Chapter 43
Riley
I hear a car door slam; I’m pretty sure that’s what woke me.
Realizing I probably only have seconds until they come for us, I try to call up my wolf so I can shift.
But there’s nothing. I try to lift my arms to push myself up, and that’s when I realize they’re chained to the floor of the van.
Anger rolls through me when I see they’ve done the same thing to my mom.
“Mom,” I whisper urgently. “Wake up.” I don’t get a chance to say or do anything else before the back doors open.
I blink as bright sunlight floods the van.
Adrenaline floods my system, and I try to fight back.
But my arms are chained, and my legs are dead weight.
I try again to get my wolf to rise, but she’s totally unreachable.
I refuse to give in to my rising panic, but I don’t know what’s wrong with her or why we have no connection.
I don’t want to think about what that could mean.
Two guys jump into the van and use keys to unlock our chains.
Before I can fight back, they cuff my hands together.
“Where are you taking us?” I demand. Nobody answers as they drag me to my feet.
Two more guys climb in. I twist around, fighting against my captors, in time to see them grab my mom by her arms and legs.
“Hey, be careful with her.” They yank me forward, and I all but fall out of the truck.
I try to get a look around, but a dark cloth is dropped over my head, blocking out anything and everything.
I continue to struggle against their hold, but I’m pretty much useless with my legs still feeling like dead weight and my arms restrained.
“Where are you taking us?” I try again but get nothing in return.
We go inside a building; I can tell by the sudden lack of noise.
We go down a set of stairs before I’m thrown to the ground, and I drop like a sack of potatoes.
Reid, I try again, hoping against hope. But there’s nothing.
I hear the thud of a body next to mine. “Mom.” I slide against the floor until I feel her body.
I hear footsteps walking away from us, and then it’s quiet.
The quiet feels suffocating. I reach up and yank the black covering off my head.
The view around me snaps into focus, and I try to take in every detail.
We’re in some kind of large basement with no windows and a cement floor.
It’s obvious they were prepared for us. There are large chains attached to the wall.
I wonder how come we’re not currently chained up.
I look down at my mom, worry coursing through me that she hasn’t woken up yet.
I lean over her and shake her as best as I can with my hands tied together.
“Mom, wake up. Wake up.” I get nothing in response.
There’s a heavy metal door at what I’m assuming is the base of the stairs.
It opens now, and I watch as four men walk inside.
I shiver when the man in front makes eye contact with me.
His eyes are so dark, they look black. They aren’t normal; that’s for sure.
They are inherently evil, and I know without a shadow of doubt that this is the man they call Master.
This is the man responsible for so much grief for my pack.
His eyes move to my mom, and I shift closer, trying to block her from his view.
He comes to a stop right in front of me and stares down at me. I refuse to look away from him.
“You look just like her.” His words are chilling. They’re full of bitterness, and his words feel like oil sliding over me. He reaches as if to touch my hair, my face maybe; but I yank my head back.
“Don’t touch me!”
He grabs hold of my jaw and squeezes hard. My eyes water, but I don’t make a sound. I refuse to cower before him. “It will be so fun breaking you.” He looks over at my mom, and I try to move to shift in front of her again.
“Don’t look at her.”
He gives me a slow look, and I refuse to cower at the threat of violence in his gaze.
Before I realize what’s happening, he slams his fist into the side of my face.
My head jerks to the side, and pain explodes in my face.
I take a moment to breathe through the pain; I’ve never been struck before.
I've trained over the years, but I've never been hit like that. My dad and brother would never do that. And even in training, no one has ever hit me that way. My eyes water, and I blink rapidly, trying to gain control over the pain. I turn back and look him dead in the eyes. I have to spit the blood out of my mouth before I can talk. As luck would have it, it lands right on his shirt. “Do you feel better?” I ask. His eyes don’t change; they’re just as black as they were. “My dad is going to destroy you.”
He stares at me a moment longer. Then the smallest smirk appears on his face, and it only makes him look scarier. “He may come, but it will be too late.”
My stomach bottoms out, and my heart races.
But I refuse to show any of that on my face.
He walks over to my mom and kneels next to her.
Real fear pours through me, watching him next to my mom, who is completely vulnerable right now.
Dad, I push through the bond. There’s nothing in response.
I watch as he reaches out and runs a finger down my mom’s cheek.
My stomach clenches painfully, and I feel like I’m going to be sick.
I force myself to stand. The room spins around me, and I lurch to the side.
I’m still reeling from that hit, but I move forward and let my momentum carry me into the man.
Just before I reach him, I’m yanked backwards.
“Let go of me!” I try to get free, but the hold on me is too strong.
The master stands up and is in my face a moment later.
He simply lifts an eyebrow. “Did you think you were going to hurt me? The useless princess of the pack.” I lean towards him, trying to hurt him.
But the hold on me tightens. “You’ve been protected your entire life.
You don’t even know how to fight. What could you possibly do to hurt me?
You’re the spoiled baby brat of the family.
Completely useless. Your father and brother have done everything for you.
” I don’t let him see how hard his words hit; I won’t give him the satisfaction.
“You think your brother would have allowed himself to be captured? Or allowed his mom to be?” He laughs, and the sound of it chills me to the bone.
