by Milly Taiden
Wow, she was impressed with him for recognizing that so quickly. Brawn and brains. She’d keep him. “You are correct, my dearest.” She pointed to a circle on the far right with a lot of lines. “This is the last one with these three lines being new to the circle.” She traced those lines for him. He nodded, brows down in concentration.
She thought the last three circles’ lines were like the path they’d taken since the food room: straight, left turn, straight, right turn, this dead-end wall. “Hold the phone,” she said. She knelt and drew a circle in dirt. She closed her eyes and visualized the path they’d taken since leaving the dungeon. Her finger mapped the lines in her mind into the sand, taking out the dead ends and blocked exits.
When finished, she stood back. Her diagram and the one on the wall matched, more or less. She never claimed to be an artist.
Bryon pointed to the last circle. “According to your drawing, this right turn is the correct choice.” He grinned. “Damn, woman. You are creepy smart.”
“Are you calling me creepy?” she asked, brows up to her hairline.
He put his arms around her and kissed her hair. “Yes, but you’re my creepy. Creepy is sexy.” His grin turned into a full-on smile with a twinkle in his eye.
She punched his chest. “Yeah, yeah. Come on, I want out of here.”
“All right,” he said, “we have the last line, but now what?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “The only thing I can see is to trace the correct path in the last circle, maybe?” Bryon stretched to the top left.
“This is the one.” Since she couldn’t begin to touch the diagram even standing on her toes, he gallantly took on that responsibility. He looked at the drawing on the floor. “Start here?” She nodded and guided him the rest of the way. When they came to the last line, he looked at her. She shrugged.
“Go for it,” she said.
CHAPTER 25
His little mate was a freakin’ genius. He loved her so much already. If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself. If voices weren’t on the other side of this wall, he might’ve taken a second to rethink this.
He moved his finger to the right and at the end of the line, his finger slipped into a hole he hadn’t noticed. Above their heads, rocks shifted. He lifted the torch higher and saw the trap in the ceiling.
One end of a piece of rope stretching back several feet was wrapped around an oblong boulder. If the boulder were loosed, it would swing down like a pendulum and smash anyone standing in its path. That would currently be Kari. And the pendulum was in motion.
He dropped the torch and grabbed his mate around the waist and plastered them both to the sidewall. The breeze of the falling rock ruffled his hair. Kari’s eyes were as big as the boulder as it swung down.
The rock hit the diagrammed wall, ricocheted back a few feet and knocked against the stone again. He held the woman of his dreams to the side until the plumb came to a complete stop. After peeling themselves from the wall, he saw the purpose of the battering. A narrow hole was punched through the wall and the voices flowed louder, but were still at a distance. It sounded like a large crowd. What the hell?
“Let me go through first,” he said. “I’ll see what’s going on and come back. I want to make sure it’s safe. Okay?” He kissed her head then wiggled through the hole.
“Okay,” he heard her say as his feet slipped to this side of the wall. He wasn’t giving her a chance to say no or argue. With the trap sprung and nobody behind them, she was safe there. He wasn’t so sure about the people ahead of them.
The trail was well worn and no longer a tunnel, but a path along the top of a cliff that overlooked a massive stone chasm. He squatted behind large rocks and peeked around the side at the goings-on below. There had to be hundreds of people milling about. With further scrutiny, he realized the people were gathered around platforms with females standing together.
Narrowing his supersonic hearing to the closest group, he tried to find out what was happening. One man spoke German, calling out numbers. Others in the crowd, all men, raised a finger occasionally.
Then one of the men reached up toward a girl onstage. He grabbed a . . . leash around the girl’s throat? Oh my fucking god. This was the trafficking event he had been searching for when he was captured by the prince’s forces. That bastard son of a bitch. He wanted to rip off the prince’s testicles. He had to force his wolf back. They wanted to run down and save all the helpless ones. But that would be suicide.
He pulled back from the cliff’s edge and slinked his way back to his mate. He wasn’t sure how they were going to get past all that. Maybe they could wait it out.
* * *
• • •
Kari paced side to side in front of the hole in the wall. Was the man ever coming back? What if he got hurt by another trap? Something he didn’t see? Her stomach churned. He could be dying and she wasn’t doing a thing about it.
She stopped and looked through the hole. It was at the height of her chest so she didn’t have to bend too much. Listening intently, she did hear the voices Bryon was talking about. She put her arms through the wall, followed by her head, then rose onto her toes. From there, she couldn’t get any further. Wait.
If she put her foot against the hanging rock that smashed into the wall, she could maybe push the rest of the way through. She was still too short to get her chest in. She needed to jump, but with her arms on the other side of the wall, that would be impossible.
Kari pulled out and stood, straightening her shirt. Okay. With her hands on the hole’s edge, she could lift herself to get her upper body into the gap. Then she could push off the oblong rock to get the rest of the way.
