Finding My Pack (39 page)

Kitten

I

wake up freezing cold. I don't know how much time has passed, but I'm no longer in the bank van. If I had to guess, I'd say I was in a basement of some sort. I push myself up till I'm sitting. I expected an assortment of pain but...I feel fine. More than fine actually. My clothes have been removed, which is scary as heck, but I'm able to see that I don't have so much as a scratch or bruise on me. "How...."

  "Werewolf blood." Says a voice that sends ice down my spine. I jerk my head up, looking around for Adam. I don't see him. He sounded close, though. I cover my exposed body with my arms and hair.

  Adam laughs. "No need for that." I hear shuffling before I see him step out of the shadows in the corner. "You've been laying there for a long time. I've already seen everything." He leers at me while he circles around. I keep my eyes on him.

  Adam clasps his hands behind his back and he continues to circle me. "Did you know that born werewolf blood has curative properties? No? Well, it does. It can cure just about anything, broken bones, lacerations, disease."

  I don't say anything. I don't want to talk to him. Adam continues. "I know you're just a street rat and your werewolf lore is probably lacking, but did you know that the stupid humans invented vampires from wolves?" He laughs cruelly. "Funny how they pitted wolves against vampires when, in fact, we are the same. The longer life spans, the inhuman strength, the retractable fangs." As he says the last, he smiles, revealing his canine teeth sliding down from his gums.

  I gasp. Adam is a wolf? How? He stops in front of me, stepping close enough that he's staring down at me. "I could never figure out why they said we were cold, though. Wolves run hot." He shrugs. "Anyway, I've assumed that some idiot humans have seen us having sex before, as some of us like to bite during. We don't drink the blood, though. That's just stupid, tasting it is amazing, but actually drinking all of it would be impossible. My guess is that they saw a wolf in human form fighting a wolf in wolf form and that's why we're supposedly enemies."

Adam stares down at me. Does he want me to respond to that? "Look, Adam, that's interesting and all, but where are my clothes? Why am I here? Why are you here?"

  He squats down in front of me, reaching out a hand and running his fingers over my shoulder. I flinch away. His eyes narrow and he stands back up. "You're naked because you were tainted by those filthy changed wolves. You smelled like them. Don't worry, though, I made sure you were nice and clean." His smile is predatory and I shudder at the thought of him touching me.

  "How...how did. I mean...the guys would have been able to smell you. They would have known you were a wolf." I ask. My heart clenches painfully thinking about them. Do they know about the accident yet? Did Kellan get there in time?

  "There are ways around that. Pump enough human blood into any wolf and their scents will change." He shrugs again, looking bored.

There's a clanking noise and then a loud bang. Adam steps back away from me as a tall, wiry-looking man comes in. "Stop harassing my niece Vanderson, that's my job. Yours is to feed her. Go" He commands. Adam retreats from the room without another look my way as the man walks to the corner and drags a metal chair from the shadows to sit in front of me.

  He stares at me for what seems like forever, one leg crossed over the other, shrewd blue eyes on me, his fingers rubbing at his chin. "Hello, Katerina." He finally speaks.

  "That's not my name," I tell him. Maybe they've been after the wrong girl all along?

  "Oh, but it is. You were born Katerina Ivaskov." I blink at him. Ivaskov? Like in the book? 

  I shake my head at him slowly. "Even if I was, even if that's the name I was given, it's not the name I've earned. I'm Kitten." I tell him.

The man laughs. "You are so right about that. You have not earned the Ivaskov name." That isn't what I meant, but whatever.

  "Why am I here?" I ask again. Adam didn't tell me, but I'm hoping he will.

  "To be honest with you Katerina, I wanted to kill you." He sighs, looking annoyed. "Fortunately for you, others have pointed out the benefits of keeping you alive. For now." He stands and walks away.

  "Wait! Where are you going?" I call after him. Why did he even come in here? Why is he leaving me here? Tears of frustration leak onto my face. He doesn't answer me, just opens the heavy sounding door and slams it behind him.

  I wipe the stupid tears away, standing up. I approach the door warily. It's completely smooth. No latch or handle, it's hard to even make out the lines where it's separate from the wall. I follow the wall around the room, looking for any means of escape. There is none. No windows or other doors. I push the panic threatening to overtake me back down. Grabbing the metal chair, I drag it over to a corner. I crawl underneath it, curling up. Eventually, I cry myself back to sleep.

Ash

  I count the tiles on the ceiling yet again. There's one hundred and two. I already knew that. I've counted these fucking things a million times already. I shift uncomfortably in my hard as hell plastic chair, lifting my head from the wall in the process. It's been three days. Three days since I followed Kitten and my brothers. Three days since I saw an armored Brink's truck crash right into them. Three days since I saw my best friend in the whole damn world fly out the side of the spinning car and land face first on the pavement. Three days since I lost the most precious girl I've ever met. I had jumped the truck, but it took off and I was torn. Remy and Tristan needed to be moved. I couldn't just leave them there. I've resented the beating in my chest ever since. My heart should not be allowed to beat if Kitten isn't here.

   My brothers are worried about me. I can tell. I told them everything I saw, but since then, I haven't said a word. I don't feel like talking. I don't feel like doing anything except hurting things. Hurting people. Hurting wolves. Since the only people around me right now are my brothers, there isn't much for me to do. I took the time yesterday to go back to the house. I beat the piece of shit prisoner within an inch of his life. The asshole knew next to nothing. He told me that his pack leader wanted to get in the good graces of the Ivaskovs and sent them after Kitten. I killed their alpha the night they attacked us. The rest of them will split up now, seeking new packs. He told me about how they promised humans that they'd change them to get their help, I'll keep that in mind for later, but it wasn't useful right now. That's all. Shit we already knew for the most part.

