Growl

by Elaine Pierson

  The look on his face sent chills down her spine. She quickly looked at his neck to make sure the man she was holding onto had a scar. He did. She looked at his face again, confused. “Jesse, say something. You’re scaring me.”

  Cole looked down at her. He didn’t know what to say. He was caught off guard by her reaction to him. No one had ever hugged him the way she just did. She held onto him like she never wanted to let him go. He lifted his hand and gently rubbed her cheek and for the first time since he met her in the alley, he noticed how beautiful she was. “Lacey” he whispered her name.

  She cradled his face in her hands and peered intently into his eyes. “What is it, Jesse? Did something happen to Tonya?”

  Cole put his hand on her lower back and pulled her closer to him. Without thinking, he slowly lowered his head and kissed her. The kiss was sweet and gentle but then it got rough and demanding. Lacey pulled back from him. Something wasn’t right. She could feel it. There was something different about him, about the way he kissed. She was about to ask him again to tell her what was wrong when someone screamed her name. She turned around to see Trevor, Tonya and...Jesse, standing a few feet from the jeep with a wolf in their arms. In that moment time stood still.

  Lacey felt as if her heart had fallen to her feet. She turned around and looked wide-eyed at the man in front of her. She reached a trembling hand out and rubbed it against his scar. When it peeled away from his skin, she knew it wasn’t real. It was nothing more than a latex Halloween prop. She took a step back and opened her mouth to scream but couldn’t find her voice. “Cole?” she said in a shaky voice.

  He smiled cruelly and Lacey turned to run but he grabbed her by the arm and stuck a needle in her neck. Almost immediately she felt the effects of whatever had been in the syringe. Her vision blurred and she swayed on her feet. Cole caught her in his arms before she could hit the ground. Lacey glanced toward the jeep, Jesse and Trevor were running toward her screaming something but she couldn’t understand what they were saying. Her eyelids got heavy and within seconds she was surrounded in darkness.

  *****

  Jesse froze, barely able to breathe when he saw Lacey standing in front of Cole. Fear consumed him and he ran toward her screaming her name. But he was too late. He saw Cole inject her with something and she went limp in his arms. Jesse charged toward them and skidded to a stop when Cole put his hand around Lacey’s throat.

  “Take one more step and I’ll break her neck. You know I will, so don’t push me.”

  Jesse couldn’t take his eyes off of Lacey as she lay unconscious in his brother’s arms. “Let her go, Cole. You can’t hold her against her will and you know it. Once that drug wears off, she’ll use her powers to get away from you.”

  Cole smirked at him. “Who says that I’m going to let the drug wear off?”

  Jesse growled and took a step toward him. Trevor grabbed his arm and pointed over his shoulder. There were about twenty of Cole’s men behind them and one of them had Kindal in a choke hold.

  Cole laughed out loud. “You should have known that I would get her in the end.” He looked down at Lacey and smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll take real good care of her.”

  Jesse knew the true meaning of what Cole meant and it filled him with so much rage that he wanted to rip his heart out. He growled and lunged for Cole again but Trevor held him back.

  “You can’t do this now. Think about Kindal, they’ll kill her if you touch him” Trevor whispered in his ear.

  Jesse couldn’t think straight. His eyes darted from Lacey to Kindal. He was torn between saving a member of his pack and saving the woman he loved. “Don’t you touch her, Cole. I swear I will kill you if you do.”

  Cole turned his back to Jesse and walked away with Lacey in his arms. He laughed, “Sure you will brother. But until you do, just know that I plan on getting to know your girl a whole lot better.”

  Jesse watched helplessly as Cole put Lacey in the back seat of his Tahoe and drove away. His fist clenched at his sides and his heart shattered at the thought of never seeing her again.

  Once Cole was gone, his men released Kindal and sunk back into the darkness of the trees. Jesse stood staring in the direction that Cole had driven off in. Tonya came up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. He turned around and looked at her. A tear rolled down her cheek. “We’ll get her back” she said in a soft voice.

