She was going to find Annie. She didn’t care what happened with the wedding now, she just wanted her friend back.
Huck had almost gone berserk at her disappearance. Now, the poor man was just staring out into space and only speaking in one-word phrases, leaving Bradley to grieve by himself. For the little time Huck and Annie had been together, they were inseparable soul mates.
Just like her and Adam.
“You okay in here?” Adam asked as he entered their hotel room, arriving back from breakfast downstairs, carrying a takeout box. He’d been talking with Carmichael and Mark about their next steps. She wondered what conclusion they had come to, if they had decided anything at all. It was hard to find solutions when they couldn’t see the full problem.
She gave him a small smile. “Peachy keen,” she said.
“I thought you’d be ready by now,” he said.
“I just called Jon.”
“And?”
“The girl doesn’t know anything.” Gemma bit her lip, a tidal wave of hormones coming over her. This was overwhelming. “She’s in the hospital, but...”
He set down the box. “Breakfast,” he said. “You need to eat, Gemma.”
She turned her head away. She had no appetite. All she could think about was that Annie was somewhere, hopefully alive.
“Eat for the baby,” Adam reasoned. “And we have to leave in twenty minutes if we’re going to make the Council Meeting. You know how an empty stomach makes you more nervous.”
Gemma sighed and did as she was told. Adam helped her get ready, taking her through the motions as she mechanically obeyed.
“It’s going to be all right,” he whispered to her as he kissed her forehead.
“I hope so,” she admitted.
Carmichael and Mark came to collect them. “Well, that there was a shitty night,” the older man grumbled, tactful as ever. “Ye ready guys?”
“Yeah,” Gemma said.
She followed them out of the hotel and into their rental car. Bradley and Huck met them there, although Huck was withdrawn and quiet. Gemma’s heart went out to him. Carmichael drove as they wound their way to the Bellagio Ballroom where all the other wolves were waiting.
The Council of Wolves consisted of all the leaders of the biggest packs in the United States. There were over 150 leaders in attendance for this conference, deliberating the legality of Bradley’s succession to pack leader and the Dallas and Austin packs’ involvement with it. At eleven years old, the kid was the youngest pack leader ever recorded. When his parents died five months ago, and before he’d ever transformed into a wolf, Bradley was relentlessly pursued by bigger and more experienced werewolves looking for a quick way to ascend to the top of a pack. Annie, in her love for the boy, had taken him into hiding to save his life. It wasn’t until she had appealed to the Austin and Dallas packs that she had finally found some help. Soon after, Bradley was able to transform and defend himself.
Yet there were repercussions to it that the Council of Wolves refused to ignore. Gemma and Carmichael had defied pack laws by assisting the boy in keeping him from challenges – which was a right that all wolves were allowed. At the same time, they had protected an innocent little boy from certain death, so some of their allies defended their choices.
Because of this, Gemma and Adam hadn’t gotten married yet.
Gemma estimated that the Council was split about 50/50 at the moment. Some wolves were stuck in the old ways, something that Gemma was very familiar with in her time. She had constantly fought it, but it was hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Those that stood against them were very vocal about it, almost to the point of violence. It wouldn’t have surprised Gemma if they had attacked them last night.
Adam rubbed her hand encouragingly. She leaned against her mate for support. She had to be able to reach out to everyone to find Annie.
They parked and went into the hotel’s ballroom, where all of the pack leaders were sitting around tables discussing various topics ranging from who had found their mates in the past few months to gossip about the newest leaders. Gemma was sure that she and her friends were a part of the topic. At the moment, she didn’t care.
“Full house today,” Adam muttered as they sat down.
“So long as we find out where Annie is, that’s all that matters,” Gemma told him.
Silence fell across the room as the Great Wolf took the stage. The Great Wolf was an old Alpha female who had been around longer than anyone could remember. She was the leader of all the wolves in the country. She had a craggy, deep-lined face, but her eyes constantly glowed with a golden yellow. Everyone knew not to underestimate her; she might have been old, but she wasn’t senile. Some even called her a witch, although Gemma had never seen evidence to back that up.
