Cinder choked as the fog covered her body and filled her mouth, the sulfur scent making her gag. She tried to scream, but something was tied around her mouth. The gag was made of thick fabric that tasted sour like rotten milk and made her want to retch. Rough hands quickly bound her wrists, and she was upended over someone’s shoulder. The sound of air rushing by filled her ears as the person carrying her ran far faster than a human. Branches slapped at her, and she felt their sting even through her clothes. She tried to scream again, trying to work the awful tasting fabric out of her mouth, or slice it with her fangs, but her fangs seemed to have disappeared. She felt as though the fog had seeped into her skin. Her eyes burned and her heart pounded in her ears. She struggled to stay awake, but she was being pulled into darkness too fast to stop herself from being overwhelmed.
She was aware of everything and then nothing.
* * * * *
Setta smiled as she lowered the disorienting fog. She had glamoured herself with foliage, blending in perfectly with the woods around her. The stupid
lygisa
had fallen for her trap so easily that she wondered why her master had even bothered with something as complicated as spell casting. The
lygisa
had been unable to tell that Setta had been watching her because she was so confused by the changes happening to her. She had also not known that Setta had been invading her dreams a few times to give her glimpses of what her future held.
The injured she-wolf whimpered at Setta’s feet. She’d sealed her mouth and bound her in magic, but not the nice kind of magic that the foolish
lygisa
could use. Setta used dark magic. The kind that turned an unsuspecting sister of the alpha out running errands into a writhing ball of pain.
Setta flicked her finger over the female, and a piece of her skin shredded as if cut by an invisible knife. She shrieked in agony, and Setta inhaled the scent of her pain. Rubbing her sides in a sensual way, she thought she might just hurt the female a few more times before turning her over to her master for her swiftly coming death. Of course the master would play with her a bit first, too, but maybe he’d let Setta help.
She felt her master call for her through their mental link, and she sighed. No more fun for her right now. Reaching down with her power, Setta lifted the female off the ground, and the she-wolf whimpered in fright, which only made Setta smile. Once upon a time, she’d been an innocent Wiccan, content to share her power with her coven, and then she’d gotten a taste of dark magic, and she hadn’t wanted to go back to being pure and good. It was much more fun to be bad.
A clawed hand flew through the fog and snagged Setta around the neck. Thick claws dug into her flesh, and she struggled, gasping for air as she was lifted off the ground. The she-wolf crashed to the ground next to her. Setta was pulled through the fog by the clawed hand until she was nose-to-nose with a half-shifted, pissed off wolf. His mouth was elongated into a fur-covered muzzle complete with glistening, deadly teeth. His eyes were such a bright amber that they momentarily dazzled her.
She knew who he was without an introduction. Adam, the alpha and mate of the Wiccan.
“How?” she wheezed. There was no way the wolf should have been able to find her through the fog.
He snapped his jaws at her, and she tried to shrink away, but he held her immobile. Her chest burned as he squeezed her throat and the oxygen was cut off.
“Where is my mate?” He snarled the words.
She stared into his eyes and could see her own death. She struggled to find her power, but because she was surrounded by the alpha, she couldn’t reach her dark magic. How was he stopping her?
The fog dissipated as she weakened further, and she found herself in the company of a pack of pissed off wolves.
“I’ll never tell,” she gasped, reaching into the pocket of her jacket for a knife.
Her wrist snapped as the alpha stopped her from closing her fingers around the hilt, and everything slipped into darkness.
* * * * *
Adam pulled the knife from the witch’s pocket and tossed it to Brick. He sniffed at her, and his nose wrinkled as the heavy scent of sulfur stung him.
The fog was gone, and so was Cinder, but his sister, surprisingly, was on the ground, seeming to be bound by something that was invisible to the naked eye.
Adam dropped the witch to the ground and knelt down next to Angie, brushing the back of his knuckles over the strange, clear covering on her mouth. She was panicking, her eyes wide with fear. “Calm down, Angie. The witch is out of commission. You’re safe now.”
He looked up at Solan. “Call the coven to help Angie.”
He picked up the unconscious witch and tossed her over his shoulder. “I’m going to find out what happened to Cinder.”
Brick said, “Do you want us to search the woods for her?”