  Jesse looked past Tonya to Kindal. He stormed over to her. “Why did you leave Lacey alone?” he shouted. “I told you to stay with her!”

  Kindal trembled at the anger in his voice. “I...I’m sorry, Jesse. She heard Tonya scream and she tried to get out of the jeep. I told her that I’d check things out if she stayed inside. She promised me that she’d stay inside until I got back or...” she stopped and closed her eyes.

  “Or what?” Jesse yelled.

  Kindal looked at him with sad eyes. “Or you return for her” she whispered.

  Jesse staggered back a step as that sunk in. Lacey got out of the jeep because she thought Cole was him. He sat down on the sidewalk and dropped his head between his knees. “This is all my fault. I promised her that I wouldn’t leave her and I did.”

  Tonya crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at Jesse. She had never seen him look so devastated. Kindal came up beside Tonya and put her arm around her. Trevor sat down beside Jesse. “We will get her back. You have to believe that.”

  Jesse lifted his head. The pain Trevor saw in his eyes almost took his breath away. “I can’t lose her. I love her. And I didn’t even get the chance to tell her” Jesse admitted. He didn’t care anymore that she was human or that he had broken his own rule and fell in love with her. He just wanted her back.

  Trevor rested his hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “I know my friend...I know” he said in a sad voice and looked at Tonya. The thought of losing her popped into his mind and he knew exactly the kind of pain Jesse was in and it killed him to know his best friend was hurting so badly.

  *****

  Cole sat across the room from where Lacey was sleeping on a mattress in the corner. He was beginning to think he might have given her too much of the sedative. She had been sleeping for almost fourteen hours. That couldn’t be normal not even for a human. Someone knocked on the door and Cole got up to answer it. “What?” he asked when he saw Zack standing in the hall.

  Zack tried to peek around him to Lacey. Cole growled and pulled the door closed a little. “What the hell do you want, newbie?”

  “Oh, um...I just thought you’d want to know that the new kid, Kyle, has been asking if we could take his chains off. I don’t think he’s going to run but I told him I had to ask the boss first.”

  “You can release him but keep an eye on him” Cole said and started to shut the door.

  Zack cleared his throat as if he had something else to say.

  “What?” Cole yelled.

  Zack looked down the hall toward the other rooms. “I also think you should know that Sasha has been on the warpath ever since you brought the girl here last night. She’s already beat the hell out of a couple of the guys. And she said that she’s going to kill Lacey the first chance she gets.”

  Cole growled. “Don’t let her near this room!”

  “Yes sir” Zack said and turned around to stand guard outside the door.

  Cole shut the door then walked over to the bed and knelt down beside Lacey. He studied her face carefully then touched her hair. He picked up a few strands and let it fall through his fingers. His gaze shifted to her lips and he gently rubbed his finger across them. The memory of kissing her last night was still fresh in his mind. And he wanted to do it again.

  She moaned and squirmed on the bed. Cole touched his hand to her cheek. “It’s time to wake up” he said.

  “Jesse?” Lacey asked in a sleepy daze as she slowly started to come around.

  Cole jerked his hand back and stood up straight. “No! I am not Jesse and it’s best that you forget about him. You’re never
going to see him again” he said roughly.

  Lacey opened her eyes and glanced around the room. She didn’t recognize anything. She tried to sit up but found it difficult to move. She was too weak to lift her body off the mattress. It felt as if she had an invisible weight holding her down. She looked over at Cole, who was staring at her with his arms crossed over his chest. “Where am I?” she asked.

  “You are in one of my many hideouts and no, Jesse doesn’t know where we are so don’t think that he’s going to come for you. You belong to me now. The sooner you understand that, the better.”

  Lacey touched her head as a wave of nausea hit her. “What did you do to me?”

  “I had to make sure you couldn’t do your hocus pocus stuff on me. So I gave you a sedative. I admit, I may have given you too much. I’ll lower the dose next time.”

