Chapter 3: Aiden

 

 

 

By the time I closed the spa, I was bone-tired with exhaustion. Usually, it was a good thing. It meant I'd had a busy day, that Eliza would be pleased, and that I had a pocket full of cash tips.

But not today.

There was just something that was off about today, and I knew what that something was.

Josh Camp was a member of the Black Paws, a local pack of wolf shifters that had been a thorn in Eliza's side for a while. So it was a surprise to see him standing in the lobby of Eliza's spa, asking about how Eliza cured my shifting.

He was a bitten shifter, so I didn't blame him. I'd also known life as a human before the bite. I'd also wanted to cure my shifting.

But…

Something just didn't sit right with me about the way he asked his questions. He said he was curious about the process, but it felt more like an interrogation. Like he was judging me. Half of me didn't believe that he wanted to be cured at all.

If he didn’t, then why did he come?

I decided to chew on that some more when I got home.

After giving the place one last pass, I locked up the doors and strolled towards my car in the parking lot.

I got in and put the key into the ignition.

A shadow folded up in the backseat. I noticed the silver blade flashing in the rearview mirror about a millisecond too late.

Before I realized what was happening, I felt a knife being pressed up against my throat, held by a man who'd been hiding in my backseat.

"Drive," he growled.

I had no choice but to obey.

"Turn right and go straight," the man continued.

The knife was now digging so far into my flesh that it was choking off my breath. I could feel my veins pounding against its edge with each rapid heartbeat. I squeezed the steering wheel, hoping I wouldn't bleed.

Fear of death kept me obedient. I drove straight as the mysterious man instructed, eventually crossing Jefferson St. to enter the neighborhood of Southside. When he didn't tell me to stop, I started getting nervous.

With cold sweat on my temples, I glanced quickly at the rearview mirror. In the brief illumination, I saw the smooth skin of his shaved head and some tattoos on his exposed right bicep. He wore a leather jacket with the sleeves cut off.

My heart skipped a beat. Black Paw. I gulped against the knife. What do they want with me?

Panicking, I scanned the passing scenery through my windshield. We were passing dilapidated buildings, grungy-looking storefronts, and working class homes. In the distance, I saw the glowing neon sign of Lucy's Bar and Grill, which was owned by a Black Paw member.

"There," my kidnapper said, thrusting his chin toward the empty parking lot of Lucy's. Mostly empty, that is. I spied a cluster of motorcycles and a sheriff's department cruiser.

Josh was here, and my instincts were ignited.

Now, I knew something was definitely wrong.

My kidnapper directed me to a parking spot around the corner of the building, out of sight from the street. Once I did, he finally moved the knife from my neck.

An immediate rush of adrenaline coursed through my veins.

"Get out of the car," the man ordered, and I pushed my door open. "Stand over—hey!"

I took off through the trees.

"He's getting away!" the man shouted as I darted into the woods.

It was pitch black, and the trees were thick. I kept my hands in front of my face as I whipped through the shrubs and branches that kept getting in my way. I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. All I cared about was putting as much distance between me and that Black Paw as possible.

Twigs were snapping all around me. A few seconds later, I found out that I wasn't the only one making all the noise.

The voice came from several feet to my right. "Stop! I'm a sheriff's deputy! I order you to stop!"

It was Josh's voice. I was tempted to shout something rude back to him, but I decided not to. I plunged even deeper into the woods.

"I said stop! I'm warning you!"

Somehow, he sounded a lot closer. I'm probably making too much noise, I thought.

I stopped. A few seconds later, Josh stopped, too, and the only sound I could hear was the sound of blood pounding in my ears.

"Aiden?" Josh cried out. He had to be less than a yard away.

This is stupid, I thought. I took off running again.

A split second later, there was a sudden impact on my back, as if someone had struck me with a baseball bat. Every single muscle in my body contracted, and my knees gave out.

At first, I thought I was shifting.

But that was impossible, because I was cured.

Josh's footsteps crunched through the forest.

"I tried to warn you," he said.

That was when I realized I was being tased.

 

* * *

 

They tied me up inside a dingy old barn.

I was seated in a cheap plastic lawn chair, wrists bound to the armrests and ankles to the flimsy, narrow legs. I was still in the black medical scrubs Eliza required all of her employees to wear. The twin alphas Kaden and Caleb were there, virtually identical except Kaden was covered in tattoos, and Caleb was not. Kaden's mate, Josh, stood beside them, still in his sheriff's department uniform. I learned from their conversation that the other two betas were called Jimmy and Logan, the latter being the man who kidnapped me.

"What do you want?" I snapped once Logan tied the final knot around my right ankle.

Logan stood up and stepped away. Now, all five Black Paws were standing in a row before me, arms crossed defiantly over their chests.

Kaden spoke up first. "We want to know what Eliza is up to."

"Why don't you ask Josh?" I said. Unable to point or gesture, I just glared at him. "He's been asking about the cure."

Josh laughed. "They know. I only pretended to be interested in the cure so I could get more information about it. It's called going undercover. Look it up"

"Going undercover means nobody knows you're a cop—" I muttered.

Caleb cleared his throat loudly. "So do they really have a cure for shifting? Is it true that you can't shift at all?"

I continued to glare at Josh, unable to contain the bitter sense of betrayal I was feeling. It was probably best to hold my tongue, but I was too angry to be anything but honest. "Yes, the cure works. I can't shift anymore."

"Are you bitten or born?" Kaden asked.

"Bitten. Is it really necessary to tie me up right now?"

"When were you bitten?" Kaden asked, ignoring what I'd just said.

I sighed. "I was bitten about four years ago, during my freshman year of college. I had to drop out."

Jimmy, the tallest of the five, suddenly made a face like he was driving past a manure farm and had just taken a big whiff. "Why would anyone want to be cured of shifting?"

Instead of answering, I just shook my head. They wouldn't have understood, anyway. Unlike me, they'd been born shifters.

"How did you end up working for Eliza Vreeland?" Kaden continued to ask.

"She found me," I said, and I left it at that.

The five Black Paws exchanged a silent look that made my instincts prickle, just like earlier when Logan made me stop the car. Adrenaline began coursing through my system, filling me with white-hot energy and an unshakable sense of doom.

I have to get out of here. I glanced again at Josh, thinking that there was no way they would do anything to me in the presence of the law.

Catching my gaze, Josh glanced away.

I felt the cold stab of dread.

"Look, I've answered all your questions. I'm cooperating, see? Can you just untie me and let me go? I promise I won't tell the witches." I just want to go home, I mentally added.

Logan smirked at the quiver in my voice. For some reason, it frightened me. Then, Caleb laughed, and I was even more frightened.

"You're a shifter who's been inside Eliza's coven, and you're a shifter who's been cured," he said. He began taking off his clothes. His mate was nowhere in sight, so there was only one other reason he needed to do that.

I got a very, very bad feeling.

"We're sorry, Aiden," Kaden said, "but there's no way we can let you go."

Caleb's grin turned cartoonish as his skull exploded outward with a sickening crack. His body crumpled and reshaped itself as his skin sprouted grayish-black fur all over. His spine lengthened into a tail, which whipped the air like a scarf. Now in his full wolf form, he pushed off the ground with all four paws and leapt at me.

Seconds before his teeth sank into my forearm, I screamed.