Sophie was in the throes of the medication and barely able to concentrate on what the woman was saying; she knew this intense pain would last for hours to come. That was if she didn’t start having seizures, at least then she would be oblivious to the healing effects of the medication. Was it wrong to want to have a seizure just to escape what she knew was coming? Sophie, didn’t think so. She would take what she could get, maybe one of these times either the men or the medicines would end her life. Her only regret would be not being able to free Carley, but she hadn’t done a great job of that so far, had she?
Carley would understand, she knew that, but there was still a small part of her that wanted to beat these things, and that was what she was holding on to. The woman finished with her chore of cleaning Sophie up and draped what Sophie thought was a small hand towel over her body. It was abrasive to her skin, but she was too weak to do anything about it.
Chapter 13
Sophie woke to the sounds of singing. It was pleasant although the song being sung was a sad one. Where was it coming from? She hadn’t been allowed anything like a radio or TV in years. Listening, she almost was back asleep, when she heard a man's pained voice.
Miss are you awake?
Sophie didn’t speak she never talked to unknown people and this time would be no different. It didn’t matter that a concrete wall separated them, Sophie didn’t trust anyone.
Please miss if you can hear me, please answer me, my name is Lucas, what is yours?
Sophie replied with a whisper of her name. This was a test; if the man heard her he was one of them if he didn’t then she would speak to him.
Ah, Sophie what a lovely name, I knew a Sophie once she had long blond hair and the prettiest green hazel eyes I have ever seen. What color are your eyes, Sophie?
The question was innocent enough, but no way was Sophie going to trust him.
My eyes are brown, plain old brown.
Groaning Sophie forced herself to into a sitting position next to the wall. She may not trust the man, but it was nice just to hear another voice that wasn’t yelling, ordering, or berating her, for once. The woman from earlier didn’t count, she as a pawn, a mindless monkey for the beasts to play with. Sophie shook her head, that was harsh, and she didn’t mean it, but she wasn’t going to take the thought back either.
Sweet Sophie, what is the color of your hair?
“Brown, plain old brown,” answering him in the same way as before. Sophie did laugh this time, what was up with this guy?
Ah, I think you jest, I imagine your hair to be the color of a raven’s wing and your eyes the color of the deepest amethyst.
His speech was so formal, and he had practically hit the nail on the head with the color of her hair and eyes. That concerned her. How would he have even known, unless had he seen her before? Was he one of them playing with her? Now, that wouldn’t surprise her.
Nope sorry to disappoint but my hair and eyes are plain old brown, just like I said.
Ah, we will just have to agree to disagree, Sweet Sophie. Can you tell me where we are?
We are in Michigan in the basement of a sex club of some type. Sophie didn’t see any harm in telling the man, after all, she had been brought here without a blindfold.
“Ah, so they never took me out of Free, good to know.” There was a slight paused and then the man continued speaking, “Sorry, Sweet Sophie, but we will need to continue this conversation another time, it seems my thrashers for the evening are about to arrive.
Sophie didn’t even get a chance to reply to him when she heard the door to the other room open with a bang. Leaning closer to the wall, she heard what she thought were chains being dragged and then the unmistakable sound of a Taser. Sophie had no idea how long the man’s beating went on; if he was faking, or this was some kind of act, he had to be one hell of an actor.
When she heard the door slam, she looked to her own door wondering if she was next. When she heard the feet stomping by her door, she relaxed, she was safe for now. Then she felt horrible, the man next door was hardly safe. Placing her hand against the wall, she started to sing; at first it was just humming, but soon she was singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It was a favorite of hers and one she remembered from her childhood. The man next door to her probably thought it was stupid, but she really couldn’t think of any other songs, and she wanted to repay his kindness from before.
When she stopped singing, Lucas said, “I’m sorry you had to hear that, Sweet Sophie, but it was better that you kept quiet. These men aren’t to be trifled with. I would hate to have something bad happen to you because of me.”