  “Next time?” Lacey asked.

  Cole knelt down in front of her again. “I can’t have you getting your full strength back, now can I?”

  “I’m going to be sick” Lacey said and scrambled to get up, but she was so weak that she couldn’t make it two feet before collapsing back to the bed. Cole scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the bathroom. He set her on the floor in front of the toilet and walked out.

  After a few minutes, she got quiet and he went back to check on her. She was sitting on the floor by the toilet staring at the chain around her ankle. She looked up at him, confused. “Why is there a chain around my leg?”

  Cole raised his brows at her as if it should be obvious. “It’s just an extra precaution to make sure that you don’t escape. Once you’ve earned my trust, I’ll remove it...maybe.”

  Lacey closed her eyes for a minute then tried to stand but once again, she couldn’t. Cole tried to pick her up again and she swatted at his hands. “I don’t need your help” she snapped and glared at him.

  Cole stepped back and watched Lacey struggle to get to her feet. It took her a little while but she finally made it. She took one step and swayed on her feet. She reached for the sink to steady herself but missed it and fell through the air. Cole was there just in time to catch her before she hit the floor face first. He peered down at her with curiosity. He was shocked at how weak she looked. How could a sedative incapacitate her so much? “Are you alright?” he asked.

  Lacey looked away as a tear slid from the corner of her eye. “Like you care. You should have just let me fall.”

  Cole carried her back to the bed and laid her down. “I’ll get you something to eat” he said and started for the door.

  Lacey closed her eyes to keep from crying. “I’m not hungry” she lied.

  Cole ignored her and left the room.

  As soon as Cole was gone, Lacey sat up and looked around the room for a way to escape but there wasn’t one. The room was empty except for the bed and a chair. She looked to the window to see that it had bars on it. There was nothing she could use to help her. Whether she liked it or not, she was stuck there. She let out a deep breath and thought about Jesse. He must be going crazy looking for her. The image of him running toward her flashed in her mind and her heart clenched. He had tried to save her but it was too late. Her own stupidity had put her in the arms of her worst enemy.

  She wiped at her eyes and turned over on her side. No matter what, she had to find a way to escape and go back to Jesse. She was lost in thought when the bedroom door opened and Cole walked in holding a tray of food. He set it down on the foot of the bed and stood back. “Eat” he ordered.

  Lacey ignored him with the hope that he would go away. Cole walked around to the other side of the bed so that he could see her face. “Crying won’t help you. It just shows your weakness to your enemy” he spoke the sentence like it was something he said often. It came out almost robotic-like.

  Lacey glared at him. “Go to hell!”

  Cole knelt down in front of her. “I like your spunk Lacey, but don’t think you can talk to me however you want. I won’t allow you to show me disrespect in front of my pack.”

  She closed her eyes and sighed deeply. “Just go away and leave me alone.”

  “I can’t do that. I want to know how you do what you do. How do you make things fly through the air? Are you a witch?” he asked with true curiosity.

  Lacey didn’t answer him. Instead she turned over on her other side away from him. Cole growled at her. She knew that she was pissing him off but she didn’t care. He was going to kill her anyway and she preferred that he did it sooner rather than later. The less suffering she had to endure the better.

  Cole walked around to the other side of the bed and sat down in the chair by the bed. He smiled at Lacey’s stubbornness. He admired her for showing some backbone and not begging him to let her go like other humans had done. He crossed his arms over his chest and settled into the chair to get comfortable because he had no intention of leaving until she told him what he wanted to know. And if that meant sitting there all day, then that’s what he was going to do.

  Lacey stared at Cole without saying a word for almost half an hour before she finally sat up in the bed.

  Cole smiled. “Are you ready to talk now?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “No”

  He laughed out loud and for a second he sounded just like Jesse. “You aren’t going to make this easy for me, are you?”

