“I’d say what you’re looking for passed me by a few hours since. Straight up the road, you’ll find a dirt track that at first glance appears unused. Follow it, and you’ll see what’s there. But you may be too late.” She lifted her head and looked directly at Amelia, but her eyes were sightless, a cloudy white shade. “You’ll be back to see me, little cousin. The journey never ends, you see.”
The old woman reached out her hand, and Amelia moved close enough for her to touch. I wanted to growl, but my throat had closed up as soon as the woman began to talk.
She brushed her fingers against Amelia’s fur and nodded. “I feel it cooking away. Ready to boil over, I reckon. Best run now. It’s later than I thought.”
I ran, but when I looked back, Amelia was still there, staring at the woman. I made a harsh-sounding bark, and Amelia followed me. I howled as we ran, hoping family would hear and follow.
The woman knew what we were, but she wasn’t afraid. That and the fact that she knew we were looking for something, for someone, had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I tried not to think about the words too late.
Amelia found the dirt track first, and I saw marks from the wheels of a car—fresh ones. Encouraged, I ran faster and soon heard barking from one of our dogs. They crashed through shrubbery, followed closely by Opa and Jeremy. I let out a sound, but it didn’t matter because the stink of werewolf was strong.
We’d made it off the track and were running through some trees when Byron and Ryan caught up to us. Byron moved into the lead, and I pushed forward, but Ryan nipped at my tail to pull me back. Something inside me wanted to challenge him, both of them, but the sensible part of me knew I wasn’t ready for that.
I caught the scent of blood. Perdita’s blood. Again. I imagined them torturing her. How else was her blood everywhere? We slowed, sniffing around the area. Some of the fauna had been flattened, and I knew something had happened there.
We kept going, catching stronger trails of both Perdita’s scent and that of some werewolves. If we faced them… I only hoped I had the chance to face them.
We came upon another clearing with a broken-down motorhome. The window of the vehicle was smashed, but when I ran inside, I smelled my mate so strongly that I whimpered. Her blood remained, but her scent was fading.
The others ran around, searching, but it was too late. They were already gone. They had moved on, and we had wasted too much time.
I wanted to scream, to destroy something, but that wouldn’t help Perdita. That wouldn’t get her back to me. After we had followed scent trails back on top of each other, we returned to the dirt track and pushed on in the other direction. We found ourselves on the road and next to a burned-out car. I knew the vehicle was the one they’d used to abduct Perdita. Did that mean she had been taken in another vehicle? Did it mean she was alive or dead? Had we wasted too much time on foot while they got away?
Amelia and I raced back toward the old woman to try to find out what else she knew, but she was gone. We couldn’t find the clearing. There were no signs that anyone had been in the area at all, apart from us.
Chapter Seventeen
Perdita
I awoke to the stares of two similar-looking girls in their early teens at most. One observed me with interest, the other with suspicion. The floor was cold and hard, and everything came back to me in a rush.
“Oh, crap,” I whispered, pushing myself up into sitting position.
Both girls sat huddled together. We were in a tiny room with a dirt floor and no windows. The girls both had strawberry-blond hair and strange amber eyes. Ryan’s eyes. Their skin was tanned and freckled. The open hostility in the older one’s expression shook me. She couldn’t have been more than thirteen or fourteen, but she looked at me with such hate, I grew embarrassed under her stare.
“You must be Ryan’s girls,” I said.
The older one’s shock changed her face dramatically.
The younger one leaned forward eagerly, and I realised she was even younger than I originally thought. “You know our daddy?”
“Yeah, I mean, a bit. He helped me. He told me about you. How are you doing? Have they hurt you? I mean, are you—”
“We’re fine.” The older one set her jaw defiantly. “Who are you, anyway?”
“My name’s Perdita. Perdy. I’m… I mean, I was caught up in some werewolf stuff. There was a curse; I was a soul mate. It’s complicated. Anyway, Ryan made a deal with my werewolves. We… they are supposed to help get you away, bring you home. But I was taken, too, so now I don’t know what’s going on.”
