by A. D. Ryan
David firing his gun, the bullet shooting the animal in the hip…
Nick finding me, days later, limping as though favoring his right leg…
Everything inside me tensed, my temperature dropping drastically as I felt the color drain from my face. With great effort, I pushed myself up and away from him, my head shaking as I tried to deny what my mind was telling me was the truth. “I-it was you,” I croaked.
Chapter 32 | snare
Bile churned in my stomach as I threw myself off the bed. I snatched my clothes up off the floor and pulled them on my body as quickly as possible. I felt completely exposed and vulnerable as an emotional torrent ripped through me.
“Brooke,” Nick said, climbing off the bed and pulling his jeans on quickly before he moved toward me.
Suddenly he was too close, and I took several steps away from him, tears burning my eyes. “Don’t,” I pleaded, trying to wrap my head around this new information. “It wasn’t Jackson that night in Scottsdale, was it? It was you.”
His eyes held nothing but regret, they begged for my forgiveness, but I felt betrayed by him.
Again.
There was no holding back after that.
“You son of a bitch!” I lunged at him like a wild animal and slapped him across the face. He didn’t move as a handprint formed on his face. “You lied to me!” I cried, my tears falling freely down my cheeks now. My entire body shook with rage as it pumped freely through my veins now.
Nick shook his head and reached for me again. I swatted his hands away, but I wanted to do so much worse—I imagined doing worse.
“I never lied,” he tried to justify, his voice trembling.
Sniffling, I wiped my tears away roughly. “Well, you sure as hell weren’t very forthcoming.”
“I tried to tell you, but every time I started, something came up…” He paused. “Our first night here, right before we found the dead wolf… Over the holidays… There was never a good time.” Another pause. My knees threatened to buckle with the truth of the situation.
“Wh-why?” I demanded, unable to rationalize his actions that night. “I was happy.”
Nick reached me, cradling my face in his massive hands and forced my eyes to his. I wanted to pull away, but couldn’t; the force of his stare was magnetic. I knew this would happen if he got too close, it was why I tried to avoid it. “I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. I saw you there, and then I saw Gianna in the distance. I pushed you down but had no intention of biting you.”
I thought back to that night, denial polluting my memories. “You were growling at me!”
Nick shook his head, fighting my claim. “No. I was growling at her. You were the one holding my neck. When your arm slipped, I wasn’t expecting it. And you know how it is when one of them is around… Gianna was so close—taunting me—I wasn’t thinking clearly. I bit down out of instinct.” He quickly pulled me into his arms, his hands splayed across my back, holding me in place.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered over and over again. His lips pressed onto the top of my head before moving down the side of my face. “Please forgive me.” He kissed me on the lips, and I momentarily gave into it before my stomach rolled again.
“Mmmf… No,” I protested, pushing him away and wiping his lingering taste from my mouth. “You can’t just kiss me and hope that this will all just disappear. You bit me, Nick… And, what’s worse, you let me blame someone else for it.” Nick reached for my hand again, but I refused him this time. “I need to get out of here. Clear my head.”
“Brooke, please. Can’t we talk about this?”
I brushed past him and headed for the door. “I need some time to process all of this.” With my hand on the doorknob, I froze and glanced at him through my periphery. He looked defeated. “You should have told me.”
I didn’t give him a chance to say anything else before I pulled the door open and headed downstairs, leaving him alone with the guilt of what he’d done.
I ignored Nick as he called after me. Ignored the sound of his feet as he followed. I couldn’t get the image of him in wolf form on top of me out of my head. I remembered with perfect clarity exactly what it felt like when his teeth sank into my shoulder and scraped the bone. Anxiety clawed at me as I yanked the front door open and ran out into the cold. Several people called my name, but I just kept running. I needed to be alone for a while to process the new revelation.
The sky overhead darkened as the sun set in the distance. Soon the Pack would be outside, shifting and heading off to hunt together. It wasn’t very long ago that I looked forward to it, but now I just wanted to be left alone. Needed it.
