by Sara Kimball
Eventually the truck stopped, and she heard the voices of the wolves who had taken her and Gareth. “Fuck I’m beat.”
“What the hell are you talking about, you just slept the entire way. I was the one who was driving ‘til fucking four am.”
“Fuck you both. Let’s go to sleep and wait for Dupree’s phone call.”
Alex fought back a growl at the name, still listening. “Should we dose the big one again?”
“Nah. I gave him a triple again when we stopped.”
“Shit man, the doc said only double doses, and only one per twenty four hours. You could kill him.”
“So, the only reason we didn’t was to get her to cooperate, and now she’s in the cage. Should just put a bullet in his brain.” She heard footsteps coming to the back door and prayed softly.
“Nah. We might need her to cooperate again when we transfer her to Dupree. Just take care of the beast after Dupree has his hands on her, then he can’t blame us if she goes all crazy again.”
“And then we get our money and we get to go live free and wild up in Alaska.” The men continued chatting and talking until a door opened and closed, and then Alex only heard muffled whispers.
“Gareth.” She reached her hand through a gap as far as her arm would go and tried to touch him. “Gareth, I need you to wake up now.” She managed to poke him weakly in his arm, which was splayed across the ground near her.
“Please, Gareth. Wake up now.”
He mumbled and shifted, and his breathing grew lighter. Alex raised her voice just slightly—not enough for the other wolves to hear her, but enough to demand of him, “I said wake up. Now.”
She saw his amber eyes in the darkness and sighed in relief. “Gareth, I need you to change to your wolf form.” She knew that sometimes severe injuries could be helped by shifting, and hoped that it would help now. His golden eyes blinked at her, and she repeated herself several times until he finally started to shift to wolf form, biting his clothing with his now-sharp teeth and tearing it off his body.
Once he was furry and devoid of clothing he crawled over to her weakly, and she petted his muzzle through the bars, stroking his fur softly. Gareth was the biggest wolf she had ever seen or heard of before. His form easily dwarfed hers, and would be a fearsome sight in the darkness.
“We need to get out of here, Gareth. Those men plan to hand me over to Dupree and then kill you.”
His golden eyes blinked at her. “I know you don’t want to leave me behind, but I can’t get out of this cage, and you are the only way that Lincoln will know where to look for me. Please. I know you can get out of this van without too much trouble. You need to get to a phone and call for help.”
It took a while of coaxing, but soon enough Gareth was leaning his large form against the rear doors until they broke open with a clunking noise. Wincing at the thought of him getting shot and killed, she sent a prayer up that he could get away cleanly and get word back to Lincoln without too much trouble.
Only the plan didn’t go that way. Instead Alex found herself listening to the screams of the men who had kidnapped her, and a muffled rustling from the building they had gone into, like a struggle. Soon enough there was a gunshot, then another, and all went quiet.
After a minute of silence Gareth’s large form appeared in the doorway of the van, now more injured. He was bleeding again from more bullet wounds, one in his leg and another in his hip. Lumbering to her, he deposited a key—which he had been holding in his mouth—on the floor in front of the cage. Alex picked it up quickly and worked on opening the door, relieved to finally step out and stand at her full height.
She stretched briefly, then clambered out of the van, Gareth behind her by a pace. “Did you kill them all?” He huffed, which she took to mean amusement that he wouldn’t have. She went to the door of the cabin, which had been broken, and entered. Ignoring the bodies, she searched for a cell phone to call Lincoln from. The dining table was littered with garbage, wrappers for food and paper covering it. As she moved the items, a worn DVD case with the tied up form of a woman became visible. Bound and Ball Gagged, The Complete Series was written in large red lettering. Alex wiped her hands on her pants to make sure she didn’t accidentally pick up anything from the sticky cover.
Unable to find a phone, she finally turned to the man that had shot Gareth. His head was across the room, but his pockets looked intact, so she patted his body down.
