13 The Red Trap
Sera
Water dripped off my skin, pooling on the stone floor. I stood there, naked and shivering, despite the fire roaring in the hearth. I grabbed the dress from the bed.
I’d seen it the moment Mina left, but holding it up was different. It was blood-red and made of a fabric so slick it felt like it was trying to slide out of my hands. It had thin, stringy spaghetti straps and a neckline that plunged so low it would barely cover my nipples. But the back was the real problem. There wasn’t one. The fabric just… stopped. It was a long, open scoop that went all the way down to the tailbone.
It was a dress meant for a red carpet or a high-end club in the South, not a stone fortress in the middle of a blizzard. It looked completely wrong against the heavy timber furniture and the raw, unpolished mountain walls.
“I can’t wear this,” I muttered to the empty room.
It wasn’t a dress; it was a neon sign that said come fuck me. I dropped it back onto the furs and turned toward the massive wardrobe. I needed something thick. Something with sleeves. Something that didn’t make me look like I was auditioning for a role I never wanted.
A heavy knock sounded on the door. I jumped, my heart thudding against my ribs.
“Who is it?” I called out. The wood was so thick my voice sounded thin even to my own ears.
“It’s Mina. Dinner’s in twenty minutes, Sera. Are you decent?”
I grabbed a towel and wrapped it tightly around myself, tucking the end over my chest. “Come in.”
The door creaked open. Mina walked in, her face bright with that same restless energy from earlier. She stopped dead when she saw me still in the towel. Her eyes went to the bed, then back to me.
“You’re not ready?” she asked, her voice dipping into genuine surprise. “I thought you’d be halfway through your hair by now.”
I pointed at the red pile of fabric on the bed. “Is there something else I can wear? Anything else. A sack would be fine.”
Mina walked over to the bed, picking the dress up by the straps. She turned it around, inspecting it with a frown. “What do you mean? Is there a tear in it? I checked the seams myself.”
I swallowed hard, the dryness in my throat making it difficult to speak. “The dress is too damn revealing, Mina. I’m not walking into that Great Hall-into a room full of warriors-wearing that. I saw those men in the yard. I’m not giving them an excuse to eye-fuck me all night.”
Mina didn’t just smile; she burst out laughing. She tilted her head, looking at me like I’d just told a hilarious joke. “You’re worried because it’s revealing?”
I nodded, my jaw tight.
“Two things, Princess,” Mina said, her amusement settling into a smirk. “One, no male wolf in this territory is sane enough to eye the Alpha’s Luna. Not unless they have a literal death wish.”
“I’m not his Luna,” I snapped.
“Yet,” she countered effortlessly. “And two, I didn’t pick this dress. The Alpha did.”
I froze. My hands tightened on the towel until my knuckles turned white. I looked at the dress dangling from Mina’s hand, then back to her. “Fenris chose this?”
The image of him in the cabin hit me so hard, I almost fell back. I remembered him unbuckling his armor, letting the furs drop to the floor. I remembered the massive slabs of muscle, the veins running like rivers across his chest. And I remembered looking down. It was huge-one big slab of meat just dangling there.
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My cheeks went hot. I could feel the heat spreading down my neck, settling right over the scar on my collarbone, then down there, I felt the warmth. Was he fantasizing about me? Was he planning on seeing exactly how much of my skin that dress showed?
“Sera?”
Mina’s voice snapped me back. I blinked, trying to clear the image of Fenris from my brain. She was staring at me, waiting.
“What?” I asked, my voice coming out breathy.
“I asked if you were okay. You went somewhere else for a second.”
I took a deep breath, trying to steady my pulse. “I’m fine. I just… I can’t wear that. Get me something else.”
Mina shook her head. Her tone was softer now, but it didn’t have any room for argument. “I’m sorry, Sera. I can’t go against the Alpha’s orders. This is the dress he picked for tonight, and this is what you’re wearing. It’s outside my power to change it.”
I looked at the dress again. I felt sick. It was nighttime. We’d just survived a brutal journey from the South, and the first thing the “Barbarian” Alpha wanted was for me to be half-naked at his table.
Was he planning on fucking me tonight? Was this the warm-up?
Mina must have seen the panic on my face. “Look, if you’re that worried about people looking, you can use a shawl.”
She walked past me toward the wardrobe I’d been heading for. She pulled open the doors, revealing a space packed with clothes. It went from the floor to the high ceiling, stretching the entire length of the wall. She reached inside and pulled out a wrap.
“Here,” she said, handing it to me.
It was a deep charcoal grey. The fabric was incredibly soft-it felt like fur but refined, woven into something that actually looked like fashion. It was heavy enough to provide cover.
“There,” Mina said. “That’ll help cover the back and the sides. Better?”
I clutched the shawl. It helped, but not enough to stop the shivering. Mina took a step toward me, reaching out to help me with the towel, and I instinctively lurched back.
Mina stopped. She let out a long, heavy sigh and dropped her hands. “We can’t keep doing this, Sera. I don’t bite. I’m just trying to get you to dinner on time.”
She looked at me, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Why are you so spooked? I can hear your heart beating from here. It sounds like a drum.”
I swallowed hard, unable to find a lie that sounded convincing. All I could think about was Fenris in that cabin, and the weight of him as he hoisted me over his shoulder like a sack of grain.
He was going to fuck me tonight. I knew it. And he was just dressing me up for the occasion.
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