Page 11 of Bound

I move my attention to the last man. He’s a giant—tall, wide, and muscular. I think even his muscles have muscles. His thick arms, corded with muscle, are crossed over his broad chest, and his red plaid shirt strains against his massive biceps. His short, dirty-blond hair is messy, and his beard is short and unkempt, giving him a sexy, disheveled lumberjack look.

Sexy?No—scary, definitely scary. That’s what I meant.

His pale blue eyes narrow on me, making me gulp in fear. It’s clear this guy is the muscle of the group. Although let’s be real here, any one of them could overpower me on their own.

What do they want with me?I look around for an escape, but with my back against the cave wall, I can’t move any farther away from them.

I notice them glancing at each other and it suddenly hits me.

They’re wolf shifters. Like me.

Not just that, but they must all be alphas. I’ve never met any before; my whole family were betas. But my instincts are telling me that’s what the intense energy and power around these five is.

My parents didn’t teach us a lot about shifters, but what I did know was that we fell into one of two designations, alphas and betas. Alphas are stronger, quicker to anger, and more dominant. They are natural leaders, and the most powerful of them have the ability to use their alpha command to make betas do as they say.

Betas tend to be more easygoing, friendlier, and happy to follow others. Although I’d never met an alpha, everything in me is telling me that is what thesefive are.

Strong, powerful, and dominant.

One of the wolves slowly gets up and walks toward me. My eyes widen in fear as I try to push back farther into the wall, silently hoping it will decide to crumble down on top of me.

I turn my head and press the side of my face into the wall as hard as I can, squeezing my eyes shut tight. I wait, and when no strike comes, I slowly open them and frown when I see him standing over the raw meat that Maddox wanted me to eat. He watches me as he slowly leans down and rips off a small piece of the meat and eats it. Then he picks it up and tosses it a few inches closer to me.

The splat it makes when it hits the ground sets me off. I whimper as I jump up and race away from it, trying to move around the edge and squeeze past the others at the cave entrance. But the three ‌of them, still standing there, quickly move in front of it, blocking me in. I stop my advance and slowly back up, my head darting between the five of them now surrounding me.

The other two are still where the meat is, so I back up to the other side of the cave until my back is against that wall. When none of them move, I slowly sit down, feeling exhausted from that small burst of movement.

I don’t understand what they want from me. Why haven’t they hurt me yet?

“Maybe she doesn’t like the meat,” the black-haired man suggests. Maddox nods as he watches me. The wolf moves back to the cave entrance beside the others. All five of them just stare at me and I stare back. After a minute, Maddox sighs and takes a couple of small steps toward me before dropping into a squat.

“I’m sorry if we scared you. I promise we’re just trying to help. You need to eat and drink. We’ll see what else we can find for you, but meat is going to be the best option to help you recover properly.”

He pauses, tilting his head as his gaze seems to sink deep into me. “Please don’t try to run off. Let us help you, okay, little wolf?”

I swallow nervously, not trusting him. The strange part is, he doesn’t feel like my enemy. In some weird way, it’s like I know he won’t hurt me, that he is here to help me, but my mind keeps replaying all the times men at the facility said they werejust trying to help.

When I don’t respond, he presses his lips together and stands. He turns his back on me and leaves the cave. I’m not sure why, but it upsets me to see him leave. That expression on his face was… disappointment? Is he disappointed in me? For some reason, I don’t like that.

What is wrong with me? I don’t even know him.

I watch the others as they slowly turn and leave until only the two wolves remain. They lie across the entrance, watching me. When a few minutes pass and they haven’t moved, I lower myself to a lying position, never taking my eyes off ‌them. They don’t seem aggressive, they seem… calm.

One of them lets out a chuff, then rolls to his back. His tongue hangs out the side of his mouth as he wiggles around with all four legs in the air. I tilt my head, trying to figure out what he’s doing. He stops and stays like that, unmoving other than his panting breaths. After a minute, he wiggles around again. Inside my head, I giggle at his actions.

When was the last time I laughed?I know the answer to that and it instantly sobers me.

I drop my head to rest on my paws as I watch him wiggle around the cave floor. The other wolf doesn’t take his brown eyes off me. After a minute, I notice him trying to move closer to me extremely slowly. So slowly, I didn't notice at first. It’s only when I realize he is now several feet closer than the other wolf that I even realize he’s been moving. Almost like astealthy, slow-motion crawl. I lift my head as I watch him, and he stops.

He eventually drops his head to his paws, and I do the same. I notice the other wolf is now lying on his stomach as his head darts back and forth between us.

The stealthy wolf starts to move closer again, and I lift my head. He stops. I narrow my eyes on him. What is he playing at? When he moves again, I jump up, my heart pounding fast as I try to move farther away, which is impossible when I’m already at the back of the cave.

He lifts his head, then surprises me by crawling backward until he’s back at the cave entrance beside the wiggler.

After a few minutes, when my heart’s stopped racing, I drop back down with my head on my paws. He doesn’t try to come closer again; he just watches me.

Soon, the man with black hair comes in holding a large leaf. “I have some berries for you, princess.” He slowly walks toward me, and I sit up, unease filling me as he moves closer. He places the leaf on the ground in front of me, then snatches up one of the berries and eats it.