Hudson glanced at me. “She might.”
“Stop it,” said the old man. “We don’t have time for your bickering. You know, it occurs to me that the ill will you two have for each other only serves to weaken the conclave.”
Both Hudson and Kale rolled their eyes.
“I’m serious,” said the old man. “You remind me of two bickering brothers. If you were still boys, I think I’d lock you up in a room together until you worked it out.”
Kale’s nostrils flared. “I fail to see what bearing my relationship with Hudson has on these proceedings. If you’re trying to decide who should breed with the girl, I’m the obvious choice. I make more money than him and would be better suited to raising a young one. I’ve also already been intimate with the girl.”
“So have I,” Hudson said. His face was red.
The old man raised his eyebrows and looked at me. Everyone in the room was staring at me, in fact.
“You haven’t been as intimate with her as I have,” said Kale.
“Close enough,” said Hudson.
The old man pursed his lips. “Piper. I see you’ve stopped crying. If I take that tape off of your mouth, do you think you can answer some questions without getting hysterical?”
I just glared at him. I wasn’t giving him the satisfaction of answering that question.
The old man nodded at the men who held me.
One of them ripped the tape off my face.
I cried out in pain.
“Now,” said the old man. “Is it true that you’ve had interactions with both of these men?”
I didn’t say anything.
The old man laughed softly. “She’s nothing more than a common tramp. She’s been trying to get our sympathy, but she’s not worth it. If it weren’t for the fact that she could breed new wolves for us, she wouldn’t be worth anything at all.”
What had he just said about me? I was struck by the desire to leap across the room and claw his face off. But the two men were gripping my arms, and when I tried to move forward, they held me even tighter.
The old man turned back to Hudson and Kale. “Well, if that’s the case, perhaps my earlier idea of locking the two of you up was a good one after all.”
“What?” said Kale.
“The cabin,” said the old man. “I think I’ll send the three of you there. You two can figure out some kind of strategy for burying the hatchet. And when we come for you in a month, you’ll have decided which one of you will mate with her.”
“That’s a terrible idea, sir,” said Hudson. “The size of that cabin… I’ll kill him.”
Kale glared at him. “I’ll kill you first.”
“No killing,” said the old man, pointing sternly at them. “And no mating with the girl either. That has to be done in a proper ceremony after all this is over.”
* * *
They put me back in the tiny room after that, and my thoughts were reeling. I didn’t understand what had just happened, but it sounded to me like they’d just decided to throw me into the middle of a ring with two rabid dogs. Hudson and Kale were at each other’s throats, and they were going to fight over me, and it was all going to be done in some cabin someplace, and I was just collateral damage in all of this.
I was beyond afraid.
The room didn’t have any windows, and there was only one door. It was padlocked on the outside. I had seen the catch when I was taken outside.
I spent hours searching the room for something that I could slide under the door and reach up to try to fiddle with the catch, possibly undo it. But nothing was long enough. I even took apart springs on the bottom of the cot. But when stretched out, they couldn’t get all the way up to the lock.
I was stuck.
Exhausted and demoralized, I collapsed in a ball on the floor and cried again.
Inwardly, I cursed myself for ever agreeing to a job with illegal werewolves. I cursed my biological parents for spawning me in the first place. I cursed the fact that I was a wolf, the fact that I was trapped, all the things that had led up to my ending up here in the first place.
The image of my destroyed dorm room flashed in front of my eyes—the curtains torn, the furniture overturned, blood streaking the walls. The smell of the blood. Oh God, the blood had smelled so good.
That made me cry even harder.
Perhaps I deserved this. After what I’d done to innocent people, maybe all I could ask for was a life like this. At least I wasn’t going to be forced to have sex with men I didn’t know. At least it would be Kale or Hudson, and I knew what I was getting into with them, at least mostly.
But no.
No, this was all wrong. Just because I’d been intimate with them before didn’t make me a tramp, like the old man had said. And it didn’t mean that I was consenting to further sexual activity with them.
It was this that was my last thought before sleep. The memory of their bare chests—so different and yet so alluring. Thinking of my hands on them. Thinking of my lips on theirs.
I fell into a dream, lying there on the floor, and my dream was sweaty and frightening and… arousing.
CHAPTER FOUR
The cabin was very remote, but I didn’t know how remote because I’d been blindfolded on the ride there. Once we arrived, the men took off my blindfold but didn’t untie my hands and feet. They dumped me on the couch in the cabin’s living room and began to address Kale and Hudson, who were standing in the middle of the living room on either side of an old coffee table, glaring at each other like they wanted to rip each other’s skin off.
“All right,” said one of the men, “you can’t let the girl get away.”
“Where would she go?” said Hudson, not taking his eyes off of Kale. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
Were we? It sure felt like it. I could see out the sliding glass doors next to the couch, and they opened onto a brick patio. Beyond the patio, there was nothing but woods as far as I could see.
“Remember, if you want to improve the chances of conception, she needs to shift a lot,” the man continued.
“What?” said Hudson, breaking his gaze with Kale.
“Yeah,” said Kale, “wolves don’t conceive easily. But if we’re shifting back and forth between human and wolf form, it seems to kickstart the ovaries.”