“The leaders from the Austin pack wish to have the floor,” she called out, her voice echoing in the room. There was no further introduction. In the world of werewolves, there was no time for anything else.
Gemma stood from her chair. “I know I’m not popular,” she said, addressing the entire room. “I know that there are many of you who hate my guts.” Someone snickered at that. “But something happened last night that concerns me. And I hope that none of you were involved in it.” She swept her eyes across the ballroom. She had their attention.
She took a deep breath before continuing. Here it goes, she thought to herself.
“Some of you may know that I was to be married last night,” she said. “That didn’t happen. We were ambushed. And Annie Knowles, the Regent of the New Orleans pack, was kidnapped. Please tell me it wasn’t one of you?” That last part came out in a reverent whisper.
Everyone in the room heard it though, and it set them into a fury. Some of the leaders started yelling at her that she ruined all of the dealings that her pack was involved with. The pandemonium raised the intensity of the room into a fever pitch.
She glanced down at Adam and her group. They were all watching the crowd, looking for anyone whose reaction seemed out of place, from downcast eyes to panic. Adam gave her a slight shake of her head, and her hopes withered.
Damn. There wasn’t anyone that seemed to fit the bill.
“Order!” The Great Wolf yelled above the din. “Order! ORDER!” The last word came out as a roar that reverberated around the ballroom, immediately silencing all of the wolves. “The Austin pack leader still has the floor. Pack leader Gemma,” the Great Wolf warned, looking at her intently, “these are grave accusations that you’re making.”
Gemma nodded in a gesture of supplication. “I know, your grace,” she said. “But you have to understand the gravity of the situation. One of my allies and friends was kidnapped. And you have to admit that it is very suspicious that it was Annie who was taken.”
The Great Wolf regarded her in silence for a few moments before nodding. “So it would seem,” she acknowledged. That sent a wave of murmurs through the crowd, that the Great Wolf would side with Gemma.
One of the wolves to Gemma’s left raised their hand. She whipped her head around to look at him. He was a blond, elderly man dressed in a polo shirt and khakis. He looked like he just walked off a golf course. She recognized him as Robert of the Birmingham pack.
“Permission to speak, your grace,” he asked.
“Granted, Pack Leader Robert,” the Great Wolf said with a nod of her head.
Gemma crossed her arms to watch Robert as he spoke, looking for any sign of his body language to give a hint that he was involved with the attacks.
“These are incredible assumptions that leader Gemma is making,” he said. “That one of our own would do something like this.”
“It wouldn’t be first time something on this scale has happened to us,” Gemma muttered under her breath. Such as the time Vincent tracked her down to make her his mate. She inwardly shuddered at the memory.
“You were out of line with that comment, Pack Leader Gemma,” the Great Wolf warned.
“Apologies, your grace, but I can�
��t rule out the possibility that it was someone here,” Gemma said. “It’s true that I’m not very popular at the moment.”
“You’re not,” Robert coldly agreed.
Gemma let out a breath to steady herself. “But Annie is missing, and I need to find her as soon as I can.”
“And you’re accusing the whole of our assembly of doing so?” Robert roared.
“She’s trying to find Annie!” Bradley yelled, standing up from his seat.
“Sit down, pup!” the Great Wolf said. “You did not have permission to speak.”
The boy sat down, his cheeks burning in embarrassment. Gemma gave him a secret smile, but pleaded with her eyes to remain calm.
“It’s reasons like this why there is such controversy over a young one like Bradley assuming control of the New Orleans pack,” Robert continued. “He’s out of line. He’s brash. He’s impulsive. He’s not a leader.”
Gemma countered. “You would have been the same way even as old as you are, Robert, if you had experienced what he had last night.”
