by Jenna Leigh
“Piss off,” she snapped, and hissed when Sam tightened the rope around her left foot. “Where is my friend Jade?”
“I’m sure she’s around.” Jacob shrugged his shoulders.
“She’s in her cage, where she belongs.” Sam gave him a look, which Lainie couldn’t interpret. If she didn’t know better she’d think it was censure.
“Is she? I may have to go and visit the menagerie before I go.”
“If you go near her again, I’m not going to be responsible for the consequences.” Sam loosened the rope slightly before moving to her other leg.
“Is she all right?” Lainie waited until the man met her eyes. “Please tell me.”
“She is, now.” Sam’s mouth tightened and he said no more.
Tears welled in her eyes but she blinked them back, refusing to let them see her cry. She sniffed once. “Can I see her?”
“That wouldn’t be wise.” He moved away and walked back toward the door. “Jacob, where is our other guest?”
“Asleep. Or knocked out, whichever you prefer.”
“I’ll be back after I’ve taken some samples.” Sam punched his code into the door and opened it. The cacophony of howls and whimpers halted abruptly at his rough-voiced command.
Unfortunately, this left her alone with Jacob, even worse, tied to a chair, unable to get away from his taunts and threats. “Ms. Westerbrook, ace reporter, the crusader for justice. Tell me—” he whirled and came to stand over her, “—how does it feel to know your freedom of speech, thought and even movement is at an end for the rest of your natural life?”
“Fuck you.”
“Talk about an offer I can’t refuse.” He knelt and put his hands on her legs.
“Gah, you’re lame.” She twisted around but couldn’t even move away from his touch.
At her words, his hands tightened on her thighs until she had to bite her cheek to keep from crying out. “Lame? I can show you lame. Your friend Jade was lame after I broke her pelvis. You wanna know how I did that?”
Her head jerked around at the mention of her friend’s name. She held her breath as he continued. She tried to shut his words out. But he continued to speak, saying foul, terrible things. Surely, he lied. If he was telling the truth, Jade was dead and her whole ordeal had been for nothing.
“I hate you. I hope you burn in hell.” She finally got the words out past the rage. “I will personally see to it that you roast for what you’ve done, you cocksucking, motherfucking son of a bitch.”
A slap across her face stopped the litany of curses. Tiny lights danced in her eyes, dazing her long enough for him to grab her hair and pull her face up to his. His mouth covered hers, taking possession of it until she bit him. Blood, sweet and coppery, filled her mouth. She laughed when he finally freed himself.
He raised his hand to strike her again. She glared up at him, waiting for it. “Do it, asshole. Hit me, beat me, do whatever makes you feel like a man. You make me sick.”
“Why don’t you let me show you what happens to those that piss me off?” Jacob bent to untie her—her plan from the start. “Your new master may be my second, but never forget, I’m the first in this pack. Even Sam can’t protect you from me.”
“I don’t need him to.”
Jacob grabbed her arm. “You keep thinking that. Let’s go and see what trouble we can stir up.”
With that, he jerked her along behind him through the door. When it opened, the smell of it hit her first, making her gag. Feces, urine and God knew what other odors assailed her nostrils. One of the most prevalent was blood, which didn’t bode well for her. She refused to show him her fear. Instead, she tamped it all down inside and lifted her chin. “You need to get someone in here to clean this place.”
Jacob only shrugged and led her down a long, dark hallway to another thick steel door. As they passed through it to another hallway, she noticed that it was lined with cages and shadowy forms shifted behind the bars. When she peered closer to one of those nearest them, a pair of green eyes glowed from within. She gasped and drew away.
His chuckle made her hackles rise, as did his words. “Don’t get too close, this isn’t a petting zoo.”
His fingers flew over the keypad almost too fast for her to see the numbers he’d pressed. Almost, but not quite. Lainie kept her eyes averted from his so he wouldn’t see the gleam of triumph in them. He didn’t know she’d seen and she refused to give away her ace in the hole.
