* * * * *
Scarlett was aware of the scent of metal as she slowly began to wake. Disoriented at first, she quickly remembered that she’d been kidnapped by Quentin and his merry band of assholes, and she went very still.
Someone leaned over her, stubble brushing against her cheek. “I know you’re awake, little bitch. No use pretending,” Dorl, one of Quentin’s loyal wolves, whispered.
In a fit of anger, she jerked her knee up and connected with Dorl’s crotch. He snarled in pain and lifted her by a fistful of hair. She screeched, opening her eyes to find her vision blurry and her eyes stinging, but that wasn’t as painful as the fist in her hair.
He slammed her against the side of the delivery van and the breath whooshed from her lungs.
“Knock it off, Dorl,” Quentin barked.
Dorl let her go and she fell back onto the dead delivery guy. She bent over and promptly threw up as the soft flesh of his corpse pressed against her palms and the sound of squishing blood filled her ears.
“She kicked me,” Dorl seethed.
“I said knock it off,” Quentin said menacingly.
Scarlett rubbed the back of her hand over her mouth and sat up as her stomach rolled again. She didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious. The effects of the mace were slowly leaving, her vision clearing as she blinked. Looking to where Quentin stood in front of the open doors at the back of the delivery van, she saw they were in the woods. She didn’t dare hope they were still in Ashland.
“You’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass,” Quentin said.
“It’s my life. Let me go back to my mates, please.”
“I don’t recognize that mating, Scarlett. You are my seed and you will do as you’re told.”
She thought about Arven and how he’d promised retribution for what he perceived as Quentin scamming him with her pregnancy, so he wouldn’t have suddenly decided to take her as his mate. As she stared at the man she’d spent her life calling Dad, Leon stepped up behind him and smiled. It wasn’t the sort of smile that told her everything was going to be okay; no, far from it. It was the sort of smile that said life as she’d known it was over. Tears filled her eyes as understanding dawned on her.
Quentin’s head tilted slightly. “That’s right, daughter. Now you know how I was able to secure so many followers for my new pack. You’ll belong to Leon, but the other males will have use of your body. I’ve heard that the trauma of many males using a female’s body roughly, as you’re about to experience, will end pregnancies, but just in case it doesn’t, I have some prescription help for that. I’m sure your new mate is looking forward to you carrying his pup after the pack has had their first taste of you.”
“Don’t do this! I’m your daughter!” She shivered as the impact of her father’s words settled on her. He was giving his blessing to his pack to gang rape her.
Dorl jumped out of the van and patted Leon on the shoulder. “She’s feisty. You’ll probably want to tie her up first.”
Leon shrugged. “If she tries to hurt me, I’ll hurt her worse. It doesn’t matter to me if she’s bleeding and in pain. She’s my mate and I’ll do with her as I please.”
Fear rolled over Scarlett like something hot and alive as Leon leapt into the van. It creaked as it rocked under the weight of his muscular body.
Quentin said loudly, “As alpha of the
new
Jamison Pack, I declare Leon and Scarlett mates for life. Have fun,
son
.”
Leon smiled at her darkly as the back doors were shut and a metallic clicking sound told her they were locked inside. She scrambled over the dead body, her back pressing against the driver’s seat. Looking into the front of the van, she saw that the keys had been removed and the doors were locked. Wolves stood around the front, watching. Some of them had a hand down their pants, and she shuddered in revulsion.
Leon straightened. The interior of the van was tall enough for him to stand up without having to stoop over. Shelves ran along both sides, filled with packages. The dead body was partially shoved underneath one shelf. Packages littered the floor, along with the electronic device that she would have signed if the driver were alive and dropping off her horse statue. She stared at the packages as her fear tried to turn her into a blubbering mess, and noticed a package covered with angel stickers. Fat cherubs with rosy cheeks and silly smiles were stuck all over a box. She knew it was her horse statue. Her mom was the only person who ever called her an angel.