Adam shook his head. “She’s not in our territory any longer. I can’t feel her at all. This one will tell us what we want to know. I’ll make sure of it.” He paused and looked behind him. “Sweep the woods for intruders. Figure out how this one got through the patrols and how Angie was taken.”
Brick nodded. A few wolves followed Adam, and he knew they were watching his back. The strange female bumped against his shoulder blades as he walked with purpose through the woods. Somehow, she’d captured Angie and gotten into Cinder’s conscious mind to pull her to their location. The disorienting fog had effectively hobbled him, but when he heard her scream, he’d partially shifted and immediately scented a strange presence. If he hadn’t, he might not have known that Angie was taken or who was behind Cinder’s disappearance.
He was furious that Cinder had been taken. He didn’t know how, but someone had figured out that she was a
lygisa
. He was as sure of that as he was that the moon would rise tomorrow.
He cleared the woods and turned to the right, where a large barn sat away from the house. His father stood next to the open door. “What do you need from me?”
“Watch the door. There’s going to be a lot of screaming.”
The door slammed shut and Adam walked to the center of the concrete slab that comprised the floor of the barn. In the center of the room, a bare light bulb swung lazily, casting shadows along the roughhewn walls. He dropped the witch to the concrete non-too-gently, and after extracting a length of cord from a storage shelf, her tied her up and hung her from a hook in the ceiling.
Turning to a large sink in the corner, he filled a bucket with cold water and carried it to the still unconscious woman. Hate filled him. He wanted to gut her for her part in Cinder’s abduction. And maybe he would later. But right now, he needed answers more than he needed vengeance. Willing his wolf to heel, he returned to his normal fully human form and tossed the water on the woman.
She came to with a screech of pain and found herself hanging by her wrists, which had to be mind-numbingly painful considering one of them was shattered; her feet dangled above the ground.
“Talk.”
* * * * *
Cinder woke slowly. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at chain-link fencing, and beyond that, a water-stained ceiling. She blinked away the blurriness, lifted her hands, and found them bound in front of her.
Her mind raced. She’d been in the woods with Adam, certain she’d felt a she-wolf injured in the woods, and then she’d been attacked and taken away. She closed her eyes and reached for her powers, but whatever
lygisa
power she had was gone.
She heard footsteps and she turned her head.
It couldn’t be.
Her father stopped and stood a few feet away from what she realized was a cage, the sort that was used in dog kennels. The room was empty except for the cage. The walls were bare and the windows were boarded up. He stared at her blankly, his eyes roaming over her as if she were a piece of meat for inspection.
There was coldness in his gaze, and it chilled her to the core. The nightmare she’d had surfaced quickly. She’d never told Adam, deciding that she was safe within the alpha house and that it hadn’t been a vision. But she couldn’t deny the clarity that spiked through her. She’d made a terrible mistake.
Her father looked over his shoulder as another male entered the room through the only door. He was tall and lean, his face aged with time and a hard life. She fought screaming in terror as the male of her vision, the one who had pushed her roughly to the ground and violently claimed her, strode toward her with purpose. He knelt next to the cage, his yellow teeth showing as he grinned.
“Such a pretty thing. You’ll make nice meat for the pack. Wouldn’t you say, Roscoe?”
The alpha looked at her father. He smiled in a way that was far too lascivious for a father to look at his daughter and horror filled her. She could get away. She
had
to. The whole pack was evil. She could smell it on them – that strange sulfur smell that she’d scented in the woods. She shouted for her wolf to help her, but everything inside her felt heavy, as if her power was blanketed somehow.
“Aw, she’s scared. Funny,” the alpha said. He wiggled his fingers through the links, taunting her. “Don’t worry, little girl. You’ll come to love your place in the pack, casting spells against our enemies and spreading your legs for anyone I choose.” He rattled the cage, and she squeaked in alarm, which only made him chuckle. “Enjoy your last few hours of freedom. When the moon is in its arc tonight, we’ll force your power to rise now instead of waiting for tomorrow. It’ll be my pleasure to usher you into our pack by blood and flesh.” He stood and turned his back on her. “You can release her if you wish, or don’t. It matters little to me if she’s comfortable now. It’s a good lesson to learn for her future.”
The alpha left, and she was alone with her father. Except she wouldn’t call him that anymore. He didn’t deserve the title.
