“She rides in the back. Between us. Get in.”
I stare at the open car door. Everything in me knows I should not get in that car. But my legs are about to give out, Dad left, the house is empty, and I’m standing in my pajamas in the dark. What am I supposed to do?
I get in.
Cold seat. I scoot to the middle, and then they’re on either side of me. Declan on my left, Zeke on my right. The doors shut, the car starts, and we’re moving.
The hatred coming off Zeke is so strong it’s a physical thing. I can feel it on my skin. He stares straight ahead with his hands in fists, and every part of him is saying he doesn’t want to be anywhere near me.
I look down at my hands. They’re shaking. Everything is shaking. I can’t tell if it’s the infusion, the cold, fear or all of it mixed together into one big tremor that won’t stop.
On my other side, Declan is different. Not angry. Every time the car goes over a bump, and I sway, he does this thing where his hand moves toward me, like he’s going to catch me, and then pulls back. It keeps happening. I’m too out of it to figure out what it means, but I notice it every time.
I should be scared of him. I am. But there’s also this other thing, this irrational thing where I feel… safer? Next to him? Which makes no sense at all. He’s kidnapping me. But that scent is filling up the whole car, warm and steady. My body keeps wanting to lean toward it like a plant toward sunlight. I’m too tired and too messed up to fight it as hard as I should.
I rest my head against the seat and close my eyes. Just for a second to stop the spinning.
“We’re not putting her in a cell.” Declan’s voice comes from somewhere far away. Or maybe right next to me. Hard to tell.
“Then where?” Zeke’s voice is icy. “Guest room? Want me to fluff the pillows?”
“She stays at the house. Where we can watch her.”
“Our house.” Zeke says it like it tastes bad. “You want to bringherinto our home. Moore’s daughter.”
“She stays in the house.” Harder this time. The alpha voice. Even half-conscious, I can hear the difference. “But she stays tied up. That’s the deal.”
Silence. Zeke doesn’t argue. I feel his anger cool down from a boil to something lower. Not gone. Just contained.
Tied up. In their house.
I should be terrified. But the car is warm, and the seat is holding me up. I’m so tired from the infusion, tired from the fear. My eyelids are heavy, and the engine is humming, whileDeclan’s arm is warm against mine. I keep drifting in and out, thoughts dissolving before I can finish them.
Dad will come. He’ll figure this out. He always…
He’ll come.
He…
The thought dies before I can finish it, and I slip under.
5
DECLAN
She doesn’t wakeup when I carry her inside.
That bothers me, even when I know it shouldn’t. She’s exhausted. Whatever happened to her tonight knocked her flat before we broke in. She’s dead weight in my arms, her head against my shoulder, breathing shallow and off-rhythm. Every instinct I’ve got is telling me something is wrong with this girl. Something deeper than fear, something I can’t put my finger on. It’s eating at me, and I can’t afford that… but I can’t stop it.
Zeke goes out of his way not to help. He’s inside the house before I pull Iris out of the car, probably in a hurry to get back to his mate, so there’s no chance to ask if he feels okay after the gas we inhaled. Since I’m feeling clear-headed, I’ll assume he is, too.
Cole holds the front door open. He doesn’t say a word, but I can feel him looking at me. The way I’m carrying her in both arms, cradling her with her head tucked under my chin.
I know how it looks. It’s not exactly how you carry someone you’ve just abducted. I don’t have it in me to care right now.
The house is quiet after three in the morning, Cole and Nora’s newborn–my nephew–sound asleep. The stairs creak softly under my feet as I climb up into a darkened hallway. I take her to the spare room at the end of the hall. It’s small, with onlya bed and a nightstand. There’s a window overlooking the back of the property and the woods beyond, and a little bathroom attached. We barely use it.
I lay her down on the bed, and I’m more careful about it than I need to be. She lets out a soft grunt and stretches when her back hits the mattress, then goes still again.