by Zoe Winters
Cole strode forward, put his hand on Rayne’s shoulder, and forced him back into his chair as if he were a kitten trying to climb out of a basket. “Sit. Down. My business is with Paul. Don’t make it become about you.”
The wolf moved past Rayne and stopped in front of Paul, “That’s what you said a few weeks ago. I’m going to have to collect something now. You understand that, right? If I just let you walk, it makes me look weak.” He wrapped a hand around Paul’s throat. “Would you like to be an object lesson?”
Jane should have been jumping up and down to see the vampire who’d been lording it over her, stink with fear of his own. If she could sense it from him, she knew the vamps could as well. But all she could think about was how badly he would take it out on her later. She was only human, but he’d find ways to make sure she survived whatever it was he was likely planning for her now.
“If you kill me, you’ll start a war. You know who my sire is.”
Cole rolled his eyes. “Yes, I also know your sire has cut off the money tree to his beloved fledge. Trouble in paradise?”
“It’s that fucking human he’s with,” Paul snarled.
Cole loosened his grip. “Be that as it may, you owe me ten grand, and my patience is up. Think fast. How are you going to make payments?”
Paul’s eyes drifted to Jane, and the world stopped. He wasn’t going to pass her around to all the vamps to raise money. That would be too much work for Paul. He was going to try to give her outright to the wolf.
She wanted to beg him not to do this to her. The wolves had an even worse rep than the vampires. Judging from Paul’s earlier reaction, it would only drive him on, so she remained silent as she watched the transaction.
“How about a trade, call it even?”
Cole looked as if he might be considering it. “A trade? What do you have of any value to me?”
Paul gestured to Jane with a wide sweeping motion that made him look like a game show host. She can be yours if the price is right. “Jane. She’s a little banged up, but she fucks like a dream.”
Cole turned toward her and she looked away, unable to take his calculated glare. “Well, if you’re just ‘giving’ her away, she must not be worth much to you. Looks to me like you’re trying to get off easy.”
“I could keep her and make the money if you want to wait a few weeks. I’ve got vamps here who want a piece of her. Right, boys?”
The other vampires all nodded their agreement, a couple rustling through pockets to produce cash, as if to prove how serious they were about their purchase.
Cole’s eyes narrowed. “Is that right? If that’s the case, how do I know you won’t just gamble away the profits instead of paying me?”
Jane shrank back as the wolf moved toward her. She expected him to jerk her up by the arm or yell at her or say something horrible, but he scooped her up carefully and headed for the door.
“If I can’t get money, at least I can close off your earning potential. Have a nice unlife, Paul. And if I see you again, I might kill you whether or not it means a war.” Then he nodded to the other vamps in the room. “Gentlemen.”
Chapter Two
Ten fucking grand. What are you doing, man? Cole sat in his cherry red Mustang, his head on the steering wheel. He’d gone in with every intention of collecting his money or at least beating some sense into that insufferable little fledge of Anthony’s. Paul was right. Cole couldn’t kill him without starting a war, but not because he was the favored fledge of the vampire king. Interspecies killing among the preternaturals was a no-no.
And now he had this tiny human who thought God only knew what about what he was going to do with her. Good question, actually. What the hell was he going to do with her? And why had he taken her as payment? It wasn’t like he’d starve, but it wasn’t pocket change either.
The smell of her blood mixed with fear would have sent any other wolf into a frenzy, but he, of course, was the alpha and above such weakness. His claws lengthened as fur started to crop up on his hands. Shit. Go to the happy place, Cole. It wouldn’t be ideal to eat the payment. That’s one damn expensive meal.
He heard the click of the lock’s release as the woman ––Jane was her name?––reached for the door.
“Now wouldn’t be the best time to do that,” he growled around elongated fangs. “It’s the blood and the fear.”
His voice softened. “Nothing to do about the blood just this second, but try to tone the panic down a notch.”
He watched her squeeze her eyes shut and intentionally slow her breathing. Smart girl. She knew she couldn’t outrun him and was intelligent enough to know not to lead a wolf into a chase. While she was engaged in deep meditative breathing, Cole matched the pace of her breath to calm himself and get the beast to go back and take a nap.
The claws receded, and the fur went back into its hiding spot. He lifted his hands to see the claw marks in the steering wheel. “Dammit. This is new leather interior.” Jane jumped in the corner of his peripheral vision. His voice was calm when he spoke again. “If I wanted you dead, little lamb, you’d be dead.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m Cole, and I’ll be your captor for the evening.” He watched her eyes grow large and her body tense further. He shook his head and sighed. “It’ll be funny later, I promise.”
The girl looked doubtful.
He didn’t blame her, but she unnerved him as much as he unnerved her. For one thing, there was the eerie silence. Maybe it was his experience with the pack, but he’d never seen a woman so quiet. Sure, he’d seen women afraid before. Being the alpha, he’d seen a lot, but he’d never seen one like this.
She looked out the window, away from him again. She’d buckled her seat belt and had curled her body into a tight ball like a porcupine. She was still breathing slowly, in and out, the effort to remain calm obviously taking all her concentration. This was some pickle she’d gotten herself into.
