I covered my head with my hands, tensing for the blows. They must be from the Leo pack, or maybe one of their allies, hunting me down on Jordan's behest. They'd likely beat me until I couldn’t move, and then deliver me to Jordan to do whatever he wanted, like a gift-wrapped present. Here’s your mate, destroy her.
But no blows came. The wolves threatened and surrounded me, but didn’t touch me. I slowly lowered my hands, glancing between them. What were they playing at?
Then the alpha of the lost pack melted out of the forest in human form, while the other wolves parted for him. He was so light on his feet, I hadn’t heard him coming. Like before, he wore no shirt, only jeans. My breath caught as he approached me, almost as if he'd been summoned by my thoughts of him, while the other wolves circled me so I didn't dare try to escape.
Like a dark angel come alive from one of my fantasies, he stood directly over me, his eyes cold and unreadable. "You're coming with us."
Before I could even open my mouth, one of the wolves sank their fangs into my arm. I started to cry out, but then exhaustion swept through me, so quickly it was impossible to fight. I struggled not to go under, but there was no stopping the call to sleep.
I could only stare at the dark alpha with defiance as my body gave out and everything went black.
Chapter Ten
I came to slowly, my mind so fuzzy it didn’t occur to me that I was actually waking up until I blinked my eyes open. I lifted my head and glanced down at my body. I was lying on some sort of cot, covered with thin sheets, and I didn’t feel any pain. I drew in a deep breath experimentally. Nothing, not even a twinge.
I lifted my knee, bending and straightening it. The crunching noise was gone, as was the pain. How long had I been out for my body to heal itself? Surely wounds that bad would have taken days. Maybe I was with the Virgo pack? They had healing abilities and weren’t allied with the Leo pack.
I flung the sheets back, taking note of the too-big clothes I’d been changed into. Better than being naked at least. They hadn't given me shoes though. I looked around and noticed for the first time that I wasn’t in a bedroom or infirmary. Iron bars formed a cage around me, sunk into the floor, and bolted to the ceiling. There was a small toilet in my cell, plus the cot, and nothing else. For a moment, all I felt was confusion. Had the Leo pack gotten me after all? Why was I healed if they planned to torture me?
Then my last few moments of consciousness returned to me. Cold, unreadable eyes looking down at me. I checked my arm, expecting to see a bite, but that had healed too.
Shit. I’d been taken by the Ophiuchus pack. The bogeymen of shifters, our worst nightmares as children, now back with a vengeance. I couldn't help but imagine all of the torture they were going to put me through, and that’s if I was lucky. It could be worse than torture. Whatever the Leo pack would have done to me suddenly paled in comparison to what I suspected was ahead of me. I’d gone straight from one torment to another. Maybe I would have been better off alone in the woods.
“You sure like talking to yourself,” a deep, gravelly male voice said.
I jumped, realizing I’d said all of that out loud...and that I wasn't alone. With bated breath, I turned toward the voice.
The lost pack’s alpha stepped out of the shadows, arms crossed over his chest. His handsome face was severe, and he actually had a shirt on for once. Pity, my brain whispered. I shoved that thought far back. Now was not the time, and definitely not the place, to be thinking about how much of his skin I’d like to see on display.
“I didn't expect someone to be spying on me from the shadows like a perv,” I let slip before clamping my mouth closed. Shut up, I told myself firmly. Mira had always warned me that my smart mouth would be the death of me, and I really didn’t want that to be right here and now.
“You were talking to yourself when we found you too,” he rumbled, uncrossing his arms. “What’s your name, little wolf?”
I lifted my chin. Two could play this game, and if he planned to torture me to death, I at least wanted to know his name first. “What’s yours?”
He gave me a hard look, his dark eyebrows drawing down. “Explain to me how you got away after the Leo pack attacked. You don’t have any of the Cancer pack’s abilities, and yet you are one of the only survivors. Possibly the only one. How?”
