The inside of the SUV smelled like blood and dirt with a little sweat mixed in when I slipped in the backseat. It soured my stomach.

“Sit back and enjoy the ride,” the vampire said with a wicked grin as his eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. “It might be the last one you get for a while.”

I covered my bare chest with my arms and stared out the dark tinted window, watching as we pulled away from Eli.

Alec took off his T-shirt and handed it to me.

“Here, put this on,” he insisted.

I took the warm fabric from him and slipped it over my head. “Thanks.”

“Aw, how sweet,” the vampire teased as he watched the two of us in the mirror.

I flipped him off. Maybe it wasn’t the brightest idea I’d ever had considering my situation, but it was what I was feeling so I went with it.

Minutes passed. Weird music filtered through the speakers of the SUV. It wasn’t anything I’d ever heard before so I couldn’t use it as a distraction. It only made my anxiety worse.

Alec reached for my hand and interlaced his fingers with mine. There was a time when his touch would have calmed me, when it would’ve acted like a sedative. This was not one of those times. In fact, the time for that had long since passed. Now only Eli held that much power over me.

Still holding Alec’s hand made me feel less alone. It helped to ground me. His touch was something familiar in my unfamiliar circumstances.

I needed to be grounded.

It was the only way I would be able to keep it together. And I had to keep it together if I was going to get us out of this mess alive. Not only did I need to keep Alec safe, but I also needed to figure out how to take down Regina and rescue my pack. Then I needed to burn her place down.

Doubt crept in.

Suddenly it felt as though the weight of the world pressed against my shoulders. How could I think I would be able to do this all on my own?

My entire body trembled. I was in trouble.

Movement in the trunk pulled me from my thoughts. David was coming to. I waited for cries of pain or hysteria to echo through the vehicle, but nothing came besides a low moan. He had to feel like shit. He’d nearly been drained. I was positive he’d feel weak and would have a headache from hell. He wouldn’t be much help in getting us out of this mess. Not in the state he was in. I glanced at Alec. He wasn’t going to be much help either. He was only human.

The weight on my shoulders pressed down.

I was in this alone.

Dorian was hurt. I’d knocked Eli out. How were they going to track me now?

Tate!

Had he followed us like he was supposed to? He’d been in Eli’s truck with the engine running, waiting. How long would he have waited before deciding something must have happened to Eli and Dorian? Would he have gone to Peter’s to check on them before attempting to follow the vampires’ vehicle?

God, I hoped he was smart enough to know better.

There were headlights behind us; they illuminated the inside of the SUV, but I had no idea if they belonged to Eli’s truck. It was too dark out, and I didn’t want to risk glancing behind us. It might tip the vampire off to something.

I leaned against my seat and squeezed Alec’s hand in mine as I released a slow breath. I prayed Tate was behind us. If not, we might be seriously screwed.

“We’re going to be okay,” Alec whispered.

I shifted to face him. I knew his words had been meant to console me, but they hadn’t. They were empty words filled with broken promises. Alec didn’t know if we would be okay any more than I did.

“Keep telling yourself that.” The vampire chuckled.

I didn’t say anything. Neither did Alec.

For the remainder of the drive from Mirror Lake to the city we were all silent. Even David. I assumed it was because he’d passed out again.

Once we finally reached the outskirts of the city, it was about another twenty minutes before we stopped in front of a cute boutique shop. It was called Sassy Classy.

Why were we stopped here?

“In need of a new dress?” I asked unable to help myself. I couldn’t fathom why we were parking here.

Was this the meet up place? Were we going to be handed off like some strange drug deal going down in a parking lot?

“Funny,” the vampire said as he pulled out his cell and tapped on the screen.

Was he contacting the owner to see if they were open or another of Regina’s goons? Or maybe it was customary to get Regina a new dress before showing up. As though having exactly what she’d asked for—me—wasn’t enough. Maybe we were late and she’d need something else to appease her.

My lips twisted into a frown. I hated high maintenance women.

A few minutes passed as we continued waiting in the SUV. A light inside the shop flashed, and I suddenly knew this place was more than a dress shop.

The vampire shifted into reverse and backed out of the parking space we’d been idling in. My insides quivered as we pulled around to the back of the building. A big, burly vampire stood at the back door of the boutique. His arms were folded across his solid chest as he watched us pull up. He had to be another of Regina’s goons. He was even scarier than the one driving us.

Was this Regina’s store? Could it be a front for her werewolf smuggling, drug-making business?

Alec’s palm grew sweaty against mine, but I didn’t let go of him. I had no clue what was about to happen and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to save us from whatever awaited us beyond this point, but I was going to try. I squeezed his hand in mine, hoping to let him know.

“Here we are,” the vampire said as he shifted into park again. He cut the engine of the SUV and twisted around in his seat to stare at us. “Welcome to Sassy Classy, or in your case, hell.”

