by Casey Morgan
“You’re big for a dog.”
I growled a bit. I wasn’t a dog.
Her eyebrows shot up.
“Oh! Was that insulting? You’re a wolf, right? I shouldn’t call you a dog.”
I barked my approval with a loud yip. When we rounded the last few blocks and came up to the high school’s football field, Mary started running. I trotted along beside her, keeping up easily with her short little legs.
A run-down tan shed came into view between the school buildings and the field. That was where Celeste was hiding. My heart ached to see her and apologize for not guiding her through her first shift.
“Celeste!” Mary called, as we ran towards the shack. “I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but I brought Mason. He’s going to help you change back.”
She grabbed the door to the shed and pulled it open.
It was empty.
There was no wolf inside.
Celeste was gone.
I whined and stalked around the narrow shed. There was evidence of where Celeste slept, but nothing to indicate where she had gone.
Mary was so scared that she sat down, her legs too shaky to stand on. I trotted over to her to make sure she was okay. She wound her little arms around my neck and pulled me close like a teddy bear. I bore it, but told myself that when things calmed down, Mary needed instructions on how to deal with werewolves.
“I don’t understand,” she cried into my fur. “I told her to stay here. Why would she leave?”
As I was struggling to breathe in Mary’s tight grip, my eyes caught sight of a scrap of paper. I whined until she let me go and then I scooped it up with my teeth. I gave it to Mary to read.
“Pup,” she read, “I have the—oh, I’m not going to say that word, but I think he means Celeste—at The Grinder. I told you to keep your hands off my things. If you try to come get her, I will teach you the lesson you deserve.”
She blinked down at the piece of paper for a few seconds.
“It’s not signed.”
Terrell.
I sat back on my haunches and dropped my head. He had probably already bound her to him.
Should I even go over there?
My heart said yes, but I still didn’t know if I was alpha enough to help Celeste.
Mary eyed me.
“Are we going?” she asked.
I shook my head.
“Why? Are you scared of this kidnapper?”
I barked no.
“Then what’s the problem? Celeste needs you. And for some reason, she wants you. Shouldn’t you go help her?”
Something about her words rang true. Celeste wanted me. She knew I was broken and yet, that didn’t matter to her. She kept trying to be with me and I pushed her away.
I should have listened to her and fought to be by her side. That was exactly what I was going to do now.
Determined, I barked happily at Mary, then I put my snout to my pile of clothing. I needed to shift back and head to The Grinder. I was trying to indicate to Mary for her to turn her head, but she just stared at me wide-eyed with misunderstanding.
Finally, I gave up and started the shift. At first, she was watching the whole thing, but she turned away when she realized that I was going to be nude. Once I was human, I grabbed my boxers and put them on first.
“You can hold onto my coat,” I told her as I dressed. “But I’ll need the hoodie for the few blocks to The Grinder.”
She pulled off the jacket and then the hoodie.
“So, we are going to get Celeste?”
“Yep.”
She nodded. “And after this, you’re never going to let her go or push her away?”
I turned to look into her eyes.
“I promise, Mary.”
And I meant it. But first I hoped to have the chance to have any kind of a future at all with Celeste. We had to get to The Grinder—and quickly.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Celeste
I was mad as hell. Sure, any girl who gets kidnapped would be mad, but normally they would also be scared.
I wasn’t scared, not at all. All I could feel was rage. In that moment, with a black bag over my head and my wrists bound, I knew I was capable of horrible things. I would rip these men apart to get free.
What would my father think? Maybe I am a monster.
I shifted my weight and leaned to the wall or whatever it was that was closest to my back. It felt pretty solid, so I figured that it wasn’t a car door. I tried to keep the windbreaker down and covering my thighs, but it was hard, with my hands tied.
The air smelled. There was a putrid scent that was like a combination of wet dog and rancid meat. It was overwhelming. I longed to hold my nose but couldn’t. Annoyed, I rolled my shoulders back and pulled at the chains that bound me.
“Little pup is still fighting.”
The gruff voice came from my left and I turned towards it quickly. Part of me wanted to growl or snap my jaws.
“Woohoo,” the same voice swore. “Look at her flinch. She’s a real wild one.”
“Indeed,” said another voice, this one deeper. “Take off that hood and let’s have a look at my new mate.”
Mate? Oh no! What the fuck?
I heard footsteps and could smell a man coming towards me. It wasn’t just his cologne that filled my nostrils. There was something underneath, musky and raw—like a wild animal. I pulled back into myself, just as a voice rang out in my head.
Woof!
It wasn’t so much words, but feelings and images that plagued my brain.
Maybe they were memories?
I saw, in my mind, a pack of wolf pups hunting and snarling together. I remembered how cold noses felt as they burrowed into my fur when my brothers and sisters were cuddling with me. There were four of us, close in age, all playful and loving—until they were gone, and I was alone.