I opened my mouth but paused. I wasn’t about to start answering his questions without getting some of my own answered first. “Why did you kidnap me?” I asked. “Planning some elaborate torture scheme?”
He set his large hands on the bars of my cell, fingers wrapping around them. The muscles in his forearms bulged as he squeezed tight, showing off his snake tattoo. “I don’t think you understand how interrogations go, little wolf. Either you were hit on the head too many times, or you’re always this dumb.” He straightened, his face still hard and emotionless. “You will answer my questions if you want to stay alive.”
“Will you let me go if I answer all of them?” I asked. “Or are you planning to keep me here forever, coming down to interrogate me anytime you need intel on the twelve packs? I’m not a computer, and I’m certainly not inclined to answer to you.”
“You just can’t help running your mouth, can you?” The menace was clear in his voice, and I tensed, waiting for him to come inside and hurt me. Instead, he growled and tossed something into my cell.
I flinched as the object hit the floor, ready for whatever threat it posed, but then it bounced. It was a bottle of water, which was the absolute last thing I thought he’d throw in.
“Perhaps some time alone with your thoughts will loosen your tongue,” he said. I almost laughed out loud. It wouldn’t. “The bottle of water alone is probably enough to get you to answer anything. Maybe if you play nice enough, I’ll feed you too.”
My stomach growled again. How long had it been since I'd eaten? Suddenly answering a few questions seemed like a good idea. What could it hurt if he had my name? He already knew I was originally part of the Cancer pack, and it wasn't like there were many of them left. He could probably find my name out on his own if he tried—there weren't that many half-human mutts, after all. Still, I hesitated, all the things I’d been told as a child about the Ophiuchus pack echoing in my brain.
I was right on the verge of telling him my name when the alpha turned away with a huff. Then the bastard shut off the lights and locked the door behind him, leaving me in almost complete darkness.
I scrambled off the cot and dropped to the floor in front of the bottle of water. The cap snapped as I unsealed it, and I let out a relieved breath. I wouldn’t put it past them to try to slip something into my drink to drug me into delirium. That would be one surefire way to make certain they got answers from me. I took a long drink. I didn’t know how long it had been since I’d had water, but I was thirsty. I didn’t think I’d ever tasted better water.
I stopped myself, though I could have easily downed the whole thing. I needed to ration it. Who knew how long it would be before they’d give me anything else. In fact, they’d probably deprive me of any further water as a way to get me to talk. What did they want with me? Would they ever let me out of here?
Wait. The power I’d used to get away from Jordan. Maybe I could use that to escape.
There was a tiny patch of moonlight from the small window on one side of my cell. The window was higher than my head and only big enough to let a tiny bit of light in and nothing more, so there was no chance of escaping through it. I went over to it, straining up onto my tiptoes to see out while trying to use whatever that strange power had been.
I held my breath and reached out for the darkness, the moonlight, or whatever it was I'd used to teleport before. Nothing happened. I closed my eyes tighter and hoped and prayed that when I opened them, I’d be away from the cell and outside in another patch of moonlight.
No such luck. My shoulders dropped and I made my way back over to the cot. Maybe the patch of moonlight wasn’t big enough, or maybe I was doing it wrong. I
kicked at the legs of the cot for a moment, trying to think of another plan. The iron bars around me were sunk into the cement floor and drilled into the ceiling. There was no way I could shake one of them loose, not even with the assistance of my newfound strength. This cell had been made to hold a shifter. There was absolutely no way out.
I was well and truly trapped in the worst situation I’d been in yet, and there was nothing I could do to escape from it. The only thing that remained was to sit here and wait for the lost pack alpha to come back and interrogate me some more. Or maybe they had some other use for me. Whatever it was, it stank of foul things, and I didn’t want to stick around long enough to find out more.
