I lay on my back, staring at the ceiling. What the hell was going on here?
I was losing my mind, that was what. There was no universe in which this could ever work out. I couldn’t have both of them, even if they were willing to sleep in the same bed with me. Men didn’t agree to things like that.
And besides, I wouldn’t agree to be with them—either of them. They had kidnapped me and they were holding me prisoner.
I needed to remember that. This wasn’t a happy little lark out in a woodsy cabin. I was a captive.
I pulled the covers tight up to my chin. Why did I keep forgetting that?
Eventually, I fell asleep, but it was a shallow sleep, and I woke frequently.
When I did, I’d find myself spooning with either Kale or Hudson, and it would feel so nice to be close to either of their hard, muscled bodies. But I would force myself away, back into the middle of the bed.
And then, at one point, I was awakened by a noise.
It was a car motor outside. There was someone here?
I sat up carefully, straining to hear. And then I heard an even more wonderful noise—the sound of the refrigerator’s hum coming back on. And the lights in the hallway burst to life.
The electricity was back on!
And that meant that people had come out here to fix it. I had to get out to them before they left. This was my escape.
I hesitated for a second, looking at the sleeping forms of Hudson and Kale. Did I really want to leave them? I remembered how good it felt to be in both of their arms, how right and sweet and—
Fuck that.
I was being held against my will, and I needed to get the hell out of here.
Carefully, I climbed out of the bed. I was as quiet as possible getting out of the house, but once I was outside, I took off at a run.
I could see the truck parked at the end of the driveway, right next to the pole that held up the cabin’s electric wires. It didn’t look much like an electric truck—it was just a normal pickup. But the men around it were loading a ladder into the bed, and they were all wearing uniforms.
I waved my arms over my head as I ran. “Help!” I yelled. “Help me!” I didn’t care about being quiet now.
The men all looked up from what they were doing, startled.
I hurried towards them, running as fast as I could, screaming at the top of my lungs.
One of the men intercepted me. “What’s going on?” he said.
I gasped for breath. “You have to help me. They’re holding me captive here, and they won’t let me go. You have to get me out of here.”
“Okay, okay,” said the man. “Calm down.”
The other men all crowded around, trying to reassure me.
I worked on getting my breathing under control.
“All right, now,” said the first man. Tell us what’s going on.”
“I…” I took a deep breath. “They took me out of their hotel, and they brought me here, and they won’t let me leave.”
“Who did?”
“These guys,” I said. “They’re werewolves, and they want to make me have werewolf babies or something.” I was taking a chance that these men were regular people, most of whom despised werewolves.
“Werewolves,” said one of the other men. “Did you hear that? We gotta call the SF.” He was digging in his pocket for his phone.
“Hold up, there!” called out another voice.
I turned to see that Hudson and Kale were hurrying down to meet us. It was Hudson who’d yelled. He approached the other men. “Hi there, is there something we can do for you?”
The electric workers folded their arms over their chest and fixed their stares on the two of them.
“I see you’ve got our sister there,” said Hudson, smiling easily, as if nothing was wrong. “She’s a little touched in the head. Gets ideas, you know. Why don’t you just hand her back over to us before she hurts herself?”
“I’m not their sister!” I exclaimed, angry.
“Why don’t we just let the SF sort this out?” said the man with the phone.
Kale shook his head. “Now, is there any reason to bring them into this? Let’s just talk to each other here. I’m sure if you give us a listen, you’ll see that nothing is going wrong here.”
“Why don’t you want us to call the SF?” demanded another of the men. “You two are werewolves, ain’t ya?”
“I’m calling,” said the man with the phone. He was starting to dial.
“Don’t do that,” Hudson pleaded.
“Put it down,” said Kale.
The man continued to dial defiantly.
“We can’t let you do that,” said Hudson.
“We’re really sorry about this,” said Kale.
And suddenly, the two of them threw their heads back, and—in unison—they shifted into wolves. The change flowed over them, rippling over their skin. It only took seconds.
They landed on their front paws, both snarling.
They were beautiful but deadly.
The men backed away, some swearing under their breaths.
The Hudson-wolf leapt onto the man with the phone. It knocked the phone out of the man’s hands. And it went directly for the man’s throat. One quick motion, and it had ripped out the man’s throat.
I screamed.
The smell of blood hit my nostrils, and I was back in that dorm room again, surrounded by blood, by ripped flesh and motionless bodies.
The Kale-wolf was snarling, lunging for the other men.
The men started to scatter now, taking off and running.
One went for the truck. He tried to get the door open, but it was locked. He fumbled in his pocket for the keys.
The Hudson-wolf—done with its first victim—sprang onto the man as he struggled for the keys. It was at his throat too quickly for me to see.
But I smelled the blood, heard the sound of the flesh being torn away.
I put my palms against my temples and pushed. “Stop it,” I said. “Stop it!”
It didn’t stop.
The Kale-wolf and the Hudson-wolf ran after the men who tried to escape. The men didn’t have a chance against the wolves, who were faster and stronger than them. The wolves took them down the same way we’d taken down the deer in the forest. But they were quicker, because they didn’t stop to feed. They killed, and they moved on.