A hand gripped the hood that covered my head and pulled. My thoughts were interrupted by the flash of light that blinded me for a second. I blinked rapidly, hoping that my eyes would adjust soon.
The smell was slightly better. At least there was some fresh air coming from somewhere.
When my eyes adjusted, I looked around a bit. The two men who stood before me seemed to wait for me to do so. They lounged against the wall and just watched me as I glanced from side to side.
I was in the corner of a small room. The walls were concrete, with no insulation, so it must have been some kind of warehouse. A look at the ceiling confirmed that. It had exposed metal beams and I could see ventilation shafts.
There were two metal doors. They both looked thick and had large locks.
“Well, she’s certainly well endowed.”
My eyes shot back to the two men. I recognized one as the bartender from The Grinder. Tall, thin and with a narrow face, what I remembered most was his long, dark brown braid. When I first talked to him, I noticed it, because I had never seen a man with hair so long.
He was dressed similarly to how he was the day that I went to The Grinder, in black jeans and a leather vest with no shirt. It wasn’t exactly a style I cared for.
His beady eyes were focused on my breasts, or rather, their shape beneath my sweater. I hunched my shoulders to hide them as best I could.
“Leon, stop,” the other man commanded. “You’re making her uncomfortable.”
The other man was taller—close to Mason’s height. He was broad in the shoulders as well, but that was where the similarities ended. This man had a long face with a beak-like nose and a very large chin.
His eyes, which were almost black, were so small they hid under his brutish brows. He noticed me looking at him, walked the few steps towards me, and knelt.
Woof! my mind screamed, and I bid it to be silent.
“I’m Terrell. If you promise to be a good girl, I will unbind you,” he offered, in a kind voice.
That grated on my nerves. Nothing he did was kind and he couldn’t convince me that it was.
“I will promise
no such thing,” I barked.
I pulled at my binds again, trying to shift onto my knees. The ropes around my ankles kept me from doing so.
The ugly man pulled back like I had bitten him. Leon laughed.
“She’s got a temper on her, eh?” he said, absentmindedly pulling at the braid that fell over his shoulder.
Terrell scratched the oily stubble his chin.
“That’s not all,” he mumbled to his associate. “Look at her eyes. She’s going to try to shift down here.”
Leon dropped his braid and looked over at me. His bushy brows pulled together and caused his forehead to wrinkle.
When Terrell met his gaze, he gave the bigger man a slight nod.
“Yep, she is on the cusp and unbound. Best rebind her in silver.”
“Go get the chains.”
Leon left, out the door directly behind him, and I was alone with Terrell. I didn’t feel any safer. He reached forward to grab my leg, but then seemed to think better of it and stopped. He stood and went to lean on the rough concrete wall.
“I regret that this had to happen this way.” I hated his light conversational tone. “I should have come to you earlier. But I had to wait until your first shift. When I saw you as a wolf tonight, well, let’s just say that it was a dream come true. This was longer than I wanted to wait. I would have preferred to have had you right after your eighteenth birthday.”
He seemed to almost say this last part to himself, but then he looked over at me and ran his eyes up and down my body.
“My original plan was to woo you like a proper suiter. But having that lame wolf in town really messed that up.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I snapped.
Nothing ever made sense anymore.
“You were born to be a queen, Celeste. My werewolf queen. And I have been waiting to taste you, to make you mine for a long time.”
He put out his hands like he was going to take me in his arms.
I scooted closer to the wall.
“Eww! Gross!”
Terrell frowned. If this was the moment he had been dreaming of, then it was going poorly for him.
He moved closer to me and leaned down. His face hovered inches from mine.
“You accept that you are a werewolf?”
I nodded.
“When a werewolf is without a pack and shifts for the first time, they start to go mad. You need to commit yourself to an alpha or the beast will take over,” he explained.
He inched closer to me.
His were lips just inches from my skin and I could feel his hot breath.
“Once you commit yourself to me, all the rage and blood lust you feel will go away. I will lead you and mate with you and our pack will be stronger because of it.”
This guy was nuts. I had no intention of doing anything with him— especially not mating.
“I already have a boyfriend,” I lied—sort of.
Mason may have rejected me, but I hadn’t forgotten about him. He was still the only one I wanted.
Terrell chuckled.
“That lone wolf that was protecting your father’s bakery? He’s damaged. He may have been an alpha at one point but now he can’t even tell where another pack is. He walked into my bar, a bar full of his own kind, and thought we were human!”
He put a hand up to his chest and laughed hard.
I glared at him. I didn’t like how he called the man—the Were—who was going to be my husband damaged. Sure, Mason couldn’t smell, but he was still strong and smart. I could smell werewolves now, so together we would be fine.
“A bitch like you deserves a real alpha.”
“Oh please, is that really necessary?” I hissed and rolled my eyes at him.
“What?” he blinked at me.
He gave me a snarky smile.
“That really is the correct term. A female werewolf is a…”
“Don’t call me that!” I cut him off, yelling into his face. “If you say that word to me again, I will bite your throat out.”
