Filthy dogs? Oh my God. Does that mean Chavez, and whoever he's talking to right now, knows about Emmett's pack, about what they are? Shit. I'm freaking out inside as he continues speaking and confirms what I suspect.
"I think she's mated to one of them, but it doesn't matter. By the time they figure it out, I'll be long gone with her anyway." He laughs vilely. "And if he happened to knock her up, then we'll have a two for one, and we'll know for a fact that she's fertile. Don't worry. I've got this, and I'll see you in a few hours." Then the call ends, and I hear nothing but the hum of the engine and the tires singing on pavement.
Fertile? My brain fixates on that one riveting word, and I suddenly know exactly why I was taken. Holy shit! I've been kidnapped to be some sort of breeding stock. These people must think I'm a wild blood human, but how? Then I still when I realize the only way they could have known. Chavez must have smelled it on me like Emmett and those demonborn he killed did, which means he has to be a werewolf. I couldn't have scented it on him the last time I saw him since I hadn't gone through the change yet. Emmett never even met him, let alone scented him to know if he's a werewolf or not.
At this point, I know I'm not equipped enough to handle this situation since I haven't yet reached my full potential as a trueborn. I'm in the middle of a shitstorm that I may not be able to get out of, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to try. The first thing I need to do is get out of this zip tie. Thanks to my overprotective father, who loves to be prepared and also happens to be a cop, I know exactly how to get out of it.
I roll onto my back in the dark cramped space, and use my mouth to move the lock of the zip tie to the front of my wrists. I grab the end of the zip tie with my teeth and pull it as tight as I can on my wrists. Then I raise my arms up, and slam them down hard onto my hips while jabbing my elbows out to the sides. The plastic snaps apart at the locking mechanism. Wow. I've never had it work on the first try when Dad had me practicing how to do it. I may not be at full-strength as a werewolf yet, but I'm certainly stronger than I was before my first shift. Maybe I do stand a chance of getting myself out of this mess.
Next, I glance around the pitch-black interior, hoping like hell this is a newer model vehicle. A moment later, I find exactly what I'm looking for, the trunk's glow-in-the-dark emergency release handle, and grin. Now, I just need to pick my moment to jump out and make a run for it.
I pull the handle and ease the trunk open a small crack and see trees whizzing past. Shit, we're on a two-lane highway and traveling too fast for me to jump out now without getting hurt badly. I can't heal in human form as quickly as Emmett can yet, and Chavez would surely catch me before I could even come close to recovering and getting away. Maybe if I shift I could safely make the jump as a wolf?
I reach for the she-wolf inside me, but it feels like she's stuck in thick mud, and she slips away from my grasp. What the hell? I try again and again, and I'm just as unsuccessful. Something is blocking her, and the only explanation has to be whatever drug this piece of shit gave me, just like my seizure medication did for years. Now the question is, how long will it be in my system? It's wearing off quicker than Chavez thought it would, since I'm not human like he thought, but what if we're in a populated area by the time it does. I can't very well shift and jump out where someone's going to see a hundred and twenty pound black wolf popping out of a trunk and running around. Shit. What the fuck do I do now?
Every second is taking me farther and farther away from my new home, from my Dad and Emmett. What if I never see them again? Panic flares through me in a sickening rush, and I'm just about to fling myself out of the trunk and hope for the best, when the car abruptly begins to slow down.
"What the fuck?" I hear Chavez blurt out in surprise, then follows that up with a string of pissed-off Spanish that I don't understand.
When the car finally eases to a stop on the shoulder, I hear a loud staccato banging sound punctuated by more angry Spanish. Is he beating on the steering wheel? I don't even bother answering my own internal question and act instead. I fling myself up out of the trunk and clamber out onto my feet on the pavement. I stagger the first few steps into the grass just off the road's shoulder as I hear what I assume is the driver's side door opening.
"Puta madre!" Chavez shouts viciously.
With a surge of terror-fed adrenaline, I finally get my feet under me, and burst into a dead run for the nearby tree line. If I can get to the woods, I might be able to lose him long enough that I can shift and defend myself.
