I lifted my chin.
“He’s my brother, not my lover. And I heard what you said—you don’t dare kill either one of us! You think that if we die, you die.”
Sorenson smiled gently.
“Oh, I never said I would kill the Heir to the Absent Alpha—no, no—that would never do! But you must understand, we are interested mainly in his reproductive ability and potential. And there are many, many things we can do to him that, while they are extremely painful, will not affect his ability to reproduce.”
Jake glared at him.
“You fucking bastards,” he spat. “You didn’t get anything you could use from me last time and you won’t this time either. Fuck you all—I’m not fucking afraid of you!”
Jake might not be afraid but I was—I didn’t want him to be hurt!
“Leave him alone,” I said quickly. “I’ll cooperate—just don’t hurt him.”
Jake frowned at me.
“Don’t worry about me, Ani. If you get a chance, get the fuck away from here.”
“And go where, exactly?” Tainer demanded. “You looked around you any, boy? We’re way out in the back of beyond up here. Ain’t no way she’ll find her way down off the mountain by herself. Specially not in the middle of the night in Winter weather. It ain’t snowed yet, but it’s gonna pretty soon. Can’t you smell it in the air?”
He lifted his squashed tomato nose and snuffed loudly, reminding me of a dog scenting the air.
I didn’t know about the snow, but I had to admit he was right otherwise. There were dense woods all around us and the only way out seemed to be a long, winding, dirt road that twisted into the distance through a dense mass of bare, black branches. They rattled in the cold breeze that suddenly swirled around us, making me shiver despite my flannel bunny pajamas.
“Get her indoors and give her a test,” Sorenson commanded Ophelia. “She is innocent and has not yet had her first Heat Cycle or knotting, so the cold will affect her adversely, though it doesn’t bother us.”
So did all of them think they were werewolves, then? Certainly, none of them were shivering even though they weren’t wearing any winter coats. Jake had on nothing but a pair of long black pajama bottoms that fell to his bare feet, but he didn’t seem cold at all, even though he was bare from the waist up.
“Come with me,” Ophelia said quietly. She didn’t yank me around, but she did guide me, pointing out rocks and roots and branches I should watch out for as we walked further down the dirt road. She had a quiet voice and a gentle demeanor—I wondered how in the world she’d gotten mixed up with Sorenson and Tainer.
Around a bend in a road, I saw our destination. It was a big old rickety, two-story house with a chimney on its tattered roof. The boards it was made of were gray and weathered—it was impossible to tell what color they had once been because all the paint had peeled off long ago.
“What is this place?” I asked her, hating the tremble in my voice and not being able to help it. “Why have you brought us here?”
“This is Tainer’s house,” she said, apparently completely unconcerned about giving me the information. “He’s going to be your host while we help you do your duty.”
“Do my duty?” I demanded, staring at her incredulously. “You mean sleep with my stepbrother?”
“The Innocent Omega must lie with the Heir to the Absent Alpha and conceive by him that the Royal Line of the First Wolf may be preserved. Unless her belly swells with new life, all Werekind shall be blown like chaff before the wind and vanish from the Earth,” she said in that slow, calm voice of hers.
She sounded like she was quoting some kind of scripture, I thought, which was frightening in the extreme. If she had just been a hired mercenary, maybe I could have bribed her with some of my stepfather’s money to get me and Jake out of here. But if she was a true believer, drinking the werewolf Kool-Aid, then we were well and truly screwed.
“You don’t really believe all that, do you?” I tried, hoping I might get through to her. “I mean, do you really think you’re a werewolf or something?’
“I know I am a Were,” Ophelia said calmly.
“So, you turn into a wolf at the full moon?” I demanded.
She shook her head, her straight brown hair swishing around her shoulders.
“Oh no—female Weres don’t shift. Ours is the burden of Heat and Need—it is the male Weres who take fur upon their flesh and run with Lady Moon.”
Wow—literally everything she said sounded like it came from some ancient text of prophesy and lore. She was deep in the cult—way deep. I didn’t think I was going to be able to break through to her.