To my surprise, I was able to fall asleep, even knowing I was surrounded by such dangerous shifters. This time I jerked awake, my bladder screaming at me. I hurried over to the toilet and relieved myself, and only when I was finished did I think to make sure I was alone.
Alone except for a bag of food. I didn't know how I could have slept through someone coming in and pushing it through the bars, but there it was. Then again, I’d had a very rough last twenty-four hours. Or was it longer? Forty-eight hours? There was no way for me to tell.
I walked over to the bag warily. It was plain, with no indication of where it had come from, but the smell emanating from it made my mouth water. I opened it and pressed the paper-wrapped food to my nose, breathing it in. I didn’t care that it was cold, it smelled like heaven. I tore the paper open, finding a breakfast sandwich with sausage, eggs, and cheese. There were hash browns in the bag too.
My stomach grumbled and I groaned and dug in. It didn’t even occur to me that I had no way of knowing if they’d drugged it until I’d plowed through half of it. I stopped mid-chew and sniffed the food again. Nothing to suggest there was anything unusual there, even with my new enhanced senses. Besides, if they'd wanted me dead, they would have killed me already.
I finished eating and found a bottle of water sitting beside the bag. I let out a laugh, unable to help myself. Here I was, being held captive by the worst of the worst, and they hadn’t done anything more menacing than send their alpha to growl at me and ask me some questions. Shit, they’d fed me and hadn’t beaten me yet. This was already two steps above my life in the Cancer pack.
Funny how things looked with a little perspective.
The door opened, and daylight streamed in. From the small window, I could tell it was day, but now I realized I’d slept through the night and probably well into morning.
The lost pack's alpha stepped into the small room and closed the door behind him. I couldn't help but notice the way he moved with both grace and power, somehow managing to command the room without even saying a word. His impressive body seemed to fill the space too, even while wearing clothes that hid all those muscles I'd seen in the woods.
He observed me for a few moments. “You’re looking much better than when we found you."
“Well, I was practically on the verge of death,” I replied. “You can’t expect someone to look good after fleeing a massacre.”
He walked the rest of the way into the room without answering and dragged a chair from the corner. He sat himself down outside of the door to my cell, chair backward.
“I’ll get this out of the way for you,” he said after he’d slung his legs over the chair and leaned his forearms against the metal bar at the top of the back. “My name is Kaden Shaw, and I’m the alpha of the Ophiuchus pack.” His voice was low and sexy, and I found myself leaning forward into the words. “I need you to tell me what happened at the Convergence. How you got away.”
I cocked my head at him. “Why the sudden sharing circle?”
“I’m hoping that if I share information, you’ll be smart enough to return the favor,” Kaden said. “I can’t let you out until I know I can trust you.”
“So you do plan to let me out?” I asked, hopeful.
“If you prove to be trustworthy. That remains to be seen.”
I sighed. I supposed there wasn’t anyone else who was showing me this level of kindness. “And you promise not to torture me?”
Kaden cocked his head to the side, copying my motion. “Do I look like I’m about to torture you?”
No. No, he lazed against the chair, legs spread wide, hands carelessly flung over the back of it. He looked about as far away from torturing someone as he could get. And sexy as hell. I couldn't keep my eyes off his long legs or muscular arms.
“How do you know what happened at the Convergence?” I asked. “I thought you all left.”
“We were watching from the forest and saw the whole thing. Including the fact that you’re now mated to the next alpha of the Leo pack."
It was a slap to the face. I’d almost managed to forget. I jerked back, drawing in a breath. “My mate rejected me." There was no way I could keep emotion out of the words. “And since he helped kill my entire family and my pack, I don’t want him either.”
That wasn’t completely true. The mating bond still hadn’t totally faded, and I felt the pull toward him, though it wasn't as strong now. I tried to shove the feeling of longing away. Jordan didn’t want me, and I didn’t want him either. Except any time I thought of Jordan, I got jumbled up in the mess of emotions. My base instincts drove me to want him, but I couldn’t come to terms with any of the things he’d done to me or my family.
