Before they’d attacked the women, Ethan would have sworn Sven and his gang were mostly harmless petty crooks, but now? He could see the joy in their eyes as they bickered over the hot irons and Bart once again shoved his stick into Ethan’s gut. They were getting off on the violence, like a fox tearing into all the chickens in the hen house, but only eating one. They wanted to torture him. They were having fun torturing him.
He’d failed and he’d die here. He knew it by the look in Sven’s eye. But the real question was—where was Addison and what had they done to her?
Despite the heat of the fire burning too close to his side, his blood ran cold with fear.
Chapter Eleven
Addison’s muscles ached as she and Trish carried Gabby into the dark warehouse, her pulse fast with fear. He’d taken their cell phones and purses and dumped them in a pile next to the entrance. Now, the only thing they had was the first aid bag, which didn’t contain much besides bandages and tape. As they entered, Julian flicked on the lights. Addison stopped in shock, nearly dropping Gabby’s feet. “No way. You’re not locking us in there.”
“Relax, it won’t be for long. I have friends who will be coming to see to that.”
“What friends.” Trish had stopped too, pulled to a standstill by Gabby’s sagging body. She put her side gently on the ground. She whirled to face Julian. “You mean those rogue assholes who attacked us earlier, don’t you?”
“Don’t you like the rough guys?” Julian’s upper lip curled. “I figured since you’d refused all the decent wolves in the pack that you wanted someone gritty.” He turned to Addison, his face turning hard. “I know you do. I can smell him all over you from here. But don’t worry, he’s being taken care of too.”
Addison growled, her wolf leaping to the surface. “What the hell have you done.”
“Don’t worry about lover-boy, your future dates are finishing him off right now.”
“If you’ve hurt him I’ll rip you to pieces.” It was the hardest thing she’d ever done, pushing her wolf down. They both wanted their mate, and they wanted to sink their teeth into Julian’s face and rip, tearing a hole in his cheek right where it turned up in a mocking grin.
“Calm down before I’m forced to shoot you. And that would ruin everything.” The smell of his wolf rising rose in the air between them. “I don’t understand. Your stepfather paraded you in front of at least a hundred good pack wolves, why in the hell would you choose a dirty loser like him?”
“He’s not a loser!” Her skin pulsed with the push of fur. Get a hold of yourself, Addison. He’s still got that gun.
“Loser or not, now he’s really up shit creek. You won’t have time to mourn him before his buddies come to get you.” He waved the gun, signaling them to move toward the entrance. “Now get in the cage.”
“No.” Addison planted her feet in the hard cement of the warehouse floor. Maybe she could take him before he got a shot off, she peeled off her jacket. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Trish start to do the same. “I’m not stupid enough to think you’ll let us live. I’m going to make it hard.” Her muscles tensed in preparation for the shift.
“You can get in the cage or I can shoot you now. Your choice.” He centered the gun on her face so she looked straight down the barrel. Julian’s face behind the cold hard steel was full of malice. His black-gloved finger tightened, and he pulled the trigger.
The shot flew past her, the sound ringing in her ears long after she realized the bullet had passed.
Her blood turned to ice. He’d missed on purpose, but she could tell, he wouldn’t do it again.
“I’ve always wondered what it would be like.” His eyes gleamed. “I’ve killed as a wolf, biting deep into a rabbit, feeling the blood spurt in my mouth. But what does it feel like to pull the trigger and end a person’s life, just like a human would? Is it as satisfying? Does it get you hard? Just give me the chance, Addison, and I’ll do it. I’ll shoot you right now.”
“Do it. Shoot me now.”
He continued as if he hadn’t even heard her. “And then I’ll shoot your little human friends. Bang. Bang.” He twitched the gun just enough for her to know that Eve and Gabby would never stand a chance. The need for blood rose from his skin like the stink of too much bad cologne.
Julian would kill her. And then he’d kill each and every one of her friends. She could smell the truth.
