by A Lonergan
I squeezed my eyes closed and rolled over. The lights had been turned off for me but I had a little bit of night vision now. The pack here didn’t cook their food in wolfsbane.
All that mattered was how long we had to put on this show. If I was here for a week, I knew I would get Nalia back. Would it be enough for me to escape, though? I pressed my palms into my eyes and thought of Rafe.
His hair was longer now. It was almost to his shoulders. He had pulled it back into a half bun on the top of his head. He wore black stud earrings and a plain long-sleeved shirt. He looked so casual and at ease, especially with his wolf tamed. What had happened while I was gone? Was it because I was gone? The Guardians had looked stronger than ever, I knew it was probably from overtime drills to prepare for whatever this mess was.
I sighed. Thinking of my friends would do me no good. Then I stopped and sat up. My hair fanned out around my face in a massive arc. Friends? When had all of them become that? The night of karaoke or before? I didn’t know how this realization made me feel. I laid back down and pulled the blankets up to my neck. I cared for them, all of them. Even Rafe, just a little bit. I pressed my face into the pillow and let out a small sound of frustration. All I could do was hope. Hope that Rafe saw through all this mess or at least Tracey did.
“Get up,” A voice whispered above me. I sat up abruptly and immediately regretted it as my head knocked into the one above me. He swore and I fell backward as pain unraveled in my forehead. I rubbed the tender spot as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I must have fallen asleep pondering on everything that was going on with my pack. I blinked a few times before I attempted to sit up again. The pain was only getting worse. I pressed my palms into my eyes.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I said wincing.
The man across from me, that I quickly recognized as my guard, held his bleeding nose. I would have smirked if we were in different circumstances.
“I was trying to be quiet but you ruined all of that.” He swore again.
I exhaled hard before I scowled at him. “You were the one above me. It wasn’t the other way around.”
He leaned against the wall and pulled his hand away from his nose. It was no longer bleeding. “I see your wolf is coming back.”
I pressed my lips together.
“I came in here to help you,”
I couldn’t have kept the laugh in even if I had tried. “Help?”
It was then that I noticed his icy stare. He was the guard that had been posted outside of my prison cell since the beginning. “Damian is getting antsy. You’re going to have to be convincing to get your friends out of here.”
My eyebrows scrunched together. “What does that mean?”
“Damian has been waiting for the moment that they would come sniffing around. He wants to kill them and this will give him the opportunity to do so.” The guard’s eyes watched the bedroom door. He wasn’t supposed to be in here or telling me this. “So I need you to fight me.”
My eyebrows shot up on my forehead. “Excuse me?”
“There are guards here that want you. They can smell your strength and potential as a mate, even if you smell of another. You need to fight me.”
I still wasn’t getting it. What did other guards have to do with this? Then before I could formulate any other thoughts or plans, he was on top of me. His teeth elongated and fear rushed through me. Before I knew what was happening his hands had mine pinned down. He pressed his nose to my throat and nausea hit me. “Scream.”
I gritted my teeth together. “I will kill you.”
He chuckled. “Good.”
His teeth slid along my neck and Nalia perked up in my mind. Hell no. I kicked out and he flew across the room. Shock flashed across his face before he growled low in his throat. His feet skidded across the floor before he bumped into the wall. I shoved off of the bed and got into a crouching position. He wasn’t going to take me so easily. Not again. Not ever. No one would ever take me again. I would kill them all. My teeth poked my bottom lip and fear washed over the room in a thick cloud.
The bedroom door banged open. Sheeva stood in the doorway with her hair a messy halo around her head and her skin pale. “What is going on in here?”
The guard straightened up and touched his nose, like I had just hit it. The blood still looked fresh, smelled fresh. But not to a witch’s nose. She wouldn’t know whether it happened now or an hour ago.
“The bitch hit me,” The guard’s eyes were bright yellow now.
Sheeva’s eyes went between the both of us before they landed on me at last. “Are you okay?”
I shrugged my shoulders as I straightened up from my defensive stance.
Her eyes flicked back to my attacker. “What are you doing in here?”
When he smiled my blood ran cold. “Damian said we could take turns if we behaved. I figured it was my turn now. I have watched over her for weeks now. I’m getting really tired of waiting.”
Sheeva’s eyes grew wide. She bit her bottom lip before she nodded once. She wasn’t going to help me. She was going to let them have their way with me if Damian said so? My lip lifted in a snarl. “Go clean yourself up.” Her words were a command but her tone was anything but. Her voice shook as she folded her arms over her chest. I wondered if she was doing it to hide the trembling there too.
“I will do no such thing, I am going to bring her to Damian.” The guard sneered. “He told me to bring her to him if she started to get out of line.”
Sheeva’s face went from scared to confused. “Damian is back in the Ro-” She stopped herself from revealing his location. “Damian is at least an hour’s drive from here. If you take her off of the pack lands, the Crimsons will get suspicious.”
The guard grinned. “Good thing Damian got here yesterday.”
The color drained from Sheeva’s face. “I wasn’t prepared. I am still not prepared.”
