The pounding rain had picked up even more in the seconds I stood frozen to the earth, so I could barely hear the outpack males advancing. Still, I knew my wolf had only run about fifty feet before our muscles stopped working. Which meant I had roughly thirty seconds to get my act together before we ended up back down in that dark, dirty hole.
“Why are we taking her out now if moon-rise isn’t for another six hours anyway?” the nameless partner grumbled as the duo advanced on my frozen form. I felt my stomach rumble as I realized it had to be Saturday afternoon already, meaning I’d lost nearly a day to drugs and claustrophobic dazes. My legs abruptly weakened, and I rolled my eyes at my own psychosomatic reaction.
Wait a minute—I rolled my eyes?
Sure enough, taking stock of my physical sensations proved that my human brain now shared our lupine body with the animal. Which meant I might be able to push the latter aside after all and take to my heels before our captors reached our side.
Here goes nothing.
I strained with all my might against the wolf’s usually weak persona. Generally, it took no more than a flick of a virtual finger to toss her back down into the darkness of our shared subconscious. But Quill’s compulsion appeared to have locked the wolf in place just as thoroughly as it had pinned our paws to the earth a moment earlier.
But maybe.... Rather than straining against Quill’s command, I opted to work sideways this time around. Short of uber-alpha levels of control like Hunter’s, a compulsion didn’t usually halt involuntary body movements. Otherwise, underlings would all keel over from lack of oxygen to the brain.
So while Quill’s barked order made it impossible for me to move my legs or neck, my heart was still pumping and my lungs were still billowing. Plus, I maintained that other involuntary lupine reaction...the urge to scratch.
I tunneled my attention down to an imaginary itch directly beneath Crew’s collar. First, I pinpointed it in my mind—just under my left ear, midway down my neck. And as I focused, the creeping sensation slowly became real.
Muddy fur hung up beneath harsh fabric, I thought and felt those wrong-directed hairs tweaking nerve endings in my skin. Wet, heavy, I noted, paying attention to the way the collar chaffed against my sensitive flesh. And was that a flea burrowing into the warm cavity underneath?
The imagined itch had become nearly unbearable by the time my wolf reached up with one hind leg to jab at our neckband. But I could have danced and sung inside her body with sheer relief. My ploy had worked!
Now, I’d just have to hope that the SSS’s banana extract was oil-based rather than water-based and hadn’t been completely washed away by the collar’s dunking. And that the wolf’s relentless clawing would be sufficient to dislodge whatever trace was left behind.
Scratch, scratch, scratch. The collar moved in a circle around our shared neck, easing the itch and spreading relief through our nerve endings. But I didn’t relax because Quill and his partner were still moving ever close behind us. It might already be too late.
Then one lupine nail knocked against the tiny plastic receptacle that some nameless SSS member had sewn into our collar. The claw caught and dug in...and then the faintest aroma of rotten banana filled the air.
Abruptly, my wolf was gone. Or rather, the animal mind had been banished, leaving my human brain in full command of our once-shared lupine body.
Quill was close enough now that I could feel his body heat as one hand reached out to grab me by the ruff. But I was faster. I darted to one side, watching with delight as the cowboy shifter slipped and fell into the muddy ooze beneath our feet.
Then I was racing flat out toward the treeline not far away. Once I reached the forest, I’d have a little breathing room. Time to regroup and get my bearings, time to come up with a more complex plan than my current escape at all costs.
“Stop, damn you!” Quill roared behind me. I glanced over one shoulder and saw that my enemy had regained his feet and was pulling out what looked like a handgun from a holster beneath his armpit. The SSS member’s current compulsion had failed, so he was going for more serious firepower.
Uh oh. Good thing my wolf was still absent and my human brain wasn’t required to obey that second command.
I dodged behind a broad pine trunk as the first bullet ricocheted toward me. The next missile clipped the end of my tail as my human reflexes didn’t quite manage to dodge in time.
But then I was diving into the midst of a patch of greenbriers, slithering down a ravine, and darting deeper into the forest.
The outpack males’ voices dimmed behind me. I’d eluded pursuit.
Now, to see if I could keep Quill and his compatriots from giving up the hunt and turning their attention to the other prisoners for eight long, grueling hours.
***
As soon as I mustered a little breathing room, those dratted Tuesday panties were the first thing to go. I rubbed up against a rough-barked chestnut oak until the underwear slid down off my lupine hips and fell with a damp splat onto the ground at my feet.
Wrinkling my upper lip, I wished I could afford to simply dig a little hole and bury the offending garment right there. But, instead, I picked the fabric up in my mouth and trotted off. I had a plan.
As I’d hoped, my supposed alpha powers turned me into me a prize worth hunting despite the pouring rain. Nearly immediately, in fact, Quill had called in the third SSS member to join him and his partner in their search of the dripping woods, leaving Lia and Savannah alone in the momentary safety of their locked room. In other words, my plan had thus far been successful.
