The Alpha's Secret Human Sugar Baby - Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Thorne POV
She’s afraid.
Aurora’s body trembles as I press her against the brick wall and study her face. Unshed tears fill her eyes, and her injured hand grips my forearm.
The sight of her, afraid and collared on that stage, nearly had me ripping everyone in that room apart. Then, she’d looked at me and I saw relief. She knew I would help her. It was the only thing that kept me calm.
“Who tricked you? I’ll tear them apart,” I growl, my wolf trying to come to the surface to enact justice… vengeance… whatever it is, he wants to help.
Aurora hesitates, biting her bottom lip in a way that has me thinking things that are entirely too inappropriate for this moment. She doesn’t want to tell me who brought her here. Just the thought of her holding back for whoever did this makes my anger rise to fury.
Earlier today, I’d received the pictures from Ivy of Aurora with a man. My anger had easily risen then, too. My wolf, the hothead, had to calm me down so I could think clearly about the situation.
Ivy had clearly manipulated these images to get rid of Aurora. My emotions are, for some reason, easily affected by Aurora. She makes it hard for me to think clearly.
I had to take several minutes to calm down before calling Isla into the office and asking what happened with Aurora and this man. She told me that this man bothered and followed Aurora around before cornering her in the staff room.
I’d been annoyed and angry by Ivy’s malicious intent and made a note to remind Aurora during our dinner to keep her distance from men.
However, I didn’t get a chance to eat dinner with her because she never showed up. I sent Jace to find her only for him to come back and tell me she had disappeared. He apologized profusely for losing track of her and said he would go find her.
I didn’t have time to wait, so I ate and left to discuss cooperation agreements with another pack.
I hadn’t expected to run into Aurora here, though.
Especially not like this.
This fear that shines in her eyes and the way her lip trembles when she tries to talk, I can’t take it. I lean in and press my forehead to hers, letting my wolf slip forward just enough to provide warmth and comfort.
She’s not going to tell me anything while she’s still afraid for her life.
I take the time to breathe deeply, and soon, I find that Aurora does the same. Our breathing becomes one, puffing in and out at the same time. Our chests rise and fall together, and her tight grip on my arm loosens.
“I just want you to be honestly with me,” I whisper, not wanting to spook her again. If that happens, I’ll never get her to open up and tell me the truth.
“I…” She whimpers, her pretty eyes finding mine as tears fill them again. I grit my teeth against the swelling of anger that fills my chest. “It was my stepfather. I-I didn’t want to say it because I didn’t think he would do something so awful.”
Her voice is small and raspy, telling me exactly how hurt she feels from this betrayal.
“B-but you can’t kill him,” she says.
“Why not? He threw you to the wolves… literally,” I growl. If I hadn’t been here tonight, any number of things could have happened to her.
She nods, clearly understanding this. “I know, but my mother relies on my stepfather. He was always kind to me when I was growing up.”
“But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be punished for hurting you now, Aurora. They could have taken you and killed you,” I tell her, and she flinches.
“They didn’t want to kill me,” she whispers, her tone sad. “They said they were going to sell me.”
A feral growl rips from my body, and I have to clench my fists against the wall to keep from accidentally hurting her. My claws pierce my palms as I take a deep breath.
“You can punish him, but if you kill him, it will cause massive upheaval in my family. Being an Alpha and a werewolf, you wouldn’t understand how much impact this would bring. We don’t have much money, and the safety of living in the pack is so much better than the Human Quarter…” She trails off, peering up at me with those big, pleading eyes.
I want nothing more than to rip this man- a man I’ve never met- to shreds, but then she looks at me with those eyes, and I want to listen to her.
However, I can sense that she doesn’t fully trust me. She’s begging because she thinks I’ll ignore her wishes.
“Be patient. She will grow to trust us,” my wolf says calmly. Is that what I want? Do I want her to trust me?
When I look down at her frightened eyes again, I have my answer. Yes. I want her to trust me, to look to me for help, and that’s not how I planned for this relationship to go.
“I called you multiple times,” I say, changing the subject. “Jace went searching for you, thinking you ran away.”
“Oh, they took my phone and purse when they put me in that holding room,” she mutters, looking down at her gauze wrapped hand.
Carefully, I lift it and examine the sloppy wrappings, “Is that where this happened?”
She nods, “They locked me and other girls in a room for a long time. I kept banging on the door so long and hard that it got scraped up.”
Aurora doesn’t look injured anywhere else, but when my eyes land on the previous bruises on her neck, I remember the black collar that had been around her neck. They collared her like a dog.
“I even told them I was with you,” she whispers, her cheeks flushing red. She’d used my name, and they still hurt her.
Another reason to kill them.
I shake the thought from my head.
“I’ll buy you a new phone,” I mutter, trying to focus my thoughts away from murder. A soft, little thing like her doesn’t need to see the beast in me.
Yet.
Aurora flips the brand-new phone over in her hand, a small smile on her lips as we sit in the back seat. Jace glances at her through the rearview mirror, a bit of relief in his eyes at the sight of her.
My hand on Aurora’s thigh tightens, and she looks up.
“Thank you for my new phone,” she says softly. “And for saving me tonight. I…” she blinks up at me, a sudden pinkness coming to her cheeks.
Curious, I brush my thumb across her thigh, asking, “What is it?”
“I would like to make you dinner, as a thank you and an apology.”
I wasn’t expecting that, but I find myself smiling and nodding, “Then you can make dinner when we get home.”