Anya is in a tough spot. The man - werewolf, her mind supplies readily - is glaring at her with his arms crossed. She eyes the exit. Maybe if she moves fast enough, she can escape. And then what? It's not like she has anywhere to hide. She bites the inside of her cheeks and signs the papers in front of her without knowing what she's agreeing to.

She doesn't know what to expect when they lock her up in a room with a man who is more beast than human. He is chained to the ground with a collar around his neck and maybe he was handsome, once upon a time. But now, he is aggression and sharp teeth. He snarls at her when she is tossed in. She turns to run, but the door slams behind her.

"Good luck," is all her captor says.

She turns back around. Oh god. She's so screwed.

~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~

He frowns, and then with one smooth motion, hops onto the table. He squats and leans forward until his face is inches from mine.

I jerk back in surprise, but his hand shoots out and cradles the back of my head, forcing me to stay in place. I think I hear something from the other room, but I can't hear it because my heart is pounding too loudly, an erratic 'thump-thump-thump' that seems to ring in my ears.

He leans closer until our breaths mix, his exhales turning into my inhales. I can smell the metallic pang of blood from the meat he had been eating, but beyond that, a clean, musky scent that it wholly him.

"Hello," I whisper tentatively and watch as his eyes lock onto my lips. I hope he's not thinking of adding me to the menu. The man earlier did say he's never killed anyone before, right? I don't want to set precedent.

He tilts his head in contemplation and blinks slowly.

"Hello. My name's Anya. What's yours?" I ask.

He pulls his upper lip back and stares at me with pupils that look like a sort of aquamarine gemstone. Lovely and utterly mesmerizing. I am beginning to lose hope about him answering when he suddenly opens his mouth. "Leo," he growls and the murmuring on the other side of the room grows even louder.

"Hello, Leo," I say, surprising myself by the lack of tremble in my voice. The rest of me is shaking badly. Without warning, he yanks me forward and buries his nose in the nape of my neck. He inhales deep, breathing in my scent and filling his lungs with my smell. His hands are on my shoulders now, keeping me firmly in place, which is good because without his hands on me, I am certain I would just melt into a puddle on the floor out of fear.

"Mine," he rumbles suddenly and slides off the table with more grace than he's allowed. There's not a lot of space between the table and me and he ends up pushing me back until the chair tilts too much and I feel myself falling back suddenly.

The back of my head never connects with the floor because he grabs me by my arms and drags me towards the bed. "Mine," he repeats, his voice a deep vibrating bass that echoes endlessly in the too-bright room.

"Wait! No- wait! Stop!" I cry out, seeing where this is going. He's not going to eat me, but it's obvious he's not disinterested in me either. All the people who have shoved me in the room early had expected him to ignore me completely, but it's obvious that's not going to happen now. If anything, he is too interested in me. "Stop- stop!" I cry out.

He bares his teeth at me in frustration but lets go nevertheless.

I run towards the door immediately and start banging on it. "Let me out!" I am surprised that he does not come after me but I do not turn around to check, afraid of what I'll find. "Let me out!"

"He's not going to hurt you," I hear from the other side of the door. "We can let you out, but if you do this now and consider all your brother's debt gone. We'll pay everything he owes."