“Here we go.” She pulled the phone out, glad it was still working, and used his finger to unlock it. Opening the phone, she dialed Lincoln’s cell phone number.
///
Jax was driving the rental, with Lincoln in the seat next to him, Trent, Davin and Elizabeth crammed into the back. Lincoln had been staring at his phone for the last two hours, which had a tracker app installed on it, a little red dot showing Johnny Dupree’s location, a blue dot showing their own. Over the past several hours they had gotten closer and closer to the red dot, but it was still a ways away.
Jax thanked his lucky stars that Miles Henderson, CIA Intelligence Analyst, and werewolf, was willing to break a few laws and bend some rules to help them out in their hour of need. Otherwise they never would have known where Dupree was headed.
After leaving San Antonio, they had followed Interstate 20 eastwards, passing through several states until they reached Birmingham. They continued on, and were now almost to Atlanta. The dot was slowly working its way northwards, having turned onto Interstate 575 north of Atlanta, and then continuing onto GA-515. Jax had to wonder what they were following Dupree into, but he stepped on the gas just the same.
He hoped that Alex was still okay, at least until they got there. Because he wasn’t sure that Lincoln—or Elizabeth for that matter—would be alright if she were killed or harmed. Jax was thankful that Moira had had the foresight to think of Miles Henderson and get his intelligence knowledge on it. Without him, they would still be sitting in San Antonio without any idea of where to go. But luckily, Henderson had been able to hack into Dupree’s phone and get the GPS location.
Just then, Lincoln’s phone rang. The number, when Jax glanced over and saw it, was an odd one, and Lincoln hit ignore immediately. Then he went back to staring at Dupree’s red dot.
When the phone rang again, Lincoln growled at it and hit ignore again. When the phone rang a third time, Lincoln hit answer, lifting the device to his face and growling dangerously at it.
“Well I can see you’re in a good mood.” At the sound of Alex’s teasing voice Jax nearly drove the car off the road and into a ditch, but managed to pull over to the shoulder and park quickly. Luckily it was only five in the morning, and barely any traffic was out.
Lincoln was holding the phone, looking at it like it was a lost relic to the divine, but he quickly snapped out of it.
“Where are you? Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
She chuckled slightly, and took a shaky breath. “I’m not hurt, but Gareth is. We are in some cabin in the woods somewhere. It looks old. I have no idea…oh I’ll look on the phone. Hold on.” Her voice got further away, and Jax could hear her tapping the phone as she pulled up a map. “You should know that the men who took us are dead. Gareth killed them. But we overheard them talking and they were going to hand me over to Dupree for some money.”
Lincoln growled low in his throat, but Alex continued. “I’ve got the map open now…hold on, it’s loading. Okay. It looks like we are somewhere in the Chattahoochee National Forest.”
Lincoln cursed, and Jax looked at him questioningly. “What?”
In answer, Lincoln showed Jax the map system with Dupree’s tracker on it, which was currently stopped in the Chattahoochee National Forest. “Shit. Alex. You and Gareth need to find somewhere to hide. Okay?”
Alex was silent on the other side, and there was some rustling noises, then she came back on the phone. “Lincoln, Dupree is here. He just pulled up outside.”
Jax stepped on the gas and maneuvered the car back onto the road,
not even slowing down as they approached the city. They were about an hour and a half away…if he did the speed limit. However, he was going to try and cut that shorter.
Lincoln was still holding the phone, though Alex had set hers down, and now all they heard was an open line. Faintly, there was the sound of a gun clip being ejected and then smoothly being pushed back in. Lincoln’s breathing was heavy as they listened to the door opening, the creak clear even over the road noise.
Faintly, there were footsteps creaking on a wood floor. Jax swerved around a semi and sped down the freeway as gunshots sounded, making loud cracking noises in the silence of the vehicle. Finally the gun clicked, and they could hear the sounds of bodies colliding.
2005
Johnny was meeting with Dimitri Cannon, sitting in some plain hotel room, hating the fact that the other man kept refusing him, refused to even listen to his plans.
