Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chloe
I lay perfectly still as the van rolled to a stop, keeping my eyes shut. I knew without looking that Lachlan was beside me and he was awake as well. We’d only been on the road for a short time and I wondered if we’d already reached our destination. Then I heard a soft whooshing sound and Darrell’s voice.
“You don’t get off that easy, Lachlan. You have a lot to answer for.”
I lifted my lids slightly to look at Lach, but his eyes were rolling back in his head, a silver dart sticking out of his chest.
“Chloe,” he whispered.
My wolf rose up within me, enraged to see our mate in pain, but I fought the urge to howl. If Darrell knew I was awake, I would get the same treatment as Lach.
I listened as Darrell put the van in gear and we moved back onto the road.
When I’d left the house earlier, my heart breaking after seeing the look on Lachlan’s face, my only thoughts had been of outrunning the pain. By the time I’d smelled Darrell’s scent in the air, it had been too late.
There was another wolf up front with Darrell, one of his officers from the Prater Police Department. The rest were following behind us in an SUV marked PPD. Six against one were shitty odds, but I had no choice.
There was no doubt in my mind that once they got Lach and I to our destination, they were going to kill us. I had no choice but to try and fight my way out of the situation.
As I told Lachlan before, strategy wasn’t my strong suit. I couldn’t even feign weakness in hopes it would lower their guard. These wolves knew my reputation and me. They’d taken no chances, chaining me to the floor of the van just as they had Lachlan.
My only hope was to let them think that I was unconscious when they removed me from the vehicle and lash out when they least expected it.
Thirty minutes later, the van turned, going over several bumps, before rolling to a stop. I controlled my breathing, keeping it deep and even, as Darrell shut off the van.
“You and the boys grab him. I’ll get the she-wolf.”
My ears strained as they climbed out. A few moments later, there were footsteps and the doors at the rear of the van swung open. I desperately wanted to open my eyes and take measure of how many men were there, but I couldn’t risk it. I would only have one shot at escaping. With Lachlan unconscious, I would have to find a way to get him out of here too, but I needed to take one step at a time.
I hoped they would remove me first because then all I would have to do was grab the keys and drive the van away with Lach inside, but those thoughts were dashed when I felt the bed of the van dip as one of the wolves climbed inside. The jingling of keys told me they were unchaining him from the floor. The van jostled more as they slid him out, the two wolves barely grunting as they took Lachlan’s weight.
When hands grasped my ankles to turn me over, I fought the urge to kick. My wolf raged inside me, wanting to fight. To kill. But I forced her back.
Not yet.
Someone clambered up into the van, standing over me. From his scent, I knew it was Darrell. He stood there for a long time and I felt his stare on me. Then the chains holding me to the floor loosened and my body slid toward the open doors.
Darrell threw me over his shoulder, my skull crashing against his lower back. I swallowed a groan as my head swam. The drugs he’d given me were wearing off, but not quickly enough. I risked a peek around us through the curtain of my hair, but all the other wolves had gone inside.
It was time.
Moving quickly, I looped the chains that connected my hands around Darrell’s neck, snapping them tight. He grunted and dropped me, which was a mistake. As I fell, I dragged him with me, turning us so he hit the ground face first.
Slamming a knee into his back, I gripped the chains and yanked hard. I heard a high whine escape from his mouth as the pressure around his windpipe increased.
He thrashed beneath me, his body bucking. My head spun dizzily, but I fought to hold on. Gathering my strength, I pulled back on the chain, tilting his head at an unnatural angle. All it would take was one good yank to break his neck.
Nausea roiled in my gut and bright multi-colored lights burst behind my eyes. Now that I was upright, the side effects from the drug were making it difficult to remain conscious.
I bit my lower lip so hard that I tasted blood, the pain bringing me back from the edge. I had to save Lachlan.
Darrell’s feet kicked wildly and his hands scrabbled at the chain, jerking against it. I took a deep breath, preparing for the final strike, when I heard a familiar whoosh.
Something sharp pierced my shoulder and I cried out. Immediately, my limbs felt sluggish and my head spun, but I kept a death grip on the chain. Rough hands grabbed me. I snarled and bit, fighting with everything I had, but the sedative was weakening me.
Finally, a fist crashed into the side of my face and I could fight no longer.
When I came to, the throbbing in my skull was so intense that I gagged. Somehow I managed to keep from throwing up, probably because there was nothing in my stomach.
I fought to control the heaves, taking deep breaths until the urge passed. I opened my eyes and hissed as the bright light pierced my retinas. Squeezing them shut, I focused on keeping the nausea at bay.
When my body finally calmed, I opened my eyes again, squinting against the light. My forehead rubbed against cold, metal and my gaze focused. I realized my face was pressed against steel bars. I was in some sort of cell.
