by Amanda LeMay
“Dain.” I sighed again. This was going to be so hard. “I made a commitment. I promised to work there for six months at the minimum and you said yourself that you would have to start attending classes. Six months isn’t that long, especially since we’ll both be so busy.”
“You’ve also made a commitment to me, Jessy.” He shook his head. “I was miserable, too. I wasn’t prepared for what happened to me when we first met. I swear, I thought I would die without you. I had no idea how being in love with someone could affect my entire life.” His hands tightened around my arms. “I won’t wait here for you, Jessy. I can’t.”
“Oh.” I opened my mouth to say—something—anything. I really wasn’t below begging.
He won’t wait. He can’t.
His warm fingers lifted my chin.
Don’t cry.
It hurts.
His eyes twinkled down at me as his lips curled up in a shy smile. “Jessy, I’m...”
A loud bang sounded off in the distance. Dain’s head snapped up. As he listened, every muscle in his body went rigid. And another bang. He cocked his head to the right. Then another sounded—I heard it clearly over the music, over the stomping boots—a loud pop like fireworks going off somewhere in the direction of the ranch.
Without another word, Dain grabbed my hand, turned, and marched right back into the bar. He searched over the crowd and when he found who he was looking for, he dragged me along behind him as he made a beeline for my dad. I noticed other wolves in the room all staring off in the direction the popping noise had come from before dancing closer to where we stood. Dain stood next to my dad and spoke in a low tone.
“That wasn’t firecrackers.”
“No. It wasn’t.” Dad turned to Maygan. “Stay here.” Her face and posture went instantly alert as she nodded.
Dain’s truck keys were suddenly in my hand, along with his wallet and his mouth was against my ear.
“Stay here.” He glanced at his phone. His dark eyebrows bunched up as he touched the screen. “Son of a bitch.” He flashed the device at my dad, who looked first at the screen and then squarely at Dain and nodded with one small jerk of his head.
“What?” I reached for the phone. “Dain, what’s going on?” Wildfire burned behind the sharp eyes that fixed on my face, but he didn’t say anything.
“Everything’s going to be fine, baby girl.” My dad kissed my cheek and squeezed my arm gently. “Just stay here.”
Dain’s lips were soft and sweet as they touched mine, but he couldn’t hide the feel of his protruding canines or the sudden, jagged spike in his emotions. The fact that he was trying so hard to do so, frightened me.
I watched them skirt the crowded dance floor, nodding to the other wolves, before they disappeared out the entrance. In my confusion, I turned to Maygan.
“That wasn’t just fireworks?”
Maygan shook her head. “No. Gunfire.”
When I looked down, along with his wallet and truck keys, I held Dain’s phone in my hand. I read the text from DJ over and over. When the words finally sank in, they stabbed like a switchblade to my heart.
Bobby says meet him in back of the feed store.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“BOBBY’S A DEAD MAN.”
I closed my eyes, struggled to block out the music and the noise and focus solely on what I needed to do. Maygan turned my wrist to read the text message.
“Yes, he is,” she agreed, “and anyone who’s with him.”
I placed a trembling hand over my mouth to keep from screaming, and attempted to steady my breathing.
“Stupid human.” She took my hand, pulled me through the crowd straight to Gunner Bodolf, and passed Dain’s phone over to him. He peered at the message, then passed it back to me. Alpha energy prickled over my skin as it spread through the bar like an immediate call to action.
“A challenge. Bobby Sanders set a challenge. That stupid human doesn’t have a clue what he’s done,” I whispered urgently.
Gunner nodded, and though his facial features stayed calm and steady, his lime green eyes seemed to glow from within, reflecting the colored lights surrounding us.
No matter how much I hated Bobby, or that he was some sort of twisted psycho, I didn’t want Dain killing him, or any other human, for that matter. It wouldn’t be a fair fight. It would be a slaughter. A slaughter Dain would live with the rest of his life.
Gunner looked around the room, nodded a few times at others behind me. “Kern went with him?”
Both Maygan and I nodded.
