We made eye contact, and she pursed her lips, "how about you just let me go," she countered.
He laughed.
"I mean," she continued, "you really don't know who you are dealing with."
"Get in the cell," he grumbled again and grabbed her arm.
"Oh, no," she shook her head as he pulled her arm, "I wish you hadn't of done that."
She reaches over and grabs his arm, and with a strength that no one could imagine she possessed, she flips him over her shoulder into the cell.
The guard passes out when he hits the floor, and she slammed the cell door shut on him.
"Over here," Sebastian calls out to her from his cell.
She glances at him and holds a finger up; she goes straight for my cell, "Ellis, how in the world did you get here?" I questioned her.
"The organization heard rumors about a group of human psychos hunting down young werewolves and even vampires to fight it out."
"Yeah, that's what's going on," I confirmed.
"I just had no idea that you were here," she said while she stared at the lock on my cell.
"Can you get us out?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'm just waiting on something," she explained.
Click.
"Ah, there it is," she smiled and opened my cell.
"How?" I questioned.
"My partner was getting into their control room."
"Thank goodness," I whispered as I watched Sebastian walk out of his cell.
"Are you all okay?" Riley asked the others as they all exited their cells.
There were nods as a couple of the vampires looked at Riley as if she was some kind of snack. They just didn't realize that the tiny brunette would kill them before they could draw blood.
"Did you find them?" a voice called out; entering the cell warehouse, I spotted a tall blonde guy coming in.
"Yeah," Riley greeting, "they are here, but we've got to get these off of them," she motioned to the collar around my neck.
"May I?" he asked, motioning to the collar.
I nod as Sebastian looked on, waiting for this turn.
"This is Nick," Riley motioned to the newcomer, "Nick, this is Ellis," she introduced me to him.
"Nice to meet you," I said, as he stood behind me.
"You two know each other," he asked.
"Yeah," Riley nodded, "we've been friends for a while; we met doing community service at a soup kitchen."
Nick snorted, "of course you did," and his voice didn't give off any hint of surprise.
This guy knew Riley well; even if he didn't know about her stint in community service, he still knows her.
Nick messed with the clasp a little bit longer, "I think I almost have it," he told us.
Beep.
And I breathed a sigh of relief with the metal was removed from my neck. I rubbed my now exposed throat and didn't miss the ring of exploding metal at all.
I watched as Nick told Riley what to do, and they began removing them from the rest of the prisoners, but only after the vampires were warned not to attack. Some of the vampires were like Sebastian and were born that way and could control their urges. One of the vampires licking his lips but wanted to get out of the place too badly to attack anyone.
"I'm warning you," I could hear Riley, threatening him, "we let you free, you leave and don't kill anyone here."
The vampire nodded because even if it had the urge to kill, it's self-preservation ranked higher this day.
When the final collar was removed, Nick motioned for us to follow him.
"There are like twenty of them," he explained, "and they are armed."
"Every time I saw them," I agreed, "they had both handguns and some with semiautomatic weapons."
"Lovely," Riley muttered.
"How did you get them to think you were a vampire?" I asked her.
"Well, there are some things that I haven't told you," she replied, "but I've found out some things recently."
"Oh," I mused, "like what?"
"I'm half-vampire," she shrugged.
"That explains so much," I nodded, thinking of all of Riley's quirks and the strength that she possessed that no five-foot four-inch teenage girl should have.
"Right," she agreed.
And I could see Nick roll his eyes while he gathered everyone else up.
"He is too," I replied to her watching the way he moved and the almost quiet power that both Sebastian and Riley also had.
She nodded.
"Let's go," Nick motioned.
I looked at everyone around was shocked that there were so many of us. Hopefully, we would all make it out, unlike Alice and the others who were forced to fight to the death.
Chapter Six
We quietly followed Nick through the warehouse. We could hear voices on the other side of the makeshift walls. The place was bigger than I thought it was, and we hadn't even made it all the way to their makeshift arena.
As we got closer, we could hear them being rowdy.
"They are drinking," Riley whispered, "think they will be too drunk to notice us leaving?" she mused to Nick.
"Let's just hope they haven't noticed that their buddy hasn't come back from taking you to the cells," Nick replied to Riley.
"If they are drunk, I'm sure we can sneak past them," Sebastian commented from a new spot next to Nick.
"Let's hope," Nick nodded to him.
"Hey," a voice suddenly piped up, "where is Joey?"
"Maybe that's not the guy in the cell," I said to the small group hopefully.
"That was Joey," assured Steve, one of the other werewolves toward the back, "I hear one of the others call him that when we were at our cells."
I looked at Steve, who was probably just a bit older than me. He honestly looked scared. He was a college student from a regular werewolf family whose pack was relatively small. Poor guy was way out of his element. He was probably lucky they hadn't thrown him into the ring.
"Let's just fight them," Riley whispered to Nick.
"Look at them," he told her, "these guys are half-starved and in no condition to go against a bunch of drunk, armed idiots."