“He’s trying to get us back?” The older glanced at the younger one in confusion.
Beaming, the younger gripped her older sister’s hand. “I told you they were lying. Daddy would never, ever leave us here. He would never forget about us.”
“Forget about you?” I asked, shocked. “He lives for getting you home. All he’s been doing for the past couple of years is working on getting you out of here.”
The older one looked away, frowning. “I’m Rachel,” she said at last. “This is Meg. They took you?”
“Yeah, they dragged me out of my house. It was not fun.” I touched my swollen jaw.
The hostility left Rachel’s expression. “They took us while we slept in our beds. We haven’t seen our dad since, and they told us all kinds of things about him.”
“He’s doing his best, and he’s helped me before. I think he’s a good person.”
Meg grinned proudly. “He’s the best dad in the world. I told you, Rach. I told you he’d come get us.”
“He’s not here yet,” Rachel said under her breath.
“He hasn’t been able to find you. But we’re all here together, so maybe something’s going to happen. Any idea where we are?”
They both shook their heads.
“They don’t tell us that stuff,” Meg said. “We move in the night. Sometimes we’re asleep for a long time.”
“They put something in the food when we’re going to move on,” Rachel confided. “One time, they didn’t put enough, and I woke up in a coffin. I thought I was going to die.”
“That’s awful. I’m so sorry for you,” I said, appalled. “If Ryan knew—”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Meg said. “If he doesn’t already know about it, he will. And he’ll deal with everyone who’s hurt us.”
“Do they… do they hurt you? I mean, what’s it like with these werewolves?”
“They’re mean,” Meg said. “And hateful.”
“Not all of them,” Rachel added hurriedly, her cheeks turning pink.
Meg made a face. “Just because Micah smiles at you doesn’t mean he isn’t like the others.”
“But have you heard anything?” I butt in before a sisterly war started. “Have you any idea what they want? What they’re doing?”
“We don’t see many of them. We have to work sometimes.” Rachel looked thoughtful. “Most of the people are pretty normal. I mean, they’re not werewolves like Dad. Although we didn’t even know that about Dad until we were taken.”
“Seriously? What happened?”
Rachel’s lips twisted into a semblance of a smile. “They let us know exactly what a werewolf is.” She shrugged. “They aren’t all bad, though. Some of them were taken, too. We see them some days. Other times we’re stuck in rooms like this. It depends on who’s around. The faces change a lot.”
“I like it better like this,” Meg added. “At least we can talk here. They don’t like it when we whisper outside, and I don’t like how they look at us. The werewolves anyway.”
They knew so little, and I wasn’t sure what kind of details I should share. I didn’t want to warp their minds any more than had already been done. “Well, we need to get out of here.”
Rachel shook her head sadly. “We can’t. They could be right outside, listening. Stop saying things that will get us into trouble.”
“What happens when you get into trouble?”
&nb
sp; Rachel’s face paled. “Somebody gets hurt.”
I walked around the room, trying to figure out a plan. Maybe we could run for it, but I didn’t fancy our chances against werewolves. “What do you do every day? I mean, what’s the normal routine?”
“Usually, if we’re locked in, then someone comes to let us out to use the bathroom or whatever. Or brings food in. And if we’re out there, we’re with the rest of the people, doing whatever they’re doing.”
“So they don’t watch you?”
Meg shrugged. “Where are we gonna go?”
“Do you know people by name? Faces? Who’s in charge?”
“What’s with all the questions?” Rachel asked sullenly.
“I need to know everything,” I said.
“Leave her alone, Rach,” Meg said, but she bumped her hip against her sister affectionately. “We only know a few names and a few faces. Most ignore us.”
“Well, it won’t be for long,” I murmured, moving to try the door, but Rachel pulled me back.
