Carmen’s eyes have better adjusted to the darkness, allowing her to see every scrap of evidence on the girl’s body that she tried like hell to escape, to avoid being trapped like this. And yet, she was still overtaken. Still overpowered. She’s not as young as Carmen originally thought, maybe early twenties? What couldthese wolves possibly want with her, to hold her captive like this?
Too many thoughts fill the space in her mind, all the ways those wolves could find use in her. A low, simmering rage builds in Carmen’s chest. She gently taps the girl on the shoulder once. Twice.
On the third tap, the girl freezes, possibly realizing it’s no longer the male in here with her. She pulls her tear-soaked face away from where it’s tucked beneath her arm and looks up and . . .
Hereyes. . .
For a moment that seems to stretch around them, the past utterly snares Carmen, taking her back to that campsite where her heart was still full of love and her hands full of Lacie. To round sapphire eyes that gave Carmen purpose.
Carmen blinks and looks at the girl again. Not Lacie’s eyes, but so close they might have been plucked from her face and settled into this one. The likeness is uncanny, and it sends Carmen off-balance. The girl studies her back, her brows furrowing in confusion. “Who are you?” she whispers.
Carmen shakes her head, pressing her pointer finger to her mouth. They can’t risk talking—the wolves around them can hear a rabbit burrow from miles away. That she’s even taking this risk to let herself be known to this girl is . . . well, she doesn’t want to think about it.
Looking at the chain, Carmen eyes where it disappears beneath the girl’s belly, reappearing at her back. The links are thick and undoubtedly heavy—there’s no way Carmen will be able to cut her loose with anything she has on her. She gently pulls against it to see how much wiggle room the girl might have to shimmy out of the loop, but there’s none. The chain practically digs into her flesh.
The girl shifts further onto her stomach, revealing a padlock at her back where the chain is locked in on itself. Carmen looks around for a key but doesn’t see one. The girl looks pointedly toward the hallway, where her guard just disappeared into the darkness, and Carmen understands: he holds the key.
She sighs. This is getting more and more complicated by the minute. She’d have to be out of her damn mind to think she can chase down that guard, somehow retrieve the key from him without him killing her first, and get back here in time to set the girl free before continuing with her original plan of blowing this place to smithereens. But as Carmen’s eyes catch hold of the girl’s, as her familiar blue eyes seem to beg her for help, Carmen knows there’s no possible outcome that includes her walking away from this.
She willnotwatch life flee from those eyes. Not again.
Carmen just has to make this work.
She leans down over the girl, their faces only inches apart, and whispers as softly as she can into the girl’s ear, “I’ll come back for you. Hang tight.”
The girl nods, and Carmen sets off again, out to where she’s left the plastic tanks of propylene carbonate on the floor. She quietly carries them back into the room and tucks them in the corner, hoping the male won’t notice them if he comes back before she does.
She looks once more at the girl who eyes the tanks warily, and tries to give her an encouraging smile. Tries to assure her that she’s going to get her out of here. And with one last look at those eyes—thoseeyes—she leaves the girl behind, chained in the room.
CHAPTER 14
Without the weight of the firestarter, Carmen moves much quicker through the building, keeping her cover in the shadows by hugging as close to the wall as she can. She knows there are others somewhere in the building but the corridor she stalks down remains quiet. She worries most of the werewolves have already made it out of the den and are currently inflicting terror in the heart of Renbury, and can only imagine the catastrophic loss that over a dozen wolves—set free by the rise of the blood moon—would manage against the sleepy little town. It makes Carmen’s heart ache.
She follows the path she spent hours memorizing to the heart of the building, making a few calculated turns down dark and dingy hallways, until the biggest room in the building comes into view just ahead. The closer she gets to it the more she can hear movement and a low thrumming of voices, of quiet conversations, coming from inside, realizing the pack must be gathered together.
Both sets of double doors to the room are closed, and there’s a small sign on the wall just outside one of them labeledCAFETERIA. The door itself contains a small window, less than a foot wide and a couple feet tall, spilling light out into theotherwise dark hallway. It’s a perfect opportunity for Carmen to peek inside and see what’s happening.
She ducks below the height of the window and slowly pushes herself up until her eyes reach just above the bottom edge. Squinting against the bright fluorescent lights, she finds the room full of nearly twenty werewolves in their human forms seated in four rows of chairs, all facing a male who stands at the front of the room. There are three werewolves in wolf form who flank the male like guard dogs—he’s clearly in a position of power here.
Carmen eyes the male closely. He’s tall and slender, not carrying nearly as much bulk as most of the others in the room with him. But even from here she can see his eyes are void of any warmth. They’re a pitch into nothingness. Unfeeling and probably ruthless when needed.
She knows that for a werewolf to get into any sort of position of power, he or she has to literally spill blood andfightfor it, has to take down whoever holds the seat in a display of brutal dominance. If this male is the Alpha of the pack, it means he’s proven himself deadlier than anyone else in the room.
“In just a few moments,” he says with a voice that easily booms around the space, “we will all set out upon the lands beneath the blood moon, the Mother moon, as our truest selves. She will empower us with great strength and amplify our instinctual purpose to ensure our ability to take what’s ours, to overpower anyone who might foolishly stand in our way.
“Tonight, we let our bloodlust take hold. We let our dominance and aggression take control of our bodies, and we trust the wolf in our hearts to lead us to our higher purpose: to recruit. We must seek those who yearn for power such as ours, who would welcome this life with open arms, to stand alongside us as we prepare for the Great War.
“We need enforcers, lieutenants, scouts, and healers. We need more dedicated brothers and sisters who will support this pack and all packs who serve our Great Alpha as we enter into what will no doubt be the bloodiest battles any of us have yet seen.”
He pauses, smirking, his eyes trailing over every single person who sits in front of him. The hairs on the back of Carmen’s neck stand, like her body recognizes the unnatural threat before her.
“But before you all go,” he says, “it appears we have a surprise guest to welcome first.”
Carmen stops breathing as the male smiles wide and turns to look right at her through the window.
“Come,” the male says, beckoning Carmen in with a wave of his arm. “Please, join us.”
Carmen falters backward, her heart jumping into her throat.