Something glinted in his eyes, as if he knew what she was thinking. A small smile curled the corner of his mouth, but he said nothing. Turning slowly, he left her alone. The door shut, and she strained her ears to hear anything, but either there was no one around or the walls were well insulated.
Panic clawed at her, but she pushed it away. If she fell apart, she wouldn’t survive, and she knew she needed to live. She had to keep her head together and figure out a way to free herself. She called for Adam, pushing against the wolf in her mind that felt as though it was asleep. She’d been feeling so connected to Adam until now, as if they were one being and not two. Now, all she felt when she thought of him was nothingness. But it felt like less than nothing, like the absence of all they’d been together.
She tugged the gag free. Closing her eyes, she sorted through her mind for something she’d read in the
lygisa
book that would help her. She wasn’t a true Wiccan anymore, but at one time, she’d harnessed the power of the flame. Her fingers tingled as she thought about her south power. She hadn’t experienced a connection to her Wiccan power since that fateful day when she’d changed completely, and Adam had come for her. But now, she could feel the heat in her fingers as her nerves snapped with energy.
Whatever had been done to her wolf and
lygisa
powers had allowed her Wiccan powers to return, at least in a small way. Concentrating on the feel of heat that spread down her fingers, she spoke the words of a simple, familiar spell. Her power swelled, and her hands began to burn. She ignored the scent of singed flesh and wiggled her fingers, trying to grasp pieces of the rope to burn them.
Screaming inwardly as her flesh seared with the heat of her power because she was unable to throw her power anywhere, she focused on the ropes and watched them loosen and finally give way. Sweat dripped from her brow as she shook out her hands and the power receded. Her hands were red and raw, her fingers blistered and swollen, but she was free.
She’d read once about a Wiccan who could reach her coven by focusing her power and slipping into a sort of meditative state. Closing her eyes, she let the Wiccan power flare to life again as she reached out to her former coven. She didn’t know if it would work, but she hoped it would. She didn’t know how much time she had left.
Adam snarled when the barn door opened, but reigned in his wolf when he saw Lorene and the corners. She stumbled as she walked and pressed her hand to her nose. “She stinks of evil.”
All four women covered their noses and gagged. Adam had gotten used to the scent, along with the metallic tang of blood and the sound of the witch’s screaming.
“You’re supposed to be helping my sister.”
“We did, and she’s fine,” Lorene said. “But we smelled something awful and followed it here. Your father asked us to wait until you were done, but we need to be part of this.”
“Don’t ask me to give her mercy,” Adam said.
Gwen’s eyes blazed with indignation. “Who said anything about mercy? She’s given herself over to black magic. Her soul is tarnished. She can’t be redeemed.”
The witch screamed and kicked her legs. Blood droplets flew through the air before splattering on the floor.
“She won’t talk. She wants to die,” Adam growled.
“She’d probably be killed by whoever gave her the power,” Idurre said. “A better choice to die now than at the hands of the one she would betray.”
Lorene hummed. “She doesn’t have to be willing to share what she knows.”
Adam stepped back as the four women circled the witch. Immediately, the witch screamed a string of words that sounded like a spell. The Wiccans held hands and something shimmered around them, like the heat of invisible flames. The witch fell silent, and her eyes rolled back in her head until only the whites showed.
“I’ll force the moon to bloom tonight,” she rasped in an otherworldly voice. “The
lygisa
will claim her power, and the pack will have her.”
The Wiccans raised their arms slowly, and the witch began to shriek as her body jerked. Then she fell limp as the Wiccans chanted. The barn became stiflingly hot as the air shimmered again. They dropped their hands and stepped away.
Lorene turned slowly, and her eyes were electric blue and glowing. “I see Cinder in a cage. She reached out with her Wiccan power and touched us when we called the corners to bind the evil one. She’s in a house one hundred miles from here.”
She bent over and wrote the word
Rexton
and the number seven in the witch’s blood on the concrete. Straightening, she blinked several times, and the glow faded from her eyes. The other Wiccans surrounded her as she weakened at the knees and they caught her.
“What is Rexton seven?” Adam looked past them to the witch who was completely still save for the rise and fall of her chest.
“The street and house number,” Lorene said.
Hope bloomed in his chest. “I thought her Wiccan power was gone because she’s a
lygisa
? How could you see her?”
