Chapter 20
Nadia gasped as the hood was ripped off her head.
Firelight slammed into her eyes, bright and violent, making her blink as heat washed over her face. She tried to move but only rocked the chair she was sitting on. Freezing metal scraped against the icy ground. Flames roared in front of her, wild and uneven, throwing sparks up into the snowy air.
Her head throbbed. Her neck burned.
She sucked in a breath and turned her head.
Luca sat to her left, bound to a chair identical to hers. His face was split and swollen, blood dried dark along his jaw and temple. One eye was already purpling shut. His jacket was torn open, and his chest rose shallowly as if every breath hurt.
He’d fought. Hard.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice raw.
“Yes. Are you?” His chin dipped, then lifted again. “You were out forever.”
Her stomach dropped. She blinked, trying to piece together how she’d gotten there. The mine. The slab. The dart. Darkness. Now fire and snow and pain. “I don’t remember,” she said. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” he answered quietly. “I was out too. Tried to fight. They hit you with more darts than me.”
That explained the ache in her neck. It felt bruised deep to the bone. She tested the ropes behind her back. They were thick and tight with no give. Her wrists were numb. She glanced down and saw her ankles bound to the chair legs with the same heavy cord. Her pulse started to race.
Movement flickered beyond the fire.
Three shapes stepped forward, their outlines wavering in the heat. The firelight caught a male with pale hair and a sharp profile.
Nadia inhaled slowly, carefully, and sorted through the scents riding the air. Her breath stuttered. “Ravencall?” she asked.
“Yes,” Luca said, his voice bitter.
She turned toward him. “But you said you were Ravencall.”
“I am,” he said. His gaze lifted past her, locking onto the tallest figure. His voice hardened. “Merritt. This is treason.”
The man circled the fire, his boots crunching on frozen ground. He moved with easy grace, and long white hair hung loose down his back. When he stopped in front of Nadia, he crouched, resting on the balls of his feet, pale blue eyes intent.
“You shot me,” she said, her memory partially returning.
“Yeah, about that.” He leaned closer. “I’m Merritt. Sorry about the darts. I misjudged how many to hit you with.”
“Am I supposed to say thank you?” Nadia snapped. “I’m tied to a chair.”
His mouth twitched. “You’re alert. That’s good.”
“Merritt,” she said flatly. “I’ve never heard of you.”
“That just changed.” He straightened slightly. “You’re Nadia Nightsom.”
The rope cut into her wrists, sending pain up her arms. “Hodge. Not Nightsom,” she corrected.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re the heir to the Slate Pack, name or not.” Merritt glanced over at Luca. “I’m the Alpha of the Ravencall wolves now.”
“Bullshit,” Luca snarled, straining against his restraints.
“Deal with it,” Merritt said, sounding bored. “I took over yesterday.”
Luca’s face went white. “The enforcers wouldn’t allow it.”
“They’re dead,” Merritt replied carelessly. He turned back to Nadia and smiled. “Now you and I need to come to an agreement.”
Panic grabbed her around the throat, and she tried to concentrate, tugging with her right arm.
She had to get free. The fire cracked and shifted, sending a wash of heat across her face before the wind tore it away again.
Where were they? “What kind of agreement?” she asked. Was her thumb getting free?
Merritt watched her in silence for a long moment. “Mate me and live.”
“My pack will kill you,” she hissed, rolling her shoulders and testing the ropes again. Her wrists burned. The knots were tight and deliberate. Whoever had tied them knew what they were doing.
“The Slate Pack is fractured,” he said. “I’ve heard about the trials and the old laws dragging everyone backward. That makes it vulnerable.”
They really needed to come into the current times. She pulled, and the rope cut her thumb. “The laws protect my pack. We follow the rules until they’re rightfully changed.”
“Rules only matter when everyone agrees to follow them,” he countered.
She pulled her feet back and yanked again. The rope held fast around her boots. Her calves screamed in protest. “Everyone chooses to follow them.”
“My proposal is simple,” Merritt continued. “You mate with me. We return to Slate territory. Anyone who resists is removed. Cleanly. The pack stabilizes.”
She stared at him. “No.”
He studied her expression, searching for hesitation. “Then I kill Luca,” he said calmly.
Luca snorted. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
Nadia glanced at Luca, who was still bleeding from the mouth. “Sorry, Luca.”
Merritt laughed out loud. “I like you. This plan has come together nicely.”
Plan? Seriously? Suspicion rippled through her. “Did you poison the tea?”
He frowned, peering closer into her eyes. “Tea? What tea? Are you still under the influence from the dart?”
The guy had no idea what she was talking about. “No. But I’ll make you a deal. Let us go now, and I won’t let my entire pack hunt you down.” She wouldn’t be able to stop Caidrik, but that was Merritt’s problem.
His mouth curved into a faint smile. He reached out and brushed snow from her chin, fingers lingering for a second too long. His touch was cold. “You’re a quick thinker. That’s good. A mate needs to see the board clearly.”
Luca jerked his feet, but his ropes didn’t give. “You can’t enter the trials this late, asshole.”
“I’m not entering them,” Merritt replied. “I’m ending them.”
Nadia exhaled slowly. “My pack will kill you.”
“Not if I have the heir at my side.”
The fire popped loudly. Smoke rolled low across the ground.
Nadia leaned back against the chair and closed her eyes for half a second.
Her right hand slipped free of the rope with a sudden give that sent pain screaming up her arm.
The fibers burned against her skin and scraped bone.
