Real Alphas Bite (The Alpha-Hole Duet 1)

A warm,humid wind and a soft mist of water brushing against my face was the first thing I became aware of. My eyelids felt like they’d been glued shut as I struggled to come back into full consciousness.

My body bounced up and down, and I finally succeeded in opening my eyes only to wish I was still asleep. I was laying on a leather couch in nothing but a long shirt that had to be Hendrix’s, judging by the fact it was coated in his scent. I struggled to sit up, the massive headache I’d experienced the last time Hendrix had knocked me out, beating through my head.

Hopefully there weren’t long-term effects from being constantly drugged. Although, did it really matter? With what I’d seen at the club, it was only a matter of time before he killed me too.

Monsters didn’t have exceptions.

There was a large open window behind me, and I could see nothing but water as far as the eye could see. In any other circumstance, I would have been enthralled, but my rose-colored glasses had been ripped off and all the magic of my new world was gone.

The boat must have hit a rough wave because my stomach fell out from under me as it moved up and down in a rocking motion I hadn’t experienced before and wasn’t a fan of. I needed to get out of here before I threw up, not that there was much in my stomach to throw up.

I looked around the tiny room for a pair of shorts or something to put on even though the shirt went all the way to my knees. I sighed in relief when I spotted a pair of shorts folded neatly by the narrow door.

I reached for the knob, fully expecting for it to be locked, and to my surprise, it clicked open with ease. I tentatively pushed open the door to see a large open area filled with several comfy-looking couches. Several girls were lounging on the couches watching a huge tv playing a chick flick that I remembered. Looking closer at the girls, I realized that I recognized them. They were all fully dressed now, their makeup scrubbed clean of their faces. But there was no denying it. It was the girls I’d glimpsed in the room right before Hendrix had painted it red.

I’d thought he’d killed them.

There were five of them in total, and they all stared at me, various looks of uncertainty on their faces. A few of them smiled, but they all remained quiet.

“Hello,” I finally said.

“Hi,” the one seated closest to me answered shyly, her Russian accent thick. Unlike how out of it her eyes had been while in that room, they were clear now, if exhausted looking.

“You’re from the club,” I said, my head spinning in confusion.

The girl’s gaze darkened. “We’d been sold to those men.” She spit in disgust.

They’d been victims of sex trafficking, I realized, sorrow coursing through me. Hendrix had…saved them then?

Something that felt a little bit like hope flickered through me. Until a dark thought hit me.

Had he just spared them so that he could use them on his islands?

They might be even worse off.

Except for some reason, the idea didn’t ring true in my obviously stupid heart.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” I finally whispered hoarsely, rubbing at my aching forehead and not knowing what else to say.

The girls nodded, looking haunted, and I made my way past them to the door on the other side of the room that I could tell led out to the deck. The rocking motion of the boat was still making me sick, and I figured getting some fresh air might help.

I spotted Hendrix immediately. He was leaning over the railing staring out ahead of him. I hadn’t been able to see anything from the room, but out here I could see a large island straight ahead of us. There were tall, sand-colored stone walls all around the perimeter…and palm trees.

A paradisiacal prison.

Hendrix looked back over his shoulder and lifted an eyebrow, silently daring me to approach him.

As soon as I saw him though, I was assaulted by images of him tearing those people apart.

Even knowing they were bad men…it had been shocking. Macabre images to join in with the ones I already had from my family’s demise on that fateful night.

Mateo was a few feet away talking to a group of men I hadn’t yet seen, freshly cleaned, as was Hendrix. He looked at me warily, probably afraid that I was going to throw up on him again, or worse, hit him in the balls.

I didn’t feel bad at all.

I went to the other side of the boat, away from all of them, and took deep breaths, trying to calm down my nausea and headache.

I would have asked for one of those little magic pills Hendrix had given me at the start of this whole journey…but that would have required me actually talking to him. And I wasn’t quite ready for that.

I watched as the island got closer and closer until I could see the colorful buildings built up behind the imposing wall, and the people working on the shore with various nets and what looked like fishing poles. I could feel Hendrix’s gaze on me almost the whole time, practically begging for me to look at him. But I could be very stubborn, obviously, and never took the bait.

Our boat, a sleek black and red vessel that was probably closer to a yacht than a boat, pulled up next to the dock that stretched out at least a hundred feet from the shoreline.

We were here.

“Ready to see your new life?” asked Hendrix, making me jump since I’d somehow missed him approaching me.

“Hardly,” I responded sarcastically, and he chuckled like I was nothing more than an ornery little kitten instead of a furious woman who’d witnessed him slaughter a room full of people.

My wolf sniffed indignantly, obviously not happy with him either. It was a relief that she’d gotten the memo. I hated being at odds with her, and she’d been all too quiet in the club.

Four men were waiting at the end of the dock, and they worked quickly with some of the men on board to secure the ship. Just a few minutes later, a door was unlatched, revealing a wide plank that had been connected to the ship’s side.

Hendrix firmly grasped my arm and began to lead me down the plank onto the dock. Some of the workers eyed me curiously, but they quickly averted their gazes when Hendrix’s menacing growl made an appearance.

Oh, so he was back to the possessive asshole routine.

Good to know.

The walk down the dock was long, but there was so much to see that we were on the shore before I knew it.

I was barefoot since the heels I’d been wearing had disappeared and no one had offered me anything to wear. As soon as I stepped onto the sand beyond the dock, I stopped, wigging my toes at the sensation of the sand brushing against my skin.

I enjoyed the feel of the sand for a long minute, belatedly realizing that Hendrix wasn’t yanking me away. I looked over to see what he was doing and saw that he was just standing next to me, looking at me with a softness in his gaze that I was determined to ignore.

Maybe there had been a good reason for what happened in that room, but I wasn't quite at the stage where a brutal massacre was the answer. There were probably people in the world that could have come up with reasons to support my father's actions as well.

"Ready when you are," I said to Hendrix, trying to ignore the fear and uncertainty I was experiencing as I took my attention away from the palm trees and golden sand and faced the compound in front of me.

And it really was a compound. Now that we were close, I could see a guard station set up, and men dressed in white tank tops and military-grade pants with huge AK-47s. They were everywhere, and obviously ready for an attack.

There was a thick metal gate in the wall, and I watched as it retracted, revealing a neatly paved cobblestone street bordered by sandstone-colored houses. People were milling around in the streets, most of them soldiers, and just beyond the row of houses I could see a glimpse of what looked like an enormous courtyard area with people doing various training exercises judging by the faint sound of someone barking orders.

The soldiers we passed gave respectful nods to Hendrix, but no one stopped to talk to us, which apparently was what Hendrix wanted because he moved us swiftly down the street and into the courtyard. Once in the courtyard, I could see military-style barracks in the distance, but they only caught my attention for a second because of the enormous mansion rising up in front of us.

“Welcome to Isla de Sangre,” Hendrix murmured as he yanked me across the giant courtyard and through an archway that revealed a gorgeous Olympic-style pool…

And a group of soldiers watching two naked girls making out.

I quickly averted my eyes, only to see a gorgeous man lounging on a pool chair…getting a blowjob.

What the fuck?