Turning my head, I looked toward my hands. They were tied with thick rope, spread out to my sides so that my upper body formed a T shape. A quick glance down confirmed that my ankles were tied down to the anchors in the floor so that I was spread-eagled. The front of my torso rested heavily against the bars. I had some room to move, but not much. I was glad to see that I still wore the t-shirt and panties I’d thrown on back at the house.
A groan caught my attention and I looked up. There was another cell next to mine. On the opposite wall of bars, Lachlan was trussed up in a similar fashion, only he was facing me and he was still shirtless. His head lolled forward and he groaned again, his body straining.
I knew he was probably fighting the same nausea and pain I had when I awoke.
“Just breathe slow and deep,” I murmured to him, my voice catching on the last word. “It’ll pass in a moment.”
His eyes opened and he stared at me blindly for a moment. I watched as awareness took hold and his eyes focused.
“Chloe,” he choked.
“I’m here.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“Me too.”
“Oh, how touching,” a voice drawled from behind me.
I twisted my head and watched as Darrell sauntered into the room. I realized he’d brought us back to the Prater police station when I saw the familiar desks behind him as he came through the door.
“I’m glad you’re both awake because we have some things to discuss,” he said. The cell doors were open, so he entered the second cell, standing between Lachlan and me. “Now, I’m going to ask you nicely the first time and give you a chance to answer my questions without using pain as an incentive.” He turned to look at me. “I’d recommend you answer truthfully because we can all smell lies. If you lie to me, I’ll be forced to find other ways to gather the truth. I find that my imagination when it comes to you, little Chloe, is extremely creative.”
I stared at Darrell, taking in the changes to his demeanor. His hair was still the same dark brown, his shoulders still broad and strong, but he looked nothing like the man I knew as a pup. His brown eyes were glittering malevolently in the light and the muscles of his face seemed to tighten, thinning his mouth and lifting his jaw.
This man was cold, calculating, and cruel.
Even his scent was different, sharper and almost painful when inhaled. He might be a shifter, but the real monster lived inside his mind and it had long ago devoured his soul.
“What do you want to know?” Lachlan asked.
Darrell smiled, the expression feral rather than showing amusement. “Ah, I’m glad to see one of you is feeling reasonable.”
When he turned his head, I saw the thick band of purple bruises around his neck and upper chest and felt a surge of glee at the knowledge that I’d caused them. Even a shifter would take days to heal from wounds like that.
“Where is Carter?” Darrell asked Lachlan.
His gaze steady, Lach replied, “I don’t know.”
Darrell growled. “This is your last chance. Answer me honestly or…” In a blink of an eye, he stood in front of me and thrust his hand through the bars. His fingers tangled in my hair, jerking hard. “I show you exactly how creative I am when it comes to hurting people who piss me off.”
I glared at him out of the corner of my eye, the warning snarl rolling up my chest and throat and out of my mouth.
Darrell glanced down at me, smirking. “Threaten me all you like, Chloe MacArthur. We both know you aren’t getting out of those ropes.”
He was right. In the position that Lach and I were tied in, we couldn’t claw or chew at our bindings without hurting ourselves. We couldn’t shift either because our arms and legs would be dislocated. By the time we healed enough to fight or run, it would be too late.
Darrell yanked my face against the bars, my forehead hitting them with a thunk. “Answer me!” he yelled at Lach.
“I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell us. We offered to let him come with us when we ran, but he refused. The last time we saw him was in the forest near the cabin.” Lachlan’s eyes narrowed on Darrell and the muscles in his arms and legs bunched. “Let her go.”
As swiftly as he’d grabbed my hair, Darrell released me. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” He turned toward me, crouching down so we were at eye level. “Now you. How much does Sophia know about the situation?”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed in his face. He scowled at me, his hand shooting through the bars to grab my chin.
“What the fuck is so funny?” he asked.
“Y-y-you,” I answered, taking a shaky breath as I struggled to control the hysterical giggles bubbling up inside me. “Who do you think sent me here, Darrell? She knows everything. In fact, I don’t think it will be long before she and her allies descend on this town and put you all down like the sick animals you are.” I wiped the smile off my face, my gaze boring into his. “And I think you know very well what Gram will do to you when she finds out you’ve killed me.”
I saw a shimmer of real fear in his eyes before he blinked and it was gone. My reputation as a fighter was well known in the U.S., but the hushed rumors whispered about my grandmother spread all over the world. Sophia MacArthur was the first female alpha to hold her pack against all challengers for over a hundred years. She was fair and generous to the wolves under her protection, but anyone who crossed her would quickly find out that she was merciless. There would be no hiding from Gram once she realized what he’d done, and Darrell knew it.