“Come on, Addison. Please, just do what he says. For Gabby.” Eve’s voice was shaky as she knelt down on the concrete beside Gabby’s prone body and felt for a pulse. She turned big pleading blue eyes up to Addison. “She’s still alive. Isn’t that something? If you don’t co-operate, what are the chances she’ll live?”
She could read the desperation in Eve’s face.
It might be too late for Ethan, hell, it might already be too late for them. But Eve was right—while they were still alive, there was a chance they’d make it. Alive—maybe, just maybe, they’d have a chance to escape later. Dead—there was no chance.
She had to cooperate. For her friends’ sake. And maybe for Ethan’s. She couldn’t believe he was dead. Couldn’t believe it because her slender tie to him through the mark was still strong, still vibrant. He was alive. And as long as he was, she had to try to survive.
“Let’s go.” She threw her coat to Eve, bent down and took hold of Gabby’s feet. Trish got the shoulders and they shuffled into the cage.
There was no water, nothing. Not even a bucket to pee in. She turned back to face Julian as he closed the large padlock onto the chain link.
She looped her fingers through the cold metal mesh. “Gabby needs water. She needs medical care.”
He grinned. “She’ll be dead soon. Accept it. You’re better off worrying about yourself.”
“You can’t just leave us here. She needs help.”
“Do you think I care?”
“Where are you going?”
He snorted. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to be the one who kills Lincoln Hunter’s sister? Look, I’m wearing gloves. These shoes, this coat, none of it is mine, they’re from a thrift store. There won’t be any of my scent when the pack finds this place with your dead bodies. That is, if they even find it.” He laughed and walked away into the light coming from the open warehouse door.
His phone rang out and he yanked his glove off with a curse, swiping it on. “No. Just kill him and get it over with. I want you here. I want them all dead before the sun sets, before that fucking asshole Hunter finds them. And Sven, no loose ends.”
He hung up and waved the phone at the girls in the cage. “Your lovers will be here in a few minutes. You’d better enjoy what they have to offer, it’s the last dick you’re going to get before you die.”
Panic raced through Addison. “Julian!” She rattled the chain link. “You can’t do this!”
But the only sound she heard was his rising laugh as he left the building, flicking off the lights as he went. The warehouse door slammed shut behind him, the clang ringing through Addison’s bones sounding like their death knell in the darkness.
Chapter Twelve
Panic rippled through her as the silence of the warehouse engulfed Addison. And then, from out of nowhere, pain shuddered through her. She sank down onto the cement and wrapped her arms around her body, unable to breathe.
“Addison!” Eve’s crimson tipped fingers dug into Addison’s arm. “You have to get up. We don’t have much time.” Eve’s pale face was paler than normal, her eyes larger as she urged Addison to rise. “They’re on their way and we can’t be here.”
“Something’s wrong,” she gasped. Pain shuddered through her again, a deep pain that burned into her skin and stole her breath away. “They’re hurting Ethan.”
Eve put her hands on her hips. “Well then get your big girl panties up off that floor and get a move on.” She loomed over Addison and waggled a sharply manicured nail in her face. “Gabby needs a hospital, Ethan needs rescuing, and if we don’t get out of h
ere we’ll be next. I don’t know about you, but even to my very human nose, that stinks!” She stared at Addison, doubled up on the floor. She turned to Trish. “What’s wrong with her?”
Trish shook her head and motioned to Eve as she stood up. “I’ll take care of it. Come here and take my place with Gabby.”
Eve nodded, settling on the ground next to Gabby’s head.
“Addison, you have to rise above the mating bond.” Trish knelt down next to Addison, her pixie face drawn tight with stress. “I’ve heard that you can do it. Use the pain, use the adrenaline and get up!”
“I can’t.” The pain was disorienting. Addison couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but she knew it was Ethan’s.
“Get up!” Trish growled, her eyes glowing green with her wolf. “Your mate needs you. We need you.”
Under the words Addison felt the call of the alpha bitch and the wolf in her responded to the command. Still trying to pull in enough air she nodded and climbed to her feet. “I’ll try.”