I hear more shouting and feet pounding behind me, and urge my body to move faster. I reach the trees only to find my path stymied by a low chain-link fence with a line of barbed wire across the top. I steal a quick glance behind me to see Chavez running toward me at a fast clip, his face hard and livid. Shit. On a desperate whim, I yank the cuffs of my flannel shirt down over my hands and start climbing over the fence. It helps, but a couple of barbs manage to pierce the skin of my hands. It hurts so badly, but I don't let it stop me.
I make it over to the other side and try to jump to the ground, but the hem of my jeans on one leg gets hung up on the fence, and I fall flat on my face. I reach up and yank it free, but as I do Chavez vaults over the fence like it's nothing and lands next to me. Now I know he's not human. I scramble to my feet and only make it two steps into the woods before he grabs me by the hair and jerks me backwards.
Did I mention my dad taught me self-defense too?
I turn back toward him while flinging my arm down and out, and slam the back of my hand into his groin. He grunts in surprise as I hit him in the crotch again with my other hand. When he doubles over in pain, I continue my counter attack with two quick strikes to his face with the heel of each hand, then follow it all up by shoving my foot into his gut and sending him stumbling back against the fence.
I whirl and start running again, beyond thankful that my night vision is excellent now as I hear Chavez roaring in outrage behind me. I zig zag through the trees with no idea where I'm even going, desperate to get away. My hands burn from where I was jabbed by the barbed wire, and my scalp is stinging like crazy where he grabbed my hair. Low branches and underbrush grab and scratch at me, adding cuts and scrapes to my growing list of injuries. I can hear him crashing through the woods after me now, and I know I'm not fast enough on two legs to get away.
I reach for my she-wolf once more, hoping I can shift before he catches me again. No such luck. Though not as muddled, she's still frustratingly just out of reach, and I can't quite get a hold of her. I try again, this time straining for her in terrified desperation.
I'm so distracted by my internal struggle, that I don't notice the fallen branch in front of me until I'm tripping over it. I crash down onto my outstretched hands, sending jarring pain lancing up my arms and making the puncture wounds on my palms scream in agony. I mewl in fear and pain, and before I have a chance to push back to my feet, Chavez's heavy body lands on top of me. I immediately throw my head backwards in an attempt to head butt him, but he fists my hair in his hand and wrenches my head to the side roughly. His forearm presses across my upper back and his legs bracket mine in place, pinning me down onto the soft leaf litter beneath me.
"You little puta," he snarls out viciously next my ear as the sickly-sweet scent of his awful cologne practically burns my nose. "I didn't fucking follow you all the way to this godforsaken hick town and have you fall into my lap at that shithole for you to get away from me that easily."
What? Followed me?
"I think it's about time you learn your place," he growls out menacingly. "And I think I'm just the man to show you your one and only purpose in the world now." His voice takes on a cruel and lewd tone that, along with his erection pressing against my ass, leaves me with only one interpretation of his words. He's going to rape me.
Oh, hell no.
Enraged, I somehow find a strength I didn't know I had, and buck beneath him, twisting my body around to face him and catching him completely off guard.
I barely notice as some of my hair gets yanked from my already abused scalp. With a scream of rage, I claw viciously at his face and neck, raking long bloody gouges into his skin with my fingernails. Before he can snatch up my wrists to stop me, I manage to grab a hold of the black onyx bolo tie at his collar. When he jerks my hands from his face, the tie comes away in my hand and falls into the leaf litter next to us.
Instantly, the cloying scent of Chavez's cologne vanishes, replaced by the obnoxious rotten-egg stench of sulfur. I've never smelled one myself, but I know enough from my few conversations with Emmett to recognize a demonborn when I scent one. And then to disprove any doubt I might have had about it, his eyes begin to glow a vile and malignant red that I know well from experience.
Holy. Shit.
"You little fucking bitch!" he bellows out at me. Then he pulls a heavy hand back and slaps me hard across the face while I'm still too stunned from my revelation to react.