“Lucas, you need not worry, I am very aware of the type of men who are holding us. My question is why are they holding you?”
“I could ask you the same thing, Sophie.”
“Yes, you could, but I wouldn’t answer, remember just plain brown.:
“Ah yes, can you tell me what day it is?”
“I’m sorry I can’t. I think it’s Friday, maybe May fifteenth-ish, I’m not sure. The people who are keeping me here aren’t exactly good at keeping me informed on such things and dates and times.”
“That means I have been down here for about three weeks. How long have they held you, Sweet Sophie?”
Sophie could feel tears burning behind her eyes, Lucas sounded like he was in so much pain. She wanted to do something for him, but there was nothing she could do.
“A lot longer Lucas. Do you know why they have you down here why they are keeping you captive?”
“Yes, but that isn’t your concern, it won’t be much longer. I am no longer healing. The drugs they are giving me to suppress my anim…, I'm not healing very well, right now.” Sophie could hear the moisture in his cough, and once he started, he seemed not to be able to stop.
“Lucas, Lucas are you okay? Do you have water, anything to help?”
“No, Sweet Sophie, no water for the likes of me.”
Sophie crouched down to the vent between the rooms maybe she could help if even in a small way. The moisture in the basement had rusted the metal on the front of the grate. Using her fingernails, Sophie tried to pry it off with very little luck. When she pulled too hard and broke one of her fingernails to the skin, Sophie couldn’t help the tiny yelp that escaped her mouth.
“Sweet Sophie, what are you doing? Lucas’ pained and tired voice echoed through the room.
“I’m trying to remove the grate, so I can give you some water, but it’s rusted shut.” Sophie heard the sounds of straining metal and then looked down through the grate. The sight that greeted her scared the shit out of her; a man, no a beast, bloody and beaten. But he was still a beast. Sophie scrambled across the floor, trying to get as far away from him as possible.
“Sweet Sophie, what is the matter? You wanted the grate gone, and I have done that.”
“You're one of them, an animal.”
“Yes,” Lucas sighed, “I carry an animal on the inside, but I am not one of them. Have you come across many of my kind?”
“Enough, please, just let me be, I won’t be fooled again. All I wanted to do was help you.”
“Water would be lovely, Sweet Sophie, please it has been days since I was allowed any. I would take it as a great kindness on your part if you shared some of yours.”
Sophie wanted to say no. She feared the man, he was just like the others except he wasn’t he was hurt, and as he said, dying; could she really deny him water when it was the only thing she could offer him?
“Okay, but listen, I don’t have a cup, so I’m going to soak a cloth and try to hand it to you through the hole. You will have to squeeze it to get the water, is that okay?”
“Yes, that would be very nice.”
Chapter 14
Ethan stormed into the cabin, and since Jacks had already warned him, he wasn’t surprised to see Wyatt sitting at the kitchen island, laptop in from of him. His barked, ‘What do you have?’ command didn’t even elicit a response from his teammate, which piss
ed Ethan off. He needed eyes on Sophie, now. Walking up to the island, Ethan grabbed the laptop turning it his way. When he didn’t see the security feed that Wyatt was supposed to be watching, he fumed turning to the man.
“What the fuck is this? Do you not know how to follow orders? You’re supposed to be tracking the sub. Where is she?” Wyatt didn’t get a chance to answer because Peyton walked out from the hallway; she must have been in one of the bedrooms or the bathrooms.
“Well, hello, to you to Mr. Grumpy.”
Ethan wasn’t in the mood to play, he wanted to know where Sophie was, right this second. Peyton must have sensed his mood because she didn’t make him wait.
“The sub was taken down the back hall; from what we are able to determine, she’s being kept on the basement level of the Club. There are no cameras down there for us to track her movements.
