Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
ANGEL
Nausea rises within me as my senses begin to wake. The hum of the highway, the motion of a car, and someone stroking my hair make my eyes snap open. I sit up too fast. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Lower her window,” Ronin orders.
I sit back as the window on my right lowers a few inches. The cool air helps, but I’m still in a car, moving at seventy, maybe eighty miles per hour. Ronin’s hand moves to my lower back, until I shrug it away, grab the window and push it all the way down, letting the cold strike my face full-on.
“I didn’t think the midazolam would make you this sick. It usually knocks a shifter out in a minute, with minimal side effects.”
“What the fuck, Ronin. You’ve kidnapped people before?”
“Not kidnapped as much as incapacitated in a way that doesn’t leave a trace. But you weren’t giving me any choice.”
“You have that backwards. You didn’t give me a choice. You fucking kidnapped me. Lars,” I call to the shifter driving, but take a moment to let my stomach settle. “…stop the car and let me out.”
“Sorry, Angelina. No can do. Ronin’s in charge here.”
“What exactly is going on, Ronin? You can’t force me back to our pack.”
“Our pack…. Do you hear yourself, Lina? It’s our pack.
You and your wolf knows where you belong.
This resistance is nothing more than fear of the unknown because you’ve been gone so long.
That, and the last image you have is of all the death.
We’re small, but thriving again. When we bring a lost shifter home, it helps complete us.
Once your brain finishes catching up with reality, you’ll have an easier time accepting the past and present. ”
When his hand caresses my back, I stiffen, but don’t pull away. Fighting him won’t work. It never has.
“This new pack of yours—”
“Our new pack.”
“Fine. Our new pack… do they accept shifters from other packs?”
Ronin frowns. “Are you asking if we’d accept this shifter you spoke of earlier? Garrett?”
“Yes. And any others who are lone wolves. People like me who’ve lost their pack and need a home. I’d probably be dead by now if Damien’s pack hadn’t invited me in.”
“I guess that’s one way of increasing our numbers. An idea for our alpha to mull over when there’s time.”
I’m almost afraid to ask. “Magnus survived?”
“No. My uncle died defending us. Declan took over.”
I’m not sure how I feel about that. “Which makes you his second?”
“Yes.”
I turn away from him, and look out the window. Ronin’s never been power hungry, not like his older brother. Declan’s more like Magnus, but more prone to fits of anger.
“Angel, this isn’t something I wanted.”
I whip my head toward him. “Which part? Declan rising to alpha or kidnapping me?”
“Don’t lay any of this on Declan or me. We’re victims here, and we’re doing everything we can to rebuild the pack.”
Victims. The way he uses the word doesn’t sound very alpha to me. “Let me go, Ronin. You don’t want to bring me back against my will.”
“No, I don’t. But it’s the only way.”
He faces forward again, discussion over. I always hated.
Let the enemy get comfortable, lower their guard. I never fully understood how I’d use that piece of advice Garrett gave me, until now.
I slouch in the seat and close my eyes, make it look like I’m drifting off.
Ronin and Lars discuss which route to use, whether they should have killed Pryce.
They don’t know him, don’t care to know him, but they’re worried he’ll report my disappearance.
These males who talk about killing another shifter so easily aren’t the shifters I grew up with.
Or maybe they are, but we’ve all changed to survive.
I’m no longer the supply master who takes orders from her alpha without question. The shifter who believed there are no choices in pack life, only a role to play.
Ronin will have to do more than kidnap to make me disappear from Garrett’s life. I scan the car and shifters inside. It’s another cage.
One I can escape.
I shift, and before either male can realize what I’m doing I leap through the open window… into oncoming traffic.