How could Nick let Jackson take the blame for that night? It wasn’t fair. I wouldn’t have been such a bitch to him if I’d known the truth.
I wanted to reset the clock by about fifteen minutes. I wanted to forget that I knew any of this. Once again, I experienced one moment of pure bliss, but it was doomed before it even began. Just like all the rest. I was going to start expecting that from the get-go.
I was so deep in thought, I hadn’t realized I was running. Snow kicked up behind me as I raced toward the forest. I needed to put as much distance between the manor and me until I could figure out what I was going to say to Nick.
He told me that he never meant to bite me, but that’s not how it seemed. I forced myself back to that night, reliving the attack…
The wolf who attacked me must have weighed about two hundred pounds, and I remembered the weight of him forcing all of the air from my lungs. When I struggled to free myself, the wolf gave a warning growl, pressing its paws down on my chest. It continued to growl, its eyes focused on something beyond us…
Holy shit, I thought to myself. I remembered thinking he must have been looking for someone who might come to my rescue—possibly David—but what if Nick was telling the truth? What if it was Gianna he was looking at?
The anger, hurt, and confusion inside me continued to simmer until my muscles tightened. The change was starting, and I was in no mood to fight it. Instead, I found a quiet place and removed my clothes before speeding up the process. Changing came quite a bit easier for me now, but suddenly being in this body upset me, too. It only reminded me of what Nick had done.
It was a lose-lose situation.
I snarled and snorted at nothing in particular as I tramped through the snow angrily. Out of nowhere, I caught the scent of something. My mouth watered as the smell occupied my thoughts, distracting me, and when the bush to my left rustled, I took off. As I gained on the smaller mammal, I recognized the scent as that of a rabbit, and I sped up my pursuit.
Its footprints were sloppy and hurried as it ran from danger. My adrenaline spiked, and I pushed myself further and faster, the rabbit’s fear calling to me and making me salivate even more. It scurried beneath a low bush, its bare branches barely off the ground. Instead of following it and getting my coat stuck on the naked branches, I vaulted over them and landed with ease on the other side, my jaws closing around the white rabbit’s neck.
The rabbit used its hind legs to defend itself, but I had no plans of releasing it. I worked for this meal, and I was damn-well going to enjoy it. I prepared to bite harder in order to end its struggle, but before I could, a shrill scream rang out in the dark forest.
Surprised, I let go of Bugs and lifted my head as it scampered away. My ears flicked back and forth, trying to find the location the scream had come from, and my eyes scanned the darkness for movement. I saw nothing—heard nothing—and I was just about to go off in search of something else to hunt when I heard another scream.
This time, I recognized the direction it came from—West—and I took off running. Someone was in trouble. I could practically taste her fear as I picked up speed, and I worried that I might not make it to her in time. I inhaled deeply as I ran, trying to catch this woman’s scent. The second I had it, I faltered. There was something off about it. Off, yet …familiar?
Movement to my right ca
ught my attention, and I quickly veered in that direction. Thin, bare branches whipped at my face and tugged at my coat as I tried to weave around them. Another scream and a cry for help pushed me to move faster.
The closer I got, the more intensely the familiar smell invaded my head. It was… Wait, was that wolf? It wasn’t anyone from back at the manor, though there were definitely familiar notes to it that I couldn’t quite place. A hint of copper infused this scent—blood—and panic needled at me when another familiar odor joined it. Death. Vampires were in the mix. We were wrong to think the coven was dealt with, and it pissed me off to think we’d been duped.
As I raced onward, I let out a loud howl, hoping the others would hear and come to my aide. I’d beat them there, but I was confident in my ability to hold off the parasites until the Pack showed up.
Up ahead, I made out the shape of a body on the ground. It was female, her long, dark hair spilled over her face and shoulders. There were twigs and dirt in it, and it looked tangled. There must have been a struggle. I listened as I made my way for her, and I picked up the gentle breaths she took. She was alive, but barely from the sound of it.
