by A Lonergan
We should have told Jade the truth from the very beginning.
My hands burned from the chemicals I scrubbed into the tiles on the bathroom floor of Jade’s cottage. I released the rag with a ragged sigh and sat back on the balls of my feet in a crouch. I had been at this for hours now, hoping to keep my mind off of everything that had happened. I was also trying to keep my mind off of the things that could be happening. I wasn’t doing a very good job of it. My eyes burned and internally I blamed it on the cleaner I had been using. I tossed the rag into the sink and pushed up to my full height. The kitchen was clean, not spotless, but clean enough. The laundry room no longer had a rat problem and was ready for a washer and dryer. The living room’s carpet was pulled up and the wood floor that had been hidden underneath needed a good shine job.
I whirled as someone knocked on the front door. Thankfully the mirror was still covered in a thick grime and I didn’t have to see myself as I walked by. When I yanked the door open it dispelled a wave of dust. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to get rid of all the dirt in the air. It would take me weeks to get this place in tip-top condition.
My mom waited on the other side of the door. Her white hair was pulled up away from her face in her typical fashion. She wore loose jeans and a sweater. She didn’t look a day over thirty but there was a weariness to her eyes today.
I took a step back. “What’s up?”
She held up a soda and a bag full of food. My stomach growled in response as my wolf purred in my head. I took the bag from her hands and moved out of the doorway for her to come inside. “I figured you were hungry. You’ve been in here for a while.”
I rolled my eyes. “It hasn’t been that long.”
My mom gave me a stern look. “It’s been twelve hours.”
The bag threatened to spill from my fingers. “What?”
“It’s dinner time,” She threw me a concerned look. “Do you need to talk?”
Did I? Probably. Was I going to? No.
I shrugged my shoulders and sunk down onto the tile in the kitchen. It was the cleanest part of the tiny house. It was the first place I had started on. It smelled like lemons now.
“You don’t need to hide it all from me. Let me be the one to take the burden from your shoulders.”
I scoffed. “And how are you going to do that?”
She sighed and slid down to the floor. She stretched her legs out and leaned against the cabinets across from me. “Let me help you.”
I ruffled through the bag so I didn’t have to look at her. She had brought me a rare steak and mashed potatoes. I immediately dug in instead of acknowledging what she said. My parents were very different people. Getting emotional and having a breakdown hadn’t been allowed. At least, not when it came to my older brother. I scrunched my nose up to keep the tears from coming again. I could only look so weak around my parents. My father was the opposite of my mother in every way. My mom tried to be the healing salve to his abrasiveness.
“You can’t do this all on your own, this isn’t even your home to fix.”
The potatoes tasted like ash on my tongue as my eyes rose to meet hers. I swallowed quickly. “There are two bedrooms.”
Her face softened at that. “Honey,”
I shook my head sharply before I ate some more of the food that tasted like nothing. My stomach was happy but my heart was not.
“This is her home, and…” She paused and her face fell. “What if she doesn’t come back?”
I shrugged one of my shoulders up. “None of this matters then. Not one bit of it.”
“The pack will go on. There is a Beta for a reason.” Her husband, my father. But I couldn’t acknowledge that either. It was all too much. I finished the food quickly, not tasting a thing.
Jade had to come back. She had parents that had fought so long to have her. She had me that finally felt like I belonged. She had the guys that loved her and just wanted to see her smile. And then she had Rafe, the insufferable bastard. The insufferable bastard that didn’t know how to do anything right but he was good, somewhere deep down. I knew he was good. I had known it the first time I shifted.
It had been in the middle of the grocery store. He was a few years older than me. I didn’t leave his side. I wanted to go everywhere with the Alpha’s son. So I tailed him to the grocery store and I hadn’t even shifted yet. Everyone said I was a late bloomer. Turns out my wolf just liked a little bit of exhibition. He had wrapped his coat around me and carried me out of the store. Joked that his puppy had followed him. For years that had been my nickname. Puppy. Until we grew up and everyone stopped whispering that we were destined to be mates. There was a part of me that had always wondered if the mate bond was just a little late like my shift had been. But then it happened with someone else and I didn’t know how to process it. I didn’t even think he had realized before he was shipped off to Pack Law to become a Guardian and I was left behind.
I pressed my palms into my eyes as my nose burned and my eyes watered. I was always left behind. My mom leaned over and wrapped her arms around me as the tears slipped free again. It didn’t matter if there was a Beta. It didn’t matter if things didn’t work out because how was I going to survive if the others didn’t? My best friends...
Chapter 6
Jade
The days came and went. I didn’t know how long I had been in here and I started to not care. I didn’t care as I was carted into the co-ed bathroom or as I was forced to strip down before my guard and Lucas. I became a shell of the human I had once been in a short course of time. They were trying to break me and it was working.
The cold water pelted my back and I no longer felt it. I could no longer feel anything but every day Lucas’s eyes would stare into mine like he could will my wolf back. Like he could bring me back from the emotions I had drowned in.