I felt, more than saw, other wolves converge around us as Gunner’s alpha power compelled them to gather.
“One of our pack has been challenged.” Gunner’s gaze fixed on me for an instant. “Bobby Sanders has unknowingly signed his own death warrant. No other humans will be harmed for his stupidity.”
Oh no. No. No. No. Instead of putting a stop to the challenge, Gunner would allow it to happen.
And if guns were involved, Dad and Dain would be in the line of fire.
I grabbed Gunner’s arm.
“It wasn’t a random coincidence that there was gunfire and then the text to Dain’s phone. This is nothing but a crazy trap. They could be shot. Killed.”
“Dain and Kern know what they are walking into. They’ll be cautious.” Gunner’s big hand squeezed my shoulder in reassurance, but it didn’t calm me at all.
I can be cautious, too.
Backing away from the small group and slipping past the dancers, I made it out of the bar without someone coming after me. I slipped off my stilettos and ran full-out to Dain’s truck.
I’D ONLY BEEN TO THE feed store the one time, but I remembered the way. As the line of power poles flashed past like strobe lights in the dark, Dain’s phone lit up on the seat next to me. A new text, this one from Bobby himself.
Are you cum-ing?
What the hell? Seriously? What a dick.
I sent a text in reply.
No, but I’ll be there.
I heard the squeal of tires on pavement before I saw the truck that came from nowhere and plowed into the back of Dain’s truck. After the sudden shriek of crumpling metal and crunch of fiberglass folding in on itself, the back end swerved wildly while I fought with the steering wheel to stay on the pavement. The headlights flashed off the road as a power pole loomed up in front of me, just before impact. The front end of the truck buckled up and the windshield filled with spider-web cracks as I flew forward. The airbag exploded and slammed me backward as it cushioned my face, shoulders, and chest like a sack full of wet sand.
Dazed, I batted wildly at the thin fabric, coughing hard with every painful breath and, damn, everything hurt: my hands, wrists, arms all the way up through my shoulders and back. If I had a few broken ribs, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
A deep, baritone chuckle erupted somewhere close by, accompanying the ringing squeal of the truck door wrenching apart.
“Well, well. Looky what we got here. Bobby is gonna work you over good.” A hand cupped my right breast and squeezed. “Yeah, and I’m gonna have fun tapping you when he’s through.”
I didn’t need to see his face to know GW was the one yanking on my arms and pulling me out of the truck like a child’s lost, limp rag doll. I tried to break free, shake the fog from my head, but ended up losing my footing and leaning forward into an uncontrollable free fall.
“Hold up there, girly,” GW said as his hands grabbed my shoulders and yanked me up to my feet. “I got ya.”
He spun me around. The ground tilted crazily close before the nearly full moon flashed across my blurred vision. I was righted with two big hands locking my arms hard and steady behind my back.
Gravel crunched beneath boots until the sound stopped right in front of me.
“Fuck me. Look at you, sweet cheeks, dressed like the whore you are.” Bobby’s voice grated in my ears.
When I spoke, the words weren’t much more than a rusty croak. “Not who you were expect
ing?”
If I could’ve held my head up, I would’ve spit in his face. If I had any spit. Airbag propellant coated my mouth and throat with powdery dust and the pain in my chest felt like a huge bruise that kept me from taking a deep breath.
“No, but you’ll do, for now.” A hand grasped my face and lifted it up. Even though I felt like I had just exited the worst carnival ride in the world, I managed to focus on Bobby’s pale blue eyes. “I can’t wait to get your smart-ass mouth around my dick. I’m gonna fu—”
“Yeah, yeah. I get it.” I didn’t need to hear the rest of his evil plan. “But if your little dick comes anywhere near my mouth, I’ll bite it off.” I didn’t have any qualms about that.
Again, I jerked at the hold GW had on my arms. I really didn’t expect to break free, but in the next second I was grabbing wildly at the truck, trying to keep my feet under me. A big hand grasped my upper arm and brought me up steady as I leaned back against the truck cab. I balled up my fist and swung out at Bobby’s face, but dizziness overwhelmed me and I ended up tilting off balance and swiping at nothing but air.