“Sir?” A voice drew his attention from down another hall to the right.
“Yes?”
“There is something on our security monitors.”
“Damn.” Jacob looked at her with regret. “This way.” He drew her down a second hallway much like the first, coming to a stop in front of a door with a small barred window too high for her to see inside. “Here we are. You can keep our other guest company.”
“No!” She dug in her heels, but it was no use. Without much effort, he shoved her inside and slammed the door with a resounding clang. “Let me out!” she yelled, beating on the door. His footsteps faded in the distance then were blotted out by howls that grew louder before cutting off abruptly, telling her he’d shut the outer door, leaving her alone. There was no keypad on this door, not even a knob on this side.
She put her forehead on the cool metal and sighed. “Could it get any worse?”
Apparently so, if the low growl coming from behind her was any indication of how her luck was going to go. She went absolutely still and closed her eyes. “Damn.” The noise just got louder, so, she squared her shoulders and turned. If she died, she’d face her killer and hope to die quickly, and as painlessly as possible.
Chapter Thirty
After a long wait in what had to be the dirtiest gas station bathroom Marcus had ever seen, Ben called and said they were on their way to pick him up. Surely all this secrecy wasn’t necessary. If the situation weren’t so serious, he’d think this was David’s idea of a joke.
He waited in the shade of the cinderblock building and tapped his foot on the ground impatiently. Just as he thought they’d gotten lost, or more than likely stopped to get something to eat, they pulled up in white-panel van that looked like a serial killer’s wet dream.
To make matters worse, David was hanging out of the passenger window whistling. “Hey, cutie, wanna ride?” Marcus ignored him, opening the door and motioning for him to get in the back. Being leader did have some perks.
Soon they were speeding through the desert, having narrowed the location of Jacob’s lair down to a small mountain range just east of Santa Fe. The land was supposed to be included in the state parks, but somehow, the other Lupin got around that, with bribes, more than likely.
Right now, Marcus couldn’t care less. The information came from a local stray who hated Jacob. After he’d been assured that his name would not be mentioned, he’d given up the location. It seemed he’d left the pack after a falling out. It was surprising he still lived. Unless you counted the fact that he was an outcast. This was even worse than death to most werewolves. No social interaction with others of his kind had to be horrible.
“Are the others meeting us?” Marcus didn’t get an answer, so he peered around the seat to see what they were doing. David studied a map as if it held the secrets of life and Ben played with a contraption that looked like a cross between a gun and a camera. “I asked a question.”
“They’ll be there,” David answered without looking up.
“What are you not telling me?” Marcus glared at them both.
“Why would we keep things from you?” Ben answered the question with one of his own.
“Talk.”
David sighed gustily. “Fine. It was an inside job. One of your own took her.”
“Who?”
“We aren’t sure.” Ben still looked down at his hands.
“Yes, you are, or you’d be telling me. Who is it?”
“It’s Jordan.” David’s voice was flat and hard. “He took her st
raight to him. He betrayed the pack. We’ll do what we have to when we get there.”
“No, you won’t.” Marcus’s fingers gripped the dash so tightly that the leather began to dent, and then tear. “I’ll personally tear him limb from limb.”
“We aren’t a hundred percent sure.” Ben seemed to be speaking from a distance. Anger that had been simmering dangerously below the surface exploded, his vision narrowed to a small point. Then, the colors disappeared.
“Hold it together til we get there.” As David spoke, control began to slip away. Marcus’s animal side tugged at him. It wanted to be free to go on a rampage. He’d kill them all, Sam, Caulder and even Jordan, the man he’d thought of as a brother. The two of them had practically been littermates.
Marcus shut his eyes tightly and took deep breaths. Little by little, he pushed the rage back until he regained control of his dual nature and opened his eyes. Whatever showed in them must have been bad, because the two men in the back flinched. “When we find him, I want him.” The guttural voice wasn’t the same that soothed and seduced Lainie. If she could hear him now, she’d run screaming in the other direction. He wouldn’t blame her in the least. She’d said he was a monster, right now, he felt like one.
