“You,” he said, smiling, “you are just what I need to finally get out of this dump. I’ve been waiting for you, you know.”
A thousand questions rang in Addie’s head. “Me?” Of course she would ask a self-centered question first, because she was human. Half-human, technically, but self-involved all the same. Why would she be what he needed? She wasn’t even a shifted wolf. She was a half-breed.
“Yes, you,” he said. He waved a hand, and suddenly a blood-soaked table appeared behind him. He yanked over a chair, spinning it so he sat with his legs around the chair’s back. Like he was trying to be cool. “You are quite the conundrum, aren’t you?”
She thought she was the least interesting person around, and she’d never considered herself a conundrum, but clearly this man knew things she didn’t. Maybe if she kept him talking, the others would find a way to break through the barrier. Maybe she’d be able to delay him enough. It was a pointless hope, because the pack had nothing at their disposal to help them with the barrier. They didn’t even know it existed before she said something.
“You don’t even know what you are, do you?” the man asked, tilting his head, his dark eyes narrowing at her.
“I’m part shifter,” Addie said. Was that the reason he thought she could help him? She wasn’t a full shifter? “But I’m not turned. Whatever you think you’ll get from me, you’ll—”
He let out a laugh. The laughter settled deep within her the moment it entered her ears, making her body tremble. Diabolical, maniacal, wholly insane. Not a good sound. “Girl, you are so ignorant, aren’t you? You think you are only part shifter. If that was true, the barrier would’ve set you alight, like it had your friend. Actually, the only reason they were even able to stumble upon the barrier was because of you.”
“Me?” Addie echoed again, her voice faint. She was not sure what he meant, and honestly at this point, she didn’t know if she wanted to know. What more could there possibly be?
“Yes, without your presence, those wolves never would’ve come across the barrier. They would’ve gone around it, thinking they went straight. It’s an effective tool, one every witch and warlock should be capable of.”
“Witch?” Addie shook her head. “Warlock?” What the heck was this, Harry Potter?
The man nodded. “Only another witch or warlock could’ve detected the barrier. You, girl, have been lied to more than you know. You might be half shifter, but the other half is far from human.”
Addie’s mouth opened, and she wanted to retort, to say he was wrong, but no words came out. Could she not speak because she knew he was right? Could she not argue with him because, deep down, somehow she knew she wasn’t human at all? Her mother had kept her shifter side from her, her shifter family, the pack she would’ve belonged to…what else did she keep from her?
“My father,” Addie whispered, finally able to take charge of her voice. The mere possibility her father wasn’t human felt even weirder than it had to find out she was a wolf shifter, but at the same time, it felt right—and it would explain so much.
Why did her mother keep all of this from her?
“Oh, yes,” the man said, speaking more eagerly than before. “Your father—not human. And a big enemy of my master. You will help me unlock the secrets of the beast, and then I will bring you to him. He will reward me greatly for you.”
“Why does me being part shifter and part…witch help you? What do you want?” If Addie was going to die, the least the crazy man could do was give her answers. She deserved them, she thought.
The man looked thoughtful, or as thoughtful as he could be, considering he was batshit crazy. “I can connect with you through other means than blood. Perhaps what my master wants is not in the blood, the genes, but in the mind itself.”
“And your master—” Addie hated saying the word, just like she was not a fan of the word mate. As she spoke, her eyes studied the cage she was in. If magic had a hand in the lock, she would not be able to break it. She was now as stuck as Landon was, in the hold of a crazy man. “—what does he want?”
“My master wants something new. The strengths of all and the weaknesses of none. You are the first step, I think.”
The strengths of all and the weaknesses of none. It sounded to Addie like his master wanted to create a new race. A hybrid? No, because that’s what she was, apparently. Two things, put together. His master wanted something new.
“Why?” she whispered, afraid of the answer.
“To defeat death itself,” he said.
Right. To defeat death itself. To go against every single law of nature, especially the biggest one. Numero uno. Death was the only for sure thing in this life. To take it away, to try to go around it was insane.
