So I did, catching the moment the rest of the pack looked at me in shock as I went careening past them, my paws scrabbling on the smooth surface in my urgency to just get the fuck out. My legs lengthened, my haunches bunching and thrusting, sending us sailing down the driveway, right as the gate was sliding shut. Two men in suits looked at me in alarm as they approached the house, but I swerved past them, then leapt through the slender gap.
Then I was out, running and running with a kind of speed and proficiency a human could never match, my paws eating up the distance as I reached the end of the road and then went bolting down this road, then another, going faster and faster.
Only so were they.
It was the screech of their wheels that alerted me to their presence. An anonymous-looking black SUV with dark windows, it swerved through traffic to try and keep up with me, forcing my legs to move faster, even if I was beginning to tire. This was the concrete jungle, though, not an actual one, so the sounds of cars driving past, the beeps of horns, the hum of traffic, the stink of petrol, it all felt like assaults on my senses as I fought to use them to get me to safety.
But how could I do that?
Our den was hundreds of kilometres away, and even this body couldn’t run that far. It was the swerve of the black car that stopped me in my tracks as it mounted the curb, a silvery gun muzzle appearing out of the window. I just stared for a second that felt like it lasted years, right before I saw the projectile come rushing out of the end.
Just a small prick of pain, and then cold, cold darkness seeped through me, forcing my legs out from under me. The last thing I felt was the sharp reverberation of my wolfish skull as it hit the concrete.
43
Iwoke up in a fucking cage.
I blinked and blinked, somehow knowing that it was my wolf’s eyes I stared out of right now, not my usual ones. Whomever they belonged to, they ached, but everything ached. My mouth felt full of cotton wool, my jaws opening to pant, making it even drier, and when I tried to get to my feet, my paws went sideways, forcing me to collapse down again.
Then I saw her.
Miranda looked just as slick and well presented as she always did, though her burgundy dress looked a little incongruous in this context. Was formal business wear needed in a dingy basement or wherever this was? And where was I? She had still been in Adelaide when we went to Sydney, so had she flown over or had she transported me…
“Oh, you’re awake.”
Her lips were a thin line as she glared at me with thinly veiled disgust. Actually, make that out and out disgust. Still, she stalked over and shoved a bowl of water in through a little flap in the cage, locking it behind her. I was never going to be able to squeeze out of there, and I didn’t want to in the presence of water. I lapped at the bowl noisily, something that earned me another censorious glare, but I couldn’t seem to care. The wolf knew we needed water and lots of it, so she lapped at it furiously. When it was finally emptied, every drop licked away, I sat back on my haunches and gazed at her.
She met my gaze head-on, her lips curling the longer she stared.
“You weren’t what I expected. Father will be ecstatic at this turn of events, but…” Her arms crossed her chest, her red nails tapping against her bicep. “You couldn’t just go up to the top floor and be proficient, could you?” She shook her head then. “Crystal did Father’s bidding far more effectively than you ever did, if that can be believed. She screwed everything up and screwed Max on the side, trying to get him to knock her up, then just trying to get her to marry him, as all of the plans for the symposium went undone.” She sniffed then, her eyes starting to cloud over. “I should’ve left her where she was…”
I didn’t move a muscle, because evidently, this was the evil bitch’s monologue moment, and even in wolf form, I knew I needed to hear this.
“Except she was getting too close to actually fulfilling Father’s directive, and I couldn’t have that. The Lockwood pack needs to stay together. He doesn’t see it, but that’s when they’re at their strongest. With the right woman at their side, one with the right connections and a head for business, they’ll dominate the global market, as all of these companies and governments finally come on board with the idea of ‘greening’ their businesses.”
Just like Chloe, when she described her vision of things, her way of using the Lockwood pack to further her aims, her face flushed, glowing with a kind of light that shouldn’t have made me feel sick, but it did.
It’d never occurred to me before, but I saw it now. The rich, the privileged, and the famous were like these billboards that we projected all of our insecurities, our wants, and needs onto. They caught our eye and stopped becoming human, instead turning into sacred idols with no thoughts or feelings of their own, but that which we projected onto them. Chloe had projected her dream of a perfect pack onto Tobias and Beau, willing to sideline Max and even Lucien, if that’s what it took. And Miranda? The wolf let out a huff of breath, depressed by all of these human ambitions, ready to turn our mates into tools for them to use.
Mates?This was just a thought, because I didn’t have a throat to voice them.
The wolf shifted restlessly in response to this, wanting, looking for something to fight, to run towards or away, but we couldn’t do anything about it right now.
Then Miranda crouched down to take a closer look at me.
“In some ways, this is perfect. You’ll die, put down like a rabid dog, and the pack will be understandably devastated. Father will step in to keep the business going as they get through their grieving process, and I’ll be right there by their side. There’ll never be a pesky true mate to burst in and ruin everything like you did, because you’ll be dead.”
She smiled then, her red lipstick making the expression somehow scarier, as if her lips dripped blood.
“While I’ll be everything they really need, if their base instincts don’t keep getting in the way.”
I lunged at the cage, my fangs snapping down, wanting and needing her bloody in my mouth, her flesh between my teeth, but all I got was a wire cage and a scornful look from her.
“Miranda?”
I might not have been able to scare her, but he did.
She jumped to her feet, her smile faltering as an older man stepped into the room, looking at me, then the woman, and back again, his face a mask of concern.