by Lola Glass
“Go get some sleep at my place. Or watch a chick flick or something; whatever you need to get your mind off it.”
“Alright.” Her voice was small, her eyes a bit wet. “Thanks, Hennie.”
I wrapped my arms around her for a tight hug.
“Don’t sleep in the bed that smells like Roman or I’ll have to kill you. Oh, and you can order us pizza when I get home to thank me.” I said, pulling away. She laughed, though it was half-hearted.
“Deal.”
Jamie left out the back door and I went back to the bar. Finishing the drink she’d been making was quick, so I handed it to the person who’d ordered it and got to serving more customers. Kyler was taking the mated guards a couple of shot glasses, but I didn’t spare them a second glance. There were too many customers to care.
The next couple of hours flew by.
As the crowd began to slow, I noticed the mated guys who were guarding me stumbling around the dance floor. It wasn’t exactly safe, but Kyler looked sober so at least that was something.
Plus it was night time, so it wasn’t like another pack’s werewolves could come for me. They’d all be in wolf form.
“Can you help me grab something from the back?” Kyler checked, as our line of customers paused for a moment.
“Sure.”
I followed him through the break room and into the supply room. I couldn’t see those shelves without remembering the first time Roman and I had kissed, the way my body came to life beneath his hands.
When Kyler shut the door behind me, I shot him a strange look. His eyes were full of guilt as he approached with a roll of duct tape.
“What are you doing?” I asked, voice cautious.
“He has my sister.” Kyler’s voice was pained. My fists clenched.
“Ledger.”
He jerked his head up and down.
“You’re the one who gave him my phone number.”
“I had no choice.”
Like it or not, I believed him. I knew a little something about being chained to a wall by the Colorado Alpha.
“He’ll let Kylee go when I take you to him.”
I should’ve mated with Roman while I had the chance. Being unmated was too freaking dangerous for me.
“Are you going to use that?” I gestured to the duct tape and studied the man. His shoulders were slumped, and all fight seemed to have gone out of him.
Was this what he’d wanted to talk to me about at the pack breakfast?
“Only if I have to. We both know you won’t get away from me.”
I considered my options.
Go with Kyler willingly. Or fight and get injured only to get taken to Ledger already less than my best.
There was a slight chance I could actually escape and vanish, but I was tired of running. It was time to face my demons.
“Alright, let’s go.”
We walked out to his car.
“I’m sorry, Henley.” He said as we sat down. It sounded like the truth.
“Me too.” I tilted my head against the window, closing my eyes. “Did you book a flight?”
“Yeah. Leaves in an hour.”
“You’re buying me food at the airport, then.”
“I’ll buy you whatever you want.”
Opening my eyes, I stared as the people and buildings whirled past as us. Kyler’s guilt made the air heavy and painful. His guilt wasn’t helping either of us, so I broke the silence with something I figured would remove the guilt.
“I want your nightclub.” I folded my arms over my chest. “If I get away from Ledger alive, give it to me and we’ll be even.”
“That’s it?” He looked over at me with raised eyebrows. The guy was so rich, he’d probably give me anything else I asked for.
“Yep.”
“Done.” He said. We drove to the airport in silence.
I wondered how long it would take Roman to realize I was gone. His enforcers were drunk out of their minds and would probably be crashed on the floor of the nightclub sometime soon, thanks to Kyler, so Roman wouldn’t hear it from them.
But he would come looking for me by the time my shift ended. He’d been so against me leaving in the first place, I had no doubt about that.
Which meant I’d spend a minimum of what, eight hours in the storm cellar? That was if Roman came after me the moment he realized I wasn’t behind the bar. He wouldn’t wonder where I’d gone; he’d know Ledger was behind it. But he’d likely go looking for me first, checking Kyler’s house and shit. Because my Alpha definitely didn’t know his right-hand man was the one who’d betrayed him. Kyler would be long-past dead if he did.
So realistically, I’d have to survive forty-eight more hours in the storm cellar. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less.
