by Sam Crescent
From the look on Luther and Ryan’s face, they could.
“What is it?” she asked.
The hairs on her arms rose as they all kept their gazes on the forest.
“They’re getting close,” Luther said. “We don’t have much time. I’ve got to go and see if I can hunt them.”
“No!” she screamed, grabbing Luther’s arm before he could take off. Her heart pounded. “There’s no way on this earth that I’m letting you go alone. No way. We’re a pack. You said so yourself, we’ve got to stay together.”
“Lucia, you’re in no condition to fight them. Even if I was to train you with a gun, we don’t have time. They make noise, and that will bring them closer faster. The only way here is for me to hunt them down and kill them.”
She shook her head. “No. You’re not going.”
“I’m not willing to put all of your lives at risk with this. I’m the damn alpha. You will do as you’re told.”
“And I’m your damn queen. You walk into that forest right now, and I swear to you, Luther Knight, when you return, I won’t be here!”
The threat spilled from her lips before she could even control herself. She didn’t know why she said it, only that she felt a need for him to know what he was risking. What he’d be giving up.
“Don’t, Lucia. Do not issue idle threats.”
“It’s not idle, Luther. That I promise you.”
Her heart broke as she watched him withdraw from her.
He took a step back and another.
Shaking her head, she felt broken inside, alone.
“I love you, Lucia. I really do, but I don’t deal in ultimatums.”
With that, he turned on his heel and ran.
****
Luther kept on moving. He followed the scent even as his heart tore in two.
The devastation he saw on her face would stay with him forever.
He didn’t know if it had been a true ultimatum that when he got back home, he’d find her gone.
It was up to Noah, Billy, Luke, and Ryan to keep her home and safe.
This was what an alpha did. He risked his life to protect those he loved and cared about.
The Knight pack was his life.
He would do whatever it took to keep them all safe.
Stepping further into the forest, he paused as he took another deep breath. The smell had come as quickly as it had gone.
He held the gun in his grip and moved toward a tree so that it would help shield him. Changing into a wolf would give him added strength and speed, but there was more of him as a wolf, an easier target.
During his time that he was taken, he’d seen how the men hunted the wolves. He’d listen to them talk. His hearing was superb, and he was able to find out all of their weaknesses.
I should have gone hunting like I wanted to years ago.
I made a mistake listening to my father.
He told me to stay back.
Fuck!
I may have just lost the only good thing in my world.
He heard a twig snap and turned toward the sound. He couldn’t believe it as a man stepped out of the trees. He wasn’t holding any weapon, but he looked cocky.
“You know, I figured if I was patient and kept setting traps then it wouldn’t be long before one or all of you decided to wander out alone.”
Luther tensed up, about to take the shot, when something embedded into his calf, and he felt the electric shock rush through his entire body.
“You see, Knight, I’m guessing you’re the alpha of this pack, and I’ve been watching you for weeks. You got a nice piece of pussy running around the place. I should have known you wouldn’t be able to handle the threat of us. After all, you know all about us, don’t you?”
The man turned his head, and that was when Luther caught sight of the scar.
This man, the one glaring down at him, he thought he’d killed him many moons ago when he made his escape. He’d used his claws on his face, and the marks were there.
“Ah, I see you remember me. Good, because I remembered you, and I knew I wasn’t going to let you get away with doing this to my beautiful face, you piece of shit.”
Luther was about to attack when another bolt of electricity shot into his other thigh.
“You were so easy to find. So perfect as well because I’ve got a surprise for you, Luther. You’re going to enjoy it.”
Luther didn’t know the human’s name. He’d never found out their names.
“I’m going to kill you.”
“Well, this is going to be fun then.” The man stepped back. “Come on, Luther. See if you can take me.”
Luther tore the probes out of his calves and stood up.
He felt the effects of the electrocution, and as he made a move toward the man something else hit him and he was down.
The man wasted no time hitting him in the face and slamming his boot into his gut.
“You pieces of disgusting filth can heal, but we found a way of making you bleed. Of making you hurt. Of keeping those scars on your body. You can only heal in your wolf form, and we can keep you weak. Stop you from being able to become a wolf. Chain you up tight. You can’t turn without being able to move. I’ve watched a couple of wolves try, and believe me, it’s not pretty. They end up in excruciating pain. We’ve even had to chop a couple of limbs off as well. Again, it’s not good. They scream like fucking bitches being raped.” The man tutted. “Damn, this feels good.”
Luther got to his feet and glared at the man.
“You do know my men are at your place right now. The strongest of you is gone. You left them completely unprotected.” The man tutted again. “If I was part of your pack, man, I would totally think about what the fuck you were going to do with your life. I mean seriously. Don’t you feel like a fucking failure? You finally have your woman and your life and yet you fuck up and leave them.”
