by Dannika Dark
Melody wandered into the living room clutching a baby doll with pink streaks in her hair. “Where’s Daddy?”
Lexi beamed. “Come here, sweetie pie, and spin around. We’re going to do a flip.”
Melody tossed her doll on the floor and turned around, reaching between her legs. Lexi grabbed her hands and pulled her up, causing Melody to flip around until her feet stamped on the floor.
She giggled. “Again!”
After three more times, Lexi was out of breath. “I shouldn’t have started doing this. Maizy never liked it, but Mel will probably ask me to do it when she’s twelve.”
I giggled and patted her cheek. “You’ll be a good mama someday.”
Her smile waned. “Maybe.”
Chapter 21
That evening, we split up and headed to our assigned locations. Trevor and William were on point to guard the front and back of the house, and Jericho’s wolf circled the property. Shifters communicated with their animal on a completely different level. During the shift, there’s a moment when both spirits inhabit the same space and intentions are understood, so Jericho’s wolf knew his job was to guard the territory. Shifters are intuitive creatures, vastly superior to their animal counterparts in the wild.
“What do you do for a living?” Lorenzo’s packmate asked in a rich baritone.
“Moreland, I’m an exotic dancer,” I said matter-of-factly.
He chuckled. “With a body like yours, it would be a sin if you weren’t.”
Moreland looked like a strong man. He was three shades darker than me with the appearance of an exotic islander, from his broad nose to his almond-shaped eyes. Most men with long hair kept it free or tied it back. But Moreland had precise rows of braids against his head going back.
“So, how long have you been with Lorenzo’s pack?”
Moreland switched on the high beams when we exited the highway. “Since the beginning. Enzo values loyalty, and we’ve been like brothers since before our change. Except now our brotherhood has grown,” he said with a thick chuckle. “He’s a better man with a good woman at his side.”
“How’s Ivy been getting along with her new family?”
“We’re glad she chose us—chose him. A Packmaster is only as strong as his mate. She might look like a delicate little flower, but Ivy’s fierce. That woman doesn’t mess around. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a compassionate soul and keeps a nice balance in the pack. After they had the baby, pregnancy became contagious in our pack.” He laughed and turned the wheel. “It’s good to see the mated couples finally having children. Lorenzo made it a house, but Ivy made it a home.”
“I guess that makes her a good bitch,” I said with a playful smile.
“Noo.” Moreland wagged his finger. “Don’t ever use that word to describe Ivy around Enzo; he’ll have your head for it.”
“And I thought all this time the wolves defended their use of the word as a term of endearment.”
He smiled. “You’re funny. Those damn humans always have to dirty up a good word. It seems like most men have a problem with it after they find a good woman.”
I looked into the inky woods when he pulled the car off the side of the road. Moreland shut off the engine and the lights blinked out. “You stay behind me. Hear? This is just a reconnaissance mission.”
“You men and your war terms,” I said with a wave of my hand. “In English, please?”
“We’re just window-shopping. How’s that for women’s terms?”
“Brilliant.”
“How did you get involved in wolf business?” he asked. “Just out of curiosity.”
“Moreland, I’m going to cut right to the chase because I’m not a woman who censors herself. I’m in love with the man we’re looking for.”
“Wheeler? Never met him, but I’ve heard stories about him. The one with the tattoos, right?”
“Yes.” I pushed open my door. “The one with the beautiful tattoos.”
After a fifteen-minute walk through the woods, Moreland slowed his pace. The road was pitch-black without a moon to guide our way. We had kept to the woods, but as we drew closer to the property, I suggested we move onto the road so we wouldn’t announce our presence with snapping twigs and rustling leaves. Not to mention the mosquitoes were having a banquet all over my legs.
We’d all agreed upon a set time to call Austin with an update. Anyone who didn’t call, he’d consider captured, which meant that the rest of the group would abandon their location and rush to their aid.
