by R. E. Butler
“Faintly. It was stronger when we were joined, but I can feel she’s okay for now.”
He didn’t particularly care for the way she tacked on “for now” to the end of her sentence. He shoved the SUV into gear and pressed his foot on the gas as Lorene directed him away from the house and toward his mate.
I’m coming, sweetheart.
* * * * *
Cinder winced and cursed silently as her fingertips burned on the chain link when she tried to melt the links. It was slow work, but she had managed to melt a small section near the lock that was almost big enough to get her hand through. Focusing once more, she brushed the sweat out of her eyes and ignored the aches in her back and sent her power into the metal. The Wiccan part of her had been strong for a brief moment, and in her mind, she saw a woman covered in blood, hanging from a hook in a barn. She had felt the corners even though she couldn’t see anything but the woman, and she reached out to them with as much strength as she could muster. She’d lost the connection after a few minutes, but being in touch with the corners had bolstered her spirits. If they were looking for her, then Adam knew she’d been taken and she hoped the corners had been able to pinpoint her location.
A large drop of molten metal splashed on the tile floor, and she retracted her power and rolled her neck. After giving the metal a chance to cool, she pushed her hand through the rough opening, just big enough for her to fit through without touching any of the sharp edges. Curling her wrist, she touched the lock and closed her eyes. One of the first spells she’d learned as a youngster was an unlocking one because some older girls, who thought she was weird, had shut her in a storage closet at school. She’d spent a tearful hour in the dark before the janitor had heard her crying. Her mom immediately taught her the unlocking spell and helped her practice until she could unlock most every lock. The next time the girls had locked her in the closet, she unlocked it immediately and punched the oldest girl in the nose. They had never tried to lock her up again.
Blinking at the sudden tears as she thought of her mom, she began to chant and heard the tumblers turn slowly in the padlock. Just as she heard the padlock click open, the door to the room swung open and several wolves lumbered in. She hadn’t seen them before, but something about the strange way they walked, as if someone was pushing down on their shoulders to hunch them over, made her jerk her arm back in the cage. She scraped her skin on the exposed metal, and blood welled in the cuts.
The males snarled and raced to her, pressing themselves against the cage. Their eyes were glossy and almost entirely black, and saliva frothed on their lips. She gasped and pushed herself into the far corner as they wrapped their fingers around the links and shook the cage.
Suddenly, they were thrown away, tossed like trash to land hard against the far walls. The male she shared DNA with – she would never call him father again – stood in front of the cage, chest heaving and eyes angry.
“She is the alpha’s first,” he roared, and the males rolled to their knees and hung their heads.
He turned his attention to her, and she saw the same glossy, black eyes in his face as she’d seen in the others.
“Let me go, please. I’m mated. My mate misses me and I miss him, please.”
He blinked slowly, and the black seeped away until she was looking at eyes the same color green as her own. “I did not approve your mating, daughter of mine. My master has need of a mate, and a lygisa is the most powerful mate a wolf can have.”
She clutched her bleeding arm to her chest and stared at him through the chain link. She thought she’d play dumb and see if that bought her some time. “What’s a lygisa?”
He snorted derisively. “Don’t be stupid. My master has been looking for a lygisa for centuries. He has employed those who dabble in dark magic to find one before she came to power. Imagine my surprise when the fruit of my own loins is one.” He squatted and eyed her speculatively. “If I’d known when your mother insisted I come see you on your birthday that you would be the perfect female for my master’s purposes, I wouldn’t have turned you away.”
“Why do you call him master? Isn’t he your alpha?”
The black seeped back into his eyes, like clouds obscuring the moon. “He is everything. You will submit to his will or he will ensure that you do. The marks on your neck are meaningless and will be removed. Rest now, daughter of mine. Your destiny is coming soon.”
He straightened and reached for the lock, squeezing it with his hand. She heard the metal screech in protest. When he opened his hand, the lock, a mangled mess, now held the cage locked tight. He turned his attention to the cowering wolves in the corner. He pointed to the door and they fled, and then he walked away, shutting the door and leaving her alone once more.
She knew she could continue to burn the metal, but it would only sap her strength, and she was making such little progress that it wouldn’t matter. If time were running out, then she had only one hope: that Adam would find her before the master of the pack came for her and forced her to do his bidding.
Hurry, Adam.
* * * * *
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed since she’d been taken, or since she’d been left alone in the room a second time to ponder her fate. She was exhausted and scared, but she hadn’t given up hope that Adam would find her. Even if this pack had done something to mute her powers and her wolf, they couldn’t stop her and Adam from being mates. He was a fierce alpha, and he wouldn’t rest until he found her; she knew that much. She didn’t think she’d ever met a more determined male.
The door opened, and three females followed a large male into the room. The door shut, and the male grabbed the broken lock and twisted it, tossing the pieces to the floor with a clatter. He pulled open the cage and reached for her. She shrieked and tried to keep herself in the corner, but he was far stronger, grabbing her by one ankle and jerking her out. She grabbed onto the chain link, but he pulled harder, and she was forced to let go, her fingers uncurling from the links as he dragged her to the center of the room.