Lorene looked over her shoulder with a sneer. “Whatever this one did to her, it covered up what makes her a
lygisa
, and enough of her is still pure Wiccan that she was able to pull that power to her use. But there’s a bigger problem, Adam. She said she was going to force the full moon tonight.”
“
She’s
not going to do anything.” He turned his attention away from the witch.
“But they might force Cinder to,” Lorene said. “Whoever gave this one the dark magic can turn it on Cinder. It’s seductive and volatile. If Cinder is forced to make the full moon happen tonight, she’ll die. It’s against the laws of nature to change the moon’s pull. If this one had done it, she would have died, too, although she may not have known that part. The earth will rebel against the power and destroy the one doing it. We don’t have much time to get her out of harm’s way.”
Adam nodded.
Lorene added, “I’m going to send this one to the council for punishment. She’s committed grievous sins against Wiccan-kind. You’ll have your vengeance.”
He turned on his heels and strode out of the barn, leaving the Wiccans to deal with the witch. He wanted to slaughter her himself, but he knew time was running out for his mate and that was far more important. His wolf howled at him to hurry, and he listened. After checking on Angie to make sure she was okay, he left her in the care of the females and several guards and gathered the best fighters in the pack. He stood on the hood of his SUV and looked down at them. “We’re going to get our
lygisa
back. Who’s with me?”
The pack howled in agreement, and he was bolstered by their support.
“There’s dark magic and a dangerous pack waiting for us. Stay alert and stay together.”
Lorene climbed into the SUV as Adam jumped down and opened the driver’s door. “I’ll give you directions. I can see the location in my mind.”
“Can you still feel Cinder?”
“Faintly. It was stronger when we were joined, but I can feel she’s okay for now.”
He didn’t particularly care for the way she tacked on “for now” to the end of her sentence. He shoved the SUV into gear and pressed his foot on the gas as Lorene directed him away from the house and toward his mate.
I’m coming, sweetheart
.
* * * * *
Cinder winced and cursed silently as her fingertips burned on the chain link when she tried to melt the links. It was slow work, but she had managed to melt a small section near the lock that was almost big enough to get her hand through. Focusing once more, she brushed the sweat out of her eyes and ignored the aches in her back and sent her power into the metal. The Wiccan part of her had been strong for a brief moment, and in her mind, she saw a woman covered in blood, hanging from a hook in a barn. She had felt the corners even though she couldn’t see anything but the woman, and she reached out to them with as much strength as she could muster. She’d lost the connection after a few minutes, but being in touch with the corners had bolstered her spirits. If they were looking for her, then Adam knew she’d been taken and she hoped the corners had been able to pinpoint her location.
A large drop of molten metal splashed on the tile floor, and she retracted her power and rolled her neck. After giving the metal a chance to cool, she pushed her hand through the rough opening, just big enough for her to fit through without touching any of the sharp edges. Curling her wrist, she touched the lock and closed her eyes. One of the first spells she’d learned as a youngster was an unlocking one because some older girls, who thought she was weird, had shut her in a storage closet at school. She’d spent a tearful hour in the dark before the janitor had heard her crying. Her mom immediately taught her the unlocking spell and helped her practice until she could unlock most every lock. The next time the girls had locked her in the closet, she unlocked it immediately and punched the oldest girl in the nose. They had never tried to lock her up again.
Blinking at the sudden tears as she thought of her mom, she began to chant and heard the tumblers turn slowly in the padlock. Just as she heard the padlock click open, the door to the room swung open and several wolves lumbered in. She hadn’t seen them before, but something about the strange way they walked, as if someone was pushing down on their shoulders to hunch them over, made her jerk her arm back in the cage. She scraped her skin on the exposed metal, and blood welled in the cuts.
The males snarled and raced to her, pressing themselves against the cage. Their eyes were glossy and almost entirely black, and saliva frothed on their lips. She gasped and pushed herself into the far corner as they wrapped their fingers around the links and shook the cage.
Suddenly, they were thrown away, tossed like trash to land hard against the far walls. The male she shared DNA with – she would never call him
father
again – stood in front of the cage, chest heaving and eyes angry.
“She is the alpha’s first,” he roared, and the males rolled to their knees and hung their heads.
He turned his attention to her, and she saw the same glossy, black eyes in his face as she’d seen in the others.