I could feel his eyes on me. His words had been meant to get a rise out of me. I gave him nothing. I did, however, add him beneath Regina’s name on my list of those I wanted to kill while taking this place down.

The vampire’s grin grew. “You want to kill me, don’t you, little wolf?”

My gaze never wavered from his. I didn’t speak, but then again I didn’t need to. He could see the answer in my eyes.

Two vampires stepped through the back door of the shop. My attention fixed on them as they started toward the SUV. There was now one vampire for each of us and one watching on the sidelines.

Awesome.

Any chance of escape before being dragged inside was out of the question. All I could do was hope they kept us together. While I didn’t care much about David being in the same room, being with Alec was my best-case scenario. That way when I did find the right moment to escape, I could take him with me and not waste time searching for him.

“Get the guys. She’s mine,” the vampire with the scar said as he slipped out of the driver’s seat and rounded the SUV.

Alec tensed. He released a deep breath and then glanced at me. “We’re going to be okay. We’re going to get through this.”

It wasn’t clear if his words were meant for himself or me.

“I know,” I said. “I’m going to make sure of it.”

The side doors and the trunk of the SUV opened at once. I stared straight ahead, refusing to react to the vampire boss being so close to me.

“Time to go, sweetheart,” he said in a singsong voice. He reached for me, but I swatted his hand away and slipped out of the vehicle on my own. I didn’t want him touching me.

“Fine.” He held up his hands. “I’ll lead the way then.”

I followed him to the back entrance of the shop. The bulky vampire I’d noticed when we first pulled behind the building took in every inch of me with his dark eyes as he held open the door. Even though I was wearing Alec’s gray T-shirt that fell an inch or two above my knees, I still felt naked under his intense gaze. I kept my chin high as I stepped past him but wished I had more clothes on.

Stepping through the back door led us into a narrow hallway. Four doors waited on either side, each of them open except for one. I gazed inside each as we passed, soaking in my surroundings as best I could. I had to pay attention. It was the only way to remember how to get back to this exit.

One of the rooms was a bathroom, another an office decorated in shades of black and pink, and the open door was a room filled with boxes.

Clothes or drugs?

The vampire I followed stopped in front of the closed door. My heart thundered against my ribs, and I knew he could hear it. I could do nothing to stop its erratic beating.

“Ready, little wolf?” he asked as he glanced over his shoulder.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said, sounding braver than I felt. My knees wobbled as my adrenaline spiked.

What waited behind that door?

“Get your hands off me,” Alec growled from somewhere behind me.

I glanced back at him. He was bucking against the vampire who’d escorted him from the vehicle. I flashed him a look that I hoped came across as simmer the hell down. He needed to chill out. If he didn’t, I was positive the guy walking him in would beat the crap out of him.

Being crammed in a narrow hallway with vampires on either side of you was not the time to resist much of anything.

The soft click of a door opening captured my attention.

The door in front of the vampire with the scar opened, revealing another storage room. What? There had to be something else here. Was some sort of magic at play? A cloaking spell? I’d heard once that was a thing, but I’d never seen one in action.

When the vampire I was following stepped into the room, I followed, knowing it was what he wanted. My gaze drifted through the tiny room. Racks of clothes decorated one wall while boxes had been stacked along another. Nothing else was in the room, except for a vibrantly colored rug on the floor.

“Not what you expected?” the vampire asked with a chuckle.

“Not at all. What is this place?” The words flew from my mouth without much thought.

The vampire motioned for the one escorting Alec to enter the room. He obeyed and bent over to roll up the rug on the floor. A door in the floor was revealed.

We were going under the building. I’d been right about the boutique being a front.

“Your final resting place.” The vampire with the scar chuckled. The vampire holding the rug laughed, and I threw up my middle finger while flashing them both a snarky grin.

Two birds in one night; this guy held my record.

“Even in the face of her own death, she’s still got spunk,” the vampire with the scar said as he stepped toward the now open trapdoor. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, you would’ve made a damn good vampire, sweetheart.”

“Too bad she’s a filthy werewolf,” one of the other vampires said. I didn’t glance around to see if it was the one holding the rug or the one dragging David along; he wasn’t worth my time.

Instead I stood at the trapdoor, struggling to determine what material it was made of. I needed to know I’d be able to lift it on my own when it came time to bust out of this place. I was positive the members of my pack wouldn’t be in good enough health to help me with it.

Metal. It was made of metal. I wasn’t sure if it was aluminum, steel, or something else, but that would determine the weight.

There had to be another way out of this place from below. I’d have to somehow find it.

I gazed into the hole. Inside was a set of concrete steps. It was the only thing I could see from where I stood. However, noises from below made their way up to me. People. Lots of people.

What the hell did Regina have going on down there? A freaking city of her own?

“After you, little wolf. Step into the rabbit hole,” the vampire with the scar insisted.