“It’s a dog eat dog world out there. I killed them because I wanted to, yes. But it’s in my nature. You cannot blame me for that.” He stood in the middle of the room with a smug look on his face. It made me want to scream.
“Why are you doing this? Is it in your nature to torture pregnant women?”
“Not specifically, no. But it is rather fun to watch those partners of yours scrambling to find you.” He chuckled. “To think that they still believe that a wolf needs to mate for life. We are beyond those times. I, for one, enjoy a new woman each and every night.”
“You’re a monster, do you know that?”
“So I’ve been told. But if this is a monstrous way of life that I lead, I never want to become a saint.” His smirk deepened. “In any case, your beloved partners will be here any minute now and it will be my personal pleasure to eradicate them and take you as one of my mates. That pup of yours will have to be killed, of course, but there will be plenty more in our future together.”
“Fuck you!” I screamed.
“I’d like that,” he countered with a wink. “And if you keep up this feisty nature of yours, I’ll like it even more.”
“Rot in hell.”
“Oh, I plan on it.”
This guy was getting under my skin in the worst possible way. I hated everything about him and I wanted nothing but to kill him myself but as long as I was stuck to this damned chair, there was nothing I could do.
The pup gave a powerful kick that had me thinking that he was of a similar mindset.
“I’m going to get us out of here,” I promised.
The door had been kept open. It seemed like an added layer of insult. Freedom was at my fingertips and yet, I couldn’t reach it. And then, that’s when it dawned on me. If I could only transform, I’d surely burst through the cords that held me. But transforming in the last trimester was dangerous. Or at least, that was what Cynthia had told me. It could do some serious damage to the baby. And I wasn’t willing to take that risk.
My shoulders fell with disappointment. With transformation out of the question, there wasn’t much else for me to do.
“Unless… I attempt a partial transformation…” It was so obvious that I felt like an idiot for not having thought about it beforehand. “I just need to get my fingernails to turn into claws and they should be sharp enough…”
I closed my eyes and envisioned exactly what it was that I wanted to accomplish, because if I fucked this up then I could potentially lose my baby and I couldn’t let that happen.
“C’mon,” I whispered to myself. “You can do this, Jane.”
I felt a familiar surge of energy rip through my body and I almost gave in to its call. At the very last minute, I held back and redirected that energy into my hands. To my relief, my nails started to stretch and sharpen.
My eyes snapped open and a puff of air escaped my lips. I had done it.
Quickly, I sawed away at the rope until it gave way. With my hands free, I worked on my ankles.
My legs felt like they were going to collapse under my weight but I locked my knees and kept myself standing. My body was giving me a million reasons to give up but I couldn’t let myself accept defeat. I had a baby to protect and a couple of partners to reunite with.
Footsteps echoed just outside the still open door. I pressed myself against the wall and prepared myself to attack. But they didn’t enter my holding cell. I released the breath I had been holding and inched forward, peeking into the hallway. It was empty. Good. Now was my chance.
I kept my posture low and my movements as silent as possible. My hand hovered around my upper thigh, ready to grab the concealed dagger that I usually wore but of course, they had taken it with them when they took all of my clothes. Without a proper weapon, I was at a serious disadvantage but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.
The hallway turned out to be a maze. I no longer had any idea where I was going. Everything looked painfully similar and I could swear, I was running around in circles.
My swollen feet begged me to stop.
“I can’t…” I whispered as I laid one hand over my tummy and felt the pulsating life beat of my child. “I have to get out of here…”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I was so concerned with soothing my baby that I hadn’t noticed the female shifter that blocked my way. “Please,” I begged, thinking maybe I could get through to her. “You don’t want to hurt me.”
She chortled. “And why not? Because you’re pregnant?” This time, she snorted. “The boss does not care about that and neither do I.”
“And yet, you haven’t attacked me.”