by Tera Shanley
Nothing to do but wait as she let black, unrelenting fear creep closer, inch by inch until it would surely consume her. She hovered on the bed, letting as little exposed flesh as possible touch it. The collar was tight on her neck, making it hard to breathe deeply, and it was already itching. She scratched at it as the light flickered, giving the room an even more unsettling affect. How long would it take for her to go completely insane locked away in this prison? Not very.
Chapter 6
Grey checked the text Marissa had sent one last time to make sure he had the address right. He had been peeling down I-40 heading toward Montana when he got it, and a few minutes later, she’d called to make sure he had received it. He’d plugged the address into the navigation on his phone and it showed he still had fifteen hours to drive. If only he could make this trip by plane. Every minute he was on the road, Morgan was at the mercy of that lunatic.
Flying wasn’t doable for him anymore. Not since he had Changed. With all of the beefed up security at airports after nine-eleven, a giant man with color-shifting eyes and a tendency to growl at people would be sure to set off a few red flags. The thought of keeping Wolf cooped up in a plane surrounded by fragile humans was also out of the question. No help for it, his options were drive or drive. He hit the gas, making a personal goal to shave two hours off the GPS’s estimated time of arrival. Relentless on the accelerator, hours ticked by and miles blasted beneath his tires until his goal was met.
The phone trilled in his hand and he checked the caller ID before picking up. “Hey, Marissa. Anything new?”
“Wade and Brent are on their way, they are about three hours behind you to give you backup if you need it. Lana is fine. She’s painting pictures on an easel Rachel bought her.”
“All right, thanks.”
“Also, when Jason was taking care of the bodies in the garage, one of them had a cell phone in his pocket, and it’s been ringing off the hook. All of the calls are from the same number. Jason thinks it might be their alpha trying to get ahold of them. He is going to call it. If they pick up, he can track which station it is pinging off of to make sure it is around the address we have. It might take a while. Dean and Jason are up at the station trying to take care of that, and Dean said he is going to call you as soon as they figure it out. I think that’s about it. Oh, hang on, Lana wants to talk to you.”
“Grey?” Lana asked in a small voice.
“Hey, baby girl, I’m here. How are you doing?”
“Good. Rachel took us on a walk and we made cookies, and later we are going to get a princess Belle dress for me. Where is Morgan?”
“I’m going to get her right now. We’ll be back in a couple of days, okay?”
“Okay, I love you. I want to paint it red.” Her voice sounded muffled and far away.
“Hey,” Rachel said on the other line. “Don’t worry about Lana. We are keeping her busy.”
“Thanks, Rachel. I know I don’t have to worry about her with you guys, and it’s a load off of my mind.”
“Bring Morgan home safe. If anyone can do that, it’s you.”
He hesitated. He wasn’t a fan of making promises he couldn’t keep. “I’ll keep you guys posted when I get there. Talk to you soon.”
As he ended the phone, his shoulders sagged under the weight of what he would find when he tracked her down. Or worse, what if he never found her at all? Morgan had impacted everyone so deeply in the short time she had known them. It would be a loss to the entire pack if anything happened to her.
* * * *
Dammit! Grey hit the steering wheel with the palm of his hand. He was sitting in his truck in front of the Southern Montana pack alpha’s house. He had already searched the place from top to bottom after breaking down the front door. Sure, he could have found an easier way to gain entry into the house, but he had been cooped up in a car all day worrying about what John Gates was doing to Morgan and his frustration had him needing to do something physical. Wolf got a teeny bit of satisfaction from ruining that man’s entryway.
Scent trails were everywhere. A few marked the wolves that Grey had killed, while others marked the man who’d driven away with Morgan. There was one he didn’t recognize, which also happened to be the most recurrent trail at the property. He assumed it was John’s scent. None of the scents that he could find were fresh, and none smelled like her. She wasn’t here.
“Where are you?” he muttered, trying to think like a man he had never met and knew nothing about. If he were trying get away with an abduction, he wouldn’t keep his victim at his house where she could be easily found either. John had a hidey hole he’d stashed Morgan at. But where?
The truck rocked as he slammed the door. Nose to the breeze, he walked the border of John’s property, making sure he didn’t miss any secret cellars or outbuildings where they could be keeping her.
When the phone rang, he yanked it out of his back pocket and answered it before the second ring.
“Grey, we called the number back and someone picked up,” Dean said over the static of a faulty connection. “We tracked the signal and it pinged off a tower over in Big Horn County. I checked, and it is the next county over from you. They must have another place where they are keeping her. We are checking for properties listed to any pack members or family of the pack to cover our bases. If we can’t find anything, we’ll search foreclosures and abandoned houses. Go ahead and head east, park somewhere and be ready. We’re getting close. There isn’t anything else to do until we can pinpoint her location a little better. We’ll call you with the rest of the information.”
“Thanks, Dean. Where are Wade and Brent?”
“They are still a couple hours behind you. I’ll send them your direction when they get closer.”
“All right, keep me updated.”
“You’ve got it, man. Stay safe.”
As Grey hung up, he clenched the phone. How was he supposed to sit in some parking lot somewhere when he was this close to her?
