“You don’t need anything where you’re going,” Blue said.
“Sure.” Gray zipped the bag up, then shouldered it, giving Blue a look. “You never know.”
Blue shrugged. “If it makes her happy.”
My lips parted in a faint, bitter laugh. If it makes her happy. Sure.
Blue reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. “Come here.”
“Really?” I asked. What was I going to do?
I couldn’t run. I was on pack land. There was nowhere to run.
“Really,” he said. “Come here.”
I did, and he slipped the cuffs around my wrists. The cold metal seemed to burn against my skin.
“If you try to shift wearing these,” he said, “they won’t break. You’ll do a lot of damage to yourself. Do you understand me?”
I stared ahead of me, and he tugged on the cuffs, drawing me against his body. I froze, my heart suddenly beating fast, as he murmured into my ear, “Do you understand me? I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
I couldn’t make sense of the way my chest fluttered, the sudden throb between my thighs, even when I was terrified.
But I wasn’t terrified of him, at least, not exactly.
“I understand,” I whispered.
Gray gave me a look that I could’ve sworn was sympathetic, just before Blue grabbed my shoulder, the heel of his hand pressing painfully into a bruise even though his touch was light, and steered me ahead of him out of the room.
The hallway was empty. Together, Blue’s hand still on my shoulder, the three of us went down the stairs, down the familiar blue-and-bronze rug. As kids, Alan and I had played on these stairs, pretending we were zoo animals as we peeked out from between the twisted wrought-iron bars. Clearly, I’d had childhood premonitions of the future.
There were a lot of people in the living room—my extended family all lived on pack lands—and they turned to watch me go. Their faces were hard, for the most part. Shifters can’t afford to show much weakness in our world.
In the distance, my mother wept. I craned my head to try to see through the crowd, hoping for a glimpse of her, but she must be hiding in the kitchen.
Alan must have been with her, because he suddenly burst into the living room. Maybe he’d been trying to cajole her into saying goodbye.
He stopped in the doorway as the gazes turned his way, his chest heaving. My heart dropped at the sight of his face. He couldn’t afford to look weak in front of the pack. Not even for his twin.
“Last chance, Saoirse,” my father said, looking away from Alan to me. His hazel eyes were the same shade of mine, and they looked light against his deeply tanned and weathered skin. “You don’t need to do this.”
I could’ve said the same thing to him.
Blue let the two of us stare at each other for a long minute. The air felt tense and heavy around us.
Then, when I didn’t say anything, Blue pushed me gently down the last two steps. My legs felt clumsy beneath me, as if they might falter, but then we were out the front door, crossing the front porch and then the gravel yard.
Gray opened the car door. Blue stopped when we reached the car, and I looked back at the house where I’d grown up.
Then, before either of them could remind me, I ducked into the backseat.
It was time to go.
Chapter Two
I leaned against the window, watching the familiar terrain of pack lands flash by.
“How long is the drive?” I asked. I hoped it was a long time; I could manage the drive to the prison. It was what would come after that scared me.
“It’s about twelve hours,” Gray said. I didn’t think Blue would’ve bothered to tell me. “Plus stops.”
Twelve hours. Good. I leaned against the window again, letting my eyes drift closed. For twelve hours, I was safe, more or less. I dozed off for a little while, and I only woke when a sharp voice cut into my dreams.
“How long were you hiding in your room?”
“Three days,” I said.
“Have you eaten in the last three days?” With my eyes closed so I couldn’t see his bleak expression, Blue’s rough voice sounded warmer, somehow.
“I had a granola bar in my desk. I’m not even hungry anymore, though.”
There was a pause. Then Gray said, “We’ll stop when we get off pack lands. Someplace safe.”
“We’re always on someone’s pack lands,” Blue muttered. “And we’re not the most popular people.”
“You’re not,” Gray said. “No one likes you.”
Blue gave him a long look. Then he twisted in his seat to look at me. “Do you need water?”
“Does it matter to you that you bring me to prison alive?” I asked.
“Yep,” Blue said. Then he added, “We’re sent to bring two shifters back to the prison, we bring two shifters. If it’s not you, it’s us going in.”
“Why would anyone sign on for a deal like that?” I demanded.
Blue and Gray exchanged a glance, but didn’t answer me.
Then Blue twisted in his seat, holding out a water bottle to me. “Drink up. It’ll help tide you over until we can stop.”
I reached out for the bottle, taking it with my cuffed hands awkwardly. I had to struggle to unscrew the plastic top.
“What are your names?” I asked.
Gray started to open his mouth, but Blue cut him off. “You don’t need to know our names.”
“Rules,” Gray explained, his voice conciliatory.
Blue snorted. “Common sense.”
Despite the rough way he spoke, he glanced back at me. I lowered the bottle and met his gaze. His icy blue eyes were cold, but beautiful, surrounded by thick, dark lashes.
He stared back at me, frowning slightly. I couldn’t look away from his eyes though, which seemed to hold me. Long seconds slipped by, and that strange phantom heat washed over my body again, until I bit my lower lip.
Gray dared look away from the road at us, and then he smacked Blue in the shoulder.