“Stop it!” she hissed. “If you get my sister hurt, I’ll rip out your hair.”
“Jesus,” I said. “Calm down. I’m not going to do anything, okay?”
I moved to sit back down, eyeing her. There was a darkness in her eyes, and I wondered if she would turn werewolf some day.
She watched me carefully, but Meg asked me questions. When I answered without getting back up, Rachel relaxed. We spent the next couple of hours chatting about inane things. They didn’t get to watch television, and old celebrity gossip seemed to be at the forefront of their minds. I didn’t blame them, but I preferred it when Rachel grew confident and asked about Ryan. That made me less likely to think she had gone Stockholm on me.
“Have you tried to run?” I asked, lowering my voice.
“No!” Rachel said. “They’re always watching. Bad things happen when people run.”
“Are there really other people like you? Trapped here?”
Rachel picked at a hangnail. “Not like us. Not exactly. But trapped here? Yeah.”
“They can’t watch you all of the time, though,” I said, thinking hard. “If we could figure out a way, would you come with me?”
“Yes!” Meg said immediately.
But Rachel still seemed reluctant, although she had calmed a bit. “I swear I’m not making it up. It would be dangerous. But what if—”
She was interrupted by the door swinging open.
An older woman walked in with a tray of food. “Eat that and quieten down. Don’t want none of your chatter today.”
She refused to look at me, so I thanked her loudly, trying to make her think of me as a person.
My plan backfired. Her expression changed immediately into one of violence and fire. Her pupils dilated, clueing me in to her werewolf side.
“You think I want your thanks? You’re nothing more than a thief to me. If I could kill you now, I’d rip your throat out. But there are better things coming your way.” She smiled, but there was no warmth to it, and it drew terror from every cell in my body. “Your days are numbered and good riddance.” She left the room, and I heard her mutter something about pathetic humans as she slammed the door after her and locked it.
“They all like that?”
Rachel shrugged, and we ate what little food was there in silence.
“Who was she?” I asked, unsettled by the eerie quiet.
“They call her a beta,” Meg said. “Behind her back, anyway. They say it in a mean way, like it’s a bad word.”
A beta was supposed to be next in line for alpha. How was that an insult?
“Seems like she hates my guts,” I said, trying my best to remember everything I had learned about wolf pack hierarchy. Nothing I could think of seemed useful.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” Rachel asked, her eyes widening.
“Them? You mean my boyfriend’s family?”
“I dunno,” she said. “They talk about other werewolves a lot. Sounds like they hate them. You sure my dad’s hanging around with them? They don’t sound good.”
“They are,” I said harshly, and she shrank away. I felt immediate remorse. The girls had already had a rough go of it; I shouldn’t be making it worse. “I didn’t mean to snap. I have a headache.”
“They talk about war sometimes,” Meg said. “Dad’s on the other side is all, Rach.”
“So do you know anyone else out there?” I asked. “How many there are? Is Vin here? Willow?”
They both gazed at me blankly, and I sighed with frustration. They were basically growing up in captivity, and it was probably beginning to seem normal to them that they knew so little. That would not do.
The old woman returned a few minutes later, and I couldn’t resist talking again.
“What am I doing here?” I asked. “What do you want with me?”
She hacked out a genuinely amused laugh. “You’re here so we can get what we want.” She pulled out a pair of rusty shears.
I imagined a million things when she pulled my hair, but none of them ended with her cutting off my pony tail.
“Thank you,” she said in a mocking voice. She picked up the tray and left. When she locked the door, I heard a cheer followed by laughter outside. I couldn’t make out how many different voices there were, and I was beyond frustrated.
“What the hell was that about?” I said.
“Don’t speak to her,” Meg said with a worried expression. “She’s one of the worst ones. She’s worse than him.”
“Him? The alpha, you mean? You’ve seen him?”
Meg nodded. “He’s in charge. They lay down at his feet as he walks past them. They push us down, even put our noses in the mud, and he doesn’t ever look at us.”
