by T. S. Joyce
Back in the days of the guillotine, prisoners were marched in front of the town before their necks were stretched under the blade. The dread that knocked against her insides felt comparable as she walked through the community and to Nathan’s house. The other shifters had apparently heard about her outburst, because they whispered and stared. And even if Joanna held her head high, her stomach was being shredded by nerves that felt like shards of glass. So Nathan’s bedroom wasn’t exactly a guillotine, but a piece of her would die in there tonight.
Blake paused at the bottom of the stairs and she closed her eyes and mentally shook herself. She would think of something, excuse herself somehow and find the woman, Hannah. And by tomorrow night, she’d be free. Her wits just had to hold until then.
At the top of the stairs, she halted in confusion. She’d halfway expected Nathan to be naked, draped across his bed or throne in his typical fashion. He was naked, yes, but he was standing with his arms crossed as a dark headed woman mirrored his stance and glared at him. April, Greta and Anya sat on a bench, also naked and looking utterly bored. Anya gestured her over and Nathan looked up, following her journey across the room with stormy eyes. Still mad, then.
“Is that her?” Joanna asked Anya. Merit, Brody had called her.
Before Nathan’s mate could respond, Merit said low, “We had a deal. I brought you a bargaining chip against the only clan that could ever rival your numbers and you will make me your mate.”
“You don’t seem like a woman who would fit in with my other mates. I do take them into consideration, you know. And you did betray your own clan. How could I ever trust you?”
Merit raked her eyes over the four women sitting against the wall and scoffed. “Honey, you won’t even remember their names when I’m done with you.”
Cocky woman. Joanna’s eyebrows shot up so high her forehead hurt. She huffed a laugh but pursed her lips when Nathan cast her an angry glare. His erection had already been at half mast, but at the woman’s promise, it hardened and thickened between them. A smile curled Merit’s full lips as she dipped her gaze downward.
“Benson Riker couldn’t handle my appetites but I have a good feeling about you, Nathan.” She practically purred his name. “Kill Hannah or use her, I don’t care. She was my ticket to you.” She peeled off her red blouse and the sequins tossed little fragments of light across the walls. Her bra was black lace and transparent, and her nipples pressed against the thin fabric as if she were already aroused.
“Nathan,” April warned.
Joanna didn’t care who he boned, so long as it wasn’t her, but a little sliver of pride filled her that at least his mates knew when to draw the line.
“I have more than enough women to keep me satisfied,” Nathan said, though he took a step forward. “And you are in no position to make demands. I already have the mate of Benson Riker, thanks to you, so why would I have to meet you halfway on anything?”
Merit unzipped her jeans and shimmied them down her thighs. “Because I can make you feel things.”
April stood and stormed out. Greta followed and Anya looked like she was about to cry. Something about Anya’s tears dragged tendrils of Joanna’s earlier fury through her.
As Anya slunk down the stairs behind the others, Joanna stood. “If you do this, you are dishonoring your mates.”
Nathan’s eyes rolled closed as Merit clasped his shaft in her hands and stroked. “Come here.”
“No. I’m not joining in whatever you’re doing with her.”
“Come here!” he bellowed.
Her heart pounded against her breastbone as she approached. He grabbed the back of her hair, an unspoken rule broken between them, and he pressed his forehead against hers. “You were supposed to save me.”
Merit dropped to her knees and the sound of her suckling his skin made Joanna queasy. “No one can save you.”
He pushed her back and the icy blue of his eyes grew colder. “Your punishment won’t be to bed me because that isn’t a forfeiture. That’s a privilege. For your outburst tonight, you will be denied affection, both from me and from my mates. You will live as mine but without any benefit. Your rank in this clan is hereby stripped and no one will be allowed to touch you from here until the end of your life, which will come whenever I please. You’ll endure every single heat, watching me fuck my mates, and you’ll never know touch, never know love.” He entangled his fingers into Merit’s hair and his hips bucked as Merit drew him all the way into her mouth. His breath shook and his stomach tensed as he eased in and out, but his heated gaze never left Joanna’s. “Leave.”
