Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
“Are you challenging me?” I asked.
The werewolf raised his eyebrows at me with a “duh” expression.
I was reckless for a human and sometimes acted as if I were supernatural. I couldn’t quite reconcile these two sides of my personality. I had inherited determination and stubbornness from the werewolf King, but my humanity left me vulnerable, and my wits could only take me so far.
Time was like grains of sand rapidly slipping through my grasp.
First, I had to figure out how to break the silver chains. Second, I had to figure out how a weakened werewolf, a compelled human, and I could leave the not-so-fake vampire club unharmed and undetected.
Before the unconscious vampires woke up.
My stomach twisted into knots. With every passing minute, I was consumed with dread and guilt that I’d put Tammy in harm’s way.
Was it my destiny to endanger the ones I loved? I was so stupid to believe that I could outrun my fate, escaping to the human world, only to find myself thrust right back into the supernatural.
I scanned the torture room for the umptieth time as an icy wave of fear crashed over me.
The only useful tool was the silver dagger, which stuck out of the vampire’s back, and I kind of wanted it to stay there.
Running to Tammy’s car and bringing back a lug wrench would take too long, even if I could go in and out of the building.
Suddenly, the vampire boss’s hand twitched, and my heart skipped a beat.
There was only one way out of those chains, and it would be helpful if this werewolf turned out to be a high-ranking one—the stronger he was, the better.
Kneeling next to the man, I looked him straight in the eye. “So you’ve given up, huh?” I challenged.
“Well, what would you do if you were me?”
The shackled man’s dreadful tone of voice washed over me, making me frown.
The man spat blood on the ground and groaned. He rattled the silver chains hanging from the ceiling and encasing his wrists. The skin there was burned, and deep wounds showed underneath the shackles.
He looked at me expectantly.
He’s so not helpful.
“I’d fight. Your enemy captured you, but so what? You have a chance to free yourself.”
Despite the pain, his eyes brightened with a small flicker of hope.
“You’ll need to shift to break through the chains, no matter how difficult it is. Then you’ll heal fast in your wolf form.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t think I’ve tried to do so already?”
I put my hands up defensively. “You just didn’t have the right motivation. Think about your pack members and your family.”
I pointed to his neck tattoo.
He scoffed, and more red liquid seeped out his mouth and dripped onto his chin.
“Do I want to know how you know so much about us?” His voice sounded strained.
How much longer was he going to stay conscious?
I shook my head. His cut lips lifted at the corner, but not in a full smile—still a good sign.
Then he bowed his head, seemingly exhausted to even talk. The werewolf had little time before he passed out on me.
“What’s your rank?” I asked.
He stilled for a moment, and I could tell the wheels in his head were spinning. The man must have considered how much he could trust me, but after realizing his dire situation, he finally spoke.
“I’m the Alpha of the Nighteye pack on the east coast in the US.”
So he was one of Dad’s five Alphas. Alphas were strong, competitive, arrogant, and highly sexual creatures. I had to find the right angle of motivation. How did Dad motivate his Alphas?
“So, thinking about your pack… Leaving them without their leader doesn’t get you motivated to shift?”
The man chuckled, and I grimaced.
“How about a mate and pups? Do you have a family?” I asked.
A werewolf mated for life. His mate would come before his pack, or at least that was how it was supposed to be.
“Single, but since we’re talking about mating, I must admit something before I die. After seeing you kick vampire ass, I’m actually turned on.”
I gave this man a small smile.
“Why didn’t I think about motivating you with sex to begin with?” I said in a sarcastic tone.
The Alpha chuckled, but the effort made him cough. “Even if you free me, beautiful, what next?”
I nodded toward the door behind him. “What’s behind this door?”
“Don’t go through there. It leads to vampire operations. That’s where we came from, so you’ll walk right into their hands.”
Another entrance for the enemy to storm into the room. Just great.
I stood and crossed my arms, ignoring the throbbing from the cut on my forearms. “So, the only way out is through the door I came through. Then the hallway and up the stairs to the street level. Somehow, we have to make it past the bouncers and the other real vampires.”
“Sounds right to me,” he said.
A piercing scream echoed behind me, and the Alpha and I jolted.
Tammy held her head, her body slouching to the ground. Her chest heaved as if she couldn’t take a full breath. Her screams turned into strangled cries of torment and frustration.
