They were all shirtless, Caleb’s pack. I didn’t know why. Maybe just to show off their impressive muscles or the SK tattoos on their shoulders or biceps. Three came to me, and another three went to Daniel. The last two yanked Gabriel up from where he lay.
One unlocked my shackles while the others held me tight. I kicked and flailed, as did Daniel, but Gabriel didn’t resist as they dragged us out of the dungeonlike room. They walked us up a flight of stairs. I went limp and refused to move, hoping my resistance might create some type of distraction for the others, but one of my captors merely grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I could see the rippling muscles down his back, but I still knew where he was vulnerable. I was about to slam my fists into his kidneys when another guy grabbed my hands and held them in an iron-tight grip.
Gelal, I thought, sizing him up. This one I could kill if I needed to. But the one holding me was most definitely Urbat. He stank like a rabid dog.
My ride flipped me over when we got to the top of the stairs, and tossed me to the ground. I didn’t hesitate and scrambled to my feet, but then two of the guys were holding me again. Jude stood there watching the whole thing, unmoved. Caleb stepped out of his room and met us on the balcony overlooking the warehouse floor. An evil grin spread across his face.
“I hope you two enjoyed your time together. I know we enjoyed watching it.”
One of the guys holding me laughed.
The security camera. Of course, they had been watching.
“It was quite touching, watching you two blather on about true love and all that rot. Although perhaps we should have made your chains longer.
Some of us were hoping for a little skin after that kiss.” He gave me a once-over with his eyes that made me want to vomit. His gaze lingered on my legs, making me wish my dress were about four feet longer. “Although I’ll have more time for exploring that later.”
Three more of the guys laughed. They sounded like sick hyenas.
Daniel thrashed in his captors’ hands. “Don’t you dare touch her!” he shouted at his father.
“Oh, don’t worry. We’ll be gentle—at first. It’s been a while since we’ve had a girl in our home.”
“Probably because they don’t last long once you get your paws on them,” Talbot growled from the shadows just beyond Caleb. I noticed him there for the first time, his hands tied with cording and two of Caleb’s Akhs holding him. The last time I’d seen Talbot, he’d been the guard at our door.
Why was he tied up now?
“That’s why I wouldn’t bring her to you,” Talbot said. “You don’t deserve to have her.”
Caleb snapped his long fingers, and one of Talbot’s captors punched him in the gut. Talbot doubled over and coughed.
“Talbot was supposed to turn you during the last couple weeks. He usually has a talent for it. But apparently you have more influence over him than he had over you. That’s one of the reasons I decided to wait until this morning to turn you myself. Not only is anticipation one of the best parts of the game, but I also wanted to see who was still loyal to me. I expected one of them to try to free you last night, only I’d expected it to be your brother, not my own beta.”
So that was why Talbot was tied up again. He’d tried to rescue us. Perhaps that commotion I’d heard at the door hadn’t been a dream after all.
Yet my own brother stood by Caleb’s side, unrestrained, unwilling, unwanting to do anything. Maybe I’d been wrong about there still being good in him.
“There is something special about you.” Caleb stepped close enough so I could smell his scent of alcohol and wolf. He ran one of his fingers down my cheek and then along the vein pulsing in my neck. “It’s like you inspire devotion in the most unlikely places. I was right to choose you. You’ll be an excellent alpha female when I make you my mate.”
“That will never happen,” I said as if stating scientific fact. I wouldn’t give Caleb the satisfaction of my sounding angry or scared. I’d be dead before he could touch me again anyway. “And you are no true alpha. But Daniel is.”
Or was: the realization dawned on me. Now it all made sense, the reason Caleb would go through all this trouble to find and destroy him before the challenging ceremony. It was the same reason Caleb had hated Daniel from the moment he was born. Daniel had been born with the essence of the true alpha. He was the person Gabriel had been talking about when he said he’d thought there had been another true alpha besides Sirhan—
only he wasn’t so sure Daniel still had that potential now that he was cured … or, er, everything was confused. But Caleb wasn’t taking any chances.
If Daniel was a true alpha, then he was the one person who could ruin Caleb’s opportunity to take over Sirhan’s pack.
“Daniel’s got more potential for being an alpha in his little finger than you’ll ever have. That’s why you hate him, isn’t it? Because he’s everything you’re not.”
Caleb shoved his face into mine, his nostrils flaring, his yellow eyes squinted. He spread out his fingers in front of my throat, like he wanted to strangle me with his bare hand. But then he grabbed my moonstone pendant and ripped it from my neck with such force it made my head jut forward and then snap back.
He threw the pendant against the concrete wall, and I watched it burst into black bits of shattered hope. I tried to scramble for one of the pieces, but I couldn’t break free from the arms that held me. I’d been counting on the moonstone buying me a few minutes of balance.
“It’s time to finish the game.” He snapped at the two guys holding me like they were trained mutts. “Throw her in the pit.”
I didn’t kick or scream or thrash this time when the two guys picked me up. Without my moonstone necklace, I couldn’t risk getting worked up at all.
My time was over.
I held perfectly still and let them carry me to the edge of the balcony. I looked at Daniel one last time. He was thrashing, with four guys holding him back. But he stopped for a moment, like he could feel my gaze on him. He looked up at me with tears flowing from his eyes.
“I’ll love you always,” I said to him as the two guys pitched me headfirst over the side of the balcony.
“No!” I heard Daniel shout.
I’d wanted to fall. Just let my head crack against the concrete floor twenty feet below. But my instincts kicked in, and my body twisted midair. I landed with a head-over-heels roll and bounced back up on my feet. My left ankle faltered a bit under me, but I pretended not to notice.
I stood alone on the warehouse floor.
“You’re going to have to do better than that,” I shouted back at Caleb.
He leaned out over the balcony railing. “Oh, we’re just getting started, girl.”
The ground rumbled under my feet, sending a shooting pain through my tender ankle. A large garage-type door slowly opened on the far side of the warehouse. The rumbling groan of the door was accompanied by a chorus of growls.
“You see, Grace Divine, the wolf has quite the instinct for self-preservation. Threaten it enough, and you won’t be able to stop it from breaking through.”
The door continued to rise, revealing a line of six growling werewolves. Their eyes rolling and their teeth bared, they crouched, ready to pounce into action. They looked like the only thing holding them back was a signal from Caleb. He held his finger up, as if he had more to say before he sicced his Dogs of Death on me.
“Do your worst,” I shouted at Caleb. “But this I promise you: I’ll die before I’ll fall.”
“You’ll fall, girl,” Caleb snarled at me. “You’ll fall so hard and so far, I’ll be the only thing you’ll be able to see when you look up from the glorious hole you’ve made out of your life. And then you’ll belong to me.”
He made a swift movement with his hand. The pack of wolves burst through the door. I fought the urge to pass out or run, or even scream. They ran in two lines and then fanned out, forming a circle around me. No escape now. My body shook. Pain mounted under my skin, and my muscles threatened to explode. The demon in
