by Kali Argent
Settling onto the floor beside Abby, she took the female’s hand and gave it a light squeeze. “How are you holding up, Barbie?”
The tiny blond trembled, but she held her head high, chin up and set at a stubborn angle. “I’m sorry, Thea. I’m completely useless.”
“What? Abby, you’re not—”
“Stop.” Turning her head, she smiled kindly. “I know who I am, and I’m not a fighter. That would be okay if everyone else didn’t keep getting hurt trying to protect me.”
Abby couldn’t help her small size or her lack of fangs and claws. They could, however, improve on her self-defense. “I’ll work with you. You’ll be a regular badass by the time we’re finished.”
“Thea, come on, look at me.”
One of her dad’s favorite expressions came to mind. “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight.”
“It’s how hard he bites,” Deidra interrupted, leaving her place by the fire to join them on the floor. “She’s right, Abby. It won’t happen overnight, but we have time before the next full moon. You just have to be willing to put in the work.”
“I don’t think that’s how the saying goes.” A genuine smile curved Abby’s bow-shaped lips. “I’m willing to put in the work, but that doesn’t change the way the pack sees me. I’m the weakest one in the group, and they’re always going to use me against you.”
Thea couldn’t argue with the logic, so she chose to focus on the positive instead. “Then, we’ll just have to show them that you’re not weak.”
“I didn’t say I was weak.” Straightening her spine, Abby drew her shoulders back and glared. “I said I was the weakest one in our group. Compared to vampires, werewolves, shifters, and former police officers, it’s true. At least physically, I’m the weakest one here.”
Well, she wasn’t wrong. Not knowing what else to say, Thea was grateful when Rhys entered the room and folded his massive frame onto the floor beside her. From his expression, he’d heard their conversation, and like Thea, he seemed to be at a loss for words.
“What is this?” she asked when he passed her a paper plate piled with what looked like a waffle sandwich.
“It’s good is what it is. Eat it.”
“Bossy.”
Between two square waffles, he’d piled scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese. Maple syrup dripped from the assembled concoction, running down the sides of the waffles and making her fingers sticky. While comprised of all of her favorite foods, it didn’t exactly look edible in its current form, but she braved a bite to appease her growly mate.
“Holy shit, this is fantastic.” Thea had inherited her dad’s ability to burn boiling water, and most of her meals over the past year and a half had come out of the freezer or from one of the local restaurants in Trinity Grove. “If you keep this up,” she mumbled around another bite, “I might just have to keep you.”
Rhys winked. “That’s the plan, angel.” Then he started to laugh and leaned in to swipe his tongue across her bottom lip. “Mm, you taste delicious.”
“Did you just lick syrup off my face?” She couldn’t quite summon the proper indignation at the act, so she settled for a half-hearted elbow to his side. “Gross.”
“You liked it.”
Yeah, she did, but he didn’t need to know that. Nor did she need him seducing her when two other people in the room could scent her desire. They already teased her relentlessly about the shower incident. The last thing she wanted was to add fuel to that flame.
The front door of the cabin swung open, and the cold November air swept into the room, an ominous preamble of things to come. Alpha Chase strode toward them, his posture relaxed and amiable—except for the two enforcers who flanked him with handguns on their hips and rifles in their hands. Dressed casually in a pair of loose-fitting jeans and a navy blue, hooded sweatshirt emblazoned with the St. Louis Rams’ logo, he was indeed handsome, strikingly so. If this had been their first meeting, Thea never would have never guessed that beneath the polished veneer, he was a deranged and merciless psychopath.
Two more enforcers waited by the open door, and past them, three others stood guard on the wooden patio. From the belts of the two wolves bracketing the doorway, shackles hung from rusted and bloodstained chains. She counted only four sets of wrist cuffs, and she was still working through the implications when Alpha Chase spoke.
“Take the humans.”
On her feet at once, Thea pushed Abby behind her with a vicious snarl. “Where are you taking them?”
