CHAPTER 37
BLANCHETTE
The blindfold bit into my temples. Fabric rough against my eyes, the knot biting into the back of my head every time I moved.
Rope cut my wrists where they’d been tied too long, cutting off my circulation.
Through my jeans, I could feel the cold stone ground.
Mountain air slid over my skin, sharp and thin.
Don’t panic, I repeated to myself.
Voices drifted nearby.
“…he said to hold her until it’s done. Boss doesn’t want any mistakes. No touching. No games.”
An annoyed rumble. A nervous laugh followed.
I kept my breathing shallow, careful not to draw attention to myself, piecing together what I could from scraps of sound.
Jonathan.
So, I was the collateral. A hostage dressed up as a bargaining chip.
My chest tightened painfully. I tried to move my wrists again, testing the knot.
It didn’t give. Whoever had tied me up had done a professional job.
I swallowed past the dryness in my throat and forced my breathing to slow. In. Out. In. Out.
Guilt came fast and vicious. If I hadn’t gone into that room, if I hadn’t looked where I wasn’t supposed to, if I’d trusted my instincts instead of my curiosity…Jonathan wouldn’t be facing Erik alone.
What if he got hurt? Erik never played fair.
I swallowed hard, fighting the sting behind my eyes.
Footsteps approached. The men around me shifted.
One of them cleared his throat and greeted, “Fang.”
Fang answered, “Where is he?”
“The Circle…deal should be done soon,” the man answered.
There was a soft sound like fabric shifting, then footsteps coming closer before they stopped in front of me.
Then Fang’s voice hummed like a predator circling with interest. “And her?” His hand gripped my jaw, tilting my face, and a bite of cold fear chilled my blood. He inhaled slowly, like a wolf confirming prey.
I held perfectly still, terrified but not wanting to show it.
The man spoke again. “Orders were to keep her secured until—”
“The deal is done?” Fang interrupted, a smile in his voice now. “Yeah, I know the plan.” Something in his tone shifted. Subtle. “But plans change.”
I felt it before I heard it. There was a palpable shift in tension before—
“Wait!” someone cried.
The first growl tore through the night, deep and ravenous.
The sounds that followed crashed around me all at once—snarls, bone cracking, wet impacts. The first scream came so fast my brain didn’t register it until the second one joined it. Then something heavy landed on the ground close to me.
I froze, blind and helpless, heart slamming so hard it felt like it might shatter my ribs.
There was no way to shut the sounds out. Terror crawled up my spine. Another scream. Shorter. A gurgle. The smell of blood thickened, metallic and suffocating.
The screams ended. The silence that followed was worse.
Fingers slid under the blindfold for a moment. I flinched, unable to keep the small whimper from sounding, and the blindfold was ripped away. Light stabbed my eyes. Moonlight, harsh and silver.
I was sitting at the base of a granite outcrop that rose like a broken molar from the mountain. Above me, the slope angled up toward jagged ridges, black against the sky. Pines clustered below.
Three bodies lay on the ground behind Fang and his men who had shifted into Lycan forms. Erik’s men were on the ground.
Bodies ripped to pieces, throats torn, limbs scattered, one with eyes still wide open.
I didn’t look long, feeling nausea rise.
I turned my head quickly away from the horror and retched, bile rising up my throat.
Fang stood, wearing a twisted smile. “Sorry you had to hear that.”
My wrists were suddenly free. The rope fell away as the rough fibers brushed my skin.
I stared up at him, shaking. “W-What did you do? Why?”
He crouched to my level, studying me. “I have different orders.”
My heart pounded. “But Erik—”
“Erik’s not a concern anymore,” Fang said. He continued, rising to his feet, “You’re free to go.”
Cold spread through my veins. That didn’t sound right. He was letting me walk?
He gestured toward the dark forest behind me, where the land fell away into trees and shadow. “I’m giving you a gift, human. Take it.”
“Where’s Jonathan?” I demanded, hating the way my voice shook.
Fang took one step back and spread his arms slightly, like he was presenting a stage. His expression sharpened into something cruel. “Here’s our deal, human.” He tipped his head. “I’ll give you a head start.”
The granite cliffs rose behind me in a jagged line, steep and unforgiving, the slope falling away into forest. For a split second, a memory slammed through me so hard my knees nearly gave.
A nightmare.
Wolves.
Cliffs.
A voice telling me to run.
My nightmare, the morning of my presentation. This was it. Come to life.
I forced myself to breathe through the panic “No. I’m not playing this game.”
Because I had a sick feeling I knew what would happen if I did.
“Oh, you are,” he said. “But you get to choose how.” One of the Lycans behind him chuckled. “As I said, I’ll give you a head start.”
My breath hitched.
“If you don’t,” he went on, “we’ll have fun with you anyway.”
My stomach dropped. I’d thought I was already in the worst possible situation. I was wrong.
The implication was clear: Run, or be taken apart where I stood.
One of the Lycans behind him chuckled. Another shifted, like he was settling into a ready stance.
Behind me, the wind hissed through the pines like a warning. Somewhere down the mountain, I heard the sound of a siren. Thin and distant, like an echo of civilization crying uselessly against the dark.
My heart sunk. Jonathan was with Erik and his pack…alone.
And I was with Fang and his men, here…alone.
I took one slow breath through my nose, lifted my chin, met Fang’s eyes, and promised him, “You’re going to regret this.”
Amused, Fang raised his hand and held up two fingers. “Two minutes.” He snapped his fingers. “Make it fun. We do like the chase.”
I turned and ran down the slope, into the darkness.
Branches tore at my clothing, rocks slid under my sneakers. My lungs burned almost immediately with panic making every breath I took, shallow. I stumbled, caught myself, then kept going, tears blurring my vision.
Thoughts fractured and scattered—Jonathan’s face, Everwick, June’s kitchen, Megan’s laugh. A thousand things I wasn’t ready to lose.
Behind me, I heard nothing. The only loud thing in the still night was the thundering beat of my heart.
My legs screamed as I pushed myself to run as hard and as far as I could, following the only visible open path ahead.
I didn’t know where I was going. This wasn’t a part of the forest Jonathan had ever brought me to.
It wasn’t as ominous as the Whispering Woods but close enough.
As I raced forward blindly, the forest closed in until the trail split suddenly into two directions.
I skidded to a stop, chest heaving, trying to control my heartbeat. Which way?
Then suddenly, a sound cut through my panic—a rush of air, soft and graceful. An owl swooped down and landed on a low branch cross from me.
It was a fair size with pale feathers marked by strange flecks of white-and-silver markings that glimmered faintly in the dark.
Its large eyes caught the moonlight and fractured it, shimmering like glass. Deep blues and purples layered with tiny points of light, like tiny galaxies were trapped behind its gaze. The longer I looked, the deeper they seemed to go.
I stared, breath caught.
The owl looked at me. Then turned its head deliberately toward the path on the left…and waited.
The anxiety in my chest eased and a strange, steady calm washed over me.
The owl lifted silently and glided down the left path, slow as if asking me to follow it. Behind me, branches snapped, and I heard footsteps growing louder.
I didn’t think. I followed the owl.
As I ran, I silently prayed a single, desperate hope into the dark. Please let this be the right choice. Please let me live long enough to see him again.
And then the forest swallowed me whole.
Behind me, I heard it. Low at first, then rising.
Howling.
The hunt had already begun.