by A Lonergan
Redeem Me
A. Lonergan
Night Shade Press, LLC
Copyright © 2021 by A. Lonergan
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
To the ones that fought or are fighting for redemption. You are never too far or too lost for it. This is for you.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Afterword
Note from the author
Acknowledgments
Also by A. Lonergan
About the Author
Chapter 1
Rafe Crimson
The night replayed on a loop in my head. Everywhere I looked I saw Jade. I saw her broody looks and the little smiles she threw at my Guardians. I saw her green eyes in my dreams and when I woke up, she was still gone. No matter what I wanted to do, my hands were tied. I went over the night in my head again. I couldn’t stop it.
“She’s gone,” Mav shouted down our pack bond.
“Who?” I knew before his voice vibrated through my head.
“Jade!”
A roaring filled my ears. “Where is she?”
It was Knox that answered this time. “We aren’t sure. We have Pack Police on the scene but it doesn’t look good.” Even in my head he sounded strained. “It smells like rogues. Their scent is always off, but then it doesn’t. The wind will blow and another scent will replace it.”
Witches. The witches were meddling again. That was the only way to explain it. “How much damage?”
Archer sighed. “I don’t think rogues did this.”
I hopped on my motorcycle and kicked it to life. I didn’t have time to listen to this in my head. I didn’t know why I had waited so long to get there. I should have hopped on my bike immediately. I wasted enough time.
When I got to the scene my stomach dropped. Tracey’s SUV was upside down and the windows were busted out. No airbags had been deployed. Blood splattered on the light leather seats and my stomach clenched. Where was the car that had hit them? Was it a car that hit them? Based on the massive dent in the side of the car and all the damage, it had to be a big truck. I scratched my jaw and sniffed the air.
Knox had been right. The wind shifted and took the rogue scent away then there was nothing. With every breeze it was a different scent. We would be going in circles if we followed that.
Archer was at my side in seconds. Knox was still looking over Tracey’s SUV and Mav had his head in his hands. Tracey was seated on the edge of a stretcher with an ice pack pressed to her bleeding forehead. Both of her eyes were black and her arm was in a sling. With the wolfsbane in her system, she would be healing slowly.
“Who saw what happened?” My voice didn’t sound like my own. It didn’t even sound like my wolf had taken over.
Mav’s eyes rose up to meet mine. They were bloodshot and haunted. “The light was taking too long to change. We knew something wasn’t right. I saw the truck hit them. We tried to get there, but we were too far. I jumped out of the car, but I wasn’t fast enough. We were too far away. I failed you, Alpha.” Damn wolfsbane needed to be banned. We shouldn’t have been drinking tonight. We should have known the threat was too great, even if it did smell like rogues.
It was too organized to be rogues. Rogues were crazy. This was all a setup to make it look like it had been them. Everything was too planned out for a random attack. This was a bigger game, a bigger ploy. One I needed to figure out before my mate was killed… or worse.
Chapter 2
Jade Rivers
How much time had passed? I couldn’t remember as I pressed a hand into my aching forehead. The room was dark and smelled like laundry detergent but that was it. I blinked to let my eyes adjust to the light but it didn’t matter.
“Nalia?” I whispered into the darkness. She should have risen to the surface by now to help with my eyesight. Nothing.
“Your wolf won’t help you here, girl.” The voice startled me and I sat up straight on what I imagined to be the bed.
“Who are you?” My voice trembled into the darkness. Where was I? What happened? How I had gotten here seemed to be a blur.
“I am a prisoner here too,” The rough voice rolled through me and I could feel the power in their wolf even though I couldn’t smell them.
Without Nalia, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I couldn’t live. There was a void in my soul that only she could fill. What happened to her? How could I get her back? A sharp pain shot through my temple and I sucked in a quick breath as I doubled over. Chains on the wall clanked together as the shackle on my wrist yanked me back. The back of my head thumped against the wall and a tear leaked from the corner of my eye.
“How long have I been here?” I winced as pain shot through my head again.
“Possibly a week, maybe two.” A chain scraped the floor and I realized the man was in the same room as me. Were there others in here with us? “Everything blurs together when you’ve been drugged and in the dark.”