Chapter Thirty-one
Lainie couldn’t see anything, but she could hear it. The noises were continuous, low and filled with menace. She slid into the corner farthest from the sound and strained her eyes to see.
A bulky shape was barely visible in the middle of the room. She squinted, but still couldn’t make it out. The sound escalated before it just stopped. She took a deep breath and waited. Nothing.
It started again, and then turned into a strangled yelp. Pain, the individual was in pain. Lainie crept forward, slowly easing her way to the center of the room. She approached cautiously, unsure as to what this thing was or if it was a threat. Finally, after what felt like hours, she forced herself to speak. “Hello?”
“Lainie?” His voice was the barest whisper. Nevertheless, when she heard it, a bolt of joy made her smile despite their situation.
“Oh thank God it’s you. What happened?” She put her hands out, blindly feeling her way forward. Soon, her fingers touched warm flesh. “Are you all right? Did they hurt you?”
“Not too bad. You need to get out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you.” She ran her hands up the metal edge of whatever held him in place. She found a thick manacle on his wrist and cursed.
“Go.”
“Oh, shut the hell up,” she grumbled as she felt around until she reached the back where her questing fingers encountered buttons. “I wonder what happens if I push these?”
“Hey, wait!”
Too late, she depressed them one by one and the clank of the manacles releasing echoed through the room, followed by a thump and a groan.
“Oops, sorry.” She ran toward the sound of cursing and groaning. In her haste she tripped. “Damn!” Luckily, she landed on something soft.
“Dear God, you broke it. I’m paralyzed and now, my fuckin’ dick’s broke too. Shit.”
“Oh, shut up!” She dragged him across the floor, intending to hide him and come back, if only she could get out of the room.
“And you pulled my hair.”
“Stop whining.”
The argument would have continued indefinitely except for one thing. As she put her arms around his shoulders, the door flew off the hinges and slammed down on the floor so hard it skidded into the far wall.
Large male shapes came into the room. Lots of them. “Shit.” She frantically pulled him behind one of the large metal tables. “You’re heavy, lay off the freakin’ tacos.”
“I know you didn’t say I was fat. Just be still.” He succeeded in twisting around to cover her with his body, trying to protect her.
“Where is he?” The voice that bellowed through the room was so deep it rattled her fillings.
“There.” Another voice, as deep but not as loud answered. The bolts that fastened the table to the floor didn’t prevent the intruders from jerking it up and tossing it aside like a child’s toy.
“You stupid bastard. Get away from her.”
Jordan lay on top of Lainie, naked except for a pair of brief cotton shorts. Lainie squirmed and stared blindly upwards with eyes so wide and frightened it made Marcus even angrier. “I said, off!” he roared.
Ben and David flanked him. He hoped like hell that they could get Lainie out before he ripped his cousin’s head off and ate it.
“What the hell?” she screamed and clutched Jordan tighter when Marcus bent down and tried to pull the other man off her.
With one hand on the man’s neck, he lifted them off the floor. When he attempted to shake her off she held onto the other man like a tick, refusing to let go. Marcus pulled them close to pry her loose and she bit him. When he jerked on the leg closest to him, she squeaked and tightened her hold. He slid one hand between them.
“Get your hands off that!” Jordan slapped at him. “Perv, stop groping me and get us the fuck out of here.”
“Yeah,” Lainie said in a muffled voice. She had her face pressed against Jordan’s chest almost as if she were hiding.
“Turn off the light,” Marcus finally ground out. “Let him go, Lainie, and stand over by the door. After I’m finished killin’ him, we’ll leave. I wanted to stretch it out, but we just don’t have the time.” He turned the full force of his glare on Jordan. “How dare you put your hands on her?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” She didn’t seem scared. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she sounded pissed. Something wasn’t right here. “Is it because he was on top of me? Don’t you trust us? And besides, that is just ew.”