She stilled instantly, breath locked in her chest, pulse pounding so hard she could feel it in her ears.
“Listen,” she said carefully, keeping her voice steady.
“I appreciate the drama. Really. But that’s not how the Slate Pack works. Tradition matters to all of us.”
“I’ll kill your sister and your father,” he said calmly. “If you don’t follow my lead.”
The words landed clean and sharp.
Fear finally punched through the fog still clinging to her head. Her ears rang. Heat flooded her face.
“Merritt,” Luca said hoarsely. “This is a mistake. It’s bad for the Slate Pack and it’s bad for the Ravencalls. We had a plan.”
“I changed it.” Merritt leaned in closer to her. “Your sister and father. Dead or alive?”
Nadia couldn’t breathe. She had one hand free. “You’re full of shit. Where are they right now?”
His hand slid up her calf. The touch was wrong.
Her gaze dropped just enough to see that the knife strapped to his thigh sat loose in its sheath. Poorly secured. Arrogant. He’d assumed she was helpless.
“Philip’s on a cruise,” he said. “Emily’s in Granite territory. I’ve got snipers on both. So choose carefully.”
Her stomach went cold. “If anything happens to my sister,” Nadia said softly, “Jackson Tryne will tear you apart inch by inch.”
Merritt smiled, one jagged canine flashing in the firelight. “If my sniper takes Emily, he takes Jackson too. I’m not stupid.” His hand pressed harder into her knee.
Panic roared through her body. He knew exactly where Emily and Philip were. Did he really have snipers on them? She turned her head and sneezed hard.
Merritt leaned back a fraction. Just enough.
She lunged, wrenching the knife free from his sheath and driving it into his ribs in one brutal motion. The blade sank deep. Hot blood spilled over her fingers.
Merritt snarled, the sound tearing from his throat as he staggered backward and crashed into the fire. Flames roared upward, sparks shooting into the air. Then he shrieked.
Nadia didn’t wait.
She sliced through the rope on her left wrist too fast, too deep. Pain crackled as the blade cut into her skin, and warm blood spilled over her fingers. She bit back a cry as Merritt howled.
The other two males dragged him out of the fire, slapping at the flames.
She slashed through the ropes at her ankles, freeing her boots, and scrambled toward Luca. She was behind him in seconds, sawing through his restraints just as Merritt lunged for her.
A massive black wolf exploded out of the trees.
Caidrik!
He hit Merritt mid-shift, the impact sounding like bone on bone. The Alpha’s roar ripped through the clearing, primal and furious, shaking snow from the branches overhead. They rolled together across the frozen ground, claws and fists and teeth flashing in the firelight.
Nadia was thrown aside by a shockwave of power when Merritt shifted fully.
The other two males shifted and attacked Luca.
Nadia tumbled across the snow, breath knocked from her lungs, rolling dangerously close to the fire.
A smaller wolf darted between her and the flames, skidding sideways and slamming its body into hers. It grabbed her arm gently but firmly and dragged her back.
“Taryn?” Nadia gasped.
Taryn nodded once, eyes blazing, then turned and launched herself at the wolves attacking Luca. They collided in a snarl of teeth and fur, bodies crashing into the snow as Luca finally freed his feet and joined the fight, still in human form.
Nadia tried to shift.
Nothing happened.
She tried again.
Still nothing.
Panic surged throughout her body, cold and suffocating. One of the wolves escaped the melee and stalked toward her, saliva dripping from its snarling maw. Taryn and Luca battled the other wolf, spraying blood.
Then another blur of motion tore out of the tree line.
Solomon.
Nadia knew it was him without seeing his face. In wolf form, Solomon slammed into the attacker mid-air, jaws locking around its throat as they hit the ground hard. She scrambled backward on hands and heels, her injured wrist throbbing, blood slicking her palm.
The fight was brutal and fast.
Caidrik and Merritt tore into each other with raw violence, snow and dirt spraying as they crashed through trees and rock.
Merritt fought dirty. Caidrik fought to end it.
The Alpha’s strength broke through first. His jaws closed around Merritt’s throat, crushing and relentless, until the other wolf went still.
Taryn fought like fire.
She moved with terrifying precision, ripping into the wolf threatening Luca, her teeth and claws working in ruthless coordination.
Solomon finished the last wolf moments later, though Taryn was already there, backing him up, blood staining her muzzle.
Silence fell hard.
Caidrik shifted back mid-stride and ran for Nadia. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” she said faintly.
He angled her wrist toward the firelight. “You’re bleeding.”
Taryn shifted too, rising naked and fierce in the firelight, snow falling over her shoulders. “Why didn’t you shift?”
“I don’t know,” Nadia said. “I couldn’t.”
“Me either,” Luca muttered, blood sliding from his mouth. “Must’ve been the darts.”
How long would the drugs be in her system? She needed to shift to heal herself.
Caidrik crouched and studied her wrist closer. “You might need stitches.”
“I can heal it,” she said stubbornly, even as her body felt hollow and off.
“We’ll see,” Caidrik said softly.
She looked at the dead wolves. At the blood in the snow. At Taryn, who had fought like a warrior while Nadia had failed to shift at all.
Luca spoke quietly. “They brought us in a vehicle. It’s just around the bend.”
“All right,” Caidrik said. He lifted Nadia into his arms, holding her close against his heated chest.
She rested her forehead against him, shaken and exhausted. Blood flowed freely from her wrists, and her head felt like she’d been kicked in each ear. Worse yet, her heart ached. In the fight, she’d been of absolutely no use at all.