Then again, until a few days ago, Addie thought magic was insane. She thought shifters were a thing in books and movies. Not real life.
“Any other questions for me before we get this show on the road?” The man tilted his head, and though it was hard to see, she could’ve sworn he rose a single eyebrow. “Any other questions burning in that pretty mind of yours?”
Addie did her best to look tough. She was not going to let this dick intimidate her, even if he did have the upper hand. Really, she had no hand at all. She was handless, not even playing the game. “Who are you?”
“For now, you can call me Clay.”
Clay? The big, scary man who’d killed dozens of wolves in some bizarre attempt to unlock the secrets of the beast, the man who’d kept Landon locked up and tortured, the man who built this macabre cabin and kept its walls and floor freshly coated in blood, was named Clay?
A laugh bubbled in her throat, and she was too stunned to stop it, so she just laughed.
She laughed and laughed.
Chapter Nineteen
Clay did not appreciate her laughter, clearly, for his expression darkened, matching the black paint on his face. His lips, which were painted as well, turned down into a frown, and his eyes narrowed. “I would enjoy that laugh if I were you, because once we begin, you will never laugh again.”
“You know,” Addie said, “I would take you a lot more seriously if I knew your name wasn’t Clay. What are you, a surfer? One of those guys in the movies who say nothing but bro and dude? Clay. Your name really is Clay. It’s not a joke?”
“Yes, my name is Clay. It means—I don’t have to explain my name to you.” Clay stood, swinging his legs off the chair as he turned to the table behind him. The sounds of moving metal bounced through the air, various instruments clinking and clanking against each other. He picked up a bloodied sword.
Okay, maybe making fun of his name was not the best thing for her to have done. But at this point, she didn’t have many other options. Landon was still knocked out in his cage, and the scarred wolf Clay had at his disposal was motionless, his green gaze watching Addie and Clay at equal measure, his ears still hanging down in obedience.
“If you give me any more hassle, girl,” Clay paused as he moved to Landon’s cage. The sword he held was nearly as long as his arm, and he stuck the tip through the bars, resting it above Landon’s head. “I will kill him. You should know I don’t need a weapon to end the wolf, but I find sometimes it’s more effective.” His hand released the grip of the blade, and he stepped back from the cage. The sword hovered in the air, floating without help.
Freaking magic. The sword was a constant reminder she was not the only one here, her life not the only one at stake. Although, Addie knew, at this rate Clay would not let either of them go, even if he got what he wanted. All the crosses outside, all the shifters who had met their end in a cage like Landon’s…Clay was not a man who let things go.
The smile Clay wore now was sardonic and disdainful. “Do you understand?”
Did she understand the threat against Landon? Addie gave the crazy man a nod. What else could she do? He had her, and there was no way out.
“What is your name, girl?”
She closed her eyes, wanting this nightmare
to end. But this wasn’t a nightmare, this was reality, almost worse than her nightmare because every part of this was real. The monster who’d been preying on the pack for the past few years stood before her, believing she was the key to whatever he was looking for.
The key to the beast.
“Addie,” she said softly.
“Addie,” Clay repeated, his voice soothing, lulling her involuntarily into a false sense of security. There would be no true security here, not in this cabin of horrors. “Close your eyes and let me in, Addie. Just like before. Let me into your mind.”
His words echoed in her brain, and though she did not want to, she found herself sitting in her cage, her eyes closing almost immediately, like she could not control her own body. Clay had access to her in a way she could not deny. Was it because they were alike? Because they were the same, in a way? He was a witch, or a warlock, or whatever, and she was the same?
Addie did not like being at his command, but she was not strong enough to fight him.
The world around her faded away, until she was surrounded by blackness, a darkness so strong it felt cold and unsettling. Still, oddly enough it also felt like home. As if she belonged here. This blackness was her beginning and it would be her end.
