by Bella Jacobs
“Well…” Diana trails off, her gaze skimming across the rows of shelves. “There. It’s in the women’s aisle next to the condoms. My human friends from school always ask me to buy their condoms for them. And tampons and pads. They’re so embarrassed about shit like that. I mean, having your period and sex are natural. Why are they so grossed out? It’s weird.”
“Because they’ve been taught to be grossed out and ashamed by their culture,” I say. “And don’t think you can throw me off the scent that easily, Miss Chatterbox. What do you mean by open? What does Jacob want us to be ‘open’ to?”
Diana leads the way down an aisle lined with pink packages full of feminine hygiene products to a section in the center. “Okay, don’t freak out, but…I sort of promised him we’d go to one of their meetings before he drives us to the border.”
Chapter Six
Willow
“You did what?” I grind to a stop, my heart lurching in my chest. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
Diana spins back to me, her hands lifted, and her fingers spread wide. “I’m not. But they won’t even know we’re there, that’s the brilliant part! They’re holding a recruiting meeting in this abandoned theater in the meat-packing district this afternoon. Jacob scouted it out last night. He says it will be super easy to sneak us in the back way. Then, we can hide out in the grid above the stage, listen to what they have to say, and if we don’t like it, he’ll take us to the border, no questions asked. And if I can convince him Bane and Kelley are bullshit by the time we get to Canada, he’ll even come with us.”
She beams at me as she extends a hand toward the condom display. “So, if it’s okay with you, I’m going to buy some condoms. Just in case. And maybe a morning after pill of my own in case the condom breaks. Because if Jacob leaves his entire life behind for me, I’m going to feel ready to take that next step with him, but I’m absolutely not ready to be pregnant.”
I exhale, driving a hand through my hair.
I’d love to tell her this isn’t the time to be thinking about sex, but I’m not a hypocrite. “I don’t like this. It could be a trap, Diana. I saw one of their recruiting promos online. They think Maxim poisoned your dad and did something to make Kelley barren.”
“And they’re wrong about that, obviously,” Diana says, plucking a condom box from the display and turning it over to skim the product description. “But that doesn’t mean they’re all bad. And if we decide they seem mostly okay, but just like…misguided or whatever, hopefully we can convince them otherwise.”
“I think you’re being overly optimistic,” I say. “And if we end up their prisoners, it’s going to make escaping from the tower look like a cake walk. These people are heavily armed and prepared for all-out war. And they think my womb holds the key to securing control over the shifter world.” An ugly thought rises in my head, making my guts twist. “And if Kelley really is barren for some reason, but Bane is still determined to rule…”
I don’t finish the thought, but I don’t have to.
Diana looks up at me, her face paling. “Fuck. You don’t think…”
I nod. “Yeah, I do. And from what I’ve heard about your brother, the fact that he’s allegedly in love with my sister wouldn’t stop him.”
She tosses the condom package onto the cluttered shelf beneath the display and presses a hand to her stomach. “Ugh. That makes me feel sick. I hate my family.”
I rest a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t. You’re wonderful and your dad’s pretty awesome, too.”
Diana pulls in a breath and bites her bottom lip, tears rising in her eyes. “He is. I’m going to miss him so much. I wish he was still Alpha. I wish he’d never been poisoned, and things were the way they used to be. Maxim was so great back then, Willow. Like…really great. He always made me feel so special and safe and loved.”
I wrap her up in my arms, the back of my nose stinging. “I’m sorry, honey. But maybe you can find your way back to that kind of relationship again,” I say, but even I’m surprised when the telltale glow of my eyes lights up the aisle, proving there are brighter days ahead for Diana and her brother.
She flinches, sniffing and laughing as she says, “Quick, turn it off. We don’t want anyone to see.”
I close my eyes and work through the breath and thought-pattern sequence that Diana’s father taught me to control the glow.
When my lashes sweep up again, Diana’s still beaming.
“Thank you,” she says. “That gives me so much hope.” She grabs a pill box off the shelf and presses it into my hand. “Here, go pay for this. I’m going to troll the aisles until I find someone to loan me their cell phone for a quick call. I’ll tell Jacob we can’t come to the theater, after all. Then we’ll go rent a car and head north on our own. Maxim will be able to track my credit card and know we rented a car, but he won’t know where we’re headed. And in any event, it’s probably a lot safer to risk Maxim catching us than Bane. The devil you know, right?”
I nod, my chest swelling with emotion. “I’m really proud of you. I know this can’t be easy, to leave someone you care about so much behind.”
Her lips press together, and her gaze drops to the tiled floor. “Yeah, but if Jacob really loves me, he’ll still be here when it’s safe to come home, right?” She looks up, smiling again. “And thanks to you, I know it’s going to be safe again someday. Maxim and I are going to find our way back to each other and that…”
She swallows as she nods, clearly fighting to maintain control. “That means so much to me, Willow. Truly. I’ve been pissed at him a lot lately, but after Mom died, Maxim was my world. I don’t know if I would have made it through as well as I did without him. He was always there for me, even more than Dad sometimes, since Dad was so busy with pack business and stuff. Maxim was like, the age I am now, but he made time to play dumb baby games with me and took me to the playground all the time and just…made me feel loved. The way Mom did.” She grimaces. “As much as I hate to say this, especially in view of what happened last night, he’s probably going to be an amazing dad someday.”