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck me?” The man threw his head back and burst out laughing. “You have got no fucking idea what I can do to you. Don’t worry, I’m going to have a lot of fun. When we get your whore of a mate, I’m going to fuck her. Then I’m going to get all of my men to take a turn. I wonder how your wolf will act then. I’ll put her up for auction and let a whole lot of human males take their turn. She’ll become a cum dump for them. I wonder if your wolf will want her then.”
Threatening his mate was the last thing he should have done. Luther saw red, and as he went to attack the man that was now a threat to his mate, his woman, everything went black as something hit him hard.
Chapter Twelve
Lucia rattled the cages as she watched the men enter Luther’s cell for the fifth time. They were all in different cells, each one of them chained up apart from her. They’d decided she wasn’t worth chaining up.
Since the tranq dart had hit her, it had been next to impossible to stop herself from being sick. In the corner of her cell was a bucket, and the men had mocked her when they told her it was for her and that she better not upset them otherwise they’d make her eat out of it as well.
They stabbed Luther’s shoulder and injected him with something before they started kicking him, hitting him, making him all bloody and horrible. Tears filled her eyes, and she saw his men, his brothers, all watching. They were all chained up as well, their faces dripping blood from several cuts across their eyes.
The instant Luther had left, they’d been ambushed.
If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought Luther was part of it, but there’s no way he was helping them.
There were other wolves around them in cages, but they seemed to be off into space, drugged up, out of it.
She couldn’t see anyone from her pack, and it scared her.
“You think you’re big, tough men,” she said, wanting to gain their attention.
“Lucia, stop it,” Ryan said.
He’d been hurt the worst when one of the men stabbed his gut while he’d been trying to protect her.
“Is that all you’ve got? Beating the shit out of a defenseless man. You’re so tough, and you’re so strong. Wow, how do you even look at yourself in the mirror?”
A man with a scar across the side of his face stepped up to her cage. “How do you live with yourself? Turning furry a couple days out of the month. You should be disgusted with yourself.”
“You’re the disgusting one. How many people have you killed, huh? How many?”
“You’re not people, sweetheart. A lot of men and women pay a lot of money to hunt your kind. To take you all out. We can’t have our very rich clientele be at risk. Besides, sweet pussy like you, the men can do whatever they want to you. I’ve seen how well you all heal. A couple of wolf pussy got a nice gang-bang, fetched me over three hundred grand. You see with us humans, we can’t take that much of a beating. You, however, can.”
She’d been waiting for him to strike, and as his fist made to hit her in the stomach because she was pressed against the cage wall, she dodged his fist and grabbed his arm, slamming him against the cage. She pushed him back and slammed him against the cage again.
“How are you feeling now? Feeling all big and powerful?”
Men were gathering around her.
“Take the shot,” the man said.
“You can’t hurt us unless you drug us or shoot us. Remember, you’ll make a mistake. You will always make a mistake, and when you do, we’ll be ready. Just … like … now.” Before they could shoot her, she used the bars as leverage and broke his arm. The thundering crack echoed around the room as she let him go.
The wolf inside her felt victorious.
Especially when the man screamed.
He’d stopped hurting Luther, and now as the men stared at her, she waited. They grabbed their man and started to move him away.
His screams were just proof that he wasn’t anything special.
“Do not shoot her,” the man said as someone prepared to take her out. She didn’t know if he was holding a tranquilizer gun or an actual gun. Since they’d been taken, her senses had been off, so nothing smelled different.
Just the strong stench of bleach that affected everything.
The man whose arm she’d just broken came to the cage.
“You think you’re so good, don’t worry. I’m going to have a surprise for you soon enough, sweetheart.”
“Enjoy mending your arm. I hear for humans if they don’t get it set properly, you can never use it right again.” She winked at him and let him go.
The moment they were gone, she collapsed against the side of the cage.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Noah asked.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Luke asked.
“What I was trying to do was stop them from hurting Luther. I can’t stand to see him in pain. Is he okay?” Tears filled her eyes as she looked toward him. She didn’t care that he’d broken her heart minutes before chaos had erupted.
She needed to know he was okay.
“He sounds okay,” Billy said.
They were all chained up. None of them could help him. She got to the floor and tried to reach out toward him. The cages were made of thick steel.
She was too weak to try to open it up.
“Luther, baby, we’re all here. The pack is here. We’re going to get out of here.”
“Do you think this is where he was taken all those years ago?” Ryan asked.
“Yeah. I think it was. If not, then that human has a grudge for no reason,” Noah said.
Lucia tucked her hair behind her ears and batted the tears away. She’d never felt so sick before in all of her life. She hated this, hated the way it all made her feel.
“I love you all,” she said.
“Don’t,” Ryan said.
“I just … Luther said he got lucky to get out of here, and now that I broke that man’s arm, I’m not going to like what’s going to happen to me. You know that.” She sniffled. “I hate this.” She collapsed against the cage, wanting them around her.
She felt so damn tired.
“We’re going to get out of here, and when we do, we’re all going to laugh about the time the humans thought they could hurt us.”
