by Helen Scott
With one hand holding his nose and the other holding his throat he stayed on his knees on the floor while I jumped over him and ran. I punched the kitchen door open and wove through the cramped area, earning a few shouts from the staff, but mercifully no one stopped me. When I got to the back door I paused, listening to see if anyone was out there. The last thing I needed was to throw the door open and run right into Jax.
Silence greeted me, so I flung the door open and took off like a bullet from the kitchen. My feet pounded against the asphalt and then the sidewalk as I pushed myself to the limit to escape. There was nothing I could do but run, so run I did and would until I had nothing else to give to maintain my freedom.
If I failed to escape, though, this would only make things worse. I knew Jax would never give me another opportunity like the one I had tonight. If anything he’d probably keep me locked up, and I was not a wolf that would be caged.
17
THE STREETS WERE dark and unfamiliar as I ran. The further I went from the restaurant, the more I had no idea where I was. Panic clawed at my chest and throat, making it hard to breathe as I moved.
It didn't help that the dress was so tight I could barely take a deep breath, or that I felt half naked because of it. The dress I'd worn to the black light party made me look like a nun in comparison to the one Jax had put me in.
All I could do was keep running though. I made my path as circuitous as possible, grabbing pieces of trash as I ran and rubbing them over my skin to help obscure my scent. Anything that might give me more time or put more distance between me and Jax and his enforcers.
Suddenly I saw a building that looked familiar and veered toward it. Roads started becoming recognizable again and I felt like I was finally getting back to the side of the city that I knew, which was good because my feet were torn to shreds. If shifters could get human diseases then I'd be worried about what I might have picked up during my escape, because the alleys I ran down were not the cleanest.
As I turned the corner the familiarity made me slow, hoping that I'd put enough distance between me and my captors. Footsteps sounded behind me. There was something about them, maybe the speed or the force with which they were hitting the ground, but it made me turn and look.
Two of Jax's enforcers were there, speed walking after me like a granny at the mall. When they saw me looking they broke into a full run, knowing I would do the same.
I pulled on my energy reserves, which were lower than they had been in a long time, and put on a burst of speed before turning down an alley. Corners, walls, anything that could break their line of sight, and preferably make me harder to scent, was my friend. It was why I didn't hesitate when I saw a rundown, empty building with a condemned sticker on the door.
As I ran inside the scent of mold and piss was overwhelming and made me cough, but it was better than the wind carrying my sweat to them, letting them know exactly where I was. I ran from one door to the other as though I was using it to cut through and then doubled back to hide. I just needed a minute to catch my breath.
There was an alcove under the stairs that I could just about fit in without deviating too much from the scent trail I'd laid. I squished myself in there just in time and was oddly thankful for the fact that the dress Jax had picked out for me was black. It was a bit shiny since it was satin, but at least it wasn't a bright color that would make me an easy target.
The door to the building, which if I had to guess was an old factory of some kind, banged open and I heard two sets of feet pound into the open space. One of them was huffing like he hadn't run this long or hard in a while, while the other was taking slow steady breaths scenting the air. I prayed that they wouldn't find me, wouldn't hear my rapid heartbeat over their own. It wasn't a conscious decision to hold my breath, but I found I'd done it anyway as they came closer to the cubby I'd stuffed myself in.
I listened as they moved through the building. A few grunts sounded, but without being able to see them or knowing them I had zero idea what they could have meant. All I knew was that I needed to stay hidden until I was positive they were gone.
The door on the other side of the building opened and slammed shut and I had to fight the urge to burst free from my hiding spot and run in the opposite direction. It was no use running yet though. If I was trying to catch someone I would make them think I'd given up chasing. Believe me, this was something I'd put a lot of thought into over the past few years. I knew I couldn't be tempted by the quick escape, but boy was it hard.
I refused to be the typical horror movie victim. It was why I never looked over my shoulder when I ran away from the restaurant. The last thing I needed in that moment was to trip and fall because of something I should have seen in front of my feet. I was smarter and wiser than that.
When I heard the door open and close again I knew I'd been right to stay hidden. I still waited a few more minutes though, counting the seconds in my head as I slowed my heart down and calmed myself. When three torturously long minutes had passed without anything else happening I eased from my hiding spot.
The sound of a heavy foot fall had my head whipping to the side only to see one of the men who had been chasing me moving away from where he'd been leaning against the door. Panic surged in my chest and almost froze me to the spot. I pushed through my fear and sprinted to the other door, the one I'd first come in through.
It clanged open, the metal panel hitting the bricks with a jarring sound as I took off. This guy was fast and was after me like lightning. He tailed me through the streets, until I came to an unexpected area of roadwork. The bed of tarmac was torn up, chunks of it here and there as they had clearly started moving it away to redo the strip of road. I couldn't turn back, that would mean trying to run past the guy who was chasing me, all I could do was go through.
