by Vaughn, V.
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “I think I’ve been mistaken for my friend.”
His eyebrow quirked. “A friend?”
“Yes, I hadn’t seen her in a while, and I went to visit her in the labs. I started looking at these reports and somehow gained access to this backdoor database...I shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I couldn’t...”
“You couldn’t what?” he urged.
“Look, I don’t think I should be telling you this. I work for Silex Pharmaceuticals. You probably don’t know anything about them, but I’m under a confidentiality agreement and I’m not supposed to disclose anything.”
Somewhere mid-sentence, Thane had stood. His face was devoid of all emotions. “What do you do for Silex?”
“I’m just an assistant there.”
“What kind of assistant?” he asked.
“I help the VP of Accounting. I code things and make sure they are set up in the system. Why?” She held both palms upright in frustration. “It doesn’t matter now. I just need to find a way out of here. There has to be a phone or an emergency line somewhere. How does someone get help if they’re dying?”
“There’s no help or medic who comes running to aid anyone here. As I mentioned, most of us are shifters. There are a handful of humans, but not many.”
Kalena shook her head. “Even more reason why I shouldn’t be here. I’m not a shifter.”
“Was your friend a shifter?” he asked, calmly.
“I don’t know. She seemed just like me. How would I know?”
Thane ran his hand over his head and down through his hair and exhaled deeply. “Your connection to Silex changes everything. I need to know why you were in the labs at Silex and exactly what you do for them.”
“I already told you what I do for Silex. And why should I trust you? The other night that woman told me that you were trying to buy me for sexual purposes.”
Thane’s eyes widened, and then narrowed. “That’s not true. I heard your screams, your cries for help.”
“I saw what you did to that wolf,” she said.
He lowered his head. “I’m sorry you had to see that, but it was what I had to do to help you.”
Some of the tension escaped from Kalena’s muscles and she sat down on the cot again. Everything she’d learned in this short span of time had become too much for her to take in, but she still hadn’t wrapped her brain around how she’d get herself out of this situation.
“Why would you want to help me? You barely know me.”
“I was compelled to. I can’t explain. It’s a wolf thing.”
She smirked. Probably would have laughed despite her situation. “You’ll have to tell me sooner or later. I don’t have that much interaction with shifters on a daily basis.”
He raised an eyebrow. “For right now, would you be content on my reason being that you simply called out for help?”
“For right now.” She gave a curt nod then leaned over and plucked up one of the apples. “My name is Kalena.”
He smiled and the emotion carried throughout his entire face. “I caught some fish while you were sleeping. I figured you’d want them cooked. Give it about ten more minutes on the fire and they should be ready to eat.” He picked up a bag and tied the straps around his midsection.
“I need to cover some tracks. I’ll be back shortly.” He gave her another once over and then turned.
“Wait!”
“Yes?” He waited patiently by the door.
“You said there were traps. How do you plan to help me?”
“There are traps, but I never said I didn’t know how to circumvent them.”
“Tell me what you know about Silex,” she demanded, going off a hunch. When she’d mentioned the name earlier, he’d shown keen interest in her position there.
“The connection I have to Silex goes by the name of Gavril.”
“You mean Gavril Silex?” she asked in surprise.
“Gavril Silex is the reason I was sentenced to exile. He sent me here.”
“What? He’s the CEO of a well-known company. What does he have to do with this place?”
“Looks like he’s kept his shifter gene a secret...or is that something you ignored because he signs your paychecks?”
“Mr. Silex is a shifter?” she asked, stunned and baffled.
“Not entirely. He was born without the ability to shift. He’s my twin brother.”
Gavril Silex had a twin brother who was a wolf shifter? How odd that none of the top-level executives ever mentioned that fact at any of the corporate meetings. But then again, people who worked for Gavril feared him. Now, she was beginning to believe the reason had more to do with how much power and influence he had outside of the company, and less to do with their fear of being fired.
Kalena narrowed her eyes and studied Thane. No wonder she’d seen some resemblance to someone she knew when she’d first seen him. She couldn’t pinpoint it before, but now it was relatively clear from the color of his hair and his bone structure that he was related to Gavril. The hair on Thane’s face had thrown her off earlier. Gavril was always clean-shaven. And Thane was also taller and bulkier than Gavril’s leaner form.
“I just don’t understand what Gavril and Silex have to do with this place,” she said.
“There are a lot of things you will never understand.”
“But why are you still here? What have you been accused of?”
“My reasons for imprisonment have nothing to do with why I’m helping you get out of here.”
“You’re only helping me because you want something in return.”
“That’s not why I decided to help you at first and you know it.”
“ How do I know that you’re telling me the truth?”
“Obviously, you don’t know that I’m telling you the truth, but if you were suspicious enough about Silex to go prying through their labs, then you’re not all that trusting of Gavril then, are you?”