Trish hugged her. “You can do this.”
Addison hugged her back, desperate to find something, anything, that would distract her from the pain. “I can’t function with this bond between us.”
“You can and you will.”
“I’m losing myself and I haven’t even taken the bite from him.” She hung onto her best friend as if she were the only steady thing in the world. “When that happens, he’ll swallow me whole. I’ll be just like my mother.”
“No you won’t. Remember how dreamy the Wolfes were when they came in the lodge? How Aric doted over his mate, and how she gave him shit? She stands up to him, and he’s a big pack alpha. Do you think that she’s less of a woman, less capable because she has a mate?” Trish waited for Addison’s shake of her head before continuing, “Do you think he’s less of a man because his mate’s strong?”
Addison again shook her head. “No.”
“If they can do it, so can you. Start now. Make that mating bond serve you, instead of you serving it. Use the pain, Addison, use the love. Get us out of here.”
Another wash of pain flowed over her and she swore she smelled some kind of meat burning. Inside, her wolf howled with agony. Her whole being throbbed with the need to shift and search out her mate. Ethan needed her. Maybe she’d let the mating bond take her over, maybe she’d end up just like her mother, but she couldn’t ignore it a second longer.
Pushing the possible horror out of her head she reached for her wolf. “Come on girl, give me some of what you’ve got.” Carefully, she let just enough of her wolf out that she could feel the power surging through her but, instead of shifting, she took the metal chain mesh in her hands and ripped.
The metal strained, but didn’t break.
The power of the mating bond flowed into Addison, giving her a sudden surge of strength. She pulled harder. Slowly, the metal links popped as they tore away from their post.
“Atta girl!” Trish pumped her fist. “Use it, make it work for you. He needs you.”
Her muscles shaking, she pulled harder. The curtain of chain pulled all the way away from the pole, leaving a gap just big enough for a wolf to push through.
She turned to Trish, shaking with the need to find Ethan. “Come on, we need to get Gabby out of here.”
“You go. Eve and I can handle it.”
“But they’re on their way!”
Trish’s upper lip pulled away from her front teeth in a snarl. “Just let those assholes try to take me down. Eve, go get our phones and call the lodge.” Eve slipped through the hole in the chain link, heading for the pile of purses. Trish turned back to Addison. “What are you waiting for? Go. Before it’s too late!”
Shaking with the delayed need to shift, she stripped off her sweat-drenched clothes. Bones cracked and moved under her skin. Fur rippled out of her pores in the blessed pain of the shift. Now, she was a sleek brown wolf, small enough to fit through the hole. She didn’t even pay attention to Eve’s gasp of horror, she was through the gap and running to save her mate.
She barely noticed a shifted Trish squeezing through the gap behind her, taking up a defensive stance outside of the cage. The mating bond had taken hold. She couldn’t stop now, Ethan was in trouble.
She avoided the larger garage style door, hitting the smaller one next to it and aiming for the push bar in the middle. It swung wide and she burst out into the snow. Ethan, where was Ethan? The tug of him was so strong, she had no idea which way to go. She sniffed the air. Faint on the crisp cold mountain air was the scent of fire. Her fear pushing her faster, she ran into the woods.
The smell grew stronger until the heavy odor of smoke choked the air. Now, she could hear the sound of the fire, a vicious roaring that scared her wolf, but had her even more desperate than before. A large barn was on fire, flames crackling, dark smoke rising to the sky. She crept over the ground, hugging the trees and surveying the clearing. She caught the rumble of a large engine, followed by a burst of smaller ones. A large pick-up, followed by a string of bikes was leaving the yard, heading down the dirt driveway.
That had to be Sven and his crew, heading to the warehouse. Fear for Trish and the girls rushed through her.
Part of her wanted to race back and make sure they were okay, but she couldn’t. She was here now and she’d never make it back in time. She had to have faith in Trish and Eve and stay here. She had to save her mate.