The road closed signs didn't bother me, but running across jagged concrete and tarmac forced me to slow down so I didn't fall on my face. It was enough for him to catch up with me, and without having the same issues I did he stomped across the rocky road until he was close enough to grab me. I dodged out of the way of his hands a few times, but then my foot slipped and it was time for my face to meet the ground.
I barely caught myself before my face impacted and prevented myself from breaking my nose. A snort sounded behind me and I pushed up, scrabbling to get over the last of the broken concrete to the flat surface that was a few feet away although it felt like miles at that point.
"Silly little bitch, Boss always gets what Boss wants. He probably would have treated you real good if you'd chosen to stay with him. Now? He's going to be super pissed. You'll be lucky to ever see the sky again," the man growled as he closed in on me, towering over me like a giant, his shadow spilling past my form into the light coming in from the main street at the end of the alley.
I rolled onto my back and tried to scoot back even farther. I could have stayed on the ground, played the meek captive and waited for my chance to escape his hold, but that wasn't me. As soon as he was close enough he reached down to grab me, one of his massive hands closing around my wrist. I let him pull me up, just a little off the concrete before I made my move.
Using the momentum he'd given me I pushed and kind of swung myself so I slid between his legs as he stood over me, like I was a jive dancer or something. I didn't let go of his hand the whole time I moved, so it pulled him forward and ended up with his arm being pulled between his legs as well. My hand came up and smacked into his balls. Hard. When I cleared him I let go of his wrist, he'd let go of mine when I gave him the ball tap of his life.
A howl of pain rang out through the alley and he was down on the ground, rolling around in agony. Part of me hoped I'd rendered the bastard infertile. The last thing we needed was progeny of someone like him roaming the streets and populating the pack. I moved around him trying to stay out of reach in the narrow alley as I took off once again, vowing as I went never to skip a run for the rest of my life, but I wasn't fast enough. I felt his hand land on
my ankle.
This time I did fall on my face. My nose broke, crunching as it hit the ground, and the metallic tang of blood filled my mouth. My scramble this time was frantic as I kicked out and tried to land a blow on his head, arm, wrist, anything that might get him to loosen his grip so I could get free. Instead he just grabbed the foot that was kicking out and used his grip on each of my legs to pull me closer, dragging me across the cement and giving me what probably amounted to road rash from where the dress rode up behind me.
"You're going to pay for that, bitch," he growled, his wolf shining in his eyes.
If he was going to wolf out on me then I'd be well and truly fucked and not in the fun way. Fear made the back of my scalp tingle and sent a cold sweat down my spine. My she-wolf snarled in her cage, demanding to be let out, to face the wolf in front of her that was challenging her. She was, apparently, certain that we were more alpha than he was.
He pinned me with his body weight and his hands went to my throat. "You'll be easier to handle if you're taught how women should behave."
"He'll kill you if you touch me," I hissed with the little breath I had in my lungs as my hands tugged at his wrists, trying to get his grip to loosen enough to get more air. Richard and I had gone through this a couple times but I didn't remember enough of the self-defense routine to actually break myself free. Just thinking about it got my mind out of instinct mode.
My hand went to his throat and I pushed all my strength into that grip. I couldn't fight my attacker and my wolf though, and she was becoming increasingly demanding about being let out of her cage to the point that it felt like a war was raging within me. I channeled all that energy into my hold on his throat. At first he just shrugged me off, like he couldn't see the threat I was.
I dug my fingers in, using the small nails I had to score his skin. A tremor ran through my body, as my wolf surged within me. Another hit just my arm and I felt like I was going to lose control, when suddenly blood gushed from his neck, like I'd just stabbed him in five different places.
His hands released me automatically as they went up to his throat, feeling the blood that was rushing forth and slicking his skin, drenching both of us as it fell hot and fast. I twisted and was able to knee him off me before I popped up to my feet and ran. I looked down at my hand and saw claws.
I'd never partially shifted before. I wasn't even sure I knew anyone who could partially shift. It was a rare trait among shifters and one that was looked on with suspicion. It was thought that either the person's wolf was so close to the surface that they couldn't control it, or that the person was more wolf than human, and the shift was actually the wolf putting its human form on instead of the other way around. Either way people who could partially shift were considered volatile and someone to avoid at all costs.
The farther I got from the alley the more my brain raced. Had I just killed that guy? Five puncture wounds to the neck wouldn't be easy to heal even for a shifter. I probably should have just ripped his throat out while I had the chance, one less asshole in the world. But for the big game I talked to myself, my body told me the truth as just the thought made me queasy. I didn't think I had the stomach for murder, even if it was in self-defense, that could always change though, depending on how desperate I got.
Another thought smacked me right in the gray matter. I'd looked him in the eyes. There was no mating bond. There hadn't been with Jax or with the other guard at the restaurant so the potion couldn't have worked. I would have imprinted on one of them if it had. That thought almost made me stumble over my own feet.
I knew a little about the potion from the pack history classes I'd taken, but it wasn't discussed much as it was considered a dark time in the pack's past. It was created back when the pack had an uneasy alliance with the witches, before everything went to hell and the packs isolated themselves from the rest of the supernatural community. When it was first made it was fool proof, women everywhere had no say in who they were forced to imprint with.