“You know what to do. Don’t disappoint the master or you’ll feel my claws,” he said. His voice was dark and unfriendly, with an air of authority that told her he was probably highly ranked within the pack. The way the males tossed around the word master concerned her. She’d never heard an alpha referred to as a master before.
Cinder stared at the three women. They appeared young, maybe only slightly older than Angie, and they scented of wolf. Long-life made it difficult to judge the age of a supernatural creature, but there was something youthful about their faces, even though their eyes told her that they’d seen more than their fair share of pain and heartache.
She licked at her dry lips and decided to try to engage them. If she could make friends with them, they might be able to help her. “My name is Cinder. My mate is Adam Beaumont. He’s alpha and that makes me his alpha female.”
One of the females, a thin blonde, shook her head as she sank to her knees next to Cinder with a bundle of cloth. “You’re not a true alpha female. You’re lygisa.”
“I know what I am.” Cinder shoved one of the other female’s hands away as she tried to untie Cinder’s shoe. “What are your names?”
They looked at one another for a moment, and then the blonde said, “My name is Delilah.” She pointed to a redhead with bright green eyes. “She’s Maddie and she’s Stella,” she finished by pointing to the brunette.
Cinder opened her mouth to try to get them to tell her more about themselves, but she found three pairs of hands tugging on her clothes and untying her shoes. She pushed their hands away again.
Maddie took Cinder’s hand and squeezed lightly. “If you fight us, Klaus will come back and do this himself. You don’t want his hands on you, lygisa. And he’ll beat us for failing too.”
She swallowed hard and blinked away the tears that tried to surface. “What are you going to do to me?”
Delilah said, “You have to remove the clothes of your old life. You�
�ll be cleansed, and then you’ll don the ceremonial cape. When we’re done, Klaus will come back for you and you’ll force the moon.”
“Force the moon to do what?”
Maddie smiled sadly. “To rise. But not before the alpha makes you his mate. If you survive the rising of the full moon, you’ll be given as meat to the pack.”
Fear poured over her. “They’re going to eat me?”
Stella turned tear-filled eyes to Cinder. “Meat means the pack’s plaything. The alpha will allow his highly ranked males to use you however they please and he’ll watch. If you resist, you’ll be bound. Sometimes meat survives, but not long. The males are rough.” She rubbed absently at claw marks on her arm.
Maddie shook her head. “She’s lygisa. They’re very hard to kill.”
Cinder was scared out of her wits, but she didn’t want the females to be hurt for her. She could still find a way out of the situation. Her Wiccan powers might be able to help her in some way. She silently prayed that her rightful powers would be returned to her so she could put the alpha down and destroy the pack before he could harm her or anyone else.
Untying her shoes, she kicked them off and said, “When I get free, I’ll take you with me, I swear.”
“It’s a nice thought,” Delilah said, “but there is no hope here.”
* * * * *
It was the slowest one hundred miles that he’d ever experienced, even though the caravan drove at top speed. He could think of nothing but getting to Cinder. He didn’t fully understand what had happened to her, but he couldn’t feel her through their connection as mates, and that terrified him on a cellular level. Lorene was a calming presence next to him as she sat with her eyes closed and a look of pure concentration on her face. She would occasionally speak to give him directions, but otherwise, she remained mute. Her lips moved, and he wondered if she was praying.
Wolves had ancestors they prayed to, along with the gods and goddesses of their kind, but he’d never been the sort of male who did that. His parents hadn’t been particularly spiritual, but his grandmother had been. He remembered her praying for the safety of her family when hunting and for peace and prosperity for the pack. He wished she was still alive so he could ask her to pray for Cinder.
Lorene’s hand touched his arm. “You’re thinking about someone?”
“My grandma. She died in a hunting accident when I was a teenager.”
“I’m sorry for you loss, Adam.”
“Were you praying or something? I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
“I was praying for Cinder’s safety.”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel, but he forced himself to relax so he didn’t bend and ruin it. “Why can’t I feel her? We’re mated.”
“Someone is using dark magic. I believe that whoever took Cinder knows that she’s lygisa, and they also know that you are a fierce alpha who will not rest until you find her. He probably knows he can’t wait until the real full moon, so he’s using dark magic to force the full moon a day early.”
“Could the witch you bound have done it?”
“She was powerful, but she wasn’t a natural Wiccan. She had some natural talent within her, so she probably had an ancestor who was Wiccan before turning away from it, but someone gave her power. To force nature requires a tremendous amount of power, more than any supernatural creature could have on his or her own.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I believe whoever took Cinder has contracted with a demon.”
“How the hell does someone do that and why would they even want to?”
She was silent for a moment and then she said, “Demons can be good or bad. My granddaughter, Elizabeth, contacted a demon about her future once, and he helped her. But these events – Cinder’s kidnapping, the forcing of the full moon, and her lygisa status – they are all intertwined. Whoever took Cinder must be working with a demon to have enough power to force the moon, because he would know that once she performs the lygisa ceremony, she will lose her connection to you forever. She would die without the pack, so you couldn’t just slaughter them and take her back. Once a lygisa is bound to her pack, she can never be with another.”