Within minutes, we were surrounded by motionless, mutilated bodies, and the air was full of the sharp tang of blood. I smelled it, and my body was revolted, but the wolf inside me was excited. It clawed at the back of my neck, rattling its cage, eager to be let out.
I fell to my knees and covered my head with my hands.
This couldn’t be happening. Not again.
* * *
Hudson and Kale hauled me to the bedroom, and they shut me inside. They barricaded the door outside so that I couldn’t get out. I didn’t even try, though. The sight of all the dead bodies had broken something inside me. All I wanted to do was curl up in a little ball and make it go away.
So, I did. I curled up, and I rocked. And time passed. I don’t know how much time, because I couldn’t even pay attention to something like that. All I could do was see the men die outside, over and over again. I replayed the wolves’ tackling them, ripping out their throats, the spray of blood…
I rocked.
Sometime later, the guys took the barricade away from the door, and they came into the room. They were both dirty and bloody.
“Well, we’ve finally got your mess cleaned up,” said Kale, looking down at me. “Why would you do something like that?”
I was still curled up on the floor. I just put my hands over my head and kept rocking. I wasn’t going to talk to either of them.
“It’s pretty obvious why she did it,” said Hudson. “She wants to get away from us.”
“No,” said Kale. “Yesterday, on the couch—”
“It was an act,” said Hudson. “She’s seduced both of us to try to manipulat
e us. You’re always blind when it comes to women, Kale. You always think they’re sweetness and light, but you’re wrong. Piper’s never been anything other than a conniving slut, and we should have known.”
That made me angry. My whole body started to shake.
Kale knelt down next to me. “Piper, look at me,” he murmured.
I wouldn’t. I was seething in rage towards Hudson. I clenched my hands together. I shot to my feet. “I haven’t been seducing you, you’ve been seducing me. I don’t want any of this. I just want to go home.”
“Any means necessary, right?” said Hudson. “If it means making us think with our cocks, then why not?”
“You—you both forced me.” I was so angry, I could hardly get the words out. “You’re rapists.”
“Oh, hell, no,” said Hudson. “I heard you begging Kale for it that first morning. And yesterday, you wanted me. Don’t lie and say you didn’t.”
“I can’t consent under conditions like this,” I said. “You should know better. You have to let me go.” I was going to start crying again soon.
Blood. Blood everywhere.
I shrieked, pounding my fists against my temples.
“What’s wrong with you?” said Kale, and he sounded genuinely worried.
“She’s trying to get us to feel sorry for her,” said Hudson. “But she’d sell us out to the SF in a heartbeat. Don’t think she wouldn’t.”
“You kidnapped me,” I spit at him. “And you…you killed those men. You killed all of them.”
“I don’t think so, Piper.” Hudson’s voice was rough. “You killed them. You went out there and tried to get them to call the SF.”
I backed away, hugging myself. “I didn’t kill them. I didn’t. No, this time, I didn’t do it.”
Hudson put his finger in my face. “You know that we can’t risk the SF coming here. If they found out about Kale and me, it would put the entire conclave in danger. So, we had to resort to drastic measures.”
I was sobbing now, and I was seeing the men all dying again. I grabbed two pieces of my hair and pulled, trying to blot out the image of my dorm room, of all that carnage. “No,” I whimpered. “No.”
Kale pushed Hudson out of the way. “Stop yelling at her.”
“Kale. You have to see her for what she is.”
Kale rounded on Hudson. “She’s not Lila.”
“I’m not saying—”
“She’s right, you know. We did kidnap her.” Kale turned back to me. He sighed. “We kidnapped her and took her out into the middle of nowhere and forced her to shift into a werewolf.”
I bit down on my bottom lip, raising my tearstained face. “Let me go. I can take the electric truck. You can tell the conclave that you don’t know what happened to me.”
Kale shook his head. “You know we can’t do that.”
I broke out in fresh sobs. “You killed them.”
Kale sighed again.
“You’re monsters,” I said.
“This is an act,” said Hudson. “She’s playing us.”
“Come on,” said Kale. He pulled Hudson out of the room. They closed the door and put the barricade back up.
I was alone.
* * *
I woke up the next morning on the floor with no memory of how I’d fallen asleep. I must have cried myself to sleep. I felt horrible. My throat was sore, and my face was puffy, the way it is when you’ve spent hours crying before bed.
I had to pee, so I banged on the door until Kale came and moved the barricade.
He escorted me back the hall to the bathroom, which was functional now that the electricity was on. A good thing, too. I’d been the only one using the toilet—the guys had gone outside—but it was starting to smell terrible. Anyway, the water was running, and now I could flush everything away.
I washed my face with cold water in the sink, but I couldn’t wash away the puffiness. I looked terrible. I realized I hadn’t had a shower in days, so I hopped in and turned on the water.
“What are you doing in there?” called Kale from outside the door.
“Taking a shower,” I said. “I hope that’s okay.”
“Geez,” he muttered. “Don’t take forever.”
I took my sweet time.
