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When I wake up, I am no longer in position. I am lying on the bed with a blanket over me, and a pillow under my head. Gruff must have found me asleep and instead of waking me up with a harsh slap for disobeying him, he put me to bed. A wash of tenderness flows over me. He looked after me even though I disobeyed him, even though I basically tried to betray him according to his perspective. He thinks I am his mate, and though I haven’t taken that mantle on myself, I know he must consider me wayward, if not outright unfaithful.
Gruff might be the first to look after me in spite of my difficulty. This blanket and pillow tell me he is not rejecting me. He may take some pleasure in punishing me, but I suppose I need someone who enjoys the struggle.
“Hello, brat,” he greets me in his rough voice. “Sleep well?”
“How long was I asleep?” Opening my eyes does not hurt but moving does. The motion of my ass beneath the blanket is enough to reignite the ache of his punishment. I can only imagine what will happen to me if I try to sit down.
“You slept the entire dark cycle.”
“I did? Fuck!” I scramble up, and discover that yes, sitting on a very well spanked ass, even for a second, hurts like hell. “Fuck!” I curse again, bouncing up from the bed with my hands to my rear.
“What’s the hurry, human?” Gruff is leaning against the door, watching me with a very particular expression on his face. I realize in that moment that the interrogation is not over. My thoughts immediately went to the boy I found in my dome. He must have been waiting for almost a full Earth day. I hope he hasn’t given up hope. I really wanted to help him.
“Uhm. I’ve just been asleep for…” I stop talking as he straightens and walks toward me with athis is not a good time to lie to me, little human, expression on his face.
“Do you want to know what I think you’ve been doing?”
“Sure.” That question saves me from having to lie. I don’t like lying to him. I don’t even like disappointing him. He’s getting under my skin, little by little.
“I think you were going to run away, because you’re a brat and much like your little Strumpet, you do whatever appeals to you. I think you’re generally bored here, and you haven’t listened to a word I’ve said over the last few weeks. And I think there’s a reason you were going through my drawers and holding my pants. So.” He pauses and asks a question that scares me to my core. “Where is he?”
“Where is who?” Fuck, Gruff is good. I mean, detective good. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I’m lying. I don’t want to be lying, but I do it almost reflexively now. He makes me feel like I’m in the most trouble I’ve ever been in my life. Gruff says nothing. He just nails me with that look, the one that makes me physically squirm in front of him, back and forth, trying to think of how I can tell him, or not tell him.
“I… uh…”
He sighs. “I can smell him, Jem. I know he’s young. I know he’s hurt. I know you feel sorry for him.”
My jaw drops. “How the fuck did you know any of that?”
Gruff allows himself a smile of amusement at my expense. “You know our scents mean something, right? The way a buck smells tells everybody how old he is, how strong he is, how aggressive he is?”
“I did not know that.”
“Our scents tell one another everything we need to know. You asked about defenses. One of the defenses of this place is its scent.”
An idea pops into my head at this most inopportune of times. I can go from here to the city completely unmolested, probably, if I can just smell like Gruff.
“Don’t,” he sighs. “Just don’t. I can see your thoughts, human, they are written all over your face. They dance in your devious little eyes. My scent is mine alone, and you cannot take it. Even if you were to scrape the scent from me and rub it over yourself you would not smell like me. You would smell like me, plus whatever amount of time it had been since you gathered the scent.”
“Oh.”
“Where is the male?”
“I don’t want to tell you. I don’t want you to hurt him. He’s been hurt enough.”
Gruff takes me by the arms and crouches down in front of me, then says two words that give me hope.
“I know.”
8
“He won’t come near me,” Gruff says. “If he smells me, he’ll run. So you need to go down and bring him inside the bridge. You need to get him located in one of the rooms.”
“You mean I need to trap him.”