Blue startled, as if he’d been as lost as I’d been, and turned his frown on Gray.
“We’re off their pack lands,” Gray said, as if nothing had happened. Maybe nothing had happened; maybe it was all my imagination. “Keep an eye out for a diner off the highway.”
“You want to bring her into a diner?” Blue asked skeptically.
Gray didn’t look back, but I could tell he was talking to me when he asked, “Are you going to run?”
“I don’t have anywhere to go,” I said.
“That doesn’t always stop people,” Blue muttered.
To be a lone wolf was to succumb to madness.
Or so I’d always heard. Now I wondered if that was true, or if it was just another thing the packs said to keep us in line.
Gray arched an eyebrow. “Do you think we could take her down if she ran? Or are you scared of the five-foot-nothing half-starved girl?”
Blue scrubbed his hand over the scruff across his chiseled jaw. “Do you really expect me to fall for your bullshit?”
“Yep,” Gray said. “You usually do.”
There was a long pause. Blue glanced back toward me again. I wasn’t sure what he saw on my face, but he twisted back to face front, crossing his arms with a faint huff of irritation.
“Fine,” Blue mumbled. “I could go for a burger.”
“He’s really a nice guy,” Gray confided to me. “As long as you don’t run.”
“Don’t tell her I’m nice,” Blue said. “You’re never going to get used to this job, are you?”
“Hope not,” Gray said lightly.
It had the feeling of an old argument, and they dropped it as if it was.
“Take the next exit,” Blue said, tapping the back of his knuckles against the glass on his window as if to indicate the sign.
A few minutes later, we bounced across the gravel parking lot of a truck stop. Blue came back to open my door, and he sat on the edge of the bench seat
. “Hands,” he said shortly, and I held out my cuffed wrists.
He caught the center of the cuffs and pulled them toward him, before he slipped the key into the lock. “Try to run, and I’ll kill you,” he warned me. “Despite what I said about keeping you alive, it really is just two bodies that I need to bring back.”
His words chilled me. I ducked my head to avoid his gaze, shocked at his threat. Part of me had thought he was…kind. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
“Two?” I questioned, raising my chin.
“Yeah.” He didn’t offer any more explanation, but stood from the car. “Get out.”
I rubbed my wrists absently, although he hadn’t put on the cuffs too tight in the first place; it still chafed me to wear them. I hated the idea of being cuffed.
I wished I’d been born human. No matter how much we shifters believed we were special, I’d rather be free than special. If I were human, I wouldn’t be bound to my pack and to my family, no matter what they did to me.
“Are there packs in prison?” I asked.
Blue touched his finger to his lips, glancing around the parking lot, even though there was no one near us.
Then he leaned into me, and his breath against my ear sent a ripple of nerves down my spine. “Don’t talk about the packs, don’t talk about prison. For right now, we’re three humans getting a late night meal and not attracting attention. I won’t hesitate to drag your ass out of there, even if it means you do starve.”
I stared up at him. The way he spoke was always so mean, and yet there was something in the way he looked at me that made it feel like it was all an act.
“You got it?” he asked, his voice impatient.
“I’ve got it,” I said. “I’m not stupid.”
“Smart girls don’t end up in cuffs,” he said.
My jaw tightened.
“Follow your own advice,” Gray told him over the top of the car. “Come on. Let’s get her fed and get out of here.”
But Blue leaned into me, one more time. “You try to start something, you try to get help, and it’s not going to end well for you.”
“I’ve got it,” I told him, putting my palm on his chest and trying to push past him, but the man was built like a brick wall. “All I want is something to eat. No trouble.”
He snorted, as if I looked like trouble to him.
Irritation flared in my chest. I shouldn’t expect him to understand, though. My own family saw me as nothing but trouble, because of the one time I dared to go against their will.
I started past him, and he touched my back, a small familiar gesture as if we were old friends. His hand pressed a bruise, though, and I winced.
It was Gray who saw, and he stopped suddenly. “Saoirse,” he said, and my name sounded sweeter on his lips than I would have expected. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” I lied. I didn’t even know why I lied. Maybe they’d feel sorry for me, and maybe… maybe I could find a chance to escape. The thought felt so reckless that I almost didn’t dare think to it.
Gray gave me a long look. Blue pulled away from me, almost flinching himself, as if it bothered him that he might’ve hurt me.
Together, the three of us crossed the dark parking lot and went into the diner. Inside, the place was almost empty; there were a few lone truckers scattered throughout the diner, and a waitress busy behind the counter filling a cup from the soda fountain. In one corner of the diner, a desert case revolved endlessly, showcasing pies and cakes, and my mouth instantly watered so much that my stomach felt sick.
Blue was watching me, with that intensity again, and I ducked my head to avoid his gaze before I followed Gray. Gray slid into one side of a booth, and Blue mockingly gestured to the other, as if he was inviting me to sit gallantly.
Once I slid into the booth, Blue slipped in beside me, blocking me in. His big shoulder bumped against mine, and my chest lifted at the feel of his warm, hard body against mine, no matter how foolish that was.
“Can I get you anything to drink while you look?” The waitress passed laminated menus to each of us. She was brisk, no-nonsense, disinterested. She didn’t seem like the kind of person who would help a teenage runaway.