He looked at me dumbfounded. His tiny eyes glanced to my bound wrists as if to say: how? I just glared hotly at him, letting all my rage show.
A low growl made its way up my throat. Dark and sinister, it was the meanest noise I had ever made.
Terrell growled back. His eyes started to glow gold in the low light and the outline of his body seemed to get hazy.
“I am a strong alpha. I have twenty members to my pack who always obey me without question.”
His voice was deep and had a bit of an echo to it.
I could feel his influence pull at me. He wanted me to obey him, to open my mind and my body to him. It was a useless attempt, though. His sway may have bound others, but it just bounced right off of me.
“You will obey me,” he commanded.
“Fuck off!”
He slapped me.
My face stung, but I found myself laughing.
“Oh, that did not help your cause,” I told the stupid man. “You best give up now and let me go, because when I get free, I’m going to smash your face in.”
And I knew, in every inch of my body, that that was true.
Terrell backed away from me. He tried to move in a relaxed, casual way, but I could smell his fear. The smell made me hungry.
“No one’s ever talked back to you, have they?” I asked.
Leaning forward, inching my body after him, I stared into his eyes.
He had tried to command me and failed, so I figured that maybe I could command him. Or at least that it was worth a shot.
“You will untie me,” I told him, moving all my will towards him.
Terrell shifted. One of his feet inched back towards me. It was just one step, but I had him. His eyes were caught in mine.
I gathered all the power and rage in my body and pushed it through my voice.
“Terrell, untie me now!”
He was two steps towards me when the door opened, and my influence was broken. Leon entered with another man, who was tall and lanky.
“I brought Augie along to help.”
Leon eyed Terrell, who was visibly shaken.
“Looks like that was the right choice.”
Terrell ran a hand through his dark, oily hair. I had really thrown him off. He was embarrassed and it showed. Leon and the new man, Augie, looked towards him for an explanation.
“Fix her chains,” Terrell barked.
He put anger in his voice to disguise his embarrassment.
Leon shrugged. He and Augie stalked towards me.
“Put your paws out, pup,” Leon commanded, his voice song-like. “That will be easier on everyone.”
I laughed in his face.
“Leon, I’m not going to make anything easier for you.”
I leaned towards him and dropped my voice down to a whisper.
“I’m going to tear your balls off and feed them to your friend.”
“Shit!” Augie spoke for the first time. “She’s got a mouth on her.”
He was a ruddy-faced man with hair to match.
“That’s not all she’s got.”
Leon was eyeing my chest again.
“Shall we bind her with her hands behind her back this time?”
Terrell smiled.
“Yes, lets.”
He joined the men and they all moved towards me slowly. I fought, but three werewolves to one was too much for me to be able to handle.
Two of them held me down and then the third bound my wrists and ankles. The silver chains burned and pulled at my skin, but not enough to make me cry out.
Terrell stood up suddenly and turned like he was listening to something. He glanced at both of the men and then at me. His eyes glowed gold again.
“He’s coming,” he told us all. “Gather the pack.”
I didn’t have to ask who “he” was.
I felt Mason’s movements in every inch of my body.
My mate was coming to find me.
Chapter Twenty-
Seven
Mason
The entrance to The Grinder was dark. Usually the bar stayed open until two, but the exterior lights were off, and the red door was locked. I put my hand to the faded paint and tried to think.
Mary shivered besides me. I looked down at the small girl. She huddled close to me, keeping her arms tightly wound in front of her chest.
“Mary?”
She looked up at me. Tears were in her eyes, she was so scared.
“Why don’t you go home?” I told her. “This really isn’t a place for humans.”
Her blue eyes went wide as dinner plates.
“So… in there? The other guy… is like you?”
She obviously couldn’t bring herself to say the word werewolf.
“Yes, he’s an alpha too. A shifter, like me.”
She looked at the door in front of her and repeated: “Shifter.”
Shuffling her feet, she looked up at me again.
“Can you get Celeste out on your own?”
I smiled. Mary was a true friend. She was scared out of her mind and yet, if Celeste needed help, she would be there. My wolf approved and I started seeing Mary as my friend, too. She was a good human.
“I can rescue Celeste on my own,” I promised. “If you go in there with me, I’ll just have to worry about you, too. Go on home.”
She nodded.
“Call me after and let me know that she’s okay.”
“I promise.”
I held out my hand.
Mary looked at it for a few seconds and then decided that I was okay. She put her small, freezing hand in mine, and we shook briefly.
She turned to leave, but stopped quickly and gave me a look.
“You should have told her what you were sooner.”
I nodded in agreement.
“You should have told her what she was,” Mary continued, her voice shaking but determined. “No secrets anymore.”
“I promise that, too.”
“Good!”
I watched her walk down the street into the black night, my duster coat dragging behind her. Normally I would walk her home, but there wasn’t time. My mate needed me, and I had no intentions of letting another alpha hurt her.