The door opened, and she walked in. Bright and sunny, her blonde curls bouncing with her exuberant stride. “Dad! Can I go…oh sorry.” She stopped and curtsied roughly, “I’ll talk to you later.”
She left, and Johnny felt like going with her, grabbing her and running home.
She was everything he had been missing these long years. His second ‘mother’…the woman he had taken. She had only lasted a few more days after he bought the cigars, and only one day after he started using the knife on her. But oh…those days brought back fond memories. Especially the one or two after she stopped fighting him completely and before she had started smelling. And here, in Dimitri Cannon’s daughter, was a near perfect replica of her. He had to have her.
Because he taught her once that she belonged to him. And she learned who her master was, who controlled her, even in death. He would do it again.
Chapter 22
Moira stared at the door in front of her debating on whether or not she should be here, but eventually shrugged her shoulders and knocked. Muffled noises indicated movement, and then the door was opened and Mitch Cannon’s smiling face was looking down at her as he leaned against the doorframe.
“Hello beautiful. Want to come in?” He grabbed her hand and tugged her into the room, smiling at her the whole time. Her wolf, which had been nudging her since the first night of the Conclave, was in alt, wiggling to get closer to him.
Before long, Moira was kissing him, touching his body, and then his hardness was sliding into her as she moaned. He bit her, and bit her, and bit her, and each time she came she fractured a little more in his arms. Until finally he lay on top of her, asleep.
When her phone rang shortly after five am, Moira was already getting dressed, feeling slightly dazed, but she answered softly as she slipped down the hallway to her room. She would come back later when Mitch was awake and talk with him about their mating.
Davin was on the other end of the phone, and his voice was urgent. “Dupree got to them before we could. Gareth is injured, and Alex…well I don’t know what is happening, we can only hear fighting. But we need you to call a doctor that can help check them out once we get there. And we also need you to call Royce Levine to get him started on taking over the Everglades Pack. Dupree isn’t going to last much longer. Not with the way Lincoln and Elizabeth look right now.” There was a strained note in his voice, and Moira hustled back to her room, intent on her tasks.
It was late afternoon by the time she ran into Mitch again, approaching him outside the elevator in the lobby. “Mitch, I was hoping we could talk.” His cool gaze looked her over idly. “If you have a moment?” She hated the edge of uncertainty in her voice, but pushed through her nervousness.
“I don’t have time, if you are privy to the events going on with your Alpha’s grandson, then you’ll know why. You can make an appointment with my secretary.” The wolf next to him handed her a card and then they got into the elevator, talking about other things as the door closed.
Moira stared at the card in her hand, feeling like she was fracturing. Mitch Cannon was her mate. He had bitten her countless times last night. And he had just acted like he didn’t even know her. Fighting the urge to cry, she took the stairs to her room.
By the time she had climbed to her level, Moira was furious with him, and blinked away her tears, refusing to let them fall. If Mitch Cannon wants to forget that I exist, then fine. I won’t think about him ever again.
///
Alex stood still in the shadows, the gun she had taken in her hand. There were only ten bullets left, and she hoped she could do enough damage to Dupree to make him lie still so she could finish him off permanently. When he entered the cabin his feet made the boards creak beneath him, and Alex tried to breathe softly so as not to draw his attention. Gareth waited next to her, crouched low in preparation to spring. She was amazed he was still up and about after being shot, drugged, and then shot again. At least the second gunshots hadn’t been as bad as the first ones, and it seemed the shift had helped to partially heal him.
When Dupree stopped in the doorway to the room, Alex aimed and fired. But the man moved out of the way—literally, dodging to the side—avoiding the bullet. He stepped toward her and she fired again, this time not pausing between rounds but unloading the rest of the clip. He took a few minor shots to the arms, and a graze on his shoulder, but she realized with growing horror that the wounds didn’t slow him down any.
