Chapter 3
Brierley straightened and looked at the hardwood floor in the cabin, which was gleaming in the sunlight. There was something very satisfying about the way wood looked when it was clean and oiled. A job well done.
She’d never thought she’d be happy cleaning cabins in the Pennsylvania mountains, but she’d enjoyed her life more in the last few months than she had in all her years before. As a female owl shifter, her people believed she was born to be a servant – a mate ready to please her husband anytime, a mother to as many fledglings as possible, a cook, a cleaner, and all the other duties that came along with running a household. She might not have minded that life if she could’ve chosen her own mate, but her people didn’t believe in truemates. The king chose the mates, and he never considered the females’ opinions on the matter.
Aside from often matching old males with young females for mates, their people also had a ceremony that went along with the mating, which was done in full view of the entire nest. The chosen female would be drugged into a sexual frenzy, and given to the male the king had chosen for her to mate with in front of the nest. Male owls glowed when they were turned on, almost feeding off the sexual energy of the mating couple. Brierley had seen it happen many times as she’d gotten older, and she’d known that her own time was limited before the king would mate her with a male she didn’t love.
So she’d slipped away to a human town and had sex with a human male, hoping that not being a virgin would make her less desirable as a mate. It hadn’t worked. The king had chosen a male for her who was old and cruel, and the rumors in the nest were that he’d beaten his first mate to death. She’d taken one look into his eyes and known that her life would be hard and loveless.
Seizing the opportunity of strangers stumbling into their midst, she’d snuck away on her mating night with a trio of hyena shifters and their shared wolf mate, who had agreed to help her make a new life for herself. Some owls had come to the wolf pack looking for her, but she’d already left with her human friend, Angel, and moved to New Hope, where she worked as a jill-of-all-trades at the Clear Water Campground.
For the last nine months, she’d been cleaning her way through the cabins in the camp, and enjoying the hell out of being free to do what she wanted. She wouldn’t have thought that freedom would come in the form of a scrub brush and bucket, but with the hyena shifters who ran the campground, and her friend Angel and her new mates, Ian, Brin, and Quill, Brierley felt more at home than she ever had before.
“Hey hon,” Ally said. “The floor looks great in here!”
“Thanks,” Brierley said, wiping her hands on her jeans and standing.
“I came by to see if you wanted me to help you make curtains for your cabin.”
Brierley smiled. After Angel had met her hyena mates in the woods, they’d chosen to move into another cabin on the other side of the campground. Brierley knew that Ally was worried that she’d feel lonely, but she didn’t mind having the cabin to herself. It was three bedrooms, and had beautiful hardwood floors that she’d painstakingly cleaned and refinished once she and Angel had moved in. She just needed new curtains.
“I’d love your help.”
“Great! I also made cookies. Because it’s good to have snacks when you’re working.”
Brierley grabbed her cleaning supplies, locked the cabin door, and walked with Ally back to the main cabin, where she and her mates lived. It also doubled as the registration desk for campers. There was a commercial kitchen off the registration area, and Ally had a sewing room set aside with a few machines and lots of supplies. Brierley had been taught to sew as a young girl, and her favorite thing to make was children’s clothing. She didn’t think there was much chance of her having kids anytime soon, but maybe Angel and her mates would have a baby and she could make something cute for them.
Ally opened a cabinet where she kept bolts of fabric, and Brierley examined the different colors and patterns. A navy-blue fabric caught her eye; she pulled the bolt from the shelf and rubbed the fabric between her finger and thumb. It was soft and thick.
“I was thinking about a simple valance for my bedroom,” she said. “I like this color a lot.”
Ally’s brow arched. “It’s not super feminine. Do you want to add lace details or soften it up with ribbon?”
“No. I think it will be nice the way it is.”
“All right, as long as you’re happy, I’m happy.”
“Aw.” Brierley smiled.
After finding a pattern, they began to measure and pin the material. Brierley had thought of Ally as a very good friend all these months, but she also thought of her as an older sister, too. Like Angel, Ally watched out for her and wanted her to be happy. She owed a good portion of her wonderful life to Ally and her mates’ generosity, and knew she’d never be able to repay them for their kindness.
When they’d finished the two curtains for the windows in the master bedroom, Ally walked with her to her cabin and helped her install them. The room had been Angel’s when they’d lived together, but after she mated her males and moved out, Brierley had decided to take the room for herself. It was bigger, and had a nice view of the woods outside.
“These look really nice,” Ally said as she folded up the stepladder. “You’re right, the color suits the room.”
Brierley had felt drawn to the color immediately, although she couldn’t explain why. She was very happy that she’d decided to go with her gut feeling. “Thanks for your help.”
“Of course!” Ally pursed her lips and then said, “Are you okay to be here alone? You and Angel lived together for so long, and you’re a little removed from things back here.”
“I appreciate your asking, but I’m fine. I don’t mind living on my own, and everyone is just a phone call away.”
“Good point. Join us for dinner?”
“Thanks, but I’m going to make a frozen pizza and veg out.”
“If you want to hang out tomorrow, let me know.”
“I’m probably just going to putter around the cabin, clean and do laundry.”
“Oh, exciting,” Ally said with a chuckle.
“You know it.”