I knew that it was tough for me to get pregnant as a werewolf, but I’d never heard of this shifting back and forth thing. I was filled with fresh terror. It was more horrible than being forced to have sex with these two men, the idea of shifting into a werewolf. I hated being a wolf. I hated shifting.
“Anyway, to facilitate that, we’re not leaving you with a lot of food. Shift into wolf form and hunt for your meals,” continued the man.
The kitchen was through a doorway, and I could see a stove and a refrigerator. It looked cramped—well, cozy, if I was being nice. Kale stalked over to the kitchen and disappeared inside. I could hear cabinets opening and closing. “You’re not kidding about the lack of food, are you?”
“That bad?” said Hudson.
“We’ll be back for you in a month,” said the man.
“A month?” Kale poked his head out of the kitchen. “You’re joking, right? Let us go out to the store and get some provisions. There’s not enough food in this kitchen to feed us for three days.”
“That’s why you hunt,” said the man. He and his silent friend—both of whom had snatched me from the hotel—gave Kale and Hudson a wave, and they both left out the front door.
It was quiet.
Kale came out of the kitchen. He eyed Hudson for a second, and then he came over to me. He rolled me over onto my stomach and freed my legs. “Well, I guess this is the only entertainment we have.”
“What do you think you’re doing?” said Hudson.
Kale yanked at the pants I was wearing. They didn’t fit very well, so they came right down.
“Stop it,” I said, but my voice wavered.
“Don’t,” said Hudson.
Kale slapped my ass, now bare. “What? You don’t want to watch?” He chuckled, and his voice went soft. “Piper, I don’t know if I even want to untape your hands. You’re a sexy little bitch all trussed up like this.”
Jolts of horror went through me, inky black. This wasn’t sexy to me. It was wrong. I trembled.
Wait a second. My legs are free. I kicked out, estimating where Kale might be.
“Ouch, goddamn it.”
I grinned. Nice.
“You’re going to pay for that,” said Kale.
“Stop it,” said Hudson.
I looked up to see that Hudson had wrapped his arm around Kale and was holding him back.
“Let go of me.”
“No, we’re not doing it like that,” said Hudson.
Kale shoved out of Hudson’s arms and turned to face him. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s bad enough she’s been captured and hauled here against her will. We’re not treating her like…” Hudson jammed his hands in his pockets. “She should choose, okay? She should get to decide who she wants to do it with.”
Kale snorted. “She’s not going to choose either of us. She hates us both.” He cocked his head. “Besides, I didn’t think you were very fond of her, considering she’s been running around with both of us.”
Hudson moved around Kale. He pulled my pants back up, covering me. And then he freed my hands. He helped me sit up.
“Thanks,” I whispered. I was feeling a surge of deep gratefulness to Hudson, and he was close to me, and I could smell him again. He didn’t smell like motor oil anymore, but I could smell the him-smell radiating off of him, and it made me feel weak and a little turned on.
“Don’t get me wrong,” said Hudson to me, his eyes flashing, “what you did was shitty. Not so shitty that you deserve this, but pretty damned shitty.”
I looked away, my eyes involuntarily filling with tears. Hudson was the only person being nice to me right now, except he wasn’t really being that nice. And I’d been feeling warm fuzzies toward him, but he’d just turned that on its head.
Kale twisted his lip. “If you think you’re going to stop me from fucking her whenever I want—”
“I am.” Hudson stood up.
“So, you’re her white knight.”
Yes. Please be my white knight.
“No,” said Hudson. “It’s just that we’re both here, and we both have equal rights to her.”
My stomach turned over. That didn’t sound good. Strangely though, I also felt turned on. Warmth was growing between my legs. Something about the way they were arguing over me. It made me feel… important.
“Besides,” said Hudson, “you’ve already had sex with her once. I’ve never had sex with her. If she’s going to decide who to mate with, I think she needs to be with both of us.”
“Who says she’s choosing her mate?”
“Well,” said Hudson, “for one thing, it’s a teensy bit less unfair to her. But also, it’s more practical. Because let’s face it, the chances of you and I coming to an agreement without one of us killing each other are slim to none.”
Kale considered. “I guess that’s true.”
“Anyway,” said Hudson, dragging me up off the couch, “it’s my turn.” He turned to me. “Come on.”
I shrank from him, but he tugged me out of the living room along with him.
Kale yelled after us. “You can’t just—”
“Fuck you,” said Hudson. He pulled me into the hallway and shoved me inside a cramped bedroom. Cozy, I guess. It had a quilt-covered bed, which basically took up the whole room. I stumbled and fell onto it.
Hudson shut the door, closing me inside. He and Kale were still out in the hallway.
“You want to fight me over this now?” said Hudson through the door. “Because if you’re ready, I’m ready.”
There was no answer.
“That’s what I thought,” said Hudson. “You know you could never take me.”
“You asshole,” growled Kale.
Hudson opened the door again.
“So, we’re taking turns?” said Kale. “That how it goes?”
Hudson slammed the door in his face.
I backed up on the bed. There was a window above me, but it was small. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to squeeze through it.
