Luminous

by Noelle Marie

  The glob of saliva landed with a wet smack on Lukas’s cheek, and he froze.

  The room was suddenly eerily quiet. He calmly reached up and wiped the spittle from his face, and for a second, Katherine thought he wasn’t going to retaliate.

  She was wrong.

  He pulled the knife he’d earlier threatened her with from its sheath, and in one quick movement, brought it to her throat. He applied enough pressure that Katherine could feel the coolness of the blade pressed against her neck, but not enough that he actually broke the skin.

  Katherine’s heart jumped into her throat at the action, and she swore she could feel it there, pounding against the sharp edge of the blade.

  “Do that again, I dare you,” Lukas threatened, his breath hot on her face.

  It smelled rancid.

  “That’s enough,” Melanie said, finally deeming the situation dire enough to intervene. She pulled at Lukas’s arm until he lowered it, and Katherine watched as he re-sheathed his knife. “It’s late,” she pointed out, “and I’ve got to get her cleaned up if we’re going to get her out of here without any issues tomorrow."

  “Fine,” Lukas said after a moment, though his gray eyes didn’t leave Katherine’s green ones. “Gerard’s going to have fun with you,” he muttered before standing.

  It sounded like a threat.

  Lukas finally broke eye contact when Melanie inserted herself between them. “Come on, let’s get you up,” she said, bending over and taking Katherine by the bicep. She struggled to haul her up. “Help me, Lukas,” she ordered after a minute. The man rolled his eyes like it was an inconvenience, but stepped forward nonetheless.

  Yeah, because she was thrilled about having his grubby hands on her.

  With her arms trapped behind her back and her belly round with child, though, there was no way Katherine could get to a standing position on her own. She fought not to recoil as Lukas’s fingers wrapped around her other arm, just above her elbow, and together, he and Melanie pulled her to her feet.

  Melanie didn’t waste time after that. She grabbed one of the plastic bags still sitting on the bed and led Katherine to the bathroom by her arm before shutting the door behind them.

  They were alone.

  Despite the anger Katherine felt towards the other girl still simmering in her lower belly, Katherine knew she had to use the opportunity to try to talk some sense into her. “Melanie, it’s not too late to let me go. Take me back to Haven Falls. I’ll make sure Bastian pardons you, and together, we’ll protect you against Lukas if you’re afraid he’ll retaliate.”

  Melanie frowned. “I’m going to take the tape off your wrists now,” she said, and for a moment, hope swelled in Katherine’s chest, “but you’re not going to rush me. Not with that baby in your belly, and not with Lukas outside the door wielding a knife.”

  And just like that, that hope shriveled away into nothing.

  Melanie had ignored her suggestion completely.

  Still, she was offering to free her sore arms, so Katherine agreed to her conditions with a jerky nod. Melanie forced Katherine to turn around so that her back was facing her, and without further ado, began pulling the tape off her wrists.

  As soon as she was done, Katherine brought the limbs to her chest, massaging the pink, tender skin where the tape had been. She also began surveying the room for some semblance of a weapon.

  “If you’re looking for a cheap razor or something similar to attack me with, forget it,” Melanie said, causing Katherine to stiffen. Melanie leaned back against the sink, crossing her arms over her chest. “I already told Lukas to remove anything that could be construed as a weapon from the room. He’s cute, but not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.”

  The derogatory words gave Katherine an opening. “How well do you really know him?” she asked, trying to appeal to Melanie’s logic. “How do you know he’s not just going to hand you over to this Gerard person, too, as soon as we reach the western colony? I know you said that he’s your mate, but is it possible he’s only using you?”

  Melanie stared. “What? You think I can’t get a mate on my own?” she demanded, pushing herself away from the sink and standing ramrod straight. “That I’m not good enough? Not deserving enough to have someone care for me? Or is that sort of thing only reserved for picture-perfect, pretty girls like you?”

  Katherine was completely taken aback. “That’s not what I said.”

  “It’s what you meant,” the other girl accused.