I’d never known how organized wolf packs were until now. I tried to let my predator instincts take over, but the rational side of my brain kept saying I was just a dancer who didn’t like dirt on her upholstery and should have stayed home. It had never occurred to me I’d one day be traversing through a forest to rescue a wolf.
Suddenly I sneezed with a loud gasp. Before I knew what happened, Moreland’s hand flew over my mouth. I sneezed quietly into his hand a second time—the dirt and pollen from the woods tickling my nose.
“Don’t do that again,” he murmured against my ear. He waited for a few moments and then we continued.
In the distance, voices overlapped and grew louder. I gripped Moreland’s arm when his pace quickened. Pale lights shone through the thicket of trees, and my eyes were wide and alert to our surroundings.
We hurried into the woods and moved far from the road to conceal our approach. A house began to take shape—a large house. The drapes were drawn, and what tremendous windows! They stretched from the first floor to the second on one side of the house, but the inside light created moving silhouettes on the lower level.
“Looks like a party,” he whispered, pointing to our right. A row of cars lined the private road.
A sharp prick touched my neck, and I slapped at the pesky mosquito. Instead, my fingers found something long and strange. Moreland turned to look at me and I lost all sensation in my legs. Was I falling? It seemed like he was going to catch me, but then a silver object appeared and pierced his throat. Something that looked like a dart.
***
Wheeler had spent hours examining the chain attached to the cuff on his wrist. He went through every link, hoping these idiots had reused old equipment that might have been damaged by the prisoner before him, scraping it on the floor or pounding it against a hard surface. He couldn’t find anything. Wheeler’s objective wasn’t just to escape; he wanted to find Delgado and bury him in the ground with a spade as his grave marker. The chain spanned five feet and connected to a metal ring secured in the floor near the wall.
Someone a few cells down had been humming and laughing for the past hour or so—a sign of insanity. You take a free man and chain him in a tiny cell, forcing him to kill and rewarding him for it, and some men will crumble beneath the weight of guilt. Wheeler had learned that insanity was contagious to anyone close enough to listen to the ramblings of a man beyond reason.
“Who’s in there?” a woman whispered. “Are you a dancer?”
She must have been from one of the clubs.
“Hello? Please answer. Lacy’s gone now, and she was the only one I had to talk to. Oh God, I just want to go home.” Then she began crying. “Please, please… someone talk to me. I’m so scared.”
“Dammit,” Wheeler muttered to himself. “I’m here.”
“Who are you? What’s your name?” she asked, sniffling away her tears. “No one else here talks to me. Lacy was the only one.”
Then the crying started up.
“I’m Wheeler. What’s your name?”
“Bo.”
“That’s an odd name for a woman.”
She laughed in surprise. “That’s rude. My mom thought I was going to be a boy.”
“You work at one of the clubs?”
“How did you know? Yes, I work at Teasers. Are you a Regulator?”
“No.” She must have thought he was undercover or something. “Someone I know who works at Club Sin was attacked.”
“Lacy?
”
“No.”
“Oh. Lacy worked there. I just can’t believe this! What did I ever do to anyone?”
He listened to her chain angrily slinging around and Bo talking to herself. A woman like her wouldn’t last long in a place like this. What the hell was Delgado thinking? Maybe in the years since Wheeler had left, cage fighting had changed. Maybe they got their kicks from hot strippers going at it.
A door opened at the far end of the hall. From where he sat with his back to the wall, he had a clear view of anyone who passed in front of his cage. Something heavy slid across the floor, and a man spat out a curse.
“Well, you fucking carry her and I’ll drag him, you big pussy.”
The guard passed in front of the bars ahead of him and Wheeler launched to his feet, gripping the door with his free hand. “What are you doing with her?” he shouted.
The guard stopped and shifted Naya in his arms. She was unconscious, and her head lolled to the side. He noticed a sneaker missing, and she had small red bumps on her legs and twigs in her hair.
“Friend of yours?” the guard asked, openly mocking him.
