Chapter 30
Time slowed as I watched Ell walk up to that werewolf in the road.
This was fine. This was totally fine. Wasn’t it?
Werewolves existed, and that made sense now. My new boss was a hot alpha werewolf who lived with two other hot alpha werewolves, and their magical werewolf cocks had done something no cock was ever supposed to do in any gay relationship, to wit, cause werewolf pregnancy.
I started mumbling. “I’m not a werewolf. I’m not a werewolf. I’m p…pre… I’m not a werewolf, but I had a run-in with three magical werewolf cocks. Three magical werewolf cocks walk into a bar and have a foursome. Sounds like a joke.”
My right hand went to my abdomen. I was fine. I couldn’t be pregnant. I felt pretty normal. My hand closed around the fabric of Dom’s shirt, and I lowered my head to sniff it. For some reason, that was calming.
If me sniffing other people’s clothes was a sign, then… But no. I took a deep breath. If they were playing some joke on me, they’d probably want to have the big laugh during the ultrasound, so all I had to do was keep calm and play along until then.
Except I didn't think Ell was going to stick me with a needle to get a blood sample for a joke. That seemed ethically questionable, and while I didn’t know him that well, ethically questionable and Ell in the same sentence sounded like oil-flavored ice cream or international travel without any delays. Impossible. It sounded impossible.
Was it possible this was real? Was it possible…
If it was, then this was the kind of thing that only happened in the really bad straight rom-coms where someone breaks up, finds the love of their life, has unprotected sex for heavens know what reason, and then ends up raising a kid in a small town while really blossoming into the career they always wanted.
I sucked on my lip and tried to remember if that was actually the plot of any rom-com I had ever watched. It had to be, right? It wasn’t like I wanted to have a…a little werewolf baby. With blue or green eyes.
I felt light, as if I might float away. I’d only considered that kind of family in the darkest, most secret corners of my mind. I’d always known it wouldn’t ever be anything Steven would go for, adopting a kid, and I had no idea whether I was the right kind of person to be a parent to begin with.
My fingers flexed to reach for my phone so I could research what ultrasounds were supposed to look like, but then I realized I didn’t have it on me.
I mentally retraced my steps, and realized it was probably still in Linc’s office where I’d zoned out before…
the nap. Did pregnant people nap? I was getting old.
I was going on thirty. Aging could totally be the reason behind the napping.
A blue- or green-eyed werewolf baby probably wouldn’t let me nap at all.
I almost missed it. I wasn’t really paying attention to what Ell was doing, but then he jerked.
It made no sense. I thought he was turning toward me at first, but then I saw the lines going into his arms and legs, saw the small wounds.
Red bloomed against the blue of his scrubs. It almost looked like flower print.
My door was ripped open. I jumped. Steven was poking his head in the car.
“Took you long enough to leave that house, Marc. Come on, let’s get going.”
He was wearing a stupid-looking camouflage hat and a camo shirt and pants combo as well. It was as if he was auditioning to be an extra in a boring war movie.
“What’re you—the fuck?!”
He grabbed my arm with one hand, reaching to release the seat belt with the other.
“We have to move, Marc. They can smell you, follow your scent.”
His body leaning into the car, the smell of his sweat, made me pull back and grimace. “Let go of me!”
I yanked, but I was slow. Steven had the better angle. He managed to pull me out of the car, and by that time, his grip on my arm was painful.
“Don’t be a little bitch now, Marc.”
I looked over the hood of the car. Ell was on the ground, the unknown wolf’s eyes wide and his hind legs trembling as he sniffed the air.
Ell was trembling too, but it looked different.
Tasers. They had tased him. People came out of the woods on either side of the road, three of them, dressed like Steven, and holding Tasers.
I saw one of them still pushing the button.
“Hey! Stop that! What’re you doing to him?”
I tried yanking my arm free. The shifted wolf looked at me. His eyes were void of any emotion.
“Marc—fuck it. Marc, you’re embarrassing me in front of the guys.
” Steven pulled on my arm so hard I yelped in pain.
His mouth was close to my ear, his breath sticky against my skin.
“I told them what they did to you—that they kidnapped you and raped you. Don’t make me look bad now.
I know you know what they are. You like the real kind of doggy style, huh?
I won’t tell anyone, but don’t make me look bad in front of the guys. ”
This was the second time in a day that I’d had trouble believing what I was hearing. Did he really believe that? More importantly, did he really believe I was going to keep my mouth shut after everything he’d done?
“Let me go!” I tried punching him with my left hand, but I had no idea how. I grazed his chin with my knuckles though.
