Chapter Ten
Somehow, I expected “the pit” to be a euphemism for something else.
It wasn’t. It was a deep, dark hole at the far end of the lot.
The pack dropped us into it without ceremony.
I was too disorientated to do anything but brace for the impact as I fell.
After I hit the ground, a ladder was dropped into the hole and a couple of the bikers came down.
They secured me and Val to manacles attached to the walls of the pit.
We were apparently not the first visitors to this hole.
One of the Hell Pack took my face in his hands and looked it over.
“Too bad. You might have been fun; well, at least I still have a chance with your sister.”
I tried to summon the strength to spit in his face, but even that effort brought a new surge of pain, and I just glared at him through my swelling, bruised eye. He slapped my cheek and climbed back up the ladder; the other pack member followed a moment later.
“Val…? Val, you alive?” I heard a moan from the other side of the pit.
I guessed she was alive. She must have gotten a worse beating than I had.
I looked around, but Nisha was nowhere to be found.
I had to find a way to locate her and get her out of there.
Well, I had to find a way to get myself out of here first. Maybe Val was right; maybe I am out of my depth.
Hell, I might have gotten us both killed.
I could not believe I had not wondered further why the thug had taken the time to rip out my hair.
I slammed my head back against the wall of the pit.
A moment later, there was a groan from the other side.
“Did we win?”
“We bruised their knuckles with our chins; does that count?”
“I’ll take what I can get.” I heard Val straining for a moment, then she let out a huge sigh. “Yeah, those chains aren’t going anywhere.”
“I am sorry, Val; this is all my fault…”
“Hey, shut up. I am a big girl and made all my own decisions. I really thought Lycos was going to be more reasonable. He has broken all the rules. He is claiming blood price for the two men you killed.”
“Two?”
“Yeah, some of us learn to shift into animal form completely, but there is a danger to that. The longer you stay like that, the less you want to return to being a human. It’s possible to become lost. The wolf you killed used to be a person.”
“Oh.” I did not know what to think. I had known I had killed one person who was trying to hurt me, so was knowing it had been two people really going to make it different?
The way things had been going, I had not even really had a moment to think about what I had done.
I hit my head against the back of the wall again.
How had my life gotten so screwed up in just a couple of days?
The next couple of hours passed mostly in silence, occasionally interrupted by the sound of my head banging against the wall or Val struggling against the chains. The sun set, and complete darkness filled the pit. It was obvious that no one was going to be bringing us any food.
“I really like boy bands from the nineties,” Val announced to no one in particular.
“What?”
“I also peel all the pepperoni off my pizza and eat it separately.”
“Is this relevant?”
“I am not sure we are going to make it. I think if we had more time, something might have happened between the two of us. I just wanted to share some things that most people don’t know about me.”
Silence descended on the pit once more. I thought she was insane, but unfortunately, she was probably right.
“I steal my neighbor’s newspaper every day,” I said quietly.
“I watch White Christmas every year at Christmas and The Monster Squad every Halloween.”
“Wolfman’s got nards,” I quoted from the flick.
“Wow, I have never met another person who has seen that movie. My tattoo has nothing to do with my totem; it covers an old girlfriend’s name.”
“I have huge wrists and very small…” I stopped as what I was about to say hit me. I slid down and brought my feet up to the edge of the shackles.
“Hey, you don’t have to feel bad. They are not that small, and a lot of people prefer women with natural proportions.”
I shoved hard on the shackles, and slowly they moved, scraping my skin until they reached my hands, which are much smaller than my wrists, then they slid off, leaving a trail of blood in their wake.
“I am free…and hey, wait, what are you talking about?”
“Umm, nothing. Wait. You’re free?”
“Yes, I have large wrists and small hands. It makes buying bracelets or watches a pain in the ass, but apparently, it has its uses.” I crawled over to where Val was chained to the wall.
She sat with her legs stretched out, and I straddled her, reaching my arms up to feel her manacles and see if I could do something with them.
I shook and wrestled with the chains, intent on trying to find a way to circumvent them but oblivious to the position I had placed myself in.
Then I found my senses keying in on Val.
I could smell her, hear the increase in her heart rate as I moved above her, feel her breath on my skin, and my hands dropped down from working on the manacles.
I looked down into her eyes and all conscious thought drifted away.
I took her head in my hands and brought my face close to hers.
I gently rubbed my skin against her, and the feeling sent a shiver through me.
I leaned in closer and nuzzled her neck, taking little nips and bites as my desire rose within me.
I pulled back so I could look at her and my hunger increased to a point that I could deny no longer.
I kissed her fiercely as I ground myself down upon her.
I felt her rising against me through the barriers of our clothes, and I knew I had to have more.
I moved backward, and it seemed I flowed down her body like I was made of liquid.
I fumbled at her belt for a moment, then it was loose, and I was pulling her pants down.
I took her in my mouth and slid down, taking all of her that I could, and her breath started coming in gasps, but even this was not enough for the fever that burned inside me now, and I climbed atop her.
Gone were all thoughts of where we were or what might happen.
I needed her, and I needed her now. She filled me with one upward thrust, and my passion surged inside me.
My breasts were erect, and I pulled off my shirt and offered them to Val as I rode her.
Our position meant I had all the control, and I used it to drive the pace faster and faster until she erupted, that feeling driving me over the edge to a place of pleasure I had never been to before.
As I slowly came back to earth, the power of my totem blossomed within me, my senses heightened even further, and newfound strength and agility coursed through me. I grabbed the chains with new intensity and struggled once more, but it was still to no avail.
“Go,” Val ordered me.
“What, I can’t. Not after we just…”
“It’s okay. I had you once, and that’s enough. The pack must give the cats three days to offer a blood price for my return in front of the council, so you have three days to run. You killed two of them, so your life would be automatically forfeit.”
“I am not going to run.”
“Yes, you are because you cannot fight them. There are too many, and right now, Lycos is using the full power of the pack to bend your sister to his will. She will not go with you even if you could find her.”
“Hey, what’s going on down there?”
I grabbed Val’s face in my hands and kissed her. “I will be back. I will save you and her.”
I looked up at the top of the pit, and my muscles tensed, then I was leaping and catching hold of a spot on the wall with claws that had extended from my hands.
I sprang again and was out of the pit, bowling over the biker before he knew what was happening.
I looked around and first stared at Lycos’s trailer, but there were at least a dozen pack members between me and it.
I turned and sprung to the roof of a nearby shack, and in a moment, I was over the fence and running.