“How did you escape?” Kaden asked.
“I don’t know,” I said.
In one smooth motion, Kaden stood, kicking the chair away with a burst of strength. “I told you not to lie to me,” he growled, and the tension in the air sharpened. “I could kill you just as easily as release you.”
Ah. There were the familiar threats. He was no different than anyone in the Cancer pack, after all. "I'll tell you, but I want my own answers first."
He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. "Answers about what?"
"Where are we? What happened to my injuries? How did you knock me out? And who dressed me?"
He smirked at that. "I can't answer most of those. Not yet. But I will say...I'm the one who dressed you."
My eyes widened at that and my cheeks grew warm imaging those big hands of his all over my naked body. I picked at the enormous shirt. "You could have gotten me some clothes that fit me."
He gestured toward me, his eyes narrowing. "Your turn. Tell me how you escaped before my last bit of patience vanishes."
“I really don’t know,” I said, holding my hands out. “I stepped into the moonlight and then suddenly I was a few feet away. It happened a couple more times before I realized I was moving from one patch of moonlight to another. I have no idea how I did it, and when I tried to use that power again, I couldn’t.”
Kaden sat back down in his chair, looking almost intrigued. He was quiet for a few moments longer, and I thought he’d be interested in asking me more about that, but then his eyes moved up and down my body like he was appraising me. “You don’t have a pack mark. I didn’t see one on you when we first met either. Why is that?”
I ducked my head. The fun questions now, apparently. “I’ve always been an outcast in my pack because I’m half-human. I never had a pack mark.”
“Aren’t you the alpha’s daughter?” Kaden asked.
I looked up at him and gave him a wry smile that held no humor. “You’d think that would help, but it made it worse. I’m a result of his affair with a human. She abandoned me with the pack, and even my father couldn’t turn me away. He raised me, but not as his own. The worst treatment came from him and my stepmother.” I sucked in a breath, thinking of Wesley again. “The only one who ever showed me any love was my brother, Wesley. And now they’re all dead and it doesn’t matter.”
I blinked away tears at the thought of my brother, turning my face away from Kaden. I didn’t want him to see me like this. Any weakness, no matter how justified, could be used against me in the future. I drew in a shaky breath and continued. “I’d hoped that when I turned twenty-two and came
to the Convergence I’d get a mate in a different pack. One who would treat me better.” I let out a bitter laugh. “You saw how well that went.”
Kaden was quiet for a beat longer, tension still thick in the air. “Do you feel any ties to the Leo pack or your mate?” he asked, instead of the million other things he could have said. “Do you want to go back to them?”
I whipped my head around to glare at him. “Fuck no. I want them all to die for what they’ve cost me." Then I hesitated. I could lie, but what was the point? "But yes, I still feel the mating bond with Jordan, though I wish I couldn't.”
Kaden smiled, but it wasn't a nice smile. “I have good and bad news for you. Which do you want to hear first?”
“I don’t care,” I said. “It’s all news.”
“Good news first, then. You’ve become useful to me, so I won’t kill you. Yet.”
The implied threat may have cowed me, just a day ago. Now, I just stared at him blankly. “And the bad news?”
“You’re going to use your bond with your Leo mate to set a trap for the Leos. You’re going to be our bait."
I laughed, the sound dragged out of me. “You can fuck right off with that plan. I’m not going to be anyone’s bait.”
Kaden’s lip drew up in a snarl. He moved so fast I didn’t see him get out of the chair. It crashed to the floor behind him, and I jumped, despite my bravado.
“You’re alive because I allow it. You will follow my orders if you want to remain that way.” His hands tightened around the bars, thick muscles in his forearms flexing. Kaden’s voice dropped so low, it was practically a growl. “And if you ever disrespect me again, I’ll tear your throat out with my teeth.”
Moon Touched (Zodiac Wolves: The Lost Pack Book 1) Page 8