by Robin Roseau
"I'll go," I said. "Come on, it's just outside the store."
Elaine looked between the two of us. Kimber turned back to the clothing she was looking at, and I realized she really wanted to try the dresses on. I decided Elaine wanted to talk to her privately about something, but finally she shrugged and took my arm.
"Do we need your enforcers?" she asked.
I looked at them. I wanted Kimber protected, and I figured we would run into Rory and Emanuel anyway. "Naw," I said. "We're not going very far, and no one knows we're here. Well, no one you and I couldn't handle." I eyed the humans.
Elaine laughed. "Maybe you're right, but I hate messing up the humans. Their police get so pesky about it."
"Tell me about it," I said. "I hate being arrested. Maybe we should tread softly."
"Good plan," she agreed. We slipped out of the store.
The bathroom was down a short service hallway, but when we got there, it was marked as out of service. "No worries," I said. "There's another one." I turned us around and headed across the mall. The other bathrooms were available and remarkably, empty when we arrived.
We did what one does, and while we were washing up and checking our hair -- mine was perfect, of course -- my phone rang. I glanced at it. It was Serena.
"I'm fine," I said. "We're in the bathroom. We'll be right back."
"Alpha!" she said. "You promised you wouldn't do this!"
"We're just in the bathroom," I said. "I didn't ditch you. We'll be back in five minutes."
"Stay there!" she ordered. "I am sending Emanuel and Rory to you."
"Calm down, we'll be right there." I hung up and set the phone on the counter, fiddling with my hair for a minute.
Elaine picked up my phone, looking at it. "This is a nice phone," she said.
"Thanks."
Then her phone buzzed from her purse. She pulled it out, glanced at it, then she slipped both her phone and mine into her purse.
"Um-" I said, holding out my hand.
She looked at me sadly. "I'm sorry, Michaela. You don't deserve this. This should have been Kimber."
"Elaine," I said. "What did you do?"
"They have my sister. If you go easy, they won't hurt you. Lara will trade Kimber for you and you'll be home by tomorrow or the next day. They're waiting right outside."
My phone rang from Elaine's purse. She ignored it but instead grabbed my arm. "Come on. This doesn't have to turn ugly." She began pulling me from the bathroom, and she was very strong.
I decided to count the score before I did anything.
Out in the hall were six wolves. I didn't recognize any of them.
She had set me up. That bitch had set me up!
Taken
I didn't wait for any of them to react. With my free left hand, I pulled one of my knives and jammed it into Elaine's arm, the one she was holding me with. I left it there. The longer it was in, the more silver poisoning she would be forced to deal with, and I didn't think these wolves were going to take the time to rinse it out properly.
She howled and dropped my arm.
I pulled my other knife, dropped to the floor, and slashed it across both her hamstrings, putting everything I had into it. I sliced one, but not cleanly. The other one I severed, and she went down, screaming.
The other wolves went into motion. To my fox senses, they were slow, but there were six of them, and while it wasn't a narrow corridor, it was still a confined space.
I was in deep trouble.
I took an instant to grab another knife from my ankle. One of them bent to grab me, and I got sprayed by his blood when I jammed a knife into his throat.
He fell away from me, clutching at his throat.
Five to one. The odds were improving, but I'd lost two knives already. I grabbed the last one from my other ankle, feinted for the main portion of the mall, then fell away, slashing at one wolf and opening a slice across his arm, but nothing fatal. I rolled, giving myself some space. I had barely enough weapons to win this if I didn't lose more than one weapon per opponent, but my chopsticks weren't the best for this type of fight.
The five of them rushed me, and they were coordinated. I feinted right, dived left, and slashed one across the buttocks on the way past. It wasn't much of a wound, but it might slow him down. But he managed to kick my legs as I went past him, and I sprawled, sliding across the floor. I jumped to my feet, intending to run, but then Elaine grabbed my ankle as I tried to run past, and she held on with a wolf's strength.