“That’s not really any of your concern, Miss Mendez.” The alpha smiled, a predatory twist of his lips. “Stand aside.”
Jumping to her feet as well, Deidra stepped forward, blocking the enforcers’ view of Kamara. Behind them, Zerrik and Rhys had made similar moves, placing themselves between the human males and the werewolves advancing on them.
“What are you going to do?” Thea challenged. “Shoot all of us? Because that’s what will happen before you take the humans.”
“Thea.” Quiet, lilting, almost musical, Abby’s voice pierced the tense silence that blanketed the room. “It’s okay.” With a hand on Thea’s forearm, Abby stepped around her to address the alpha. “I’ll go with you.”
“Abby,” Cade growled, trying to shove his way past Zerrik, “don’t be stupid.”
Shoulders back, spine rigid, Abby ignored him, speaking instead to the alpha. “Take me.”
“That’s sweet.” His hands resting on his hips, Alpha Chase nodded slowly. “You’re brave, little one.”
“I’m not. I just don’t want anyone else hurt because of me.”
“Brave,” he repeated, “but foolish. While impressive, your sacrifice means very little.” Turning to the enforcers, he motioned them forward. “Take them.”
The guards nearest the door unhooked the shackles from their belts and started forward. Thea saw no way out of their predicament. They could fight, but half of them would still end up taken, while the other half bled out on the floor from bullet wounds.
“Wait.” Abby threw her hands up and backed away. “Can we have a minute to say goodbye?”
Alpha Chase considered her for a moment, his arms folded and his head tilted to the side. “One minute.”
“Abby, this is crazy,” Thea said when the female hugged her. “We don’t even know where they’re taking you.”
Abby squeeze her a little tighter, rising up on her toes to whisper in Thea’s ear. “Find us.”
Then she was gone, moving away to say her farewells to Zerrik.
Kamara hadn’t struck her as the touchy-feely type, so it surprised her when the human pulled her into a tight embrace, turning them so that her back faced the werewolves.
“I’ll watch out for her,” she promised. “Take care of yourself, and when you get out of here, find us.”
Find us.
Those two little words weighed heavily on Thea’s heart. She said nothing, not willing to make a promise she had no way of knowing if she could keep. If she did make it out alive, she’d move mountains to track down her friends, but as it stood, she didn’t know if she’d even see the next sunrise.
She wasn’t suicidal, but the reality of her situation was that she’d likely never leave St. Louis. Once she’d accepted that, it became clear what she needed to do next. If they meant to kill her, then she’d die on her terms. She’d die doing the right thing, protecting her friends and mate, and if she was lucky, she’d take a few of the pack down with her.
With that thought in mind, she shoved Kamara into the nearest enforcer. The move surprised him, and he stumbled backward with a grunt, right into Deidra’s waiting grasp. The crack of his neck resonated through the cabin like a gunshot. Even as he fell to the floor, Thea charged the second guard, ducking under his swinging arm and twisting herself behind him to deliver a hard kick to the middle of his back. Arms flailing, he staggered into Rhys, who wasted no time dispatching the wolf in a spray of blood.
Thea turned, expecting to see more enforc
ers, possibly with guns raised. Instead, Alpha Chase stood in the center of the room, his hand up to hold back the other wolves, his expression almost bored.
“If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead,” he informed her. “You cause a lot of trouble, kitten, and while your death would certainly make my life less complicated, I have other uses for your…talents.”
He flicked his wrist, and as a unit, the five remaining guards stalked toward them, handguns drawn. Thea calculated her chances. She could take out two at once if she timed it right, but that still left three others too far back to reach in time before they fired off several shots. She might be willing to die, but she couldn’t risk anyone else’s life, so she fisted her hands at her sides and seethed as one of the enforcers gathered the shackles from his fallen comrades, and began placing them on the human members of her group.
“You’re scared,” the wolf purred, clamping the cuffs around Kamara’s wrist. “That’s good.”
With her eyes narrowed and her lip curled in disgust, Kamara didn’t look scared, but Thea detected the sickly sweet scent wafting from the female.