“The only information we can give you is, ten minutes after you left, she was carried down there by a large man. She was bound in cuffs at her ankles and wrists. She also had straps across her knees and elbows. She had some marks on her body, but from the footage we couldn’t determine if they were new or old. Approximately ten minutes after you left, three men including the man who had carried the Sub, also went down the back hallway; they have yet to return to the main level of the Club. Sorry, Ethan but that is all we have right now.”
“Fuck!” Ethan screamed. They hadn’t done as he requested and released her, she was still in the binds that he had put her in, making her vulnerable to whatever these fuckers had planned. How could he have been so stupid and insensitive? He had never left a submissive bound and unattended before in his life, doing so to Sophie was unacceptable and fucking cruel. It also went against everything he believed in.
“Listen, man,” Wyatt stood and blocked his path, “I know this is hard, but you need to get your head back in the game. I need to take blood samples and send them off to Mia. They need to isolate the gas you smelled in Lucas’s apartment and in the Club. From what you described to Jacks, they believe it is an aerosol form of the tranquilizer from Pandora we have been trying to counteract.”
Ethan held out his arm, but didn’t make a move to sit or move from the spot where he had stopped, still caught up in his failure to ensure Sophie’s safety. What were they doing to her right now, had someone released her or was she vulnerable and afraid, questioning him and what he had done to her? Did she hate him for the lessons he so cruelly taught her, was he that much of a bastard that his fear and anger had gotten in the way placing her in more harm? Feeling the soft touch of Peyton’s hand on his arm Ethan looked down.
“Ethan, if you don’t calm down, I’m never going to get this needle to penetrate your skin. Please, we need this information, so you can continue with your mission. If Mia can isolate the compound they’re using, she might be able to come up with a counter measure that would protect you and your bear from its effects.”
“Give me a minute, Peyton,” Ethan said, walking to the glass doors, “I will do my best to bring my body under control.” Her nod in acknowledgment was all he needed. Stepping outside, he let the scenery calm him, forcing his Shifter nature back to his human one. Fuck, Ethan had never had these problems before, he lived by a strict code; the beast didn’t control him, he controlled the beast, but meeting and being around Sophie seemed to change that, and if that’s what mating was like, he wanted no part of it.
Taking a seat one of the lounge chairs, it didn’t surprise Ethan that Wyatt came through to join him carrying two beers. When the big man sat down and offered him one, Ethan didn’t refuse, but held his arm out for the blood test Ethan knew they needed to get before he polluted his body further. Wyatt made quick work of the draw, and Peyton took the vial as soon as Wyatt capped it off.
“I’m going to go into town and overnight this to Mia. I think the two of you should just chill out here for a while, and then when I get back, we can get back to work.”
Ethan appreciated Peyton’s attempt at leading him in a different direction, but his thoughts were still clouded with regret. When he heard the car start up in the driveway, he asked Wyatt the question that was plaguing him.
“Do you think Pandora or one of the others agencies could fake the mating connection?”
Wyatt looked at him but didn’t answer for a while.
“I don’t know man, it is possible, but the mating connection is different for all of us. The only thing I can tell you, it’s intense. It is almost like the man and beast will do anything to be near her. There is this spark of electricity that shoots right to your soul and stays. There is also a sexual component that is unlike anything you would have felt before, the drive to mate to complete the bond is unfathomable to someone that has not felt it.
“From the first moment, I laid eyes on Peyton, my dick was hard as stone, and I knew I had to have her, for us that didn’t take long,” Wyatt laughed. “At least, that was how it was for Peyton and me. Jacks and Dalton held out longer, but from what they have said, the ache only amplified the longer they went without completing the bond. Do you feel these things for the woman on the feed?”
“Yes, but how can I trust them? We already know that something or someone has gotten to Lucas. The chemical being pumped through the Club dulls the beast, so shouldn’t it have also dulled the mating pull? That is, after all, where we get it from, the animal. My beast is out-of-control, Wy, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
“For each of us it is different, but from what you’re saying, I would suggest you talk with Bas, he had a problem with his beast before he met Skylar. Dalton’s beast was always unruly, but you have always seemed to be in control. So, to answer your questions, I don’t know. Is it possible for it to be chemical instead of instinctual? The short answer is yes. Damn with all that we are finding out, it wouldn’t even surprise me, but you have to trust your animal and yourself, some things just can’t be faked.”