“If you’re a prisoner like me then how did you know Nalia was my wolf?” My head was spinning now and all I wanted to do was lie back down to let my consciousness leave me again.
“Nalia is an ancient name, I can feel the power when you say it.”
A banging on the door had my back going rigid. I sat up straight and scooted as far away from the sound as I could. The chain scraping the ground from the other side of the room stopped. Bright light blasted through the darkness as a door opened across from me. I sucked a breath between my teeth and closed my eyes. The light still hurt. Moisture flooded my closed eyes and I turned my head down. I couldn’t let my captors see me weak. I wouldn’t let them see me weak.
“Stop talking in here or you’ll be separated.” The voice rolled over me in waves and I felt my tongue swell behind my lips. My body wanted to obey but my soul was objecting. It was a new sensation that reminded me of
the night Rafe Crimson had forced a change on me. But instead of fighting his Alpha order, I had obeyed. With the order rolling through me from this stranger, I wanted nothing more than to fight it. Pain rolled up my spine but I managed to blink my eyes open and look to the corner of the room. The place where the other stranger was being held.
I sat up straight as I got a good look at him. The man at the door didn’t seem to care that I could see as long as we weren’t speaking to each other. I relaxed my shoulders and came to a conclusion. I would obey, for now. But I would find a way around all of this. The stranger didn’t look to be much older than me. His body was thin from being starved and his cheeks were gaunt. His dark brown eyes flashed to mine and his brown skin looked to be coated in a thin sheen of sweat. I held my breath. He had a long beard covering his chin and some of his neck. His dark hair was long past his shoulders in thick waves.
I wouldn’t allow them to take me prisoner for much longer. I would fight till my last breath.
Gods save them. I was going to make this place their living hell.
The man in the doorway took a step in before he flipped the lights on overhead. I flinched against the brightness again and turned my head down. After the moisture and pain had left my eyes, I lifted my gaze to the gatekeeper of my prison cell. He wore a black ski mask over his face and had a long rifle in his hands. I inhaled hard through my nose.
Nothing. His scent was either gone or Nalia’s absence was taking a toll on my body. The rest of his clothing was black and thick. I couldn’t tell if he was stocky in build or if it was just the baggy clothing.
“Nice to see you’ve finally decided to join the land of the living,” The man’s voice was gruff. It sounded like his wolf was ready to come to the surface but his eyes were clear blue before they went a shade darker. “If you keep trying to fight, we will put you down again. There is such a thing as a lethal dose of wolfsbane for your wolf inside you.”
What did that mean? I couldn’t remember fighting them but that didn’t mean I hadn’t tried. My hands curled into fists at my sides.
“You would kill off my wolf then?” I sat up straight against the wall. My chains clattered together and echoed around the room.
The man took a step forward and I realized the gun he held wasn’t one with bullets, but one with darts instead. “Yes, I will kill your wolf. And do you know what happens to the human side when the wolf is dead?”
My throat dried as I tried to swallow. I didn’t want to hear this but I knew I needed to.
“You will die too, except your death will be much longer, much more painful.” He twitched his head and it made a loud crack. “And I love to be the one to snuff the life out of wolves.”
The door slammed shut behind him but at least he had left the light on. The room we were in looked like a regular bedroom without windows. I was chained to the wall beside a mattress that was on the ground. No box spring or frame to be seen. The other prisoner didn’t even have the luxury I did, but at least his clothes were clean. He leaned against the wall and I noticed the purple spots under his eyes. The walls were white and so were the floors. There was absolutely nothing in the room that I could make into a weapon. I pulled on the shackle around my wrist to test my strength but it was no use, they had somehow made Nalia go away.
My eyes surveyed the walls as the man leaned forward in the corner. “You will not escape here, I hate to break it to you.”
“You know nothing about me,” I whispered angrily. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Too many things had happened to me. I wasn’t going to continue to be the victim. I was going to save myself. The rest be damned.
“That may be true, but you have no idea where we are. You will get yourself caught and killed trying to play the hero.” The man shook his head and the ends of his hair brushed his shoulders.
“Then where are we?” I asked as his eyes flicked to the white door the prison guard had come through.
