Chapter Forty-Two
Maya
My tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth.
My eyes feel as if they’re full of sand.
And I’m cold. So cold. A deep, penetrating chill seeps into my bones, making my teeth chatter, and my skin pucker with goosebumps.
I go to rub my eyes, but I can’t move my hands.
Why can’t I move my hands? My breathing comes out in fast pants, shallow and ragged.
I squeeze my eyes tighter shut—steeling myself for the possibilities of what I’m about to see—and then force them open.
The space I’m in is dark and dank, the air thick with the scent of mildew and something metallic, like old blood.
There are no lights, only the faintest glow filtering in from a single, grimy window set high in the bare cinder block wall.
My arms are cuffed behind my back, the cold, heavy metal biting into my wrists with every slight movement.
I strain and pull, my muscles screaming in protest, but the restraints won’t budge.
My shifter strength, the raw power I had finally embraced, has completely seeped out of me, leaving me feeling hollow and vulnerable.
Have I been drugged? The thought sends a fresh wave of panic through me.
Is that why I’m so weak? I try to call on my tiger, to feel the familiar thrum of her presence and the fierce protectiveness that is as much a part of me as my own heartbeat, but I can’t sense her.
It’s as if a thick, suffocating blanket has been thrown over our connection, silencing her completely.
I’m all alone.
I blink rapidly, trying to clear the tears welling in my eyes. Fear coils in my gut, and my heart pounds so hard it feels as if it will break out of my chest. Each thud cuts into the otherwise silent room like the telltale heart. Except instead of guilt, it’s highlighting my own damn stupidity.
What was I thinking? I didn’t even tell anyone where I was going. Panic claws at my throat, threatening my consciousness. No. I can’t fall apart right now. I need to get out of here.
Breathe in for four seconds.
Hold for four seconds.
Out for four seconds.
Hold for four seconds.
I lose track of how many repetitions I run through before I can regulate myself.
But when I’m finally breathing steadily, I scan the room.
This time looking for anything I can use to get out of here.
That’s when I realize my tiger isn’t the only thing I can’t access.
I don’t have my enhanced senses either. I can’t pick up any sounds no matter how much I strain my hearing.
I clamber onto my knees and try to stand slowly, but I’m met with a cold metal bar before I can reach my full height.
I push against it, but there’s no give. When I move a step to the side, I’m met with another bar.
Shuffling forward, I don’t need to go far to realize I’m in a cage.
Methodically, I work my way around the edges, applying pressure but finding no weak spots.
Bile swirls in my stomach as resignation dawns on me.
I’m a sitting duck with no way out, and no one is coming to save me. No one even knows where I am. I sink back down, leaning into the corner and closing my eyes. If conserving my energy is all I can do, then that needs to be my focus.
Light spills into the room I’m in, and the dull thud of heavy footfall approaches me. Two… no, three men descend the staircase. I wish I could wrap my arms around myself, but I don’t even have that facade of safety. All I can do is wait.
Brett and two others. A bulky blond Caucasian and a man who looks strikingly similar to Brett, just shorter and leaner. He must be Michael.
Brett crouches down to my level and smiles at me.
It’s nothing like the smile he gave me when we met at the restaurant; that smile had been friendly and charming, disarmingly so.
In contrast, his expression now is closer to a predatory baring of teeth than a genuine smile.
The corners of his lips curl upward, but there’s no warmth, no sincerity.
His eyes glint with a cold, calculating intelligence that sends a shiver down my spine and fills me with an immediate and visceral wave of fear and revulsion.
“Hello sister,” he says, grinning at me. “Congratulations are in order. We’ve decided to bring you in as a part of the family business.”
Family business.
The phrase conjures images of the files I spent days poring over. Icy dread, sharp and paralyzing, settles into my veins, constricting them and stealing my breath.
“Please let me go. I’m your sister,” I plead, my voice a hoarse and rasping sound. Brett laughs as he pushes himself upright, and the cruel, bitter sound pierces through the last remnants of hope I was clinging to.
“You’re nothing,” he spits from above me.
“You’re a whore’s daughter. How could you ever think we would want a relationship with you?
The operation my father ran was burned to the ground, but we will rebuild.
And you will play an integral role in that.
The first of our newest batch of assets.
We need to get you up and running as soon as possible.
Demand is at an all-time high, and the list of proclivities you will need to meet is unending.
Horrifying what some of these men want, really. ”
He laughs, that sickening sound hammering into me.
Nausea rises in my throat as one of the other men—a stocky blond—joins in.
He watches me with a practically salivating gaze.
I don’t want to think about what they are planning.
I don’t want to know how bad this is or give them the satisfaction of watching me break apart.
I need a plan.
Something. Anything that will delay this.
Long enough for someone to realize I’m missing.
Long enough for someone to start looking into things.
I was due to meet Pippa tomorrow, or is it today?
She’ll know I never would have stood her up, and I told her I had made contact with my biological family.
The dogs are home, and they’ll start howling.
