Page 1 of His Toy

PROLOGUE

When the Wolf first emerged from the criminal underworld on Earth and clawed his way to the top of the heap, the wealthy families who had relocated to the first-class living installations on the Moon didn’t pay much attention. Those who had dealings with Earth were used to the changing regimes of the crime families that now reigned supreme behind the politicians left there. For the Moon Families, their planet of origin was no longer of much concern. They considered it a teaching tool—an entire planet-sized museum of the past—but their focus was on the future and the stars.

Then the Wolf became a household name, and Earth a testing ground, for a certain generation among the Moon Families. They wanted the taste of danger, the thrill of escape, for the Wolf would occasionally select one or two of the young men and women who would visit Earth for schooling or leisure, and they would disappear. Those who spent the shortest amount of time with the Wolf returned with wild stories of orgies and incredible sex, of pain and pleasure, and the adrenaline rush that could only come with the fear of death.

Perhaps not surprisingly, their peers immediately began to make trips to Earth in droves, secure in the knowledge they most likely would not be taken… but wanting to tempt fate. Their entire lives had been safe, stale… and so far, none of those the Wolf had taken had ever failed to return.

Of course, there were those who disappeared for months. When they were returned to their families they never spoke of their ordeal. The only way it was known they had spent time with the Wolf was when they were recognized by those who had returned after only a matter of days and were bragging about the experience.

The Wolf’s following and power were such that the press was only able to obtain a few photos and little information. Most knowledge of the Wolf came through those few he’d taken or the intermediaries on Earth who transacted other business with the Moon.

The tourist trade on Earth swelled as the wealthy denizens of the Moon continued to court danger, never knowing who might be taken next.

1

Bella woke slowly, feeling groggy. The inside of her mouth tasted awful. The inside of her head felt even worse. She moaned, shifting a bit, and wondered why she was lying on something so hard and uncomfortable.

“Bella,” a familiar voice whispered urgently. “Bella, are you awake? Are you okay?”

“Alex?” Her voice came out as a hoarse croak. She forced her eyes open, blinking and squinting as the light blinded her for a moment. “Alex, what’s going on?”

There was a muffled whimpering sob behind her, and Bella tried to turn to see who was there, only to be pulled short by the bindings around her wrist, secured to a pole. She stared at the cording, horrified, before blinking and looking in the direction of Alex’s voice.

He was sitting up, leaning against another pole where his wrists were tied.

What kind of sick joke was this?

Memories swirled. Bella and her boyfriend Ken had come on vacation to Earth with his best friend, Alex, and Alex’s girlfriend Lisa. They’d only had a few days left before going home when she and Alex had gone out to a museum that neither Ken nor Lisa were interested in. Bella and Alex had come back early from the museum, feeling bad about deserting their partners, to find that Ken and Lisa hadn’t missed them at all.

Bella had been horrified. Alex had been angry. They’d both packed up their stuff immediately, ignoring the pleas from Ken and Lisa, and gotten in a taxi. She’d been so glad Alex had been there; Bella knew she was a bit of a pushover and, if it hadn’t been for Alex’s righteous anger, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to resist Ken’s manipulations and explanations. Not to mention her family had been incredibly approving of their relationship: Ken’s father was very influential when it came to assigning space in the housing installations. It had been Alex who had helped her realize she had every right to break up with Ken; that it wasn’t her fault he’d cheated on her, and that she needed to get away. Now.

But what the hell had happened after they’d gotten in the taxi? She remembered crying on Alex’s shoulder and then… nothing.

“I’m sorry, Bella, I’m so, so sorry,” Alex said miserably.

“What’s going on?” she asked again, her voice becoming a bit shrill.

“Shhh.” He did his best to be soothing, although it was obvious from the tension in his body he suppressed his own amount of panic. “Stay quiet.” There was enough of a forceful demand in his voice that she pushed down the scream that wanted to bubble up out of her throat.

Another whimper behind her had her scooting toward the pole so she could sit up the way Alex was and look around. A fragile-looking young woman was also tied to a nearby pole, although separated from Bella and Alex by about ten feet. With her big crystal-blue eyes, white-blonde hair, and slight figure, the young woman looked like a captured pixie.

“What’s going on?” Bella asked again, unable to completely keep the panic out of her whisper.

“I’m so sorry,” Alex repeated, looking even more miserable. “We should have never come to Earth… never gotten into that taxi…”

Slowly, the hazy memories coalesced. She remembered Alex asking the driver why he was descending into the city when they should have been ascending to head to the space port… The sickly sweet smell that had filled her nose and mouth, and Alex shouting…

“Oh my god…”

“Bella, it’s okay, be calm.”

“Calm? Be calm? How can you say that?” Her voice rose to a shriek, which cut off when metal scraped against concrete. All three of them turned toward the sound, and Bella’s breath strangled in her throat.

The biggest and most dangerous looking man she’d ever seen in her life filled the doorway. The room they were in felt much smaller than it had a moment ago. His cold gaze swept over all three of them but lingered on the little blonde, who whimpered again as his lips hooked up in a cruel smile. The man had the same white-blonde hair as the young woman, although his was barely half an inch long, cut very close to his head, and his eyes were a vacant, sinister grey. Bella didn’t blame the other woman for whimpering—she felt like doing so herself, and he’d only looked at her for a moment. There was something about him, the way he held himself maybe, that screamed violence and danger. This was the kind of man who would never be approved for immigration to the Moon, based on that alone.

With his dark pants and their many, bulging pockets, a grey t-shirt, and a vest that also looked to have filled pockets, the first word that went through Bella’s mind was ‘Mercenary.’

“Good. You’re all awake.”

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