Malcolm reached his hand out and stroked it across my injured eye down across the blood on my cheek to my split lip. He smiled serenely at me as be ran his thumb gently over my lip. When he probed the split with his thumb I bit down as hard as I could. The metallic taste of blood exploded in my mouth and he wrenched his hand away. I kept my face blank despite the pain as my split lip bled freely again. Malcolm inspected the wound on his thumb and then glared at me.
“You're not a very smart girl,” he said with an eerie calmness. Then, faster than my eyes could comprehend, he backhanded me across the unmarred side of my face. Stars danced across my vision, but I fought hard to not succumb to the gray that tried to take over. I glared up at him and spat the blood from my mouth at his feet.
“Not smart at all,” a familiar voice stated. My heart leaped for joy for just a moment as I recognized Silas walking up beside Malcolm. His look of contempt killed any hope I had of him rescuing me.
“Hello, Delilah,” he sneered in his charmingly smooth voice. “It seems your sister doesn't plan to give up her pack for your life. Jarren is already searching for you. I found it highly entertaining watching him try to find a trail to follow.”
I didn't reply. I wasn't surprised that Zee wasn't giving up. I never expected her to. I felt my sliver of hope rekindle when Silas said Jarren was searching. If anyone could find me it would be Jarren. He had an annoying knack for knowing exactly where I was. I just had to hang on for a little while longer. When I got out of there, I was going to kiss that werewolf. Yeah, werewolf.