Gareth charged at the man, and Alex wasn’t far behind. Gareth captured Dupree’s attention, and Alex used the gun like a small club, bludgeoning him from behind. She had been aiming for his head, but he twisted suddenly, and the gun broke on his shoulder. She dropped the pieces from her hand, whirling away, as Gareth darted in, teeth bared and trying to bite.
It became clear very soon that it would take a lot more than just the two of them to take Dupree down. Whenever they attacked together Dupree would suddenly turn and step away, making their dual attack useless. Alex found a fractured piece of wood, and held the six inch long piece in her hand like a shiv.
Gareth distracted Dupree with another bite, this time managing to grab his hand before he could get hit. Dupree punched Gareth in the face viciously, and Alex rushed forward, jamming the wood into Dupree’s back, between two of his ribs. She missed his heart, not that it would have killed him—he wasn’t a vampire—but it did hinder him. He roared, shaking Gareth off and pushing her so hard she flew back and hit the wall.
The world went fuzzy for a minute, and Alex blinked, watching Dupree struggling to reach the piece of wood. Gareth was to her left, lying in a broken heap on the ground, teeth bared as he struggled to rise again. Dupree finally realized he couldn’t reach the piece of wood and went after Gareth. Alex stumbled to her feet, still a little dazed from hitting the wall.
Dupree was kicking at Gareth, who was trying to bite the foot coming at him before it could injure him further, but Dupree was too fast, avoiding his teeth with ease. Alex huffed, trying to yell, but found herself short of breath. Gasping, she managed finally to yell, “You want me?”
Dupree stopped kicking at Gareth and turned, taking a step closer to her. His eyes were crazy and there was a rabid look in them. Swallowing down her revulsion, Alex touched herself, sliding her hands down her body. God I hope this works or we are so dead. “Do you want me? This?”
Dupree took another step toward her, and Alex blurted, “Then come get me.” She took off running away from the cabin, making sure he was chasing her. When she turned her head however, she was shocked to see that Dupree was close to grabbing her, so she put on another burst of speed, racing through the woods as quickly as she could.
Inside, an inner mantra was screaming through her head. This is so stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I’m a fucking idiot. Outside however, all she could do was take great puffs of air into her lungs as she worked to outrun the predator behind her. She initially followed the track from the cabin to the road, and when it met with a narrow lane, she turned, hoping that she was remembering the map correctly and she was heading in the direction of the main road.
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Very soon, however, Dupree’s footsteps were closer behind her, and then she felt his hands on her shirt, grabbing at her. She stopped and rolled, jerking herself out of his grip and ripping her shirt in the process, and then popped up again, turning off into the woods, where she hoped that he might be slowed by going through the trees and underbrush.
Alex contemplated changing into her wolf form, but she didn’t have enough time to breathe, let alone shed her clothing, so she kept running, leaping over fallen logs, and dodging low hanging branches. Somewhere in her mad dash, she realized that she was getting further and further away from salvation, and hoped that the piece of wood in Dupree’s back would slow him just enough that she might have a shot to take him down. Otherwise, when she eventually tired—and she knew she would—he would have her. And she’d been stupid enough to run into a secluded area where he wouldn’t be interrupted.
///
Gareth hobbled down the roadway, following Alex and Dupree’s scent. His leg was broken, probably from when Dupree had thrown him against the floor. He was still recovering from the bullet wounds and the drugs, and also the injuries from the fight, but he kept trudging along. He wished Alex hadn’t run off, but he knew that it was her way of trying to protect him. But I’m her bodyguard. She should have left him to focus on me and taken off, gotten herself help. Stupid woman. I’m going to have words with her when I finally catch up.
He reached a part of the road where there were scuffs in the gravel, and torn pieces of clothing. Alex’s scent continued on into the woods, Dupree’s after hers. Cursing internally, Gareth shifted to his human form, going to a nearby sapling and pulling it out of the ground. He broke off the bottom and put it across the road. Nope, not enough. They won’t stop, they’ll just run it over. I need them to get out, so they can smell us, and then follow.