by Noelle Marie
But she didn’t get the chance.
Before Katherine could even pivot on her foot, something heavy and blunt hit her in the back of the head, and she knew no more.
CHAPTER TEN
Dark.
Quiet.
Katherine was floating.
Trapped in a murky sort of fog that suspended thought, she remained there for an undeterminable length of time, aware of little but a vague pounding in her skull.
It was the only thing anchoring her to reality.
As the fog slowly thinned, however, and consciousness beckoned her, the dull throb intensified to the point that Katherine was able to recognize that the acute pain was originating from the left side of her head. Her shoulders were sore, too. And her mouth – why did it feel so dry?
She tried to swallow... and just like that, panic took hold.
Alarm forced her eyes open. Katherine winced at the light that immediately assaulted them. It caused her pupils to constrict into tiny dots as she furiously tried to blink away the sting.
But that was the least of her concerns.
There was a cloth gag stuffed inside her mouth. She desperately tried to force it out with her tongue, but it was held in place by something – Katherine assumed duct tape. She tried to move – intent on ripping the piece of tape off her mouth and removing what felt like a bunched up sock shoved down her throat, but as soon as she did, a sharp pain exploded in her shoulders and shot down her arms. The sensation took her breath away, and for a moment, all conscious thought ceased.
When Katherine came back to herself a second later, her panic had doubled.
Because her arms were bound behind her back, linked together at the wrists with what felt like the same duct tape covering her mouth.
Fear danced up Katherine’s spine, threatening to spread to the rest of her body and overtake logical thinking completely. She tried to stomp down the overwhelming feeling, but was losing the battle – showcased by her heavy breathing and the tears she could feel gathering in her eyes.
A sudden, strong kick delivered to the inside of her abdomen, however, made her freeze.
The baby.
The timely movement from the little being growing in her belly grounded Katherine. She couldn’t afford to break down when there was someone – an unborn baby, maybe, but still a person – depending on her. With that thought in mind, Katherine was able to choke back the tears. Then she made herself stagger her breathing until she had it under control.
Once she was calm – it was a forced sort of calm that was almost entirely feigned, but that was beside the point – she urged herself to concentrate. First, she knew, she ought to take stock of her injuries.
How badly was she hurt?
Well, her head was pounding, of course.
Katherine took note of the way a bit of her hair had plastered itself to her left temple. It itched, and she was pretty sure that side of her face was caked in what was probably dried blood. Judging by the location of the ache in her skull, she was going to assume she’d had an open wound on her head at some point, and the crusted over blood was from that.
Her jaw also ached something fierce from being forced open with a gag for what was probably hours. Her shoulders were sore, too, from the way her arms had been tied behind her back.
None out those maladies were life-threatening, however, and they were fairly minor complaints in the grand scheme of things.
After all, as far as Katherine could tell, she’d been kidnapped.
Panic threatened to rise again as that word – kidnapped – resonated in her head. Katherine immediately worked to snuff it. Focus on something else, she ordered herself. Like the room she’d woken up in.
Where was she?
Forcing herself to take in her surroundings, Katherine eyed what looked like a small motel room. There were four walls covered in muted green paint, two doors – one of which Katherine assumed was the bathroom and the other the exit – and a moderately stained carpet. It wasn’t all that dissimilar to the motel room she’d been forced to stay at with Bastian and his pack when they had saved her from the men at that gas station – Gary’s Rest Stop – over a year ago.
The reminder caused a pang of longing to shoot through her.
But Bastian wasn’t there, and neither was her pack. In fact, it looked like the room Katherine had awakened in was empty. Vacant.
She was sitting on the floor, her back propped up against the portion of wall between two queen sized beds. The covers of said beds smelled like smoke and something... mustier to her sensitive nose. She curled her knees up to her chest as a queasy feeling took hold of her stomach. Focus, she scolded herself. After all, there was still another important question to address.
How in the heck did she get here?
Katherine closed her eyes, keeping them clenched tightly shut as she tried to remember. The image of a snarling Rip and then an exasperated Zane flashed through her mind. And last, the picture of a tiny house in the middle of the woods.
That’s right, she’d been going to visit Melanie... but then what?
Judging by the way it felt like her brain kept throwing itself against her skull, someone had hit her in the head. And then kidnapped her?
But... why?
Before Katherine could delve into any theories, the muted sound of running water suddenly halted. Katherine tensed. Her eyes zeroed in on the door she assumed led to the bathroom. She’d been so distressed over the predicament she found herself in that she hadn’t even noticed the din of running water splattering against tile until it had abruptly ended.
Someone was in the shower – or had been in the shower, at least. And now, they were seconds away from coming out of the bathroom.
Katherine was about to find out who’d taken her.
Watching the door knob twist, she held her breath, keeping carbon dioxide trapped in her lungs until they burned. Then a man stepped out from behind the door, and Katherine had no choice but to release it in a forceful gust.
He was tall, and strong, judging by the muscles that protruded from his bare arms and chest. Katherine briefly took note of the black cargo pants he was wearing before focusing her attention on his face. It was largely unexceptional, his most distinguishable feature a pair of bushy eyebrows situated above two gray-colored eyes. His hair was neither brown nor blonde, but some shade in between. If pressed, Katherine would say it reminded her of dirty dish water.