We made it through security without a problem and slipped into our seats moments before the doors closed. As the plane took off, I made up my mind.
I’d fight Ledger until I was dead or rescued by my Alpha. The monster wouldn’t win.
We got in a rental car after the plane landed in Denver. Neither of us said much. Kyler and I had been friends, and while that was over I didn’t hate him. I understood his actions too much for that. Plus, he seemed to hate himself enough for both of us.
As we approached the small town the Colorado Pack occupied and operated, Kyler drove more slowly.
“Where will you go with Kylee?” I asked.
We both knew Roman would kill him if he went back to New York. My Alpha didn’t trust much more easily than I did, and he was far less forgiving. Kyler’s heart would end up on the outside of his body if Roman knew he’d betrayed the pack, let alone kidnapped me.
“I don’t know. Heard there’s a pack of lone wolves in LA, might try to find them.”
I nodded.
“Send a postcard.” I said as we pulled into a gas station on the edge of Ledger’s town.
Ledger got out and stood up against his truck, and old dingy thing. Kylee was dirty and tear-streaked, mouth, hands, and ankles duct-taped. Dried blood and bruises dotted her skin. I was relieved she’d be getting out of Ledger’s grasp, and even if it meant I was going back into captivity in her place.
She deserved a brother to protect her from all the crap Ledger would do. I wished I had the same.
“Roman will come for you.” Kyler said. Guilt and anger seemed to be at war within him.
“Probably.”
He parked.
“Not probably. He will. I’ll text him your location when I’m far enough away that my sister is safe.”
I’d left my phone in my locker at the nightclub, so I couldn’t do that myself. Not that I would’ve. If Roman came for me, there was a chance he’d get hurt and I wouldn’t set him up for that. Another pack capturing me was inevitable; why risk someone I cared about in a silly attempt to stop that?
Kyler got out of the car but I didn’t move. If Ledger wanted to torture me again, he could lift me out of the passenger seat all on his own.
The door opened and the eyes that haunted my dreams collided with my own. I glared at Ledger.
“My mate.” He rumbled, reaching toward my face.
“I’m not your anything.” I slapped his hand away. His eyes narrowed and his hands landed on my shoulders, squeezing tight enough it hurt. Alpha power pounded into me, and I steeled myself for the attack.
“You decided not to mate with the New York Alpha because you knew you were mine.” He unbuckled my seatbelt.
I slammed my palm into Ledger’s nose and took a page from Arla’s book, kicking him in the balls as hard as I could. Ledger roared in pain, bending in half as he struggled for air. With one last nod at Kyler, I lunged out of the rental car and landed on old asphalt with four paws. Shaking off the shredded bits of my clothes, I took off in the opposite direction of Ledger’s town.
Howls and snarls filled the air. Ledger’s men were on my heels as I raced through the trees and snow, dodging and jumping and weaving.
One of the wolves launched hi
mself at me. I rolled to the side, narrowly dodging his attack. The roll cost me time though, and it was all the others needed. Three men pounced on top of me, claws scratching and teeth biting into the skin on my back. I snarled and bucked, trying to get out from underneath them to no avail.
“Enough.” Ledger barked. “Human form, all of you.”
The men shifted but I remained a wolf, glaring and growling at him despite the blood oozing from multiple wounds on my back and shoulders. In beast form, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Roman would come for me in time. I just had to keep fighting until he made it. Unfortunately, I could already feel the blood-loss.
Not good.
Ledger came close, and I snapped at him in warning.
With a lunge, he grabbed me around the middle and heaved my front half over his shoulder. The pain in my back was enough that I couldn’t hold back a whimper. Ledger’s disgusting hands stroked down my bleeding back.
“Don’t worry, love. When you’ve accepted you’re mine no one will have to hurt you anymore.”
I growled weakly. Every step he took sent more pain flooding through my system until I finally passed out.
