Wild Hunts (28 page)

“There’s no one on this path. Only prisoners. Where are you? Which door are you behind?”

“Listen to me, you stubborn pup. They know you’re here. They
know
. Get out of the cave before they have you trapped. They’ve been waiting for this since last night. Don’t be a fool, Kasa. They’re watching you, and you haven’t a clue where they’re hiding.”

“Let them come at me. I’ll rip their throats out for taking you. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“Damn it! Kasa, please get the hell out of here!”

Kasa ignored his desperate pleas. She lifted her front paws onto another door and looked inside.

There, chained to a wall, arms and legs spread with silver cuffs bolting him a foot off the ground, a silver collar around his throat, Jordan hung. Blood caked the side of his face. One eye was a dark purple-black. Cuts marred his chest, his thighs, his arms. A painful device was clamped around his penis, another around his sac. His face twisted in agony, fresh blood streaming down his throat.

Without warning, the door swung in. Kasa stumbled, her claws scraping down the wood as she tumbled into the room. A force barreled into her from behind, knocking her onto her side and sending her skating a few dozen feet across the rocky ground. She clamored to her paws, spun around…

Something knocked her upside the head. The last thing she heard was Jordan’s piercing howl.

* * * *

Slade stopped as they crested the small hill. The reflective surface of the lake shimmered beneath the fragmented moonlight, ice crystal twinkling. Micah tipped his nose to the sky then proceeded to the left. Rock rose high above the lake a short distance away. According to Micah, this had to be where the entrance to the cave lay.

And time was running out. The longer Kasa remained in that cave alone, the higher the chances of her being captured. The odds were stacked against her.

“How the fuck did she get away from the guards?”
Micah demanded for the third time. Slade scowled. He had no clue how she escaped them, nor did he care at the moment. All he cared about was getting her out of the cave in one piece, alive and well.
“How the fuck did she get here so fast?”

“We’ll ask questions later. For now, we need to focus on getting inside that cave before they find out she’s in there,”
Slade said.
“In an ironic turn of events, Kasa’s getting to carry out her initial plan. She wanted to lead us into the cave, and she has.”

“I find no humor in that, Slade. None. If something happens to her, there’s gonna be major bloodshed to be had.”

Slade glanced at Coal, who remained silent through the raw conversation. He certainly heard what was being said and wisely opted to stay out of it.

The deep snow hampered their speed. They reached the rise a short time later. Micah sniffed the air before heading toward a narrow crevice in the rock. He retreated, turned, and sniffed the snow. Slade and Coal followed his lead, trying to detect any unusual scents.

Slade came up short when he tracked Kasa’s very familiar essence. A moment later, he stumbled on her paw prints in the snow.

“We’ll follow Kasa’s prints into the cave, then her directions to find where she’s at,”
Slade said. Micah didn’t wait for him to finish. He leaped toward the cave, hot on Kasa’s trail, Slade at his flank. Coal came up the rear, passing their location on to Slade’s pack.

Now their plan was set in motion. The packs would begin to converge on the cave. The hunt was on, Dark Moon in sight, and revenge finally tasted sweeter than ever.

* * * *

Icy liquid jolted her from blackness. Kasa gasped, rapidly blinking away water as it poured down her head and streamed over her naked body. She tried to wipe it off, only to find her hands shackled above her head. Her toes barely brushed the ground. She dangled like one of the men from the first room she came to, helpless to do anything other than suffer. Fur no longer covered her, leaving her exposed. Her head throbbed. She couldn’t focus her eyes on anything for long periods of time without feeling like she’d vomit.

And she did. The pain exploded, ripping through her skull and wrenching at her stomach until she stopped vomiting. Gasping for breath, spitting out the remnants of her stomach, she tried again to focus on the room.

A large, burly man approached her, wooden bucket in hand. He smiled, yellow-toothed and cruel, then splashed her again. Goose bumps sprung up over her arms and legs, and she shivered as the icy water coated her skin. The drafty cavern added to the chill that consumed her. She moaned, leaning her aching head against her arm.

“Kasa, stay with it. Don’t pass out again,”
Jordan urged.

She blinked several times, willing her eyes to focus on the room. Shapes began to create a picture of where she was, jogging her memory. With the burly man out of sight, she found her brother where she last saw him, stretched over a wall ahead of her. A single torch burned, providing little light compared to those lining the tunnel. She squinted, keeping focused without triggering another vomiting attack.

“What have they done to you?”
she asked. Her brother was helplessly splayed, agony twisting his handsome face, blood covering a good portion of this body.

It chilled her more than the icy water leaving her flesh to freeze.

“Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself.”

“I can’t. You’re my brother. I’ll always worry about you.”

Jordan bared his teeth. His eyes squeezed shut and a long, low groan escaped him. Spittle sieved through his teeth, glistening over his chin. Panic swelled in her chest. She rattled the shackles binding her, restraining her from reaching her brother.

“Jordan! What’s going on? Jordan!”