A stiff towel was shoved into my arms as the water shut off. I didn’t even care if the soap was washed from me all the way. At one point I had cared, I had scrubbed and scrubbed until my skin was red. But those days had come and gone faster than I wanted to admit. The fight in me was dying out. I could feel Lucas’s eyes on me as I dried off with what felt like sandpaper. I didn’t dare look at him. The guard didn’t like how much we talked. I didn’t want to know what would happen if he thought there was something happening between us. Which there wasn’t but it didn’t matter. He was watching me now and it would be too much. So I ignored him.
My shoulders slumped forward as the towel was ripped from my fingers, a shift dress was thrown at me. It was different from the scrubs I had been forced to wear. The rough dress fell above my knees in an indecent manner for the human world. But around here, did it matter? I had seen a manner of all different kinds of clothing on the prisoners that didn’t look like prisoners. I had even seen some wear fishnets for clothing, their nakedness on display for the rest of the prison to see. Not one person had blinked an eye. I had seen the horror on Lucas’s face but I didn’t question him. He had said he had been forced into this life.
Our bare feet dragged on the concrete floors as we walked back to the room. But something felt different. I couldn’t pinpoint it so I looked up for the first time in a week and met Lucas’s stare. His jaw was clenched and his eyes were ablaze with fight. The guard was ignoring us both but there was a slight twitch under his left eye.
Our door opened up and Lucas was shoved into the room as the guard shackled me to himself. Lucas turned and let out a snarl before he came barreling at us. The guard slammed the door in his face. The doorframe glowed blue as Lucas pounded on it.
“Looks like the little witch has taken a liking to you.” The guard snickered and my back went straight at the new information. “Oh, he didn’t tell you? Yes, witches can be turned but its a very painful process. He suffered for weeks before he finally gave himself up to the wolf. You should have seen him fight.”
Nausea rolled through me as he jerked me down the hall, away from Lucas. Were they finally separating us? �
��Where are you taking me?”
“The big boss is ready to see you now.” And that was all he said as he dragged me down the hallway on weak legs. I tried to keep up but his strides were too long and my legs were too weak from not eating much each day. Just enough to keep myself alive but not enough to bring in too much wolfsbane. I could smell it now when I went to eat. I knew which foods were laced stronger. Like the meat. The meat was filled with it but other things like potatoes or mac and cheese didn’t have nearly as much. My body hated the sides and needed the protein desperately but I couldn’t allow myself to be any weaker. I wanted to escape but I didn’t know if I had it in me.
“Keep your head down or he will rip your throat out.” The guard whispered to me. I blinked and looked up at him. His eyes were dark blue again, instead of the piercing white blue they normally were. He led me to a set of massive double doors. They slid open to reveal massive steps that led to another set of double doors. The click of the lock seemed to echo off of the walls as he unlocked the handcuffs around my wrist. The need to rub my raw wrists was overwhelming. I kept my arms at my sides as he walked me to the top of the stairs. My legs protested with each climb and by the top of them, I was winded. I sucked in big gulps of air before the doors in front of us were shoved open.
There in the middle of the room was a man. He was all alone with a woman kneeling at his feet. She had a silver collar around her throat. I almost missed it with the way her orange hair fell around her shoulders. She was dressed in a bodysuit that fit from right below her neck and went down her legs before it disappeared inside a pair of black lace boots. The man cocked his head and my attention was brought to him. I couldn’t feel his power, but I could see it in his eyes. They were depthless and the green in them seemed to go on for an eternity. They were eyes that would bewitch you. I tried to pull my gaze away to observe his other features. He wore a similar outfit to the woman on the floor and his black hair was long enough to brush the top buttons on his own dark bodysuit.
“Hello there,” his voice purred around me like he was beside me and not several feet away. “It is so nice to finally meet you.”
I shivered against the feeling of his presence beside me, even though he was so far away. His chin lifted a notch as his eyes roved over my body. “And what is your name?”
I could feel the defiance rising up within me. I gritted my teeth. “You already know my name, don’t pretend otherwise.” The fight that had seemed to disappear from me in the last week was back with a vengeance.
His lips lifted in a mock smile and I noted his long canines. “Yes, Jade Rivers, I know everything there is to know about you. I know where you go to school. All the classes you take. The vacations your parents frequent.”
My blood went cold at that admonition. I tried to keep the look off of my face but I knew he could feel the shift in me.
“Your parents aren’t my concern, at least not yet. If I had prepared my men accordingly I would have used them to my advantage and kept them from leaving.” He shrugged like it didn’t matter one bit.
“What do you want from me?” Anything to keep the topic off of my parents. Would they be protected by the pack even with me gone now? Would Rafe protect them? If not him, would Tracey. As werewolves, we accepted the responsibility of the humans that lived around us. We pledged ourselves as their guardians.
“There are many things I want from you but for now, I want to know about your mate bond.”
All I could do was frown. “Mate bond?”
His lips curled up into an actual smile. “You don’t know then. That explains the lack of claim marks, but it doesn’t explain your wolf lurking below your skin.”
