CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
When I open my eyes, I wake to find myself in a place so devoid of light, it's as if my eyes were still closed.
There is no way for me to gauge what time it is, let alone what day.
All I know is that I feel like I'm going to throw up because my stomach is churning like crazy, which means the woman-the shifter-hit me with tranquilizer darts.
Slowly, I sit up, trying not to move too quickly for fear of throwing up over myself, which is when something small and furry rubs up against my leg and its tail lashes against me.
With a sharp indrawn scream, I yank my foot away and the thing, I'm trying desperately not to think it's a rat, scurries away. And as if it and all its other buddies were just waiting for me to wake up, I hear them scurrying around, making me shudder in disgust.
I'm in a basement, but it's nothing like the Blackshaw basement where Dayne holds the pack meetings. No, this is a true basement with exposed brickwork at my back, a moldy smell, and other smells that aren't as pleasant.
I pick up the scent of old sick, and terror, and it isn't hard for me to guess that at some point Glynn Merrick, the previous, and now dead alpha of the Merrick pack once kept Talis here.
Since Dayne tore him to pieces, I know it isn't him behind my stabbing and abduction. But his pack, or rather, the remnants of it, must have some kind of plan to get revenge on the nearest Blackshaw, which just happens to be me.
I go still at the sound of someone undoing a latch from up high, and seconds later, I'm nearly blinded when the door creaks open and light floods in.
Turning my head to the side, I raise my hand to shield my face, and through eyes narrowed to slits, I get my first glimpse at my prison.
It's as dire as it smelled, with nothing except moldy walls and rat droppings on the ground.
I don't even want to think about what I might be sitting in, so I don't look down too long.
"Awake? Good. I'm going to need you to do something for me."
I lower my hand as my eyes adjust to the bright light streaming into the dark hole someone's left me in. At the top of the stairs is the same petite woman with a short dark bob standing alongside the older shifter I didn't trust. Maria.
"Yeah, you're wasting your time. I'm not helping you do a damn thing," I say, forcing myself to remain calm.
The woman's face twists into a nasty scowl and I take a moment to feel sorry again for Talis because even though it's been less than a minute, I've seen enough of this woman to know she's a bitch with a capital B.
"Well. We might have to send Chris down there and see if carving bits off you doesn't make you a little more friendly."
I firm my jaw and raise my head. "Well, it's up to you, of course," I say, guessing who Chris might be. "But it's hardly a tactic that turned out well for your former alpha, now did it?"
The woman's eyes shift, and she snarls viciously.
I don't respond. I just continue to gaze up at her calmly.
Maria inches closer to the woman. "Loren, please. This isn't going to work, we should just-"
The shifter with the bob-Loren, I'm guessing-swings around to Maria and snarls in her face. "What? Go back to scurrying around in the dirt? No. They put us in this position. They will damn well fix it."
Spotting an opportunity to turn them against each other, I clear my throat and wait until I've got their attention. "You should listen to your friend, Loren. As soon as Jeremy finds me-his mate-gone, it won't take him long until he figures out where I am, and then…" I shake my head because there's no need for me to explain how an alpha will react in a situation like that.
I'm not prepared for Loren's chuckle. "Really? Yeah, I don't see that happening. Not with you being seen leaving the hotel with a bag. And Maria here has filled us in on the problems you two are having. He'll think you've run. Right up until we start sending him pieces of you. Bigger, I think, than the finger Abel cut off Talis. We need to make a point."
Shit.
She's right.
Jeremy will find me gone. He'll see my bag and phone missing, and when he asks the front desk about me, they'll tell him I left and was last seen heading for a taxi.
There is no way he'd believe the Merrick pack has kidnapped me.
At my silence, her smile grows. "As you can see, we have things all worked out. So, rest up, and once Chris returns, we'll take our time picking out which part of you to send to that alpha of yours."
She turns to leave, and I grow desperate at the thought of being left in here for hours. "Wait! What do you want? I mean? Money or a new home, what?"
Loren stops at the entrance of the door and looks over her shoulder at me.
"Money would be nice," she says slowly. "A place would be even nicer. But you know what would be better than that?"
"I don't know," I say, getting a bad feeling.
She grins again and steps out, shoving Maria hard enough to send her stumbling as she goes. "Revenge," she says, and slams the door shut, plunging me back into darkness.