Craving the Alpha: Part Five: BBW Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance (Lycan Lovers Book 5) (2 page)

My head was pounding as I came to consciousness, and I remembered Dorian giving me the shot. It looked like Dorian had a new solution for me. If he didn’t like something I did, he didn’t try to argue. He would just give me an injection of something to shut me up. I turned my head to see McGreevy’s flabby rear end walking out of the cell. Had he been watching me again? Stinkin’ perv.

And then I thought of Markus. Kincaid said they dropped him off in the woods. He had to still be alive—he just had to be. I started to panic, and reached up to rub the charm on my necklace. I needed to think of something to get out of here. I tapped my jeans pocket. The army knife Todd had given me was still there. That might come in handy. I got up and walked over to the cell door opening. The bars were on a slider, and right now they were in the open position. McGreevy had left them unlocked, despite Dorian’s instruction to lock the cell, My guess was McGreevy left the door open so he could enter and exit the jail cell freely and get his rocks off watching me as I slept. I peered out into the room. McGreevy had slid his sorry ass into a chair behind a desk. A heavy set Vlodik was standing guard behind the chair.

“Put those two together,” McGreevy said, tossing the keys to the guard as he pointed to another area.

I craned my neck but could not see what was on that side. I had to imagine it was another cell—maybe there was another captive in it.

I could see the guard walk over to where McGreevy had directed him to. I heard a clanking of keys. It must be another cell, and the guard was unlocking it. Then I heard him say loudly, “come with me.”

The walls were thick and it was hard to make out the words from the voice on the other side, but I could hear between the muffled sobs and cries whoever it was, was female. She was obviously resisting, and the guard reached inside. I could barely see her backside as he yanked her out of the cell. She was a tangle of charcoal hair and flailing thin limbs as she struggled against his bulk. But, she was no match for his size and power. He scooped her up and brought her over to the cell I was in, where he tossed her like a rag doll on the floor.

I rushed over to her. No one should be treated like this. I was fuming. She was lying on the floor sobbing; her shoulders heaving with grief.

My hand reached out to rub her back. Perhaps I could provide some comfort in this God forsaken place. “Hey, hey, it’s going to be ok. We’ll get out of this.”

Startled, she turned around. “Kristen!”

“Oh my God, Lisa!” The frail Camp Minnehawk counselor had filled out a little and her hair was longer, but it was definitely her. I pulled her to me and hugged her, and we sat like that for a while, hugging and sobbing.

“But how did you…? I thought you and Markus were long gone?”

I smiled sadly at her. “We were. We had started a new life in Frederick, a small town in Maryland. It wasn’t perfect, but it was so amazing, just the two of us.” My mind wandered as I thought of Markus and his sexy grin, and the way he tried to take care of me. I had a quick flash of the rice and bean meal he had so proudly made me when we first moved into Beelines Motel and had just a few dollars to our name to buy groceries.

“Yes and then what happened?” Lisa asked, interrupting my thoughts.

“Dorian was still angry with me for choosing Markus in the end, and he just wouldn’t let it go. He hooked up with the Vlodiks and they tracked us, and found me at Beelines, the motel we were staying at in Frederick. Dorian followed me to Slice of the Pie, a pizza place I was working at and demanded I talk to him. He tricked me. He told me he was holding Markus back at Beelines, but he wasn’t.”

Lisa shook her head grimacing. “Ugh, that’s awful.”

“I went back to the motel with Dorian, but Markus wasn’t back from work. When Markus got there, I’m sure he could smell the danger inside the room, before he even entered.”

“Oh God!” Lisa said. “And he could smell you in there too.”

“Yes, and of course he could have taken off but he wanted to help me.” My voice choked with sobs. “Markus is a powerful man but Lisa, there were several huge Vlodik thugs in the room. The men beat Markus to a pulp. They left him in the woods bloodied and bound with ropes. I don’t know where he is. I don’t know if he is alive or dead, and I might even be pr…” As soon as I started to say the words, I stopped. It was obvious from looking at Lisa that she could hardly handle her own situation. How could I possibly burden her with mine?

She was so upset she didn’t even notice I hadn’t finished my sentence. “Tell me, how did you wind up here Lisa?”