  "Dude, your constant growling is giving me a headache," Tristan whispers from the bed on my left. I stop growling, not even aware that I was doing it.

  My inner wolf whines at the sight of him. The girls have always gone crazy for Tristan, and I'll admit, he's a handsome lad. Not right now, though. His whole side was torn open by a sheet of metal. Kellan actually had to stitch him together so he didn't lose his insides before he could heal. It was rough shit to watch. He almost looks diseased right now as scabs from all the cuts the glass made heal over. It's a good thing but....damn he's ugly right now. With the broken blood vessels in his eyes, he could pass for a demon. If I believed in such things.

"I guess you're still not talking then." Tristan sighs. Or tries to. He coughs then groans at the pain that caused him. Kellan jerks awake at the sound and is on him in an instant.

  "Still in pain?" Kellan asks him.

  Tristan gives him a weak smirk. "It's a wonder you're really a doctor sometimes," Tristan responds playfully.

  "No need to be a smartass." Kellan takes out a syringe and puts some kind of pain meds in the tube leading to his arm. "A few more days and you'll feel much better."

  A few more days. I don't think I can hold back going after Kitten for that long. Even if she made it out of the accident okay, who knows what they are doing to her now? I don't know where to start. Figuring shit out is more Remington's thing and he hasn't woken up yet. I've watched as his skull slowly knits itself back together. Finn tracked the bank truck from the plate number I gave him, but the cops found it abandoned a few miles away. According to the prick who survived the crash, there were no other passengers in the car. Just the dead driver. It was obviously planned because the two other cop cars had just driven away when it happened like they didn't see what just went down in front of them. I wonder how many of them the Ivaskovs had to pay off to make that happen.

  Next to me, Tristan groans, calling out for Kitten again. He has been doing that every time he's been given the drugs. I wonder if he relives the crash or if he's having good dreams about her? I hope it's the latter. The few times I've drifted off I've seen the crash from my point of view. I can't imagine what it was like inside that car.

  "You need to rest Ash. And you need to eat." Kellan tells me from across the room. I shake my head at him. He sighs in frustration. "We're going to need you, you know that. Once these two are healed up we're going to be taking on the strongest pack in history. You can't afford to be weak, to be tired or starved. Kitten can't afford for you to be weak Ash." He pleads.

  My anger bubbles to the surface. I stand up straight, glaring at him. "You think I'm weak!? Do you really think I'm just sitting here and moping around?" I shout at him. "I want to tear everything in this fucking room apart Kellan! I want to punch the walls until they are nothing but a pile of rubble. I want to find the bastards who did this and
tear them limb from fucking limb
!" I pace the room, trying to calm myself before I attack him. It's not his fault, I know that. But my wolf wants justice.

  "Shut the fuck up." Comes a weak voice from behind me. I spin, seeing Rem raise his hand to his head.

  "Remy," Kellan whispers in a shocked voice, pushing past me to get to him. I watch as he scrambles around for different instruments. Kellan asks him a series of questions, like his name and if he remembers what happened to him.

  When Kellan's done doing his doctor shit, he shoots the drugs into the tube for Remy. He takes a seat across the room, rubbing a hand down his face. Up until now, Kellan's been very formal.

Every bit the doctor. It's now that I see the exhaustion in him, and the relief. I take my seat again, waiting him out.

  "I honestly didn't know if he'd make it," He says to the floor. "There was damage to his frontal lobe. Minor, yes. But still, the brain is too complicated a thing to mess with. A lesser wolf would not have pulled through." He tells me.

  He thought Rem wasn't going to make it? What the fuck! He didn't say anything to me about it. His face looked like shit but...not make it? I don't even remember a time when Remy wasn't around. I can't picture one either. My depression lifts a bit now that he's woken up. Remy and Tristan and both going to be fine with time. I always believed it, but now it seems more real. They'll get better, we'll track down Kitten, I'll get to kill the people who did this, and then we'll all be happy and safe again. It sounds like a plan.

  "I'm gonna go catch some sleep with Jace," I tell Kellan. He smiles at me and nods.

..............

Kitten

                My insides freeze when I hear the clanking of the chains again. Strange how I now hope for Adam. He's the lesser evil around here. He brings me food, but he doesn't let me eat it unless I let him touch me. So I haven't eaten in what feels like forever. Little does he know that I've been here many times before. Only recently have I been spoiled with regular meals. My heart breaks every time I smell food anyway. It's not Tristan's food. Tristan will never again get to work his magic in the kitchen.

Adam takes a seat on the floor in front of me, crossing his legs and sitting the tray of food on his lap. "You going to be good today?" He asks.  I shake my head, pressing myself further into the corner. "You know Kitty that at this point, you may as well be my twin. Any more of my blood and I'm going to call you Sis." He picks up the fork and takes a big bite of ham. My eyes track the juices that have escaped and run down his chin.

   He sits so close that I know I can reach out and take the food from him. I know better now, though. Every time I refuse to eat or drink, the man who called himself my uncle comes in and whips me with a belt on my back. After he leaves me in agony for a while, Adam shows up and gives me his blood to heal me. I think it was a day ago, I'm unsure of time in this dark basement, that I rushed the door as he was entering. I wasn't aware of the two guards standing outside of the room. Uncle hit me harder than ever then. I had blacked out from the pain alone. Later, I was angry and stole the tray from Adam, curled up in my corner and shoved the food in my mouth. Uncle had come in and shoved his fingers down my throat, making me throw it all up, then proceeded to whip my entire body. It was only the last meal that Adam came to give me his blood.