My head was pounding. There was a buzzing sound all around me—a deep, continuous humming noise—as if I was inside a vibrating cocoon.

Or an aircraft with large engines.

I swallowed against the dryness in my throat, and one of my ears popped, releasing the pressure and drawing my attention to the fact that my other ear still had air trapped in it—partially muting the low male voices I now heard talking as everything came back to me in a nauseating flash: I’d been drugged and kidnapped.

By Raul.

It seemed I was on a plane. I was stretched out on my side on a soft surface and covered with a blanket. And suffering the worst case of dry mouth I’d ever had. My eyes felt sore and swollen—a reminder of the fact I’d been crying when last I’d been conscious.

Oh, crap—where had Raul said that he was taking me? South America?

I kept my eyes shut, didn’t move a muscle, and barely breathed as I tried to discern my surroundings and identify the men who were talking around me.

“I think we should attack their current weak link: Kai,” a deep voice with a slight accent suggested. It sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place it. “I say we go after Kai’s little coed: the seer. She’s low-hanging fruit, ripe for the picking.”

A soft catcall and laughter ensued. “So ripe,” an unknown male voice inserted.

“What are you suggesting?” Mike’s voice broke in, sounding hard and defensive.

“Don’t look at me,” Raul responded with a laugh. “I didn’t say it. Although … Kai and the seer might be our best angle. What would Gabe have done in this situation?”

“Kidnap, torture, and kill the seer,” Stephen answered. “Possibly her family as well.”

“No,” Raul rejected.

My heart settled in relief. Raul wasn’t a cold-blooded killer. He may have been the head of a werewolf mafia ring, but he wasn’t a killer.

“I don’t believe in torture,” Raul appended. “And we’ll only kill the seer if we have to. Mike’s partial to her.”

Several guys laughed.

Annnd he was a killer.

“She’s awake, you know,” Mike said.

Great. Stupid werewolves and their superman senses.

“I noticed. Grab her a water, will you?”

I’d been trying to keep my anger in check until I figured out exactly what I was dealing with, but the mention of water pushed my anger past my ability to contain. I flung the blanket covering me off and bolted upright—which was a bad move, because my head felt like a ton of bricks. I clutched it in both hands as it swam dizzyingly.

“Easy, Bethy.” Raul was beside me—or in front of me, rather—in an instant, gripping my shoulders to steady me as I blinked the drug-induced sleep from my puffy eyes.

As my vision adjusted, and I began to make out the shape of Raul’s form and the outline of his face in front of me in the dimly lit cabin, he pressed a cold glass bottle into my hand, his fingers wrapping overtop mine to help me hold it.

“Here. Drink some water, baby.”

Fleetingly, I envisioned wresting the bottle from him and beating him over the head with it for daring to call me “baby” after he’d drugged and kidnapped me. If I hadn’t felt on the verge of dying of thirst, I might’ve given in to that temptation. But I had to be smart about this, so I let him help me bring the bottle to my lips, and I chugged.

I couldn’t swallow the contents fast enough, and half of it spilled down my chin and neck as I alternated between choking and swallowing. But when Raul tried to pull it away from me, I protested, my grip on the glass tightening, fighting against his pull as I shook my head and managed to cough-croak, “More.”

“Easy there, step-cuz. You need to drink it slowly,” Mike advised. “Try sipping it.”

Mike was next on my list of werewolves to beat over the head.

“Fucking Rafe,” Raul complained. “I thought he said it was a mild sedative, perfectly safe for humans and with no side effects?”

“No such thing,” I sputtered in between fits of coughing and choking.

“Grab her another one,” Raul ordered someone, before saying to me, “Bethy, I’m so sorry about this. You’ll want to drink a lot of water in the next twenty-four hours to make sure it’s all getting flushed from your system, okay?”

Really? Thanks for the tip!

I wanted to scream, but I was still coughing, and besides that, my throat felt like sandpaper. Screaming would hardly help.

I looked around me while I got my coughing under control. I truly was on a plane—a private, crazy-nice one. Bigger than a 747, I estimated. We were in a large lounge room furnished with leather chairs, chaises, and midcentury modern-looking daybeds like the one I was on. There were multiple flat-screen televisions on the walls and no visible windows, making it hard to guess what time it was.

Mike and Stephen were in the room, along with eight other hunky-looking guys who were surreptitiously scoping me out—while I sat there choking on nothing, dressed in my pj’s. It was probably best to assume they were also werewolves—possibly the same group of “international mannies” who’d been at the club last night.