The guard pressed his lips together before he rolled his eyes. “Damian didn’t want an audience. He came to see the girl here.”
Sheeva nodded once. She wouldn’t question the authority in front of her. “Be quick about it.”
The guard stalked toward her, all swagger and danger in his body movements. “Keep this between you and me. There are certain things Damian does for himself. He doesn’t want the pack here knowing what he is up to. If you gossip, I will make sure your family pays for it.”
Sheeva nodded once before she fled the room. The man threw my shoes at me and didn’t wait for me to dress before he wrapped his hand around my bicep and hauled me from the room. I recoiled from his touch all the way out of the cottage and to the tree line. He released me as soon as we were far enough away.
I stumbled a few steps before I contemplated running. “I’m sorry,” his words came out choked and sad. I stopped walking and looked at him. His face wasn’t full of overinflated confidence anymore. “I wanted you to pretend like you were fighting me but I could hear her in the hall, I had to do what I had to do in order to get you riled up.”
It made sense. I should have listened but everything had happened so quickly, I didn’t know what to believe anymore. There were traitors around every corner and I didn’t know if there was a single person in this damned place that was willing to help me. Lucas was the only one but I still had my doubts about him. I couldn’t trust so easily but now? I didn’t have much choice tonight. I hung my head as we walked. This was all so heavy. I wouldn’t be able to trust this guard until I saw my pack.
My pack.
Why hadn’t I pledged to them when I had the chance? I could have prevented all of this. A tear slipped down my cheek and the guard beside me went rigid. “They know you’re out here.”
“Who?”
The word fell flat as Rafe’s scent wrapped around me. My body sagged in relief. Tracey’s scent was with him and then there was Knox.
“If you run with them, you’ll make this harder on yourself and your pack.” The guard whispered. “He will kill my fam
ily too. He will slaughter this entire pack. I won’t blame you if you go with them but this was simply to help them so they can fight again in the future. We want freedom and we need allies in order to get it.”
All the planning I had been doing in my head to run came to a halting stop. He was right. Damian would kill every single person in this pack. He would do it as an example and then he would come back for me harder. He wouldn’t stop until everyone I loved was dead. He would make sure I suffered for deceiving him. I squared my shoulders. I knew what I had to do, even if I didn’t like it.
Chapter 20
Tracey
The woods told the secrets of the pack. They whispered to us as we walked through the trees and overgrown brush. There was so much to be learned in the places that the pack ran. A few wolves in this pack were sick and a few had been actively poisoned with wolfsbane. I ran my fingers over the rough bark on a tree before I heard it. A branch snapped in the distance.
We were being followed. I stopped and tilted my head to help me hear better. It was no use. There was magic here. It tainted everything in this pack. The sickly sweet smell coated everything. Even the grass slightly sparkled in it. A wolf wouldn’t be able to see or smell it the way I could. The little part of my blood that held witch in it could identify what we were up against. I had seen the shimmering web of control wrapped around Jade the day before. The magic was strong and old. Telling Rafe wouldn’t have helped us any either. He didn’t know I could see the magical tethers in the world.
To be honest, I hadn’t really known I could see it this well until we had stepped out of the car and onto this land. There were different kinds of witches in the world but they were all interconnected somehow. All of our blood was similar, even if our magic wasn’t. I had always been around my grandmother’s magic growing up. Seeing something like this was a shock. My granny’s magic didn’t coat everything like this. It didn’t shimmer or sparkle. Something wasn’t right about the magic and I couldn’t say anything until I asked Granny about it. I was sure she would know. She had left her coven for a reason. I would need to know that too. No more secrets.
Secrets were what had gotten us into this mess. If only we had all been honest. But sometimes, honesty made everything worse. It was a massive tangled web that I so desperately wanted to get out of but I couldn’t leave.
Knox twitched beside me. “She’s here, but is this a trap?”
My ear twitched. I still couldn’t hear anything. I wondered if it was the magic doing it. I didn’t like it. The sickly sweet scent was starting to coat my mouth.
Rafe’s eyes scanned the trees. “I don’t think it’s a trap, there is only one person with her.”
“It could be a witch,” The magic was starting to make me uneasy. The coating in my mouth made me feel sick and lightheaded.
Knox narrowed his eyes. “It’s a wolf.”
How were they able to scent all of this? How could they tell? All I could feel, taste, and smell was the magic in the air and on my skin. It was thick and toxic. It made my head swim. Granny’s magic had never made me feel like this before.
I blinked a few times and then there she was. Jade stood in front of us but this time, magic didn’t coat her skin. She wasn’t tangled in the web of magic. I could barely smell her wolf. She was actually okay.
My head swam and I fought to stay upright. I needed to get out of this forest but not before we got Jade. Jade was all that mattered.
Chapter 21
Rafe
Everything in my body tensed up, ready to fight but the man beside my mate simply put his hands up and took a step away from her. I rushed to her side and touched her face. She scowled at me and I realized that I had overstepped. I had revealed she was my mate to everyone else but her. “I’m sorry,”
Her eyes lightened and a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “It’s okay,” Even her voice sounded normal now. It felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. “But we don’t have much time.”
