by Ruby Brooks
“Who is that?” Mia bared her neck at a man who came out of the main house. “Is this a wolf? Steelman?”
“Yes, alpha. He took me home after a bear lost control at the fight club.”
“Go home.”
She nodded and gave me a small wave before disappearing into the trees. Just as I got my car into reverse, the man knocked on my window. I lowered it and held my breath, not wanting to inhale his scent. He was powerful and my wolf wasn’t happy about it one bit.
“Why did you drive her here?”
“To make sure she didn’t get caught.”
“No one has ever looked out for my clan before. Name?”
“Cole Anderson.”
“Funny,” he rubbed at his chin, his dark eyes regarding me. The man was built like a fucking tank, and even at full health I wouldn’t want to cross him. Why did I insist on taking Mia home? I wanted my bed already. “I would have thought you were a Steelman. You’re an alpha, aren’t you? Why not form your own pack?”
“I will, once I find my mate.” I drummed my fingers on my steering wheel in impatience. “Can I go now?”
“Hayley… Mia is quite taken to her. Thank you for bringing Mia home safe. I owe you a favour.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I insist. I’m Brian, by the way.”
He held out his hand and I shook it firmly. He was testing my grip as much as I was testing his, and we both smirked.
“Good luck with the pack, Anderson.”
I nodded and got the hell out of there.
Chapter 11
Hayley
Present day
My cell door creaked open and I struggled to get to my feet. I didn’t know how long I had been here for this time as everything had blurred into one, but I knew my bucket hadn’t been cleaned for a while.
As soon as I was dragged away from Cole, I woke up in this cell. It had become my own safe haven though, and I tried to look on the bright side. I didn’t have to deal with any people here, and I could hear how much some of the others in this facility fought. I had only met my captors, but I knew I couldn’t be alone in this.
A man, Micah, was waiting for me on the other side of the door. He slid handcuffs around my wrist, but it was futile – with a little wriggle I would have been able to slide right out of them.
Micah was kind to me and I had grown used to his company. He was a human, tall and skinny, and looked nothing like a fighter I was used to. I couldn’t place his age, but he didn’t strike me as older than me.
“Where are we going today?” I asked, trying to break the silence. I hated the quiet between us.
“Lab four. It shouldn’t take long.”
“Do they tell you much about what they do here?”
“Morton,” he sighed, stopping us in place. “Stop asking me the same questions, day after day. The answer isn’t going to change.”
“Forgive me for trying,” I muttered.
“At least you still have your spirit.”
I bit back another retort and ignored my screaming joints as I went up the stairs. I didn’t get enough exercise, or food, and trying to conquer the stairs up to the labs was a constant battle. Micah showed mercy though and would sometimes even carry me on my bad days.
Micah rapped on the door for lab four and swiped his keycard to let me in. With a nod, he turned on his heel and left me to it. I stepped into the room and my heart dropped when I noticed Nathan was here with Mo. They had their backs to me and I briefly considered running from the room.
Nathan was the man who dragged me away from Cole; I would never be able to look at him with anything other than contempt again. He was wearing a lab coat that stretched over his large frame, and was discussing something with Mo.
He didn’t frighten me anymore, not like he used to. Now it was more a case of accepting what was ahead and shutting down that part of my brain that wanted to fight back. When he stepped into the room, it was like his presence filled it. Almost like he was trying to command attention and respect, but didn’t quite manage it.
They were also two things I wasn’t going to give him.
Mo looked like she could be just as strong as him, but she was far kinder. I preferred it when it was only the two of us. Sometimes she would tell me about her children and I would close my eyes, listening to her stories imagining she was instead talking about me. Crazy, I know, but it gave me some degree of comfort in here despite the fact each story was fabricated. One thing that hadn’t left me while I was here was my ability to detect lies.
“What’s happening?” I asked, shuffling closer to them. “Shouldn’t you have shoved a chemical inside me by now?” Usually, I was pinned down as soon as I walked in and had about three needles in me before I had the chance to catch my breath.
“We’ve noticed it’s your birthday today,” Nathan said, flicking his eyes to mine.
“Happy birthday to me,” I drawled. Fuck. I was nineteen today and I was contemplating the various ways I could end this torture.
“Why hasn’t the alpha curse set in yet?” Mo asked, pursing her lips at Nathan. He caught me watching and shook his head.
“Alpha curse?”
“Come on, Hayley. Since you are so keen.” He slipped off my handcuffs and led me to the bench. “Hop up.”
I winced when the cold metal touched my back. My t-shirt had become so thin it no longer offered much in the form of protection. The cold never got easier to manage either. I tried reaching for my wolf, but that connection severed the same time I left Cole, and I didn’t know how to reconnect.
“The alpha curse?” I repeated.
“It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with. Give me your arm,” Nathan’s tone was colder than I had ever heard and Mo tensed slightly, making me tense up too.
I held out my arm and he sunk a needle in there, hitting my vein on the first try. “Hey. I thought you were injecting me, not taking blood.”
