Chapter Fifty

Glenna wanted to wake up. She shook so hard her teeth clacked together. All she wanted to do was run, but she couldn’t. He was here. She’d brought them here to save Sam, to show Serena where they were. To let the other woman have a chance to prove herself their friend but now, it was all going horribly wrong.

This was Serena’s fault.

The abomination of fur and teeth and hate, ambled further into the barn, aiming for Sam.

Glenna growled and showed her teeth. She dropped to a crouch in front of Sam. “You’re not hurting him again.” He wouldn’t get Sam, not if she had anything to do with it.

“Glenna, look at him. Really look. Who is he?”

The monster’s laugh echoed off the concrete floors of the room, and in the corners, the shadows flickered and moved. New, darker things began to slither in the corners, heading toward her and Sam. Dream memories of being chased flooded her, but she pushed them away. This was the one who hadn’t let her sleep. This was the one who had stalked her dreams with his pack of horrors. She couldn’t be weak and curl up in a corner. She couldn’t run from him this time. Sam needed her.

Glenna called, and the wolf rose inside of her. Bones moved and cracked, and moved. Solid became liquid, then back to solid, and now she was the wolf.

They were strong in this shape. They had teeth and claws and the knowledge to attack and kill.

She sprang at him, her teeth sinking into his stinking fur and finding purchase. They tore, ripping out a piece and spitting the bloody chunk onto the floor. The creature howled, his voice piercing her eardrums, but she didn’t let it slow her down. She went in again, this time lower, and aimed for what her wolf knew were the hamstrings. The monster sank his huge claws into her body. Pain streaked into her side and she smelled her own blood. She let the scent wash over her and drive her wolf into a frenzy.

She dove at the beast, opening her jaws and sinking her teeth in deep. It was easier than she’d thought. Now that she knew she was strong, now that she understood who she was in her heart, this monster didn’t stand a chance. Strike for strike, blow for blow, they sliced and bit and tore into the creature until he was down on the floor, a mangled thing of blood and guts.

Her lip curled at the pathetic thing on the floor and she lifted her head and howled her success.

“Who is he, Glenna? Can you tell me who he is?” Serena had retreated to a corner during the fight and now she stared, eyes widened in horror, at the mess on the floor.

“Can’t you see?” The monster’s body oozed blood through cuts and blood and bone. The chunks of fur hid his face, but underneath, the aquiline nose of Alastair, headmaster of Ridge School for Boys. She had to wake up. Sam was in danger.

She struggled for awareness but before she woke up, she turned back to Serena. “Come help us, Serena, we’re in trouble. Alastair is going to kill Sam.”

Consciousness drew her into the waking world and Serena’s horrified face faded from view. She had no idea if Serena understood. For all she knew, they were on their own.

***

Sam opened his eyes, only to shut them fast at the surge of blinding pain in his head. He tried again, grateful for the dark that made it possible for him to try to see. He tried to roll over but hit the end of the heavy chain that held him in place.

“Sam, are you awake?”

“Glenna?”

“Oh, Sam.” Her ragged voice in the dark was choked with tears. “Can you get loose?”

He sat up and struggled with the chain. “This steel’s been reinforced.” His head throbbed and his stomach felt sick. “Where’s fucking Alastair?”

“He’s gone, but he’ll be back soon. He said when he came back he would give me the Bite.”

“He can’t do that. He’s a spelltalker, he doesn’t have a wolf.”

“He said he has a spell to mutate the virus. That he could take the Bite and we’d be mated.”

Sam roared. This was his mate. He’d been denied before, but not this time. Glenna was his. His control was gone, his mate was threatened. His wolf took over and he shifted, unable to stop. He flung himself to the end of the chains, over and over, trying to break free.

“Sam, stop! Sam, you have to listen.”

Glenna’s voice calling to him permeated the fog of anger and adrenaline. He shook his head. The collar that had fit his throat as a human choked him with its tightness.