When I came to, I opened heavy eyelids to the soul-crushing sight of Ledger’s storm cellar. The same spiders climbed on the same spider webs in the same corners of the place nearly a year after I’d escaped. The concrete floor was still littered with stains that smelled of dirt and blood. The only thing different was the chains.
Two old, rusted chains had connected my ankles to the floor the last time I was there. They’d been replaced with gleaming monstrous metal contraptions that wrapped around my ankles, wrists, and neck. All I had on was a holey t-shirt that reeked of Ledger.
I’d been trapped like an animal.
Yanking against the chains did nothing but make my body hurt more. I did a quick inventory of myself.
Hair was matted with blood, hanging limply down my spine.
Face felt bruised.
One of my knees ached. It was a flare-up from an old injury caused by a kick to my leg when I was a teenager, but nothing hurt badly enough to assume it was broken.
My back wasn’t nearly as sore as it should’ve been, which told me someone had licked my injuries. My stomach churned. Ledger wouldn’t have let anyone else near me, and the mental image of his tongue on my flesh had me choking back a mouthful of vomit.
But all in all, I was in better shape than I’d expected.
The next few hours passed by in a slow march of hunger pangs and shaking legs. Being chained so close to the wall in five places made it impossible to sit down, or really move much at all. I wondered at what point my legs would give out.
Last time I’d been in the storm cellar, I’d had no hope of escape. It was just me, crossing my fingers that some other horrible Alpha would realize I was there and abduct me again. This time was completely different.
In the silence, my mind went back to the months I’d spent in the New York pack. The laughs with Jamie. The girls’ days with her, Arla, and London. The close calls. The shifts at the nightclub. The good food and nice clothes and amazing showers.
More than that, though, my mind went back to Roman.
Again, and again, and again.
The moment I’d run into him. The first time I caught his scent in wolf form. The way he’d nearly killed Zack when I fell against him. The times I’d calmed his wolf. The way his lips felt on mine the first time I kissed him.
The way he looked at me every time we were together.
Roman had brought me back to life. Him, Jamie, London, and Arla—they’d given me a reason to live. Friends and family to look out for and take care of. I’d wanted that for so long I fought it when they first came into my life, but now I knew better.
The doors creaked open and I tried to prepare myself for the pain that would follow.
Ledger walked down those steps like he was the king of the world. I wanted to rip his head from his body and wear it like a freaking crown.
He crossed the room and grabbed me by the chin, dead eyes staring at me.
“I will never mate with you.” I said.
“Maybe not.” He acquiesced. I could hardly believe he admitted it. “But if you’re not mine, you won’t be anyone else’s either.” He slipped a knife from his pocket. It was old and rusted, with a dull serrated edge I knew would hurt like a bitch.
“You’re going to kill me?” I lifted an eyebrow. “Went to a lot of work to do that, didn’t you?”
He laughed darkly.
“I’m going to make you wish you were dead.” He stepped closer, pressing his nasty knife to my boob—covered only by the old shirt. The tip of the blade nicked my skin and I forced my expression neutral as the scent of fresh blood caught my nose. “Let’s start with separating you from your Alpha.”
He reached up and released my right wrist from its cuff. Luckily, he didn’t seem to have seen the scar and tattoo on the other wrist.
Ledger forced my shoulder to the side, exposing my scarred back. He scanned it, looking for the Alpha marking. When none of the scars stood out to him, he sneered.
“Guess we’ll just have to cut through all of them.”
He started at my right shoulder. With his dull knife, he tore through thin, scarred skin inch by inch. I sweat and shivered, biting my lip hard enough to taste blood, but I refused to give him the pleasure of hearing me cry.
“What next? Hmm…” He prowled slowly around me. His eyes met the small cut on my boob, and the tip pressed back into my sensitive skin a moment later.
Ledger’s knife went deeper into my breast and I gritted my teeth, holding back a vocal response. He turned the knife, and my white-hot scream pierced the air.
“Stop!”
The knife halted where it was, buried in my skin.
Ledger’s forehead knitted together.
