"Drive," he said.
Oh God, where are they taking me?
So many memories flashed in her head during the drive. She'd come so far in the past five months living here, and even more in the past week. No more medication, and her virginity was history. Liam showed her pleasures she never knew existed.
She lifted up the corner of her sack for air and to see her surroundings. Luckily, the man sitting next to her was looking out his window. She scanned the area. They were on a main road now. She recognized some of the landmarks. It's not like she had a cell phone or anyone to give her location to. What she needed was opportunity. As soon as she had a chance, she'd make a break for it. The thought of rape, torture, and murder was worth fighting to avoid at all costs. Normally a situation like this would have put her into a full-blown panic attack, but ever since Liam committed to her, she felt as if she could take on the world.
And she still had hope her Prince Charming would save the day again. She'd always been a hopeless romantic, but she'd reserved those feeling for romance novels, not real life. Liam changed everything.
"We're here," said her captor. She wondered where the other two men had gone. Her odds were better with one.
He dragged her roughly out of the pickup truck and tugged off the sack. Her eyes adjusted to the daylight, and her lungs filled with fresh air. They were in the forest again, a wooden hut just ahead. Several wolves crept in from between the trees. She turned to the man squeezing her arm, but he only laughed at her.
Were they going to feed her to the wolves? What would that prove?
She struggled, twisting and squirming to get out of his firm grasp. "Let me go!"
"She doesn't know," said the driver of the truck. Neither man showed any fear of the wild animals moving in. Were they trained?
"Even more fun." He squeezed her arm tighter, giving her a sharp shake until she settled down. She remembered Liam telling her some wolves would love her. These looked at her like she was on the menu.
"You guys are in big trouble. Let me go and I won't say anything." She tried to sound tough, but it came out all wrong.
"Did Liam tell you what marking you signified?"
She frowned. "Of course. He loves me. I'm his … mate." It sounded dumb coming from her, but from Liam it sounded sexy as hell.
"Only werewolves mark their woman with a love bite. Haven't you read a single fucking fairy tale? I thought human girls ate that shit up."
"This is real life."
One of the wolves stood on two legs, shaking and morphing before her eyes. Its hair receded and bones elongated. Within seconds the wolf had turned into one of the men by the river. Her mouth fell open, and her entire body went numb. Thoughts and memories overloaded her mind as she tried to make sense of what she'd witnessed. Everything she'd ever known or understood was in question, and it was too much to process.
"You've been kept in the dark," he said. "You'd think when a werewolf claimed a mate he'd have the decency to fill her in on the facts." He tutted.
Her captor said, "If all goes well, he'll come for you. That's what we're counting on. Hope you enjoyed the honeymoon while it lasted because Liam's about to go to doggy heaven."
She shook her head, dizziness washing over her in waves. "No, Liam's not a wolf."
They all laughed and mocked her. "He's a legend around here. Honey, your man is an alpha wolf."
Chapter Eight
"You go and it'll be a trap," Jake said.
"I can't just sit here. They've got my mate, Jake." He gripped the back of the chair and threw it across the room.
Alphie was hurt and nursing his injuries. They'd hurt his fucking dog and taken his woman. Liam was so fucking pissed right now. The need to hurt, to kill was so fucking strong. Rebecca's scent was all over the house, but with her gone, it was slowly fading. He had to find her. To get her back.
There's no way he could let anything happen to her. His father's wisdom filtered through the anger. He'd told Liam that a man could tell when he was in love when protecting someone else was more important than protecting himself. He felt that for Rebecca.
"You know this poses a lot more problems," Eli said.
"I know." Liam didn't need to be told what he faced.
"She'll know the truth now," Ben said.
He closed his eyes, counted to ten, then looked at Ben. "I know."
Ben held his hands up. "I wasn't trying to state the obvious or anything."
"Then what the fuck were you trying to achieve? She's in the hands of my enemy, and you fuckers don't seem to get that I'm having a really hard time right now. I'm trying to deal with the fact she's gone."
He turned his back on them, feeling the primal need to release his wolf.
The beast slammed within him, desperate to come out. Would it be so bad if he let him out for a while? He couldn't let anything happen to Rebecca. If his wolf hurt her, he wouldn't be able to live with himself. She was his mate, destined to belong to him.
Without her, he was nothing.
There would be no point in living, in leading.
Running his fingers through his hair, he tried to think of something, anything that could help him. He couldn't bring himself to deal with this.
All of his focus was on his missing mate.
No, not missing.
Taken.
She'd been taken from him.
This was to make him pay.
To take his life.
"I've got to go and get her back," Liam said.
"If you do that, it's a guaranteed death sentence," Jake said. "We can't let you risk that. There's no way any of us could lead our people. You're an alpha, Liam."
"Right now, I'm a fucking mate. I've had mine taken from me. Try to imagine that kind of pain. I can't think right now, nor do I care about anything else other than getting her back. Don't you see that?"
"He's right," Eli said. "We'd all be doing the same. She's his mate. He needs her. We all need our women."
"But we also need him. If Liam goes, it gives Payne the opening he needs to take this pack, this land. You know what he's like. He's unstable. I get that Rebecca's not here and the danger she's in. We will get her back. I feel your pain, Alpha, but understand this, I'm part of this pack. As is my mate. I don't want her to be in any danger. You know what Payne is like. What he does to mates. He takes each mate for himself and impregnates them. It's why he doesn't have many followers. Why shifters have tried to leave him. He's brutal and brings death to his packs. I can't allow that to happen. So yeah, I've got to stop you from putting your life in danger, and you've got to come up with a plan. A good plan," Jake said.
The fear, the panic, he scented it. The wolf within him calmed enough to make sense of what was happening. His pack needed him. His female needed him. There was so much fucking need going around that he felt sick to his stomach.
It wasn't in him to sit and plan, but to act.
Taking a deep breath, he clenched his hands into fists and tried to calm himself. He didn't know what to do or what to say.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
"Please, Liam. I know you want her back. We'll help you every step of the way, but don't let anything happen to you," Jake said.
"I'm all for you attacking Payne, taking him out for good, but right now, you know you're running into a trap and I can't let you do that," Ben said.
Eli nodded. "I'm in agreement."
"Then what do you suggest?"
Jake breathed out a sigh of relief. "For a second there I thought your alpha wolf was going to attack us. They're going to expect you to go to her. Straight to her. We can follow any trail, Eli, Ben, and I. We have her scent. We can follow it."
"So?"
"You don't have to follow us. You don't have to go straight to her. You can lure them out yourself."
"They won't expect us," Ben said.
Liam paced.
Any mated male would go straight into the heart of danger without any thought. He wasn't just a mate though. He was also an alpha. Every instinct within him screamed to go and protect her. Without his friends, he'd have surely been dead by now.
"So we follow the scent. It'll put us on Payne's land," Liam said. "His pack is dying. There's not many men or women, and those that are there, are leaving." It was known that when pack members started to leave, it was only a matter of time before the strength within the pack slowly began to die.
Payne's leadership had pushed members out. He'd killed them. Damaged them from the inside out.
He was trying to take over another pack, to rebuild fresh, but his methods would produce the same results over and over. Every single pack he tried to take, would die from within. In the end, it would all be the same.