“Let me go, please. I’m mated. My mate misses me and I miss him, please.”
He blinked slowly, and the black seeped away until she was looking at eyes the same color green as her own. “I did not approve your mating, daughter of mine. My master has need of a mate, and a
lygisa
is the most powerful mate a wolf can have.”
She clutched her bleeding arm to her chest and stared at him through the chain link. She thought she’d play dumb and see if that bought her some time. “What’s a
lygisa
?”
He snorted derisively. “Don’t be stupid. My master has been looking for a
lygisa
for centuries. He has employed those who dabble in dark magic to find one before she came to power. Imagine my surprise when the fruit of my own loins is one.” He squatted and eyed her speculatively. “If I’d known when your mother insisted I come see you on your birthday that you would be the perfect female for my master’s purposes, I wouldn’t have turned you away.”
“Why do you call him
master
? Isn’t he your alpha?”
The black seeped back into his eyes, like clouds obscuring the moon. “He is everything. You will submit to his will or he will ensure that you do. The marks on your neck are meaningless and will be removed. Rest now, daughter of mine. Your destiny is coming soon.”
He straightened and reached for the lock, squeezing it with his hand. She heard the metal screech in protest. When he opened his hand, the lock, a mangled mess, now held the cage locked tight. He turned his attention to the cowering wolves in the corner. He pointed to the door and they fled, and then he walked away, shutting the door and leaving her alone once more.
She knew she could continue to burn the metal, but it would only sap her strength, and she was making such little progress that it wouldn’t matter. If time were running out, then she had only one hope: that Adam would find her before the master of the pack came for her and forced her to do his bidding.
Hurry, Adam
.
* * * * *
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed since she’d been taken, or since she’d been left alone in the room a second time to ponder her fate. She was exhausted and scared, but she hadn’t given up hope that Adam would find her. Even if this pack had done something to mute her powers and her wolf, they couldn’t stop her and Adam from being mates. He was a fierce alpha, and he wouldn’t rest until he found her; she knew that much. She didn’t think she’d ever met a more determined male.
The door opened, and three females followed a large male into the room. The door shut, and the male grabbed the broken lock and twisted it, tossing the pieces to the floor with a clatter. He pulled open the cage and reached for her. She shrieked and tried to keep herself in the corner, but he was far stronger, grabbing her by one ankle and jerking her out. She grabbed onto the chain link, but he pulled harder, and she was forced to let go, her fingers uncurling from the links as he dragged her to the center of the room.
“You know what to do. Don’t disappoint the master or you’ll feel my claws,” he said. His voice was dark and unfriendly, with an air of authority that told her he was probably highly ranked within the pack. The way the males tossed around the word
master
concerned her. She’d never heard an alpha referred to as a master before.
Cinder stared at the three women. They appeared young, maybe only slightly older than Angie, and they scented of wolf. Long-life made it difficult to judge the age of a supernatural creature, but there was something youthful about their faces, even though their eyes told her that they’d seen more than their fair share of pain and heartache.
She licked at her dry lips and decided to try to engage them. If she could make friends with them, they might be able to help her. “My name is Cinder. My mate is Adam Beaumont. He’s alpha and that makes me his alpha female.”
One of the females, a thin blonde, shook her head as she sank to her knees next to Cinder with a bundle of cloth. “You’re not a true alpha female. You’re
lygisa
.”
“I know what I am.” Cinder shoved one of the other female’s hands away as she tried to untie Cinder’s shoe. “What are your names?”
They looked at one another for a moment, and then the blonde said, “My name is Delilah.” She pointed to a redhead with bright green eyes. “She’s Maddie and she’s Stella,” she finished by pointing to the brunette.
Cinder opened her mouth to try to get them to tell her more about themselves, but she found three pairs of hands tugging on her clothes and untying her shoes. She pushed their hands away again.
Maddie took Cinder’s hand and squeezed lightly. “If you fight us, Klaus will come back and do this himself. You don’t want his hands on you,
lygisa
. And he’ll beat us for failing too.”
She swallowed hard and blinked away the tears that tried to surface. “What are you going to do to me?”
Delilah said, “You have to remove the clothes of your old life. You’ll be cleansed, and then you’ll don the ceremonial cape. When we’re done, Klaus will come back for you and you’ll force the moon.”