Robert sneered, knowing that he had the upper hand at that point. “I wouldn’t. And that’s why that brat is not fit to lead a pack.”
Then the fighting broke out among the pack leaders once again, and there was nothing the Great Wolf could do to calm them down. Gemma watched her as she flailed her arms, roaring in her wolf voice for everyone to be silent.
Finally, the Great Wolf gestured for Gemma to speak with her. Gemma nodded and made her way to the stage.
“You need to find out what happened to young Annie yourself,” the Great Wolf warned, her golden eyes burning into Gemma. “And stop your accusations. You’re going to start a war among the packs, if you haven’t already.” The old woman turned her attention back to the crowd. “This meeting is adjourned until everyone can calm themselves!” she cried.
“By then it might be too late,” Gemma muttered through gritted teeth. She turned on her heel and left the ballroom, gesturing for her friends to follow her.
The Council of Wolves wasn’t going to help her, or come clean about what happened.
“Hold on, Annie,” she whispered. “We’ll find you.”
***
It was dark wherever Annie was with little streams of light leaking through the ceiling. It was something akin to a basement, with accouterments hanging from the ceiling like a torture chamber. She’d been tied up with silver chains around her neck, hands and feet, keeping her in an uncomfortable position on her knees for hours on end, unable to transform because of the silver. She was dirty, and while her injuries had already healed from the fight the night before, her muscles were cramped from kneeling.
She couldn’t remember exactly what had happened. One second, she was fighting her way to get to Bradley’s side, the next, she had been hit across the back of the head with a blunt object that sent her into oblivion. When she woke up, she was tied up here. Since then, no one had checked in on her.
It was as if she had been abandoned.
“Huck, Bradley,” she prayed. “Please be okay.” Her heart ached for her family and friends. Were they captured too? Or were they dead?
She cried to herself, slipping in and out of conscious. When she was passed out, she had nightmares of furry shapes moving through the shadows, and when she was awake, she only wondered what had happened to her loved ones.
A creaking noise drew her attention to the corner where a trapdoor was being pulled back from the ceiling throwing a rectangle of light onto the stairs leading into the dungeon. Booted feet came slowly down the stairs, almost smug with the spring in their step.
“Well, well, well,” a familiar voice said. “If it isn’t little ol’ Annie Knowles.”
Annie jerked her head up in disbelief at the voice.
No. It couldn’t be? They had exiled her. With the shame that came from her crimes, she should have stayed far away. She sure as hell shouldn’t have been able to orchestrate something like the attack.
“J-Julia?” Annie asked. She looked up at the woman standing before her.
Sure enough, it was Julia, the ex-mate of David, the wolf that had chased her and Bradley all over the Southern United States.
Annie’s senses picked up the smell of something different about her, and she froze. Julia smelled like an Alpha now, the highest level of werewolves. The last time she had seen Julia, she was a Gamma, because she had lost a challenge to Annie. The woman stood in front of her with a sneer on her face.
“Oh how the tables turn, little ginger,” Julia crooned. “Now you’re the one who’s at my mercy.”
“Why are you here, Julia?” Annie asked in disbelief.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Julia asked and forced Annie up to a painful sitting position using one boot against her shoulder. “Revenge.”
“We spared your life, Julia,” Annie reasoned. “We kept you alive. And this is how you pay us back?”
“You think you did me a favor?” Julia snarled. “So you could feel like benevolent rulers? I think not, little ginger.” She leered closer, growling in Annie’s face. “You took everything away from me. My love. My life. My pack. What did you expect would happen?”
“I expected you to live your life,” Annie whispered.
“Fuck you then for believing that,” Julia said. “No, I found myself a new pack. It’s been really good for me, as you can see. I’ve moved up in the world. No thanks to you, bitch.”
“Julia, I—”
The other woman grabbed a fistful of Annie’s hair, wrenching her backwards and causing her to cry out in pain as her back cracked in three different places and her muscles spasmed uncontrollably.
