Claimed by the alpha

I can't breathe. The bag tied over my head blocks out the world around me. Voices hum in my ear, mostly crying and praying. I don’t know how long we’ve been bound in this place, but I think we’re moving. My stomach flips and flops, reminding me of the time I went on a day cruise just off the coast of California. The water was rough then, and it feels like we rise and drop in the same way.

Fuck. I hope I don’t get sick. If I get sick, I’ll probably die. Drowned in my own disgusting body fluids.

“Shut the hell up. Screaming isn’t going to do anything. We need to think. These fuckers haven’t been here in at least an hour, according to my watch chime. If one of us can manage to get untied, we can free the rest. There’s enough of us to fight back,” the feminine voice whispers lowly, dragging my attention away from my rolling stomach.

“You don’t think I’ve been trying? These chains can’t be broken.” The man beside me groans under his breath. His movements, bumping into me every couple of minutes, haven’t helped my motion sickness. “I’ve been working on trying to loosen the screw of the anchor ring, but it’s tight.”

“Chains? I don’t have chains. Who else doesn’t have chains?” the woman asks, her voice sounding over the sudden silence falling through the air. “I swear if it’s all of us wome—”

“Seriously? You’re about to get up in arms about not having chains?” someone snaps.

“I’m sorry. I’m just so pissed. I shouldn’t be here. They caught me off guard all because of a damn piece of gum stuck to my shoe.” The woman stops talking, though I wish she didn’t. She was surprised like me and attacked too. No one responds to her, letting her wallow in her thoughts.

That’s when I hear it. The roar of the ocean. I was right. We’re being relocated by water. But where to? Why? Shit. This can’t be happening. I’ve heard of the stories of women getting kidnapped and trafficked. I always thought I was careful and aware. I’ve always had to be, but especially lately with my crappy luck.

It takes everything in me to keep my shit together.

The last thing I expected tonight was to have been attacked and kidnapped. And obviously, the same goes for everybody else here. I don’t know how the bastards managed to snatch so many of us, but I hear at least ten different voices.

“Don’t feel bad,” a different man says, speaking up. “They caught me with a damn paper on my windshield. Like what the fuck?”

If only I had a chance to think about a paper on a windshield or gum on my shoe. I had a date with a new client who was supposed to help me get back on my feet. But I think I was set up. My captors jumped from a utility van so quickly and grabbed me from right outside the hotel I was meeting Ryan at. I thought it was finally my luck changing since he insisted that I call him by his first name on the phone instead of something else like the other potential clients I had spoken with.

I had no time to prepare or scream. My pepper spray was useless. So were all the self-defense moves I’ve been practicing since shit went bad with Mr. Beck last summer, and he... I can’t think about it. I’ve never been so thankful to have a man underestimate how much fight I have in me. Not like it helped now. I guess I got too comfortable being alone. It’s when I’m not that I’ve always worried.