Chapter Sixteen
Mel
When I came to, the first thing I noticed was the pain in my wrists.
My eyes flickered open, and the darkness ebbed to the outer reaches of my vision.
I was tied to a lawn chair. Rope cut into my wrists and ankles so tight, tears sprung in my eyes. Though it wasn’t entirely from the pain. I was terrified, tied up in a dark and unfamiliar room that stunk of dirty carpet and mildew. A bucket sat in front of my feet, collecting the rain that dribbled in through a hole in the roof where swollen drywall and installation dangled.
I jerked my head around, surveying my surroundings. The place was disgusting. I knew I was in an old trailer by the faux wooden paneling, the corrugated drop ceiling, and the general lack of space.
A cool flutter of air kissed the back of my neck, and I craned my head to make out the window behind me, wincing as the lump on my head bumped against the aluminum frame of the lawn chair. Fucker had hit me hard.
A window that had been broken and was shoddily patched with duct tape gave away where I was. A trailer park. Sure, there were tons of trailer parks in the area, but I could just make out the porch of the nearest trailer. A doublewide with a brown dog, fast asleep on the AstroTurf. No, not a dog, ahugewolf.
This was the Tacoma Hills Trailer Park. This was the home of the Tacoma wolf pack.
Great, just great.
My mind was in a whirlwind of thoughts. Tonight had been the birthday from hell. Yet, simultaneously it had been heaven, at least for a few minutes when I was in Gabriel’s arms. It was the only thing that had felt right tonight, despite all the horrible shit that had transpired because of it.
Everything made sense now. He loved me fiercely. He was a celestial being, terrifying and beautiful and…inhuman. He wasn’t of this world. I couldn’t grasp what life he might have had before me. All I knew was what he’d told me. That I somehow carried a piece of Heaven inside me, and it was his duty to protect me. He’d lied to me foryears.But how much of it had been a lie?
Did he really love me?
Yes.
Whatever it was between us, that inexplicable magic was so real it was agony being apart from him. That mysterious connection tugged tight on my heart. It was all I could do to keep from sobbing.
He’d warned me I wasn’t safe at night on my own now that the pack was coming into town for Siren’s. Yet I’d run off anyway. I didn’t like being the one who needed rescuing. I didn’t want to be the damsel all the time. But this went way beyond my two left feet. How the heck was I supposed to protect myself against a bunch of wolves? And God knew what else would be after me. I never really had any problems before… Well, other than the occasional creepy guy following me around, badgering me. But that was always a short-lived problem with Gabe to scare them off.
Oh, God. Maybe he hadn’t just saved my life that day I’d fallen into the river as a kid. Maybe I would have already been long dead without him.
Muffled voices coming from outside froze the air in my lungs, and panic fluttered low in my belly.
The men were standing outside on the trailer’s porch, their voices hushed, talking aboutme.
“Well, I say we eat her. Can you imagine what she’ll taste like with a scent like hers?”
“I say we fuck her. To hell with the rest of the pack. They can have the leftovers,” another voice said, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand.
“No,” the third voice snapped. This was the voice of the man who’d kidnapped me. “We wait until the alpha gets here. He’ll be here at daybreak. Now fuck off and get some sleep.”
The other two grumbled and stalked off, their figures passing in front of the window before disappearing into the night.
My heart slammed into my ribs when the groan of hinges and the smack of a screen door announced my captor’s arrival. He paused, his gaze locking with mine. His barreled chest jumped with a chuckle as he leered at me, licking his lips. Without so much as a single word, he turned and went into the kitchen. If it could be called that. It was the furthest corner in the trailer, separated from the rest of the space by a counter covered in trash. Many of the cabinet doors had been ripped clean off their hinges, and the lower doors that still remained were covered in claw marks.
My breath splintered, and my arms shook in their binds as I gathered the courage to ask something incredibly stupid. But my curiosity couldn’t be quelled.
“What is your alpha going to do with me when he gets here?”
I had every confidence that Gabriel would find me. But I had no idea when, and I wasn’t about to sit here waiting to be rescued. I’d have to do everything I could to try to escape, and that started with the guy who’d kidnapped me. If I could just convince him to untie me…
I swallowed thickly, trying not to think about the disturbing details of what I would have to do to convince him to do such a thing. There was no time for cowardice.
The man looked up from the refrigerator he’d opened, the stink of old meat coiling in the air, light from the fridge’s bulb illuminating his face.
“He’s going to claim you as his mate, probably.”