I tripped and fell again, then tried to yank my ankle from her grasp. I felt something twist, screamed, then doubled over and slammed a knife through the top of Elaine's skull.
"Take that, bitch!" I screamed.
But then the wolves were on me. I jammed my last knife into one gut. Two others had firm hold of me. But I wrenched upwards with the knife, and I knew I had reached his heart.
Three down, four to go, but I was out of knives, and the wolves were piling on.
I went down, slamming my head against the floor. I reached up and grabbed a chopstick. I got it out of my hair and got it separated before one of them grabbed my right hand. I grabbed the chopstick with my left hand and slammed it towards a leering wolf face. It buried in his cheek, and he fell back, howling. It wasn't fatal, but it would distract him.
But that was the end of the fight. Another one grabbed my hand, and they threw me onto my stomach. My arms were wrenched behind my back viciously. I kicked and squirmed, but it was futile. They had firm hold of me, and there was no way I was breaking an adult male wolf's hold on me.
I continued to scream and struggle, but then I felt rope wrapped around my ankles, drawing them tight.
"No!" I said. "Lara is going to hunt you all down and kill you! Slowly!"
"She'll trade Kimber for you," one of the wolves said. "And this will be over."
I continued to scream at them. They finished tying my ankles, then my wrists. Then they picked me up and were running.
"Michaela!" I heard Serena's voice. Behind us, I heard my entire security detail chase into the corridor after us. "Michaela!"
"Serena!" I screamed. "Serena!"
And then we slammed outside. The emergency exit alarm started blaring. There was a car waiting by the curb. They threw me in, not at all gently, flying into the car after me, and we took off.
I sat up, turning around, and the last thing I saw before they stuffed a sack over my head was Serena and Emanuel, shifting into wolves and chasing after me. But the car roared away, faster than an adult werewolf could run.
I was so screwed.
I never stopped screaming.
I knew when we pulled onto the interstate. I continued to struggle and scream, but they held me firmly, and I knew I wasn't going to get free.
"Shut her the fuck up!" one of them said roughly. "Or I'll come back there and do it."
One of the wolves whispered into my ear. "Listen," he said. "You do not want to piss that one off. You aren't going to get away. One more sound and I am gagging you. And if that's not enough, he'll make you regret it."
I closed my mouth.
"That's better," he said.
"Is that Johnny Mack?" I asked.
"Yes."
"You just declared war on the Madison wolves," I said. "Lara will hunt you down and kill all of you. We're twice your size, and you don't have the organization to stand up against us. Furthermore, we have a huge war chest and a lot of friends."
"We weren't after you. We were after Kimber. If you don't give Johnny cause to hurt you, we'll return you undamaged. Now shut up. Another sound and we're gagging you."
I shut up. There was nothing to be gained from antagonizing them, and the longer I put off any real unpleasantness, the longer Lara had to rescue me.
It was a long car ride. I was thankful I'd just been to the bathroom. I spent time counting stock.
Barring my fatal flaw of trusting Elaine, I had acquitted myself well. I had killed the traitorous bitch and, I was
pretty sure, two of the wolves. I heard distinct wolf heartbeats in the car, and I counted four. Johnny Mack had been waiting in the car, and I realized they'd left one more behind. I wondered if it was the one I had stabbed in the face.
I was out of knives, but it felt like I was still wearing one chopstick and I could feel my belt still wrapped around my waist. I wasn't completely without weapons.
I struggled carefully with the knots binding my wrists, but they were well tied, and I couldn't reach them. I think the wolf next to me knew I was working at it, but he didn't say anything. Maybe he could clearly see I wasn't getting anywhere. With my hands and legs bound, I would remain virtually helpless.
We'd been driving for a while when the rough voice from somewhere in front of me said, "How many enforcers did you kill?"
"None," said another voice from the front.
"What the fuck?" said the rough voice. "Their enforcers took out three of you, plus that bitch, and you didn't kill a single one of them?"
