Chapter 12
When she woke up, Jenny knew she was in trouble.
Struggling to open her gluey eyelids, she gave up and instead concentrated on smells.
Fir trees, dense undergrowth, the rich decay of leaves, moss.
Stone. A slab of stone, stench of old blood. The surface beneath her felt hard and rough. She rubbed her arms against it. The stone … she was lying on it.
“Awake at last. Good. So much richer and meaningful when the sacrifice is conscious and able to sense. The fear makes it much tastier for the Dark Lord.”
That voice. She forced her eyes open to regard Perry’s smug, nasty expression leering over her. She glanced around, saw about ten others ringing the stone. They wore dark cloaks with hoods, their faces hidden. The same ones she’d seen chanting yesterday in the woods.
Fear skidded down her spine. She was the sacrifice.
He wanted fear. She’d never give him the satisfaction.
“I knew there was something special about you, an extraordinary power, when I met you at the lodge. Aiden Mitchell has many werewolves here, but you, my dear, are more powerful than they are. I kept waiting for you to emerge alone. Yesterday when you showed your true powers and caused me to drop my rifle, I knew all I had to do was wait until you were alone.”
Suddenly she realized how easily he’d trapped her. “You never intended to kill the pups.”
“Not until later. Why kill real wolves when the power lies with werewolves like yourself? It is your power I crave. I set the wolf trap to catch one of you, and I caught the prize werewolf.”
Her heart raced with dread. All this time Aiden and the others were intent on protecting the wolf pack, and Perry used the real wolves to trap one of them.
Trap her.
“Do you have any last words before my followers and I give your life and soul to my master?” Perry leaned closer, his dark, beady gaze filled with triumph.
“Yeah. Your breath stinks. Ever hear of mints?”
One of the acolytes tittered, immediately silenced under Perry’s harsh glare. He turned his attention back to Jenny.
“When I take your life, I will offer up all your magick powers to the Dark Lord and my followers and I will become invincible. Then we will destroy the rest of your werewolf pack and absorb them as well. The day of darkness is approaching, when all OtherWorlders must either embrace the Dark Lord or forfeit their lives.”
He sneered. “But you, my dear, are a special prize with your magick. Much more potent than any Lupine I’ve encountered.”
Jenny pulled at her arms and legs. She was bound to the stone, held fast by thick iron chains.
Faint hope rushed through her. Perry took no chances… or he thought she was a powerful Fae mixed with Lupine blood. Not what she truly was.
He didn’t know. And that would prove his downfall.
Her mangled right leg, though… Getting caught in the wolf trap had drained her energy and some of her magick.
Hopeless.
Troy’s voice echoed in her mind. “You don’t know what you truly are, sweetheart, until you push yourself. Stop holding back and let her rip. Only then can you be free.”
Stop holding back.
Troy, dearest Troy, her friend, her mate, if he would have her. If he hadn’t changed his mind.
If she ever got out of this mess.
Focus on Troy. Remember his smile, his dark eyes, his body moving over yours as you made love. Let your last memory be of him, not this evil.
Even his scent flooded her senses… no, wait.
She turned her head and now terror filled her. In the shadows among the pines, Troy hovered.
All her confidence fled.
He fooled her all along and sought to bring her to Perry. Troy betrayed her. He was a member of Perry’s dark cult. What was the use? Her best friend, the one she planned to mate with for life, desired power more than love.
Jenny sank back onto the stone. Defeated, she stared at the blade one of the cultists brought to Perry. Sunlight winked off the sharp steel.
Maybe it would be quick. No, he wanted to draw it out, make her scream and beg for mercy.
While giving none.
The agony in her injured leg throbbed harder. Crashing from an adrenalin high made her fully aware how weak she was, and vulnerable.
She craned her neck again for one last look at her betrayer. I love you, even if you never loved me.
Stunned, she watched Troy’s dark gaze meet hers as he put a finger to his lips.
Then he mouthed something. But she didn’t understand.
Troy slipped between the trees, inching closer. Think, Jenny!
If Troy were one of them, he would not skulk about.
He was here to rescue her!
The knowledge fed her strength, and then fear renewed itself. Troy was strong, but eleven against one lone Lupine?
Perry finished sharpening the blade against the stone. He held it up, admiring it.
“The flesh tastes so much better when it is flayed slowly from the victim’s skin.”
Terror rose in her throat. She fought it. She must not fear, for it would cripple her. This evil must be extinguished before others were tortured and killed.
Before the Dark Lord’s forces grew stronger and undefeatable.
Perry’s weakness was ego. Jenny smiled at him, buying Troy time to draw closer. Time to gamble and throw out everything to see if anything would stick.
“You’re such a cliché, Perry. What happened? Academia snubbed you so you formed your own cult of admirers? Or did the desire to follow in daddy’s footsteps falter because no matter what you did, it wasn’t good enough for dear old daddy’s approval?”
Soon as she mentioned his father, Perry’s expression dropped. Ah, gotcha. She pressed harder.
“All those years, trying to please your daddy when you were invisible. He never cared about you. You weren’t good enough for him and then you ruined your life.”
“That’s not true.” The knife slipped to the ground as Perry shouted. “I have more power than my father ever will! The Dark Lord gave it to