My lips curve in a sad smile. “That’s good to hear.” I lift the box in my hands. “But I’m still buying this. And taking it.”
She rolls her eyes. “Hell, yes, you should. Because consent. Get some, asshole.” She motions toward the outside world. “Meaning my brother, of course.”
“I know,” I say, nodding over my shoulder. “Meet you up front by the door?”
“Yeah. I’ll be there in a few. It shouldn’t take me long to find a willing phone donor.” She winks as she backs away. “I can be charming when I want to be.”
She’s also a gorgeous young girl, which I’m sure doesn’t hurt any.
But Diana isn’t stupid, and she has a pack gift that gives her a leg up when it comes to spotting creepers. She’ll approach someone with a nice, cheery aura, make her call, and we’ll be on our way soon.
All we have to do is stay focused and move quickly.
At the checkout, I take advantage of the kind, compassionate look in the clerk’s eyes as she rings me up and say, “I’m just passing through the city and need to rent a car. I don’t suppose you have any idea if there’s a rental agency around here somewhere?”
“Yeah, actually, there is,” she says, slipping my purchase into a small paper bag and accepting my twenty-dollar bill. “If you keep going all the way down this street, almost until you reach the river, there’s a whole bunch of them right by the ferry stop. They’re in a garage under this huge gym with a trapeze on the roof. You can’t miss it. Walking you’ll be there in…ten, fifteen minutes tops.”
I smile and feel some of the tension in my shoulders ease away as she gives me my change, which I dump into the front pocket of my pack. “Amazing, thank you so much.”
“Sure thing,” she says, pushing the bag across the counter.
I collect the package and move toward the exit, tucking myself behind a change machine near the door. While I wait for Dia
na, I open the package, punch out the pill and swallow it dry.
It takes a few uncomfortable gulps, but I get it down and my tension levels fall a bit more.
I definitely want a baby someday, but not like this. I want to choose to have a child when the time is right. I want to be overjoyed about bringing my baby into the world, not terrified that I won’t be able to protect an innocent infant in a world gone mad.
And I want to share my excitement with my husband…
Like a kid picking at a scab, my thoughts return to Maxim, to the sweet things he said last night before everything went to shit, to the way he touched me and all the things it made me feel.
Not all of them were bad. Not even half of them were bad.
But I’m a strong woman whose parents taught her to love and value herself, and that’s not something I ever want to change. And longing for a man who hurt and betrayed me isn’t strong or loving.
It’s…crazy. If a friend of mine were acting this way, I would firmly encourage her to find a therapist and seek some professional help. Hell, I’d offer to drive her to her sessions and stand guard outside her bedroom door to make sure her man couldn’t get within ten feet of her.
But Diana’s right.
When you’re in the thick of a swirl of complicated emotions, things aren’t always as black and white as they seem from a distance, and I can’t help wishing Maxim and I could talk.
Just…talk.
Well, if you’re lucky, maybe he’ll come visit you in the deep, dark cell he’ll toss you in once he catches up to you and Dee.
Because if you don’t get going soon, he will find you.
The cell phone diversion will only buy so much time.
Jolted back to the more urgent issues at hand, I toss my now empty pill box in the blue recycling bin by the door and head back into the store to look for Diana.
I weave in and out of the aisles, dread growing with every corner I turn to find no sign of her. I reach the end of the pet care aisle and the brightly colored toys hanging on the shelves begin to blur and swim in my peripheral vision. The cloying scent of processed meat in the dry food assaults my nose, turning my stomach.
And then suddenly, like a camera’s flash has just gone off in front of my face, the world goes white. I squeeze my eyes shut and stagger backwards, reaching out to brace myself on the shelves.
When I open my eyes again, I’m not in the pharmacy anymore.
I’m in an alley, watching Diana and a younger man with close-cropped black hair struggle as several tall, masked figures dressed in black shove them into a windowless white van.
The vision vanishes as swiftly as it appeared, knocking the breath out of me on its way out.
I press a fist to my chest as I bend double, gasping for air.
But even before I manage to suck in a full breath, I’m staggering toward the door in front of me marked Staff Only. Instinctively, I know Diana went through there and that the alley I saw in my vision is somewhere beyond it.
I also know that what I saw hasn’t happened yet, and that if I move fast enough, I might be able to stop it.
I push through the swinging doors, still bent over, thumping at my ribs to loosen the tension holding my lungs prisoner. Thankfully, the stock area is empty and, to my right, the exit door leading to the outside world is already wide open. I catch a whiff of exhaust-scented air and the soft sound of voices and hurry toward them.
By the time I reach the door, I’m breathing somewhat normally again, enough so that when I see Diana and the raven-haired boy from my vision standing in the alley, I can call out, “We have to go. Now. Bad people are coming.”