“Sam, I wish I could touch you.” He could hear the need in Glenna’s voice and it stoked his urgency. He was stronger in this form, and now that he had control again and could think like a human, he turned his attention to the ring in the concrete floor. Was it loose? If he could get free, he could get Glenna free, and they could get the hell out of there.

The ring was battered and rusty. It looked like it had been there for years.  He pawed at it. Yes, it was starting to loosen. He pulled at his collar, yanking and tugging, trying to work pressure on the ring.

There was the sound of an engine pulling up outside.

“Hurry, Sam.”

He scratched at the concrete, working his paws until they bled and the setting of the iron fastener wiggled back and forth, but the ring was still attached.

A car door slammed outside and the barn door opened. Alastair walked in, dressed in a flowing robe and carrying candles and tools. “Ah, I see you’re awake.”

Sam lunged. The collar jerked him to a halt and he fell to the floor.

“You won’t get away with this.” Glenna’s voice was stronger now, and both he and his wolf glowed with approval. She was sexy, sassy, and smart. She wouldn’t give up and she’d never let him give up. She was perfect for him, and his wolf.

“And why not?” Alastair set his candles down and took up a broom, sweeping the cement floor free of debris before taking chalk and drawing a circle on the floor.

“I’ll tell everyone what you’ve done. I will never be your mate.”

“You will be my mate, and your wolf will be loyal to me. Once you’ve taken the Bite, you will have no choice but to support me. Mates die before betraying their own.” He drew a pentagram within the circle and placed candles at each of the points. Sam lunged, jerking the chain hard, strangling himself again and again until he fell to the ground struggling for breath.

“Sam will tell them.”

“I was worried about that. I wasn’t sure what I should do about it, but I just finished talking to Caleb. We had an interesting discussion. He seems to think Sam has the fever, and looking at his slobbering, desperate face, I agree.” He pulled a crimson silk cloth out of his box of supplies and spread it carefully in the center of his drawing. “In fact, I think he’s past the turning point. Look at him.”

Sam drove himself to the end of the chain again. His vision clouded as his oxygen choked off.

“His wolf is driving him—all instinct, no brain. You see, if Sam doesn’t become your mate soon, he won’t be able to hang on to what’s left of his humanity. He survived this once, but everyone knows he nearly lost it. This time, I’ll make sure he goes wolf and runs off into the woods. There won’t be enough human left to even remember himself, let alone you. Or me.”

He assembled an odd selection of tools: a wand, a long curved tooth, a syringe, and a brown glass bottle sealed with a glob of purple wax. He laid them on the crimson silk, fussing with them until they lay just so.

“What is all that?” Glenna asked, but she thought she knew. These were the things he’d use to bind her to him forever. Her wolf wanted out. She could feel it pulsing at the base of her spine, rippling under her skin. It was strong, so strong. It knew it could take him. But they were still behind bars so she held it back with all her strength. She wanted her brain in charge and not the wolf’s.

“This is what we use when we administer the virus during the adolescents’ ceremony. It’s how they become infected.”

The memories of a shadowy figure holding her down in the parking lot, hitting her until she couldn’t fight anymore, raced through her. Flashes of a tooth slashing at her skin. She wanted to curl up into a ball, but her wolf was there. She wasn’t alone. “You infected me.”

“That dreamwalker was supposed to keep you from remembering. We had it all set up. But it won’t matter soon.”

Serena. Glenna’s jealous wolf growled, but Glenna shook her head. Serena had definitely hid her attacker from her at first, but she’d worked hard in the end to help her see him.

“You gave me the virus. Why didn’t you take me as your mate then?”

“I would have, but you had to process it first. The others just died when I gave the virus to them, they never reached the change. If I’d mated with them, I’d have gone crazy from their deaths. No, better to have you prove you can survive, then give you the mating Bite.”

Her empty stomach turned over. “You infected other women? How many? Who were they?”

“Only three.” He looked at her in surprise. “Are you concerned about them? Don’t worry, they didn’t make it. We have a better ratio of survivals in the pack. But then again, we receive the virus as adolescents, not adults.”