After saying goodbye, Brierley turned the oven on and baked the frozen pizza, adding sliced mushrooms and pepperoni to the plain cheese. She couldn’t shake the anxiety that coursed through her every time she thought about going to bed. She hadn’t dreamed about her mate again, but she kept hoping that she’d see him another time. She’d prefer to be with him in real life, but she didn’t know where he was or even his name. He said he’d find her, but how could he find her when he didn’t even know where she lived? For all she knew, he didn’t even live in Pennsylvania.
Ignoring the pang that speared through her when she thought of facing another day alone, she turned on the TV and ate dinner. When it was time for bed, a little earlier than she usually would’ve gone to sleep, she showered and shaved her legs carefully. Then she opened her dresser drawer and looked at the contents.
She normally slept in a long t-shirt and nothing else, but as she’d showered and gotten ready for bed, she’d decided it would be nice to wear something else. Not that anyone would be seeing it but her. She’d been alone since Thursday night, when Angel and her mates had officially moved into a bigger cabin. She wasn’t scared to be alone, but she did miss having someone else in the house.
Her thoughts drifted to her dream man. Oh, how she wished she knew where he was or when he would find her. She wasn’t sure how someone went about finding a dream mate, but he had seemed so sure. Just in case she happened to see him in her dreams that night, she lifted out the only sexy thing she owned – a blue satin baby doll with matching panties. She’d bought it on a whim when she shopped online for new undies and bras, but she’d never worn it.
She slipped the soft material over her and pulled the panties up, then went into the bathroom and looked at herself. She brushed her long white hair until it shone, and then leaned against the counter and stared at her reflection. “Something’s in the air,” she said out loud. “I don’t know what, but I hope I meet my big mate tonight.”
Smiling at her reflection, she turned off the light and climbed into bed. She closed her eyes and willed herself to dream of her mate, vowing that she’d first ask him where he lived and what his name was, and then she’d get some more of his fabulous kisses.
* * *
A creaking sound woke Brierley a few hours later. She held her breath and listened intently, wondering if she’d dreamed the noise. Then she heard it again, closer to her bedroom. Her owl’s first impulse was to open the window, shift, and fly to safety before whoever was making her floors creak got to the bedroom. Even though she knew that was smart, something kept her on the bed. She sat up and drew the covers to her waist, staring at the closed door.
The door creaked loudly as it opened, and she heard a man grunt in annoyance. The barrel of a gun appeared, and her heart began to beat out a staccato rhythm in her chest.
She said loudly, “You don’t have to shoot me. What do you want?”
The door opened fully and a man stood in the doorway, pointing the gun at her. “Are you Ian’s mate?”
They had come to kidnap her friend? How rude!
“His mate doesn’t live here, but I do. So I’ll ask again, what do you want?”
The man moved into the room, followed by two others. “I’m Wallace. Do you know Ian?”
He didn’t put the gun away, but he did drop it to his side, which made some of the nerves rioting in her belly settle. She suspected he didn’t see her as a threat, and to be honest, she wasn’t going to be one. He was big, and so were the two guys behind him. Even if she could shift and take flight, she’d still have to go over their heads to get out and they’d catch her for sure.
“What do you want with him?”
Wallace snapped his fingers, and the males rushed the bed, grabbing her arms and hauling her onto the floor. Pain swept up her legs as she landed on her knees in front of Wallace. She hissed out a breath and lifted her head to glare at him for the rough and unnecessary treatment.
It was then that she caught the scent of leather and vanilla. She inhaled, and found the scent on Wallace’s clothes. Was her mate with Wallace? Was he being held against his will?
She rose slowly to her feet. “I’ll come with you, willingly.”
Wallace said, “I want you to get a message to Ian. Tell him that he shows up to fight next Friday night, or I’ll kill you. I’d planned to take his mate to ensure that he’d fight, but you’ll do.”
Ian would definitely kill Wallace if he’d kidnapped Angel. Brierley didn’t know Ian very well, but she knew the possessive look of a male who would kill or die before he let anything happen to his mate, and Ian looked at Angel that way. She felt that way about her own mate already, and she’d never even met him in real life. She would go willingly with Wallace because she needed to get to her mate. Wallace was using her to get Ian to fight, but she was going to use him, too. Once she found her mate, then she’d think about escaping.
It didn’t really matter if she called Ian, because he was in the throes of his mating time with Angel and all of their cells were off. As she went to her cell on the nightstand, one of the males grabbed her phone and said, “Not so fast.”
He handed the phone to Wallace, who clicked around on the screen and then typed. “I’m telling him you’ll be safe until Friday.”
“Thanks for the reassurance,” she said dryly.
“You’re not crying for help or panicking.” He tossed her phone to the bed and gave her a curious look.
Wallace was clearly psycho. And she knew intimately what psychos looked like, because of the crazy males she’d grown up with, who thought nothing of using females like bargaining chips in power plays. It didn’t really matter that Wallace was a wolf, he was the same kind of despicable crazy as the males in her nest. He had a plan and he’d use anyone, innocent or otherwise, to accomplish it. She didn’t really care what his end game was, because he smelled of her mate and she was going to get to him, come hell or high water.
She stared at Wallace. “Would it change anything? Would turning into a puddle of weeping goo do any good?”
It crossed her mind to ask him about the scent on his clothes, but she opted to keep her mouth shut. She didn’t trust him as far as she could kick him, and she absolutely didn’t want to give him any leverage on her.
Wallace chuckled. “I like you. I hope you survive.”
Someone touched her neck, and then everything went dark.