“You promise?” she asked, turning toward Noah, who had spoken up.
“Yes. We’re going to survive this.”
She kept her head against the cage door and closed her eyes. She had to take a time out.
She had to keep resting, as otherwise, death was a guarantee.
****
Luther jerked awake, standing up from the floor where he’d been. His heart raced, and as he grabbed the cage, he saw what he had always feared.
He was back to where he’d once escaped only this time, it was far, far worse.
His pack surrounded him.
Noah, Ryan, Luke, and Billy were all chained up in their cages like animals.
He wasn’t though, nor was Lucia, who slept against the cage’s wall.
The smell of bleach filled the air, and it made his stomach roil.
“You’re awake, finally,” Ryan said.
“What the hell happened?”
“You walked away,” Noah said.
“The moment you did, Lucia broke down, and we all stopped to take care of her. To tell her that you were just being a hotheaded asshole and needed a few minutes to get yourself together,” Luke said.
“Fuck!”
“They attacked us,” Billy said. “You weren’t wrong about them attacking us after they shot us with a tranq dart. Fucking cowards.”
“They gave us enough to make us dizzy,” Ryan said. “That’s when they started hitting us. They had metal bats that they kept using all over our bodies.”
“Shit.”
“Luther, is this the place?” Noah asked.
“Yes. It looks a lot more organized, but time would do that to you.” And he’d left the wrong person alive. He knelt down on the floor and saw a bruise across Lucia’s face. “Is she okay?”
“You broke her heart, and she’s just pissed off scar-face,” Luke said.
“Scar-face?” he asked.
“The guy with the claw marks on his face,” Noah said. “It’s our new nickname for him. She broke his arm.”
“She did?” Luther asked.
She looked so damn delicate as she leaned up against the cage. The sound of her breathing filled his head, and he knew he had to keep her safe.
Someway.
Somehow.
He would do whatever it took to keep her out of harm’s way.
“Scar-face went to punch her in the stomach. She moved so damn fast as she grabbed his arm. You should have heard the girl squeal that came out of him,” Ryan said.
“She moved fast?” Luther asked, staring at their woman.
“Yeah.” Noah spoke up this time.
“Her wolf is close to the surface.” Luther stared at her, wondering if that was why she passed out. During his time here, they rarely got a female wolf. They were so scarce, so having one, he rarely got to see what they actually did.
“They shot us with that tranq dart. I doubt her wolf is going to come out and play for some time,” Ryan said. “You said yourself, once we get hit with the drugs, they take some time to escape our system.”
“I only know that about men. What if there’s something different in a female’s system?” Luther said.
“Like what?” Noah asked.
“Like the fact she’s a woman and she could react differently. She’s designed to carry our young.” Luther stared at her. He wasn’t a scientist, but he knew from experience that men and women were hugely different.
“What are you wanting her to do?” Ryan asked.
“I want to see if she can change.” Luther needed to know if she could turn. If she could, that could help them all.
“You’ve got to wait for her to wake up,” Noah said.
“She passed out about an hour ago,” Luke said.
“After she told us all she lo
ved us,” Billy said.
“She won’t give up,” Luther said. “I won’t let her.”
This time, Ryan started to laugh. “You are crazy right now, you know that, right?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Luther turned to glare at Ryan.
“You left. She wanted you to stay, and you turned on your heel and you fucking left. She was broken that you picked your revenge over us. You think this is easy for us? Easy for her? You left us all alone, Luther,” Ryan said. “This is not going to be easy. You said yourself that it took you fucking weeks to get out of here.”
“No one escapes here. Not anymore.”
This came from another voice. Luther craned his neck, trying to see or hear who it was, but he couldn’t make out any shapes at all, just shadows until someone stepped up close to the cage.
He didn’t recognize him.
There were scars all over the wolf’s face. He wasn’t in a cage though.
This man was on the outside, and he didn’t even carry a weapon.
This man was wolf.
He wasn’t on their side. He was working for the humans.
“You want to know how they were able to locate your pack,” the wolf asked.
“You’re a traitor to your own kind.”
“They realized that packs knew where other packs were. Their location is so easy to find because we’re all one big fucking community and that’s what we do. We help each other out.”
“And you were just happy to take them along for a prize.”
“My pack threw me out. Tossed me away like garbage. I got no loyalty to any wolf. The humans, they took me in when they could have killed me.”
“You think this is freedom?” Luther asked. “They wouldn’t let you go. They’ve given you the illusion that they’re on your side, and we all know that’s not true.”
“Why did your pack toss you out?” Noah asked.
“Excuse me?” wolf man asked.
Luther didn’t know what else to call these people. He didn’t know any names.
His gaze landed on Lucia.
She was still sleeping.
I love you, my sweet woman.
I will prove to you just how much as soon as we get the fuck out of here.
Running a hand down his face, he turned toward wolf man.