  Katherine pressed her lips together. “Is that why you’re doing this? Some demented kind of payback?”

  Melanie scoffed. “I think Lukas made our motives pretty clear.”

  Katherine couldn’t quite hold back the tears threatening to gather in her eyes. “I thought we were friends,” she murmured.

  “Don’t,” Melanie snapped, the sudden ire in her voice taking Katherine by surprise. “Don’t even pretend to care about me or our supposed friendship. Bastian, your mate, practically banished me from Haven Falls. He had me ostracized – shunned! Where were you and your caring during that?”

  “That’s not fair,” Katherine protested quietly.

  “No,” Melanie disagreed, “what isn’t fair is that some people get everything handed to them in life for no discernable reason. I mean, look at you! You’re mated to the frickin’ head alpha, live in a warm house surrounded by pack, and now you have a baby on the way. I mean, why? Because some bitch named Fate deemed it so?”

  Katherine bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from pointing out that the road she’d traveled to get to where she was now with Bastian and the pack had hardly been obstacle – or pain – free.

  “It’s asinine!” Melanie continued. “All I did was try to earn myself a place in a pack – I didn’t mean for you to get hurt – and what do I get for my efforts? Cast out and left to fend for myself.”

  Katherine swallowed. “I’m sorry-” she tried.

  “No,” Melanie cut her off. “Don’t bother with your insincere drivel. Just...strip and get in the tub.”

  Katherine shifted uncomfortably at the order. She certainly didn’t want to undress in front of Melanie, but didn’t see what choice she had as the other girl’s eyes bore into her. She toed off her boots and peeled off her socks before reluctantly tugging her blood-stained shirt – she assumed that like the crusty red stuff sticking to the side of her face, it was from her head wound – off over her head. It was a slow, tedious process as sharp jolts of pain sparked down her shoulders, but Katherine wasn’t about to ask Melanie for help. Then with nervous fingers, she fumbled over the button of her blue jeans before shimmying out of them.

  She was left feeling unbelievably vulnerable as she stood in nothing but her underwear in front of Melanie, arms crossed over her chest in an effort to cover herself, at least a little.

  Luckily, Melanie didn’t demand that she take that off as well. Instead, she merely gestured at the tub. “Get in,” she ordered.

  Katherine reluctantly obeyed, the white porcelain incredibly cold against her bare feet as she stepped in.

  “Sit,” Melanie directed, and Katherine gingerly kneeled as the black-haired girl lowered herself onto the little rug in front of the tub and cranked on the water. It shot out of the tub’s spout, and Melanie allowed the water level to reach Katherine’s navel before turning it off.

  The water was lukewarm – borderline cold – but Katherine wasn’t about to complain. Melanie handed her one of the small, white towels that had been placed throughout the room. “Scrub,” she ordered shortly. “And make sure you get all the gore,” she added, gesturing at her face.

  Katherine quietly did as she was told. There wasn’t all that much blood, really, just enough to stain the towel pink as she cleaned her face and wiped the rest of herself down.

  “I tried to talk him out of it, you know,” Melanie spoke, breaking the tense silence they sat in after a few minutes. “Lukas,” she explained at Katherine’s confused frown. “You we
re on his radar even before you got pregnant. He thought you were pretty,” she added with an eye roll.

  Katherine stared at the other girl incredulously. Did she want a thank you or something? Because that wasn’t about to happen, all things considered.

  “Sure, she’s young and pretty, I said, but small, like me,” Melanie continued, ignorant of Katherine’s inner monologue. “It helped that you were a bitten wolf and already perceived as weak in his eyes. He decided against it – against nabbing you,” she clarified, shaking her head. “But then, of course, you had to go and get knocked up. I could hardly deter him after that so I wrote you that note and hoped for the best.”

  Katherine wondered what she meant by that. What had been the preferred outcome for Melanie: that Kathrine had never shown up at her house? Or precisely what had happened?

  There was something else Katherine was curious about too. “Did Penelope know when she gave me-?”

  Melanie waved away the question before she even had a chance to finish it. “She didn’t know a thing. Like Lukas, she’s not the cleverest person.”

