A strange smell jolts me awake. “Ugh,” I groan as I try to open my eyes. A large hand is waving something in front of my face and I turn away from the concentrated smell.
“Wake up, sweetheart,” the evil voice snarls, gripping me by the breast and twisting it savagely. My eyes open instantly and I am blinded by a bright light.
“Aaah,” I cry in pain. My whole body throbs in agony as I remember where I am and what’s been done to me. Even She is cowering after the torture of the electric shocks we endured earlier. We’re tired and scared this will end badly.
“Not so fiesty now, are we?” Henri’s smugness has me wondering if my situation has gotten worse while I was knocked out, however long it’s been, and my cat is frighteningly silent.
“Please,” I beg, for what I have no idea. Mercy? Sympathy? For this to end?
“You let him taint you,” he yells in my face, my ears ringing with its intensity, spittle flying all over my face. He’s more deranged than before.
“Please let me go,” I whimper.
“Not until that motorcycle club of yours gives us their land. And after the little surprise I’ve sent earlier,” he grins evilly, “They'll be more than willing.”
“What are you talking about?”
Grinning, he strokes my hair as he takes my mouth in a hard, rough kiss that sends my stomach rolling. Struggling to get free of him is useless as I’m strapped too tightly.
“I think we have a problem,” the accomplice interrupts.
Tearing his mouth from mine, he scowls, “What?”
“There are several bikes headed our way.”
“Good,” he eagerly replies. “Alert the boys.” Nodding, the man who kidnapped me disappears. Time passes slowly as he studies his phone, smiling wider by the minute.
“No,” I protest as gunfire erupts and Henri begins to chuckle.
“Your friends think they can get you back without giving me what I want. Let them try,” he chuckles, and I make the impromptu decision to call for help.
“Hacker!” He slaps my face so hard I see stars and my vision blurs. Even knowing he will hit me again, I muster up the strength to cry out again, “Hacker!”
The second blow sends my head spinning and my ears ringing loud enough I can’t hear anything else. I can taste blood as he shoves something in my mouth to shut me up.
“Don’t let them live,” he snarls to someone as my hearing returns to normal. Gunshots and crashing noises seem to surround us, the bullets hitting the building in rapid succession. I can only pray that my new family, my club, survives whatever Henri has waiting for them.
The migraine I’ve developed from enduring his numerous hits, absorbing Henri’s emotions, and now those of the others that have arrived, is growing more unbearable by the second and I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I can’t determine how long I’m in and out of it when the fighting carries into the building where I’m being kept. Feelings of anger and intense pain hit me with a force I’ve not yet experienced. My head feels like it’s about to explode and my stomach becomes more unstable as I struggle to deal with them all.
“Larken! Lark!” Hearing my name brings me to tears. Haught is here and he’s looking for me.
I try to shout through the pain even though I'm gagged. Taking another smack to the cheek for my attempt, tears flood my cheeks, not in pain, but in relief.
“He came,” my cat sobs. “He came for us!”
“Take one more step and she dies,” Henri says as he presses a knife to my throat.
Through the space between his arm and body, I can barely see Haught standing in the doorway, gun drawn and ready to fire. His eyes are glowing gold with his leopard and I’m comforted that he’ll stop this madness.
“Are you alright, baby?” His eyes never stray from Henri.
Henri presses the blade harder against my throat and I can feel a warm liquid run down the column of my neck and into my hair. Afraid to move and deepen the cut, I close my eyes and fight the panic threatening to overtake me.
“Shut the hell up, biker boy,” Henri roars, the knife digging into my skin even more as he leans forward. “I’m in charge here, and if you want your precious whore in one piece, I suggest you drop the gun and do as you’re told.”
“I hope our mate eats him for lunch,” my animal murmurs, truly hopeful for the first time since we were taken.
“Look at me, baby,” Haught demands and I do as instructed. “Be still.” I’m confused, wondering why he said that when a loud growl fills the room and Henri is knocked off me by an enormous wolf.
Henri’s screams intensify as another wolf joins the other to subdue him as he shifts into his lynx. The two corral his limping form into a far corner just as a pair of leopards are added to the fray. Their presence only increases Henri’s determination to fight and he leaps onto the nearest wolf, jaws clamping down on its shoulder.
It takes one angry swipe from a third leopard, the largest one so far, to send my captor flying into the wall behind him. The blow he sustains combined with the others he already has renders him unconscious as the wolves stand guard over his motionless body. The smaller cats roar and growl at their opponent while the largest one snarls at Trick, whom I didn’t see enter the room, as he lays a large t-shirt over the front of my body and removes the gag and then the horrible collar. The unfamiliar scent it carries feels wrong but I’m grateful to finally be covered even this much after being nearly naked for who knows how long.
“Calm down, brother,” he tells the leopard while releasing me from the last of my bonds. Not knowing what I’ve endured, every move he makes causes me more pain and I