The blow snaps my head to the side and has burning pain blossoming across my cheek like fire. It hurts so badly that tears immediately burst from my eyes, but the pain has one other side effect. It manages to push past the drug still lingering in my system and unleash the she-wolf from her prison inside me. She boils up in a violent torrent of rage, filling me with a strength and determination of will like I've never felt before. I embrace her with grateful open arms and set her free.
Chavez pulls his hand back to hit me again, but this time my hand shoots out lightening quick to seize his wrist in an iron grip. My nails dig into his skin, then sink deeper still as they lengthen and sharpen into long claws. He gasps in shock, his red eyes widening in absolute incredulity as I feel my teeth start to shift in my mouth, and my night vision sharpens. Before he has a chance to react, I lift up my knees and plant my feet in his gut to shove him away as hard as I can.
I expect just to push him off of me, but instead, I send him flying backwards up into the air. He slams into a nearby tree trunk with a bone jarring thud, then falls into a heap on the ground. He doesn't move, but I know it's only a temporary reprieve before he recovers and comes after me again.
I pull at my clothes as the shift comes over me, swiftly yanking everything off as excruciating pain shudders through me, but I don't fear it this time. I embrace it, pull it close, and hasten it onward. Fur ripples across skin. Bones and tendons shift and reknit themselves into something new, something better...stronger. As the pain lessens, my senses heighten, my mind clearing of everything but this moment in time. When my attacker finally stirs and rises from where he lies several yards away, the human he thought he kidnapped has been replaced by a fierce and powerful she-wolf with bloodlust burning in her fiery cobalt eyes.
Chavez's crimson eyes fill with deadly intent as they lock on me. His face is already lengthening and stretching into a wide maw of sharp and jagged fangs. Tall leathery ears rise from the sides of his misshapen head, and his upper body grows larger, broader and more muscular than before. His shirt rips apart and falls from his body as his skin turns a sickly gray with patchy bits of matching fur sprouting all over his now grotesque humanoid form. He snarls and steps toward me as long claws burst forth from his now elongated fingers and toes, tearing violently through the ends of his boots.
I tense and lower my head with a savage snarl of my own, my ears pinned back and my hackles rising with my fury. Then I dig my claws into the soft earth and launch myself at him.
He's ready for me, fangs dripping and claws reaching for me, but I'm not stupid. I can't take him in a head on fight like my Emmett could with his greater size and strength. From my one and only hunt with my pack, I know what I excel at, and it's my speed and agility that give me the edge over this abomination.
At the last second, I peel off to the side, skittering just out of reach as I circle Chavez. He whips around to slash at me once more, but I'm too fast for him. He misses and snarls in frustration as I whirl away yet again. Good. If I can keep him angry and tire him out, eventually he'll make a mistake and give me an opening to strike. I just hope he doesn't get a hold of me before that, or it'll be all over for me. He has no reason to keep me alive any longer now that he knows I'm a werewolf and not the wild blood human he thought he captured.
I continue dancing around him, attempting attack after attack while just barely staying out of his reach. Somehow I remain untouched by his swiping claws while managing to tag him with slashing fangs a few times, though they're only superficial wounds. My plan begins to work though, and his movements turn clumsy as his anger grows and his body tires, but I begin to tire too. My strength has been sapped by the drug, the run through the trees, and my subsequent shift, which was only my second and took more out of me than I thought. I'm running out of time, and I need to end this quickly before I make a mistake. It's up to me to get myself out of this because no one knows where I am to come and help me.
I ramp up my attacks, darting in at every opportunity I can take, until I find an opening to hamstring him and take it. I move in as swiftly as I can with jaws gaping, ready to rip into his flesh, but not fast enough. His hand flies out to grasp a hold of my scruff, his claws managing to pierce my skin despite the thick fur there. He lifts me off the ground and shakes me roughly like a rag doll, rattling my teeth and scrambling my already fatigued brain as he roars in fury. Then before I have a chance to react enough to defend myself, he pulls his other hand back with his sharp and wicked claws extended to tear into me.