“You aren’t in a position to argue.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I couldn’t control where my anger had come from today. “Can’t you see how weak I am? If you start taking my blood, I’ll be lucky to walk out of here. Unless that is the point.”
“We are not trying to kill you,” Mo said. “We have been over this before.”
“Besides, if we wanted you dead, you would be already.” Nathan yanked the needle out of my arm and made no attempt to close the wound. Once again, I desperately pulled for a connection to my wolf to help me heal, but nothing. Tears slid down my cheeks and Mo looked like she wanted to protest.
“I have a new formula today,” he said. His voice was low, and I had to suppress a shiver. Mo looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her up, which was only fuelling some distant anger in my veins. “I want to see if this will draw out your wolf.”
Before I could even brace myself, he pinned down my arm on the bench making me wince. Son of a bitch. He smirked at me before he injected the solution in my arm. His grey eyes never left my face, and I felt bile creeping up the back of my throat.
“I haven’t had an alpha for a while,” Nathan muttered, watching me as the solution got to work.
I didn’t know what I was supposed to be feeling. I felt numb, the same as I always did, and I couldn’t care less anymore if my wolf came back or not. What would I do? If I laid a hand on anyone in here, I’d be dead before I could consider a shift.
Mo watched a screen on one of the computers set up in the lab, and slowly shook her head at Nathan. He swore, crashing some items from the desk onto the floor. I began shaking but willed myself to breath and not show any weakness.
“You aren’t needed anymore, Hayley.” Nathan’s curt voice cut through the silence in the room. The blood was slowly dripping onto the floor, leaving a puddle. Mo finally cracked and wiped it up for me, stopping the flow of blood.
I shouldn’t have bled so easily from a needle. Something was wrong with me and I couldn’t figure it out.
“What’s
going to happen to me now?”
“I don’t really care,” he answered.
“Nathan… she could go onto the field,” Mo spoke.
“The field? You must be joking. The girl said so herself, she is weak.”
“She can train with the others. We need more shifters, Nathan.”
I watched the exchange with wide eyes. If I opened my mouth to speak, I’d have definitely put my foot in it, so I resisted the urge to argue.
Nathan gave me a long look. “Fine. Assign her a room on the ground floor.”
My heart pounded so hard in my chest I would have thought they heard it. Nathan stalked out of the room, muttering something about my blood make up.
“Mo, thank you,” I said, after the door hissed shut.
“Don’t thank me. You have no idea what I have just gotten you involved in.”
“I can fight.”
“No, you could fight. I don’t think you have a chance now.”
“Can I ask some questions?”
Mo was shuffling around the room, walking between tables before settling in front of a computer. I sat up, my head spinning, and watched her as she worked.
“Sure. I may not be able to give you any answers though.”
“Why is my surname so important around here? People practically spit it at me.”
“You don’t know?” Mo looked at me, aghast. “Wow. Hayley… your parents used to work for us. They were the best hunting couple in the entire base.”
I swallowed past my nerves for the next question. “What exactly is here?”
“We’re hunters.” She confirmed my suspicions. She continued, “We used to only take out packless wolves, or the equivalent of other species, but it changed recently. The plan is take out all shifters one day.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, sugar. I really don’t,” Mo chewed on her lip as she worked on her computer. “I probably told you too much.”
“I won’t say anything. It was nothing I couldn’t figure out for myself, right?”
“Right.” She smiled but it didn’t meet her eyes.
“Can I trust Nathan?”
“Yes,” Mo didn’t even hesitate with her reply. “Out of all of them, Nathan has your best interests at heart.”
I snorted. Right, of course he did. I swung my legs to get some blood flow as I looked around the room. I didn’t believe her for a second.
“What have you been doing to me?”
“I’m not at liberty to discuss that. I’m sorry, Hayley. I would love to, but I can’t.”
“Yeah, I get it. What’s this about a new room for me?”
“I’m arranging it for you now. You’ll be alone on the ground floor, but I have a feeling that is a good thing.” Mo rose from her chair, gathering her belongings. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
I followed her down the hall and we walked past the corridor that led down to the cells below. I couldn’t quite believe I was going to get a room and I tried to keep an open mind. I didn’t want to let myself believe it until I had seen it.
“This one is your room,” Mo had led me to the end of a corridor, round a slight corner. “I chose this one because there are no cameras. There are plenty of other places you can go down this corridor so if anything was to happen… no one will know.”
“I— I, thank you?” She was scaring me with her words, but I cleared my throat. “What are you insinuating?”
“You aren’t the only alpha around here. There will be others that you will end up training with and I don’t doubt they won’t try to attack you.”
“Mo… what is going on?”
“I can’t tell you any more. I’m sorry.”
I caught her arm before she walked away. “How do you know I’m an alpha? I don’t think I am.”
“It’s in your blood,” she shrugged me off and gave me a pitying smile when she walked away. I didn’t have the energy to stop her and my head was spinning from the events of the day. I pushed open the door to my new room and my jaw dropped.
After spending a year in a cell, this place was luxurious. I had an entire room to myself with an actual bed, and even an en suite bathroom. I ran to the tap to turn it on, and fresh tears pricked at my eyes when the water turned warm. Finally, a hot shower. I used to have to give myself a hand wash once a week with a rag and a bucket of water. If Micah was on shift, he would add some essential oils to at least make the water smell nice.