“Oh God,” she sobbed. “It’s my own damn fault. I got pissed at Michael for something stupid. I can’t even remember what it was now. Instead of waiting for him to go with me for a run, I went by myself. I guess the Vlodiks are watching the Lycan camp closely, because I hadn’t gone too far when I was grabbed by some man with scars all over his arms.

“Did he have reddish hair?”

“Yes,” Lisa looked at me expectantly, her elfin face creased with tears and worry. “Do you know him?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Unfortunately, I do. It’s Dorian’s half-brother, Troy.”  I quickly explained to her how Dorian had revealed to me that he had discovered his birth mother was Dalia, and he was half-brothers to Troy, Kincaid and Talika.

“So, Dorian is part Vlodik,” Lisa said. “That explains that mean core he has,” she added, bitterly. “After you and Markus escaped from Camp Vickers, Dorian wanted to go after you. He was so angry. But Caleb wouldn’t let him. He said enough was enough. Dorian kept trying to get everyone riled up to join him and go after you, but no one wanted to help him. I think everyone was rooting for the two of you.”

Lisa smiled at me through her tears. “You two have a real love for one another and people finally realized that—everyone except Dorian of course.”

As she talked, Lisa became less agitated, her sobs turning into just a trickle of tears. I knew how fragile she was, so it was good to see she was becoming calmer.

“Tell me what is happening at Camp Vickers.”

“Beverly and Dave are fighting like cats and dogs, but still humping like bunnies. Shelby and Sam are about the same,” Lisa shared. “And believe it or not, Todd and Kara got together!”

“Yeah, he mentioned they had hooked up before I left. How are they doing?”

“Eh, they split up,” Lisa said. “Kara was too clingy and Todd got tired of it.”

“Aww, poor Todd and Kara. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for them. What about Kaitlyn? Did Caleb make a decision there?” I thought about the pretty redhead. Due to a chromosomal mutation, she was unable to transition fully into a she-wolf, and Caleb was still deciding if he should let her go or keep her with the clan when Markus and I left.

“Caleb still hasn’t decided. If she leaves, it puts the whole pack at risk. But as she is now, not being able to transition, I don’t know if staying would work out in the long run…”

“Yeah, it’s a toughie.”

“Michael was trying to do some research to see if anything could be done for her, but so far he has come up with nothing.” At the thought of Michael, Lisa’s eyes welled up. “God, I was so stupid to go run by myself.” She cradled her head in her hands and started sobbing again.

“Listen, Lisa,” I said gently, hoping it would help to calm her, “we are going to have to think of a way to escape.”

“I’m too afraid to escape,” Lisa blurted. “I know Michael will come for me. And he will help you, too. I think we should just wait. I mean, if we try to escape and they catch us, they may kill us.”

It was hard to know what to say to Lisa. She was emotionally fragile. How did I tell her that Troy, the man who had captured her, had been Susan Samford’s kidnapper? How did I tell her that he was so evil he had raped Susan repeatedly, and left her in the woods pregnant and weak for dead?

How did I tell her that I knew, with almost 100 percent certainty, that Troy planned to abuse and rape us also!

“Lisa, we have no choice but to try and escape. And we need to try now while Troy and Dorian are away.”

“Where are they?” Lisa asked.

“I am not sure. But I am guessing it has something to do with the Lycans. They are probably casing Lycan territory and planning to attack.”

“When they get back it will be that much harder,” I said. “They will most likely separate us. But if we act now, we may be able to do something.”

“What should we do?”

“We could change into our wolves and attack McGreevy.”

“I think he is too smart for that,” Lisa said. “If he came to the cell and did not see both of us in our female form, he might easily guess that one of us would be hidden in the corner waiting to attack him in wolf form.

“Besides,” Lisa said, shuddering and shaking her head, “I know he deserves it, but I feel so uncomfortable attacking a human, and it’s not like we would kill him. He would alert the others in no time. We have to think of a way to shut him up without killing him.”

“Like those shots did to me!” I told Lisa about the injections Dorian had given me. “They knocked me out cold and fast. And I saw more in the drawer of the metal cabinet. If I could jimmy the drawer with the army knife, we could use one of the syringes on him.”

Together, we decided we would lure McGreevy to the cell in our human forms, and I would inject him with the shot. That would give Lisa time to change into her wolf and over power the guard when he rushed in. Then, I would lock them both in the cell, transition, and we would make a run for it. Though I knew a lot could go wrong with the plan, at least it was something. I mean, what choice did we have? To sit back and wait for whatever Dorian and Troy had planned for us?

