Iwas dreaming I was trapped inside a zoo at night, with the terrifying roar of a tiger rumbling around me that rattled my bones. The blistering, consuming pain was hovering at the edges of my consciousness. Indigo was doing her best to shield me from the worst of it. Whatever happened, we couldn’t let Michael believe she was in charge. The second that happened, my grandmother would move to drain my power, the gentle tug on my magic from the siphoning runes would become unbearable, and then she would be unstoppable.
I’d lost the contents of my stomach earlier, but it still twisted, causing my body to jerk in the restraints as tiny concentrated amounts of bile tried to escape.
“He’s going to kill us,” Indigo snarled in my mind as I vaguely registered a searing pain in my shoulder. Another roar tore through my mind and I sunk into the comforting delusion that my tiger would be rescuing me. My heart thudded erratically in my chest, a twin phantom beat that kept me strong, kept me alive. It was a wonderful thought, but with hope, came that vulnerability I’d been so adamant was a strength, and with that came the crushing knowledge that I was alone.
“What’s happening?” Michael said.
I pushed through past the shield Indigo had formed in my mind and stared at a scowling Michael, who was towering above me with steel in his spine and metal in his hand. I guess he’d abandoned his acid attack.
Movement caught my attention. Outside of the box, shadows moved. My grandmother’s face came into view as she shouted instructions to her minions who were running around like there was a fire burning their asses.
She pointed at Michael. “Stay in the box and guard her.” Her gaze landed on me. “Your mate has overstepped coming here. He will die, plunging the pack into chaos.” She grinned like this was wonderful news and I briefly wondered how on earth I could be related to such a bitch.
Then her words sank into my mind. Hudson was here? Endangering himself. Again. Oh, you complete idiot. Indigo snarled inside of me and threatened to break free. Michael’s gaze shot to mine. He knelt at my side and an evil smile spread across his face. “We’ve been going about this all wrong. You’ll never break from my pain, but from the agony of watching your mate suffer? That will draw your creature out, as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow.”
“Try it,” I ground out. The metallic taste of blood in my mouth made me gag.
Michael licked his lips. “Oh, I will. I can push him harder than I have you, we don’t need him to survive.”
Indigo raged inside my mind at his words. I grinned. “As I said, try it. You’re weak, you can only torture females who are strapped down and at your mercy. In a real fight, you will lose every single time.”
I was provoking him to do something stupid, like step outside of the box to prove himself. He tilted his head and smirked. “Nice try.”
My grandmother shouted louder and then disappeared into the shadows. I watched as elementals ran around outside the box, blood covered some of their faces and they looked like they’d just met Death and he’d uttered their fate in their ears.
“Protect Cora,” my grandmother snapped from somewhere in the darkness. The shaken elementals converged around the outside of the box, their backs to us. Didn’t they know the biggest predator was behind them?
A giant wolf shot out of the darkness, causing a panicked elemental to shoot fire from his hand. The fire spread over the wolf’s fur like it was resistant and harmlessly dissipated. The wolf responded by lunging at the elemental and sinking its teeth into his abdomen. Familiar eyes slid over me. Dave. A blonde female rushed toward another male elemental, who was ready for her with a spell meant to kill. It bounced off her like she was inside of a bubble. She lifted her hands and tore the head from the elemental. Her horrified gaze landed on me before lifting to the cause of my torment.
Rebecca grinned. If I could have moved, I might have shrunk back. Rebecca had left the safety of my house to come rescue me? Sebastian joined her and together with Dave and another unfamiliar wolf, dispatched the barrier of elementals surrounding the glass box. My grandmother had so few people here, clearly believing wherever she’d held me was secure from major threats.
Sudden pain pierced my stomach, ripping a scream from my throat. My eyes shot to the cause, Michael’s hook sat in my stomach.
“Stop,” he roared. He wasn’t concerned with his fallen comrades, but he’d seen the writing on the wall for his own fate as my friends closed in.
Aunt Liz and Aunt Sophia walked inside the room. Their faces dropped two shades paler when they spotted me.
“I will gut her if you take another step closer,” Michael said. The hook moved in my stomach, but I gritted my teeth against another show of the pain he’d inflicted.
My aunts parted and between them my grandmother stepped forward. For a terrifying heartbeat I thought they’d teamed up, and that betrayal almost wrecked me before Hudson emerged from behind Eloise, and my heart roared to life. He’d come for me. Even if I didn’t make it, the knowledge that I was enough, that he’d come for me when I needed him, it was everything. He pushed my grandmother forward. His hand was around her neck, claws extended, and rivulets of blood trickled down her flesh and stained her cream blouse. Lenson and Rockhard flanked my aunts, they must be responsible for the shields the vampires and shifters had.
My grandmother’s fisted hands were clamped in metal cuffs that shimmered with power. They’d managed to null her power, but it wouldn’t last. Hudson was restraining himself as he carefully avoided looking over my body. I knew if he took in the extent of my injuries he’d murder Eloise, and that put my life in jeopardy.
“A simple exchange,” he gritted out. “Your precious president for my mate.”
Michael went preternaturally still as he weighed up the deal. For a horrifying moment, I thought he would prefer to murder me and sacrifice himself and my grandmother.
“Michael,” my grandmother snapped. “Take the deal. We can live to fight another day.”
Michael’s hook slid free of my stomach and I sucked in a breath. I just had to keep on breathing. Keep my heart beating.
“The remote is in my pants pocket,” Eloise snapped. I’d give it to my grandmother, to still sound strong and pissed in the face of such terrifying power, was a skill.
Aunt Liz dug inside her mother’s pocket and withdrew the tiny black remote. The glass door slid open, and Michael took a step toward it, then paused. He seemed to realize something at the same time as myself. They would murder both him and my grandmother the second I was safe. There was no political etiquette here, they’d committed horrors which had no excuse. They would be executed.
He retraced his steps and leaned down to unlock my manacles from my wrists and ankles. My muscles spasmed after being pinned down for so long in one position.
He hooked an arm around me and forced me to my feet, my legs like limp noodles, refusing to hold my weight. He dragged me out through the open glass door, my vision darkening at the edges as I fought a battle with my body to stay in the moment.