"You and I can do it," she told him through gritted teeth.
He frowned, "And what do you propose we do."
"I'm going to look for him," a voice said, getting closer to us.
"Start with him," Riley shrugged.
"In there," Nick said and led us into the open space where the group would hold their cage fights.
"Hey," the same guy yelled, "they are loose," he called to his friends as he raised his gun.
"This was not part of my plan," Riley muttered as she suddenly threw a brick at the guy's head.
He immediately fell to the ground, and his friends were heading toward us as fast as a pack of drunk kidnappers can move.
"Set off the collars," one shouted, "knock them all out," he said as the group met us in the open room.
"You mean these," and I held out the collar that had been around my neck and tossed it onto the floor in front of them.
"Goddammit," he shouted, and the guys raised their weapons.
"Stay back," Nick told us.
Riley stood next to him and nodded abruptly.
"Fight me," Nick said, "right here, in your ring."
"Do you think we are stupid?" the one I recognized as the one who took me the night I was taken spoke up.
"I'm just a regular guy, here to save some people."
"These aren't people, boy." Another on with a semiautomatic gun and a baseball hat spoke up.
"Jesus, these are people," Riley rolled her eyes at him.
"Shut up, vampire bitch," the first one said.
"He called me a vampire bitch," Riley muttered and put her hands on her hips.
"Arghhhh," one of the men suddenly shouted.
We look over at him and find the vampire we had warned had separated himself from us and had the human by the neck. So much for getting out with no bloodshed.
"Take c
over," Nick shouted as the rest of them began to fire at the vampire.
We watched as the humans obliterated the vampire with their guns. He had no head or heart to worry about removing or staking.
"Let's just attack," Riley said, as they started pointing their guns back at us, "we can knock them out," she assured Nick, who looked like he was about to give her a talk about killing people.
"Fine," he conceded.
He and Riley both stepped out from their cover and immediately ran toward the group, somehow dodging every bullet that went for them.
They both seemed to move perfectly in sync as they each dispatched the first two. They reached while their cohorts looked dumbfounded.
"Let's do this," Sebastian stood up, following their lead.
I couldn't let them save the day without me, so I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. It was time to let my wolf take over. The last thing I remembered was growling at the one closest to me as I let the wolf take over.
Chapter Seven
"Call me soon," my dark-haired friend pulled me into a hug, "we've got to get back to the city," she pulled back and nodded to Nick, who was standing by their car talking to Sebastian.
"I will," I smiled, "you still need to tell me about your new friend," I laughed.
She shook her head, "he's just a teammate."
"No, he's not." I giggled, causing them both to glance over at us.
"Facetime this week?"
"Of course," I told her.
Riley and I usually texted and called daily, but in the last few weeks, we hadn't been able to talk much. She apparently had had some stuff going on.
With one last goodbye and a nod to Sebastian, Riley got into the passenger seat of the car, while her new friend gave me a light wave and got into the driver seat. I smiled. That was interesting to me. My friend, who I had grown closer to over the last six months, trusted him. She didn't trust many people.
"You have an interesting friend," Sebastian said as we watched them drive away.
"She definitely is," I glanced at him, "and we might not be standing here without her help."
"We would have gotten loose," he laughed, "my plan just hadn't been formed yet."
"Really?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Oh yes," he laughed, stepping closer to me.
I didn't step back like I normally might have when a boy would invade my space. Instead, I held my ground.
"Hmmm," I snicker, "I'm sure you had a great plan," and with that, I rise up on my toes and bring my lips to his.
He immediately responded by wrapping his arms around, drawing me closer.
After a moment, he pulled his lips away, "I really did."
I laughed, "shut up," and kissed him again.
About the Author
Sharon Rose Mayes lives in Lufkin, Texas, with her two sons. She chronicles her daily life at her personal blog, Not Your Mom Blog, and has been active in the blogosphere for seven years. When she is not chasing her kids and playing soccer mom, she writes and dreams of all of the places she can't wait to travel to.
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Read more about Riley in The Blood Pact Series.
Man and Wolf
A Dark Creatures Tale
Ella Stone
Chapter One
Freya
You’re letting me in.
No, you’re forcing yourself in.
You need to fight harder.
I’m fighting as hard as I can.
That’s not true. I know what you’re capable of Freya. Why are you doing this?”
Will you just back off?
You need to try harder.
I swear if you don’t back off, I’m out of here.
You need to confront this. You need to show your true strength.
You need to back off.
Freya. You —
I said stop!
The change was instant. The voice in her head was gone, although the pounding in her heart remained.
Yellow sun filtered through the summer canopy of the forest, splintering and showering the girl in golden light, although it lacked enough warmth to banish the goose bumps. Both scowling and shivering, Freya marched past the grey-blue wolf standing in front of her without a second glance and lifted a pair of black, drawstring trousers and a vest top from a nearby branch. Both were far too big for her, but they were miles from the village, so you had to take what you could get. By the time she turned around again, the wolf was gone.