The most remarkable thing about the man’s appearance, by far, were the scars that littered his chest. What looked like claw marks had been carved into his pale skin and went in at least a half dozen different directions.
Then, of course, there was the fact that Katherine had never seen the man before in her life. The realization that she didn’t recognize him sent a tingle of fear down her spine. It settled in her stomach, making Katherine feel decidedly nauseous.
He waltzed into the room without a care in the world, using one of the motel’s towels to dry his still sopping hair. After throwing the towel to the floor, he glanced in her direction. When his eyes met hers, he froze. Katherine imagined she would have frozen, too, if she wasn’t already largely immobile. As it was, her heart stuttered to a stop in her chest before suddenly starting up again in a gallop. She could practically feel it hammering against her poor ribs as an odd sort of smile slowly spread across the man’s face.
“Well, well, well, look who’s finally awake,” he taunted before walking over to her. He cocked his head to the side, peering down at her huddled form. “I bet you’re probably wondering who I am.”
Amongst other things.
He crouched down to her eye-level, and Katherine’s stomach did a little flip when she caught the silver glint of a knife near his waistband. “Gerard’s going to award me big time for nabbing you.” He reached forward, boldly rubbing a thick piece of her hair between his thumb and forefinger.
“So soft,” he marveled.
Katherine jerked away from his touch, instincti
vely lashing out at the man with her foot. Instead of connecting with his shin as she’d intended, however, her limb was caught by the man’s free hand. He wrapped his fingers around her ankle and jerked her forward by it so that she fell backward, landing awkwardly on her bound arms. Katherine shrieked around the gag in her mouth, but the man only laughed at the pained squeal. “You’re even feistier than Melanie said.”
She was feistier than... who had said? Surely he didn’t mean-?
Katherine hadn’t fully wrapped her mind around the implications of the man’s words when the other door to the room opened, and the girl in question – Melanie – walked in. Her arms were laden with plastic bags of supplies that Katherine assumed she’d purchased from a nearby grocery or convenience store.
Katherine didn’t understand. Any non-nefarious reason for Melanie to be there didn’t compute.
Despite how things looked, however, Katherine couldn’t stop hope from blossoming in her chest at the sight of the other girl. Surely, Melanie would help her. She’d explain, at the very least. Somehow, someway, this all had to be some sort of bizarre misunderstanding.
The black-haired girl spotted them as soon as she entered the room. She frowned at the scene before her, and after taking a second to set down her bags on one of the beds, she marched over.
“What are you doing?” she demanded of the man still looming over Katherine.
“I was just introducing myself to sleeping beauty here.”
Melanie rolled her eyes. “You were supposed to come get me if she woke up,” she scolded before pushing past him. She knelt down next to Katherine, carefully helping her back into a sitting position. “How are you feeling?” she asked when Katherine was once again propped against the wall.
The question was ridiculous, really. How did Melanie think she was feeling? She’d been hit in the head, tied up, and taken against her will with absolutely no idea as to why. Clearly, Melanie was involved in the plot somehow – she was there, after all – yet the girl only exacerbated Katherine’s confusion by showing what seemed like genuine concern for her well-being.
Katherine jutted out her chin, trying to communicate with her eyes by glancing down at the tape covering her mouth before returning her gaze to Melanie.
Melanie pursed her lips at what was obviously a request for her to remove the tape. She seemed to inwardly debate something for a minute before ultimately sighing. “Fine,” she said shortly, reaching a hand forward and grabbing hold of the frayed edge of tape on the left side of her mouth, “but if I take this off and you scream, things aren’t going to end well for you.”
She glanced meaningfully at the man behind her. “Show her.”
Katherine knew what Melanie must have been referring to before the man even pulled the knife out. The weapon was long and serrated, with a blade much longer than the handle. It looked like a hunting knife of sorts, probably used to butcher large animals, and Katherine couldn’t help but feel a spark of terror at the sight of it.
If the man saw the fear in her widening eyes, he only smirked.
Melanie redirected her gaze onto Katherine, raising her eyebrows and clearly enquiring if she understood the threat.
Katherine took a deep breath through her nose before nodding.
Less than a second later, the tape covering her mouth was ripped away with a singular, brutal yank. Katherine winced at the sting the action caused. She knew that her skin would be red where the adhesive on the tape had stuck to it, but she hardly cared. She was just relieved to finally be able to spit out the cloth gag that felt like it was choking her. She stretched out her jaw before attempting to swallow. The dryness of her mouth made it nearly impossible. “What’s going on?” she asked, her voice scratchy from the gag.
“How’s your head?” Melanie asked instead of answering the question. It was an odd thing to inquire considering she had just threatened Katherine with a knife.
“It’s fine,” the small brunette forced herself to reply. The statement wasn’t true, exactly, but the throbbing of her skull was the least of Katherine’s worries.
