Raine slowed as she got to her car. The burning of her lungs was nothing. Nothing could pull her out of the loneliness of her life. One more day and she would be another year older, and she would still be who she always was.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, but she didn’t want to talk to anyone. She didn’t want to share her pain, not yet.
* * *
The blackness of her apartment parking lot matched her mood. She was bad at love. That was it. Parking in the same spot she always parked, she cut the lights and pushed open her car-door.
Reaching across the passenger seat she grabbed her purse. With her hand still on the inner armrest of the door, she was startled by a too-strong grip to her forearm.
"Ouch. What the?" The cold fear shot through as eyes as dark as molten coal met hers. A freezing fear splashed across her senses, a familiar face she wanted to forget stared back at her.
"Get out of the car, Raine."
Swallowing past the restricting fear within her throat, she spit back at him.
"Never. You'll have to drag me out."
The scar running from temple to chin wrinkled as he sneered at her. "With pleasure, whore."
Raine repositioned her bag in her hand, ready to swing. He was a wolf shifter, any shifter was stronger than most humans. She wasn't going to win for long, but if she could get him in the temple, knock him off balance, scramble his head, anything would help.
"Just get out. No reason to hurt you. You're lucky my brother's dead. I don't think he'd have thought much of a woman that goes around with a cougar."
Her heart skipped a beat, forgetting for a moment to fear for herself. "What are you talking about?"
His jaw muscles flexed as she studied his face. Absently she braced her feet under the pedals of her car, anything to slow their removal of her.
"We saw you with him. A cougar shifter. We did not like the way he touched you. Doesn't he know you're already taken? If you'd just accept your own destiny, this would be a lot easier."
With each word, Raine found it harder and harder to keep her breathing even.
We, who was we? His wolf? Creepy.
What did she always tell her students? Keep calm. Know your strengths. What were her strengths?
A quick inventory and she realized her legs. Although she was sitting, she could easily kick him out of the way. If she did it right, maybe she'd be able to get his head and disorient the guy.
"Bitch. Get out of the car. You might have been hard to track, but you couldn't hide for long."
All her training came into play. With his hand still secured around her arm she twisted and was able to quickly move her body, giving her legs the opportunity she needed and kicked as hard as she could.
He might have been a shifter, but he was still a guy and she'd just nailed him where it counted. Hard. He grunted and wheezed as she pushed past him and made for freedom.
Her next breath gurgled in her throat as a hand closed over her neck.
"You bitch. First Jay, and now you're attacking Rob."
She scratched at his hands, trying to get him to release. She kicked out backward and heard the thud, but it didn't seem to faze him.
"You killed my brother, and you're going to pay."
Her words came out high and strangled. "He killed himself."
A sharp pinch accompanied her panicked need for air. Trying to dig her nails into his hands, the focus had her holding back the panic, until he didn't loosen his grip.
"He had a pack, why would he kill himself? You had to interfere with the pack. What did you do? Pay for some kind of love spell, make him crazy over some sad little whore like you?"
His grip loosened enough she was able to swallow. Her feet felt the ground for the first time in seconds. She chose her next strangled words carefully. Or rather not too carefully, but enough to get her point across.
"He died of a drug overdose, you moron."
She slammed the heel of her boot into his foot. He hissed but his fingers clung even tighter. She tried to squeeze her own fingers under his grip. No matter how hard she struggled, this wasn't a fair fight.
"You just stop struggling and this will all be easier." A long wet tongue trailed from her ear to her chin. "We need a new pack member, and Rob and I decided it would be appropriate to have you give us one."
Breathing had become urgent. Her lungs ached, and all she could think was how badly she needed to take in even the smallest breath. She knew the words coming from his moving lips were anything but encouraging, but his words sounded tiny, as if he were a mile away.
"Now. Be a good girl and let's go to your apartment."
"Fucking bitch," she noticed Rob next to her as the pressure around her neck eased. Everything hurt. She coughed.
"Stay quiet and I won't have to hurt you anymore."
Raine couldn't clear her throat, let along scream. Her throat burned with each gulp of air.
"Very good. Now you can make a few choices. But in the end, they all involve us and you making up for killing our brother. We need a new pack member and Jay handpicked you to help with that. We see it fitting you will finish his work."
Fear raced over her, her body shivering past the terror as his hand ran between her legs.
A silent gasp, a puff of air on her lips, all she could do as his hand pressed hard at the seam of her pants. She winced at the unwanted pressure.
In all her fear she'd suddenly realized her phone was still in her back pocket.