"No enforcers," the other wolf said. "It was all her. The fox."
"Don't lie to me!" Johnny said. "What the fuck happened?"
"She was armed," the other wolf whined. "No one told us she would be armed."
"What the hell is the matter with you? She's tiny, and she killed three of you?"
"She had knives," he said. "I don't know where they came from, but she seemed to have an unending supply of them, and she knew how to use them."
"Knives?" Johnny scoffed. "God, what kind of wolves are you, you let a little girl kill three of you with some little knives. Worthless pricks."
I smiled inside my hood.
No one back talked to Johnny. He continued to berate them for some time.
"I should kill the rest of you myself," he said finally. I was all for that. Then he shut up again.
No one talked after that.
I continued to struggle with my wrists, and I felt the ropes grow slick with my blood.
* * * *
We stopped once for gas.
"Keep her quiet," Johnny ordered from the front seat. "A single sound from either of you and I will kill you both myself."
The wolf next to me clasped me to him. I struggled, and he squeezed my arm painfully. He then wrapped his hand over my mouth through the hood, clasping me firmly. I could breath, although it was difficult, as the cloth of the hood was smashed against my nose. I struggled, trying to pull away from him, and he squeezed my arm so hard I thought he would break a bone.
"You seem fragile," he said quietly. "You aren't going to get away, but you can get hurt. It's your choice."
I settled down and let him do what he wanted.
Ten minutes later we were again on the way. No one had raised an alarm. Once we were on the interstate again, the wolf released me. I didn't say a word to him, but I was going to enjoy watching Lara kill him.
I was bored out of my mind. I kept replaying everything. What if I had killed Elaine in the bathroom? Could I have held out long enough for Serena to find me? What if I had killed her at the beginning instead of maiming her? Would I have gotten free?
I decided everything I had done after that was the best I could have done. It was seven wolves to one fox, and I had directly killed three and maimed one more. That one wasn't with us, so I presumed my enforcers had him. I hoped they tortured him for a long, long time.
Still, I ran everything through my head over and over.
I think I slept, leaning against the window. The sounds changed, and I thought we were perhaps in a city. There were turns, then we left the interstate. I guessed it was ten minutes later before we reached a quiet neighborhood, and a few minutes later we came to a stop. The sound changed. I heard an echo of the car; we had pulled into a garage. I listened to the garage door close automatically, and then the wolves began climbing out of the car. They dragged me after them, then picked me up and carried me into the house. We went downstairs, took some turns, and then they threw me onto a bed.
"This room is soundproofed," the wolf who had been babysitting me said. "Feel free to make all the noise you want. I don't blame you for being angry. I don't blame you for fighting back. You did very well. Your mate will give us Kimber and we'll give you back to her, and this will all be over."
"Are you going to untie me?" I asked.
"No."
"Coward. Asshole."
He slammed the door, and I was alone.
* * * *
I listened for a while. I couldn't hear a thing beyond my own breathing and heartbeat plus the occasional noise as I shifted on the bed. I decided he was right; the room was probably soundproofed. I didn't hear any car noises, any talking, anything at all.
Finally I gave that up and struggled with my bonds. The hood was the easiest. It was just a bag of some sort pulled over my head. When I got it off, I couldn't see a thing. The room was pitch black. I looked around, but there wasn't so much as a glimmer of light from any direction.
I thought about my ransom nights. They hadn't been hypothetical after all. My security detail hadn't been a waste of resources, either, except I'd left them behind. I wondered if I would be dealing with this so calmly if I hadn't been tested during my ransom nights. I knew I could take anything they did to me and come out of it fighting.
I began working on my ropes. I made no headway with the ones on my wrists. I tried to free my ankles, but I wasn't able to reach the ropes.
I thought about shifting. If I shifted to fox, the ropes would fall off. But I would dislocate both shoulders. I didn't know if I could relocate them without help. I knew I could heal the damage, but I'd have to put them back into place first. I wasn't that desperate yet.