She turned so he wouldn’t see the relief on her face. A cruel punishment for sure, but she’d somehow lucked onto a path where he didn’t push her into bed. No touch? She could endure that until she made her escape. He thought he would draw this out for years and torture her, make her feel alone and unwanted until he was sure she was broken, but she knew something he didn’t.
She was leaving this place, and him, behind in a day’s time.
Chapter Four
Joanna nearly fell down the stairs in her hurry to escape the moaning sounds Merit was making. She was loud. Obnoxiously so, and he wasn’t even touching her yet.
Now was her chance to find Hannah. He’d be preoccupied at least for a little while with Merit. Where would he hide the mate of a rival alpha? Somewhere closed off because he wouldn’t want the rest of the clan knowing. Not yet. Not until he was ready to give them a battle speech and prepare them for another war. This house, where he could guard her himself, seemed like the most obvious choice. But it didn’t have a basement and a quick check of the rooms told her only his mates were here, somberly quiet and readying for bed. Anya lay on top of her comforter in her room, facing the walls and her shoulders shook as if she were weeping.
Time was ticking away but Joanna couldn’t pull herself away from the grieving woman without consoling her. “Anya, are you okay?” The bed creaked as she sat beside the woman and rubbed her back in soothing circles.
She hurried to wipe her tears and gave her a faltering smile. “Oh, I’m fine.”
Joanna looked out her open door and bit her lip, then leaned closer and whispered, “You don’t have to take this from him.”
“I do,” she whimpered. “I’m not strong like you. And I love him. Even when he does stuff like this, I don’t know how to tell my heart to love him less.”
Geez. Joanna closed her eyes against the devastation she saw on Anya’s face. She’d convinced herself the other mates were here because they felt less, cared less. But Anya felt more, and had let so many lines be crossed simply because she loved Nathan and would do anything for him. He had it so good and didn’t even appreciate it. He didn’t need a harem of mates. Anya could’ve been enough for him if he were someone different. Someone better.
“He’ll never change, you know,” Joanna whispered.
“I know. Neither will I.”
Oh, Joanna knew what she meant. It was written all over Anya’s face. She’d never stop loving him, no matter what he did. Joanna gave her one more squeeze on her frail shoulder and said, “I’m going to bed. Goodnight.” Then she slipped out the front door and into the night, headed for the mess hall with the first morsels of an idea stirring her mind.
There was only one place she could think where he would hide a hostage, and that was in one of the old abandoned cabins the last clan had inhabited. The tiny ghost town was deep in the woods, a mile away from the Long Claw’s bustling community. No one ever went there unless it was kids on a dare, and it was the perfect place to stash someone. The ghost stories alone kept even the most curious shifters at bay.
The night was cool and she rubbed the gooseflesh on her arms to try and warm herself. The conversations and laughter of the clan chatting in groups on the streets and in front of their small homes faded until the crickets and cicadas filled the night. The dirt path had fresh footprints, like a sign pointing the way to Hannah, and the metal tray of food clatt
ered in her shaking hands as she marched through the whispering trees. She’d missed eating dinner, but even now, the smell of reheated pork chops and green beans made her stomach recoil. Fear did that to her.
A human woman turning a great alpha’s head, huh? Paired shifters and humans didn’t breed easily, if at all, and Benson Riker had to know that. He must love her very much to give up his chance at continuing his line. That or he satisfied himself with other shifters who could bear him offspring. The thought didn’t match what she had heard about Bear Valley. They encouraged monogamous relationships. Their members weren’t as desensitized to casual sex as the Long Claws were. Whether it was true or not, she wanted to think Benson Riker was faithful to his mate because Joanna still so desperately wanted to believe in love. Not the kind Nathan wielded to keep his mates cowed, but the real, heart pounding, die for each other kind. Romeo and Juliet romance had to exist in the world, because if it didn’t, then why was she traipsing through the haunted woods at night, risking her life to save the missing piece of a love story? It just had to be out there. Maybe not for her, but for someone—perhaps someone like Hannah.