He snarled and pushed back the desire to punch the dashboard. He’d known it was dangerous for Cinder, but he’d believed her safe in the house. It hadn’t occurred to him when she said she could feel a wolf in pain that it was anything but her naturally connecting to the pack. The witch had used Angie to draw Cinder out of the house, and Adam had traipsed along like a jackass.
“Your sister would have been killed if you hadn’t found her. I know that you’re worried about Cinder and blaming yourself, but I believe that whoever was pulling the evil one’s strings would have gotten to Cinder in another way.”
They passed a weathered sign that read, “Now Entering Swallow Hills,” and his wolf howled at being so close.
The sky suddenly turned dark, as if someone had pulled a curtain over the town and Lorene gasped. “Hurry, Adam. Turn left at the next street. We don’t have much time!”
Chapter 14
The flames of a large bonfire flickered brightly. Cinder stood between two large males, her wrists chained in front of her. She was naked, and the scratchy wool cloak did little to hide her body. Wolves surrounded them in a large circle, leaving the center clear where the fire blazed. It reminded her of the sacred circle where Adam’s pack would celebrate their full moon ceremonies.
Her eyes stung as she thought about her mate. She reached out mentally to him, to the place inside her where their connection had been, but found nothing. Ever since the three females had helped her get ready for this abomination of a ceremony, she hadn’t felt anything at all. Not Adam, her pack, the lygisa powers, or even her Wiccan powers that had risen to help her before. She was completely helpless – a feeling she loathed.
Roscoe stood next to his alpha. Their eyes were completely black, as were every pack member’s. She could feel evil crackling in the air. The alpha was bare from the waist up, wearing only faded jeans and a smirk that made her want to retch.
The alpha raised his hand and everyone quieted. He began to chant, and the pack dropped to their knees and joined him, their voices blending. She didn’t recognize the words of the chant or understand their meaning, but the sky darkened and goosebumps rose on her skin as fear raced down her spine.
The flames of the fire crackled and spit as it grew larger, turning from orange and yellow to deep scarlet and black. A face appeared in the flames, with sunken eyes and big fangs. She screamed and jerked backward, but the males holding her kept her in place. The face moved in the flames, its mouth opening wide as if it was speaking, but she couldn’t hear anything but the sound of crackling flames.
“I know you hear me, little lygisa,” the creature spoke, his voice hissing in her ear like a snake.
She cringed and shook her head. “Stop it!”
The visage chuckled darkly, the great fanged maw of its visage opening and closing in the flames. “Your spirit will be quickly broken by the alpha, and then you’ll do my bidding.”
“I don’t belong to you,” she shouted.
Two young males carrying wooden buckets tipped them and dumped salt from their contents, creating a salt circle. The line circled the cleared space around the fire. Roscoe was just outside the line, and the alpha stood just inside it. As the young males drew close to her, the males who held her shoved her forward. She stumbled to the ground as the salt circle closed and heat enveloped her.
The circle shimmered and snapped shut as a red haze distorted her view of the pack. She went to her knees and the alpha, suddenly by her side, fisted her hair and jerked her off balance. She rolled to her stomach, the dirt and stones scraping her already burned hands.
The pack chanted louder, and the demon in the flames grew larger. Horns appeared on the top of its head, and the black, sunken orbs of its eyes glittered dangerously.
“Take her now. The time for the
moon’s ascent draws near.”
The alpha ripped the cloak from her back and poured oil on her. She shrieked in surprise and scrambled away, but he grabbed her ankle and jerked her back to him. She rolled to her back, and he punched her in the mouth. Her head snapped back and her vision dimmed for a moment. He jerked her up to her knees by her neck, his mouth taking hers in a brutal kiss. She realized in that moment what he was trying to do – he was anointing her with the sacred oil of the lygisa ceremony and taking her blood. He lifted from her mouth and licked his lips, stained red with her blood. His fangs elongated, and he lifted his wrist to his mouth and bit down.
If she drank his blood and he raped her, she’d be his. Even though the lygisa ceremony hadn’t been performed in full yet, she could feel the power slowly seeping into her body. The demon cackled gleefully as the alpha turned his wrist over and pushed it to her face. With every ounce of power she could manage, she raised her bare foot and kicked him in the groin, clamping her lips closed tightly so she didn’t ingest any of the blood that spilled freely from his wounded wrist.
He howled as he fell to the ground, clutching his groin. The demon roared and the fire blazed. She rolled to her knees and felt her powers slowly returning.
“I am not your pawn, and I will not force the full moon tonight,” she yelled, reaching into the earth with her powers. The ground trembled, and the wolves’ chanting stuttered. Roscoe called for the alpha and tried to come into the salt circle, but he couldn’t breach the barrier.
As she reached into the ground with her powers, asking the earth to help set her free and stop the evil, she felt Adam and his pack drawing close.
Her mate. Her pack.
“I will you away from this realm, demon!” She felt her fangs elongate, and she slashed her wrist, flinging her blood toward the fire.
The droplets sizzled, causing the demon to shriek as his image dimmed for a brief moment. The demon snarled and the flames grew brighter. Cinder shielded her eyes and pressed her free hand to the ground. The earth trembled violently.