He took my bag and opened the back door of the luxurious limo and helped me inside. Before I turned my head to look at him again, a sharp sting entered my neck. Within seconds, my world went black.
I woke in a room that felt unsettling and stark. It looked nothing like the one in the photo of my mother that had been splattered onnewscasts. A distinct lack of windows on the four gray walls told me this was more a cell than a room meant to provide comfort. The only luxury was the soft sheets I lay upon. I sat up quickly, dizzy, trying to orient myself to my surroundings. My clothing had been changed. I was dressed in a short satin nightie, no panties. My body flared with pain, heat radiating from every tender muscle. I reached instinctively for my bond with Bronc, my lifeline in the darkness, but only a sickening absence responded. In its place, a new feeling. Chills and nausea swept over me; the foreignness of the sensation was nearly suffocating. My pulse raced, frantic at the feeling of this unfamiliar presence. Then came a stabbing, a brutal cramp that knotted low in my abdomen. My neck seemed to tingle with a piercing throb of pain. I assumed it was the sting from the injection that still lingered. I reached out once more, desperate to feel the familiar pulse of my bond with Bronc. My entire plan hinged on connecting with him through our bond to guide him to me. Again, nothing. The connection was nonexistent. It hurt more than I could bear. It had to be some horrific nightmare. I blinked hard, forcing myself to look around the room with desperate hope. I staggered to my feet, unsteady and gasping for breath.
Panic surged as I rushed into the adjoining bathroom, where, in the mirror, I found a bloody bandage covering Bronc’s unmistakable claiming mark. With trembling hands, I peeled back the tape to reveal it mangled by another set of teeth. Horrified, I sank to the floor in uncontrollable sobs. I buried my head against my knees, a little girl abandoned and bleeding. “No, no, no…” My voice was a trembling echo, breaking the room’s horrible silence. “Bronc.” His name was a broken whisper. Despair wracked my body, helpless and consuming. I curled tighter, knowing I needed to move but unable to muster the will. Agony replaced panic. It swept over me in a cold, brutal wave, and I wanted to drown in it. I touched the mangled mark. Each inch of torn skin told a nightmare. The bite wound mangled and cruel.
Oh God. Oh God.
I slumped back; the walls closing in, smothering me like a vise on my heart. Every emotion was a knife twisting in a place I didn’t know could hurt so much. I wrapped my arms around my legs again and let the devastation come, choking on my own raw sounds. Sobs racked me until my throat was too tight to breathe, the space too small to hold the enormity of my anguish.
My mind was a mass of jumbled thoughts. Disoriented, I hadn’t heard the bedroom door open. Suddenly, a shadow fell across the floor where I lay in a crumbled heap.
I glanced up in fear, disbelieving, knowing. A hulking figure stood in the doorway, a monster come to life. A nightmare with the exacting touch of designer clothing. The navy blue shirt clung to rippling muscles, straining against the impossible, the unreal. This was not Harrison. Not any Harrison I’d ever known.
The predatory eyes, the claws emerging like they had always been there. The flawless face transformed and otherworldly, savage beauty twisting in his gaze. My heart constricted, then pounded, panic-driven and wild.
His lips parted in a sneer, the amber eyes, now lupine, narrowing as he regarded me.
“Hello, mate,” the creature said, the voice as perfect and cutting as I remembered, but now somehow twisting in my gut. “You shouldn’t have kept me waiting.”
No air, no room, no comprehension. I blinked, staring, trying to force the vision into something that made sense. Something I could understand.
It was real. It was all horribly real.
I backed into the counter, my arms instinctively shielding what they could, though I knew how futile that was. He loomed over me, expression coolly amused. I was prey and possession, and my soul ached with knowing it. My whimpers fueled his amusement.
Harrison. He had changed, had become like us, one of Bronc’s worst suspicions. The man I had once thought so carefully groomed was not quite a wolf, but very much not a man either.
My head shook without conscious effort, back and forth and back, the floor slipping away beneath me.
“What—what did you do?” The question escaped me, helpless and unbidden.
“What I had to,” he said, the calculating tones too smooth, too familiar. “It took time, resources. Thanks to your ancestors. Your family, in fact, darling. They are the reason we are now bound forever. Isn’t that wonderful? I am grateful.”
I didn’t want to listen. Didn’t want to hear the confirmation of everything that my marked skin screamed. But I couldn’t stop.
“What do you…?” Words choked to silence.
His smile widened. Ice and control. “Nothing you should be surprised by. You should have known I’d never let you go, not so easily. There’s no one to save you now.”
He advanced a step, letting the nightmare draw closer. Every movement reminded me of how powerless I was, how alone.
“The bite. The bond.” My voice cracked beneath the impossible truth. “It can’t work, Harrison. Never. You’re sick if you think it will.”
“Sick?” he repeated, his eyes darkening, something ominous lurking behind them. “Oh, Juliet. You have no idea.”
This was his plan. All along. And now—my mind refused to process, refused to cope. Now he was capable of it. Harrison crouched beside me, his presence overwhelming, the proximity of his body terrifying in its raw, brutal strength. He let me absorb the threat, absorb the presence, absorb the cost. Absorb the damning presence of this bond.
His hand reached out to brush my cheek, and I wanted to jerk away. Instead, I leaned into his touch. Another whimper came from my throat as my body answered the bond against my will.
A feral grin told me he knew I didn’t want it. “There’smy mate”, he crooned. And my body lit up for him. My God. I cannot do this. I searched for my wolf. She didn’t answer. I was alone.
“Yes.” He pulled back and stood. “I’m your Alpha now, Jules. We’re going to have such a good time. Now, get up and shower. I’ve left clothing on your bed. I expect you to wear it when you are done. We’ll have brunch after. Disobey me, and you’ll be punished. I expect it. I look forward to it. It’s your choice. You’re not leaving here mate. Make it easy on yourself, or don’t. Makes no difference to me.”
I couldn’t see through the blur of tears. I couldn’t hear above the chaos in my head. A soundless scream formed somewhere deep inside me, like it knew what I couldn’t bear to say.
Bronc,I’m sorry.
Chapter 26
