Page 80 of Chased

Her heart started to pound, and her adrenalin spiked. Calm. She had to stay calm.

She closed her eyes again, and tried to scent beyond the men. She didn’t smell forest; she smelled dirt and drying grass and the hint of water.

She knew that smell. She was out on the mountainside. Her innate sense of the natural rhythms around her told her not much time had passed since she’d been taken.

Then a familiar, disgusting scent washed over her, and a rough hand grabbed her hair. “I know you’re awake, lapereau,” came a soft voice. “It won’t do you any good to play possum.”

Henri Levesque.

Madison opened her eyes.

Henri yanked her to a sitting position. Still holding painfully onto her hair, he murmured, “Well, look at our little rebel now. You didn’t really think you could get away with defying me, did you? You thought you were smart enough to keep me from finding you? You’re pathetic. And now I’m going to make you sorry.”

Madison said, “My friends are looking for me right now, and when they find me, you’re the one who’s going to be sorry.”

Henri laughed. “Your ‘friends’ are taking a nice long nap. You won’t be getting any help from them.”

Madison’s stomach went cold. She’d seen Dealer fall, and heard Breanna shoot. If Henri’s hit squad had killed them…

She deliberately blocked that out. She couldn’t let herself believe that, couldn’t let herself get lost in imagined grief. She had to survive. “I have other friends,” she said. “They’ll come looking for all of us.”

He snorted. “You overestimate your importance. No one’s looking for you.” He ran his hand down her cheek. “Except me. And now that I’ve found you, you’re mine.”

Not even a little bit, Vixen said. Bite him.

Not yet, she said. But we will.

Madison tried to focus. There were two men in camo here under the tent with them. There had been more in the woods, so those were either on guard, or they’d gone once they turned her over. She had to assume they were on guard.

Then there was Henri, and his younger brother and a cousin of theirs, who were sitting with their backs against a boulder. And just outside the shelter stood two men in suits, who looked like freaking lawyers—except one of them had a video camera.

And then she knew.

Why Henri had brought her here, instead of putting her on a plane to Colorado. Why there were all these people. Official witnesses.

Henri wanted his Hunt—and he wanted it now.

Before anyone had the chance to find her.

One of the men in suits approached them and Henri let go of her, leaving her scalp stinging from where he’d yanked on her hair. A phony look of concern and respect came over his face.

Suit guy came and stood over Madison, looking down at her. “Miss Fontaine,” he said. “I am Jacques Favereau, representing the Renard Council, and I am one of the referees for this Hunt.”

Referees? Like a fucking soccer game? Like there was any fairness in this at all?

She said, “How the hell do you look yourself in the mirror every day?”

He ignored that. “Please listen carefully to your instructions. In seven minutes, the final effects of the sedative you were given will wear off, making you fit for the Hunt. At that time, you will be taken across this field—” he pointed outside the shelter— “to a point at the top of the slope. You will be injected with a substance to bring out your lapin, and when you have Changed, you will run.”

Henri gazed at her, his eyes hot and hard. “Yes, you’ll run. And I’ll catch you, and claim you, and mark you, and you’ll be mine. Won’t that be wonderful, mignonne?”

Madison threw up in her mouth a little bit.

Favereau went on, “Since this is not an official Hunt course, your route has been marked with orange flags.” He held one up to show her—like an orange ribbon. “Please stay within the assigned boundaries.”

Madison stared at him. Please stay within the assigned boundaries? “Are you fucking kidding me?” she said. “Please play by the rules, so Henri can terrorize my lapin, chase me down, rape me, and scar me? And then keep me prisoner for the rest of my life?”

Favereau blinked, as if he had never heard this perspective before.