The noise should alert my next-door neighbor, Mrs. Montgomery, that I’m not there.
Sofia knew I wanted to meet my biological brothers, even though I hadn’t told her I was actually going to do it.
They’re all intelligent women. They’ll figure it out.
Ryan will… I can’t think about Ryan right now. I just need to survive until someone comes for me.
“Nothing to say?” Brett taunts when I remain silent. “You were full of chatter before. Maybe she’ll make it easy on you, Phil.” Brett knocks his shoulder against the blond man standing beside him, who grins at me.
“Let’s hope not,” Phil replies as he pulls a key out of his pocket and unlocks the cage door. “Come here.”
I remain frozen in the corner of the cage. I don’t have any hope against the three of them with my tiger unavailable and my hands tied.
“I could offer you a trade,” I suggest, the words tumbling out, tasting like ash in my mouth even though I know I have no intention of ever following through on the offer.
“You have nothing to offer us that we can’t just take,” Brett replies. “You have no leverage.”
“And I have such fun plans for breaking you in,” the blond adds. His blue eyes gleam with a sickening perversion and raw, animalistic lust that makes my skin crawl.
“My mate won’t want me back unless I’m untouched,” I blurt out. “But he would trade others for me. Five for one? It’s a good offer.”
“You said she wasn’t mated,” the third man, I assume to be Michael, says.
His first words since entering the basement betray an anxious energy.
He’s not enjoying this like the other two men, I’m sure of it.
He’s obviously far from innocent, but maybe his motives are different.
Maybe he doesn’t take joy in hurting women the same way his brother and the practically salivating blond do.
“She’s not,” Brett growls before wrenching the door to the cage open. The air expels from my lungs as he reaches in and yanks me out by my ankle. I kick out, but he puts his weight on my legs, and I have no leverage for movement with my arms cuffed underneath me.
Buttons scatter across the bare concrete floor as the blond rips my blouse open. His sweaty hands roughly tilt my head to scan for the mark I haven’t let Ryan give me yet. His eyes gleam silver as he examines me. Hot, rancid breath on my skin has bile rising up my throat and tears stinging my eyes.
“She’s not marked,” he confirms, holding my face still as if to convey the message that there’s no escape. Dread churns in my gut, and my breath hitches somewhere between my throat and lungs.
“Fucking lying bitch,” Brett snarls as he stands back from my legs. “All the fucking same.”
“I’m not marked, but I do have a fated mate. He’s an alpha wolf, and he would do anything to get me back. He’ll pay, or swap me for others, or—”
“Bullshit,” Brett snaps, cutting me off. The accusation hangs in the air, sharp and undeniable. “If you had a mate, he never would have let you meet me alone.”
The words slice through the flimsy glimmer of hope I’m desperate to hang onto. The idea that I might get out of this unscathed is so na?ve. So unbelievably stupid.
And so was what landed me here. I let the connection to my tiger make me feel untouchable.
Invincible. Like I didn’t need anyone. I acted so rashly.
So damn foolishly. And for what? I have a family that loves me.
I had a man who wanted to be with me and accepted me completely. But I pushed him away.
Now I’m all alone.
And I don’t think I’m going to get out of this.
“So, can I get started?” Phil pulls me to my feet with his hand around my throat.
My mind races as I scramble to try to think of anything to delay the inevitable while he presses in, not to cut off my air supply but to make breathing harder.
To show me how little control I have. How at their mercy I am.
“Maybe we should rule out the mate first?” Michael suggests without looking at me. “The last thing we need is another alpha sniffing around before we get things up and running again.”
“Fuck, I need to think this through,” Brett mutters before ripping me from the other man and forcefully flinging me back into the cage.
Pain shoots through my shoulder, and I cry out when I land awkwardly.
My eyes water as I suck in shaky breaths and assess the damage that goes with the intense ache.
My arm hangs limp behind me, and my shoulder is squared off, undoubtedly dislocated.
Brett stomps away, followed by the others as they climb the stairs and plunge me into darkness again.
The cold chill settles back in, and the pain worsens when the adrenaline starts to fade.
But somehow the worst part isn’t the pain; it's the uncertainty. It’s the wondering about what is going to happen.
Michael might not be pure evil like the others, but he’s still here. Still involved. Still willing to throw his biological sister to monsters for money. But maybe there’s an angle there. An opportunity to at least have a fighting chance. Maybe I can convince him to un-cuff me to reset my shoulder.
Anything to cling on to some hope.
Anything to counteract how idiotic I feel right now.
What was I thinking? I was so damn stupid. Shit, this isn’t helping. What would I tell a patient recounting this experience to me? I certainly wouldn’t encourage self-blame. Because the blame lies with the perpetrators, not the victims. And beating myself up isn’t going to help get me out of this.
Is anything going to get me out of this?
No, that thought isn’t helping either. I will get out of this. I don’t know how. But I need to believe.
I lean against the bars on my good side and close my eyes. Whatever happens next, I need to be ready for fight or flight.