Beneath a Blood Moon (56 page)

When the silver burned my fingers black and pain stabbed up my arms, I remained silent, dropping the cuffs at their feet. One of the blisters burst and bled, dripping red onto the black and silver. Once I was certain I had their attention, I snarled, “No.”

With deliberate care, I removed Wendy’s gag and flung it in the leader’s direction.

The males exchanged glances, and without a word, they guided us towards a yacht. It was a large one, a sailboat at least fifty feet long. Wendy clutched my arm, her dark eyes focused on my blackened hands. She didn’t say a word, but I could smell her anxiety.

 I considered jumping into the ocean with Wendy, but one of the Fenerec had a dart gun pointed at us. I tugged on Wendy and pulled her on board, snarling whenever one of the males drew too close.

Maybe they saw my wolf in my eyes, because when I refused to let any of them get near Wendy, they kept their distance. The leader’s eyes narrowed, and they guided us deeper into the yacht with gestures and grunts.

When we reached a door, he pointed at it. “You will share that cabin, ladies. Remember what I said. If you behave, we’ll help you through the full moon. Otherwise, you will lose your puppies. You’re losing your mates soon. In a few hours, they’ll wake up running wild. Think it through.”

Wendy whimpered, tightening her hold on me.

For a brief moment, I considered tearing into his hide, but he still had a gun. While I worried about my mate, I worried more for Wendy. No matter how much I wanted to change things, I couldn’t, but at least I could help Wendy.

I couldn’t help Sanders.

I jerked open the door, shoving my hip against Wendy to force her inside the cabin. I narrowed my eyes, looking over our kidnapper from head to toe. “You weren’t wolf enough to handle our mates without your pathetic guns. What makes you think you’ll be wolf enough to help us? If she loses her puppy, I will paint this ship with your blood.”

“And what about your puppy?” he snapped.

I bared my teeth at him and shut the door.

If Desmond couldn’t keep Wendy safe from the moon’s call without help, no one could on their own. The sense of power I sometimes felt wafting from Sanders, Desmond, and Richard didn’t radiate from our captors. Instead of real strength, they relied on weapons.

They wouldn’t be able to help Wendy.

My wolf worried. Wendy was our Alpha’s female. Protecting her came before protecting ourselves—and our puppy. The thought of saving ourselves before her sickened my wolf, and I agreed with her.

We couldn’t allow them to touch her. We would, somehow, figure out a way to keep her from shifting with the full moon. I snarled, long and low, staring at the door.

“Who told them?” Wendy whispered, her eyes wide and face pale. She sank onto the cabin’s sole bed. “Who betrayed us?”

My wolf’s rage ignited. There had been no Inquisitors at the greenhouse.

“Someone in the pack,” I replied, the certainty of my suspicion fueling my fury. “Someone in the pack betrayed us.”

When I found out who, I would sink my fangs into them, and I would rip them apart.

“They’ve made a mistake,” Wendy whispered.

“They think they’ll get away with this. That is their mistake.”

Shaking her head, Wendy drew a deep breath, patting the bed beside her. “No. It’s an even worse mistake than that.”

I joined her, looking around the room. In anticipation of housing prisoners, everything was bolted down and the window had been fitted with silver bars. “What mistake?”

“Charles won’t run wild, and he won’t let Matthew, either. Richard’s nearby, as is Nicolina. Our mates are not so weak.”

“They can’t hunt for us over water,” I pointed out. The boat lurched, and I growled my disgust as we sailed out of the marina. “What are these wolves after?”

“Probably our mates. My guess is someone wants Seattle’s pack—someone in the pack wants to be Alpha, and they’re too weak to take over on their own. So how else to get rid of our mates? Force the Inquisition to do it for them. Then they can step in and take over. You, alone, were sufficient payment. Both of us? Irresistible,” Wendy replied, shaking with fury of her own. “They’ll likely try to subjugate us and steal us from our pack to torment our mates to drive them wild.”

“Like hell they will,” I growled, cracking my knuckles one by one.

More often than not, my wolf only nudged me, offering advice when she felt I needed it. She rarely took the initiative, preferring reaction to my action. Catching my attention by temporarily wresting control away from me, I felt her regard Wendy with worry and anxiety.

She didn’t speak in words, not really. Intentions, emotions, and thoughts passed between us without the need for language.

If I trusted her, if I let her rise to control, if I agreed to transform into a wolf, she would protect Wendy with my help. No matter what, we’d learn the secret of controlling Wendy and keeping her wolf at bay. Beneath her determination was the grief and fear of what we would do to our puppy. The acknowledgment of what we might lose to protect Wendy hurt us both far worse than the black marks on my hands, but we both knew the truth.

If we didn’t change, we both would lose our puppies. If we did, one would survive.

It wasn’t a difficult choice for me and my wolf to make. Lifting my chin, I clenched my teeth.

“Sara?”

“Dustin said I had a week or two before there was any risk,” I began, narrowing my eyes as I regarded the door. “My wolf thinks we will be stronger in her form. That we can fight them and resist them. That we can prevent you from shifting.”

Wendy’s terror surged. “You can’t. You’ll lose the puppy.”

“In a week or two, I guess we will, if we’re still prisoners. We might not be. We might escape—or be found. If Desmond can’t ensure you don’t shift, what makes you think these… these pathetic excuses for wolves can? If Desmond wanted Sanders’s help, there’s a reason for it. What would be the use of sacrificing both our puppies?” I snarled, snapping my teeth at Wendy’s throat in the same way my mate snapped his teeth at mine.

