Chapter 38 #2
Thunder crashed. The rain pounded harder against the roof. She swallowed and stared blindly up at the ceiling until her vision blurred. She was parched. Her mouth caked with sand. She hadn’t had anything to drink for hours.
The silence grew thick between them. He waited for her to respond. He wanted to dangle a bit of hope, then wrench it away.
This was part of the enjoyment for him. The way wolves ran a bison to exhaustion before attacking, wearing down its hope, draining its will to live, step by despairing step.
She should ignore him. She shouldn’t give him anything. If it was her fate to die, she was determined to do it on her terms. Not by begging. Not by losing herself.
With every minute that ticked past, with every painful breath, her resolve eroded. Hope, after all, was the very last thing to relinquish itself. Even in the face of catastrophe, of devastation, of despair, hope was the thing that stubbornly held on.
The wind shrieked around the tiger house, beating the maple’s branches against the walls and roof. Thunder boomed and crashed. Nature itself shrieked its outrage.
Raven said, “What is it? Your proposal?”
Vaughn grunted. “Finally seeing reason, are you?”
“Just spit it out.”
The sharpened edge of the knife glittered.
He dragged it along the folded edges of the paper map.
“The white wolf. You came back for it, to save it. A few of the men claimed they saw you in the woods with the white wolf and the black wolf. I must admit, I am intrigued by you. A girl and a wolf, together. And not one wolf, but two. How fascinating.”
Raven said nothing. Her stomach curdled.
“You have a relationship with them. They trust you. You know where they go.”
She thought of the wolves. Of the night spent sleeping between them in the den. The steady, comforting warmth of their bodies. The coarseness of their fur against her skin, the dank feral smell of them in her nostrils. The awe and wonder and astonishment of it.
“What do you want?”
“You can take me to the wolves. The white wolf in particular.”
She closed her eyes. “You want their pelts.”
“Those wolves are like nothing I’ve ever seen.
Like the modified ones. Genetically engineered, but not like the piss-poor substitutes the labs create.
These hybrids are truly something special.
Larger than regular wolves. Stronger. Smarter, too.
You can see it in their eyes. Pure cunning.
The white one is… marvelous. He’s the alpha, there’s no doubt.
I’m an alpha. He’s an alpha.” She could sense him grinning in the dark.
His eyes shone greedily. “We’re meant for each other. ”
“Luna is indeed an alpha,” she said with grim satisfaction. “But he is a she.”
Vaughn was silent for a moment. When he spoke, his voice darkened. “What are you talking about?”
“Alpha doesn’t mean what you think it means.
” She smiled in the dark, despite the pain in her split lip, her swollen eye socket, as she recalled yet another lecture from her father.
“Wolf packs are families. The alphas are paired, male and female. They care for the pack together. In some ways, the female makes more decisions than the male. She chooses who to hunt, she picks a specific prey animal out of the herd. She instructs the other wolves when and where to strike.”
Vaughn snorted dismissively. “Enough with the silly stories. You’re talking gibberish. The white one is the male. The leader, the alpha. I want the alpha. You are wasting my time with your pathetic lies.”
He rose to his feet, stuffed her map into his jacket pocket, and sheathed his hunting knife.
His gaze raked over her, lingering on her face.
“There is a place for you in the world that remains. You are quite the specimen. Beneath the dirt and rudeness and that ugly scowl, your delicate Asian features could serve you well. You could be taught to be a proper woman. A respectful, dutiful woman. If you learn to hold that tongue and respect those empowered to rule over you.”
“Sounds like hell on earth.”
He laughed mirthlessly. “If you bring me to the wolves, to the white wolf, I will spare your life. You can join us, and one of the men will choose you. Dekker will accept it because I tell him to do so. He will have no other option. If you do not do as I’ve ordered, I’ll allow Dekker to do as he wishes with you. And that, my dear, will not be pretty.”
“You’re lying. I’m dead either way.”
His eyes flashed in the dark. He raised his voice over the crash of thunder.
“I am a man of my word. If I say it’s going to happen, then it will.
You’ve been watching us these last few days, I presume.
Then you know my men respect me. They will obey me, whether they like it or not.
It’s a generous offer. You should accept it. ”
“You can shove that offer right up your ass.”
“The choice is yours. Do as I say, and live. Or don’t, and die in agony.”
A crushing sense of powerlessness pressed against her chest like a thousand bricks. Insurmountable, hopeless. Beneath her debilitating fear, there was a low thrum like a heartbeat. Insistent, urgent, that fierce, unfaltering will to live.
I will survive this.
That powerful instinct for survival as ingrained within her as in any wild animal. That primal drive for self-preservation above all else. Above honor and goodness and even love.
Damien was right, after all. Her father was right. Even Vaughn. Humans would do anything to survive. It was their nature. It was her nature, too, in the end.
Life or death.
Death or life.
His shadow loomed over her, blocking out everything else. “Decide now.”
The wolves would come to her. She knew they would. Vaughn wasn’t wrong when he said they trusted her. They’d made her pack.
It was her only choice. Her only chance. She stared bleakly at the darkness above her. A blackness that was all-consuming, absolute.
“Well? What say you, girl? I won’t ask you again.”
The words were barbed wire on her tongue. “I’ll do it.”
“I knew you were smart.” Vaughn bent and hefted her backpack over his shoulder, shoved her tranq gun into his waistband, and turned for the door as he stood to his full height. Before ducking out into the pouring rain, he glanced back at her. “We leave at dawn.”