As he pulled onto the highway he said, “What did you expect being a vampire groupie? Vampires are not a friend to humans.”
“And werewolves are?” She kept the tears out of her voice. But he smelled the salt.
He’d wanted to piss her off, find some fire in there somewhere. Instead, he’d made her cry.
“I’m sorry. But you have to see my point. Hanging out with vamps. Dressed like a goth. Really, what did you expect would happen?”
Cole zipped through traffic like a lunatic, but Jane seemed too upset to notice. If it were possible, she was crying more now.
“You don’t know anything about me.” She flinched after she said it as if just remembering who or what she was talking to.
Fabulous. I’ve got a mental case on my hands. He growled.
Her fear escalated, and he flipped through his mind to find out why. Had he just growled? What the hell was he going to do with a human in the hive?
The hive was the term the wolves had affectionately given the network of interconnecting caves the pack lived in. The network of interconnecting caves that was absolutely off-limits to humans. Of course, he’d instituted that rule. Still.
The pack had been on him about finding a mate for the past five years when they decided as a group that, at thirty-three, his bachelorhood wasn’t cute anymore. Rhonda, the pack omega, had done her best to snag him herself. But they’d grown up together.
He swerved between then past two cars that were going a ridiculous 70 mph on the freeway and glanced at Jane. She had pink hair for god’s sake. The pack was going to love this.
Cole reached across her for the glove box. She jumped, and he put his hand back on the wheel. “Okay, I need you to do something for me. There is a thick, dark piece of cloth in there. I need you to cover your eyes with it.”
Her hand shook as she reached for the compartment.
“I can’t have you seeing where I’m taking you.”
Her heart rate skyrocketed. That sounded worse than he’d meant for it to sound.
The blood on her
cheek had started to clot, making it possible for him to hold onto control. He was glad it wasn’t the full moon. “What do I have to do to convince you I have no intention of harming you?”
She was holding the cloth in her hands as if it were soaked in a deadly poison. “Let me go.” Then she added quietly, “Please.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You’re worth ten thousand dollars to me right now. Letting you go isn’t an option.”
“What are you going to do with me?”
“I don’t know.” He eased the car to the shoulder and turned toward her. “I can’t go any further until you do as I asked.”
She stared at the offending object in her lap, running her fingers over the thick black wool, her hand still shaking.
“Listen, the safety of the pack is my responsibility. Vamps and werewolves aren’t exactly best friends. Bringing you with me is like bringing an enemy into the camp. I can’t put any of them at risk.”
She took a few shuddering breaths and looked out the window down the road, no doubt trying to measure her potential for success if she ran. Finally, she turned back to him with a pleading look in her eyes that caused his chest to tighten and made him want to reach out and comfort her.
The moment passed, and she put the blindfold on without further argument. She was silent the rest of the way.
***
Jane felt like he’d doubled back, maybe more than once. She couldn’t be sure what direction they were heading in anymore. And what kind of idiot did he think she was?
Not going to harm her? In his book, not beating her probably equaled not harming her. Maybe if she was lucky, he wouldn’t pass her around. She thought back to when she’d seen his photograph for the first time.
She’d thought he was almost unbearably hot with jet black hair that fell in a disheveled sexy mop over his eyes and a white T-shirt that molded tightly to the muscles of his upper body. That was before Anthony had labeled him Prime Enemy Number One and given her a crash course on werewolves.
It wasn’t that she’d never heard about werewolves or their reputation before, but Anthony had gone into grisly detail. Now Prime Enemy Number One seemed set on keeping her as payment. How was he going to get ten thousand dollars out of her? With the same plan Paul had? Or would he just use her himself? Would he let her go when he felt he’d gotten his money’s worth? Or would he kill her or pass her on to someone else like a used book?
In another set of circumstances, if he wasn’t a werewolf, if he wasn’t the leader of the werewolves and hadn’t taken her as payment for a gambling debt, she could see herself falling into those warm brown eyes.
She felt the fleeting temptation to reach out and touch him. He’d be warm. She’d never slept with anyone warm before. It had all been vampires and death for her. She could barely remember making out with her first serious boyfriend when they were sixteen.
She’d been so close to giving it up at a college party they’d snuck into. Until the vampire showed up. He’d killed the guy and taken her. In the small moments when she wasn’t trying to find a vampire to turn her so she’d be safe, she dreamed about what it would be like to sleep with someone warm, what it would have been like to have that one experience without the monster showing up and ripping her life away from her.
Cole had turned quiet since she’d put on the blindfold. She was glad. It gave her some peace to think. She just had to get to a phone. Anthony wouldn’t let a wolf keep her, not Prime Enemy Number One. They’d find her.
But did she want to be found? Maybe Anthony didn’t see a problem with how Paul was treating her. Maybe he just didn’t care. Which would be the lesser evil? Cole or Paul?
There was a sound like a steel door whooshing open, and she tensed. They were getting closer to wherever he was taking her. In a tunnel maybe? Five minutes passed, and the Mustang stopped.