“I want to speak to Delgado!”
A man appeared in front of the cell on the left. “Calm down, Mr. Cole. No need to shout.”
The guard holding Naya moved out of sight, and another guard followed behind him, dragging a large, dark-skinned man. After shutting the doors, the guards hurried out.
Wheeler sized up the man in front of his cell. He had deep-set eyes of a pale shade, like hazel or blue. Delgado looked like a slick stockbroker with his brown hair combed back and his outfit of dark slacks and a button-up shirt that molded to his body. He wasn’t at all what Wheeler had expected. He’d envisioned Delgado as some sniveling, overweight, greasy human with missing teeth. This man in his forties had all his teeth—sparkling white—and a deep line carved into his right cheek in the shape of a crescent moon. His nose was so straight that it resembled an arrow pointing down. Delgado was agreeable to look at, and maybe that made it easier for people to trust doing business with him. Looks could get a man just as far as they could a woman. His brows weren’t sloped in an angry line like Wheeler’s sometimes were, and he didn’t wear a frown. Nor did he smile. He maintained an impassive demeanor despite the woman sobbing in the cell next door.
“What are you doing with her?” Wheeler asked.
Delgado lifted a cigarette case from his back pocket and opened it, removing a smoke and holding it between his lips. “You see, despite the fact I have one of the most legendary wolf fighters in history, I still want what I want.” He flicked the thumbwheel on his slim lighter until a small flame lit up the other end. After a long inhale, he blew a thin haze of smoke into Wheeler’s cell. “A panther isn’t easy to come by. They used to be more open with their identity until cage fighting became a profitable affair. That’s when they started to go into hiding. I used to own a few bars, but then I discovered strip clubs were an infinite source of unattached women in all kinds of shapes and forms.” He took another slow drag from his cigarette, narrowing his eyes to thin slivers.
Wheeler’s lips curled in. “Let her go. We had an agreement. Me for Ben.”
“Yes, we did. But I don’t like deception.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Delgado flicked the ashes from the tip of his cigarette and slowly ambled to the right. “Nosy women piss me off. This morning I discovered someone had been in my office. A personal item of mine was missing—a book. Names, numbers, appointments, and just enough details that—”
“You shouldn’t have been dumb enough to keep it in an unlocked drawer.”
Anger flashed in his eyes and he pulled in another inhale, walking toward the left again. “Had you left the office the way you found it, I might have never known. I rarely go through that book anymore. But someone had turned my elephant in the wrong direction. I’m a superstitious man, and that’s not something I’d easily overlook. That’s when I knew Miss James had gone behind my back. One of the girls in the club confirmed seeing her there with a man. Was that you?”
Wheeler’s grip tightened and he yanked the chain on his right hand in vain.
“Yes, I thought as much. I know how tight packs are, so taking you in was a risk. But I readied my men. After all, I still had another vacancy to fill.” A deep chuckle rose in his chest. “My men waited until Naya and the Shifter neared the house before they attacked. I suppose they were too lazy to carry them very far,” he said with disdain. “They’ll be punished for that. Anyhow, thought you’d enjoy the company. Might be fun to have family here. Brother against brother. Is that man in your pack?”
Wheeler didn’t respond.
When the cigarette had burned down, Delgado dropped it on the floor and crushed it with his dress shoe. “I had high hopes that more men would come for you, but maybe you’re the sort of wolf a pack is glad to be rid of. Dead weight. Where’s the cavalry?”
“Let her go. She’s not a fighter. You haven’t been in this world long enough to know what I know. Our animals have nothing to do with how dangerous we are. This is bullshit! You have what you wanted—you have me.”
Delgado snorted and tucked his hands in his pockets. “I’m not so sure the great savage wolf has much fight left in him. Did you run away all those years ago? Too afraid of dying? As much as I love having you in my possession, I’m not a stupid man. Anyone who is of no use to me I sell on the black market. There are plenty of buyers who think they can turn defects into champions. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.”
