Page 43

Chapter

Forty-Two

D ANNY

My face ached. My head throbbed. My ribs felt too tight.

I blinked, but despite my open eyes, I couldn’t see anything.

Panic rose within me. Was I blind?

I sat up, and everything spun.

“Whoa. Take it easy.” A soft touch landed on my shoulder. “Don’t move too fast. Give your eyes a chance to adjust to the dark.”

It was a woman’s voice. Vaguely familiar, but not enough for me to recognize it.

“Where am I?” I asked.

The last thing I remembered, I’d been charging at the rogue wolf shifter.

“I’m not sure. It might be a basement.” She moved closer, and I realized she was crouched beside me.

I turned toward her. A strip of light shone from beneath a door at the top of a flight of stairs, illuminating her features well enough for me to make out braided dark hair, dark skin, and dark, gleaming eyes .

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I’m Jessie. I live in Grizzly Ridge. You do too, right? I’ve seen you in the bakery.” She spoke in hushed tones, glancing behind herself as if worried that someone on the other side of the door might overhear us.

“Yeah.” I scanned the room. I didn’t dare let my bear come to the surface so I could see better just in case Jessie wasn’t a shifter, but even with my limited human vision, I could make out several other figures in the room.

There was a woman rocking in the corner, with long, pale hair that spilled over her arms as she hugged her knees and sobbed. Five figures lay prone on the concrete floor, although one was beginning to stir.

“You were kidnapped?” I asked quietly. It seemed obvious, but it was best to be sure.

She nodded. “Men came in the middle of the night. They drugged us before we woke up, so I only pieced together what happened after we arrived here.” She gestured to the sobbing woman. “Hannah and I have been here for hours. The rest of you arrived maybe half an hour ago.”

“Thanks, Jessie.” I tried to stand, but my legs were too wobbly, so instead I dragged myself over to the person who was in the midst of regaining consciousness. “Hello?”

“Danny?”

My gut clenched. “Jamie?”

“Yeah.” He rubbed his eyes, then hissed. When I looked closer, I realized that the left one had been blackened. “What’s going on?”

Jessie had joined us, so I waited for her to repeat everything she’d told me. As subtly as possible, I sniffed, hoping I’d be able to detect how many people were upstairs and whether or not they were all shifters.

Unfortunately, all I could smell was damp and mold .

Jessie patted my back and indicated that she was going to comfort Hannah. Meanwhile, Jamie and I checked the other four, but they were all still out of it. One of them was a shifter, but the others weren’t. Perhaps whatever they’d dosed us with had longer-lasting effects on humans.

“How did they get you?” I asked Jamie.

All of a sudden, his heart rate picked up. “Oh, gods. Mom!”

“What is it?”

The whites of his eyes showed in the dim light. “I was taking Mom to an appointment. We’d just parked when they attacked. What if they hurt her?”

My stomach knotted. Now I understood his concern.

“I’m sure they didn’t,” I soothed, even though I was absolutely not sure of anything. “She’s not here, and they wouldn’t have any use for a sick omega, right?”

Jamie didn’t seem consoled by this, and I didn’t blame him.

One of the others began to rouse, and I made my way over to help ease her panic as we waited for the rest of our companions to come around.

They woke soon after, and another fifteen minutes or so after that, the door at the top of the stairs opened and a pair of wolves appeared, silhouetted against the light. One of them flicked a light switch, illuminating the basement so rapidly that I had to shield my eyes.

Hannah cried out, and Jessie shushed her.

The larger of the two wolves swaggered down the stairs, his long ratty hair loose around his shoulders.

“Welcome. This is my packhouse and while you’re here, my word is law. You’re my omegas now, under my leadership, and you will do what I say.”

“Or what?” Jessie asked, her tone challenging.

The guy—the Pack Alpha, I assumed—laughed. “Or what, she asks? Or things are going to be really shitty for you, darling.” He clapped his hands. “So, raise your hand if you have a useful skill? Like if you can cook, mend clothing, or if you’re a nurse… blah blah blah. Basically, I want to know if you can be useful to us.”

No one moved.

He sighed. “I’ll give you a couple of hours to think about it. Anyone who has no practical use will become a plaything for my men, and trust me, they aren’t gentle with their toys.”

Bile churned up the back of my throat, but I swallowed it down. I was immediately tempted to announce that I was a pastry chef, but I wasn’t going to play their games. We wouldn’t be here for long anyway. My family would rescue us. Right?

“You.” The Pack Alpha pointed at me. “Come here.”

Fear glued my bare feet to the ground. “No.”

With a huff, he gestured to the guy behind him, who marched toward me, already reaching out.

I tried to shift.

I called on my bear with everything I had, but he didn’t respond.

Terror seized me, making it difficult to breathe. What had they done to me?

The wolf grabbed my arm and yanked me toward the stairs. I stumbled but caught myself before I fell.

My heart hammered. I didn’t know whether to fight to stay with the other omegas, or whether to go with them in the hopes that they might give me the opportunity to escape and find help.

In the end, I didn’t have much choice. The wolf was stronger than me. He hauled me up the stairs and tossed me into a room to the left of the basement doorway. Before I had a chance to react, he slammed the door and the lock snicked shut, plunging the room into darkness.

I placed my hands against the door and felt around for the handle. I tried it, but as expected, it was locked. I moved around, feeling my way along the wall, careful of where I put my feet in case I tripped over anything.

It took less than a minute to conduct a full circuit of the room. It must be a cleaning closet of some sort because it was small, with what felt like a mop and a bucket stashed in one corner, and it reeked of bleach.

There were no windows and, as far as I could tell, nothing other than the mop handle that could be used as a weapon. Honestly, I didn’t like my odds of doing much damage with the mop handle either. Nevertheless, I removed the end of the mop and kept the handle close by in case an opportunity presented itself.

Now that I’d determined where I was, I sat in the back corner and focused on any noises filtering in from beyond the closet.

Unfortunately, there were none.

Perhaps no one was here, or they were being quiet, but the wolves I’d seen didn’t strike me as the type to stay silent. More likely, the warlock that was working with them had erected a ward to keep their conversations private.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. Panicking wouldn’t do me any good, but it was hard not to when I was trapped by myself in a tiny space and no one knew where I was.

Gods, if only I’d mated properly with Knox. Then he’d have been able to find me anywhere and I wouldn’t feel so damned alone. I mean, there was a possibility he’d be able to find me anyway, but the more distance between us the more difficult it would be for him to hunt me down.

Tears sprang to my eyes. It would have been so reassuring to be able to bask in the certainty of that connection now. Why had I been so stubborn in putting off our mating?

I stood and shook myself.

Okay, I wasn’t going to sit here like a lamb waiting for slaughter.

First, I called forth my bear. Once again, he didn’t respond. It was as if he was sleeping somewhere in the back of my consciousness.

All right, so shifting wasn’t an option. I was still strong. Perhaps I could knock down the door.

I geared up, ready to charge, but just before I launched forward the handle turned, and a familiar scent filled my nostrils.

Bitter coffee.

My insides turned cold.

Rex entered, and I backed up against the wall, tripping over the bucket.

He grinned. “Hello, Danny.”