“Hey! What do you mean ew?”
“Not helpin’, Jordan.”
“Oh, sorry.” Jordan grinned at Marcus and it made his heart lurch in his chest. Regret replaced anger.
“Why did you do it?”
“Do what? Yeah, dude, I woke up and said, hey, what am I gonna do today? I know! I’ll go get captured and let them strap me to some freaky bondage thing and stick needles in my arms. Gross.” Jordan winced and tried to turn his neck.
Marcus’s fingers elongated enough to reach all the way around Jordan’s throat, his claws curling into both sides of his neck. “Tell me you didn’t set this up that you didn’t take her from me.”
Lainie finally let go of Jordan, if only to glare up at him. “I thought you knew who it was! I tried to tell David but he got all snotty about it.”
“Who was it then?” Marcus let his cousin’s feet touch the floor. When the other man’s knees buckled, unable to support him Marcus pulled him into a brief hug. With a whispered apology, he set him on the floor in the corner.
“Me,” came a new voice from the doorway.
Marcus whirled to confront the person he’d always thought of as one of his best friends. “Stephen? But why?”
“Why?” Stephen shook his head and sighed before his face twisted in an angry snarl. “Because, I’m tired of being looked over time and again in favor of Ben, the golden boy, or even worse Jordan, the joker.” His tone left no doubt as to his thoughts on the other two men.
“You would take her from me because you felt slighted?” Marcus started forward. “You could have talked to me, you stupid son of a bitch.”
“The time for talk is over.” Stephen smiled, and stepped to one side. Werewolves poured into the room behind him.
“Well, hell yeah, finally, a fuckin’ fight!” David yelled and began to rip off his clothes.
Chapter Thirty-two
Marcus threw back his head and howled long and loud. Then he stared down at her and Jordan where they sat huddled against the wall.
“It’ll be okay, I promise.” He wore scuffed sneakers, a flannel shirt and jeans. Almost the exact same thing he’d had on the night he’d rescued her the first time. She hoped that was a sign of the outcome of this battle. Howeve
r, her gut told her the stakes were much higher now and the odds were stacked against them.
David’s form began to waver and small lights flew around him. His long black hair rippled, blown by an unseen breeze. The air around him darkened as if he were drawing all the available light into his body. Then, within the space of a heartbeat, he was no longer a man, but a huge brown grizzly.
“Oh. My. God,” Lainie breathed out.
“Yeah, he thinks he’s one sometimes,” Jordan grumbled. “Come here. I’ll try to protect you as best I can. I can’t change yet. But I’m regaining some of the movement in my legs a little at a time.”
“You got feeling in them?”
“No.”
“Then why were you bitching about your weenie being broke if you couldn’t even feel it?”
“Ow.”
“What?” Lainie put her hands on his face. “Is something wrong?”
“You reminded me of it. Now it really hurts.”
“Shut up, twit.” David’s roar drowned out the rest of their conversation and they turned back just in time to see him charging toward a large group of the other creatures.
The wolves came at him, attempting to get to Lainie and Jordan. But David knocked three of them off their feet with one swipe of his massive paws.
“His foot’s as big as my head.” She was astounded at this. “I thought he was a wolf.”
“He is.” Jordan pushed them farther into the corner, jerking her out of the way of Stephen’s decapitated head. It hit the wall with a squelching sound before it slid down, leaving a bloody trail.
Lainie watched in horror as it changed to something between man and wolf. The combination was sickening. “I’m going to hurl.”
“You puke on me and I’ll never let you live it down,” Jordan promised.
A large hand wrapped around her upper arm and hauled her to her feet. Without even looking around, she shoved the heel of her palm upwards at his face, recognizing him just as he blocked her punch. “Mick!”
“Come on, ma’am. Mr. Bei says we have to get you out of here.” Mick shielded her with his body.