“I want you to show me everything,” Clay’s voice entered her mind, though she couldn’t see him. She couldn’t see anything. “Who are you, Adeline Smithson?” He somehow knew her full name, possibly because of their connection.
It was like a movie started to play, a movie of her memories and her past. Everything that made Addie Addie, put together in a collage for him to see. Growing up with her mother, Sarah. All the laughter, the holidays and the birthdays. The fortune-telling, Addie’s feelings toward all the hocus-pocus. Her studious nature, overachieving in every way when it came to school.
The blackness took over once more, and Clay spoke straight into her mind, “Why are you here now, Addie? What brings you to Crystal Lake now, so many years after your wolf should have been awakened?”
Images of Addie at the pond flashed in her mind’s eye. Running free and wild. The howl she’d heard which changed everything. Henry in the house, sitting in the kitchen. Maze turning from a wolf to a man, hitting him with her shoe. Addie declaring she would go to Crystal Lake, but ultimately the decision would be up to her.
God. It felt like such a long time ago, months and months ago. Even years. Like a whole different life.
“And your dear old daddy. Let’s take a peek there.”
Addie didn’t have much for the prompt. Her mother had told her he had died before she was born, and Addie never questioned it. Never asked about him because she didn’t want to hurt her mother. To dredge up old memories never seemed like a good idea. She never was the kind of child who spent hours wondering about her dead father, never lost sleep over it. She’d been happy with her mother, happy with her life. She didn’t need any more.
Would she have taken more, if it was offered to her?
She didn’t know. She couldn’t say. It just wasn’t her life, and she was fine with it. She didn’t need a father in her life. Yes, it would’ve been nice to know before now she wasn’t human, but all in all, she’d been a happy kid with a happy childhood. With a mother who was like a best friend. Better than her so-called friends who’d abandoned her after going out of state.
“And your wolf,” Clay spoke, “I can only imagine she isn’t doing so well after being locked up for so long. Let’s visit her, you and I. Take me to her, Addie. Take me deeper.” His words pounded in her brain, threatening to break out of her skull. Addie couldn’t feel her body, but she knew he had complete control. She could not deny him if she tried to.
The world around her changed, a forest sprouting from nothing, a ground appearing out of thin air, full of dried-up leaves and broken branches. The smell of earth and nature all around her. Addie stood in the forest of her mind, though she was not alone. Clay stood near her, wearing his strange black suit and his painted face. Her wolf was nowhere around, not in sight.
Was it too late? Had she waited too long to let her out? Had her wolf perished while she was trying to find Landon? Addie reached up, feeling her chest, above her heart, as she wondered these things.
No, she decided. She would’ve felt her wolf go. She would know without a doubt the beast inside was gone. Her inner wolf was still here…she was hiding. Hiding from Clay, somewhere in the forest of her mind.
“Call her,” Clay ordered. “Call her and she’ll come.” Confidence oozed from him, as if he’d done this before. Had he? Had he gone inside Landon’s mind, the minds of the wolves he’d killed before? Or was she a special one, because she was part witch or warlock? Was this his first time?
Addie wasn’t sure it would help at all, if it was. At this point, she was a slave to his will. She could barely have her own thoughts, let alone the power to go against him.
“I…” She started, “I don’t know how.”
Beside her, Clay rolled his eyes. “Why on earth you shifters have to make everything so complicated, I’ll never know. She is you, Addie. If you will her here, she’ll come. She is hiding because you are scared.” He moved closer to her, sweeping a hand across her shoulder blade, beneath her pink and brown hair, stopping only when his fingers touched the back of her neck. “Calm yourself. There is nothing to fear…yet.”
Addie did not appreciate him touching her neck, his fingers curling around the back of her throat like he owned her. Despite her feelings about him, and how she hated the way he touched her, she felt her emotions calming, her fear smoothing over.
Clay wanted to meet her wolf? She wanted to know why, but she found she couldn’t ask. The only thing she could do was close her eyes, forget about the creepy feeling his touch gave her, and ask wordlessly for her wolf to come. Because her wolf was a part of her, because her wolf was her, the beast would come. The beast trusted her.