  Katherine bit her lip. Then she took a deep breath, preparing herself to try to talk some sense into the girl – again. “But you are clever, Melanie,” she said. “You know very well how Bastian is going to react when he notices that I’m missing.” He probably already knew she was gone, but Katherine was trying her very hardest not to think about her mate’s mental state right then. “You know what he’s going to do.”

  The “to you” was implied.

  Melanie shook her head. “He can’t do anything,” she dismissed. “How could he? He has no idea where we are, and unless you told someone you were coming to visit me before you disappeared,” she said, shooting Katherine a knowing glance and making it clear that she knew Katherine hadn’t, “I doubt he or anyone else will even notice my absence.”

  Katherine bit her lip. “He won’t stop until he finds me.” Katherine knew it was true, but dreaded the length of time it would take him. “Please, Melanie, for both our sakes-”

  “Save it.”

  “But, Melanie-”

  “I said to save it!” The other girl’s sudden and very potent rage took Katherine completely by surprise. Before she could blink, Melanie had her by the back of her hair, her fingernails grazing her scalp as she yanked Katherine backward and dunked her head in the bath water.

  Water immediately invaded her nose.

  Katherine was only submerged for a handful of seconds, but it was long enough for her to accidentally inhale water. When Melanie pulled her back up, Katherine struggled to breathe, simultaneously trying to cough up the water she’d swallowed and suck in oxygen.

  Melanie ignored her distress completely. “There, you’re clean,” she announced indifferently, the rage she’d been overcome by mere moments before completely wiped from her face. “No one will suspect a thing when we leave tomorrow morning. Now, get up.”

  Katherine eyed Melanie warily as the girl unplugged the drain. Not wanting to set her off again, she shakily got to her feet. Melanie stood, too, and threw a towel her way.

  Taking the hint, Katherine stepped out of the tub and methodically dried herself off.

  Melanie dug into the plastic bag she’d brought into the bathroom with them. “Here,” she said, shoving a pair of cotton underwear still in its package at Katherine. She also handed her a new shirt. It was black and long-sleeved, and judging by the white outline of British Columbia on the front, intended for tourists. There was a little red star labeled Vanderhoof in the center of the outline.

  It was helpful for Katherine in the sense that she now knew, geographically, at least, where she was. At that point in time, however, the knowledge didn’t do her much good.

  “Come on,” Melanie said, opening the bathroom door once Katherine had changed, pulling on the same pair of jeans and footwear she’d been wearing before.

  Lukas, who had settled in on one of the queen-sized beds, glanced their way as they exited the bathroom, but made no comment on Katherine’s wet hair or change of clothes, merely refocusing his attention on the television a moment later. Some sort of animated movie was playing on the screen, and Katherine couldn’t help but take note of the man’s almost child-like fascination.

  She supposed that like the residents of Haven Falls, the people of the western colony didn’t have many opportunities to watch TV. Cable, after all, was an impracticality in a supposedly unoccupied chunk of the woods. The outdated, boxed sets owned by the people of Haven Falls were only ever used to watch movies when they were purchased from Fort Saskatchewan or other nearby cities every once in a blue moon.

  Moon. Ha.

  “Lay down.”

  Melanie’s order jerked Katherine back to the present. “What?”

  “Lay down,” the girl repeated, nodding towards the empty bed.

  Katherine glanced at Lukas, who, thankfully, was still absorbed in the television. “Why?” she demanded.

  Melanie rolled her eyes. “Why do you think? Unless you want to spend your night on the floor in the same position you woke up in earlier, just listen to me.”

  Katherine eyed the room’s exit, wishing it weren’t so far away. There was no way she could successfully make a go of escaping, and knowing that Melanie and Lukas would probably just force her down if she didn’t comply, Katherine reluctantly climbed onto the bed and laid stiffly on the covers.

  Melanie grabbed the roll of silver duct tape that Katherine only just then noticed on the room’s tiny night stand.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded, pushing herself into a sitting position.