The goal now was to keep all three outpack males so busy searching that they didn’t have any leisure in which to molest the girls. To that end, I’d dodged into sight several times, leaving a paw print or purposefully broken twig here and there to signal my progress. It was a difficult game—always staying ahead of my potential captors without letting them lose hope that they’d eventually be able to find me.
But I needed a break. My stomach was rumbling and my brain was getting a little mushy from lack of calories. Plus, despite hours spent comatose within my prison cell, my eyelids were now heavy and begging a dose of REM sleep.
Let me lead, my wolf whispered. Rather than soothing her with platitudes the way I would have in the past, I nodded our shared head. Yes, that was the perfect solution—for my human brain to nap within our shared body while the wolf took command for half an hour or so.
But the wolf didn’t boast the same complicated human logic that I found easy to harness. So I wanted to set her up with a good situation before I took a break.
Soon, I promised, speeding up from a walk into a trot. One of my paws was cracked and already becoming infected after being dragged through miles of mud, but I ignored the pain and instead ran forward until I caught sight of a handy snag.
Riiip. The inch-wide shred of pantie that remained behind on the protruding branch stub was just large enough to be noticeable without using up too much of my stash of fabric. And, to my delight, I saw that raindrops were already dragging dirt particles out of the cloth, leaving a whitish color behind.
Perfect. Even Quill’s brain-dead sidekick can’t miss that, I noted. Then I turned right, wriggling under a deadfall to make the trail more difficult to follow before trotting straight up the nearest hillside.
Another snag, another pantie scrap, another elusive twist in my trail to keep the SSS members scratching their heads while thinking they were edging ever closer to their prey. Then, finally, when the last scrap of underwear was tossed atop a nearby bush, I gave my wolf the reins.
Wake me if you need me, I requested. And, finally, I fell sound asleep.
***
The crunch of breaking bones roused me from what turned out to be a surprisingly effective nap. The sound was obviously not caused by big, worrisome wolf or human bones. Instead, tasty, little rodent bones splintered beneath our sharp lupine teeth.
My animal half had hunted down a snack.
Resourceful wolf, I praised her. But then my human brain rose to look out of our shared eyes, and I had the impulse to take back every word of commendation...plus the hours of slumber that had preceded them. Once again, I’d trusted the wrong partner and let down my pack in the process.
While I’d been sleeping, the rainy day had dimmed into a clear but damp evening. And my wolf had hidden our shared body beneath a rhododendron bush at the edge of a clearing, so I didn’t have to worry about being noticed. No, the issue wasn’t inability to take in the scene or worry over my own safety...it was the gut-wrenching sight slowly coming into focus before us.
Altars. I remembered one of the barflies mentioning that word on Tuesday evening and wondered now how I hadn’t realized that yesterday’s farm field was the wrong place entirely for an SSS ritual. Because there had been no sacrificial paraphernalia present there...unlike in our current location, where two huge stones caught the glow of the rising moon on their polished surfaces.
Surfaces that gleamed dark with previous rounds of spilled blood. Surfaces on which two small female figures were even now being bound into place.
Why didn’t you wake me earlier? I demanded of the wolf. It was almost too late already. The SSS members must have given up on their hunt and returned to plan A some time ago, figuring two halfies in the hand were better than one in the bush.
I should’ve been present to dog their footsteps from prison cell to altar.
Maybe there would have been an opportunity to break the girls free. Maybe we could have all escaped already if my animal half hadn’t been more interested in rodent snacks than in the safety of our clan.
No chance to free them, my wolf replied simply. Images flashed through our shared mind. Guns, an alert Quill, two other males watching his back. Then, she finished: You needed rest and food. Now you can save our friends.
The animal brain wasn’t the best at expressing herself, but I could feel her emotions flowing through our shared body. She trusted me to come through with a clever plot to save the day. She figured that after a nap and a field mouse, I’d be capable of springing Lia and Savannah from their sacrificial altars, no sweat.
The wolf had so much faith in me. But I didn’t see how I could live up to her expectations. Not when I was naked and defenseless and faced with three armed men.
Speak of the devil. While I’d wavered, Quill decided to get the ball rolling by calling into the half-light: “I know you’re out there, Fen. And I’m willing to offer you a deal. Surrender yourself and we’ll let these kids go.”
He paused, his honey-smooth voice turning ominous as he pulled a knife out of a sheath that hung from his belt. The blade was long and wicked, with a hook at one end perfect for gutting a deer...or a girl.
Savannah moaned in despair, but Lia kept her lips pressed close together as Quill’s knife rose seemingly of its own volition to settle in the soft spot at the base of her neck. “So what will it be, Fen?” my once-pack-mate demanded. “Them...or you?”