Another few minutes and she heard the car door open, causing her to nearly jump out of her skin. Then his hand was on her arm, gently guiding her out of the vehicle and toward God only knew where.
He must have sensed her growing anxiety now that they’d arrived at their destination because he said, “I’m not going to hurt you, Jane. I promise you’ll be safe.”
She heard a sound like a code being pressed into a computer, a decidedly unsafe sound. Moments later she felt herself being ushered into a temperature-controlled room.
“You can take off the blindfold now.”
She reached behind her head to remove the fabric. It was insane, but there had been a sense of safety behind that cloth barrier. As long as he didn’t touch her or talk to her she could pretend she was somewhere else, doing something else. When the blindfold came off, she was jolted back to her new reality.
It looked like a cave. They were in a large circular room with stone walls and a dome ceiling. Vents near the ceiling piped in air. She felt as if the air had heated and was pressing in on her, trying to suffocate her.
“We’re underground, aren’t we?”
Cole nodded. He was standing about eight feet away, his arms crossed over his chest, observing her like a bug under a glass.
She sat on the black leather couch behind her––more like collapsed––and put her head in her hands. “Please let me go. I’ll find a way to get you your money. I can’t stay here.” She looked up at him, her eyes pleading.
“I said no. You’re staying with me.”
“But it’s underground. I can’t . . . ” She started to hyperventilate.
He was beside her in less than a second, but she couldn’t think about that now. The walls were closing in.
“Claustrophobic?”
He didn’t say it with a mocking tone or an evil sneer, just a question.
“Yes. Please, you can’t keep me here.”
He knelt on the floor beside her and took her hands in his. Not threatening, not sexual. Comforting.
He’d taken her hostage, and now he was comforting her?
“Look at me.”
She did.
“Now, take a deep breath in very slowly. Good. Now, out.”
She breathed with him. It was so ridiculous. She was with a werewolf and the thing that put her over the edge into complete hysteria was being underground.
“This place is big. There is plenty of air. The system we use is state of the art and has security you wouldn’t believe. Even if the vent stopped––and you’d know it instantly––you’d have a day’s worth of oxygen. Maybe more. But a day’s worth at minimum.”
Jane looked at him warily. He was being so nice. It had been ages since anyone but Charlee had been this kind to her. She wanted to believe it. But if he were really a good guy, he’d let her go. Besides, this wasn’t the first time someone had been nice to her just to screw with her later.
But weren’t head games a vampire thing? Werewolves didn’t do that, did they? From all she’d heard, wolves weren’t big on subtle. They were supposed to be more about the mauling and tearing limbs off.
“Are you okay now?”
She nodded.
“I’m going to take a shower. Feel free to look around the den.”
He got up from his crouched position on the floor and disappeared into one of the doors in the stone wall, leaving Jane with her thoughts.
Chapter Three
The hiss of the shower was strangely soothing but even more comforting was having a moment alone. Paul had never left her alone, going so far as to put a guardian watch dog on her while he slept. God, Jane. Think.
The knowledge about the vents had calmed her enough to stop the hysteria. Though even without that knowledge, she would have gone into survival mode and forgotten the claustrophobia panic. Maybe.
There are bigger things to worry about than walls closing in. She shouldn’t have thought that. She dropped to the ground on her hands and knees as memories of enclosed spaces slammed into her so hard she could barely breathe. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block the images of the pas
t, and forced herself back to her feet. She fought back a wave of dizzy nausea and gripped the arm of the sofa for support.
The walls were a dark gray stone, probably natural to the area. The furnishings were minimalistic and modern.
Her eyes scanned the tops of the walls. Nearly a dozen large flat screens encircled the cave. He hadn’t been kidding about the security. When anyone got near, there was probably a loud ‘Security breach in Sector Five’ warning with buzzers and flashing red lights.
There were six doorways around the circumference of the cave’s main living area. Two of the doors had security panels and were made of steel. One she’d been led through. She didn’t know where the second went.
The other doorways were empty spaces carved out of the stone. No privacy. Not that she’d expected any. One of the doors led into the bathroom where the shower continued to run. She peeked inside the others to find a bedroom, kitchen, and an office.
She spotted a phone on the desk in the office and rushed to it, her heart racing. Instead of a dial tone she heard, “Please enter your security code to make an outgoing call.”
She fiddled in her coat pocket and came out with Paul’s cell phone. Only two bars left. By tomorrow night it would likely be dead. This might be her only opportunity. She hadn’t expected to get a signal. The wolf must have a tower. Of course he did. He lived in the Fortress of Paranoia.
Could the coven trace the call?
She took a deep breath and dialed.
“Jane?”
“Yeah, it’s me. You have caller ID; who else would I be?”
There were tears in Charlee’s voice. “Oh my god, you’re alive. Paul said you’d been killed. When we tried to get more information out of him, he said it was a werewolf. Where are you?”
Jane’s stomach roiled at Paul’s lie, but she chose not to address it. Getting to safety was the priority. Her eyes roved over the walls of the office, looking for anything that might give her a clue to her location to help them start a search.