Something inside of me rose up. Something wanted to tell him about the dreaded night when everything had changed but I knew better. The guard beside me brushed me with his hand and clarity came back to me. I wouldn’t tell this man a thing about me or my past. If he wanted to know so badly, he could find it out on his own.
He cocked his head and the smile slipped from his face. “You aren’t as talkative as I like.” His eyes snapped to the guard beside me. “Is she eating enough?”
The guard bowed his head before he spoke. “Yes, she is eating most of her meals.”
I blinked. It was all I could do to not give his lie away. He knew I wasn’t eating all of my meals.
The man in front of us frowned. His dark brows pulled together. “Is the wolfsbane not strong enough? She should have bent to my will.”
“Is that how you do it then? You drug us all and expect us to be complacent.” A red tinge washed through his bronzed face as I spoke. “You will never have what you seek. Your power doesn’t come from within, it comes from a drug. You will never have anything. You are weak.” I didn’t know where the words came from because they certainly weren’t my own. For a moment I felt hope. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that somehow Nalia had broken through.
Chapter 7
Rafe
A member of our pack has been kidnapped. No matter how many times I rehearsed in the mirror, I couldn’t get it right. I rolled my shoulders and stared at my reflection. Technically, it wasn’t a lie but it still smelled like it in the air. I had to get it right or we would never get aid from the other packs. We wouldn’t get aid from Pack Law.
Why hadn’t I told her? I pressed my palms into the counter and bowed my head. All of this was my fault because I didn’t want to sway her feelings. I hadn’t wanted to make this about fate, but about her. But now that she was gone, the rest of the pack was going to have to know what happened. Why it needed to happen. I hadn’t wanted to share in case it got back to Jade. All I wanted was for her to feel comfortable. Forcing this lifestyle on her, forcing her wolf on her had been more than I wanted to do. But it was something I had to do. I wanted her to understand that before all of this came out. I wanted her to know that I wasn’t all villain in her story. I wanted her to know that things could have been different if we had time, but unfortunately, that was stolen from the both of us. We could have done things normal, but life was never that way.
The door opened behind me and Knox came into view. His auburn hair was tied up in a loose ponytail and his face was grim. I didn’t look forward to the updates. The updates that hadn’t changed.
“Still nothing. I called Archer to come back home.” Knox didn’t sound like it was something he wanted to do but the trail had run cold. I already knew it though. I had run and run through the woods and all the roads until there was nothing left. I had searched high and low for something, anything, but came up with nothing. I had followed her scent until it ran dry and the only other options were going into other packs. They had passed through other territories and that was why I needed help. As much as I wanted to do it on my own, I knew I couldn’t.
“I have called a pack meeting,” My voice didn’t sound like my own and I wondered when it would permanently stay this way. The growly undertone had appeared the night Jade had been kidnapped and hadn’t disappeared since. My wolf was close to the surface and anything could set him off at this point.
Chapter 8
Jade
The room I was returned to wasn’t the one I had been in before. When we stopped at the black door I looked at the guard beside me. Could I trust him? Did I acknowledge the lie that he had spoken in my favor? There was a slight twitch to his head and it took me a minute to realize he was shaking it. He was telling me to be quiet.
“Where is Lucas? Why am I being put here?” I was going to be difficult. I could already feel it in my bones.
“The commander wants to ask you a few questions.” Disgust coated his whispered words. “You aren’t to ask any more questions.”
He unshackled me and threw me into the darkened room. My legs buckled beneath me as I scrambled across the floor. The room was no bigger than a supply closet and it was completely empty. There was a dim light on the ceiling but that was it. The floors were concrete. It took a few minutes before the door opened again and
the man that had been called the big boss entered. The woman that had kneeled at his feet wasn’t with him. The metal gleamed on the knife in his hand. I swallowed as I took a step away from him. All he did was lean against the door as he looked me over again.
“Do you know why you’re here?” His voice was soft. Deceiving.
I shook my head. I didn’t trust my voice. After Nalia had taken over my speech, I had been cast from the room. He had nothing else to say to me and I knew that a storm would be coming. The storm was here now.
“Do you know who your mate is?” Through some fogginess in my brain, I recalled something. There was that feeling inside of me at the word like I knew. Like someone had told me but I couldn’t remember.
I shook my head.
“What is your rank within the pack?”
I blinked at him. His voice was void of all emotion as he watched me. I grasped my hands in front of me and wondered why I hadn’t been chained down. Was this man that confident or was I that weak? I shrugged my shoulders.
He narrowed his green eyes and leaned forward. The slight movement made me flinch. What were his plans for me? Was the knife simply for self-defense or something more? “I would like to get to know you better, Jade Rivers. I would like to know who you are behind the mask you wear currently. I want to know your hopes and your dreams. I would like to think that we could be more to each other. We could help each other. We could be friends.”
“How would we do that?” My voice trembled and I hated myself for it.
“I hear that you have wanted revenge against Rafe Crimson.” There it was. That was why I was here. Was this Pack Law? Had they heard I wanted to hurt an Alpha? An Alpha that was worth more than my life was?