She let her leg fall to the ground as she breathed heavily. Her head pounded and her vision was blurry, even though she couldn’t see anything, she couldn’t stop her eyes from watering. The pressure on her sinuses was only getting worse. She put her boot back on her toes, but left it hanging loose on her foot. It would give her the few inches she needed but she would have to be very careful.

  She twisted her body around and tried to get a few more inches of length from her short body and reached out with her loose boot. She felt the jar and slid her boot around to the back of it. She flexed her toes inside the boot and pulled the jar, slowly, ever so slowly back towards her.

  The jar cooperated and she could feel it move towards her. She gasped with joy as the jar was coming closer to her. She pulled it as far as she dared before carefully sliding her boot back around and clear of the jar. Pulling her legs up to her hands, she took off both boots, and removed the sock from her other foot. She stretched back to the jar and was just able to grip the jar and pull it slowly back to her. It took all of her concentration and energy to keep the jar from crashing to the floor. Gripping the jar, she slowly brought in down to the ground.

  Smiling, she scooted the jar on the floor towards her. She gripped the jar with her hands and tried to open the lid. The lid was sealed. She panicked and felt around the jar lid. The lid had been coated with some sort of wax. The only reason why anybody would do that is if the jar held food. She panicked and scrapped and clawed at the wax and the lid. She had to eat. Why was this happening?!

  Light suddenly exploded into the room. Michelle had to shut her eyes against the pain of the sudden appearance of light. She yanked the jar into her lap as she tried to sit up. She blinked hard and tried to get her eyes focused as she sat up with her legs crossed over the metal plate, and the chain that held her wrists. She pushed the jar in between her legs and hid it as best she could with the short thick chain and her hands.

  The light faded and went out completely before a lamp was lit and Michelle was able to let her eyes focus less painfully. She saw a rather large blond haired man, who might have been attractive it wasn’t for the fact that she knew this guy was the one who was holding her, and as far as she could tell, the rest of her pack as well, except for Javier and Erato.

  He set the lamp in a hook from a ceiling beam. Then he shed his thick outer layer of furs and hung those on a wooden peg in the wall. Without saying anything, he pulled a large piece of wood over from the far wall and sat down on it heavily.

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  Michelle watched him do all this in silence. Who is this guy and what does he want?

  “Will youse be polites? And not attacks me?” he asked simply.

  Michelle felt like there was a piece of the conversation that she had missed. “I am polite, but do you really expect me to be polite when I’m chained up like this?” She only shifted her eyes down to her chained hands, not wanting to call too much attention to her treasure that she had worked so hard for that was carefully concealed beneath the hard steel.

  The man nodded, “I’s wish I coulds trusts youse. But the other girls already tried to hurts mes. If youse will be polite and stays with mes, then I wills give you foods. I don’t want yourse to die.”

  “What do you want,” Michelle blurted out.

  “I’s wants youse to stay and be my family’s,” he said not unkindly.

  Michelle forced her expression to stay neutral. OK, so that’s what he wants, a wife and children. He probably wanted more of a slave or a harem to do what he told them to do and cater to his every whim. Why else would he have bound them the way he had. Not exactly roses and diamond earrings, it wasn’t even dinner and a movie.

  She smiled tenderly up at him. She knew she looked like complete crap. It had taken her months under the mountain before her first instinct upon waking up wasn’t to grab her make up. But in this setting, after being tied up for days on end, she was sure the guy would over look some dirt and smells.

  “I might be convinced to stay here with you,” Michelle continued trying to let her voice deepen and slow down just a bit. It had been a long time since she talked and it was hard not to wheeze, her throat was so dry.

  The man smiled and leaned back a little on the stump. His stunningly clear blue eyes were focused on her. That was good. She realized that her boots were behind her and she wanted them to stay that way. He might want to know why she had taken them off and that question might lead to others.

  Michelle let her eye lids flutter a little as she let her weariness and hunger grip her. Her body was exhausted and she needed food. “Please, I’m so hungry. Maybe you could give me some food, and then we can talk. I would be really grateful.” She leaned forward just a bit.

  The art of seduction was something that she had learned well through her life. Guys were so easy to manipulate sometimes. A little flesh here, a kiss or two there, really got you a whole lot of things just by asking. Some girls tried to take it too far though. If you promised something guys usually wanted payment for favors, and some guys took whatever payment they thought appropriate if pushed too far. But to suggest, to nudge, that was a forgotten art. Most guys had no idea what they were looking at when it was right in front of their faces. But she didn’t have the luxury of time, or space. She was negotiating from a very weak position. The payment that she promised might just have to be paid, if she wasn’t careful.