My eyes went to the man beside her. I recognized him as the man that had slid his hand into her skirt the previous day. I narrowed my eyes. I would never forget his face. The need to tear his head from his shoulders was strong. But I wouldn’t start a war tonight.
“You’re right,” Tracey wobbled forward to grab Jade’s hand. “We have to hurry if we are going to get you out of here and the rest of the Guardians.” Her words sounded slurred now. Something wasn’t right. My eyes went back to the guard at Jade’s left. He had noticed Tracey was acting funny too.
I pointed at him with a clawed finger. “What do you know?”
The man’s eyes didn’t leave Tracey. “The woods are spelled against witches.”
Tracey wasn’t a witch though. My brows met and I turned to look at my friend just as she pitched forward and lost her footing altogether. Knox caught her with little effort. “She’s not a witch, she’s a wolf.”
The man shook his head. “If she has witch blood inside of her, that’s all this place needs. Anything that she touched here is poisoning her.”
Knox looked pained as he held our friend in his arms. He was uncertain of what to do. Protect and get Tracey to safety or help me get my mate back. I shooed him with my hand. “Take care of her, I will be fine.”
A growl rumbled through his chest. “I am not to leave my Alpha. We should have brought more backup with us. This could be a trap.”
The man took a step forward and held his hands up. “This isn’t a trap but you will all die if you don’t leave tonight.”
Jade brushed Tracey’s hair from her face as a tear rolled down her cheek. “He’s right and that’s why we are here. If you don’t leave you will all be killed. If you take me with you or try to help me escape, the families in this pack will be hunted.” She motioned to the stranger beside her. “His family and children will be slaughtered. I am not more important than all these people. It is our duty to protect them.”
Everything in me screamed to tell her no. To tell her that she was my only priority. That the world could burn and I wouldn’t give a damn as long as she was safe. That I was willing to let everyone die if it meant that she wouldn’t. I would throw it all away and I knew it the moment I was willing to change her against her will. But I had a lot of redemption to earn and letting the world burn for her wasn’t the way to get it.
Chapter 22
Jade
I wasn’t prepared for all the emotions that flooded me as I watched my friends walk away. A copper taste coated my tongue as I sharply bit down. I had never felt like I had wanted to go down on my knees and beg before, but I felt that as I watched them turn their backs on me.
“My name is Micah,” the guard said as I watched them go. Tracey was completely limp in Knox’s arms and Rafe didn’t look back once. I had seen the internal war going on in his eyes as I told them to leave. I had seen the struggle he had within himself to allow me to stay behind but I didn’t care. I had to be firm and crying would do none of us favors. Running away with them would do nothing for the people here.
My chest ached as I thought of my parents and what they were going through. Or what they would go through if this didn’t go well for me. I squeezed my eyes closed before I turned to the guard beside me. “It’s nice to meet you, Micah.”
The tightness in my chest bloomed into something I wasn’t prepared for. I struggled to breathe as I realized, once again I was alone. I was going to have to do all of this by myself and there was a possibility I wouldn’t find out how Tracey fared. I pressed my palm to the center of my chest and blinked rapidly to try to clear the tears from my eyes.
“Who’s side are you on?” The words came out barely a whisper as I ducked my head and turned back toward the cabins.
“I hate to break it to you,” Micah’s voice went hard. “But I do have to bring you to Damian now. It wasn’t a lie. He is waiting to see if you have tried to escape or if you are going to. The fact that your friends are packing up to leave now will be a good sign.�
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I pressed my lips together. “That doesn’t answer my question.”
“The answer to that is a bit more complicated.” He hung his head. “I wish I could give up all of my secrets, but for right now, I have to escort you to Damian and he’s already going to be suspicious enough.”
Damian leaned against a blacked-out Mercedes parked on the edge of the empty highway. When he noticed I wasn’t blindfolded he narrowed his eyes.
Micah shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “I could hardly parade her around her friends with a sack over her head.”
Damian lifted an eyebrow as he smoothed his hands over an old bang tee. “Your friends? They still haven’t left.”
I cocked my head to the side with indifference. “They’re leaving now.”
Damian’s eyes flicked to Micah’s. “Is this so?”
“Yes, we ran into them on the way out. They are leaving now.”
Relief and surprise flashed across Damian’s face. “You were that convincing?”
“I just told them what they needed to hear. I didn’t want to go back there and I didn’t want to see them anymore. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about them sniffing around again.” I shrugged even though it hurt to speak the lies.
Damian steepled his fingers under his chin. “That’s interesting. You want to stay here?”
“Under a few conditions,” I picked at my nails in mock boredom. He nodded for me to continue. “No more witch shit. No more invading my mind, mind control, or anything like that. I will be here willingly or wherever you want me to go, but I won’t be controlled.”
Damian’s smile caused a chill to skitter down my back. “We had to make sure you would be loyal, that you wouldn’t try to run. This worked better than I thought it would.”