Dunn sat on the front porch of a dilapidated wood cabin, kicking his leg off the side and peeling an apple with the long blade of a knife. She cursed her luck. Anyone but Dunn would’ve made this easier.
“I brought you and the prisoner dinner,” she said, her voice much more steady than she felt.
He rocked his head back and frowned. “Why?”
“Because Nathan told me to, you dipshit. I’m getting punished for overstepping my rank,” she droned, as if she were repeating a lecture she’d endured earlier tonight. “So now I get to go gallivanting through the freaking woods at night, up to the Kodiak’s haunted cabins because apparently, this is the best way to scare me straight. I’m on food assignments for the human until he figures out what to do with her.”
Dunn looked at her blankly and she hoped Hannah wasn’t already dead. It would definitely look suspicious if she was bringing a corpse a pork chop dinner.
She arched her eyebrow. “I’ve been demoted in the clan to servant.”
“Ha!” Dun said, rocking back, then standing. “I knew you couldn’t hold a top position long. You’re too dumb to keep your mouth shut. Well, she’s feisty, so don’t get too close to her. I’m going to take a piss.”
“Gross.” She opened the door and checked behind her to make sure Dunn was really headed for the trees, then pulled it shut behind her.
A lantern had been lit in the tiny cabin, but that didn’t seem to scare the roaches. They skittered this way and that across the uneven boards.
The crumpled woman on the floor had seen better days. Half of her face was swollen and her lip was split. A trickle of blood had dried under her nose and her hair was wild and matted. As she sat up and scooted backward, Joanna dropped her gaze to her bound ankles. Those would have to be cut before they made a run for it tomorrow. Where she expected fear in the woman’s eyes, instead, there was anger. She was a fighter. Good.
Joanna dropped to the floor in front of her, and checked the door once more. In a whisper she asked, “Are you Hannah, mate of Benson Riker?”
The woman frowned and nodded. “Who are you?”
“My name is Joanna. I’m a prisoner too.”
“Are you messing with my head, Joanna? Because I’ve had a really bad couple of days and I can’t handle—”
“Shhh. Just listen. Brody Bannister showed up today and has promised to take me away from here if I bring you to him tomorrow night. Can you walk?”
A long trembling sigh left Hannah’s lips. “I think so. I’m losing circulation in my ankles though, so I don’t know how well I’ll be able to by tomorrow.”
The ties did seem to be cutting into her skin. “I can’t loosen them or Dunn will know something is wrong. I’m sorry.” She was so sorry. This kind of punishment wasn’t fit for anyone. “Can I trust Brody?”
“Yes,” Hannah said low. “He’s one of the best men I know. He’s a trusted councilman in our clan. Riker, my mate, trusts him unconditionally. He’s good.”
“Eat, stay strong, be ready. I’ll be here at sunset tomorrow.”
As Joanna stood to leave, Hannah lurched forward. “Joanna. If…if I don’t make it or if something happens to me, can you get a message to my mate?”
The air felt thicker, clogging Joanna’s throat and she struggled to swallow. The desperation in Hannah’s eyes tore at her heart. “Of course.”
“Tell him I love him and that I’m sorry for what he’ll go through when I’m gone.” A single tear ran a track through the filth on Hannah’s face and Joanna dropped to her knees in front of her.
“Don’t you talk like that. You are the mate of one of the greatest alphas in the world. I won’t let anything happen to you. I made Brody a promise, and we’re both getting out of here. Together.”
Hannah nodded her head rhythmically and bit her bottom lip like she was trying to keep a sob inside. A boot sounded against the wood of the porch outside and Joanna kicked the tray closer. “Eat or don’t eat,” she said loudly. “Doesn’t matter to me if you want to starve yourself to death.” She winked and escaped the one-room cabin with a plate for Dunn. “Here,” she said, dropping the metal to the splintered floor boards beside him. “See you in the morning for breakfast.” She stomped toward the trail. “And for lunch, and dinner and breakfast again.”