She settled back and was silent for a moment as she thought about the reports she’d discovered about the D996 drug and Gavril’s written recommendation to continue testing despite the deadly side effects. “I’ve never officially met the man, so I can’t say if I trust him or not.”
Thane looked at her warily. “I’ll need you to trust me, but I haven’t much time to convince you.”
“I trust you enough that I’m still here.” Kalena folded her arms across her chest. “Speaking of trust, I’d like to know what you’ve been convicted of.”
“And once I tell you, then what?” he asked, bluntly. “I’m getting you out of here one way or the other. That won’t change.”
She shook her head. “Are you even going to try to help yourself?”
“I have to stay behind, Kalena. There is no escape for me.”
Most prisoners looked for a way out, even at the slightest opportunity. Why didn’t Thane want to leave? More importantly, why was he here in the first place?
Kalena was curious about Thane and his second nature as a wolf, but she couldn’t swallow the thought of spending six days, let alone six months out here.
“Why do you have to stay? What crime are you accused of committing?”
His shoulders dropped by a couple inches and his gaze lowered from her and swept the floor. Reluctance showed in his demeanor, and she wondered if he trusted her.
When he looked up again, his eyes were flat and emotionless. “Murder.”
Her shoulders clenched and her eyes grew wild with intense alarm. “You were convicted of murdering who?” Her voice broke nervously.
“My parents.”
Primitive fear knotted inside of Kalena and her lips parted in shock.
Before she could voice her next question, he slid a boulder aside to reveal the opening to the shelter and slipped outside. Only a small piece of daylight shined inside before he let it close.
Feelings of dismay rose within her and she questioned how she could ever trust a convicted murderer.
TRUE TO HIS WORD, Thane came back to the hut in what seemed like no time. Kalena had already begun the process of unwrapping the fish when he shifted the boulder and came inside. Now they sat around the fire pit, discarding the inedible remnants of the fish in the hole.
She folded her legs and waited as he poked at the pile of logs with a long piece of metal. The fire cracked as Thane laid another piece of wood on top of the others.
“You didn’t kill your parents, did you?” Kalena asked.
“No, I didn’t.”
“What happened?”
He didn’t immediately answer.
Kalena realized that she was probably prying too much on the matter. His parents were dead. Murdered. He was wrongfully accused, sent here by his own brother, and he somehow believed that there was no escape for him. What else was there to know?
“My parents were assassinated in their home. Shot dead while they slept. In order to get what they wanted, someone needed them out of the equation. I was the first one on the scene…after the shooting happened.”
“Oh…” Kalena couldn’t imagine the pain of losing either parent. Her parents still preferred the warmer weather and had decided to stay in Florida, even after discussing moving to a state with milder, less humid weather. They loved to travel and that kept them out of Kalena’s affairs most of the time. However, given her current state, now was not a good time to have her parents on a two-week cruise and excursion to Greece.
“As time passes, wounds tend to heal themselves, but the memories never go away." His voice was laced with sadness.
“I’m sorry. I wish I knew how to help you.”
“You're the strongest link that me or my pack brothers have when it comes to gaining access codes to the financial system and the backdoor database you mentioned,” he said. “You don't ever have to step foot on Silex properties again, but if you relay whatever you know to my pack brothers, they may be able to replicate it and retrieve the data files.”
She sighed. “It's the least I can do for you when I get out of here. If I get out of here…”
“You will.”
Kalena wrung her hands together. “How cruel can a person get to hold innocent people against their will in a place like this without ever verifying anything?”
“Cruelty has little to do with it. Our Pack laws dictate everything, even our punishment for crimes we have committed. The shifter community is far different than a human’s,” Thane said. “The truth is that we are animals, and we're treated by humans as such, despite our dual nature. There are a lot of customs and rituals belonging to us that humans won’t understand, but as long as we uphold the peace treaty written years ago, your government swore to turn a blind eye on our practices.”
“What practices?”
“Practices such as the rules governing us, and the laws within our Packs which have been in existence for hundreds of years. In the shifter world, we still fight for dominance, and in some cases, we fight to the death.”
“Like when you fought and killed the wolves in the cage.”
He swallowed visibly. “Yes, but we don’t fight and kill for no reason at all. There has to be something at stake, something we want badly.”
“Like power. Politicians argue all the time over power in our government,” she offered.
He nodded. “Yes, like power. And territory. Among other things.”
“What exactly was at stake last night?” She just couldn’t accept that a man would immerse himself in so much violence to take a drugged woman back to a prison hut for three nights.
“I share every part of my being with my wolf. Whatever he wants, I want. Of course, we don’t always agree. While the man might be more coerced into satisfying physical needs, the wolf is only content when all of his emotional needs are met. There is a reason why wolves run in packs. Remove the wolf from the pack, and the animal will almost always want for that sense of belonging and companionship again.”
Kalena frowned. “You’re lonely.”
His gaze dropped and he rose, picking up the carved out bowls they’d used to eat with and taking them to a wooden table. He began to clean the bowls.