I was close—maybe five yards from where she lay. My instincts told me it was a trap, but the wolf was in control. Something about this girl drove the wolf more than my human common sense—she was somehow important—so I focused my attention on staying alert and safe instead of trying to stop.
I surveyed the area again, ready for an ambush, but nothing happened. I couldn’t understand why. I smelled the vile creature, yet it was nowhere to be seen. This was clearly a trap, so where—
A loud metal SNAP echoed through the trees. The sound reverberated in my ears and was followed by a painful yelp and howl that I didn’t realize was coming from me until I fell to the ground and pain shot up my left hind leg. I tried to scramble to my feet, but the pain kept me from moving…no, not just the pain; something was literally tethering me to the ground.
I glanced back and was horrified to find the lower half of my leg caught in what looked like one of those archaic bear traps. The bone was snapped right in half, blood quickly coloring the snow that had hidden the trap from my sight, and I whimpered as I tried to pull my leg free.
As my skin tore, I had to stop myself, remembering something I’d seen on a documentary when I was younger about how, when caught in one of these traps, an animal would pull and tug and often amputate the limb only to bleed out while they tried to escape.
I attempted to stop so this wouldn’t be my fate, but the wolf continued to struggle. It was an instinct I couldn’t control—fight or flight. My panic was rising as I continued to scramble. Skin tore further as the jagged metal teeth dug into my muscle tissue, and I yowled in pain before something pinched my hindquarters. It felt like a bee sting, which was ridiculous being the first week of January.
Confused, I turned around and found a flowery-looking pink tuft sticking out from my red fur. My vision clouded, so I closed my eyes and shook my head, hoping to clear my eyesight. When I opened them, everything was spinning and my head felt heavy…
A tranq dart, I realized, shaking my head again. I’d been tranquilized.
I moved my front legs, tried to lift myself up, but they were numb and gave out beneath me. I whimpered as my eyelids grew heavier and my vision blurred further. The drowsiness overpowered me until my breathing calmed and evened out. The sound of my pulse thumping through my veins was all I could hear. The beats were deep and even, strangely soothing, and I gave into the drug that coursed through my bloodstream as they slowed.
The sound of snow crunching caught my attention. The Pack. I forced my eyes open. The lids were too heavy, but I managed to lift them about halfway. Even through my blurred vision, I noticed a silhouetted figure approaching me. Human… No; based on the smell that burned the inside of my nostrils, he wasn’t human. It was darker now and my vision was compromised even more than a moment ago, so I couldn’t make out his features as my head fell back into the snow.
I huffed, tried to gather enough strength to call for the Pack again, but couldn’t get anything above a whimper out.
The vampire stood above me, his dark brown hiking boots within inches of my muzzle. I attempted to lift my head so I could see the thing that had captured me, but failed. My strength continued to wane, my eyes falling shut again as the vampire crouched.
His hand moved over my head and down my neck, petting me calmly as though I wasn’t a threat. Rage bubbled inside me, but I was too weak to let it out. I imagined ripping the arm off and then sinking my teeth so far into his jugular that his head fell off, but it was nothing more than a pipedream. A fantasy. A dream that carried on beyond that to me being rescued…
“There, there,” he said, the sound of his voice soft and soothing as he continued to stroke my fur. Something about how his voice affected me clicked into place; I recognized it. Not only was it familiar to me, I glommed onto it desperately, hoping I was right and that I would to be safe with him. How could I not be? He’d never hurt me…
My eyes fluttered open, and I looked into the dark, almost black eyes of the man kneeling above me. The full moon shone behind him, haloing his form in a silvery light that, combined with my cloudy eyesight, made him look almost angelic. My eyes fluttered closed again.
Bobby.
Even in my drugged state, I knew it was an impossibility. The tranquilizer had claimed me, and I was imagining it all. Seeing something I’d been wishing for every day for seven long years. Unable to fight anymore, I gave up and just went with it.