Blue’s warnings had gotten my mind turning with possibilities, though.
“Black coffee and ice water, please,” Blue said. He turned to me.
“Oh, just water is fine.” I felt stupid, startled. We never went to restaurants growing up. My pack didn’t like to spend much time around humans. And I wasn’t used to making any decisions for myself.
“I’m getting a milkshake,” Gray said, but I didn’t take his meaning until the waitress had left. He’d been inviting me to order one too.
“A milkshake,” Blue muttered. “You’re an overgrown child.”
“Mm. There are worse things.” Gray said. “Besides, I doubt the coffee here is any good.”
“Hipster werewolf,” Blue mouthed at him, so quietly that no one could have heard it outside our booth.
The two of them might mock each other, but it seemed like they had a deep bond. I wondered what that was like.
We ordered our food when the waitress came back with our drinks. Then Gray pushed his milkshake across the table toward me.
“She doesn’t need that,” Blue said, intercepting the glass with his palm and pushing it back toward Gray. “The sugar will make her sick after not eating.”
“He’s always like this, in case you were wondering,” Gray said to me, using that confidential tone that made me feel like we already knew each other well, even though it was an illusion.
I smiled, just faintly. Even though it wasn’t real, I liked the way Gray talked to me, as if we were friends. “I was, actually. Can I go to the bathroom?”
Blue sighed. “All right.”
He got up, and he went ahead of me to the women’s room. He pushed open the door, and I froze in horror as he glanced around. I imagined he was making sure the room was empty and looking for exits.
Then, satisfied that I was sufficiently trapped, he waved his arm in a grand gesture of invitation.
“I’ll be just outside,” he warned.
Thank Cain for that. I’d thought he was going to follow me in.
As I used the bathroom, I glanced around, trying to see an exit that he hadn’t. The truth was, I couldn’t imagine any way I could get far from these guys. I definitely needed food first; I was so weak I wasn’t sure I could even shift, and I was willing to bet they were fast. I couldn’t beat them in a footrace through unfamiliar territory.
Where the hell would I even go? I had to figure that out too. But now, at least, I could try to search the bathroom for anything that might help me. I left the toilet unflushed so the noise wouldn’t alert Blue to expect me to come out.
Then, moving as quietly as I could, I eased open the doors to the storage cabinet in one corner of the bathroom. It held extra rolls of paper towels and toilet paper, a few extra hand soaps, a bucket of cleaning supplies. A lot of miscellaneous stuff had been thrown in here, as if it was the lost-and-found for the women’s bathroom as well: on one shelf there were heaped a couple of sweaters and jackets, a handful of lipsticks, a small bag. I searched through it rapidly, and as I shifted the pile, I knocked a pair of wayward sunglasses off the shelf.
I froze as the sunglasses hit the floor with a thump.
Then, behind the other stuff, I caught a glimpse of metal. A two-inch knife, the blade tucked away in the handle.
My lucky day. My heart hammered as I shoved it into my pocket.
“You okay? You faint in there?” Blue asked.
I was already whirling to flush the toilet, then rushing to wash my hands. I closed the cabinet door while the flush would drown out the sound.
“I’m fine,” I called back. “Knocked something over.”
“What?” Blue asked, his voice irritated.
When he came through the door, I expected him, but I still looked up genuinely startled from the sink.
&nb
sp; His big frame filled the doorway.
“What did you say about not attracting attention?” I demanded in a hiss. I turned off the water and reached for a paper towel.
“What did you knock over?” he demanded.
“The air freshener on the back of the toilet,” I said. I didn’t bother to look. I’d noticed the floral-printed can when I walked in.
Blue snorted. He crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing,” I said.
It wasn’t a lie.
I didn’t have a plan, not yet.
Chapter Three
“You said two bodies,” I said, when we were back in the car.
“You should get some sleep,” Blue said, instead of answering. “It’ll be a while before you get through In-processing, once we arrive. Long day.”
I was still curious why anyone would take a job like theirs, where if they failed to bring someone into the prison, they went instead. Unless the two of them didn’t have a choice. “Do you know that from firsthand experience?”
No one answered me. I glanced toward Gray, who seemed like the nicer of the two by far, but his attention was fixed studiously on the road.
Whatever. I closed my eyes and nestled my head against the cool glass window. I needed time to think, anyway.
There was nowhere for me to run, was there?
Even in my isolated pack, stories had reached us about omegas who lived freely, not bound to any pack. But I wasn’t sure how to find them.
And if I didn’t? It wasn’t as if being part of a pack had brought me much joy, had it? Yeah, my pack said lone wolves go mad. But maybe that was a lie.
Still, the thought of being helpless—and not even being able to recognize I was in danger—made me sick to my stomach. As an omega, when I went into heat, any alpha in the vicinity would scent me. They’d be drawn to me, and I’d be drawn to them. Even if they wanted to hurt me.
I’d not started yet. My mother said it was better to marry someone before my heat began, because once it did, I’d need a man. I’d need an alpha.
Hexes and Handcuffs: A Limited Edition Collection of Supernatural Prison Stories Page 20