Diana turns to me with wide, guilty eyes. “What?” She motions to the boy. “This is Jacob, Willow. He was literally right around the corner when I called, or I would never have—”
I make a circling motion with my arm. “It doesn’t matter, we have to go. People are coming to take you both prisoner. I had a vision. We have to—”
My words are cut off by the squeal of tires as the white van turns into the alley and barrels toward us, moving so fast that despite what I saw in my vision, I’m afraid it’s going to run right over both of the teens.
“Run, run!” I scream, but Jacob and Diana are already on the move.
They fly past me, Diana grabbing my hand on her way by and dragging me through the dimly lit stock room. We burst through the Staff Only door and sprint past the pet food to the front of the pharmacy.
The clerk who checked me out shouts something as we pass, but there’s no time to respond.
We hit the automatic doors hard and tumble out onto the street.
“To the river.” I point west. “If we have to, we can go in and swim to the other side,” I pant as we start running again. “They can’t follow us into the water in a van.”
It’s a decent split-second plan. If we make it to Riverside Drive, there are parks and docks on the other side. I could see them from the roof at dinner last night. At the end of one of those docks, we can plunge into the Hudson, potentially making it over to the Jersey side before the people pursuing us figure out a way to catch up.
But we don’t make it to the end of the block before more masked people in black jump out of a limo idling in front of a coffee shop. One moment we’re weaving through pedestrians, the next the bad guys are right in front of us.
There isn’t enough time to slow down and avoid a collision, let alone change directions.
I slam into what feels like a woman—an extremely buff one—and am instantly lifted into the air. I kick and struggle, but she’s way too strong. She handles me like a child, easily pinning my arms to my sides as she slides back into the limo with me on her lap.
Sadly, Diana and Jacob, despite being far stronger and fit to fight than yours truly are captured not long after.
The last thing I see before a black hood drops over my head is Diana’s furious, fear-filled gaze meeting mine across the limo as the doors slam shut.
Chapter Seven
Maxim
Drugged…
I’ve been drugged…
By fairies.
I’m conscious just long enough to appreciate the irony—and to realize my body is still currently in one piece, despite feeling battered from head to toe—and I’m out again.
The second time I wake up, I manage to drag my lids open and roll my head to one side on the rock-hard slab I’m laid out on.
I see a dimly lit room with a concrete wall only a few feet from my face. I catch a whiff of a strong chemical scent—rubbing alcohol, I think, and something fecund I can’t quite place—and then the drugs wrap their tentacles back around my brain.
I’m unconscious before I can rock my head over to see what’s on the other side of the room.
The third time I come to—or maybe the fourth or fifth, I lose track of what’s real and what’s a dream—I awaken with a gasp, sputtering as I spit out the water flooding into my mouth and nose.
I try to reach up to block the flow and swipe at my eyes, only to find my wrists bound to my sides by something heavy and metallic that’s trapped me in my human form. I attempt to shift, but my fur only prickles beneath my skin like a thousand tiny needles before my wolf goes still once more.
I thrash against my restraints, raging against the assault of the water that’s making it nearly impossible to breathe.
But struggling only makes it harder to suck in air in the brief pauses in the seemingly unrelenting flood.
I hold on for as long as I can, fighting for survival, but eventually the pressure in my chest and the blackness spreading through my head grows too intense.
With a final silent scream that echoes in the increasingly close cavern of my mind, I’m snuffed out.
I…die.
I’m sure of it, so sure that when I wake up again to find a striking Fey man with cheekbones that could cut glass and dark gray eyes watching me from a chair beside my slab, I can’t make sense of him right away.
When he asks, “Ready for more?” I can’t make sense of that either.
I can only blink and wonder where I am, who I am.
Then he holds up a small pair of pliers with a hard smile and says, “I think fingernails first, don’t you?” and it all comes rushing back—the capture, the torture, the punishment I’m beginning to suspect might never end, and the people who need me back in the real world.
Now more than ever.
“No,” I manage to croak out. “Please. My pack.”
“Your pack will still be there when we’re finished,” he says calmly. “If we finish.”
“They need me now,” I beg, not too proud to grovel if that’s what it takes. “Please, I’ll come back. I’ll come back, and you can do whatever you want. Just let me go now before it’s too late.”
“Oh, Alpha, it’s already too late,” he says, a hard light flickering in his eyes as his hand covers my tightly balled fist. “So much later than you know.”
I say something else, but I’m not sure what—my pulse is rushing too loud in my ears.
And then the Fey man’s pliers are put to their wicked use and there are no words, only screams.
Screams and blood and pain until the blackness finally comes for me again.
Somewhere in the feverish, blood-soaked nightmares that follow, I see Willow standing by my stone bed, begging me to hold on, promising to come for me.
But even in REM phase, I know it’s only a dream.
Willow hates me, and my little wolf is no match for a stone bunker or a psychotic fairy.
And neither am I.
No fucking match at all.
Chapter Eight
Willow