Trying to distract Leon and buy herself some time to come up with a plan, she said, “How did you know I was getting a package?”
“Because your family is full of idiots. Strip.”
She shook her head, pressing herself more fully against the seat.
“If you don’t strip, I’ll rip your clothes off. I don’t plan to let you have any other clothes in the future, since you’ll be spending most of your time on your knees or your back. I’d recommend stripping, otherwise you’ll be cold when we walk to our new pack home. Not that I care, but you might.”
Her hands curled into fists as fear slithered over her again, lodging in the pit of her stomach. She screamed for her mates in her head, wishing they had been there so she wouldn’t have been taken.
“Where is the pack home?”
“You’ll see. Quentin said we had an hour before we needed to get moving. I won’t tell you again. Strip or I’ll use my claws, and I can’t promise that I won’t make you bleed while the clothes are coming off.”
He jerked his belt off and gathered the ends together, then snapped it. The leather cracked like a gunshot and she jumped, her heart pounding in her chest. He grinned, and she thought he probably enjoyed her fear. Wolves could sense strong emotions. Joe had told her once that fear in prey had a particular bitter scent. Some wolves liked that scent, liked knowing that what they were chasing knew it was being chased.
With trembling fingers, she reached for the hem of her top and tugged it over her head. She couldn’t look at Leon, whose eyes were the amber of his beast as he stripped his clothes off fast. Looking down at her stomach, she felt tears well up, but then rage surfaced. She’d never really stood up to anyone except for Quentin. Ray and Wes had gone through hell to get her. They hadn’t given up, and she wasn’t going to give up either.
She feigned weak knees and dropped to the floor. Leon snarled at her. The angel-sticker-decorated package was close to Leon and she wanted to get it because she knew it was heavy. Grabbing a white plastic pouch that had some weight to it, she went into a crouch and said, “I’m not going to make it easy for you to rape me, you asshole.”
“It’s not rape if you’re my mate.”
“I’m not yours!”
“I beg to differ. Once we get that abomination out of your belly, I’ll plant a rightful heir and then you’ll spend the next few decades pleasuring me and anyone else I want you to in the pack.”
He took a menacing step toward her, his jeans low on his hips, exposing his hard cock. She knew she had one shot and had to make it count. As he loomed over her, she swung the package up with all her might between his legs. Her swing was cut off mid-motion and he snarled, snagging her wrist and jerking her off her knees. The package was ripped away as she fell forward, her cheek scraping against the floor. She scrambled away, ignoring the pain, and grabbed the angel-sticker-covered box, putting it in front of her body like a small shield.
He howled angrily as he spun, his teeth elongated into fangs and his eyes dark amber with rage. His fingertips were thick claws and she knew the damage they would do to her skin. He lunged and landed on her, his claws slashing at her clothes. The box remained between them, the corners digging into her skin as he gnashed his teeth and bellowed his anger. Her clothes tore, her skin burning as he slashed her with his thick, black claws.
He wrapped his hands around her upper arms and lifted her from the floor, then slammed her back against it. Her head hit hard and her vision blurred for a moment. He smiled darkly and lifted a clawed hand over her abdomen, just under the box that she still gripped tightly. His claws tore through the fabric of her jeans, just as she’d expected, but then he pressed them into her stomach and she felt the sharp tips digging into her flesh. Everything inside her quieted at the threat to her unborn child. Rage tightened her muscles and made her jaw clench until her teeth creaked.
No one
was going to fuck with her baby.
Gripping the box, she shoved upward, fast and hard, hitting Leon in the jaw. His grip loosened on her arm as his head jerked back with a grunt. She kicked up with her legs, nailing him in the groin with her shin. He made a strange squealing sound and clutched his crotch with one hand, slashing out at her with his claws. She deflected the blow with the box and he stumbled sideways. She took advantage of his momentary weakness, knowing she might never get another opportunity. Protecting the baby was her priority now. She hoped like hell that her mates were coming for her. She didn’t know how long she could keep this up.