Chapter 7
The flickering light bulb had eventually gone out. Morgan didn’t have any guess at how many hours it took. She had no concept of whether it was night or day down in the dreary basement. Her only lighting was one dim bulb, illuminating only half of her prison and abandoning the other half to shadows.
Her stomach had been growling and turning in on itself for a while. She tried to ignore it, but it was the only thing of any interest happening in the room. It also became apparent that if she ignored her stomach, her thoughts had a tendency to veer off to things that terrified her.
She would never in a million years give herself to John. But what if he pushed the issue and claimed her by force? From the vile expression on his face as he’d threatened her, it was only a matter of time before she was at his mercy. She pulled again on the metal chain that attached her neck to the wall. What could she do if he forced himself on her? She’d fight, sure, but the man had fifty pounds on her and no disadvantage. She’d wanted to wait for Grey and give herself to him completely when the time was right, but what if John took that gift away? Tainted it?
Grey was stunning. He had been created with her in mind. Over six foot tall to make her feel safe beside him. Lean and muscular with broad shoulders and a tapered waist. His shifting eyes didn’t scare her anymore. They made him more captivating. His hair was light brown and tickled his shoulders, always falling into his eyes when he tried to hide them. He had that just-out-of-bed look she found incredibly sexy. He had high cheekbones and an easy smile, but only for her and Lana. Others had to earn it, so those smiles made her feel important. Oozing sexuality, his wolf made him even more alluring and powerful. Grey looked at her as if he would devour her soul and make her smile while doing it. And for some reason, he’d bypassed Alexis to give attention to her alone.
Alexis was beautiful and intimidating, but Grey had always looked at her like he would gladly strangle her and punt her carcass into the river. The way he looked at Morgan
was like magic. The way love should feel. He’d taken to Lana right away as if she was his own flesh and blood. And after everything he had done and offered her, she had panicked and ran, and left a man no other would compare to in her lifetime. Because of that decision, she was stuck here at the mercy of a psychopath. Because of her, Grey might be dead.
She couldn’t dwell on those thoughts for too long or she would Change without meaning to. Gasping for breath, she gripped the metal collar to remind herself of how tight it was. She didn’t doubt what John had said. She would die if she Turned wolf.
The gurgle of her hungry stomach filled the silent room, begging for anything to sustain it. The homemade chicken pot pie she’d made before she’d been taken seemed like days ago.
As if he’d heard her hollow complaints, Marshall strode in and dropped a bag on the floor in front of her. It contained a greasy burger and fries from the smell of it. A bottled water peeked out of the top of the fast food bag and her stomach growled again. She reached for it but the collar yanked on her neck and she gulped in pain. He’d set it too far away. With a satisfied laugh, he sauntered to the door.
“Smells like your shoulder is getting nice and infected there, friend,” she said frostily. “You should probably have it looked at, but I’m assuming my boyfriend killed your pack doctor. That’s too bad.”
She smiled merrily at the fury on his face. Mom had always told her that her quick mouth got her into too much trouble, but that statement hadn’t ever done anything to improve her impulse control.
He rushed at her, fists clenched, and she flinched backward as his fist connected with her face. She really hated when her mother was right. She groaned and curled in on herself as blood poured from her busted nose and lip. He was wearing rings on his fingers. Panting out of her mouth, she jerked away from him as far as the chain would go, until it pulled on her neck. If only she could stand and get out of this helpless position. Her nose and face were quickly swelling, making it more difficult to breath than it already was.
She snarled, “You have no idea what is coming for you.” She held the back of her hand up to her bleeding nose and glared at the smug expression on his face.
“Oh, I think I do. Nothing. If you are talking about your guard dog, I can tell you he won’t be coming after us.”
“He’ll find me, and he’ll kill you both.”
“He might be able to find you if he was still alive, but I watched one of our wolves slit him from chest to hip bone. He was holding his guts in as he ran after the car. Your man is dead.”
She retched, and finding nothing in her stomach to lend to her efforts, she retched again, convulsing against the collar. She spat out the blood that flowed down the back of her throat.
Marshall leaned back against the door, studying her despair as if she were an amusing amoeba under a microscope. “Since you aren’t tied to a pack and your mate is dead, no one will come looking for you. Do you know what everyone calls your man? The rumors have made him into a real monster. Everyone calls him Demon Wolf. They say he sold his soul to become what he is.” He narrowed his dark eyes. “Any whisper of the black wolf and everyone knows who they are talking about. No one had even laid eyes on him, and he had most of the wolves in North America intimidated. Now I saw him, and I can see where those rumors started, because he was undoubtedly”--he paused as if searching for the right word--“unique. He was the only reason others haven’t tried the same thing we did. They have worked up this fear of him. And what do we do? Separate him easily from you and he is killed by one wolf.”
“I heard it was four.”
“No matter, we will rebuild. Who wouldn’t want to join a pack with a silver wolf in it? We will have the largest pack in the country, and every wolf knows numbers mean power.” An empty smile flitted across his stony features as he walked slowly toward her. “You know, someday this pack will be mine. I know you could see it with John. Smell it even. He is rotting from the inside out. His mental state, it’s not well. Losing your pack does nasty things to an alpha. When he falls, I will be there to bring this pack to its former glory, and you,” he said, leaning over her and caressing her cheek with a dirty fingertip, breath hot on her face, “will be all mine.”