Within a minute, the sounds of crinkling leaves entered the area, and Addie opened her eyes to watch her wolf tentatively step out of the shadows behind a tree trunk, her head low to the ground, though her green eyes were bright and wide open. Open and staring at Clay, pointedly ignoring Addie’s presence. The wolf remained twenty feet away, not taking another step closer.
Even though Addie was calmed now, she could not get her to come nearer.
The wolf looked a little better than she had the last time Addie had seen her, after she’d first tried to walk through the barrier, before she’d known what it was. No blood remained around the wolf’s eyes or muzzle, but the beast still looked too thin. She still seemed sad.
“Hello there, wolfie,” Clay spoke, taking a step toward her, his hand finally leaving the back of Addie’s neck. The wolf responded by immediately matching his step backward. “You are a little one, aren’t you? Skinny. Not at all what I imagined.”
As if Addie needed a lecture from a crazy man. She already felt bad enough about the state of her inner wolf, she didn’t need Clay to make her feel worse.
“You haven’t shifted yet, and this poor thing has been locked up inside for so long. And since you’re only half shifter,” Clay paused, the white line in the middle of his painted face seeming to glow brighter in the darkness of the forest, “I imagine she’s even weaker. She’ll waste away into dust, you know.”
Addie whispered, mostly to herself, “I know.”
“You know, and still you let her suffer like this? Tsk-tsk. Maybe I’ve underestimated you, Addie. There might be a part of you I may want to save after all—of course, that’s assuming you survive meeting my master. This is only the beginning of what I have in store for you, and it’s the easiest part. Now, let’s see something a little more…personal.”
The world around her seemed to fold in on itself, and Clay disappeared from Addie’s side. Her mind raced, her heart thumping wildly in her chest. Images transposed themselves atop each other, piece by piece, bit by bit until Addie stood in a living room she’d only been in a few times be
fore.
Or maybe she’d been in it dozens? Countless of times? Suddenly, Addie could not remember. What used to be unfamiliar turned familiar, her mind adjusting instantly. What was she doing before now? Where was she? How long had she been standing here?
A warm, strong hand touched her hip, and she turned to look at its owner. Maze stood beside her, grinning sloppily, dimples set in his boyish face. “How are you feeling? Better, yeah? I know you were feeling kind of off these last few days, but you’re looking better. I think the shift was good for you.”
Addie couldn’t remember shifting, but she knew he was right.
She nodded once. “Yeah, I’m feeling better. I…I don’t remember what I was doing, though.”
“I’m not sure, but I know what we can do now,” Maze murmured, lowering his head, his lips brushing her ear. His breath, hot and warm, sent her body aflutter in all the right ways, butterflies flitting in her stomach, her palms growing sweaty at the mere mention of what they could do.
The hand on her hip forced her to spin into him, her chest slamming against his. When she inhaled, she pressed further on his rock-hard abdomen, and she couldn’t help but smile as she took her hands and rubbed them up his sides, beneath his shirt. Feeling his muscles tense beneath her fingertips was one of the best sensations in the world, maybe even the best.
Maze snaked an arm around her lower back, his other hand tangling through her hair, tilting her head back. Before she could say anything, before she could withdraw her hands from his sides and wrap them around his neck, his mouth was on hers. Hungry, needy, passionate. The world fell away, all her worries disappeared—did she even have any worries? Addie couldn’t remember.
She didn’t care.
Addie parted her lips slightly, allowing his tongue to slip inside. Warmth flooded through her, waves of pleasure she could not fight, did not want to deny. She wanted Maze in more ways than one, wanted him to throw her over his shoulder and carry her up the stairs. She wanted him to take her to his room and throw her on the bed, tear off her clothes and do things to her that would make her blush the next day when she remembered them.
Limitless: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (Crystal Lake Pack Book 1) Page 15