Steven sneered and grabbed my wrist with his other hand. He twisted it hard, and I screamed in pain.
“Oi, shut him up and let’s move out of here,” one of the other guys said. I barely heard it with the pain shooting up my arm.
“Right. Come on now, Marc.”
Black spots were dancing in front of my eyes, and my legs trembled. I could see them taping Ell’s arms and legs. It all happened so fast, and then they started carrying him, his knees dragging against the road.
“Ell…Ellis!” I breathed in a gulp of air. “Help! We need—”
The pain in my left arm nearly made me black out. Something cracked as Steven twisted it once more.
“Shut the fuck up and move.”
I didn’t want to move. I didn’t move. My arm hurt so much.
Hissing out a curse, Steven dragged me along, off the road and into the forest. My eyes were watering and my ears rang. I couldn’t catch my breath, and before too long, I wasn’t even sure where we were in relation to the road or the house.
I was in the woods without Ell, Linc, or Dom to make sure I didn’t get lost. I’d accidentally broken my promise. Ell was here though. I looked around, suddenly terrified they would shoot him like they’d shot that wolf Dom had talked about.
“Ell… What did you do with him?”
My voice was unsteady, just a trickle. It was still enough to make Steven shove me into a tree.
The air went out of me, and then he was behind me.
“Do those freaks really do it for you? What is it, huh? Their wolf cocks, or their tails?” He grunted as if he were dismissing me like one of his students.
“The biologists in our network have a theory about them spreading some kind of rabies, maybe a prion disease. We’ll test you, get a biopsy, maybe make you normal again.
We had a fucking good thing going, you and me, but you had to go and make a mess over nothing. ”
I was furious, acutely so. But I was also scared. “Where’s Ellis? Let me see him, and I’ll do what you want.”
He was still pushing me against the trunk, and I felt his laughter wash over me as my ribs grated against the bark.
“It’s true, isn’t it? There is something that they do to you when they bite you.
Or is it when they fuck you? Doesn’t even fucking matter.
I’m not going to let you give it to me. Do you really think I’m that stupid, or do you think you’re that irresistible?
We’ll have you checked and prodded, and then maybe we’ll be able to get you back to normal.
Unless your brain is all mush, of course, but a biopsy will tell us that. ”
Biopsy. The cold fingers of fear made my spine tingle.
He pulled me away from the trunk by my arm, and I screamed, nausea hitting me with a bout of dizziness. I didn’t throw up, but it was a narrow thing.
It was the woods, and the woods, and the woods. Steven dragged me. I could barely breathe. I was crying, but that was mostly because of the pain. I hurt, and I was so fucking scared.
After what felt like ages, we came to a narrow dirt road.
The others were there. They were tying Ell to some kind of buggy—an all-terrain vehicle.
Steven had mentioned those. He’d told me about how he’d once tied a doe he’d killed to it, and how her head had popped when it had hit a rock he’d accidentally driven too close to.
Remembering him laughing while telling that story and seeing Ell being bound to it made me feel sick to my stomach all over again.
The wolf was here too. He was quiet, kind of in a weird way. I’d never known my wolves to be that quiet—no, that wasn’t even it. Subdued. The wolf seemed not to want to be noticed. Our eyes met. He didn’t do anything when Steven shoved me toward one of the ATVs.
One of the other camouflage-wearing guys looked over. “You move slow. That a thing with you heralds?”
Steven grunted. “It’s Marc here. They fucked him up really bad.”
One of the men spat on the ground, his cold eyes looking at me as if I were a doe about to be strapped to a car.
“Gotta get him to Camelot. ’S good we got him in one piece.
This big motherfucker too. I bet they’ll be able to use him for their Storm Hounds.
” He kicked up dirt in the direction of the wolf, who flinched and cowered without making a single noise.
“Too bad they can’t get this mutt to be more useful. Goddamn freak.”
Steven made a sound of agreement, a male grunt exchanged in kind. “Well, he was useful in getting them. Fuck, Marc, can you move?”
I didn’t want to, but I felt like the ground was turning to quicksand right where I stood. He dragged me to one of the ATVs and let go of my arm. I was pretty sure it was broken, and I hissed when he released it, the pain doubling.
I was close to passing out, but that didn’t matter to any of these people. Steven put zip ties on me, and then he zipped them to the ATV’s roof. Then we were driving. They had Ell on the back of the ATV in front of us. The wolf was running next to the leading ATV.
Tears stung my eyes, but I didn’t dare close them. I watched Ell and hoped there wasn’t a rock on the way to wherever they were taking us. I watched and watched and hoped he’d be okay.