“She’s gonna be fun, Bobby.”
“Damn, GW, it’s been a long time since we had a fighter.” Bobby stepped up closer. “Most people just scream and cry and beg, ‘please don’t hurt me’. But you know what? After a couple of hours with me and GW working them over, they’re screaming and crying and begging us for more.”
“You’re sick, Betty, just...sick.” And I was nauseous from the crazy tilt-a-whirl my stomach was riding on.
His rough hand grabbed my face again. “My name is Bobby, and before I’m done with you, I’m gonna make you scream it.”
“Riiight. Never gonna happen.”
I couldn’t tell which hurt worse, the fist to my cheek or the pounding my head took when it ricocheted off the truck. When I managed to open my eyes again, there were two Bobbys standing there, blurry and out of focus, but two of him. One had been bad enough. And though there was nothing funny at all about my situation, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“If you’re trying to knock me out, you’d better hit me a hell of a lot harder.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CRICKETS CHIRPED ALL around, their songs hollow—far away—as I slowly drifted back to consciousness. Someone shouted, interrupting the sounds of the night, his voice cracked in a half sob, with words I didn’t quite understand.
Blinding pain shot through my head when I attempted to open my eyes, so I gave up and lay there temporarily sightless as I used my other senses to figure out where I was. Cold air chilled my naked back, while my breasts, belly, and thighs were itchy and uncomfortable as hell. The aroma of hay filled my nose. Where my cheek rested was no doubt a bale of hay.
The crickets picked their songs up again and small animals scrambled around somewhere in the distance. I pulled at my arms, trying to touch the bump just below my left eye that seemed to have a pulse of its own. I remembered being a little shocked I was still conscious after the third time Bobby balled up his fist and slammed it into my face. I also remembered saying something to the effect of “you hit like a wuss,” and after that, I didn’t remember anything.
I flexed my fingers. Something soft yet unyielding restrained my wrists above my head. I tugged harder and heard the creaking of metal pipes.
What the hell?
Something large moved around behind me. Human. Their male scents were somehow concentrated in this place and masked the odor of horses long gone. Their odor didn’t quite cover up the sickly tang of something I didn’t want to think about.
“I didn’t shoot your damn colt!”
“You killed their horses, Bobby. Horses. Good God almighty. Maygan and Kern never did a damn thing to you!” DJ’s panicked voice came from somewhere off to my left, his high-pitched words piercing my brain like tiny bullets. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Dad? Maygan? He killed their horses? Why? Why?
My eyes stung with tears as my heart broke.
The crickets stilled again as Bobby shouted from somewhere close behind me. “Shut the fuck up!”
A fist closed around my hair and jerked my head back. My eyes shot open as a new, searing pain shot through my spine.
“Got your wish didn’t you, bitch?” He twisted my head and licked the full length of my cheek, then whispered in my ear. “I’m almost glad it was you we hauled from Dain’s truck. So much for all your threats to tear me apart, huh?”
The harsh, bluish-white glare of a LED lantern made me squint as I attempted to focus on where I was. Bobby crouched down in my line of sight, his grip loosened, but his fingers lingered in my hair for a moment.
“I bet you thought this was all about you,” he said in a low voice. “But it was always about Dain. You should’a never come here. You should’a let me have him. Just once. Hell, we could’a done a threesome because damn, have you seen that tool of his?” He made an obvious gesture with his hand between his legs. His expression quickly turned, hatred flaring in his eyes. “I bet you have, and I’ll bet you’ve had that pretty mouth of yours all over it, haven’t you, cupcake?” His fingers softly brushed my cheek, touched the bruise he’d caused with his fist. “Makes my mouth water just thinking about him.”
So, those visits out to the barn were about sizing up his competition, but not for the reason I’d thought. I was the competition. And the weird vibe Dain felt was Bobby’s obsession with him.
“Well, Barbara,” I jerked my head away from his hand as anger swept through my body. “I don’t think Dain is into the bondage thing, and threesomes? Not a chance.”