“You gave up far too quickly.” The woman standing in its place bore a startling similarity to Freya. Same hair – kinky as opposed to curly – the same sharp jaw and, at that precise moment, the exact same scowl. “You’re perfectly capable of blocking me out if you wanted to.”
“Mum, I don’t want to do this now.” Still adjusting the strap on her vest top, Freya turned her back on her mother and started walking the path back to the village. Of course Lena was going to follow her. Her mother never could take a hint.
“Well you need to do this. I’ve given you long enough to —”
“To what? To get over it? Sorry I’m not quite so good at compartmentalising as you are. I know I’m such a disappointment.”
The path veered off to the left, but Freya turned to the right, climbing upwards. This route was longer, full of rocky ledges and steep sections. Hopefully awkward enough to put her mother off following her, although the chances were slim. Most of the pack hated walking over terrain like that in human form. Unfortunately, her mother wasn’t most of the pack.
“You have a birthright.”
“Which I am under no obligation to fulfil. I wouldn’t be the first.”
“You should want to fulfil it. It’s your duty. Despite what you believe, accepting your rightful place would be best for the pack.”
“Yeah, well we all know how I feel about doing things for the good of the pack.”
Already, the conversation had gone on too long, but there was no avoiding it. If she turned back into a wolf, she’d have her mother’s voice inside her head instead. At least this way she could put her fingers in her ears to block her out.
“You can’t keep walking away from this, Freya. At some point you’re going to have to face facts.”
She’d heard enough. Stopping mid-step, Freya spun around, her nose only inches from her mother’s.
“You want me to face facts, really? Well, while we are at it, how about you take a bit of your own advice and you face the fact that this is not going to happen. It’s just not.”
Had she had her claws, she would have taken a swipe at her mother there and then. But she wasn’t in the mood for more wolf today. Knowing there was no escape, she resumed her climb through the thicket. As expected, her mother still didn’t get the hint and continued following after her.
“I understand, Freya, honestly I do. I’ve been where you are now. I had my doubts too.”
“Whatever.”
Behind, she heard her mother stop and sigh. “Look, please let’s not argue about this. I just wanted to come for a nice run, that’s all. Why don’t we race back? I promise I’ll stay out of your head.”
“I’m fine as I am. But by all means, if you want to disappear, you go for it.’
Unfortunately, her mother wasn’t going to give up that easily. ‘I’ll tell you what, if you win, we won’t bring this up again for another year.’
An alarmingly animal-like snort escaped from Freya’s throat.
“Yeah right.”
“I mean it. I won’t say another thing until you’re twenty. How does that sound?”
“That’s only eight months away. Not a year.”
“Still, it’s a pretty good offer, you’ve got to admit. And I’ll make sure none of the others discuss it either.”
This time she had Freya’s attention. “Including Whipper?”
“The whole pack. You have my Alpha’s promise.”
That in itself was worth considering. Whipper. Just her name caused the bile to rise up into Freya’s throat. Not that she actually needed her mother’s help blocking the Beta out. She could manage it herself, most of the time. But admitting she could do that, was admitting to being a far stronger wolf than she wanted anyone to know. Especially her mother.
“You know you can have her out of your head forever?” Lena asked, breaking the silence. “All you’ve got to do is claim your right.”
With another snort, Freya turned back around.
“I’m fine as I am, thanks.”
She had barely taken a step, when her mother’s hand appeared on her shoulder.
“I’m sorry, I said I wouldn’t mention it, and I won’t. And if you want Whipper out of your head as the deal, then fine. I think it might be good for you. Make you find out for yourself what you’re missing. So, what do you say, deal? You win, and I will not mention this until you’re twenty.”
“And four months.”
“Okay, but if I win, you try. You take this training seriously.”
“I already do.”
Her mother raised an eyebrow. “I mean it. This is a fair fight. Do I have your word?”
Freya needed one more minute to think it through. Her mother was right about a few things, like the fact that she was holding back. For the last few months, Freya had been finding it easier and easier to block out the Alpha during their sparring sessions. But she’d acted as though nothing was changing. As such, Lena had no idea how strong she really was. It was possible she could win this. More than possible.
“Fine,” she said. “To the edge of the forest. First one to the well wins.” She pulled off her clothes again and hung them on a nearby branch. “But you stay out of my head the whole time. You’re not cheating by distracting me.”
A small smile twisted on her mother’s lips.
“Fine then. On the count of three. Three, two —”
The last number was lost, as the women leapt forward, transforming into their lupine form. Adrenaline raced through Freya’s body as she raced through the thicket and over fallen branches, gliding so effortlessly it was as if the trees were moving aside to make a path for her. The wind whipped at her fur, as her paws pounded the earth, her head clear, filled only with the sounds and smells of the forest around her. This is what it must be like all the time, to be Alpha, she thought. At one with nature. It would be tempting, if that was the only thing it involved.
Falling for Shifters: A Limited Edition Autumn Shifters Collection Page 96