Chapter 16: Caught in Lisa's World

Jake's head nodded and see-sawed, his body jammed, his head muzzy with hangover sleepiness. He had no notion how long he'd been there, but when at last his senses roused afresh, the first that he was aware of was the smell of home.

Not the pleasant kind.

The air reeked of old wood, designer scent, and metallic astringent scent of power that had pushed its way through Lisa Morgan's territory. Scent of power and possession.

He opened his eyes and, recognizing where he was lying on his back, his stomach coiled into a knot.

His own bed.

The comfortable four-post bed. The oak wood dresser. The bookshelves packed with books that he had not had time to read for so many years. Everything stood as before – except for the iron bars on each side of a window.

Jake rolled to the pillows, his muscle ache, still lingering. He had to get up.

He flipped his legs onto the bed, but when he attempted to push himself up from it, the door inched open.

Lisa moved into the room, steadfast, her green eyes fixed on him with wintry aplomb.

"Good. You're awake."

Jake's fists balled. "Where's Zane?"

Lisa brushed the question aside, closing the door. "Sit."

Jake did not sit. "Where. Is. Zane?"

Lisa let out a breath. "I'm not interested in your little boyfriend, Jake. He's living—at least for the moment. I am interested, however, in you."

"I'm not going to stay here."

Lisa smiled, a look of enjoyment on her face. "That's where you are wrong."

She entered the room, sitting in the chair beside his desk, folding her legs under her modestly. "You have a decision, Jake. I would recommend that you listen carefully."

Jake clenched his teeth, but remained quiet.

"One," Lisa continued icily, "You marry a high-ranking female werewolf from one of the packs we're allied with. It will wash your good name, your standing in the pack hierarchy, and erase the. shame you've brought on our family."

Jake's stomach knotted. "You're kidding."

Lisa's eyes turned icy. "I don't joke about our pack's welfare."

Jake attempted to laugh. "And what is my second choice?"

Lisa's smile vanished. "Banishment. Forever. You will no longer belong to this pack. You will have no protection from us, no status from us, and if any of our kin want to hunt you down—I won't stop them."

Jake's own breath felt stuck in his throat. She wasn't joking.

"You can't do that," he snarled.

Lisa rose from the chair. "I already have. You have until tomorrow."

She spun to face him and head for the door, hesitating for a moment. "You'd be smarter to turn your back on me, Jake. The world's not a gentle place for the outcast."

And she was gone, the click of the lock behind the shutting door a sharp reminder of danger.

Jake collapsed onto the bed, struggling to breathe. Trapped. Again.

And for the first time in a long time, he didn’t see a way out.

Meanwhile, miles away, Zane was losing control.

"I’ll kill them."

Rico dodged Zane's fist by mere inches as it crashed into the gym wall, leaving a crack in the concrete. The training room was empty save for the two of them, and Rico had been working for the last hour to calm Zane down.

It wasn't working.

"Zane—"

"They kidnapped him!" Zane cried, whirling back to Rico with ragged, feral eyes. "I could have stopped it from happening. I should have—"

"And then you're going to go and do what? Snuck up on Lisa's compound by yourself? Get yourself killed?" Rico sneered.

Zane wasn't hearing him. His chest was pumping, fists curled into white-knuckle fists. The wolf within him craved blood.

Rico intervened, his own low and gruff voice. "Jake would never have you do this."

That brought Zane to a halt.

Gasping in spasmodic shudders, his colored blue eyes returning to their normal green. Zane turned around, hands curled over the edge of a training bench so tightly they whimpered in pain.

"We can't just abandon her out here," Zane growled, his thick and rough voice.

Rico nodded. "And we will. But not some wild impulsive thing. We have to plan."

Another voice came into the discussion. "Then plan it."

Zane and Rico both turned to Tom, who stood in the doorway.

Zane raised an eyebrow. "What do you want?"

Tom crossed his arms. "I don't know what's going on, exactly, but I do know that you could use some help. And I'm sick of being kept in the dark."

Rico sighed. "You're human, Tom. This isn't your fight."

"Jake's my best friend. That makes it my fight."

Zane glared at him for a moment before he nodded. "Okay. But we can't wait. If Lisa did kidnap Jake, she's not going to let him go without a fight."

Tom clenched his fists in his hand. "Then we have to save him."

At Lisa's mansion…

It was dark, but Jake wasn't sleeping.

His head reeled, remembering every choking minute of his life in the house—the limitations, the orders, the isolation.

And she was going to kick him out now?

No.

Jake walked his room, attempting every door. The door triple locked on the outside and the window boarded over.

He clenched his teeth. There had to be another means.

A muffled creak at his window stilled him in his stride.

Footsteps.

Jake's pounding heart, he bent forward and pressed into the chill of the glass. Someone stood below.

Even in the faint moonlight, he knew her immediately.

Mia.

Her finger ran to her lips, and then to the rear of the estate.

Jake's heart skipped a beat. She had rescued him after all.

A flower of hope blossomed in his chest.

Perhaps—perhaps he wasn't a prisoner as he'd thought.