While Lisa stood watch, I took the army knife over to the file cabinet and tried to work magic on the lock on the first drawer. Todd had made it look so easy when he had used the knife to pick the lock to the chain holding Markus at C-cabin back at Camp Vickers. But despite my efforts, the lock would not budge. I shoved the whole cabinet in frustration. To my shock, the third drawer swung open, revealing a number of syringes.

Lisa gasped with joy. “This could work. This could work,” she whispered.

But something was bugging me. It had been a little too easy. I saw how Dorian had carefully checked each drawer, and he had even double checked the third one. This had to be a little joke on his part. I picked up one of the sealed syringes and read the back, “Lisa, its saline solution. There is nothing in this to put someone out.” My disappointment was palpable. Our plan busted, Lisa struggled to hold back fresh tears. I was trying to stay strong for both of us, but I could feel my eyes watering too.

I walked over and grabbed a few tissues, handing one to Lisa. After wiping my eyes, I dropped the tissue in the trash. “Oh my God!” The syringe Dorian had used on me was on top of the trash. It was only half empty.

I pulled it out of the trash and smiled at Lisa. “We got this.”

Then, I walked close to the bars on the cell door and called out, “Oh, Mr. McGreevy. Lisa just got sick on herself and needs help.” I heard the scrape of a chair and looked over to see McGreevy rushing towards the cell. He probably couldn’t wait to offer to help Lisa take her top off.

“Stand where I can see you,” he growled. “And stand straight. Jut those titties out.”

Lisa and I glanced at one another. I could not wait to get my hands on McGreevy. We waited as he fumbled with the keys, unlocking the cell door. As he walked in, I swiftly yanked the syringe from behind my back and plunged it deep into his neck. The look of disbelief on his face was priceless.

“Ack!” he cried, falling to the floor in shock. Lisa didn’t bother to take her clothes off; she busted through them, transitioning into her lean, smoky wolf form. Her dove gray fur was bristling with energy. I wanted to stomp the hell out of McGreevy, but I wasn’t going to waste a minute of precious time, for at that moment, the guard burst into the room.

The normally mild and timid Lisa was ready for him, snarling, her incisors snapping as she cornered him. If the guard had been in his wolf form, we probably wouldn’t have had a chance. But he was caught by surprise, and before he could even start to transition, I’d grabbed the keys from McGreevy along with my duffel bag. Lisa scampered out of the cell and I slammed the door to it shut.

I quickly transitioned into my wolf and we scaled the few steps, seeing the light near the top. Cautiously, Lisa peeked out the top.  She nodded her furry head and barked at me to follow her.

In a flash, we were off the steps and running thru Vlodik territory. Neither Lisa nor I had ever seen the place so we were not sure how to navigate it, and all we could do was run as fast as we could. In just minutes, we heard the sound of howling wolves following us, and the patter of running paws crackling on crisp leaves and branches. I tried to look over my shoulder, but I knew my focus had to be on what was up ahead. If we didn’t get away, who knew what Dorian, Troy and the others would do to us.

I could feel my heart beating in my throat. My ankle was still a little sore from when I had tripped over a tree branch back at Beelines, and I prayed it would not give out. Lisa was far ahead of me and I raced to catch up.

Just as I was thinking I was a good distance ahead of the Vlodiks and closing in to match pace with Lisa, I heard a snap. I howled in pain as a steel trap hidden in the earth sprung open and clamped over my ankle. It yanked my whole body down, pulling my duffel off my neck and onto the grassy earth. I tried to keep moving by dragging the metal trap with me, but the pain was unbearable. I was caught.

Lisa slowed her pace and started back towards me, growling. “Kristen, come on.”

“I’m stuck, Lisa. They had a trap set up here. Go Lisa, run! There is no way you can get me out. Run! Run!” I barked back at her. She had to keep moving, or she would get caught too.

Lisa hesitated for a moment. “But I…”

“Lisa, you have to run. Tell the others. Please don’t let them catch you too,”

“I will get help!” Lisa promised. And with that, she continued running further and further. As the distance between us grew, I could hear the Vlodiks getting closer and closer to me.