He looks over my shoulder. “Chain her up. The mother too.” Suddenly, I’m yanked backwards.
I try to find purchase with my feet, but I can’t get them under me.
“Let go of me.”
I get my wish a moment later when they throw me roughly into the wall.
My head hits the wall, and stars dance before my eyes.
Before I can get my head to clear, they cut the ties on my wrists and chain my arms to the walls, one on either side of my body.
They drag my mom’s body over next to me and chain her arms to the wall as well.
The master crouches in front of me again.
“I’ve waited a long time for this, Riley.
” The way he says my name makes me shudder.
“We just have to wait until you’re fertile for what I’ve planned next.
” The world tilts around me, and I miss what happens in the next few moments.
Finally, it’s quiet. I look around and realize my mom and I are alone again.
I suck in a breath, but it gets stuck somewhere in my lungs.
I try again, and a ragged sob sounds from deep inside my chest.
I close my eyes and try to settle my breathing.
I’m afraid I’m going to go into a full-on panic attack if I don’t.
I’ve never had a panic attack before, but I think I’m about to.
His words still ring in my ears. We’ll just have to wait until you’re fertile.
I’ve never been fertile before, but now that I’m eighteen, this winter will be my first. As shifters, our bodies follow our wolves’ cycles, not human.
We’re fertile once a year, sometime in winter, usually late winter.
But it’s different for every female, and you never really know.
Some shifters go early, like in early December.
There are usually signs that it’s coming.
Ironically, our mates usually know before we do.
I’m not really sure of the ins and outs of that yet.
It hasn’t exactly come up with Reid yet, but I’m sure it will.
When females go into heat, it drives their mates mad.
Reid and I will definitely have to make a plan before that happens.
He won’t be allowed to come anywhere near me, not if we’re not planning on mating yet because the drive will be too strong for both of us.
The idea of the master...My stomach cramps, and I think I’m going to throw up.
I pull against my chains; we have to get out of here.
I have no idea when I will be fertile. It could happen any day now, or it could be months.
But I can’t be here when it happens. I yank against my chains, but it’s to no avail.
I finally stop struggling and catch my breath.
I know I need to be smart about this. I can’t blow all my energy on doing the impossible.
Instead, I need to make a plan for when they come back.
I look over at my mom and make sure her chest is still moving up and down.
“Why haven’t you woken up yet, Mom?” I ask in the quiet.
There’s no answer. My eyes suddenly land on her wrist. I take in the silver bracelet on her wrist and frown.
I look down at my own wrist and see a matching bracelet.
A bad feeling goes through me as I stare at them; they must have put them on us in the van.
Tessa had a silver bracelet; it kept Slade from touching her and bonding with her.
Confusion fills me. I’m already bonded, and my mom is bonded and mated.
So, how are we wearing these bracelets, and better yet, why?
It hits me hard. My wolf. I glare at the bracelet as fury rolls through me.
I thought maybe my wolf was still knocked out from whatever they used on my mom and me at the diner.
But it’s the bracelet that’s keeping me disconnected from my wolf.
I stare at the bracelet and register the redness on my wrist. It’s like staring at it makes the pain register, and I realize it’s burning my skin.
In the adrenaline rush, I hadn't even noticed. I force myself not to notice it now and try to figure out what it means. Neither my mom nor I will have access to our wolves until we get these bracelets off. And if it’s anything like the one they put on Tessa, it's next to impossible to get off.
I close my eyes and try not to let defeat wash over me.
I’m not sure how much time passes. Without any windows, it’s impossible to tell if it’s dark out.
I don’t feel tired, and I know I won’t be able to sleep while my mom is still out and unprotected next to me.
I try to keep my mind busy, so I don’t lose myself because it’s in those quiet moments that the master’s words replay over and over again in my mind.
Second to that thought is my regret that I didn’t mate with Reid.
Just thinking his name makes me physically ill because he doesn’t know how I really feel about him, and I had so many chances to tell him.
If something happens to me now, and I don’t get back to him, he’ll never know.
A few times, I start to nod off; but I force my eyes back open each and every time.
Finally, I hear a groan from my mom. I’m instantly wide awake.
“Mom!” I watch as she blinks a few times, looking dazed.
I try to ease her into this, but there’s no easing into this awful situation.
“It’s okay, Mom. We're going to be okay. Dad’s going to get us out of here. ”
I watch as she tries to move her arms and realizes they’re chained to the wall.
Her eyes instantly become more alert. “Riley! Are you okay?” Her eyes run frantically over my face, halting at what I’m sure is a red mark blooming on my skin.
“Where are we?” Her voice is flat. I have no doubt she knows exactly who’s behind this.
“You remember the diner this morning?”
“I do, but I don’t remember anything after sitting across from you.”
“It was the coffee,” I explain. “It was all a set-up. As soon as you and I both fell, they got us out of there.”
“The enforcers with us—Steve? Rick? Brody? Jack?”
I want to ease her fear, but I can’t. “I don’t know.”
She jerks against her chains. “Why can’t I reach your father?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s the silver bracelet.”
She looks down at hers and then mine, and I watch as her jaw tightens. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Your face,” she starts.
“I’m fine,” I say more firmly. There’s nothing she can do about it at this point anyway, and we have bigger issues to deal with.