The door to the front area of the police department slammed open. Darrell and I both twisted to look at the newcomer.
“Get your hands off her,” Brayden Kirkpatrick snarled.
Carefully, Darrell released me, lifting his hands up to show his palms as he backed away.
“No one touches my mate but me,” Brayden continued, stalking forward. His voice sounded rusty, as if he used it so little it no longer worked correctly.
I watched him warily as he entered my cell, walking up behind me until I could no longer see him. I felt his hand stroke my hair and fought the instinct to shudder in revulsion.
“Leave, Darrell,” Brayden commanded. When Darrell hesitated, Brayden growled low in his throat. Though he was creepy as hell, he was more dominant than Darrell Whelby and they both knew it.
“I’ll be back later,” Darrell threatened, his eyes darting from me to Lachlan.
Brayden remained utterly still behind me as the older wolf left the room, waiting until the door clicked shut before he moved again. His hands whispered over my hair, down to my shoulders and back. I wondered what he was doing, my body tensing. When his palms came up to squeeze my breasts, Lachlan and I both growled.
“Don’t touch me,” I commanded, my voice so low that the words were little more than a rumble in my throat.
Without a word, Brayden grabbed the front of my t-shirt and ripped it from collar to hem, his hand coming back up to twist my nipple in a punishing grip.
I couldn’t bite back the yelp that emerged from my throat at the pain. Lachlan howled, throwing the weight of his body against his bindings, straining to get free.
Brayden leaned against my back, pressing my naked torso into the bars as he twisted my nipple again. “You’re my mate and I will touch you however I like,” he hissed.
When I turned my head and tried to bite him, he backed off quickly, releasing my breast. His hand flew up and connected with my cheek in a sharp slap. Though it wasn’t pleasant, I’d been hit harder in sparring practice by adolescent wolves. I snapped my teeth at him again.
“You’re weaker than most of the pups I train.” I hissed.
He hit me again and I laughed, which only made his rage boil higher, but I didn’t care.
“I’m not your mate,” I stated, leveraging against my bonds in order to face him more fully. “And I never will be.”
His only reply was to tear my ruined shirt from my body and shred my underwear. A tendril of fear unfurled inside me as he stripped me naked. He pressed his nose against my shoulder and inhaled, letting me know that he smelled my trepidation. His eyes glinted with malicious amusement. He wanted my fear. He liked it.
Just feet away, Lachlan fought the ropes holding him like a mad creature, snarls and nearly unintelligible threats falling from his lips, but Brayden ignored him. I didn’t dare look in his direction and draw Brayden’s attention away from me.
He brushed my hair aside, his hands nearly gentle, revealing the bite mark on my neck. The mark that Lachlan had left there just hours ago.
His body crowded mine and I swallowed down the bile that rose in my throat when I felt his erection grind against my ass. “You shouldn’t have let him bite you, Chloe,” he whispered in my ear.
I tensed and strained against the ropes when his hands moved around my thighs, his fingertips trailing up over my hipbones and belly to my breasts. He cupped them, stroking my nipples. I gagged and bucked, trying to dislodge him, but he merely pressed his weight more firmly against my back, pinning me to the bars. With his cheek brushing mine and his chin resting on the bite, Brayden stared at Lachlan.
“For marking what’s mine, you will die, Ian Lachlan,” he stated. “But first, I’m going to make you watch me claim my mate while you’re powerless to stop me.”
His hands released my breasts, one moving up to fist in my hair and angling my head to the side, his grip so tight that tears sprang into my eyes. With my neck bared to him, he struck, his teeth sinking deep into the muscle of my shoulder. Growling low in his throat, he shook his head, tearing into the flesh and destroying the mark that Lachlan had put on me.
I screamed in agony, my back arching hard in an attempt to escape the pain. Only then did Brayden release me.
“There,” he crooned as blood dripped down my chest and back. “That’s much better.”
I heard the telltale clink of his belt buckle and I knew what was coming. The constant thud of Lachlan’s body hitting the bars behind him as he fought to free himself pierced the haze that pain had cast over my mind. I looked at him, knowing even if we escaped with our lives, neither of us would be able to get past this. Even if I succeeded in killing Brayden, the ghosts of tonight would drive a permanent wedge between us.
Shrieking, I jerked my hands and feet inward, feeling the rope cutting in to my flesh as I strained. The anchors beneath my feet groaned in protest and I felt a flash of hope. The wall of bars holding me up quivered and squeaked as I pulled harder.
Brayden’s hands were on me, trying to hold me still, but I was possessed.
“I AM NOT YOUR MATE!” I roared, feeling the muscles and tendons in my arms stretch to their breaking point.
Suddenly, the ceiling above us caved in with an explosion of debris and dust, and Brayden was thrown away from me.