As his face twisted further, Kasa’s eyes lowered to his stomach. Four narrow rods slowly pressed through his skin. Blood streamed down his abs. The piercing rods stopped a few inches out of him.

“My God, Jordan. They didn’t…They’re not…Are they coming through your back?”
Her eyes stung at the sight of her brother’s suffering. Tears that escaped her blended in with the water dripping down from her hair.
“Oh, Jordan! I’ll get you out of here. I will!”

“Damn it Kasa. You’ll get
yourself
out of here. You understand me?”
His eyes opened to slits, but even through the narrow windows, she caught the fiery amber glow.
“Do you?”

She swallowed a whimper. She would never leave him here. Not to suffer such degradation and pain. He would never let her stay on his behalf, leaving her no option but to lie to him.

“I do.
”

“Well…good.”

Kasa looked over at the burly man. He had his hand on a lever of sorts, that sadistic smile plastered to his ugly face. As he pushed the lever up, Jordan hissed. Her attention shot back to him. The rods retreated back into his body, leaving open wounds to bleed freely.

“Where are your mates? Why didn’t they keep you from coming here?”

“They tried, but I put the guards to sleep with a few pills I had lying around the cabin. No way in hell I’d let them risk their necks without my presence. Besides, you are my
brother
. I would never abandon you.”

“You’re a foolish creature, you know that?”

Kasa offered him a sad smile and received a small one in return.
“One of my endearing characteristics, I’m certain.”

“Maddening, sweetheart. A maddening characteristic.”

A loud clank echoed in the room. Jordan released a sharp breath. The burly man crossed the room to him, checked the shackles, then left. Kasa forced the nauseating dizziness aside and tugged on the chains over her head. The hook in the ceiling held strong, not budging. The jostling caused her body to turn. She tried to stop the slow spin with the tips of her toes only to turn herself further away from her brother.

“Oh, stop spinning,” she grumbled. When she looked up from the ground, she saw the lever that must control the chain holding her. She strained to look over her shoulder at Jordan. “What are the chances I can reach that with my foot?”

“Slim. The chain has you too high up and its drop is too far from the wall. You’ll only hurt your shoulders by swinging.
”

“Have you tried it?”

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t as privileged as you to be spared this position. Never had the opportunity to hang around the place.”

“At least you still have a bitter sense of humor. That’s a good sign,” Kasa teased. Anything to lighten up the doomsday air that filled this place. Anything to turn Jordan’s attention away from the terrible torture he just endured. “You’re not speaking out loud. They didn’t do anything to your throat, did they?”

“Aside from this collar lined with silver spikes that seem to embed themselves into my throat at will, nothing. Can’t move or speak much without feeling the razors bite.”

“When I get out of these shackles, I’m gonna take that collar and snap it around that bitch’s neck. See how she likes it.”

“I don’t think you’ll need to worry about my reaction.”

Kasa jerked her body, the momentum slowly turning her back to the door and to her brother. A woman entered the room, stroking the handle of a whip. She smiled, cold and conniving. Kasa glowered at her, baring her teeth as they elongated into fangs. Only, they didn’t lengthen. The woman chuckled, her dark eyes glinting with evil glee. Dark hair cascaded down her back and over her shoulders, covering what her indecent black dress did not. Kasa’s wolf growled, poised for attack within her spirit.

When she tried to transform, her wolf hit an invincible barrier, restraining her from changing.

The woman smirked. “You’ve been given a drug that represses the wolf. No one here can transform until I’ve broken them completely and they’ve been recreated into obedient weres.” She stepped up to Kasa and tapped the leather tip of her whip against Kasa’s bare nipple. “Unfortunately, I won’t have the pleasure of seeing you break, other than the bones I intend to pulverize before killing you in front of your brother.”

The woman snapped the whip, smacking her across the ribs. She winced, sucking in a sharp breath. Pain speared up and down her body, tears stung her eyes, but she held her ground. No way was this woman going to make her cower.

“You’re not going to go down easily, making this all the more fun. I have a great deal of little devices that’ll make you cry. I have large devices that’ll make you wish you were dead. But…” she pulled out a large, silver knife from behind her, “I think this might be far more interesting. There’s a lot one can do with a knife.”

“Fuck off,” Kasa snapped. The woman’s smile grew, the menacing glint in her eyes intensifying.

“Kasa, watch your mouth. Eva’s the ringleader here, and she thrives on the pain of others. Do whatever you can to keep yourself safe,”
Jordan said.

“Now, now,” the woman cooed.

The whip snapped again, this time lashing Kasa across the face. Red blinded her momentarily, the pain so great it numbed her. She blinked away the haze and stars and swallowed down bile that crept up the back of her throat. Warm liquid trickled down her cheek, the acrid scent of blood consuming her. She glanced down at her breast when a drop splattered against her flesh.

The whip jabbed her under the chin. A needle-like point poked into her flesh, forcing her head up. The woman tilted her head, her eyes narrow.