You’re not supposed to be letting them take you to a secondary location!she told herself, climbing into the back seat of his uncle’s giant luxury SUV, but it wasn’t as if she had a choice. Jude had a feeling she would’ve been dragged out of the ranch house by her hair, if she’d made any sort of stink.
There was something strange about the interior of the vehicle, something cold and dark on the seat beside her, on the other side of her duffel bag. Vin and his uncle took no notice, talking rapidly amongst themselves and to whoever it was on the phone Vin held, his father more than likely.
His father should have known better, she thought for the thousandth time. A pack alpha should be teaching his son to use more discretion, but if sending her away was the method they were choosing to deal with the situation, she had no complaints. Let him learn the lesson on his own, far away from her. Jude edged closer to her window, leaning her head back and closing her eyes against the sun’s rays, deciding she was imagining the dark stain that seemed to live beside her on the seat, listening to the traffic whizzing past.
She paid attention when they turned onto the highway, her heart rate kicking up a few notches.What if they’re taking you somewhere to get rid of you permanently?
It wasn’t the first time the thought had crossed her mind. The uncle scared her more than anyone else she’d encountered in the three months since her purchase by the pack. Vin and his father were excitable, went off on tangents and were easily distracted, but his uncle was steady and cold. Jude had no doubt in her mind that if it were up to him, she would’ve already been disposed of. He would’ve been the better alpha, but thus far, it had been in her favor that he wasn’t.
The interior of the SUV was cold, and she held her breath until they merged onto the exit. Four exits away, no small distance. Unless Vin was planning on getting himself a place close by, she couldn’t imagine he would be making the hour-long trip to see her through the week, and certainly not more than once a week, if that.You’re going to need to run. As soon as they slow down enough to jump, you need to get out. Run into traffic, hopefully someone will stop.
But the car never slowed. It was a rundown area, she could tell immediately, eyeing the derelict-looking buildings and trash littered streets, just off the edge of a bigger city.
When they passed the sign for the first adult store, her stomach tightened. One strip club, then another. The thoughtthat she was being put to work hadn’t occurred to her, not until then, and while she was not completely averse to the idea of dancing for money, she certainly didn’t want to be doing it forthem, or for anyone else they may have been pawning her off upon.
When they turned into the parking lot of a squat, stucco building, her chest nearly caved in on itself in panic. There was nowhere to run. They were off the main road, on an empty side street, and judging from the neighborhood, no one would have helped her even if she was able to get away. The engine cut off, and Jude peered out the window with her heart in her mouth, realizing the building was abandoned.
“What’s this?” She asked as his uncle slid from the driver seat.This is where they’re probably going to shoot you and dump your body, why are you even asking?
“This is where you’re going to be staying during the turn,” Vin growled in response, “since you can’t follow fuckin’ directions.”
Jude blinked, euphoria warring with confusion and disappointment in her chest.Is he just saying that to lure you in? Are they really going to leave you here? Or are you just walking into a trap?
“Just — just for the turn?”
Vin glanced sharply over his shoulder as she shut the car door, his face screwing up in what was now becoming a familiar scowl.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She was saved from answering when his uncle called out from the doorway to him, holding a cell phone out once again. It was an empty strip club, she realized as she stumbled over the doorway, Vin pushing to hurry her along. The room they walked into had a shallow runway with a pole in the center, a miniature DJ booth against the far wall, opposite a short bar on the other.
Her heartbeat kicked up a few notches at the site of the pole in the center of the elevated platform. She’d taken pole dancing fora short time, if “taken pole dancing” meant that she hadwatchedpole dancing from the dancers at the club she passed coming home from school each afternoon, when they’d still lived with the pack.
She’d poked her head into the club one day, enchanted by the woman twirling on the pole in the center of the room, graceful and athletic. She’d gone scurrying back to the street when the owner shouted at her from the bar, but the second time she approached the gray brick building, one of the girls had been standing outside, smoking a cigarette.
Dancing was her passion. She’d taken ballet as a child, before the situation at home had gone completely to shit, paid for with the little bit of money her mother had been able to squirrel away until her father ruined that too. Her lessons had come to a halt once her tuition was several months in arrears, just around junior high, when there wasn’t a cent left her father hadn’t squandered. Jude had received a perfunctory education in pole dance from the women outside the club, learned how strong and agile each of the dancers had to be, and she’d practiced on the monkey bars of the elementary school at the corner of her streets afterward, wrapping her leg around the base and hoisting herself up.
The opportunity to do so again thrilled her, but she knew better than to let Vin or any of his family know that dance was important to her.If it was important,she reminded herself,they would take it away.She eyed the pole, but said nothing, looking around the room.
“See, this is what it’s to come to. You can’t follow directions, can you? I ask you to do one simple fucking thing. Stay in the goddamn house. You think we want the pack members to start asking questions about who you are? You think we want them to start wondering?”
She’d been about to respond that she didn’t give a shit what his trashy, wife-beating, car-stealing pack thought of her, but the knowledge that his uncle might overhear stayed her tongue.
“How am I supposed to introduce you now? They were told I was going to be bringing home my fiancée. And now you don’t go with us for the change. They gotta see you walking around the complex when they all come back. You think we want them wondering if the fate of the pack rests on some broken bitch giving us pups that aren’t even real wolves? What do you think they would say to that?”
She stared up at him hatefully, his cruel words an echo of the same taunts and cheers she’d heard her whole life, and suddenly she didn’t care who might overhear her response.A broken bitch.He didn’t even have the fucking decency to be original. It didn’t matter if they were planning on killing her here, she decided, rage sizzling in her veins.If they’re gonna do it, get it the fuck over with. He’s wrong about one thing though. Youarea wolf. And he’s going to find out.
“I guess they’re gonna wonder what kind of alpha they have who doesn’t bother asking questions before he buys his son a bride. Who swallows down the first line of bullshit he’s fed from a washed-up old hustler.” Vin’s lips curled back, a warning of teeth, but she was only getting started.They want to kill you? Give them a reason. “They’re probably gonna wonder ‘if these are the kind of deals he makes for his own son, how’s he gonna sell out the rest of us?’ I might be a broken bitch, butyou’rethe ones stupid enough to have bought me. What kind of alpha is that?”
A soft huff of swallowed laughter came from over her shoulder, but Jude didn’t flinch away, her eyes locked on the wolf before her. She watched the fury bloom across his broad features, face reddening, but she still wasn’t finished.
“They’re gonna wonder what kind ofstupid fucking hothead“ — she punctuated each word with a jab of her finger in his general direction — “knots and marks someone as their mate before they even have a proper conversation. Who doesn’t think through the consequences of his stupid fucking actions. Is that who they’re going to want in charge of their pack? Of their kids? Of their futures? Someone who thinks with his dick first?”
She watched his hands raise — one to grab her shoulder, the other already pulling back to slap her. Jude braced for the impact, but the blow never came.
“Perhaps,“ cut in a silken, icy voice, just over her shoulder “this is a conversation best had in a week.Afteryour moon. Let cooler heads do the talking.”
The voice seemed to have materialized from the darkness behind her, and even though she agreed with its sentiment, the disembodied nature of the sound made her mouth run dry.