Hudson leaned against the door. He buried his face in his hands.
“You don’t get to take this one from me,” said Kale’s voice from beyond the door.
Hudson dragged his fingers over his face.
“Hudson.” Kale pounded on the door.
Hudson reached down and locked the door. Then he sank down to the floor. He didn’t make a move toward me.
I wrapped my arms around my knees.
“Fine, fuck it,” said Kale. “I’m not hanging around and listening to this.” His footsteps pounded away, down the hall. Then we heard the front door slam.
Hudson looked up at me. “Why?” he said softly.
“Why what?” I said.
“Why did you sleep with him? What could you possibly see in him?”
I looked up at the ceiling. I couldn’t tell him the truth.
“I just don’t get it,” said Hudson. “There was a thing between us. I never felt anything like that before.” He rested his head against the door. “But I guess you didn’t feel anything. After all, you ran away from me. Ran away so you could go back to his bed.”
“It wasn’t…” I chewed on my lip. “I wasn’t with him until after you and I…” I sighed. And a lie occurred to me. A shitty lie. It wouldn’t make Hudson like me any better. But I wasn’t sure I liked him anyway. “I didn’t have anything. He let me stay at his house. It seemed like… like maybe if I let him, he’d let me stay longer. And I didn’t have anywhere to go.”
Hudson laughed bitterly. “So, you’re that pathetic, huh?”
I didn’t answer.
“You didn’t seem that pathetic when you were chewing me out because you thought I was lying to you about what was wrong with your car.” He stood up and came over to the bed. “I can’t figure you out.”
“I’m a puzzle, all right,” I said. “But none of that matters.” I gazed into his eyes. “You don’t like this. I can tell you don’t like this. Let me go.”
He sat down on the bed. “Go where? We’re all trapped out here, Piper. Kale and I don’t have a car. It’s miles to any kind of civilization.”
Well, shit. I squeezed my eyes shut. How had I gotten into this situation? I wanted to cry again, but I didn’t. Tears weren’t going to help anything. And besides, Hudson was right. I wasn’t pathetic. I swallowed. “Are you going to… make me have sex with you now?”
Hudson made a face. “I won’t touch you.”
I felt relieved.
“But I don’t know how long I can keep Kale off you,” he said. “This was just the best idea I had for now.”
I hugged my legs tighter to my chest. “Thank you.”
We were both quiet, and it was that same comfortable silence that always seemed to settle between us. Suddenly, here with him, I felt strangely at home and calm. Like everything was going to be okay. I could still smell Hudson, and I loved his smell. I was seized by the urge to reach over and touch his arm, like I had in the truck that first time. It seemed like it would be natural and right.
But I squelched the desire.
He’d just told me that he wouldn’t touch me. I shouldn’t touch him either.
I didn’t even know if he wanted to touch me. He might very well hate me.
Minutes ticked by. I looked at him. He looked at me. It felt good to be close to him. I relaxed, and I stretched out on the bed. He gazed down at me, and I wanted to touch him again. I wanted to touch him so bad.
Maybe that didn’t even make sense. He was keeping me captive here. But he was less of a douche than Kale, that was for sure.
Still, I didn’t touch him.
As the time passed, my eyes started to close. I
was tired. I hadn’t slept well the night before, and this was the first time that I felt safe since all this had begun. I let myself drift off, secure in Hudson’s presence.
But once I was fast asleep, the dreams were waiting for me. Dreams full of flesh and fur, running under the moon, lying on my back, something thick and warm between my thighs, my body tingling, my body filled and trembling, the moon high in the air, whispering to me…
* * *
They woke me up in the twilight. Both of them were standing over me in the dying light. Hudson looking dark and immense, Kale looking lean and chiseled. They were beautiful, that was my first thought. Here I am, being awakened by beautiful men.
But the truth was I was being held captive by these men, beautiful or not. Sure, they were trapped here too, but they’d come willingly, so it wasn’t the same.
“We need to hunt, Piper,” said Hudson in a low voice.
I sat up on the bed. “Hunt?”
“There’s not enough food in this house,” said Kale. “We’ll have to get our food from the wild.”
I remembered something like this from before. It filled me with apprehension.
“You’ll need to shift,” said Hudson.
I pulled aside the curtain to look at the moon. “Is it still full enough?”
“The moon doesn’t matter, Piper,” said Kale. “Not if you’re in need. You can shift if you have to. And we have to.”
I shook my head. “No, I can’t. And I don’t want to.” I hated the idea of shifting.
“You have to,” insisted Kale. “It’s the only way you’re going to be able to eat.”
I shuddered. “Eat what? You’re going to shift into wolves and go out there and… kill something?” I thought of the blood-streaked walls of my dorm room, all those years ago. I felt cold, but my palms started to sweat.
Hudson raised his eyebrows. “You’re not a vegetarian, are you?”
“She served me chicken,” said Kale.
Hudson turned to him, looking annoyed. “She cooked for you?”
Kale gave him a cocky shrug.
“I can cook now,” I said. “We don’t have to go out and…” I couldn’t even think about it.
Blood. Tangy. Salty. I want—
Under a Raging Moon: Part Two Page 4