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Keira scowled at the wolves hovering around her, Lachlan and Gary, fidgeting and squirming against the chains that bound her. The copper burned against her skin, making her ache all over—beyond anything she had felt ever since she’d been in high school and had spent the night at a friend’s house; the girl’s parents had used copper pots to cook dinner, and Keira hadn’t known until she’d eaten dinner.
“It’s a good thing we had all this copper lying around,” one of the wolves said, snickering with the others. Keira wrinkled her nostrils at the stench of wolves filling her nose. She wanted, more than anything, to break the chains draped around her body, holding her down, sapping her strength. Motherfuckers with copper chains lying around, Keira thought bleakly. Should have fucking known. It was completely in line with what she’d always been taught about werewolves. She tugged against the chains wrapped around her, but every movement sent burning, searing agony through her body. Copper was poisonous to all fire-aligned creatures—the elementals, and the shape-shifters that belonged to that element: panthers, lions, and tigers alike. Silver worked as well, but Keira thought grimly that silver affected wolves too—it indeed affected all supernatural beings except for water-aligned elementals and their few shape-shifting allies.
“Raul will be here in a few,” someone said. “These assholes are secure.” There was a grumble, but the wolves began to wander out of the room, leaving Keira, Lachlan, and Gary by themselves. Keira groaned as she tried to fight against the influence of the copper tightly wrapped around her.
“We need to find a way out of this bullshit situation,” Lachlan said, his voice tight and hoarse with pain. “Those bastards are going to kill us.”
“Why would they do that? They’d do better to ransom us,” Keira pointed out. “Get the clan to stop the raids and pay reparations.”
“I’m telling you, those assholes will kill us without even losing a minute of sleep,” Lachlan told Keira. “You’ll be lucky if they don’t rape you first.” Keira let out a long, low growl, glaring at Lachlan. She could believe the wolves capable of torturing them; she could even believe that the wolves might—possibly—execute them. But raping another shifter was beyond the pale, more uncivilized than the unaffiliated lions and bears that lived out in the wider world, separate from any clan or pack or pride.
“How do we get out of this then, Lachlan? Have you discovered some brilliant way for us to be immune to copper?”
“We have to work together,” Lachlan said. “If we do that we might be able to get the chains off of each other, and get the hell out of here before they bring the executioner in.” Keira considered it; they were back to back, their hands pinned behind their backs, copper chains draped around shoulders down to their waists, and coiled around their legs. She knew that the chains weren’t even particularly tight—but the copper in them made it nearly impossible for her to get free, and the other two panthers in the shed with her would be in the same condition.
“How much can you move?” Keira turned her head until she could see Gary in the corner of her vision. Gary shifted slightly, groaning as the copper burned him. “What we need to do is to find some way to get them to loosen the chains a little bit. Or get them loose ourselves.”
“Move as much as you can,” Lachlan suggested. Keira struggled against the copper chains, twisting and shifting and squirming, hissing as the copper came into contact with her skin and burned her over and over. It was useless; she couldn’t feel any slack in the chains no matter how she tried to find a weakness in the bindings.
“Fuck,” she muttered. Her preternaturally acute ears picked up the sound of people outside—the scent of wolves intensified. Someone—several people—were coming to the shed where she, Gary, and Lachlan were trapped. “Shit, shit, shit.” Keira gritted her teeth, trying to think. The copper made it harder and harder to focus, the pain radiating through her body in waves. Let me take the lead on this, she thought to the other members of her clan. Let me see if I can get them to loosen our chains a bit. She heard Lachlan’s growl of doubt, Gary’s groan of pain, and reinforced the thought with the urgency of their situation. There was a very real chance that if they didn’t get free, they’d be tortured for information—at least, according to everything that Keira had ever known about wolves. She gathered what little strength she had, sniffing the air to try and detect how many wolves were joining them.
A few moments later, the wolves filed into the shed; among them Keira saw their newcomer. He smelled like an Alpha, but she knew he wasn’t; there wasn’t the level of respect from the other wolves. Second-in-command, or some kind of enforcer type, she decided, taking him in as he approached. The man was tall and muscular, with dark hair in a mane around his strong-featured face, broad shoulders, and neat hips. He wore dark jeans and a black, fitted tee shirt. Couldn’t be more obviously a wolf if he tried, Keira thought wryly. The non-Alpha came towards them and the other wolves fell in behind him.
“You three realize we’re going to get your friends too, right?” Keira stared up at the man, refusing to look away. It wasn’t the time to cower or show fear—she was a panther and he was a wolf; she wasn’t about to show weakness to someone like him.
“You’re all cowards,” Keira said, looking from the enforcer to the rest of the pack behind him. “If you really thought that you were stronger and better than us, you wouldn’t keep us in copper.”
“You’re sneaky little thieves,” the man countered. “We can’t risk you getting away to attack us again.”
“Are you going to talk us to death?” Keira clenched her teeth at the sound of Lachlan’s voice. Hadn’t she told him and Gary both to let her take the lead?
“We’re going to put you to death,” one of the other wolves said. Keira felt Lachlan’s bitter sense of proud triumph; he’d been right about what the wolves would do to them. What surprised her was the fact that the plan—if it was serious—was evidently a surprise to the enforcer talking to them.
“Shut up, Cam,” the man said quietly, a growl in his voice. He turned his attention back onto Keira. “What’s your name?”
“Like I’d tell my name to some wolf enforcer,” Keira replied, scowling at him. “Bunch of filthy damned cowards.”
“We’re cowards?” The man almost grinned, exposing slightly sharper than normal teeth, flashing white in the gloomy light of the shed. “You’re the ones running away from a fair fight.” Keira laughed.
“Like wolves fight fair,” she said, shaking her head. “If you wanted a fair fight, you’d take these chains off me and we could go at it right here and now.” She raised an eyebrow in challenge. Keira felt the tension rising in Gary and Lachlan, sensed their brains focusing in on the situation—hopeful that there would come an opportunity.
“You really think you can take me?” The wolf almost smirked. “You’re too proud. I could put you down in three minutes.” Keira smiled slowly, exposing her teeth in an expression that was far from friendly.
“Prove it,” she told him.