Slade growled. “I said, I would come willingly.”
“Yes, of course, you will. As long as we hold her hostage, you will behave.”
“The deal is I come, and she stays.”
“There is no deal. I read Dr. Warner’s report about your attachment to the runt. Get in the cage and behave or this insignificant bitch dies.”
Offended he dared to criticize her, Slade growled long and hard, but did not move.
Pinky lifted Cricket and draped her over his shoulders then boarded the helicopter.
At least in wolf form, the foul human wouldn’t feel her body. Slade entered the cage. “If you harm her, I will kill you all.” Who was he kidding? He would kill Pinky no matter what. He’d earned his death sentence. The bastard had stabbed the bouncer and with his masters killed the police helicopter pilots.
Henrik smiled. “Fair enough.”
Chapter 13
Cricket sighed and squeezed a blanket over her eyes. On the verge of waking from a tranquil sleep, probably due to the gentle drone of the airplane’s engine.
She shot up. Airplane. The beach. Helicopter. Fuck. She lay on a cot inside a roomy cage in some airplane cargo hold. The narcotic they used on her dizzied her.
Slade’s familiar scent soothed her and despite her throbbing head, she sat up and looked past the bars. “I would have preferred first class.”
He stared at her from his cage. “I was worried you would never wake up.”
Naked. She wrapped the blanked around herself and stood. A thick collar locked around his neck.
Her mouth dry, she rasped. “How long?”
“Almost two days and damn it, not a clue where we’re heading.” He pointed his chin toward the bottles of water on the table next to her cot. “Drink.”
Cricket opened the lid and drank one, then opened another. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this thirsty. She noticed her luggage. “It must have been Pinky who had the good sense to bring my clothes. But the bad sense to steal my Glock.” Poor Slade. His jail was bare. He wore black cargo pants and a black t-shirt, probably given to him by the crew.
“You will have to call all the humans, Pinky.”
“All are missing their small digit?”
“And three wolf claw marks on their arm.”
The humans had signed the lycan non-disclosure contract. “They at least followed protocol, but the pinky appears specific for these werewolf thugs.” She searched for others. The rest of the plane held other large, but empty animal cages. “The only human I want to kill is Pinky.”
“You and me both. The ass brought me some food and had the balls to thank me. Apparently, my capture was his reward to board the plane heading to some secret werewolf enclave.”
Cricket quirked her brow. Was using her body as his personal toy still part of the bonus for a job well done?
“I’m sorry, I let them trap us.”
“Hey, it’s your first mission.”
Slade banged the bar with his fist. “I fucked up again.”
She blinked back tears. He still blamed himself for not being there for his pack. “Slade, listen to me. This is not a bad thing.”
“What?”
“Being captured is the only way to find out what’s going on. We had nothing. Now we have a chance of saving them.”
“Cricket, they kill captured werewolves below beta status.”