“Wyatt, I left her vulnerable, they could be doing anything to her right now, and it would be my fault. If she is my true mate, how would she ever be able to forgive me?”
“I doubt that, Ethan, you might be a kinky fucker, but you have never been cruel. I think you’re just over thinking things because of the possible ramifications. If she is your mate, leaving her so soon after meeting her would create its own set of problems.”
“See that is where you are wrong, the binds on her body were mine. I left her like that, never releasing her, wanting to teach her a lesson, but at what cost? I let my ego and pride get in the way of protecting and cherishing her submission. What does that make me?”
“That makes you a man capable of making mistakes just like the rest of us. If it is meant to be between the two of you, I have to have faith that it will all work out in the end. The Fates would not have put you in the woman’s path only to leave you with nothing in the end. Peyton has told me the mating connection is just as intense for the females as it is the males. If she is yours, then she will be feeling the same things you are just as intensely.
“Come on, let’s get inside and back to work. Peyton is running the woman’s face through facial recognition; when and if we get a hit, we will at least have a jumping off point. She has also contacted a friend who is looking into Lucas’s whereabout for the last few weeks. Once we have a last known sighting, we can go from there and try to determine where he is now.”
“I want to thank you,” before they could make it back inside Ethan stopped Wyatt, “and Peyton for coming here and helping me with this, I know with Cash missing and with all the stuff going on at the lodge, breaking away couldn’t have been easy.”
“Listen,” Wyatt laughed and gave Ethan a half hug man-style, “just like Ryleigh always says, we are family, we might be a dysfunctional one, but we are still family. Peyton and I wouldn’t be anywhere else, let us help you figure this mess out.”
“Okay,” Ethan hugged him back in the same mannish fashion and then stepped back, “enough of this mushy stuff. I think
all these women are making us into a bunch of pussies, time to get back to work.”
“Yeah,” Wyatt laughed, “you might be right, but I’m not putting that on the women, I think it is the cubs. Hell, they have a way of turning a man into mush.”
Ethan saw the look in Wyatt’s eyes and knew that very soon he and Peyton would be making an announcement to the team. It looked like Alpha might be getting more new additions to the team.
Wyatt and Ethan had barely made it back to the island when Ethan’s phone started ringing, Shit, he had forgotten to call Jacks back. Fuck, where was his head? Accepting the call, Ethan wasn’t surprised when Jacks instantly started in on him.
“What the fuck asshole, you hang up on me then don’t bother to call me back for over an hour? Did you lose your head in the Club? SOP motherfucker, communication is key to any mission.”
“Jacks, listen, I get it. I had a minor malfunction with my bear, but I’m back in the game now. Peyton is forwarding the blood sample to Mia as we speak, and Wyatt and I are getting ready to hit the computers.”
“I hear you, but I don’t believe what you’re saying, this chick has your head all mixed up. I received a call from our friendly or not so friendly boogie man. He has instructed me to inform you that Lucas Krueger is the mission, the woman isn’t; she’s staying right where she is until such time we can determine her intentions. Your mission is to gather intel and report, search and rescue are to be conducted by another team. Do you understand?”
“What the fuck, Jacks, since when to does Alpha farm out missions to other teams? This is my investigation, and I will complete it in the way I determine appropriate.”
“No, you won’t. If it was any other mission, I would stand behind you one hundred percent, but your head isn’t in the game, regardless of what you say. Matthias will be at your location in five days. During that time, you will gather information, period. If you go off script, I will come down there personally and take over. Do you understand what I am saying to you?”
NAC & The Holly Group - Box set: Alpha Team Page 114