“Makes your blood sweeter,” the guard continued. “They’ll like that.”
Thea snapped around to face the alpha. “Vampires?”
Sighing, he removed a 9mm from his holster, aimed at the back of the enforcer’s head, and pulled the trigger. The gunshot was deafening in the confined space, and Thea’s ears rang so loudly she swayed on her feet. Kamara screamed and flinched away when blood splattered over her face, but the others stood frozen in shock.
“He never did know when to keep his fucking mouth shut,” Alpha Chase grumbled as he holstered his weapon. He spoke as if he’d simply disciplined an unruly child instead of murdering one of his own.
“You’re taking them to vampires?” Thea repeated. She wanted answers, and by fuck, he was going to give them to her.
“Yes.” Short, curt. “They’re being taken to Deadman’s Bend.”
Controlled by the Abraxas family, Deadman’s Bend referred to a stretch of territory that extended from central Texas, across the Gulf States, and up into Georgia. Furthermore, it was home to one of the largest vampire covens in the country, and rumor had it the ruling family made Elias Diavolos look downright cuddly in comparison.
And that bastard had sacrificed countless citizens of Trinity Grove to Ravagers, sent his Wardens into the Square to murder even more, then ripped out his own son’s fangs with a pair of rusted pliers.
Even Kamara seemed to understand the severity of the situation, because her face paled to an ashen gray beneath the blood, and her legs trembled, making her whole body vibrate. If she hadn’t been afraid before, she certainly was now, not that Thea blamed her.
“Take me,” Thea demanded, stepping in front of Abby once again. “If all you want is a couple of living blood bags, take me.”
“Sorry, kitten, but your blood is contaminated. Only those PN2-free need apply. Besides” —he turned to her with a calculating gaze— “as I said before, I have other uses for you.”
The PN2 virus, as it had been officially named by human scientists, coursed through her veins, as well as every other paranormal on the planet, including the Abraxas coven. It wasn’t as if they could be infected again, so she didn’t see why it mattered whose blood they consumed. Maybe the coven had decided to go organic. Only human blood for the pretentious and elite vampires. It would certainly be easy to find since the infected humans were already dead, making the remaining as pure as the driven snow in terms of red cells.
Feeling helpless and angry, Thea watched the enforcers lead half of their group out of the cabin into the brisk wind that howled across the front porch. Rhys came to stand on one side of her, Zerrik filling the space on the other, and Deidra covered her from the back. Together, they stared out into the gray morning until Cade, Duncan, Kamara, and Abby had disappeared.
Two enforcers remained in the room with the alpha, one pointing the barrel of his rifle at them while the other attached the metal shock collars around their necks. Not one of her remaining friends said anything or tried to fight, and Thea wondered if they felt as numb as she did.
“I’ll see you all at the Gathering,” Alpha Chase said over his shoulder before walking through the front door.
Once he’d left, the guards seemed to take pleasure in pressing the buttons on the fobs around their neck to test the collars. Thea’s muscles twisted into spasms, and her eyes rolled back in her head, but she managed to remain on her feet. The same couldn’t be said for Zerrik, and she was beginning to worry for the lieutenant. While he’d eaten plenty of regular food, he hadn’t had a sip of blood since their arrival. His cheek bones protruded, creating deep hollows around his eyes that highlighted the dark bruises under his lower lashes.
He was too much of a gentleman to feed on someone he cared about, but if he didn’t accept a donor soon, when the full moon came, they might be fighting against him instead of with him.
“You need to feed,” she whispered from the side of her mouth as they all shuffled out of the cabin. Rhys wouldn’t like it, but she couldn’t just let her friend starve to death. “When we get to the enclosure, you can have my wrist.”
Zerrik’s gaze strayed to her neck, but he shook his head. “I’m okay for a while longer.”
As predicted, Rhys growled, hovering close to her protectively, but he didn’t comment.