Hands on the edge, she jumped up and leaned forward. Halfway through, she realized her hands faced the wrong way. Her wrists were folding backward. She didn’t know how, but amid her panicked wiggling and twisting, she had gotten her hands turned. But now they were pinned under her, mashed between her stomach and the rock. When she tried to pull her arm out, skin tore from the back of her hand pressed against the jagged stone edge. Shit.
If she rocked to the side, she could maybe pull out her hand with minimum damage done. Contorting her body to one side, she yanked and gritted when her flesh gave way to rock, but her hand was no longer under her.
With her head on the other side of the wall, she could barely see anything. Not that there was much to look at. The same damn rock she’d seen the past million freaking hours. Light bounced off the ceiling from somewhere ahead. Trying to pull her free arm to the other side, she quickly found the hole wasn’t big enough to bend her arm to get through. She groaned.
On the side of the wall opposite her head, she kicked her legs, pointing her toes, but the floor wasn’t within reach. Shit. She lifted her leg, searching for the rock to push off. Her shoe brushed the pendulum, setting it into a slight motion. Shit.
Her mind spun through the options. If she kept her leg straight, locking it at the knee, the rock would swing back and hit her foot, either pushing her forward or shoving her thigh bone into her ribs. Almost good, but not quite. If her leg remained flexible, bending at the knee just a bit, then that would push her while not breaking her. Her knee quickly bent a bit and the force of the swing pushed her forward.
She bit her tongue holding back the holler from the pain of her hand scratching along the rock under her stomach. She twisted to free the arm before the rock bumped into her foot a second time. If she could get a few more inches, she might be able to get her elbow out far enough to free her arm. The rock’s return pushed her farther, but not enough. Shit.
She wiggled her arm free and let it dangle. Thank god. She pushed against the wall to get her other arm out. She rested a second. Her body was not meant for going through holes in walls.
With a deep breath and heave with her arms, she pushed until she came to a sudden stop. Shit. She hadn’t
stopped to think if the gap was wide enough for her hefty hips. Well, it wasn’t. Shit.
“What the hell are you doing?” She looked to see Bryon coming up the path.
“What does it look like?” she whispered loudly.
He stared at her. “I’m not sure, sweetheart.” She heard the laugh in his voice. She’d kick his ass when she got out of this.
“Shut up and help me.” She lifted her arms. He leaned over to hook his hands under her arms. When he pulled, nothing moved.
“Darling,” he started, “can you suck it in a bit?”
She huffed. “No. You can’t suck in hips. If I could, I would’ve a long time ago.” He released his hold, letting her upper body hang. Then he put his hands around her waist. “What are you doing?” she asked as he pulled. “Ow,” she whined.
“Be quiet. I’m doing what I have to here,” he said. With his hands on the small of her back, he twisted, shook, and yanked her body. After a few aching moments, her legs slid through. Apparently, he wasn’t ready for her to pop loose. He quickly wrapped his arms around her waist, flinging her legs into the air.
“What the hell?” Upside down, her hair hung in her face and shirt slid toward her breasts. She snagged her top from falling farther. “Put me down right this second.” Blood rushed to her head. He flipped her over, putting her on her feet. “That was a damn nightmare,” she said.
“Okay, now we have to go back through it,” he said.
CHAPTER 26
Peeping around the side of a boulder, Kari gazed over the crowd of people on the cave floor below them. There was no way she was going through that damn hole in the wall again. She’d walk naked among the people before she squeezed her oval body through a round space. Of course, her mate was fine with that. She had to punch his arm for being so male.
On the side of the pit below, she watched as women came from behind a curtained-off area. Most were practically dragged by a leash around their necks. An older lady stepped from behind the curtain and opened one of fifty plastic containers stacked just beyond the barrier. Colorful material was packed inside and she pulled out a red fabric. She wrapped it around one of the females’ waist.
“This is how they sell people?” she asked. “There are kids down there.” She stood to march down the path and give them a piece of her mind and escort every one of the females and children out the door.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her to sit. “Where are you going?”
“Someone has to rescue all those people. And you’re just sitting there. We have to do something.” She didn’t want to sound whiney, but this was atrocious. Males selling women because they were stronger and could beat the female into submission. Pure hate and anger bubbled in her chest. Something had to be done.
“We will rescue them now that we know this is going on. But we have to get out first and call for backup. The two of us can’t fight all the bad guys down there.” She hated that he had a point.
“All right,” she said. “How do you propose we get out? And don’t say through the hole in the wall.”
“Of course not. The plan is to walk through like everyone else. I will hold on to your arm and we walk out.”
That seemed reasonable. They would blend in perfectly. Hand in hand, he led her along the steep path descending the side of the chasm. Nobody noticed them.
She whispered out the side of her mouth. “Where’s the exit? I didn’t see it.”
Bryon nodded ahead. “On the other side of the cavern.”
“Of course,” she mumbled. Suddenly, he pulled on her arm and walked a different direction. “I assume you know what you’re doing.”
“Prince Goddard is that way talking to several men. He doesn’t look happy.”
She looked over her shoulder, but couldn’t see over the crowd. “What is he saying? Can you tell?” she asked.