Something struck her. “You said ‘we’ earlier. Who’s helping you? Is it Serena?”

He turned back to his work, hiding what he was doing with his body. “I need you to be a good girl—I don’t want to hurt you any more than I have to.” He came back over to the cage, his right hand hidden in his robe. He reached into the cage, grabbing for her arm, but she darted away. “Hold still!”  A glint from the needle of the syringe in his hand caught her eye.

Sam was frothing at the mouth and throwing himself again and again to the end of his chain. Alastair had said he might never come back from this. She had to get them both free, before it was too late.

“If I can’t give you the sedative you’ll have to be chained up.” It hit her. Alastair didn’t know she’d changed.

Her wolf pushed at her. It was sure it could protect them better. A section of her brain that she didn’t even know she had opened up. Something deep and primeval that understood the wolf but was also human. She could see now, how the hunt should go, and knew she had to wait. The wolf was her best weapon, but the timing had to be perfect.

Alastair carefully went around the other side of the cage, avoiding Sam’s sharp teeth and came back with another set of chains. He carried them to the cage, dropping them next to the door, and unlocked it, tucking the keys in a pocket in his robe. She stayed warily to the back, mindful of the syringe he held.

“Come here now, my sweet. One little prick and this will become very easy.”

“No way.” She wasn’t scared anymore. She knew what to do.

He entered the cage. Now! She twisted away from him and let her wolf free. The shift happened in mid-air. One minute she was nearly within Alastair’s grasp, his fingers scraping at her arm, and the next she was a wolf.

“You bitch!” He grabbed for her ruff, his hand sliding through the fur as she twisted out of his grasp and ran for the cage door.

Her human brain thought, shut the door, shut him inside! But her wolf was in control. She darted out of the cage and ran for Sam. His eyes were wild as he pulled and pulled, claws scraping the cement.

“Get back here.” Alastair was out of the cage and right behind her. He reached for her, twisting. The keys flew out of his pocket and landed across the room with a clang. There was a glint of the needle in his hand flashing by her face as she dove for Sam. Together they turned, and faced her nemesis—side by side. Sam’s wolf and her wolf, tooth and jowl. Her wolf was pleased—they’d fight together. But inside she knew, she’d lost the advantage.

“Well now. We do have a situation here.” Alastair backed up to the barn door and closed it. “But don’t worry. I’m used to dealing with things of this nature. Young shifters are prone to losing control and I have ways to deal with them.” He swung a heavy bar into place, anchoring the barn shut with a weighty thump.

Glenna nosed at Sam’s neck. It was bleeding from the collar. She whined. Sam shook his head, flecks of foam flying, and bumped her with his nose. Her wolf understood.

Don’t be distracted. Focus on the threat.

She faced Alastair. Now that the threat was a few feet away, it got easier to think above the wolf, to think with the wolf. They had one goal: kill the beast.

Glenna looked at the wall where the keys to Sam’s chains now lay on the ground. She would have to be fast to get them, but she’d also have to be human to use them. She eased around to Sam’s other side, two steps closer to the keys. She checked on Alastair, and her blood went cold. He was at the front of the barn loading a long needled dart into a tranquilizer gun.

They were out of time. Her wolf pushed her to go for him, take him down, but Glenna wrestled control and reached for the shift. She was at the keys in one giant leap falling on top of them as she changed from wolf to human.

Bang! There was the sound of a shot and the wall next to her face thudded with the impact of the sharp point of a tranquilizer dart.

“Damn!” Alastair reached for another dart.

She grabbed the keys and ran the few feet back to Sam. No time. No time. She reached out to his collar and felt a sharp pain in her thigh. She struggled through the rising haze to lift her hands to the collar, and managed to fit the key inside the lock. But the world blurred out. Her limbs got heavy and she couldn’t get her fingers to manipulate the key.

“Turn damn you,” she whispered and collapsed. She couldn’t move and lay frozen on the floor, but she could still see Alastair as he grabbed her feet and dragged her away from a frantic Sam and across the concrete, into the chalked circle.