of this world, meant to

protect and share a connection with the natural world and the spirits that reside in the next.

And what does Evelyn do?

Lowers herself to …this.

For what?

Money? Influence? To be famous.

The man’s phone rings again and again, despite that he keeps silencing it.

When he starts toward me, I gag loudly and he freezes.

“I wanted her in my room, but if she’s going to be sick, I don’t want any part of that.”

“This is a lovely space,” Evelyn says.

The bitch.

When the phone rings yet again, he curses. “What!? What the hell do you want?”

“Damn it, Curtis.”

“Brother?”

The man on the phone starts yelling and cursing and even from my place several feet away I can hear

him.

"Don't you dare touch this woman!” the brother yells. “You have to let her leave safely. You have to

know that the boss of the company himself called and warned me!”

“What? How did you kno—“

“Shut up and listen. Don’t ask questions!”

The Assistant Director pales and listens to more ranting about leaving the hotel and leaving me alone

specifically.

He scratches his head. “But how... how could it be? She, she... she is just a sanitation worker with no

background. Even if her former boyfriend was Sean, Sean Stevens has a fiancée now, so he has no

reason to care about her at all. Otherwise, why would his ex-girlfriend be cleaning garbage?"

“Are you not listening!? It doesn’t matter how. Don’t you dare touch this woman,” his brother hollers.

“You have to let her leave safely. You have to know that the boss of the company himself called and

warned me. The boss also said that if anything wrong happened to this woman tonight, the entire

production crew would be dismissed tomorrow. As for you, you won't be able to stay in this city.”

“What!?”

“You’re finished.”

Curtis's hand shakes where he holds the phone. "How is that possible? Hundreds of millions of dollars'

worth of investment? Dismissed?" He glances at me. "Who the hell are you?”

I don’t wait.

I’m wobbly but I lurch toward the door.

Evelyn doesn’t try to stop me. She’s too busy listening to what’s happening on the call. She’s as pale

and nervous as this Director she’d tried to pimp me to.

"How is she now? She's fine, right?”

Part of me wants to scream out every crime he committed—and how this man intended to rape me. But

I focus only on escaping. I reach the doors to this cursed room and drag them open.

I make it into the hallway before I slump against the wall.

I hear another slap from the room. And Evelyn’s sharp gasp.

"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be in this mess!”

Evelyn cries, "Director Curtis, what are you...?"

"Are you trying to set me up? Who is your sister? Who is behind her?"

“I-I don't know what you're talking about! My sister has no one. Not even her family…”

I force myself to keep moving down the hallway.

I don’t want to hear anymore.

I need to reach the lobby. To get help. If I pass out. If they catch me… there’s no telling what they’ll do. Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

My limbs are heavy and the whole room seems to spin.

I stagger again.

In the distance I see a dark image moving toward me. I blink and blink but everything is so blurry.

There was something in that wine, I realize.

They drugged me.

The figure appears in front of me.

Foreign but familiar.

Safe when everything around me is not.

An arm slings around my waist and then I’m pulled up against a hard body.

My feet are moving, but I don’t actually feel them touching the ground.

Then I’m being guided through doors and next thing I know, I’m outside.

The bite of cold air is welcome. It gives me a moment of clarity.

I’d panic… but I know the shape and scent and height of this man.

Even without my heightened senses, I know him.