I stripped off the clothes I was wearing and treated myself to the hot shower. There were multiple cosmetics, towels, and clothes already in the room. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I was going to enjoy pampering myself for the time being. They could take this from me any moment they liked.
When I slipped under the covers clad in a fresh t-shirt and shorts, I fell into a restless sleep worrying about the next day. I needed to listen to Mo’s unspoken warning, but I couldn’t figure it out, no matter how much I thought about it.
Chapter 12
Cole
As I lay, waiting in the trees to meet the alpha who apparently knew where Hayley was, I thought back over the fight with Hector last year. The anniversary of his death was coming up, and I knew it was going to be the talk of the gym. It must have been the alpha curse getting to him that night and I worried that was coming for me. My wolf’s temper was rising, but I held control over the shift.
I was meeting a man called Anthony and, given the smell in the air, he was the alpha to a clan of cats. It would be suicide to shift here and those cats had some bloody claws on them. My wolf retreated when I imagined them.
Behave and we won’t get into trouble, I said to my wolf.
A grumble was all I got in response.
Where the fuck was Anthony? I hid directly across from the main house, exactly as he had instructed, but he was late. I pulled out my phone to check the time. I had been waiting an hour and my patience was growing thinner by the minute.
“This might be a trap,” my wolf hissed.
No, it isn’t. Shut up.
I mean, it could be, but I wasn’t going to focus on it. I had nothing that Anthony would want and he wouldn’t dare piss off Tristan.
“Fucking finally,” I grumbled, spotting him come out of the house. I got up and narrowed my eyes as he came into view. “What time do you call this?”
He raised his eyebrows. “I was busy.”
He was built like all the alpha males were. Large, broody, imposing… I knew I mirrored him. Difference was, he was a lot leaner than me. If there was going to be a fight, he would be fast, and I’d need to keep my wits about me.
“So am I,” I snapped. “Where is Hayley?”
“I don’t know.” Before I had chance to explode, he pinned me against the tree, his claws pricking the edge of my throat. “Listen to me before you kick off. I forgot how volatile unmated wolves are, bloody hell.”
He released me with a start, and I coughed some air back into my lungs. I wanted to punch him.
“I don’t know where Hayley is exactly, but there is something going on up north. I have lost some cats to the hunters, except they aren’t dead.”
“Then how have you lost them?”
“I think the hunters are recruiting them. Or kidnapping them rather.”
“You’re full of shit.” I’d heard of the hunters before. As the name implied, they hunted us. If a shifter exposed themselves to a human – or, worse, hurt them in any way – the hunters would step in and kill the shifter. It had been rumoured over the years, although no one had any evidence to back it up, that they were killing even when shifters hadn't done anything wrong. I didn't know what to believe.
The memory of Hayley’s kidnap lingered in the back of my mind but I dismissed it. It must have been a fluke because they would have taken me, too. I had researched previous hunter attacks as much as I could, and it hadn’t happened to Tristan’s pack before.
“No, I’m not.” His eyes blazed amber and I wanted to dare him to shift. I w
as itching for a fight tonight. “Tristan won’t hear it either, but it is happening. You’re lucky you weren’t taken, too.”
“Lucky?” I scoffed. “If what you are saying it true, I’d trade places with Hayley in a heartbeat. I’m currently sat here, chasing loose ends trying to find her.”
“You aren’t going to get her back. If I was your alpha, I’d be telling you to find a new mate.”
I grabbed the tree trunk next to me, my grip making it groan under the pressure. I needed to do something with my hands, but I couldn’t hurt Anthony. I didn’t want to turn into my dad. I didn’t want to hurt people because I didn’t like the answer they gave me.
“Well, it’s a good job you aren’t my alpha,” I pressed my lips together and shook my head. “I’m out of here. Thanks for wasting my time.”
“Anderson,” he commanded, although it had little effect on me. I continued walking. “Let her go. It’s going to kill you and even if you did find her, what then? You can’t take on the hunters.”
I saw red and shifted. I ran – as fast as I could away from him.
I wanted to kill him, but why?
If this was the curse…
Fuck.
My wolf let out a howl as we ran. The cats in the area were coming after me and my wolf welcomed it. I needed Tristan to help me out here, but I’d lost my phone along with my clothes.
You can’t take on the hunters.
Just fucking watch me.
Maybe he was full of shit and I wouldn’t have to worry about it.
I felt Dane’s presence in the area and his growl settled the cats that were coming out of the trees. Tristan was going to have hell to pay for what I had caused but I was grateful someone was here to help me before I turned this place into a bloodbath.
“Dane,” I said. He understood my words coming from the wolf.
“Come on, Cole. You’re a fucking mess.”
He opened the boot to the Range Rover, and I hopped into the back like a pet dog. I snorted and focussed on trying to shift back into my human form. Every time I tried to reach for the pull inside me that made me able to shift, my wolf would snatch back the control and let out a viscous snarl.
