401
Jayda
One week later
I feel so disgusting! Since those assholes took me, I’ve had one freaking shower. One! Even without a mirror, I know my normally glossy hair is now limp and greasy as hell. The clothes I was wearing could probably stand up by themselves if I took them off. Can you say disgusting? The room has an underlying putrid smell, probably due to the small confines of my cell. I’ve tried until I was exhausted to partially shift, and I also did what I could to break through the door. All without success, except for the broken nails. Pisses me off too, because I just had a manicure before they snatched me.
At least I have the names of my captors now. Both are dead men walking and talking. Once I’m able to shift, that’s a given. Mark Ortiz is apparently the man in charge here, otherwise known as Douchebag One. The other one, Mark Arumba, is Douchebag Two. Thankfully, he’s kept his hands to himself since his last attempt to subdue me. The gashes are slowly healing, but I fear that I’ll have scars and what man will want me with a fucked-up face? I sigh because at this point, I’m losing hope that any of us will be rescued. I know something’s up; there’ve been a lot of male voices overhead. I’ve only been able to catch bits and pieces, but I think the end is near for us and that scares the shit out of me.
He’s coming.
Who is coming?
Our mate.
How do you know this?
I have my ways.
He needs to hurry then, because I think it’s gonna happen today.
We can do this ourselves if we have to. I don’t care how weak we are, if we shift, we’re still stronger than stupid humans.
You know something? You’re right. Except I know one of them is a shifter so we’ll have to be careful.
We’ve got this! She now sounds like one of those life coaches with her positivity, and I grin. Maybe not as fully as I normally would, but I’m glad to see she’s still feisty. Maybe there’s hope after all.
I listen carefully but don’t hear our captors. Taking a chance, I softly say, “Ladies, we’re going to have to get ourselves out of this. I don’t know how they plan to do things, but when they allow us to shift, whether it’s all together or one at a time, we need to attack them. I know we’re all weak, but together we’re still stronger than mere humans. I mean, one of them’s a shifter, but he smells like a small bird to me and should be easy to overtake. What do you think?”
“I think we can,” a voice says.
“What’s the worst that can happen? They kill us?” another voice asks.
“It might work,” still another voice states.
“So how do we want to do this?” a fourth woman questions. “I mean, if they take us individually, the rest of us will still be hampered by whatever they’ve got in this damn collar.”
“I think that even if we go one by one, we can still hurt them. I’ve only ever seen two of them,” I reply. I quickly give the description of both men and hear the other women agree that they’re the only two who have been down here ‘taking care of us’ since we’ve each been taken. “Of course, I’ve heard other voices today, but even still, if their plan is to steal our animal pelts, I don’t think they’d risk killing us, do you?” That’s my biggest concern, but I refuse to go down meekly.
“If one of us can incapacitate them enough, we can let others out and then we can each help to get us all free,” the first woman says. “I’d rather go down swinging than just give up.” I can hear the thread of encouragement in her voice and soon, the other women are joining in.
Good job, my leopard says.
Not giving up, I reply.
Out loud, I state, “We all need to be alert and ready at a moment’s notice, then.” Voices ring through the basement, which is an assumption on my part, and we continue to make plans.
Knox
“I think I’ve located where the missing women are,” Aces states as he bursts into my office.
“What are we waiting for?” I question, standing up.
“We’ll have to shift and go in animal form. It’s a pretty remote location. But I have an idea,” he replies.
“Let everyone know they’re needed in church,” I state, rounding my desk. “I’ll meet everyone there in ten minutes.”
As I wait for my men to arrive, I go over everything we know. Fifteen women, all shifters, kidnapped for their pelts. I watch as my men arrive and smile. They look determined to take this fucking group of assholes down. Once they’re all seated, I bang the gavel and say, “Aces found the women.”
“Let’s go get them!” Thian cries out.
“We need a plan, brother. Aces said they’re being held in a remote location so we can’t just barge in. Here’s what I’m thinking,” I reply. Thirty minutes later, we have a plan in place. Pidge, while usually nocturnal, was alert enough to offer to fly over the area to get whatever intel he could find. Woolly and Mammoth, back from tracking down the escapee, will provide a distraction in their bear form that will hopefully draw out the assholes so that the rest of us can get inside and rescue the women.
“Let’s roll. Gonna need a few cages in case any of the women are hurt. Maybe grab one of our satellite cell phones in case we need to call for help. Our cover story for the cops will be that we got a tip and rather than call them in, we decided to check it out first so we didn’t waste valuable resources. Got it?” I question the