  “Why should I? You’re no different from any of the doctors that my mother and stepfather took me to. All that you are interested in is learning how my powers work so you can use them and me to your advantage. Thanks, but no thanks. I’m not going to be anyone’s guinea pig ever again.”

  The emotion in her voice caught Cole’s attention. “What do you mean? What did they do to you?” he asked, surprised that he really did want to know.

  Lacey shook her head sadly. “They did the same thing that you want to do to me. They tried to find out how my powers work and when I wouldn’t show them, they used torture methods to get a reaction out of me.” She glared angrily at Cole. “So you see, I’m used to people like you. I didn’t break for the doctors and I won’t break for you either.”

  Cole didn’t know what to say to that. He stared at Lacey and tried to imagine what it must have been like for her as a child to be tortured and still not give in. The thought intrigued and angered him. He respected her strength but at the same time, knowing she had been tortured made him mad. And that caught him off guard. He had never cared one way or the other what happened to humans, but there was something about Lacey that made him feel sorry for what she had been through.

  “I’m not going to torture you, Lacey.”

  She let out a chuckle that sounded like she was on the verge of hysteria. “Sure you won’t...I don’t care anyway. I just want this nightmare to be over.”

  Cole’s gut clenched at the pain and sadness in her voice. He had never met anyone like her. It was obvious that she was a fighter, she definitely gave his wolves a run for their money every time they tried to get to her, but at the same time she seemed so ready to give up. She was a very confusing girl.

  Cole looked at the tray of uneaten food at the end of the bed. “Your food is cold. I’ll have someone bring you some more” he said and got up to leave.

  He had known from the beginning that Lacey was different from other humans but being around her was starting to have an effect on him that he didn’t like. She made him feel and whether it was anger or sadness that he felt, he didn’t like it. No one had ever made him feel anything before. He didn’t want to care about what had been done to her in her past or what might be done to her in the future.

  Once outside the room, Cole spoke to Zack. “I’m going to send someone to you with more food for the girl. I want you to take it in to her and get out. Don’t talk to her and don’t touch her. Are we clear?”

  “Got it, boss” Zack said and waited until Cole walked away before rolling his eyes. He hated that he had to act like a whipped dog around Cole but until he was in a position to take him on and win, he di
dn’t have a choice. He stood guard in front of Lacey’s door and smiled. She was going to be his ticket to get rid of Cole once and for all. She just didn’t know it yet.

  *****

  Jesse kicked in the door of the old library and ran in ready to fight. But just like all the other buildings he had broken into, it was empty. He had spent the last day and a half looking for Cole’s hideout and still hadn’t found it. He walked out of the building and over to where Trevor was waiting by the jeep.

  “Jesse, you need a break. You’re tired and you need some sleep.”

  Jesse ignored him and jumped in the jeep behind the wheel. “Go home!” he yelled out the window and pulled away from the curb, leaving Trevor standing on the sidewalk.

  Jesse was exhausted but he wasn’t about to give up searching for Lacey, no matter what his friends said. He knew that every second she was with Cole, she was in danger and he wasn’t going to rest until he found her. The image of her lying in his brother’s arms kept replaying in his mind, fueling his anger. He loved her and she had trusted him to keep her safe and he failed. Now he had to live with knowing that if anything happened to her it was his fault. How was he going to live with another death on his conscious?

  Chapter Thirteen

  The door to Lacey’s room opened and a man with curly brown hair walked in carrying a tray of food. She glared at him. “I don’t want it. Take it back.”

  Zack carried the tray over to the chair and set it down. “If the boss says that I’m to give this to you, then that’s what I’m going to do. And if he tells me to force feed you because you refuse to eat on your own, then I’ll do that too.”

  Lacey tried to summon up enough energy to toss him across the room. Instead of the normal tug she usually felt when using her powers, she only felt a small buzz. She was still too weak from the sedative. She looked at the tray of food, her empty stomach growled. Maybe it was best to eat something so that she could build up her strength. The smell of freshly cooked barbeque chicken drifted in the air toward her and her mouth watered in anticipation.