Then I remembered the chopstick still in my hair. It took some effort, but I managed to dislodge it from my hair. I struggled around again until I found it with my hands. It took a few seconds, but I got it pulled apart.
It hurt to use. The needle was too long that I couldn't hang onto it by the handle and poke it into the rope. Instead, I had to hang onto the silver. I healed the silver burns while repeatedly jabbing the sharp end of the needle into the rope.
It felt like I was making headway, but there were a lot of loops of rope, and whoever had tied it knew what he was doing. I kept working at it.
Then I heard sound at the door. I lay on my back, hiding my hands and the chopstick. The door opened, and I blinked in the sudden light from the space outside. He didn't turn on a light, but whoever it was stared at me.
"Are you damaged?" he asked.
I recognized the voice. It was Brody.
"Go to hell," I said. "You are a fucking coward. You don't even do your own dirty work. You are a disgrace to all wolves."
"Your alpha wants to talk to you," he said, crossing the room to me. He held a phone out to me.
I didn't say anything.
"Talk to her," Brody said. "Or I will send Johnny in."
"Lara?" I said immediately.
"Oh honey," Lara replied.
"Be strong, Lara. Kill them for me. Kill every last one."
Brody snatched the phone away. "Convinced?" he asked her. "She is alive, and as you can tell, reasonably unharmed. I want my sister."
"Give my mate back unharmed and we won't kill every wolf living in Iowa," Lara replied.
Brody left my cell, screaming at Lara and slamming the door.
I concentrated on healing my silver burns, then went back to stabbing the needle into the rope on my wrists.
But I hadn't eaten for hours, and healing the burns was beginning to take a toll. I adjusted my grip, trying to hang onto the safe wooden handle, but I couldn't reach the ropes that way.
I started falling further and further behind on healing the silver burns, and I knew if I didn't stop, I'd be dealing with silver poisoning. I finally sighed, found the free end of the chopstick, and slowly worked the pieces back together. I slipped the chopstick into the waistband of my skirt directly under my hands. I thought it would stay there. I lay still and tried to
conserve my strength.
I don't know how long I waited. The door opened, startling me. I might have dozed. Two women stood in the doorway, backlit from the hallway. They crossed the room and looked down at me.
"Are you awake?" they asked.
I didn't answer them.
"We are here to help you use the bathroom and feed you," the other said. "But if you are not interested, we can leave."
I ignored them.
"If you wet the bed," the second speaker said, "We will let you sleep in it."
"I haven't had a bathroom break, anything to drink, or anything to eat since you animals stole me from my home."
"If your alpha hadn't stolen Kimber," the first one said. "You would not be here."
"She came to us to avoid marrying one of your animals," I said. "And based on my treatment so far, I don't blame her."
"You lie!"
"No," I said. "I do not. She begged us for asylum. She said she wouldn't let Johnny Mack do the things he would do to her."
Neither said anything right away, then the first one spoke again. "Prove it," she said.
"How am I supposed to prove something like that? Call her yourself. I can give you several phone numbers you can call; any of the people on the other end can reach Kimber."
"You killed Elaine, Frankie, Hank and John," she said.
"No. I only killed Elaine and two of the males. I damaged the other one, but he was still breathing when I was carried away. Are you going to blame me for fighting back?"
"She's telling the truth," the second woman said. "You can smell it. She's terrified, but she's not lying."
"I would run if I were going to be forced to marry that pig," the first one agreed.
"Does that mean you will help me?" I asked.
"Yes," the second one said. And my heart soared. "We will help you to the bathroom, and we will feed you." My heart sank.
"I was hoping you would untie my hands."
"That would be worth our lives," she said. "And dying would take a long time."
"Ah," I said. "So you believe me."
"I believe you," she said. "We are to carry you to the bathroom then back here."
I paused, struggling to pull the chopstick out from my skirt, making it look like I was trying to sit up. I managed to work it loose, leaving it on the bed behind me, and hoped they wouldn't notice it.