His laughter trailed her and the scrape, scrape, scraping of his fork against the metal plate made her cringe. And the blurry edges of her plan solidified a little more.
Chapter Five
Brody paced the sidewalk in front of the motel he’d stayed in last night. Riker would be here any minute with back-up, which should’ve relieved his frayed mind, but instead, he only felt more frantic to get to Joanna. He hadn’t slept at all, thinking about her.
She’d trusted a completely stranger so much, she was in the thick of the Long Claw Clan, risking her neck because he’d asked her to. Because he’d offered her something he wasn’t even fully sure he could give.
He squinted up at the sun, which sat low in the sky. A couple more hours and they’d need to leave to meet Joanna. If she could pull off this miracle, they might just avoid war with the Long Claws yet. Riker’s oversized black truck appeared down the abandoned street of Hyattville, Wyoming.
The town that sat in the Big Horn Basin on this side of the mountains was even smaller than Sheridan. Across the mountain peaks and into Montana sat Bear Valley. The mountains here reminded him he was close to home, but the town and the unfamiliar terrain of Long Claw territory made him want to tuck the people he cared about under his arm and rush them home. Joanna was now a part of that.
He felt something big when he first saw her in Nathan’s mess hall. Maybe it was just the product of too much time thinking about her and admiring her brave nature that had got him here, but he would be a friend to her. She seemed to need that. A woman like Joanna deserved more than he could provide, but he could do her that little service. When they got to Bear Valley, if she still wanted to be claimed so badly, he’d help her find a mate who would be able to care for her like she needed.
Riker pulled onto the cracked pavement of the empty parking lot, followed by three vans of his loyal clan members. He stepped from the cab and slammed the door behind him like he couldn’t control his actions. His hair was mussed and the lightened color of his eyes wouldn’t pass for human on even the cloudiest day. His jaw was clenched as if he were in pain and he smelled like bear.
“You look like shit,” Brody said.
“Where is she?”
“Let’s talk in the room.”
Riker looked around the parking lot, which was filled with shifters, and shot his eyebrows up in an impatient expression. Brody twitched his head to the motel manager, who sat in the shadow of the main office in a lawn chair with a lemonade in his hand. The condensation from the glass dripped onto his faded blue jean shorts. His belly poked ove
r the fly of his pants, not quite shielded by his too tight threadbare T-shirt. He waved and took a pull from the pink bendy straw in his drink.
Brody sighed and waved back, then led Riker and the others into his hotel room and out of sight of the human.
The hotel wasn’t big, with only ten rooms, but it was in a town far enough away from Long Claw territory that he felt safe here. The room was small but they all fit. Riker sank onto the bed. He ran his hands through his hair and locked his fingers behind his head. Brody had never seen him so distraught, and they had been through battle together. Many of them.
“How you holding up, boss?”
“I want to kill her. I want to rip Merit to shreds for doing this. I knew she was manipulative and spiteful, but not this. I never would’ve called one of my own clan members betraying us in such a way.”
“She’s not one of ours anymore,” Brody said quietly.
“The peace treaty is over. The Long Claws broke it the second they accepted and hid Hannah.”
“It was over long before this.” Brody sat on the twin bed across from Riker. “They’ve been expanding. The woman who is helping me, Joanna, said they took Blood Den’s land and slaughtered her people. So I came back here and started digging. They’re living on what used to be Kodiak territory. I called around and no one knows what happened to them. The entire clan just vanished. Now, maybe the Long Claws absorbed them into their growing numbers, but why didn’t any of them send word for help, or at least to notify the other clans this was happening? That’s two of a dozen instances I found where the Long Claw Clan, mainly this big one led by Nathan, have annihilated entire communities and taken over their territory. He has to be stopped. It’s much bigger than Hannah now. Our entire existence is threatened by this clan.”