I’m coming, Ethan.
She used the extra strength of her need to drive her wolf toward the burning building, running directly for the smoke and fire even as her beast howled out her fear of the flames.
***
Ethan choked on the smoke as inside, his beast twisted and fought his control, trying to get free and run from the fire. But there would be no running. They were trussed to the pole. The smell of his own branded flesh and fur was now being drowned out by the heavy dark smoke as the old wood of the barn caught fire.
He didn’t even have the consolation that they didn’t have Addison to comfort him. As the iron had burned its way into his skin and he’d struggled to stay conscious through the pain, he’d heard the phone ring.
Sven had hung up the phone. “No more play-time. We need to take care of him now and get out of here.” Over the chorus of no’s and awe’s he added, “Don’t think you’re getting off easy, Blaylock. We’ve got your woman. And just to screw it to you she’s going to feel every single one of us inside her before we’re done. We’re going to make her pay for what you done to us, you fucking traitor.” He stuck his finger into the freshly burned wound on Ethan’s hip and pushed, twisting his finger.
Unable to fight the pain any longer, Ethan finally passed out to the sound of his own screams.
When he’d come to, they were gone. The pungent stink of gasoline had his nose wrinkling. The first cracklings of the old barn told him—he was a dead man.
Now, the fire had spread along the base of the stalls, licking up the dry wood as if the devil himself had lit the fuse.
He struggled to free himself from the ropes, but he was tied fast. He pushed the shift, hoping to fall out during the process, or that the difference in size between paws and wrists would let him wiggle free, but the ropes only bit deeper into skin without the fur.
Would the flames burn him before the ropes burned, or would he be roasted like a hog over a pit? He laughed, the black choking sound drowned out by the crackle and pops of the fire.
Over the sound of the flames he heard a howl. His heart leapt, pounding in his chest like a base drum.
Addison!
He strained, trying to hear it again over the loud sounds of the barn being devoured, but he couldn’t. He sagged. She wasn’t here, he was imagining things. She was about to be savaged by the same men who’d done this to him.
No. Not if he had anything to say about it. He wasn’t giving up. He was going to fight for his mate to the end.
The fire climbed its way to the ceiling, crawling along the old dry two-by-f
ours that held up the patched metal roof. A piece fell in, crashing to the ground only a few feet away, the extra air making the fire whoosh in glee.
He turned his wrists against the ropes, ignoring the blood dripping from his wrists. There was another howl, but this one was louder. He twisted his body, searching for the source. There, silhouetted against the open barn door, was the shape of a wolf.
Even in her fur-body, his woman had it going on, he’d know that curvy feminine shape anywhere. Another piece of roofing fell, crashing between them and he flinched. “Addison, it’s too dangerous! Back away!”
But the dark shape of the wolf paced toward him through the smoke, ducking around the burning piles of debris like a shadow. He fought his bonds harder.
She finally reached him. Wolf became woman and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and squeezed him hard. “Ethan!”
His chest squeezed tight with sheer emotional response.
“Addison, you have to go. The entire building could come down at any moment.” Even though he knew she should leave, the solid feel of her body pressed against his was incredible.
“No way. We’re getting you out.” Her fingers worked the wet bloody ropes. “I can’t get them. The knots are too tight.” She darted a look around the building. “I’ll be right back.”
“No!”
But it was too late, she was gone, racing back through the smoke to the front of the building. She disappeared for a while, then came back clutching the rustiest looking knife he’d ever seen. The blade looked dull, and the rough splintered wooden handle’s pins were rusty, but it was the best looking thing he’d ever seen—next to his mate standing next to him in all her bare naked glory.
“Good thing the tack room wasn’t emptied.” She grinned, the soot on her nose and cheeks making her look like a sexy chimney sweep as she sawed at his ropes.
He didn’t feel the cuts of the blades on his numb wrists, but he did feel the impact as he fell hard to the ground. “Umph!”
Sassy Ever After: Sassy Wolf and the Rogue (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 8