Following the walkway through the woods, Thea rounded her shoulders against the biting wind and ducked her head to prevent her hair from whipping her in the face. The heartland was notorious for its unpredictable weather, but the temperatures were unseasonably cold for November, even by Midwest standards. As she’d feared, the atmosphere smelled of coming precipitation, likely in the form of snow and ice.
It was going to be a long fucking night.
The trek across the parking lot and through the welcome center seemed to take longer than it had the first time. Across the railroad tracks and past the café nestled over the little pond, they marched along the winding path that led to the staff building behind the primate enclosure. They didn’t stop to change clothes or retrieve blankets this time, nor did they exit through the big, steel door. Instead, the guards led them through a smaller door, along a dark, dank, winding corridor, and into a separate enclosure with glass viewing panels, a domed roof, and a two-story wall painted to mimic a jungle.
Everything was green, so green, it hurt her eyes, with reaching trees, tall grass, and another waterfall that flowed into a pool coated with algae. Fake and real vines hung from the branches of the trees, as well as several wide hammocks placed at various heights. The enclosure had an air of abandonment about it the outdoor cage hadn’t, an eeriness that sent a shiver down her spine.
On the bright side, it did protect them from the snow, ice, and wind, even if it was still cold enough to make her breath smoke from her lips.
“I’m going to cut you open and wear your entrails as a goddamn scarf!” a female screamed as the door closed with a heavy thud, her voice rebounding off the glass ceiling.
Thea blinked several times, sure she was hallucinating. “Roux?”
Roux Jennings stood a few inches shorter than Thea, with hair the color of rich coffee that cascaded down her back in thick, corkscrew curls. Her brilliant green eyes flashed with murderous rage as she shoved back the sleeves of a gray sweater at least two sizes too big and yanked at the collar around her neck.
In her blind fury, she nearly stomped right into Thea before jerking back as though she’d only just realized someone was standing there. “Thea?” Her features relaxed, softened, and moisture gathered in the corners of her eyes when she wrapped Thea in her slender arms. “Oh, my god, we thought you were dead.” Backing away, she looked at the other faces staring back at her and grinned. “Hey, Zerrik.”
“Roux, what the hell are you doing here?”
“Same as you, I’d guess.” Captain Deke Collins sidled up beside his mate and wound his arms around
her, holding her protectively against his chest. “Fucking werewolves.”
CHAPTER TEN
Standing with Deidra, Rhys watched the interaction between his mate and the newcomers. She obviously knew them, which meant at least some of them were likely Revenant. The one she’d addressed as Captain, held the human female not only possessively, but as if he feared she’d disappear if he let go of her. Rhys knew the feeling.
Angling her shoulders, Thea stretched her arm back, reaching for him. When he took her hand, she pulled insistently until he stood beside her and curled her arms around his waist.
“You’re so damn warm.” She snuggled closer and sighed. “Rhys, this is my captain, Deke Collins, and his mate, Roux Jennings.” Untangling one of her arms, she motioned to an enormous male with pure white hair and eyes the color of moonlight. “Lieutenant Lynk Foster.” She waved at the human male with dark hair. “And that’s Brody Walker. Everyone, this is my mate, Sergeant Rhys Lockwood.”
“Oh, wow,” Roux gasped. “I mean, congratulations and all, but this is a hell of a way to meet your mate.” She snorted and shook her head. “Leave it to you, Mendez.”
“Well, I planned it about as much as you did when Deke kidnapped you,” Thea shot back, earning her a disgruntled huff from her captain.
“I didn’t kidnap her.”
“If I remember correctly, you threw me over your shoulder and tossed me into the back of an SUV with bulletproof glass.” Batting her lashes, Roux stared up at her mate innocently. “What would you call that?”
“I rescued you.”
“Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night.”
They bantered as if they’d been together for years, not just a couple of months. “Are they always like this?” Rhys asked, loud enough for the couple to hear.
Thea shrugged, an uncharacteristic giggle bubbling through her lips. “Pretty much.”
“Okay, fine, I kidnapped you,” Deke relented, “and now you’re stuck with me.”