Suddenly, a dark-gray blur materializes out of nowhere and slams into Chavez. I see familiar fiery silver eyes, and then a set of sharp white teeth flash for a brief moment before they sink deep into Chavez's forearm, staying the blow meant to rip out my throat. Chavez's hold on my scruff loosens, and I drop limply to the ground in exhaustion. I lift my head to see Emmett jerk his head to the side and fling the demonborn away from me. The force sends him plowing into another tree with a heavy grunt on impact.
By the time Chavez recovers and pulls himself up onto his feet again, my mate is already standing protectively over my prone body and snarling ferociously. Emmett's leg touches mine and I can feel his seething and furious anger, underscored by his unwaveringly willingness to kill and die for me. Thank God he's here.
Chavez faces us again, his eyes burning a sickening red as he roars out his rage. He tenses to charge Emmett, but pauses just as I sense movement next to us. I see a massive black wolf and a smaller blond one emerge from the trees on either side of us, snarling threateningly along with Emmett. It's his brothers, Wyatt and Beck. More movement captures my attention as two more even smaller wolves silently appear behind Chavez a moment later, one black and one white, and I recognize Harmony and Lyric. Then Rett steps out from the darkness between his daughters. He's still in human form with his eyes glowing silver and a furious and forbidding expression on his face as he closes the circle around our enemy.
"Demonborn!" Rett barks out, his voice fierce and his demeanor hard and commanding.
For the first time, I see real fear on Chavez's face as he whirls to find himself surrounded. He snarls at Rett, but he's smart enough not to attack.
"You have violated our lands and attacked a member of the pack, and for that you must die." Rett crosses his arms. "It's up to you whether it's quick and relatively painless or not by answering some questions."
"Fuck you, filthy dog," Chavez manages to hiss out sibilantly through his misshapen muzzle full of teeth.
The rest of us snarl in response, but Rett ignores the demonborn's insult as he continues speaking. "How did you know we were here?"
"Didn't," he rasps out.
"So you didn't come to Wolcott looking for us?"
"No," Chavez responds somehow with a recognizable sneer on his nightmare of a face. "Don't know who you are. Don't give a fuck about your pack." He turns his creepy red eyes on me. "Followed that puta bitch here," he says, and Emmett growls deeply in response. "Thought she was wild blood."
Rett smirks at that comment. "You fucked up."
Chavez curls up a corner of his slavering mouth. "Yes," he admits with bitter contempt.
"Our Raven is fierce and resourceful," Rett says with pride in his tone. "You picked the wrong she-wolf to fuck with." He steps forward and curls his lip up in a silent snarl. "You picked the wrong pack to fuck with."
"Fuck you," Chavez growls in contempt.
Unaffected by the demonborn's shitty attitude, Rett abruptly breathes in with a thoughtful expression, then glances at the ground near one of his heavy work boots. He bends over and picks something up that I recognize. It's Chavez's black onyx bolo tie. Rett lifts it up to his nose, then meets Chavez's eyes again with an arched brow. "Well, this explains a lot. No wonder my son never scented your stink in that bar. Someone put a spell on this to mask your stench, right?"
A spell? Huh. Well, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised that magic is real, if werewolves exist. I'm one of them now, after all.
"Fuck. You," Chavez repeats. Wow, we've got ourselves a real intellectual here.
"Why did you kill Rowdy Boudreau?" Rett asks next.
What? The old bar owner is dead?
"Rented a room from the old fucker." He shrugged his grotesquely shaped shoulders. "He saw too much. Took care of him, then took over the bar for cover until I could get the girl."
"Ah," Rett said with a smirk. "Another fuck up. Does Viktor Bravas know about either of them?"
Who? I have no idea what they're talking about now, and I'm completely lost and confused.
Chavez's head jerks back in surprise. "What do you know of Bravas?" he asks.
"I know he's probably the one responsible for this thing," he says as he holds up the bolo tie for a second before he tucks it in his jean's pocket. "I know he's a power-hungry madman who turned against his own father and his own pack. Apparently he's not above employing evil abominations like you to get what he wants now either."
Wild Blood: The Trueborn Saga Book 1 Page 23