“I’ve been given an opportunity. One that people would pay an arm and a leg to have. Luckily you, my dear little ginger, only have to pay with your arm.” She seized Annie’s hand with a laugh. “Can you give me a hand, Annie?”
That was when Annie saw the butcher knife in Julia’s hands. She had been so focused on Julia, she didn’t notice the glint of steel. Her eyes went wide as the blade flashed, coming down onto her wrist.
Annie screamed.
CHAPTER 3
Eva still couldn’t believe what Jon had said about being a werewolf. The doctor had come in and checked in on her saying that she was healing fine, but he didn’t elaborate when Eva requested answers. She had demanded to call someone, but the doctor had given her a compelling argument that contacting her family could put them in danger. He wouldn’t confirm her questions about werewolves, but he did say that she would be putting those she loved in danger. It was fishy, but she was so scared and bewildered by the whole thing that she listened.
Unfortunately, her only family was her brother. Other than that, she had a few friends, but her job at the law offices kept her too busy for much of a social life and she had just taken a few days off work in anticipation of bonding with her brother after his intervention. No one was going to be looking for her for a while.
Eva knew that her injuries were healing amazingly fast. It had been half a day since she woke up in the hospital, and already many of the aches and pains were going away. Her ribs had stopped hurting and she managed to open the eye that had been swollen shut. If she continued at this rate, it would only be a few more days until she’d be completely healed. It was amazing.
Was it because what Jon said was true? Was she actually a werewolf?
She had to see what she looked like. No one was in the room, so she took the opportunity to check. She grimaced and sat up in her bed. It still hurt, but nowhere near as bad she would have expected. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up unsteadily on her feet. She plucked off the electrodes connected to the monitors, setting the machines off into a loud whine. She ignored it and wheeled the IV with her to the bathroom, where she finally had a good look at herself.
Her hair was a mess, with dried blood stuck in it. Her eyes were fully opened, although the one was still a bit more swollen than the other and badly bruised. Curious abo
ut the wound on her neck, she pulled off the gauze. She gasped when she saw that it had scabbed over like it was weeks old. She would be completely fine in a matter of days.
“Hey!”
She turned to see Jon entering her room.
“You’re supposed to be in bed!”
“I’m healing,” she stammered, her voice stronger now.
“You’re in a hospital,” Jon retorted impatiently, his cheeks coloring with embarrassment.
“No, I mean I’m healing. Fast. This is incredible.” She inspected herself in the mirror again. “Is this…? Does this…?” She struggled to find the right words. Because if she said them, then that was confirmation that this whole werewolf thing was real.
Jon nervously combed his fingers through his hair. “Yes,” he said. “It’s because you’re turning into a werewolf.”
“What’s going to happen to me?” she whispered.
“I’ve already talked to some friends,” he said patiently. “You’re welcome to join their pack. You’re Omega now, but they treat all levels the same. It’s probably the best situation for you to be in. You’ll be fine.”
She didn’t understand what he was saying, and she felt too overwhelmed to really dwell on it. She glanced back in the mirror and saw that her hospital gown was open, exposing her entire backside to him. “Shit,” she muttered, pulling it together.
He saw what she was doing, and even across the distance of the hospital room, she could see the blush in his cheeks. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I didn’t see anything.”
Eva just glared at him.
“Can we turn those damn things off?” he said helplessly, pointing to the blaring monitors. Eva had forgotten about them.
As if on cue, the door opened again and Dr. Martinez and an orderly rushed into the room. The doctor saw Eva standing in the bathroom and sighed with relief. “Eva, you’re not supposed to be out of bed,” he chided. The doctor walked over to the monitors and flipped them off. “We thought you had taken a turn for the worse.”
“I’m healing,” Eva told him, cutting him off. She tilted her head back to show her neck. “Is this because I’m a werewolf like this guy says?” She jerked her thumb to Jon.
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