The smirk faded away from his face for a second and returned with a touch of evil. “You never know ’til you try it. As for bondage, some people really get off on being tied down.” He glanced past me, looking at something out of my view. “Or tied up. Throw a little pain in there and you got what we call an all-night fu—”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.”
And then they die.
I didn’t say that. Death was definitely something I could do without.
“Hurting and humiliating another person so you can get off isn’t what I call a good time.”
Experience had taught me that lesson, and with this asshole, there was no such thing as a “safe” word. That same experience had also taught me shifting into my wolf form would do no good—I’d still be strapped down, spread-eagle and helpless. Caught in that in-between state where only the wild beast lived, I’d panic before human reason kicked in. And what was worse, they would see me change and if they didn’t run for the hills like frightened rabbits, one of them would find some way to kill me before I worked myself free and did the same to them.
Bobby’s fingers stroked down my shoulder, along the curve of my back and he seemed fascinated at the trail of gooseflesh that followed. He cocked his head to the side, fixed his blue eyes on mine, and spoke quietly.
“Personally, I don’t need pain to get off. I’m more of the givin’ type, if you take my meaning. But with Dain...well, I would’a taken whatever he wanted to give me. And I would’a got to him if you hadn’t shown up, shaking your tits and spreading your legs. Makes me kinda jealous—knowing that you had what I want.” His face hardened again, those pale blue eyes turning to ice. “Really pisses me off, if you get my meaning.”
Kill him.
I looked away, squashed down my emotions to keep my inner wolf from lashing out. He stood, walked back toward my feet, and as he did, his hand slapped my bare bottom so hard it must have hurt him as much as it hurt me. My legs jerked and I let out a little yelp with the sudden, harsh sting. Some kind of binding kept my legs from moving much at all.
Trapped.
“Liked that, didn’t ya?” His hand smoothed over the sting.
Bite. My. Ass. Psycho. Cowboy.
I didn’t say that, either. If taking chunks out of my hide with his teeth wasn’t on his agenda, I damn sure wasn’t gonna give him any ideas.
I quickly glance
d around my immediate surroundings and found the pipes my arms were strapped to had once been an old breeding stall, off to the side of a ramshackle barn. They would have been buried deep and anchored with concrete. Leather straps lined with lamb’s wool were buckled tightly around both of my wrists and I was sure the same thing had my legs spread and secured. If Bobby wanted to hurt me, it wasn’t through these cuffs. I looked down; three bales of hay stacked one on top of the other held me up off the ground. Damn. Even with my extra wolf strength, there was no way I’d ever pull the pipes from the ground.
I was definitely trapped.
The barn reeked of blood and death and decay. Humans had bled in this place. How many, there was no way of knowing, but there were multiple scents, not only of blood, but of rotting flesh buried under layers of earth. The stench of the horrific acts of a sick mind permeated the soil beneath me and I was sure if I’d swept away the litter of loose hay, I’d find the ground darkly stained. The sickening, sweet odor of dried blood seemed to hang in the air—soaking into my skin, twisting my insides, until the urge to vomit was so strong it took all my willpower keep it down.
I will not die here. Not like this. Not tied up like an animal.
“Bobby, don’t do this. Please!” DJ pleaded.
“GW, I don’t care whether you use your fist or your dick, just shut him the hell up.” Bobby chuckled like this entire situation was an everyday occurrence and DJ was not much more than a pet he beat into a corner.
Heavy boots moved from one side of the barn to the other.
“C’mon, GW, you know I’m right.” I could hear DJ shuffling on the dirt, backing away. “This is so fucking wrong, man. Dain won’t give a shit who pulled the trigger or who took his girl or trashed his truck!”
The next words DJ tried to speak were cut off as he flew through the air, hitting the side of the barn right in front of me. He crumpled in a heap, the air knocked out of him, his shoulders shaking as he tried to catch his breath. Slowly, he pulled his knees into his chest, shame and terror trembling through every inch of his body.