It turned out that being forcefully imprinted on someone made neither party happy in the long run, but once it was done there was no undoing it. So many couples ended up hating each other by the time they died, and yet couldn't be away from each other for too long because of the mate bond. It was twisted and warped and unhealthy, but it forced them to be together and wouldn't let them have any interest in other people, wolf shifters mate for life, there was no going back once that bond was in place, unless one of them died. The relationships became bitter and often abusive since neither person could actually satisfy or feel love for the other.
The bond hadn't fallen into place for me though, the potion hadn't worked, which meant that either something was off with the formula or the witch that brewed it. Either way I was beyond thankful.
If Sammy was still alive Jax never would have been alpha and none of this would have ever happened. I knew that as sure as I knew my own name. I wished more than ever that he were alive, even if I wasn't in the pack, just so I wasn't so alone, so I had someone to call when I got home and cry to about everything that had just happened. I didn't though, and I didn't even want to go home since I was sure that they knew where I lived.
I had no idea where I was going, I just knew I had to keep running, keep putting distance between me and the men that had been chasing me—and most importantly between me and Jax. If the alpha ever got his hands on me again I knew that the shifter who'd attacked me was right. I'd never see the light of day again.
Lights flashed to my side and pain exploded across my hip and ribs as a car crashed into me. I knew it wasn't a full-on collision otherwise I'd have been up and over the hood, possibly even the whole car itself, but I wasn't. It hit me as it swerved off to the side, breaks squealing and rubber burning on the tarmac.
The blow sent me flying across what was apparently a street, and I hit the ground hard. My already battered body had trouble getting up and my hip and knee on one side gave out as I tried to stand and I fell. My strength seeming to leave me in one big rush.
Meanwhile my brain was going a mile a minute. Had I been crossing a street? Was it Jax? Had he somehow tracked me? I had bled when my nose broke against the cement, but I thought with the other shifter's blood covering me it might be harder to track me.
Footsteps pounded toward me and for a moment I froze, unsure what to do. I couldn't put weight on my leg, probably wouldn't be able to for another few hours while it healed, but I pushed to my feet anyway, determined to go down fighting. As soon as the figure stepped in front of the car I realized it wasn't Jax, and relief swamped me.
Another few steps and I recognized him, the guy who needed the oil change the other day. Not just a guy though, a shifter.
"You're that mechanic. What the fuck happened to you?" Roman asked as he got close enough. His name rang through my head like a bell being struck.
I knew I looked a mess, with my own blood as well as someone else's, torn up feet, bruises littering my body, and a dress torn to hell. I opened my mouth to reply, but my head swam and the world felt like it tilted around me. Just as I felt myself falling, arms surrounded me.
I managed to get my eyes to focus enough to look at the man now holding me, and my breath caught as the mate bond clicked into place right before darkness consumed me.
18
WHEN I CAME TO, I was careful not to move. I didn't want anyone knowing I was awake until I was ready. Discreetly, I moved my arms and legs, just enough to know whether I was chained down. I was relieved to find I could move freely.
As my mind became ever more awake I noticed that the light dancing across my eyelids was different from that in the weird warehouse bedroom. This was softer and it felt like a breeze was blowing over my face. I cracked an eyelid ever so slightly, to the point that I could barely make out the shapes beyond my eyelashes. When I was able to confirm that there were no person shaped blobs in my line of sight, I opened my eyes a little more.
I was somewhere new. The bed was unfamiliar to me, as wa
s the rest of the room and what I could make out through the window in the dark light of dawn, so definitely not in the warehouse. The other reason I knew Jax hadn't found me was that the window and the door to the room were open. There was a breeze coming in through the cracked window, making the sheer cream curtains twist and sway in the flow of the air.
After I took inventory of where I was, or wasn't, since I was mainly concerned with not being with Jax, I took inventory of myself. I'd been cleaned up and some of my injuries were even bandaged up, letting me know exactly how bad it had been. Certain areas still ached, my ribs for one, my throat for another, which wasn't surprising since I'd been choked and hit with a car.
The fact that I wasn’t somewhere I recognized and that I wasn’t scared made me panic until I remembered what happened. I imprinted on the oil change guy.
Roman.
I was mated.
My stomach flip-flopped at the thought. I couldn't help my curiosity about this new sensation and new location I found myself in. I gently pushed to my feet and realized that someone had changed my clothing. No, not changed it, just put a T-shirt over the dress I’d been wearing. The thing was actually bigger than my dress, longer with a higher neckline and sleeves. It made me feel safer that I hadn’t been naked without my permission. The scent that came off it as I moved was delicious though. Dark and spicy, promising long sinful nights, setting my heart racing in my chest.
I couldn't just sit there sniffing a T-shirt though, so I made my way out of the room. My eyes ate up everything in my path as I tried to figure out more about the man this apartment belonged to. The place wasn't huge, I could tell just from the noise and feel of the hallway that led to the bedroom.
