Strickland stepped into the room, leaving the door open behind him for lighting. The skinwalker regarded her quietly for moment before he glanced up at the windows near the ceiling, and her relative proximity to them.
“I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but don’t try to escape,” Strickland said with a smile that had her insides twisting into knots. “I’m not going to attempt to convince you that tonight will be enjoyable, but I can promise that if you make me chase after you again, I can make the process much worse.”
Hadley did her best not to look like she was going to throw up at any second, refusing to think about what Strickland could do that was worse than eating her. Part of her wanted to think he was merely trying to scare her into being docile, but then again, with a guy this twisted—a guy who’d been around as long as Strickland probably had—anything was possible.
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked, already knowing the answer but desperate to keep him talking, hoping to delay the outcome as long as possible, both to give Carter time to find her or at least get some information that might help her out of this situation.
“I’m sure you already know the answer to that question,” Strickland said. “And please, don’t take me for a fool. I know you’re only asking because you believe if you keep me talking long enough, your werewolf boy toy will show up to rescue you.”
Hadley’s stomach twisted once again, this time at the knowledge that Strickland knew about her relationship with Carter, that he knew Carter was a werewolf, and that she was desperate for him to come and save her. But she swallowed her anxiety, refusing to let it all show.
“I can promise you that no matter how long we talk, your werewolf won’t be coming to save you,” Strickland’s mouth curved. “Not because he doesn’t know where you are, but because I drugged him with so much venom that his heart and lungs shut down. Truthfully, I’m surprised he lasted long enough to stumble outside. Regardless, even if being a werewolf allowed him to survive my venom longer than he should have, he’s dead now.”
Hearing that Carter was dead devastated her like a punch to the chest. Breathing became difficult and her knees felt so weak that she knew she was seconds from collapsing onto the filthy floor.
But moments before Hadley completely lost hope and gave up, something happened. A surge of energy rushed through her. She had no idea how, but she knew Strickland was lying. He might not know it, but he was lying all the same.
Carter was her soul mate. Hadley was sure she’d feel it in her own soul if what Strickland said was true. At that moment, she truly understood what Carter being The One for her meant. It was about having a connection so strong with another person that you could feel their heart beating.
That part of her mind that continued to depend more on science than emotion pointed out that this was probably nothing more than wishful thinking. But she decided to ignore it.
“So, if you’re going to eat me and wear my skin, why lock me in here?” she managed to force out, more willing to fight through the nauseating fear now that she had reason to hope. “Why not get it over with?”
If Strickland was taken aback that Hadley wasn’t a crumpled heap on the floor after what he’d said, he didn’t let it show.
“While I’d love to go ahead and eat you now, I have to wait until my spawn are ready. If I’m going to go up against an entire pack of werewolves, I’m going to need backup. As an eight-hundred-year-old skinwalker, I might be powerful, but I’m not stupid.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
She didn’t expect him to elaborate but wanted to drag out the conversation as long as possible.
“Tyrell Turner has been hounding me for almost a decade and I only killed his brother,” Strickland said, like what he’d done wasn’t a big deal. “But now I’ve killed a hybrid werewolf of the largest pack in the United States, not to mention his soul mate. It’s a safe bet that the entire pack will be chasing me for the next fifty years if I don’t deal with them now. Which is why I’ve been creating more spawn. The last of them won’t be ready until after midnight.”
Hadley’s head whirled as she tried to comprehend the implications of everything Strickland had said. How had he known Carter was her soul mate? And how had he created enough spawn to fight the entire SWAT pack? But there was something she was even more interested in knowing.
“You said hybrid werewolf. What do you mean by that?”
Strickland stared at her like she was a doofus. “You didn’t seriously think that big oversized mutt was a real werewolf, did you?”
She opened her mouth to tell him that didn’t answer her question and that Carter was every inch a real werewolf, but he waved his hand, cutting her off.
“Enough talk,” he snapped. “I can’t understand why you continue to believe there’s a reason to keep drawing this out. No one is coming to rescue you. The only reason I came in here at all was to tell you that none of my spawn will touch you during the feeding frenzy. I want to wear your skin as long as possible, which means I want every single little bit of you, right down to the last drop of blood, eyelash, and toenail.”
Hadley stood there in silence as Strickland turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door and leaving her in the darkness again. A rattling sound confirmed that he was locking it, maybe even with a chain.
She forced herself not to cry as she thought about what would happen to her unless Carter found her first.
* * * * *
“I’m going to go snoop around Hadley’s office and see if I find something that I can use for a Find Me charm,” Kat said over her shoulder, heading in the direction and taking Karissa with her.
“If Kat’s plan doesn’t work, how are we going to find her?” Carter asked, trying hard to keep the panic out of his voice as he stood in the waiting area outside Hadley’s office feeling frustrated, helpless, and scared out of his mind.
He’d figured Hale and Trey would show up with Mike, but he hadn’t expected Turner to be with them. He was just as surprised to see Kat, Lydia, Kamden, and Karissa.
Carter’s stomach twisted at the silence that met his question. “Strickland said he was going to kill Hadley in the next few hours, and that was a good thirty minutes ago,” he added, running his hands through his hair even as his claws and fangs extended and retracted over and over on their own.
“We’re going to find her, but you need to calm down and keep it together,” Mike said in what he probably thought was a soothing tone.
