Chapter Thirty-Two
Piper’s stomach growled in hunger. She hadn’t eaten since the bowl of cereal she’d had earlier that morning. And judging from the cracks between the boards on the window, it was now after dark.
Why had the Fosters taken her? And what did they want with her? Were they using her to hurt Ethan in some way? It didn’t make sense.
Ethan had to be worried sick about her by now.
Pushing from the bed, Piper tiptoed across the room and pressed her ear against the door.
A snarling sound came from the hall, telling her that the giant wolf she’d seen earlier had sensed her approach.
“Mr. Foster?” she called out, hoping to be heard by someone. Anyone.
When no answer came, she tried again. “Isaac?”
The door suddenly opened, forcing Piper to jump back.
Eric stepped into the room, closing the door behind him.
Piper took another step back. “Where is Isaac?”
“You’re not dealing with my father. You’re dealing with me.”
Inching her way across the room, Piper decided to keep Eric talking until Isaac returned. “Why do you have me here? I’ve never done anything to you or your family.”
“Your very existence threatens my family, Piper Hollister.”
“Explain,” she demanded, lifting her chin.
Eric rushed across the room and backhanded her across the cheek.
Piper bit back a cry, the copper taste of blood filling her mouth.
“Don’t ever speak to me in that tone again. You will show me the respect that I deserve, or I’ll cut your throat here and now. Understood?”
Piper gave a weak nod. It took everything she had not to spit in his face. Her cheek throbbed in pain, but she’d be damned if she’d let him know that.
“It would seem that dear old Ethan neglected to enlighten you about our kind before he knocked you up. You’re really not my enemy in any of this, Miss Hollister. But that child you carry is. And I’m afraid that I can’t allow it to live.”
Tears sprang to Piper eyes against her will. Terror rolled through her, quickly followed by nausea.
She swallowed it back. Barely. “You— You would hurt an innocent baby? What kind of a monster are you?”
“The kind that nightmares are made of.” He ripped open his shirt and tossed it onto the bed.
Piper backed up until her shoulders hit the wall, her gaze darting to the closed door across the room.
Eric stepped out of his pants and shoes until he stood before her in his underwear.
He was going to rape her? Piper opened her mouth to scream, only to cry out in terror and disbelief as Eric’s teeth began to elongate.
His bones rolled beneath his skin, followed by a popping noise and hair sprouting on his arms.
Piper’s legs shook so bad, her knees gave out and she fell to the floor in a heap of horror.
A howl rent the air, echoing off the walls of the small room to settle in Piper’s terrified mind.
She stared in disbelief and more than a little fear as a large gray wolf stood in the place where Eric had just been.
Panic took hold, choking her in its intensity. She surged to her feet and ran for the door. Forgotten was the giant beast in the hallway or the threat of more wolves on the grounds. Piper only saw the one, and she’d be damned if she’d stay there and let him rip her to shreds.
The door opened before she reached it, and a pissed-off Isaac stood in the opening. He quickly stepped in front of her, his gaze locked on the wolf in front of him. “Stop this, Eric!”
Piper huddled behind the old man, staring at the gray wolf over his shoulder. As much as she couldn’t seem to wrap her mind around what she’d just witnessed, she knew without a doubt that the wolf in front of her was Eric Foster.
The sickening sound of bones began to pop once more. The wolf reared up, his head falling back in what appeared to be agony, until a very disgusting, very naked Eric stood in its place.
“What the hell was that?” Piper whispered, still clinging to the back of the old man’s shirt.
Isaac half turned, pointing toward the door. “Get out of here, Eric. And do not come back.”
Snatching up his clothes with jerky movements, Eric strode to the door, a look that could only be described as hatred shining from his eyes.
He stopped in the hallway, narrowing his gaze at Piper once more. “This is far from over.”
Isaac shut the door and motioned for Piper to sit in the kitchen chair perched next to her makeshift bed.
Piper’s legs shook so bad she wasn’t sure she’d make it without collapsing. “Tell me what the hell that was!”
The old man waited for her to sit before answering, “It’s called shapeshifting. We’re wolf shifters, Piper. As is Ethan, and the unborn babe you carry in your womb.”
Piper shook her head, her hand held up for him to stop. “Bullshit. There’s no such thing as shapeshifters, vampires, or any of that other nonsense.” Yet the evidence of that very thing had stood before her less than a minute ago.
“It’s true, Miss Hollister.”
Her mind went back to the first date she’d had with Ethan. The glow of his eyes she’d assumed to be from the candlelight.
A myriad of memories began filtering through her at once. Ethan’s deep growls when he took her from behind. The rumbling in his chest when he became excited. The subtle way he attempted to hide his eyes from her during sex. “How can it be?”
Isaac lifted a hand toward her before dropping it back to his side. “Ethan is the alpha of the Sorrento pack as was his grandfather before him.”
“And you?” Piper interjected, trying to comprehend it all. “You’re one of these shapeshifters too?”
The old man nodded. “I’m the alpha of the Kenwood pack. Ethan was the only heir of my eldest son, Darren. After Darren’s death, Ethan’s mother and her father poisoned his mind against me.”
Running a hand through his thinning hair, Isaac continued. “I’ll admit, Darren had his faults, but he was the oldest, the first in line to become alpha after me. And when I’d heard about Ruth’s pregnancy, I’d hoped to have a grandson to someday take my place as alpha.”
Piper pushed to her feet, unable to sit a second longer. “I— Wait. You’re honestly telling me that Ethan Seaborn is a shapeshifter?”
With her heart pounding hard enough to feel it in her temples, Piper leaned back against the wall, resting her palms on her knees. “This is unbelievable.”
Reality quickly sank in. She lifted a hand to her abdomen. “My baby is going to one of those things I just saw in here a few minutes ago?”
“It’s not as bad as you’re imagining, Miss Hollister. Eric should have never shifted in front of you the way he did. I’m—”
“Stop it!” Piper snapped, effectively cutting off his insane explanation. “I want to go home. Just take me the hell home.”
A sadness entered the old man’s eyes. “I’m afraid I can’t do that now. You know too much. I can’t risk you going to the authorities about us.”
Piper’s mouth fell open. “And tell them what? That you’re freaks of nature, and oh yeah, I’m carrying one of them inside my body? They would lock me up for the rest of my life.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Hollister. This is the way it has to be. At least until the babe is born.”
“And then what?” Piper cried, throwing up her hands. “What happens after the baby is born? You kill me?”
He ignored her question. “I’m sure you’re hungry. I’ll have some food sent to you shortly.”
“I don’t want your food, Norman Bates! I want to go home.”
“You must eat,” he insisted, tugging on the door. “You have to keep up your strength. You are eating for two now.”
“Please,” Piper whispered, willing to try anything. “Just let me go. I swear I won’t say a word about this to anyone.”
The door clicked shut behind him.
Piper collapsed back in the chair, dropping her face into her sweaty palms.
Her life had been forever changed in one day, and no matter how much she wanted to deny it, Ethan seemed to be at the center of it all.
Lifting her head, she placed a hand over her unborn child, and her heart cracked. No matter what she’d seen in that room, no matter what Ethan was or wasn’t, Piper already loved the baby forming inside her, and she would do everything in her power to keep it safe. Even if she had to kill to make that happen.