Had he followed my order?
Why did he look confused?
“What did you do to me?” He snapped.
“Step back.” I commanded. Ledger visibly struggled against an invisible opponent but ended up stepping back, curses flying from him.
What the hell?
A loud howl rang out somewhere outside, shooting the best kind of chills up my spine.
Roman was there for me.
The noise knocked Ledger out of whatever had him obeying my orders. He crossed the room. Shouts rang out up above the storm cellar, and Ledger twisted the knife again. My legs gave out, and I fell a few inches until I was held up only by the cuffs around my neck and left hand.
It didn’t matter though; Roman was here.
“Where’s Ledger?” Roman’s snarl warmed me from within.
He was right outside.
Ledger shoved me into the wall and I screamed again. His knife was still buried in my chest, and it hurt like nothing else. His hand latched on the handle of the knife, holding it tightly.
Roman charged down the stairs, his eyes blazing with the wolf within.
“Step away from her.” Roman’s words carried more power than I’d ever felt from anyone but the Alphas of All. I was in too much pain to be very affected by it, but Ledger crashed to his knees, knocking me with him. His hand slipped off the knife as I fell, chains yanking into my skin with the force of gravity.
I grabbed the knife and yanked it out of my skin, screaming and slashing it at Ledger. Roman managed to get between me and the Alpha, catching my flailing hand and trying to take my knife. He must’ve seen the threat in my eyes because he left me with it and hooked his elbow into Ledger’s temple.
An inhuman scream left my torturer’s lips as Roman kicked him away from me.
“Ledger King, I challenge you for your right to lead this pack.” Roman snarled, bending over and shifting his claws. Ledger stumbled to his feet, and Roman waited for him.
Small hands found my wrists and I screamed again, thrusting my knife in the person’s direction. Arla caught my wrist and met my eyes. Jamie was right behind her.
“It’s just me. You know I won’t hurt you.” She waited for my reluctant nod. When she got it, she swiftly unlocked all of the cuffs that bound me to the wall. When I fell away, Oliver caught me.
Roman snapped something at Arla, and I was carefully lowered to the floor. Arla sat on one side, Jamie on the other. Jamie lifted my arm around her shoulders and I winced.
Arla dabbed at the gaping hole in my boob with some cleaning stuff that burned like nobody’s business. I bit back another cry.
“Who fights at your heels?” Ledger demanded. I’d missed something, I thought, but everything was too much to follow along with.
“Oliver.” Roman barked out his name. The man sauntered up beside the Alpha. They were both bigger and stronger than any of Ledger’s pack.
I’d never met the whole pack, but I’d picked up that there were only around fifty members. Colorado was a great place for werewolves, but almost no one would choose to live under Ledger.
Ledger called his own second, and the four men faced off. I’d never seen an Alpha challenge before, but I knew this was protocol. They’d choose someone to play referee, to fight at their side if everything went to shit.
“Where’s your Alpha Female?” Roman demanded.
A challenge to the Alpha Male wasn’t always a challenge to the Female.
“Away.” Ledger sneered.
Roman’s eyes found mine for a moment before he turned back to Ledger.
“There’s no room in here. Outside.” My Alpha commanded.
Ledger looked like he was going to argue, but must’ve realized Roman was right. Trying to retain his power, Ledger strolled out of the storm cellar before anyone else.
“Keep her here.” Roman’s low order hit the females helping me. Both women stiffened as he and his enforcers followed Ledger and his men out.
“What the hell?” Arla growled.
“We have to watch.” My eyes squeezed shut as pain washed through me.
“Holy crap, Hennie.” Horror filled Jamie’s eyes as she lifted the tattered t-shirt to expose my back. Blood and who knows what else was still oozing from my many cuts.
“Help me out. I have to see.” My eyes met Arla’s, pleading.
“I don’t think we can carry you.”
“I’ll walk.” I gritted my teeth, lifting my body. The girls grabbed my arms, pulling them over their shoulders and helping me to my feet.