I couldn’t help but note their interest in me seemed to be more related to the way Raul was poised on his knees at my feet, fussing over my well-being. I got the strangest impression they were somehow trying to evaluate whether I was a threat—although that made no sense. And it made me even more annoyed to think that the concern in the room appeared to be for Raul, the perpetrator of this situation, rather than for me, his victim.

“How long have I been out?” I asked, my voice raspy.

“Not that long,” Raul evaded, taking the empty bottle from my grasp and pressing a fresh one into my hand. “You’ll want to drink a lot of water for the next—”

“I know, I know.” I yanked the full, uncapped bottle of water from his hand, causing some of it to slosh on my lap as I grumbled, “Doctor, remember?”

I tipped the bottle back and managed to get water down without choking this time. When I’d drunk my fill, I lowered the bottle and told him, “But thank you for the advice, and for confirming what I already suspected: this isn’t the first time you’ve drugged and kidnapped someone, is it?”

Mike had the nerve to chuckle. “See? Told you guys she was fun,” he boasted to the room.

I shook my head and told Raul directly, “Milena was right about you.”

His nostrils flared, his brown eyes shadowed with hurt as they rolled away from mine.

But I refused to put his feelings above my own in this, and I proceeded to lash out. “Shame on me for ever doubting her reasons for not speaking to you anymore. What I really don’t understand is how she neglected to warn me against speaking to you. That seems like something a best friend should remember to mention, right? Hey, my brother’s a dangerous criminal now. You should probably avoid flirting and dancing with him if you ever run into him at a nightclub. Oh, and he’s also a magical shape-shifting werewolf creature thing, by the way. Maybe steer clear of him if you don’t want to be bitten a bajillion times.”

“Guys.” Mike jerked his head toward the door, and the bulky crew of werewolves exited the room. Only Mike remained with us.

Raul took the bottle from my hand and set it within reach on a side table. His voice was patient as he said, “Werelock. It’s werelock. We’re a more advanced breed of werewolf that evolved as a result of the union between warlocks and—”

“Whatever. I don’t care what you call yourselves. I want to go home. I should be at the hospital right now—doing my job. You had no right to abduct me.”

“Fine.” He sighed. “Whatever, then.” After a strained pause, he added, “I only thought you might want to learn a little more about the distinction between our species before you turn into one of us six days from now.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. Great. And now I was gonna hurl. My only consolation was it would be all over Raul, since he was crouched directly in front of me.

My eyes cut to Mike, desperately seeking some sign of denial.

Mike nodded soberly. “I’m afraid it’s true, step-cuz. You’ve been infected with werewolf venom. That’s why we had to—”

“Stop it. I am not your cuz. Or your SCILF.” And this could not be happening to me! I was in the prime of my life. I’d finished medical school. My career was just starting. No way could I be turning into a Halloween monster.

Mike’s lips twitched faintly at my use of SCILF, but his eyes weren’t quite as friendly as he said, “Apparently your sedative was a bit mild after all. Perhaps you’d like something stronger than water to drink to take the edge off this bout of hysteria? Or maybe another injection?” he threatened under his breath.

“Lay off,” Raul warned. To me, he said, “Honey, I know it’s a lot to digest, but I thought you’d appreciate me being honest about what’s coming.”

Christ, they were both completely serious about this. Still, I held out hope that somehow this wasn’t really happening, that it was all a mistake. I could handle almost anything in life but turning into a scary giant dog.

“Well, thank you for your honesty with the doomsday warning,” I said with a dry laugh. “It’s right on schedule. I was just beginning to feel like my looming panic attack had waned.”

“Bethy, there’s nothing to panic about. You’ll be perfectly safe.” Raul’s warm hands were sliding up and down my forearms in a soothing caress. “I’m going to take care of everything.” It was unsettling just how well his touch could make me believe that was true.

“Spoken like a true sociopath who just drugged and kidnapped a woman. Stop that.” I pulled my arms away, wrapping them around my midsection. “Does Milena know anything about this? I just cannot believe she didn’t properly warn me about you.”

His jaw stiffened. “My apologies on behalf of my dear sister. It seems she failed to warn you about a number of men who weren’t any good for you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Look, I said I was sorry. I’m trying to explain the circumstances and why I did what I did. Why can’t you try and understand that I had to—”

“Are you serious right now? Just so I’m clear, was that a sorry for sticking me with a hypodermic needle back in San Francisco? A sorry for almost killing my ex-fiancé in front of me? Or a sorry for kidnapping me?”