She got up and followed him across the room. Before she could stop herself, she pressed her fingers to the old scars on his back.
A shocked gasp escaped from his lips. “Kalena,” he mumbled.
“These happened during the fight, didn’t they?” she asked, lightly tracing the scars.
Both of his palms were gripping the edge of the table and his back was still turned. “Yes.”
“And the older ones that have healed over time. How did you get those?”
“The wolf politics are no different here than they are on the outside of these barricades. Most of those came from fighting, as well.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever touched a shifter like this before,” she whispered, her fingers trembling against the tendons on his back.
His muscles rippled under her touch and she could have sworn she heard a moan escape his lips. His musky scent surrounded her, and she closed the gap between them and pressed her ear to his back on the side near his heart. As she listened, sure enough, a low growl flowed from his lips. It was the sexiest thing she had ever heard from a man, and her whole body heated in excitement and instant arousal.
An electrifying charge pulsed through Kalena. The surreal sensations immediately relaxed her. Her skin grew hot where her cheek was pressed against him.
Kalena lifted her face and glanced at Thane’s bronze skin, only to find an ancient looking symbol glowing brightly on his back. Her eyes widened in exhilaration at the sight. It looked like pure magic.
“Wha—?”
Before Kalena could complete her sentence, she found herself on the other side of the hut, back against the wall, with Thane’s wide frame pressed tightly to her body.
She panted, her breasts pushing against his chest.
Glistening white canines were distended, and his irises swirled with a myriad of colors. The ink on his arms and along his neck glowed as he held her in place against the wall.
Thane bowed his head, pressed his nose against her throat, and inhaled deeply. His mouth was damp as it brushed against her sensitive skin. She arched into him, noting the sizeable erection pushing against her belly. Her pussy clenched and ached and sexual thoughts spun like crazy in her head.
She whimpered, slowly realizing that Thane could have done anything to her body and she would have welcomed it. She wanted it.
He dragged his mouth up her neck and along her jawline, until finally his lips were pressed against her chin.
“Are you going to kiss me?” she panted.
“Is that what you want?” he rasped.
“Ye—”
He captured her lips with his, cutting off her breath. He tested her at first, teasing the outer skin on her mouth ever so softly. She trembled beneath his exploration, until her legs grew weak. When she brought her arm around to touch his tempting skin again, he trapped both wrists above her head. He pressed hard and hot against her mouth and his tongue thrust deep past her lips.
The same electrifying pulse that stunned her earlier now flowed through her like a river as his body smashed into hers full force. She was lost in the scent of him and taken off guard by this need to have more of him.
Without warning, he stopped and pulled back from her. The warmth was gone. His glow was gone. The symbols on his skin were gone.
“Impossible,” he mumbled.
“I’m sorry?”
“I shouldn’t have done that.” He backed away toward the door, grabbing a backpack along the way. “I need to step away for a little bit. I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t leave…”
“I’m coming back. Don’t remove the boulder for anyone, and stay inside for your safety.”
And with that, he was gone, leaving Kalena standing in the middle of a claustrophobic hut still dizzy from the best kiss she’d ever experi
enced in her whole life.
Chapter 9
ON THE OUTSIDE OF the hut, Thane breathed deeply to regain his bearings. His veins still ran profusely with a deep feeling he couldn’t process, an emotion he’d never felt before. Only the strongest of emotions could unleash the powers that controlled his soul and his wolf. No woman had ever had that much of an affect on him, exposing his markings with just one touch.
Thane swallowed and ran his fingers back through his hair. He had to control himself around her. She needed protection. Having thoughts about taking her on his bed served no purpose to his mission and would never ensure her safety.
He shed his clothing, stuffed them in the sack, and shifted just outside of the hut. He grabbed the sack in his mouth and took off into a full sprint on the well-known path. It didn’t take him long to detect David’s scent on the ground just outside Thane’s territory.
He returned to human form and slipped on his jeans.
David jumped down from his position in the trees to the ground. “Goddamn it to hell, Thane! You slaughtered two wolves out there.”
“You saw everything, didn’t you?” Thane watched as David paced back and forth in front of him.
“Where’s the female you took?” David said in a hushed tone.
“In my den. Her name’s Kalena.”
“I didn’t see you kneel, and it’s a good thing, but what was Nolan’s price for her?”
Thane bit into his bottom lip. “All the marked stones in my possession, plus he believes that I will return her.”
David’s eyes widened. “Do you plan on not returnin’ her?”
“I think she was framed. She doesn’t belong here. I sensed it from the moment I heard her screams, and I sense something else, too. But I can’t be sure—”
“You’re nuts...you’re freakin’ nuts.” David scratched the back of his head and sped up his pacing.
“Stop all that dancing in front of me, will you? Hear me out...”
The ex-SEAL leaned back against a tree. “I’m listenin’.”