“How can she possibly be worse than him?”
“Don’t,” Rachel hissed. “You need to be quiet, or we’ll all suffer for it.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
The girls dozed on the floor until a young male wolf entered. I wondered if he was the same one from the woods. His hair was long and scruffy, and his grey eyes focused on Rachel at all times.
“Hi,” I said. “She’s pretty, isn’t she?”
He blushed a deep red. “Get on out.”
Meg giggled. “That’s Micah. He takes us to use the bathroom.”
Rachel thumped my arm as we went outside, and I grinned at her.
Micah led us behind a tree, and Rachel said that was where we had to pee. It was humiliating, given that a group of strangers circled us the entire time. Micah tried to lead us back, but I brushed past him and strode right up to the one who appeared to be in charge, a muscular dark-haired man. He flinched with surprise when I approached.
“I want to see Vin,” I said. “Right now.”
He threw back his head and laughed. “You do now, do you? All right, princess, let’s go see Vin.”
He made a face, and the men around him all laughed. He gripped my shoulder to lead me away. I didn’t recognise any of the people, but they all seemed to have a job to do: skinning small animals, watching us, chopping wood. The place practically bustled with life despite the relatively small numbers.
We passed tents and caravans, heading for a building that looked more like a converted barn. People formed groups and watched us walk. Some whispered while eyeing me with suspicion, while others gazed at me with something akin to pity.
I guessed Vin had been taking entire families. But there didn’t seem to be a pack, not like Nathan’s family. There were groups here and there, and people seemed more suspicious of the group closest to them than of me, judging by the evil looks they threw at each other.
“Watch yourself, lads,” the werewolf leading me shouted. “The werewolf killer is demanding an audience.”
People came from every direction to stare at me. Men and women alike glared at me. Children stared at me with wide, scared eyes as if I were the monster from their nightmares. Some laughed and others jeered, but I held my head up hi
gh, meeting their eyes with a challenge. That didn’t go down well, and the man holding on to me had to bark out a command to keep the werewolves away. I spotted Dar again, staring at me with darkness in his eyes, and I hoped the werewolf holding on to me could keep Dar away, too.
I was losing hope. Nathan’s pack hadn’t been able to find Vin, or even Meg and Rachel. How would they find me?
The werewolf led me up to the door of the small building, and when he knocked, the old woman who had cut my hair opened the door.
“What is this?” she asked, looking me over with disgust.
He spoke rapidly in French, but I couldn’t understand a word of it, despite Joey’s tutoring.
She grinned, and I had to force myself to remember I had faced down a werewolf before. I told myself I wasn’t scared.
It didn’t work. I was terrified.
She caught hold of what was left of my hair and pulled me inside. As the door slammed shut behind us, a feeling of dread sent sweat trickling down my spine. She dragged me into a room and shoved me forward. The room was dark, but as my eyes adjusted, I finally saw him. He sat in a ripped armchair. When his eyes met mine, he looked slightly confused for a couple of seconds.
“She wanted to see you,” the she-wolf said mockingly, and I got the impression it wasn’t me she was mocking. “So I brought her in for a visit.”
He rose to his feet, displaying a bare, muscled chest that only showed the mildest hint of his age. Seeing him sent me into a panic, and I struggled to get away. I didn’t want to look into those eyes anymore.
“Enough,” he called out as I squirmed. “Little interest in you.”
The woman stilled me easily in any case, and I stood there, panting, watching him warily. As if watching him could prevent anything—he could rip out my throat before I made it halfway across the room, and the darkness in his eyes had my knees wobbling with fear at that unwanted image.
He was handsome, despite his wild and rugged appearance. I imagined he had probably been a bit of a stud in his younger years, if he hadn’t scared everyone away with his craziness.
“So this is the next generation,” he said languidly, his eyes running over my appearance. “This is the one to bring the next Evans wolf into the world. Does my old friend Jakob approve?”