“I will not apologize for Gregg.” His eyes shifted fully to their startling amber-gold color as he said it. “He deserved far worse than he got from me.”

No. Not hot, Bethany. This was in no way hot. Pull your pussy together!

“I can handle myself, Raul. I don’t need you to rescue me from my relationship mistakes.”

“Wow, that hurts,” Mike interjected. “So you didn’t need our help intercepting the sex videos of you that Gregg tried to send out to your pastor and all your friends and relatives? Shall I let that email go out now as Gregg originally intended?”

My heart tripped a beat. “You said you destroyed those tapes.”

“Don’t threaten her.” Raul’s feral gaze shifted to Mike. “Not ever. Understand?”

“Threaten her? I would never,” Mike denied with a laugh. “I was only teasing her. I told her before that I destroyed those tapes.”

Right. And now I wasn’t so sure it was the truth.

The door flew open and Stephen poked his head in. “Hey—”

“Not now,” Mike and Raul responded in unison.

“Avery went off script and attacked Kai,” Stephen reported nonetheless.

Mike sprang up from his chair. “Fuck. I’ll handle it.”

“You can’t,” Stephen told him. “Kai was with the seer girl when Avery attacked. The seer is witnessing their fight right now.”

Raul swore and leapt smoothly to his feet. “I’ll go.”

“And you think my emotions are too involved,” Mike complained to Raul. “That my judgment’s compromised? You need to order Avery to stay away from Kai.”

“Like that’d work,” Raul grumbled. “Watch after Bethy.”

In the next blink, Raul and Stephen were gone—vanished into thin air.

That left me alone with Mike: the werelock who’d just joked about sedating me again a moment ago.

I swallowed the ball of fear climbing my throat as Mike reclaimed his seat and turned to look at me. His expression was impassive, but his eyes had shifted to the golden color of his wolf.

Shit. I was pretty sure that meant something. Probably not anything good.

I stood. “Um … is there a bathroom on this plane I could use?”

He nodded slowly.

“Great. All that water …” I babbled.

After ten seconds passed and he made no move to show or tell me where the washroom was, I pressed, “Could—could you please tell me where—?”

“I’d prefer for us to be friends, Bethany.”

The way he said it, his words felt more like a threat than an olive branch. He might as well have said he’d rather not have to torture and kill me.

“Do you understand?”

I nodded quickly.

When he still didn’t tell me where the bathroom was, I blurted, “I have bladder control issues.”

He canted his head to the side, his mouth curling with amusement. “I don’t think so, cuz. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of the guys on this plane know how well you can control your Kegels at this point.”

Oh.

My God.

There was so much that was so wrong with that.

“Raul’s the Alpha of our pack. Do you understand what that means?”

I shook my head as my face heated over his Kegels remark. “Not … exactly.” And I wasn’t sure I wanted to know if it meant that Raul killed people or did other violent things.

“It means he’s our leader, our shepherd. For better or worse, we all feel a certain level of connection to him—some to a higher degree than others. To an extent, Raul’s will connects us all to one another as well.” He leaned forward in his seat. “Can you imagine what that might be like?”

Again, I shook my head.

His lips twisted with a wry smile. “You’ll know soon enough.” He paused, and I was contemplating reminding him I had to pee, when he revealed, “Raul only became our Alpha seven months ago when Gabriel Salvatella, the former Alpha, died. Previously, Raul served as head Beta for nearly a decade under Gabe.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“You think Raul and I are monsters for what we’ve done to you today.”

I didn’t deny it. Nor did I risk his anger by confirming it.

“But you have no frame of reference for what a true monster is, Bethany.”

“Some might consider that a blessing,” I couldn’t help but snark.

“Indeed.” He chuckled. There was no humor to it, though, only sadness. “Let me put things into perspective for you then. Gabe and my mother were first cousins. When I was a boy, my mother defected with me, hoping to escape the ongoing violence and infighting that had become rampant within our Salvatella pack. We were gone for almost a week before Gabe hunted us down. He had my mother executed for her desertion. He wasn’t gentle about it. And he made me watch.”

I sucked in an uneasy breath. “I’m sorry.” What else could I say? Why was he telling me this? Was he trying to tell me that’s what Raul’s job now entailed—killing defectors in front of their children? That this was my future as a hostage within their pack?

He shrugged. “There are worse stories than mine. I suspect you’ll hear some of them soon enough. Make a right out the door. Your bedroom is at the very end of the hallway. You’ll find a bathroom in there, along with clothes and other essentials we packed from your apartment.”

I mumbled a bewildered “thanks” and bolted.