She whined and exposed her neck to me. Instead of the harsh bites my mate often favored, I scraped my teeth against Wendy’s neck.

“If they want to attempt to subjugate us, let them try. I won’t allow it.”

My wolf agreed, but she doubted we could resist as human. As a wolf, we were strong. Next year, we would mate again, but we couldn’t if we allowed them to kill Sanders.

“I shouldn’t have told him about the puppy,” Wendy whispered. “Then we could have had Inquisitors with us at the greenhouse.”

“And they would have been either killed or in on it. There would have been extra bodies to blame our mates for.”

“Must you, Sara?”

Even if Wendy wasn’t our Alpha’s mate, we would make the same choice. I found comfort in my wolf’s lack of hesitation.

“Yes,” I replied, proud of the confidence in my voice.

Wendy and Desmond were my friends. That was reason enough for my wolf and me.

When the sandy-haired Fenerec barged into our cabin, I lunged for him, snarling and snapping at him, driving him out of my territory. I didn’t go beyond the doorway, ducking my head to protect my throat while raising my hackles.

My wolf’s pride in my behavior bloomed through me.

Like the queen she was, Wendy sat utterly calm on the edge of the bed.

“Fuck,” he spat, and without another word, he slammed the door in my face.

The round belonged to me, and satisfied I had displayed my dominance, I slinked back to Wendy’s feet, lying down to rest my muzzle on my paws.

“He’ll be back with others,” she warned me.

My wolf agreed, and I acknowledged my Alpha female with a low growl, a promise I would stand guard, doing my duty as the Second’s mate. Maybe we didn’t quite understand how packs were supposed to work, but with Desmond and Wendy, it was easy.

I lived to protect my friends.

It did not take long for the Fenerec to return. There were six of them, and they jostled each other in the doorway to get a look at us. While they stared at Wendy, most of their attention was focused on me. I rose to my paws, baring my fangs at them as warning of what I would do to their frail, human flesh if they dared to come too close.

“Well, ain’t she a pretty bitch,” one of them murmured. “Let me have her first.”

“That’s for our Alpha to decide once her mate is out of the way,” the leader snapped, stepping into the cabin. “Why the fuck did you let her change, you stupid bitch?”

“I can’t control a dominant!” Wendy blurted.

My Alpha female’s words rang true, which amused my wolf. For the moment, until we were reunited with our mate, we were dominant. We had to be to protect Wendy from the males and from herself when the moon rose. I advanced a pace, uttering a short, low growl.

“
Sit
,” the leader ordered, glaring at me.

There was power behind his command, and my wolf recognized the pressure from the times our mate, Desmond, and Richard forced us to do their bidding. Then, we had submitted. We had trusted in them to some extent.

I’d never submit to the pitiful excuses for Fenerec in front of me. Ignoring his order, I lunged forward, sank my fangs into his ankle, and bit down until I tasted blood. I jerked back with all of my might, braced myself, and shook my head.

His screams pleased my wolf. Releasing him, I hopped away, the male’s blood dripping from my jaws. I licked it away.

“We call her our little hellcat,” Wendy murmured. I backed away so I could glance at her. Her gaze focused on the floor, and she smiled her satisfaction. “You’ll need to be more dominant than that if you want to order her to do anything—or subjugate her.”

“I’ll kill you for this, bitch,” the sandy-haired Fenerec swore.

He needed the help of his wolves to leave, trailing blood behind him as he went. Lolling my tongue out of my mouth, I watched them go. They would try to kill me.

I would enjoy tearing them apart.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I ruled the cabin as a tyrant queen, savage and vicious in the holding of my territory. I mauled three of the males before they learned not to enter the room without my permission. I didn’t allow entry unless they brought food for my Alpha female, food I sniffed in search of drugs.

They brought wolfsbane the first time.

I turned the male’s hand into a tattered, ruined mess, and when I was satisfied he had learned his lesson, I drove him away. I lifted the plate in my teeth, careful not to swallow any of it, and dumped it in the hallway, snapping my fangs as the males retreated. They tried again using a different drug. I didn’t know what it was, but it added a bitter smell to the meal they offered. I ripped out a chunk of another male’s leg before rejecting their food.

When they brought cooked food the third time for Wendy, I checked it over, and satisfied I couldn’t smell anything malicious, I permitted them to leave it. I didn’t allow Wendy to leave the other side of the cabin until they closed and locked the door behind them.

With my ears cocked back, I sniffed the meal over again just to make sure.

“I’ll check it carefully,” my Alpha female promised, rising to join me. I sat, watching her claim the dish. Like me, she smelled it. Unlike me, she poked and dug at the meat until she huffed her disgust and pulled a gel capsule out. “They’re clever, I have to give them that.”

The capsule ended up going down the toilet along with the rest of her meal.

When they returned several hours later, I flung the platter at them and ripped open one of their arms as punishment for their deceit. I howled my fury.

“She’s stubborn,” Wendy murmured, once again staring at the floor. “She won’t permit me to touch anything tainted.”

The sandy-haired male, still limping from my earlier attack, spat curses at me and left.

I lost track of the number of days they attempted to trick us. My hunger made me prone to taking chunks out of the male Fenerec until they surrendered and brought food for both of us—food unspoiled by their attempts to control us with drugs.

They gave me a large fish with big, nasty teeth, and it was still alive. Wendy squeaked, jerking her feet from the floor. It wasn’t a shark, and puzzled by how they expected me to get through its scales, I stared at the gathered males reproachfully.