A storm funneled within Wheeler, one so powerful it could have shattered the chain on his wrist. The thought of Naya in a place like this—broken the way he had once been broken—polluted his thoughts.
“I have money,” Wheeler offered. “You’re a man who talks the language of currency, and I’m a man who knows how to get it. I have a solid reputation in the world of finance. If you’re doing this for money, then you’d be a fucking idiot to throw away a lottery ticket.”
Delgado’s gaze drifted elsewhere as if he was considering it. “That’s a tempting offer, but I can’t use you for both. I’m guaranteed money if I put you in the cage.”
“I can earn you ten times that in other ways.”
Delgado’s brow arched. “Can you prove that? Can you promise that?”
“No, but I can’t promise I’ll win your next fight either,” he subtly threatened.
“I host the fights, so I’ll profit regardless of who wins or loses. I run an exclusive club where you pay to play, but some like to keep their hands clean and just watch, so they pay more. You’re the kind of starring attraction that would earn me a huge profit. I’ve made this into an upscale affair from the days in the dungeon. I throw a party; we have drinks, mingle, smoke cigars, and watch a good fight. It’s an elite club, and profitable. Some of the men pay extra for time alone with our girls. That’s an added perk.”
“Let her go!” Wheeler roared, kicking at the bars. “I’ll fucking tear off your head if you touch her.”
When Delgado chuckled, the line in his cheek deepened. “Oh, I’m not going to touch her, Mr. Cole. I’m leaving the honors to you once she wakes up from the tranquilizer. Save your energy for the cage. See you in”—he glanced at his watch and then winked—“three hours.”
Chapter 22
From the time I came to consciousness, I only had a few seconds to look around before someone jerked me to my feet.
“Move your ass,” he barked. “Your three-hour nap is up.”
I followed, still half-asleep, struggling to understand what was happening. Bars. Rows and rows of bars. A flickering light. I had been stripped down to my bra and panties. Maybe I’m dreaming. When I closed my eyes and slowed down, I felt a sharp yank on my neck.
Ow! My fingers clawed at a thick piece of metal beneath my jaw, and that’s the moment I blinked wide-awake. Not only did I have a heavy manacle around my neck, but a man was leadi
ng me forward by the chain attached to it. I resisted, gripping the links so he couldn’t jerk it again.
But he did, and when he picked up his stride, I stumbled and tried to keep from falling.
“Better wake her up,” a man with a heavy British accent said. “Here, let me.”
A cold splash of water drenched my face, and I choked in a series of coughs. Some of it had gone up my nose, and I shuddered at the icy contact with my skin.
“They like it when we wet the girls down before a fight.”
“Moreland?” I croaked, looking around for Lorenzo’s packmate.
When the guard jerked the chain, my panther snarled at me to fight back. I kicked the man in the lower back and he buckled, falling to his knees. When I got some slack on the chain, I pulled enough of it to wrap around his neck. He was tall, but I tried with everything I had in me to hang on.
The man who had splashed me with water snaked his arms around my waist and yanked me off. “Told you we should have shackled her hands,” he said. “Delgado said she’s a panther.”
The other man coughed and unraveled the chain from his neck. “I don’t get paid enough for this shit.”
“Let me go,” I growled. “I’ll shift and tear your limbs from your body.”
The man I had strangled choked out a laugh. “Just try it, honey. The collar is locked tight for a reason.”
I kicked at him while the man holding me started to move forward. He had my arms pinned against my body within his crushing grip. Oh my God, this was Delgado’s psychotic house of horrors.
“Moreland!” I yelled. And then something else occurred to me. “Wheeler!”
We passed a cell and a young woman with blond curls looked at me with frightened eyes. She backed away from the bars and sat down, holding her knees. Another cage held a pale man with scars all over his body, and the next cell contained what looked like a murderer. His eyes were vacant as he watched us move past. It was as if I’d witnessed the progression of a cage fighter in five seconds.
