“I didn’t know prey could be so brave,” Reed mused, his face and voice lacking any kind of emotion.
“Let her go.”
“You aren’t in any position to be making demands,” he sneered, clenching his hand tighter around her throat. The knife was down in his other hand, the one he kept pointing at me with.
His hand relaxed, and Sloane slumped halfway over, heaving her breaths in. While she was down, her arm shot out in line with Reed’s groin and hit with more force than I thought she could muster.
He groaned in surprise and clenched his jaw but remained upright. One of his men grabbed Sloane by the arm and dragged her away from us. I held my breath and watched Reed saunter back and forth.
“It’s just us now.” His voice sent my mind reeling, trying to come up with escape routes. An arm came around my throat, holding me hostage until Reed came over and pointed the knife directly at my jugular. “And I intend to make this hurt.”
Instinctual
Reed walked behind me, the knife just grazing the hairs on my neck. I couldn’t think of anything other than the small nicks it was making against my skin. Three or four of his men followed us, and we met with a larger group of wolves.
They smiled wickedly at me, licking their lips, and yipping in excitement. I tried to keep the sneer on my face, but it was a losing battle; I was shaking, sweating, scared. It was cold outside, but it felt like I was standing right next to the sun.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce the great Enforcer’s mate.” I stepped away from the knife and Reed grabbing my hair, pulling me back harshly. “Ah, ah, ah,” he tutted, forcing me far enough back where he could put his face next to mine. “Please don’t make me work for this, I’m really not in the mood after all the fighting.”
I moved my face away from his, and he laughed once, lowly, leading me forward until we stood on a small cliff overlooking the clearing.
“See that?” Reed pointed the knife down to a wolf. “That’s your mate down there. He has no idea that you’re gone, and you can’t mind link him. You are not the same as your mate, you are not the same as me. You are weak.”
“You’re an arrogant wolf,” I noted quietly.
He paid me no attention.
“He doesn’t even know you’re gone,” he hissed in my ear. I closed my eyes as he got closer to me and leaned down to inhale my scent. “Weak.”
“Reed, what are we going to do with her?” another man asked.
“I haven’t decided yet,” he responded, casually looking sideways at the man. “I had this idea that I would cut her head off and sew a doe’s head on top of her body and send it back to Theo but, skinning her also sounds sort of fun. Don’t you think?”
A chorus of low approvals was muttered among them.
“What do you think we should do?” he asked me flatly.
“What will Albia think?” I asked, hoping to appeal to his human side.
“Who?”
“Your mate?” That angered him, and he smacked me across the face with the back of his hand. It stung the skin but with the surge of adrenaline, I didn't feel the underlying bruise.
“Don’t say her name,” he said as a warning.
“You don’t even know her name yet, do you think this is the best first impression?” My words became increasingly quiet as his hand wound around my throat.
“You know, cutting your head off was the less painful option; once I cut through your neck, you would have bled out almost instantly. Now I’m kind of favoring the second option.”
My breaths came in convulsions. I was going into shock, and I had to fight it if I was going to make any sort of attempt to live. I calmed my breathing while Reed was debating which part of me he would start slicing off.
“I think the face is a great place to start. We can make a mask with your skin,” he whispered harshly, the air of his breath invaded my mouth.
He took his knife out of his pocket and touched the tip to the middle of my forehead. Methodically, his knife cut through my skin down to my skull and began to trace down the left side of my face just under my hairline.
I jerked and fought against him, crying out, screaming uncontrollably.
He stopped for half a second and flicked his knife behind him, shaking off the droplets of blood.
“Theo’s going to kill you,” I said weakly, blinking as a stream of blood cascaded over my eyes.
“Theo doesn’t even know where you are. He’s fighting with some other pack’s wolves right now. By the time he realizes what happened to you, it’ll be too late.”
“He knows.”
Reed stepped back, wiping a drop of sweat from his brow. “He can’t even hear you.” He called Theo’s name loudly, glancing behind his shoulder. He called him again and then looked at me pointedly. “Here, I’ll even give you a chance to get his attention.”
He didn’t move away from me at all, figuring there was nothing I could do. I wasn’t a wolf, I couldn’t mind-link him. I wasn’t strong enough to fight Reed off or run for help.
The knife glinted in the sun again, and without even thinking, I slipped it out of Reed’s hand and brought it up to my neck.
“What? Are you going to do the honors yourself?”
Knowing there was no other option, I moved the knife to the side of my neck where Theo’s mark was and pressed into it greedily. I screamed as the blade cut through my skin. Reed’s eyes grew larger, and then he squinted, grabbing the knife from me and shoving me to the ground.
“I told you, you were arrogant,” I whispered, quiet and hoarse.
From our position on the small cliff, we