* * * * *
Wes listened as Ray held his phone up so everyone could hear Joe’s voice over the speaker. “We’ve got their location. They’re fifty minutes west of Ashland.”
“Not that we’re not grateful, but how the hell do you know that?” Ray demanded.
“Because before we banished them, we put trackers on their phones. We knew they’d check for trackers, so we didn’t try to hide them, but on two phones we put two trackers. The other trackers were removed, but not those two. We’ve been monitoring them, but those two guys didn’t move at all so I suspect Quentin left them wherever they are right now and only took a small group of his wolves to capture her.”
James grunted. “He was probably watching the house the whole damn time.”
“They were probably watching us from the woods and we were sitting here like assholes,” Jericho said. “Don said we needed to put security measures up in our territory, too.”
“Blame each other later,” Joe said. “We’re on our way. I’m emailing you the link to the feed. Let’s get our baby sister to safety.”
The call ended and Wes’s stomach filled with lead. He’d never felt so hopeless and furious at the same time. Scarlett had been taken from the safety of their home while he and Ray were working on the other side of town. He was angry at himself for leaving her unprotected.
Hunter grabbed Wes’s shoulders and stared down at him. “I’m sorry we were sleeping. If we’d been up, then we would have been downstairs where the girls were and she wouldn’t have been taken.”
“You don’t know that,” James said. “No one knows what might have been, okay? Let’s get the hell in the vehicles and get our pride member back.”
The pride dispersed quickly to their vehicles. Wes and Ray rode with Hunter, Dylan, and Chase in Dylan’s SUV. Ray opened the link that Joe had sent and called directions out to Dylan. His voice was strong and laced with anger, but Wes knew his brother was a fucked-up mess inside because Wes felt the same way. He wouldn’t feel anything but fear and anger until he saw that Scarlett was okay. Even then he wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t also feel guilt for the rest of his life.
* * * * *
Scarlett pushed herself off the floor as she battered Leon with the box. The corner caught his eye, then his nose. She kneed him hard, and he grabbed the box, his claws digging into the sides and tearing it. She screamed and kicked at him as the box split apart.
The horse statue clattered to the floor as she found herself holding only a piece of torn cardboard and not a heavy box. Leon growled and the sound sent shivers down her spine. He swept his leg under her, and she hit the floor with a bang, her eyes watering with the pain that swept through her. Vaguely she heard the cheers of the wolves and wondered if they thought that Leon was just being rough with her. That they liked it, that no one would help her – not even the males who had known her since she was a child – made her heart heavy.
Her body was tired and aching, and she wanted to just lie on the floor, close her eyes, and sleep. But the reminder that Leon and more than a dozen other wolves wanted a taste of her body, wanted to kill her baby and take her away from her mates, drove her to her feet.
Leon rolled to all fours and shook his head. Her hands closed around her precious horse statue as she stood. With every ounce of power she had left, with all the rage and helplessness she felt in that moment, she swung the solid wood horse down on the back of his head. It impacted and her arms tingled with the force. Leon grunted and went down. Lifting the horse again, she smashed it onto his head in the same spot. Red flew around her like colorful raindrops, and she felt the heat of them as they splashed on her skin. She hit him again, and again, screaming with each blow. The horse cracked in her hands, and she kicked Leon, shoving him onto his side. She raised one portion of the horse high, shouting as she lowered it fast, hammering at his head until he wasn’t moving anymore and the only thing she could hear were her sobs.
Gripping the intact portion of the horse, she scurried to the far corner of the van behind the passenger seat and curled her arms around her knees. Leon said she only had an hour until Quentin unlocked the door, but wolves had excellent hearing. They would know what she’d done, if they hadn’t been able to see it through the front window. They’d know the sounds coming from the van weren’t those of a wolf raping a female, but of a female protecting herself and her unborn child.