She cringed away from his touch and her back touched the wall. She pulled her shirt farther down her legs and tucked her knees closer to her body.
“John is at his house getting provisions. So it looks like it’s just you and me for a while.”
He clamped meaty hands on her ankles and pried open her legs. The chain pulled and she struggled, rearing back and punching him as hard as she could in his injured shoulder. Her position made it awkward, but the blow was hard enough that he rocked back and roared as he held his oozing shoulder with a clawed hand. She took advantage of hesitation and pulled her knee up and kicked him in the groin. He rolled from the tiny mattress and onto the floor, curled in on himself and cursing her entire family tree. A sound, high and keening, filled her ears, and she looked around for anything she could use as a weapon. It was her whimper that pierced the tepid air. A few minutes with this animal and he was halfway to breaking her.
He yelled and clawed his way to her, landing his full body weight on her before she could flinch away. He pinned her arms to her sides and straddled her stomach, then he pulled his fist back to hit her again. This was it, the moment when she would die. He was going to kill her and her last moments on earth would be in this filthy cell. She pulled Grey and Lana’s faces into her mind, wanting her makeshift family to be her last thoughts. Hopefully, they knew how much she loved them--how much she wished she had done things differently and could be there with them. Slow tears streamed down the outer corners of her eyes as his dirty knuckles arched toward her face.
When Marshall’s fist was centimeters away from her, she squeezed her eyes tightly shut but nothing happened. Marshall’s weight disappeared off of her.
She cautiously opened one eye, but he was gone. Her vision blurred from the lack of oxygen, but a man carried Marshall by the throat and slammed him up against the wall by the door with a sickly thud. She could only see his back, but it was enough. “Grey,” she rasped. Despite all of her faults, he’d come for her. Her body betrayed her, pressing against the chain to be closer to him.
Marshall hit the wall and the entire room shook. Pieces of ceiling dislodged and fell onto the floor near her feet. Grey held him in the air and Marshall flailed. He kicked at Grey while he clawed at the hand that was cutting off his air. Grey grabbed Marshall’s leg with his free hand, wedged it against his knee and snapped the man’s leg at the femur like a toothpick. The audible snap of the bone came a moment before Marshall let out a shriek of pain, high and grating.
“Oh my gosh,” she whispered.
Grey slowly turned around, looked at her with feral, empty eyes. She had been mistaken that it was him. His gaze churned in angry glowing slits and his face was contorted in a rage that terrified her.
Grey wasn’t home. Only Wolf remained.
Grey snapped his head back around so fast he blurred. One second she was drowning in his fury-filled eyes, and then she was looking at the back of his head. His cheeks widened with a smile as he snapped the man’s neck with his bare hand and threw the body to the side. He stood, panting through his clenched jaw and glaring at his kill. His muscles were tensed into stillness.
“Grey? I was so scared you were dead.” Fear and shock were thick in her voice and it trembled like a flame, but it couldn’t be helped. “There’s another one. He’ll be back soon.” She searched his face for understanding but found nothing recognizable.
“Did they touch you?” His voice came out a throaty snarl, each word sounding odd behind gritted teeth.
It hurt to frown. Could he not see her face? Her nose had stopped bleeding for the most part, but she could feel all of the caked blood from everything that happened. Her face had its own pulse it hurt so badly. Of course they’d touched her.
&nb
sp; “I mean,” he clarified, “did they touch you.”
Her eyes widened with comprehension. “Not yet,” she whispered.
Grey’s nostrils flared. “I can smell him on you.”
Under his scrutiny, she wanted to look away so badly. Wolf scared her, now more than ever. Turning, he closed the door and dragged Marshall’s body to the far corner where he wouldn’t immediately been seen by John when he walked in. Grey took his shirt off. It was bloodied from torn stitches and soaking gauze, but it smelled a hell of a lot better than the rank rag she wore. His hand was steady as he offered it to her and she draped it over her lap. Her neck was exhausted from hefting the chain and she set her face back down on the edge of the mattress. He kneeled down in front of her and laid his hand against her ear. The tiny patch of flesh was the only undamaged area on her face. She leaned into his hand and squeezed her eyes tightly shut.
“I’m sorry,” she said. Could he hear the inky depths of despair in her words? Could he hear the truth in them?
“Don’t you dare apologize for what those monsters did to you.” Gold-flecked eyes studied the lock on the collar and as he gave it a test pull, she groaned as it dug into her chaffed neck.
Balanced on the balls of his shoes, he rocked from side to side, intense gaze focused on the metal. His jeans smelled of his blood, and the bandages that crisscrossed his torso were bathed in crimson. The muscles of his arms flexed as he rested them on his knees, and his jaw twitched under the pressure of his clenched teeth. A lock of hair had fallen forward, and she wished for the courage to press it out of his face so she could see all of him. She’d never seen a more beautiful sight in her entire life.
