On the video feed, Viola’s bright red lips spread into a smile, revealing perfect pearly teeth. “What a good girl you are,” she purred.
I gritted my teeth and unlocked the door. My wolf growled and raged at me, but I shoved her aside in my mind. She didn’t want me to surrender, but there was nothing to be done. I couldn’t allow them to die for me, and that was final, no matter what my wolf had to say.
The door had barely swung open when black-clad arms and hands started reaching in, dragging me out into the bedroom. They shoved me to the floor and pinned my hands behind my back, wrapping zip ties around my wrists.
“Ow,” I hissed, kicking at them.
I struck one in the shin, and he barked out a curse before hitting me on the back of my head. Stars shot through my vision. I hadn’t been hit that hard since the night I’d been attacked at the bar, and those men had nearly beaten me to death. Rough hands seized me under the armpits and lifted me up. Thepressure of them carrying me forced my hands apart, causing the plastic of the ties to cut into my skin. I hissed in pain while they carried me, my feet hovering an inch off the ground as they moved.
Viola stood at the bottom of the stairs. The two men still held pistols at Julia and Carlos’s heads. Fear jackhammered in my chest. These people were not the type to keep their promises. Would she have them killed even though I’d agreed? I tried to keep my eyes glued to her and not stray a glance toward Nico’s parents. Maybe if I didn’t look at them, she’d forget about them. Maybe she’d take her prize and go, leaving them safe.
Viola stepped toward me and ran a red, manicured nail gently down my cheek. “You are a beauty. Maybe, if you’re very lucky, I’ll leave enough blood in you so that you can come home and suck on that shifter cock some more. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Hmm?”
“Fuck you,” I snarled.
“Oh my,” Viola said, withdrawing her finger and smiling. “Such vigor. So much power. I’ll be very intrigued to see how you feel once the full moon rises. A super moon, no less. It should beveryenlightening.” Viola glanced around at her men. “Time to go. The dogs won’t stay asleep for long. I can smell them all over this place. Really, darling, I don’t see how you can associate with mongrels. There’s a reason my ancestors pulled Edemas and his family down from their little pedestal. Shifters, and especially werewolves, aren’t meant to rule. They are meant toberuled.”
As the men dragged me out of the house, I glanced back and gave a small sigh of relief that Julia and Carlos had been left alive. I could see their chests rising and falling as the men dragged me out of the front door.
“Your ancestors were just jealous,” I said. “They either weren’t shifters, or their blood was so diluted they couldn’t shiftanymore, and they might as well have been human. That’s what it was all about. Nothing but jealousy.”
Without even looking at me, Viola swung her arm back and backhanded me. My head jerked to the side, and coppery, viscous blood pooled in my mouth. I spat it onto the ground just before they heaved me into the back of the van.
Before they got me there, I looked around to see if I could call for help. The problem was all the houses near Nico’s were his family. His parents were unconscious, and his brothers were scattered across the country. The closest house where someone might be was over a hundred yards away. A hundred yards of space plus insulated walls. Shifters had enhanced hearing, yes, but not that advanced, and not when a shifter was deeply asleep. I winced in defeat as a hand shoved my head roughly into the back of the car.
I was pushed to the middle, and two men climbed in, flanking me. Sandwiched between two men, I had even less room to move. My hands were tied and pinned behind me. My wolf felt trapped, like an animal in a cage. She was making it hard to think as she writhed and whined inside my mind. I blinked and shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. I had to stay focused, to think. My claws were extending and retracting involuntarily. I could hear the leather of the seat tearing as I tried to clench my fists.
Hearing the sound of tearing leather, Viola looked over her shoulder from the front seat. “Victor? Show our guest what we have for her.” The man to my right pulled a hypodermic gun out and pressed it to my side. Viola went on. “If you don’t keep your beast under control, I’ll have my associate here put you to sleep like the two inside, understood? The tranquilizer works in seconds. Don’t think you’ll be able to manage any heroics before you go night-night. Okay, precious?”
I bit my tongue, holding back a retort. I closed my eyes as the car started pulling away from the house. All our planning. Everything we’d thought would work. It had all been for nothing. Nico and everyone else was too far away to help me. The royals had me. I was being taken to an unknown location. Tears slipped out of my closed eyelids. I was screwed.
67
NICO
Iwas glad to get good news from Sebastian. They had Abi, but it had been close. Mateo may have broken an ankle, and Luis probably had some broken ribs and a couple of shallow knife cuts. He’d apparently taken on two guards at once. If Sebastian hadn’t been right there, he wouldn’t have made it. That was good, though. Injured was better than dead by a long shot. Now, we just needed to hear from Javi.
It had been almost an hour since the initial break-in. They should have made contact already. What could have happened? Maybe they’d been unsuccessful, but… I shook my head, trying to push those thoughts away. I pictured my little brothers Rafael and Gabriel lying on a dusty floor riddled with bullet holes.No, I hissed at myself. I couldn’t go down that road.
The problem was, sitting in the clinic waiting room gave my mind nowhere else to go. A thousand different thoughts circled through my brain. Had it been a trap? Maybe the third location was a ruse? An even worse thought, had Javi been lying all along? All he’d done was try to get close to us, let us lower our guards, and now he’d led my brothers into danger and killed them.
I clenched my fists and lowered my head. “Come on, Nico,” I whispered to myself. “Stay in it. There’s a good reason.”
Diego sat beside me and punched my arm softly. “I know, man. I know. They’re okay. I know it. Give them some time. Maybe there was a hiccup with the shift change or something. The guys could have been standing outside shooting the shit between shifts or something. Stuff happens.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but the ringing of my phone silenced me. I answered it, bringing the phone up so fast it slammed painfully against my ear. “This is Nico.”
“It’s Javi. We got him.” Javi’s voice was strained, and I could pick up on the worry in his tone. It didn’t sound at all like his normal cockyvoice.
“Rafael? Gabriel? Are they good?”
“Yeah.” Javi was huffing, and it sounded like he was running.
“What’s wrong? I can tell by your voice that something’s wrong.”
“It was fucking weird, dude.” He must have pulled the phone away because his voice became quieter, more distant. “Hey, hang on, guys, let’s rest. I need to update Nico.” He put the phone back to his ear. “Sorry. Anyway, we did as the plan said. We parked far enough away that they didn’t notice. Then we waited until midnight. Everything went good as gold. These douches showed up in a black SUV, piled out, and traded places with the assholes inside. Those guys took the second SUV that was parked in the driveway. Then we moved in.”
Everything sounded exactly like it should have. “Well, what happened after that? Why did it take so damned long for you to call me?”