The compulsion was wearing out. Scary visions of the events she’d witnessed might have surfaced in her mind as hallucinations. My shirt around her wrist was lightly soaked in her blood.
I dashed to her and put my palm on her forehead. She was burning up.
“We have a bigger problem.” The werewolf’s hoarse voice had me twisting my head to see the master vampire’s body twitching. “It’s time for you to go.”
“Shift. Shift now,” I shouted at the Alpha, not caring that no one dared talk to a high-ranking wolf like that. “It’s only minutes before a very pissed-off vampire is up on his feet, Alpha.”
“I told you to leave already,” he scolded.
I was ready to pull my hair out.
“No,” I yelled. “I’m not leaving one of my own behind.”
The man smiled at me. I sucked in a sharp breath when the vampire’s eyes under his lids moved side to side.
The werewolf’s body convulsed and shook, but nothing happened. He started panting, having spent more energy after his failed attempt to shift.
“Well, that didn’t work,” he said with a heavy sigh. “What is your name, stubborn woman? It’s good for me to know the name of the reckless human who will die with me today because she’s too stupid to run away.”
“Breanna Allen. And don’t call me—”
His growl was so loud that it startled me. I mentally started counting the seconds before more vampires rushed inside from that sound alone.
“You’re the princess?” The man’s voice was now deeper, almost inhuman, and my eyes widened. “You’re my King’s daughter?”
Maybe I should have started with that.
The man straightened up his back, watching me intently.
“I am. And right about now is when you shift, Alpha,” I ordered in the tone my dad used on his Alphas. “You wouldn’t let the King’s daughter die here, would you?”
I only resorted to manipulation in desperate situations, it seemed.
“Do you serve your King well, Alpha?”
He nodded, then his chin dropped, and his body started trembling again.
Good.
“I won’t let you die, Princess. Your father has done so much for all of us. He’s the best King we’ve had.” He groaned in pain, throwing back his head. I stayed quiet, watching in awe as the Alpha called on his wolf. His transformation would be slow and painful because he was weak and poisoned.
But not dead.
The Alpha could have already been torn apart, body parts sent to the werewolf kingdom as a deadly warning from our enemy, but the vampire master had kept him alive.
Why would the vampire Queen want this werewolf alive except to extract information about the werewolf kingdom?
But that couldn’t be the reason.
Dad’s Alphas would rather die than betray their King. The vampire Queen knew all Alphas were trained and sworn not to provide information to our number one enemy.
Well, except one—Alpha Torin, one of two of my possible fated mates.
The half-vampire, half-werewolf Alpha was loyal to my dad but sired by the vampire Queen. No training could stop compelled Torin from doing the vampire Queen’s destructive bidding, regardless of where his loyalty lay.
She sired Torin and was his master, while the Nighteye Alpha, at least, would put up a fight for control over his mind. Torin wouldn’t be able to say no to his master. Torin served my father, but he was a slave to the vampire Queen if she got a hold of him.
I shook my head to get rid of any thoughts about the Alpha jerk and focused on the kneeling man in front of me.
The werewolf transformed before my eyes. His legs swelled up first, and his flesh tore through his jeans. His lower body sprouted brown fur, and his legs changed into the hind legs of an oversized wolf.
It was not the first time I’d witnessed such a slow shift. In the kingdom, my father guided his warriors how to do so on purpose, teaching them to overcome the pain.
The Alpha’s head changed next, and then brown fur covered his enormous body. Alphas had larger wolves, and this one’s head reached my shoulders.
Whatever was left of his clothes fell into scraps on the bloody ground, and as his claws grew to their beastly size, the silver chains busted open. The wolf whimpered and limped toward me. The chains were off, but we were still not safe.
I grasped his muzzle, lifting it with my hand. I grew up around beasts and didn’t fear them, for the most part.
Gazing into his yellow eyes, I said, “You’ll make it out of here first. Up the stairs, cross the dance floor, and jump out the window. Run as fast as you can. That will be the distraction my friend and I need to walk out of the front doors. Deal, Alpha?”
The wolf licked the inside of my hand, and I smiled. Tammy and I would be slower, but no one would pay us any attention after spotting an enormous wolf running around the dance floor.
Now, I had to focus on getting me and Tammy out of here unscathed.
The wolf straightened up to his full size, and I admired the determined spark in his animal eyes.
A groan followed by a hiss came from one of the vampires on the ground. The master’s eyes opened, and my throat constricted.