When I was done, I wrapped myself in a towel, since I hadn’t got my robe back in here, and I tried the door. It opened, and no one was in the hall way. I guessed that Kale had gotten sick of waiting for me.
I darted up the hallway as quickly as I could. Sure, I was only in a towel, but maybe I could make a break for it.
Kale intercepted me.
I sighed.
He shoved me back into the bedroom. He’d found me another change of clothes somewhere, and I didn’t mean to feel grateful, but I did. These fit me much better than the ones I’d been wearing for the past few days.
Once I was dressed, I opened the door. “You can’t keep me prisoner here forever, you know.”
Kale rubbed his forehead. “Can I come in?”
“Oh, that’s awfully, polite,” I said. “Now you’re asking permission, huh?”
He pushed past me. But then he just stood in the middle of the floor, looking lost. “What happened?”
I glared at him. “I tried to get away. As much as it might come as a surprise to you, my ideal situation is not being held captive in a cabin.”
“That’s not what I mean,” he said. “I mean, before all this. What happened to you? Last night reminded you of some kind of trauma. You were really upset, and it wasn’t just because a bunch of people you didn’t know were killed, or because you didn’t get away.”
I raised my chin. “It is upsetting to see people get killed in front of your face.”
“Piper, come on.”
I went and sat down on the bed. I toyed with the edge of my t-shirt. “I was in college. It was the first time I shifted. It had never happened before, and I didn’t know what it was.”
He sat down next to me.
I scooted away from him. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Did you kill someone when you were the wolf?”
“Someone? Try six people.” I shuddered, just thinking about it. “They were all in my dorm room in the time. It was my fault, because I was freaking out. I was just hanging out with my boyfriend and my roommate, and everything started hurting, and I yelled for my boyfriend to get help, and he ran out into the hallway and yelled for help. People came running. Four more people were in the room, asking what was going on. And then… well, I don’t remember. But when I woke up, they were all…” I buried my face in my hands and started to rock.
“Piper, you have to realize that you didn’t—”
“They said that they closed the door to my dorm so that I couldn’t get out, and that they called the SF. There were still people alive when they shut the door, but they couldn’t get to them, because I was there, and I was going crazy.” More tears started to leak out of my eyes. “It took hours for the SF to arrive. By that time, I’d already shifted back.”
Hudson reached over and grasped my hand.
I tried to pull my hand away, but he held on.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” he said.
“To me? What about the six people who died?”
He was quiet. He just held my hand.
I wiped at my tears. After last night, I seemed to be pretty cried out.
When he did speak, his voice was quiet. “I’m not proud of what we did last night. We did it to protect the conclave, though. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made.” He swallowed. “It was the first time I ever… did that to a human.”
I raised my gaze to his.
His face twisted, and he took a halting breath. “I wish we hadn’t had to.”
I felt a surge of emotion for him, even though what he and Hudson did was horrible. But who was I to judge? I’d killed too.
“I know it seemed like we had a choice, but we really didn’t,” said Kale. “The SF wants to destroy our
way of life.”
“Well… maybe your way of life isn’t so great,” I said.
“Piper, I know you don’t understand.”
“I understand that you want to protect an organization that mandates rape and allows killing.”
He took his hand away from mine. “I guess it would seem that way to you.”
I didn’t say anything.
He got up from the bed and walked over to the door. He leaned up against it, looking over at me. “Listen, I know this hasn’t been easy on you. And I honestly can’t defend it.”
“So, let me go,” I said.
He looked up at the ceiling. “You don’t know what it’s like. This is what my whole family expects of me. If I let them down…”
“That’s not a good enough excuse,” I said.
He dragged a hand over his face.
“Kale, what happens to me?” I said. “What if I don’t get pregnant, and a whole month passes, and I don’t choose either of you? What happens to me?”
He hesitated.
“Kale?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I guess they keep trying to breed you until it takes.”
“They?” I said. “You mean it wouldn’t be you and Hudson.”
“They might expand the number of… alphas.”
I gaped at him. “No.”
He turned away from me and started to open the door.
I got up off the bed and grabbed him. “You can’t let that happen to me.”
“Piper, I don’t…”
“You have to do something. I can’t live like that. I don’t want to have a baby. Not yet. And I don’t want to be forced. Please, you have to promise me you won’t let that happen.”
He flinched. He lowered his voice. “Look, there’s still a chance you’re already pregnant.”
“No, I’m not.”
“We don’t know that for sure. Once we do, then… well, if you’re not, maybe I can talk to Hudson. But he… he’s pretty pissed at you, you know?”
My heart sank.
“I’ll do my best,” said Kale, and then he was out the door.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Days passed. The guys watched me more closely now. They knew that I would try to escape given the chance. We shifted once, and we ran under the moon. I didn’t want to do it, but I was so hungry that I had to. I managed the shift without any sexual stimulation, which was a relief, because it was what confused me so badly when it came to both of them. I knew that I didn’t want to be in this situation, but I was flummoxed by the fact that I still wanted both of them. I was glad of the fact that I didn’t have to touch them, and that they didn’t have to touch me.
Under a Raging Moon: Part Two Page 11