Page 27

M y head is pounding, a slow, sick rhythm that matches the rumble beneath me as I start to come to.

Where the hell am I?

The air is sharp with the stench of gasoline, sweat, and something else—something animal.

It’s muskier than anything I’ve ever smelled, rank and wild and wrong.

Like a soiled litter box that’s been sitting in the sun.

The metallic tang of blood mixes with cheap aftershave and motor oil, and it makes my stomach roll.

The van I’m in feels like it’s doing a hundred down a bumpy back road, each jolt rattling my bones, making the ache in my skull bloom into something worse.

I try to move, but I can’t.

There’s something stuffed in my mouth.

Cotton or cloth?

I don’t know. I can’t tell.

But it’s damp with saliva and pressing painfully against my tongue. Tape is strapped tight across it, pulling at the skin around my lips.

My hands are bound behind me, wrists already raw and throbbing from the tight plastic ties. My feet are the same, ankles cinched and tingling with numbness.

Panic claws at my throat.

I fight to breathe through my nose, to not freak the fuck out, but it’s hard. It’s so goddamn hard.

All I remember is Bob calling me into the stockroom.

Said he needed help to move a fresh case of beer— something he never offers to do.

I should have known.

That alone should’ve set alarm bells off.

But I’m a bartender. I’ve been trained to clean up messes I didn’t make. I didn’t even hesitate. Just turned and followed him back like it was any other night.

Only it wasn’t.

I didn’t see the first man. Not until he was behind me, his arm a steel trap around my chest, the other slapping a massive hand over my mouth.

I couldn’t even scream. Couldn’t fight. Just a flash of motion.

Claws.

Long, curved, unnatural claws slicing through air and cracking across Bob’s face like a whip.

“We’re done now, right? My debt is paid!” Bob had begged, his voice trembling, lips already bloodied.

That’s when it hit me.

My boss didn’t just betray me.

He sold me.

Like livestock.

“Shut up.”

The voice had been low, harsh.

Unforgiving.

“We decide when your debt is paid.”

And then the man, the one I recognized as Tim, the same arrogant asshole from a few nights ago at the bar, slashed Bob across the cheek with those claws like it was nothing.

Just skin and meat. Disposable.

Bob hit the floor hard. A wet sound. Gurgling.

I twisted, kicked, thrashed, but there were too many of them.

Something hit me.

A fist? A boot?

I don’t know. But it slammed into the side of my head and the lights went out.

Now, I’m awake. And I wish I wasn’t.

Because the van smells like fear and fury barely leashed. There are at least three other bodies in here with me, all male.

I can hear them talking up front, low murmurs with that too slick, too smug confidence that makes bile rise in my throat.

Every now and then, one of them laughs.

“Hurry the fuck up, Tim!” Someone shouts.

“The moon is full and we need to perform the binding ceremony before midnight,” another says.

“I’ve got the pedal to the fucking metal already. This thing can’t fly, you know.”

“He’s gonna come for her. We have to do this fast.”

I know whatever they want from me, it’s not good.

I shift, inching just enough to see the back of the van.

Metal walls.

No windows.

No light.

Just shadows and menace.

Tears prick my eyes, but I force them back.

I will not fall apart.

Not now.

Not when I’ve got someone who’ll be looking for me.

Because Kian will come.

He’ll feel it.

He’ll know.

And gods help whatever monsters thought they could take me from him.

Because my Kian is going to rage like hellfire when he finds out I’m gone.

And when he does, they better run.

But honestly, there’s a vengeful voice in my head, hoping they don’t.

Because when he does get here, my mate is going to end them.