  “What does it look like?” Melanie asked, equal parts sarcasm and annoyance laced in her voice.

  Katherine swallowed. “Look, I don’t need to be tied up, ok? I’m not stupid. I would never put my baby at risk by trying to run.”

  “God, shut her up, would you?” Lukas interrupted snappishly, shooting Katherine a glare before turning the volume of the television up.

  Melanie raised an eyebrow, offering Katherine a pointed look, and she reluctantly swallowed her protests. After all, she’d still rather deal with her ex-friend than Lukas, who was still a relatively unknown entity.

  The girl approached her, placing a hand on each of Katherine’s shoulders and forcing her back down into a laying position before pulling her hands up over her head one at a time. She bound first her right wrist to one of the wooden rails of the bed’s headboard, and then her left, using a generous amount of duct tape with each of them.

  Katherine remained quiet throughout the ordeal, but could no longer hold back when Melanie bit off a piece of duct tape that was roughly the size of her mouth from the roll.

  “Please, don’t. I swear I won’t make a peep the entire night. I can hardly breathe with-”

  Melanie slapped the tape over Katherine’s mouth mid-sentence, smoothing it out with her palm afterwards to make sure it was good and stuck.

  Bitch.

  “Try to rest,” Melanie suggested offhandedly, “we have a long day of travel in the morning.”

  Yes, because sleeping with her kidnappers less than ten feet away was a probability.

  Despite Melanie’s complete lack of sympathy for her plight, Katherine’s unease only increased when she disappeared into the bathroom shortly after that, presumably to shower. Anxiety that had nowhere to go buzzed under her skin, threatening to take hold any minute as she kept her eyes firmly glued to the man lying in the other bed, watching for any sudden movements.

  Luckily for Katherine, Lukas remained entranced by the television and left her alone.

  It wasn’t until Melanie emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later, wearing nothing but a towel that she held clinched near her chest, that Lukas finally shut it off. Katherine’s stomach rolled at the lust she could smell wafting off him.

  “There’s my girl, come here,” he said, beckoning Melanie to him.

  Katherine was horrified when she obliged, shamelessly drop
ping her towel to the floor as she approached the bed. She crawled under the covers with him.

  Surely they weren’t going to-? Not with her right there!

  Lukas leaned over the edge of his bed – the edge near Katherine – as he reached for the switch of the wall lamp positioned between the beds. He met Kathrine’s eyes and offered her a wicked wink. A moment later, the room was cast into darkness.

  The sheets rustled next to her before the unmistakable sounds of sex filled the room, soft sighs and unabashed groans coming from the other bed.

  Despite the near pitch black of the room, Katherine kept her eyes clenched tightly shut throughout the ordeal, not daring to open them until twenty agonizing minutes later, when the sex noises finally ceased and the sound of a soft snore emerged.

  Katherine took a deep breath through her nose, trying to calm her frazzled nerves as she stared at the dark ceiling.

  She couldn’t help but think of the last time she’d been kidnapped by a rag-tag group of werewolves – Bastian and his pack. Tears gathered in her eyes and the base of her throat at the thought of them. She’d been trying not to, but it was an impossible task in the dark, quiet room with nothing else to occupy her thoughts.

  They must be so worried, especially Bastian.

  Her stomach churned at the thought of his mental state.

  Katherine felt the baby inside of her move, one of his little feet or elbows connecting with her ribs, and the tears nearly started to fall. After all, she wasn’t the only one whose life was at stake, and as long as she had that life to protect – and she would protect it under any and all circumstances – her hands were tied in more ways than one.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Katherine spent hours picking fruitlessly at the tape that held her wrists to the wooden rails of the headboard. Her finger nails were chipped and cracked, the skin under their beds raw and bleeding before she finally gave up and acknowledged that she was well and truly stuck – completely helpless and at the mercy of the two people sleeping one bed over.

  She glanced at the glowing green numbers of the room’s clock – it was the only way to keep track of the time since the heavy maroon curtains of the room’s lone window were drawn. The clock flashed 12:27.