The man licked his dry, cracked lips. “We are somewhere that nightmares come alive. If you have information they will torture it out of you…” He paused. “There are people here that are held captive in their minds.”
My eyes flashed to his. That sounded like Carden. Is this where he had come from?
Chapter 3
Tracey
I stared down at Jade’s phone and braced myself for the call I knew was coming. Jade’s parents had been in an area that had spotty service for the last two weeks since Jade’s disappearance. It was easy to pretend that Jade was still here.Eventually they would have better service and I couldn’t pretend any longer. Jade’s cottage that she had gotten in exchange for her job sat in front of me.
The silver key was cold in my other hand. I had been avoiding this for too long. I had told myself every single day that I could do this, but something inside of me shied away.
Everyone else was in an uproar around the pack. No one else would be able to do this. No one but me, even though I wanted to be out there with them, searching for my best friend.
For the fifth time this week, I swiped at the tears streaking down my face. I hadn’t been able to stop crying, especially after my body had healed and Jade hadn’t come back. It was a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Jade being pulled from my wrecked car. No matter how hard I had fought against the seat belt, it had held me into place. My wolf hadn’t risen up to help either. This was all my fault.
My fingers trembled as I pushed the key into the lock. The day before I had spent several hours trying to get all the weeds and trees away from the front of the house. Rafe had found me there, collapsed beside the house, covered in sweat. His face was a mask of indifference but I could see it in his eyes. He unclenched his jaw to speak but no words had come out. After a few seconds he sunk down on the ground beside me and we stayed like that until the moon was high in the sky. Oh, how the mighty had fallen.
Chapter 4
Jade Rivers
My captors hadn’t drugged me again, but I could taste the slight undertone of wolfsbane in my food at every meal. They were keeping Nalia contained and it was driving me insane. I felt like myself again, but there was something missing in my soul. A gaping, missing piece right out of the center of my heart. I had learned that the man being held captive with me had been here for years. He had also been turned against his will but he never got the chance to meet his wolf. He wouldn’t tell me why. I pushed my tray across the table and looked at him. He had said his name was Lucas but I wondered if it was true. There was a bit of wrongness on the tip of my tongue.
It was the only part of me that reminded me that Nalia was still with me. We didn’t talk while we ate. We just spooned about as much food into our mouths to keep us alive before we sat and watched the others. The others that weren’t prisoners, but they were. They walked around like they owned the place but there was something off about it all. They didn’t bother to look in our direction or even acknowledge our presence. The guard that had been stationed at our door unshackled us from the table and led us back to the room. They didn’t seem to care that we could memorize the long winding hallways. There were no numbers or markers on the doors either. Everything was white and it reminded me of jail, without barred open cells.
When the guard left us shackled again within our room, I turned to Lucas. “Have you tried to get out before?” I whispered. The door was closed and I knew the guard was stationed on the other side, but his hearing was enhanced by his wolf.
Lucas leaned back against the wall. “Yes, and that’s why I’m stuck with you.”
“What do they have planned for us?”
Lucas raised a shoulder. “My guess is as good as yours is. Right now, all you need to worry about is staying alive and avoiding wolfsbane to keep yourself and your wolf strong.”
It was the same mantra every day. Don’t drink too much or eat too much. Everything they gave us was laced with wolfsbane. The longer we stayed on it, the harder it would be for our wolves
to come back. I laid down on the bed and watched the man on the floor. We had only known each other a few days but I felt bad that he was stuck on the floor.
“Why don’t you have a bed?”
His brown eyes flicked up to mine and a shadow passed over his face. “I tried to free you.”
I sat up. “Why would you do such a thing?”
He shrugged up a shoulder then sunk down to the floor. “Why not? You don’t deserve to be here.”
“And you do?”
He pressed his lips together and turned away from me. So much for getting to know him better.
Chapter 5
Tracey
The call never came. I waited and waited for Jade’s parents to ring her but they never did. The service must have cut out where they were. I ran my finger over the scar on my forearm and sighed. I didn’t have a single scar on my body. But this one was there to remind me of the night I had failed our entire pack. If something happened to Jade, then our Alpha was doomed. This had probably been the plan from the start with the rogues… or whoever they were and we had played right into their hands.
