“Why not put me in a cage?”
“You haven’t earned a cage, boy.”
Will had no idea what that meant, and he certainly wasn’t going to ask questions to find out. He sat in silence, sulking viciously, without a clear enough mind to make any specific plan. It would have been easier if Maddox had just beaten him or yelled at him. Then he would have had something to resist or fight. Instead, he was being forced to sit with the cruelest things of all, his own feelings and anticipation.
In due course the car was parked in the lot under the house and Will was set free in the concrete confines. He didn’t bother looking back at Maddox as he went upstairs. He didn’t want to see him. Looking into Maddox’s eyes right now might fuck him up more than he was ready for. He was relieved to be out of the cells, and out of police custody. The second the door closed on him, he’d known he had made a huge mistake. It was one thing to pretend to be cocky in the cells. It was something else to actually be comfortable with them. Will was never going back to prison. He’d made that decision. No matter what the fuck happened, he was staying free.
The door to the house closed behind him, echoing the prison door.
He felt Maddox’s hand close on his collar.
He forgot he wore the collar so much of the time. It had become like a second skin, never leaving his body. It must have expanded with him when he became the wolf that one time. He wished he knew how he’d done that. It had never happened before, or since, even when he’d really tried. It was like he was missing something. Maybe there wasn’t enough danger. Or maybe he was missing a vitamin or something. Vitamin Wolf.
Will’s mind desperately tried to escape the present as Maddox propelled him upstairs and into his bedroom. It still didn’t feel like a room that was particularly his. It was functionally and aesthetically the same as it had been the first day he got here. He’d been told he could decorate it, but what was the point? Did Maddox expect him to go through decorating catalogs and pick out sheets? None of that was Will’s style. Will’s style was a complete absence of effort—much like Maddox’s relationship style of late.
He waited for Maddox to release him. It didn't happen. Maddox kept his grip on him and followed him into the room, shutting the door behind him.
“Take your clothes off, boy.”
Will did as he was told. There was no point resisting. Only when he pulled his shirt off over his head did Maddox let go of him. Will stripped the shirt off, got rid of his pants and pulled his socks off too. He didn’t feel humiliation while naked. He didn’t even feel vulnerable anymore. He felt defiant.
“You trying to remember what I look like naked?” Will challenged Maddox again. “Been so long you probably forgot.”
“You're beautiful,” Maddox said, his dark eyes running the length of Will’s body. “And you are insolent. You are untamed and you are raw. You are more broken than anybody I have ever encountered, and there is no putting you back together.”
Will did not know what to say, and so he said nothing. He stood naked and proud, collared and kept, a prisoner and a pet. He waited for his master to hurt him.
“I will punish you, because I hope to make a difference, but I understand that for you, Will, there is no punishment sufficient enough to make you feel whole. Your guilt runs deep. Your human side is appalled at what the animal side of you has done, and will do. You have tasted death in your jaws, and now you seek someone who might understand. You think that is your father. I can tell you, it is not.”
“It’s not your business to decide what I need.”
“It is entirely my business, boy. Sometimes I think it is my only business.” Maddox stepped toward him and ran his hand around the back of Will's neck, locking eyes with him. Will felt the vampire’s influence, and the power he wielded. Maddox, like Will, was so much more than he appeared to be. So much of what Maddox was remained unknown. And Will was still confused as to what he was. He felt a mysterious void inside himself, a dark pit from which terrible thoughts, feelings, and actions emerged.
“On your knees.”
Will sank down, his actions obedient, his mindset anything but. He told himself he was doing what Maddox told him to do because he was playing along. In truth, there was some perverse comfort in obedience. He didn’t have to think about what to do. He just had to do it. His knees hit the floor, his face ending up at thigh level.