Enslaved by the Alpha: Part One (Shifters of Nunavut Book 1) Read Free Page A

pelt that covered his muscular torso and powerful limbs. With the distance between them, she couldn’t make out the color of his eyes, but she didn’t need to. Those frigid blue eyes, eyes that had only been on camera for eight seconds, had haunted her for nearly a year.
    Erik.
    Astrid was dully aware of Noona coming to her side as Erik approached. His mane whipped and flared around his face, tossed by an icy wind. As he neared her, the alpha shifted, a nightmare morphing into a dream.
    A shift was a thing of seamless beauty. Teeth shrank and flattened, muscles and bones snapped and popped as they realigned, and fur retracted into human flesh. The most skilled of shifters could make it look effortless, often changing forms midstride. Erik made it look like an art. Even as his mane drew up onto the top of his head and the sharp features of his striking face began to take shape, he was already regarding Astrid with a slight cock of his head and the barest quirk of a smile.
    Noona intercepted him, growling and with teeth bared. Erik crouched low on the ground, so that his face was level with the husky’s. The alpha had just completed the shift, however it looked as though his teeth were still caught in limbo between man and wolf. Astrid had seen many werewolves in Ginnifer’s documentary, but never had she seen one with such large and prominent canines.
    “Please don’t hurt her.” Astrid hardly recognized her own voice. It was soft, weak, and barely audible even to her own ears, but just the fact that she had managed to speak helped her to regain some of her footing in reality.
    Not seeming to hear her, the alpha continued to gaze into Noona’s eyes. His face had become perfectly blank, yet somehow infinitely more threatening. The husky stopped growling and took a step back.
    Astrid’s heart leapt into her throat as Erik reached out a hand with sharp, claw-like nails. He patted the top of Noona’s head. In a deep, accented voice, he said, “Good girl. Brave, but not stupid.” He nodded at the dog. “Now leave.”
    To Astrid’s surprise, Noona shook her head and let out a small whimper. She retreated farther back to stand at Astrid’s side.
    The alpha stood, and Astrid became aware of just how large he was. And also how naked. Just as she was taking in the sculpted muscles of his chest, one of the other wolves came up to hand him a black pelt. With quick efficiency, he tossed it over one shoulder and tied it at his hip.
    Astrid braced herself for the confrontation to come. She tried to think of what she would say to this creature, but had no idea where she stood. Bargaining was likely off the table, and though she was ashamed to admit it, she didn’t care enough about the men to express genuine anger or indignation over their deaths. All she could do now was try to survive.
    So what did that leave? Begging for her life?
    Her sister, proud, beautiful, and arrogant Ginnifer would have been above such a thing. Astrid, however, was not.
    She was fully prepared to fall to her knees and cry, when Erik walked right past her, not sparing her so much as a glance. Her eyes followed him to her tent, where the wolf she’d squared off with just moments ago was dragging out the supply bag. Erik gave the wolf a curt nod, and then carefully hooked one claw into the zipper loop and pulled, putting the bag’s contents on display.
    Confused, but not wanting to miss the opportunity, Astrid said, “They’re for you and your pack. Almost everything in that tent is. We… I brought it as a peace offering.”
    Continuing to ignore her, the alpha crouched down and examined the bag’s contents. He kept his back to her, which Astrid found to be strange. In the documentary, Ginnifer had mentioned that wolves—even an alpha—never exposed his back to a threat.
    He doesn’t see you as a threat , she realized. He doesn’t see you as anything .
    Unconsciously, her hands tightened into fists.
    She heard the rustle of plastic as Erik