“He’s giving them a description of us. He must know about the tunnel leading here.” He scooted them to the side of the plastic containers she saw the older woman at a while ago. Using his shifter speed, he restacked the boxes by taking containers in the back and placing them up front to build a wall to hide them. Another great idea. Her man was good at this spy stuff.
“Grab a couple more containers and let’s see what’s in them,” she said. They popped the lid on a few and saw female clothing, scarves, wraps, robes, shoes, and loose pieces of makeup. She now understood the purpose of the curtained zone. It was a staging area where the older women dressed up those being sold.
She felt like puking then burning down everything in this insidious place. “I have a plan to get us out of here,” she said, pulling stuff out of containers. Bryon stood by quietly. He must’ve known her thoughts or expected the worst. Which would be correct.
“Here,” she handed him two fist-size rocks, “hold these to your chest.” She wrapped a long length of material around him several times, firmly holding the stones against his skin.
“What are these for?” he asked.
“Insta-boobs.” She handed him a white muslin robe. “Put this on.” She continued to drape scarves and material over his head. She worried he was too tall, but not much she could do about that. “Damn, your feet are hairy, boy. No way they’ll pass for women’s feet.”
There weren’t shoes big enough for his clompers so she tied scarves around his knees to hang down and hide the grizzly things.
“Almost done,” she said. She pulled up the black tulle material covering his face. “Open your mouth wide.”
He frowned. “Why?”
She sighed. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes, sorta. Depends what you do with that lipstick in your hand.” Damn, he saw her pick it up.
“You have to look like a female. This lipstick will do that. Now open your mouth.” He did as she requested. “Now do this.” She pressed her lips together, showing him how to set the makeup.
“Ew. This stuff feels disgusting.” He lifted a hand to wipe at the color, and she smacked it down.
“Don’t smear it. You can take it off as soon as we get out of here.” She tossed the lipstick into a bin and pulled out a robe and scarves for herself. In another container, they found fake gold jewelry and leashes. She draped herself in gold, making her look quite wealthy. She pulled Sheldon’s bracelet from her pants pocket and slid it on with everything else.
Bryon grabbed her arm and held it up, exposing her last fancy addition. “Have you had this the entire time?”
“Not on, but in my pocket.” She didn’t want to tell him about her earlier erroneous thoughts about Sheldon liking her and giving her such an expensive gift.
“Good,” he said. “Keep it on.”
She shrugged. “Not a problem.” She wrapped her hair in a dark turban then draped her face with black tulle. “How do I look?” She twirled for him.
“Like a fancy brothel owner.” His grimace said he didn’t like the look. Good. She didn’t want to look pretty. He picked up a leash and tied it around his neck. “You know, this will look silly with you holding me on a leash. I’m a foot taller than you. How about I just shift and go out that way.”
Kari rolled her eyes. “Yeah, like a huge-ass wolf walking through the crowd won’t draw attention?”
“I see your point.” He handed her the other side of the leash. “Let’s go, master.” She huffed, then peeked around the wall of containers they had built. Everyone around them was focused on the stage fifty feet away with three scared, nearly naked teens. She told herself to wait for backup like Bryon said. Nothing could be done now that would help.
She headed for the exit, falling in line behind others going the same direction, some with multiple girls in tow. Ripping that man’s balls from his body would make her feel really good at that moment.
Ahead, one of the women lashed out, fighting her captor. From nowhere, guards surrounded them. One shot her wit
h a dart gun and she calmed, then passed out and fell to the floor. Her owner picked up a leg and dragged her behind him.
Suddenly, a man was in Kari’s face, rattling words she didn’t understand. “I’m from America.” She lifted her chin. “What do you want?”
The man’s eyes got big and he looked her up and down. “You lay one goddamn hand on me, mister, and your balls will decorate the rearview mirror in my car.”
“No, you misunderstand. You are short for American. I used to tall men,” he managed to get out in English.
“What do you want. I’m done here and leaving.” She changed her voice to be annoyed and impatient. She should try out for the community play. This acting stuff wasn’t too hard.
“I pay half million dollars for your slave,” he said. Her jaw dropped open. The man didn’t notice because he was making twinkle eyes at her Bryon. His foot hit hers, snapping her thoughts.
“No. She is not for sale. I just purchased her.”
The guy reached up and squeezed Bryon’s rock boobs. “Firm, just like I like them. One million American dollars. I must have her. I’ve never seen anyone more beautiful.”
She turned and looked at her mate. “Mister, you got yourself a deal,” she said.
“Wait here for me to return,” he said, hurrying away.
Bryon bent down to her ear. “What the hell are you doing? You can’t sell me.”
“Suck it up, buttercup,” she whispered back, trying to move her lips as little as possible, “I just made myself one million bucks.” She smiled at him. “Just go with him. If we’re not together, they’ll be less likely to suspect something. I’ll be behind you.” He huffed and straightened.
The man fought his way through the crowd, carrying a briefcase. He held it out to her. She took it and nearly dropped it from being heavier than expected. She handed the leash to him.