She just barely managed to bite back her protests when Melanie began to run probing fingers through her hair. They passed over a lump on the back of her head, and Katherine couldn’t suppress a flinch. Melanie turned to glare at the man behind her. “I told you that you shouldn’t have hit her so hard.”
He shrugged, not looking the least bit apologetic.
Melanie huffed. “Wait here,” she instructed Katherine – like she could go anywhere – before stretching over the bed she’d earlier thrown her bags on and grabbing a water bottle out of one of them. After twisting off the cap, she once again knelt next to Katherine and pressed the opening of the bottle to her pink lips. “Drink,” she instructed.
Knowing she wouldn’t be any good to anyone, let alone the baby in her belly, if she was dehydrated, Katherine obeyed. In fact, she guzzled down the water until Melanie pulled the bottle away, over half empty.
“What’s going on?” Katherine repeated, her voice firmer now that her throat had been soothed with water.
“I think she’s getting impatient, babe,” the man watching the scene from a few feet away teased.
“Babe?” Who exactly was this guy to Melanie?
It was like the other girl could read her thoughts.
“This is Lukas,” she said, gesturing vaguely at the man, “my mate.”
Surprise had Katherine’s eyebrows shooting upwards. What? But when? And how? Katherine was certain that she’d never seen him – this Lukas person – before in her life.
“What-?”
“And I’m afraid,” Melanie continued before Katherine could ask any of the questions her announcement had caused to spring forth, “that he is the reason you’re here.”
Katherine frowned at that assertion, glancing back and forth between the two of them. They were staring intently at her, seemingly waiting for a reaction of sorts. But she had no idea what they expected her to do. She didn’t even know what Melanie’s words were supposed to mean. “And where is here exactly?” she finally asked, keeping her tone as cordial as possible considering the fact that she was the strange duo’s captive.
Lukas stepped forward, throwing an arm over Melanie’s shoulders. “We’re on our way to what your lot likes to refer to as the western colony to present you to my alpha.”
Present her to his alpha?
Katherine’s brow wrinkled in consternation. “Why? What could he possibly want with me?”
“Well,” Lukas said, “it’s not that he wants you so much as he wants your uterus.”
Katherine stared. Dread pooled in her stomach at the implication behind his words. “Wh-what do you mean?” she finally managed to spit out, stumbling over her suddenly clumsy tongue as she fought to contain her shock.
Surely he couldn’t mean what she thought he meant... could he?
Katherine couldn’t tell if she felt so disoriented because what Lukas had suggested was so absurd, or she’d truly been hit that hard in the head.
Lukas just laughed at her distress. “I think you know what I mean,” he said, confirming her fears. “You see, our pack has been suffering from the same fertility issues as your little tribe. It’s presented a bit of a problem because Gerard – he’s our alpha – desires an heir. He’s tried out most of the women in our camp, but,” Lukas shrugged, “no luck.”
Katherine felt sick. Tried out? Surely Lukas didn’t mean that this Gerard person had... well, that he’d taken these women to bed in an attempt to impregnate them?
Katherine’s stomach churned.
“Don’t look so horrified,” Lukas teased. “Anyway, when none of them got pregnant, he sent me to scout out your colony and find a suitable woman to bear him an heir. It was pure happenstance that I stumbled across Melanie’s cottage.” He offered the girl a wolfish grin. “And while she didn’t make a good candidate for Gerard – her hips aren’t nearly wide enough for child bearing – she’s been a wonderful h
elp to me.” Katherine thought she might retch when Lukas kissed the delicate curve of Melanie’s shoulder. The girl’s face remained indifferent as he spoke about her like she wasn’t even in the room. “She’s the one who told me about your little town.” Lukas paused, frowning. “What’s its pretentious name, again?” he asked, addressing Melanie.
“Haven Falls,” she supplied blankly.
“Right. She’s the one who told me about Haven Falls’ shrinking population. I was prepared to leave, take the brunt of Gerard’s wrath for returning without a suitable bedmate for him, but then, of course, news of the head alpha’s mate falling pregnant reached us. I asked sweet Melanie to help lure you to her cottage, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
Katherine was surprised at how betrayed she felt at Melanie’s involvement in the scheme. She recalled the girl sticking up for her to those two old biddies in the store a handful of months ago, and she wondered if that had been a part of their ruse even then.
Still, there was something Lukas had said in his spiel that Katherine could work with.
“But you acknowledge that I’m already mated – to the head alpha of Haven Falls, no less. Not only am I used goods,” Katherine felt sick saying the words, “but he-”
“Gerard won’t care,” Lukas interrupted, brushing her “concern” away.
Katherine bristled. “I care.”
“Your opinion doesn’t matter,” he scoffed. “Your belly is proof enough that you can get pregnant; that’s all that matters to Gerard.” He knelt next to her, leering. “Though, you aren’t too sore on the eyes either.”
Katherine looked to Melanie, who remained expressionless. Clearly, she wasn’t going to interfere with the actions of her “mate”; Katherine was on her own.
There wasn’t much she could do about his staring when her hands were tied – literally – behind her back. Still, Katherine wasn’t about to just take it when the man reached forward and brushed the underside of her jaw with the back of his fingers.
She spit in his face.