I found just enough energy to open my eyes one more time. His smile widened, fangs sharp and gleaming like ivory. “Big brother’s here to take you home.”
Epilogue | prisoner
I shivered uncontrollably until my jaw hurt from clenching it so hard. Images from a recent nightmare flashed in that dark place between sleep and consciousness, and I cringed. It was all so real, and I hated that my subconscious blamed Nick for what happened to me. Of course, that was only the catalyst for the worst part of the dream.
My head throbbed, and I pressed the heel of my hand into my eye, hoping to quell the building migraine. Flashes of the unconscious girl, blood, dirt, and leaves matting her hair, filled my head before pain ripped through me.
Alarmed, my eyes snapped open and I sat up. My leg hurt, but that wasn’t what worried me most. As I took in my surroundings, I realized this was not my room. I was not home safe in my bed with Nick’s arms around me as I woke from my nightmare. I was in a cold, dank room—no, a dungeon of some sort—and water dripped and trickled from the stone roof and walls…
A cave. I was in some sort of stone cave.
There were no windows that I could see. My panic spiked, but I tried really hard to keep my composure. Freaking out wouldn’t do me any good. I needed to keep a level head so I could figure out how to find my way home.
I inhaled, hoping to pick up the scent of the Pack. I could smell for miles, so if I could just pick up one of them, I might be able to determine how far from home I was.
Nothing.
Tears welled in my eyes as I turned around, and pain blazed up my leg. I glanced down at the jeans I wore—they were a couple sizes too big—and worked the left leg up over my calf. I let out a sob as I registered the bloody bandage around my calf muscle. It wasn’t a dream. Every single bit of it had actually happened—right down to the revelation that Nick had been the one to turn me.
Fighting back a sob, I wiggled my toes, testing to make sure there wasn’t any damage to the nerves or tendons in my leg from the break. I was relieved to find every one of them still worked. At least that was good news.
The bad news was that, while it still hurt, my leg felt mostly healed. Nick’s arm had taken a couple of days before it was in this condition, which could only mean I’d been here for a while. How long? Where was here?
I craned my neck to look behind me, but something jabbed into my skin, keeping me from using full mobil
ity. I reached up and felt the heavy iron collar around my neck, and grimaced when I found it lined with spikes aimed at my throat.
What the hell was all of this about?
My need to find a way out of my prison increased tenfold, and I stood up. I was able to put a little pressure on my injured leg, but not for long before I needed to ease off it. Slowly, I turned around and found a large cage door that kept me contained. On the other side of this cell door was a narrow hall, and then another cage, and another beside it.
I leaned against the bars to get a better look down the corridor, but pulled back when they burned my skin. Silver. They took a lesson from Marcus and had them infused with it. Bastards. What was this place?
I got as close to the bars as I could without burning myself again, and tried to see what all was out there. It was dark and without being able to look directly down the hall, I couldn’t get my eyes to adjust appropriately. It was frustrating as hell. Since seeing anything was damn-near impossible, I decided to use my other senses. Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply and listened carefully.
At first, all I could hear was the steady trickle of water as it ran down the outer walls of my cell. I smelled the crisp water and the earth and rock that contained me. Beyond that… I strained a little harder until I thought I picked up the scent of blood. Yes, that’s what I smelled. Human and wolf. I wasn’t their first prisoner, and something told me I wouldn’t be their last.
I could feel my temper flare upon fully realizing that I was being held captive by some vampire rejects the Pack might have missed. I was pissed at myself for letting it happen.
Approaching footsteps distracted me, and I desperately scanned the corridor for whoever—whatever—it was. The foul smell greeted me before the figure’s silhouette came into view. In the corridor, there were lanterns lining the wall. They didn’t give off much light, but it was just enough to make out the cut of this guy’s angular jaw, his gaunt features, dead eyes, and blond hair. He was tall and gangly, and if I was being completely honest, I knew I could take him.
