Elianna rolled over rocks and sticks that stabbed her. Her body would look like a black-and-blue human canvas if she survived.

She kept expecting to roll off the mountain and plunge thousands of feet to her death. 

She had to stop now.

Cazador had shot twice. Justin was hurt. He needed her. 

Without thought to the risk of breaking a bone, she shoved a leg out to use as an anchor.  A tree whacked the back of her calf, bringing tears to her eyes, but that slowed her momentum a little and sent her rolling away to the side.

She hit a bush and flopped around it, but bent her knee to catch her lower leg in the branches. That worked.

Struggling for air, she jerked her foot free and scrambled over on all fours. 

The chain snatched tight around her neck.

She looked up to find that the miserable wolf had her again.

Was Justin dead?

No, her bear grumbled.  Bear hurt. 

Her bear said Herc was hurt? That would mean Justin had lived. 

Cazador’s hand holding the weapon shook. Anger wiped away his cocky calm.  “Your mate’s dead, but let’s be honest. We both know that bear isn’t your mate.”

How could this man know that?  “He is mate.” In her heart, she would never have another.

“Bullshit. Your mate, or the one who was supposed to get stuck with you, is the one flipping a bundle to keep you out of his hair. It’s now clear why spending that much money is worth every penny.”

Clan Boudreaux wanted her dead? No, worse than dead.  They sold her to a criminal pack of wolves. 

“So it’s just me and you.”  He swung the end of the chain back and forth.  The side of his face bled where the chain had caught him when she’d jerked away. “Once I lock you in my transport van, you owe me some one-on-one time before I hand you off. Never fucked a princess before.  Maybe I’ll get my dick gold plated after that,” he said, regaining his confidence. “Turn around and walk, princess. Every time you slow down, you will feel the burn of this titanium chain slashing your back.”

“You die screaming.”

He laughed. “Oh, big talk.”

Kill wolf. Find mate. Kill wolf now, her bear demanded.

Elianna had never heard her bear in such a state of upset, but she could do nothing yet.  Patience, she told her bear, needing to watch for a way to escape and get back to Justin.

No. No. No. 

Now she could appreciate how that word rubbed on Justin. Elianna said, I have collar. Can. Not. Shift.

Her bear roared. It shocked Elianna.

“Get up,” the wolf ordered. 

She struggled to her feet and tried to push the hair out of her eyes, which was not easy with her hands cuffed.

He whipped the chain up, letting it pop her in the jaw.

She flinched and tears burned the corners of her eyes, but she would not make a sound. 

“You are one tough bitch. Turn your collar around.”

When she had the collar in place, the chain dangled from the back where she couldn’t grasp it again.

Cazador said, “Lead the way.”

She kept waiting for Justin to come running through the woods to reach her. Every minute that he didn’t show up weighed heavily in favor of her bear being wrong.

Her mate could be dying back there.

Elianna took careful steps as they angled away from the mountain face and into a pocket of woods.  If she did fall, she’d take the wolf with her. 

That would be the only positive to dying. 

Over the next twenty yards, she wove up and down through gullies where downed trees made passing more difficult.  She was close to admitting defeat when she spied a dark gap in a shady area of the trees.

Was that one of those holes Justin had warned her about when they hiked up yesterday?

After giving it more thought, she believed she was correct. Maybe some deep area created when a hollow place in the mountain had caved in at some point. Small trees lay across one side of the fifteen-foot-wide gap.

How deep would it be?

Stepping more left each time, she shoved branches and limbs aside, determined to walk right past the hole. To keep the wolf from seeing it too soon or discovering why she was getting off track, she had to distract him.

She turned her head slightly then quickly faced forward again just as fast.

Her chain went taut on her next step, which meant the wolf had stopped to look at whatever she’d pretended to notice.

“What are you looking at, princess?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me, bitch.”

She turned a furious face to him and hoped he saw his death in her eyes.  “I hear noise. That is all.  You want look?”

“Not wasting time on stupid crap.”

She started walking slowly again, allowing him enough slack to look around.

Every time the chain went tight, she knew he was not paying attention to where she was headed.

That was because he would never expect her to attempt suicide.

When she was three feet from the hole, she used her shifter speed.

First she leaned back. 

Then she grabbed the bolt at the back of her collar where the chain was attached and lunged forward into the hole.

Her body weight caught four feet down and jerked her arms hard.

If she hadn’t pulled him off his feet, she would choke to death once her arms gave out.

He growled and yelled.

Rocks and dirt sprayed over the edge, hitting her in the face.

In the next second, the chain dropped her fast as the wolf fell over the side. She had no idea what waited below her, but relaxed her legs for hitting bottom.

Unless this hole went on for a kilometer.

Her bear roared at her. 

The fall seemed to take forever, but Elianna had made herself limp as a ragdoll and hit the ground thirty feet below the edge. Her next breath felt as if someone stabbed her lung. Her ribs? She rolled immediately to the side before the chain slapped the spot she’d left as gravity yanked it to the ground.

The wolf hadn’t been as well prepared. 

He smacked the ground next to her on his side. 

His chest hit then his head bounced against a rock, cracking his jaw. It distorted out of shape.

Elianna taunted, “Use filthy mouth to threaten now, wolf.” 

She’d managed to free herself, but she had to figure out how to climb out with a cracked or broken rib. 

Change, her bear told her. I heal. Now. Change now.

Elianna spoke out loud to her bear. “Can not change. Still have collar.” She could feel her agitated bear ready to go on a rampage.  Even if she could shift, she wasn’t entirely sure she could control her bear with the wolf lying close enough to shred or to convince her stubborn bear to change back to human form when Elianna needed it.

Justin was right. She had to join better with her bear. Maybe they could start now. Elianna kept her voice soft when she told her bear, “Please, need calm. I try climb.”

She got an angry bear silence for that, but it was an improvement over her bear’s sulking in the past.

Small steps.

Reaching up, she found a handhold and picked around with her foot until she found a place to step. She had never been interested in rock climbing, but as she reached for the next handhold, she mused that it must not be so difficult after all.

She’d made it halfway up when the jutted out rock she’d been holding for support pulled loose from the wall, sending her and loose dirt tumbling to the floor.

Her back hit and her head bounced.

She feared a broken neck.

Testing, she moved her arms and hands, then her legs and feet.  Felt like she’d been hit with a sledgehammer many times, but her body could still function. 

The climb proved to not be as easy as it had looked five minutes ago.

Forcing herself back to her feet, she whimpered at pain fingering through her now and searched the walls for a better place to climb.

Nothing.  The other walls were steeper, where this one had offered a slight angle.