Collared by Wolves [The Haunt of the Wolves 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (11 page)

Max bent his head and concentrated on letting this one strong sense take over. It was harder than anything he had done before. Finally an intuition permeated his mind like a lingering smell. But at first he couldn’t tell where it came from, and he started to fidget.

“Shh. You can do it.” Ford’s calm voice spoke softly to him and eased his distress.

“Come on, man. I have every trust in you.” He smiled at Cal’s unrepentant good humor.

But it was Griff’s comment that clinched it. “You are a tracker. Track!”

“East.” Max’s voice was faint as he returned to his normal senses. He cleared his throat. “They’ve taken her somewhere east of here. It’s getting weaker now. But that’s all I could get. Sorry, guys.”

“Hmm. It’s better than nothing.” Ford narrowed his eyes as he looked in that direction. He was staring away from the road. “Even further into the forest, eh? That figures. But where? A cave? A clearing? There are no houses there, unless they have taken her outside the forest.” Ford echoed all their worries.

Max looked at Callum, seeing the anxiety that he felt repeated on his friend’s face, and swore inwardly. If she had been taken outside the forest, they had no chance of finding her. He thought back to the other girls who had been taken. They must have known who had done it, but were too intimated to say. All they had indicated was that it was not in town.

“The old haunt.”

They turned to Griff, who uttered those words into the stillness of the night, and Max immediately knew he had the right of it. The original building, a stone building, that had been the first Haunt of the Wolves, built some one hundred and fifty years ago, was in that direction. It was the logical place to take Natasha, deep in the woods, no road or inhabited place nearby. In fact it had been an ideal place to house the BDSM club originally, but it had been abandoned about ten years ago when humans had come upon them by chance. Not that the werewolves had been caught as the Shroud had warned them of their coming. But the humans kept coming back thinking they’d found a terrific club to join, and it wasn’t worth the risk, so the club had moved to its present location. However, if Natasha had found it, other humans could do so.

But that wasn’t something they needed to discuss now.

“How can we get there? The road has been closed off for a long time since the bridge collapsed.”

They all swore at Callum’s words, knowing the bridge had been the only road to the building.

“I’ll go in wolf form. You lot can do as you like.” Griff was already running across the parking lot, tearing his shirt off in readiness to change as fur began to sprout on his body.

Ford shouted after him, “You think you can take them all by yourself?”

His voice was riddled with derision. Max wondered, though, if Ford should have been less contemptuous when Griff ground to a sudden halt, churning up dust around him and turned to glare at him, murder in his eyes. Max half expected the alpha to tear after Ford instead, so intense was his stare. He was thoroughly surprised when the other man let his wolf go to return to normal and sauntered up to them, stopping a few yards away, his hands on his hips as he looked at each of them insolently.

Awareness that Griff was studying him made Max swallow in fear. He knew that the alpha could probably go up against Lance’s whole pack alone, such was his power, but he was surprised when Griff asked him in a measured voice, “How many did you say there were again?”

“Eleven.” Max’s voice was weak as he reiterated what he had said earlier, reminding them all of what a commanding pack Lance had with him.

“Hmm. Well
I
can take on that number any day, but we don’t know what state the girl is in, so I guess I may need you after all. The question is, are you betas up for it?”

Max started at the affirmation from Griff that they could join him. No alpha, other than the head wolf of the pack they had been born into, had ever asked them to take part in anything.

Ford was the one to voice their uncertainty. “You want
us
as well?”

“Hell yes. I may be a powerful alpha, but you’re right, even I’m not good enough to fight a whole pack. I may also need a strong tracker in case they take her someplace else. So, Max is the obvious person.”

Max glanced over at Ford, not sure how to take this sudden turnaround from the superior wolf before them. He looked as stunned as Max felt.

“Then I need someone who can defend the girl and get her to safety. That’s Callum’s job.” Max smiled as Callum frowned in confusion.

He was impressed. Griff was using classic leader tactics by praising their strengths and delegating the work best suited to them personally. He wondered now what he would say to the remaining one of their trio, the one who usually did this work for them.

Griff turned to Ford, walking a step or two to bring himself face-to-face with their leader. Would it be a standoff? Was Ford prepared to give way? Was Griff ready to lead them? Max held his breath in anticipation.

“And I need a strong right-hand man by my side, watching out for my back. You up for it, Ford?”

There was a tense silence as Ford intently studied the alpha. Max knew he was debating the veracity of the comment. “And afterward?” queried the leader of the betas.

Hell yes.
That was exactly what Max wanted to know, too.

“When we get that far, we will see.”

The scream that came from inside the building was piercing. Ford swore silently under his breath.

Well, Tasha was alive if nothing else, but how injured, how traumatized was she?

He padded his way silently forward, taking care not to disturb anything underfoot and alert those inside the building, grateful at this moment for his wolf vision which was better in the dark than his human. As he carefully crouched in the undergrowth, he reverted back to human form immediately after his alpha. He then shook his head.

When the hell had Griff become
my
alpha?
He’d deal with that later. For now they had to get to the girl, and he nodded his head at Griff’s hand signal telling him and the others to cover the various entrances into the building, while he himself went in the front. Unconsciously he looked at the other two to check they had understood. It wasn’t necessary, and as Ford took the side entrance, Callum took the back and Max climbed the outside stairs to the first floor.

Creeping stealthily forward, Ford was astonished that there were no guards outside. He guessed they didn’t think they would be found here. It was therefore easy to silently creep up to the door he was covering. He waited for a moment, for the mental signal that Griff would give indicating when they would all enter at the same time. He gritted his teeth impatiently.

There it was. Finally. This sort of mental ability awed him and reminded Ford why he was not an alpha.

Okay, time to enter.

Inching the door open, he was glad that he was in shadow beneath the balcony that ran around the inside of the building. This was the main room, about forty feet long, thirty wide, and it was fairly empty as any useful furniture had long since been removed. The balcony itself led to several small rooms on the first floor, he seemed to recall. It had been a long time since he had been there.

Slipping inside, he plastered himself against the wall, taking in the view in the room, but had to stop himself from charging forward as he instinctively wanted to do. Tasha was upright toward the right side of the room, and she was spread-eagled. Her wrists were encased in shackles extending from the ceiling, the chain holding them attached via a pulley to a bolt on the wall, and her ankles were similarly sheathed in restraints joined to rings in the floor.

He growled quietly. She was naked, her clothes strewn on the floor near her, and she was crying. Her body showed marks which appeared to be grazes or bruises, probably from her abduction, and her back was covered in red bloody stripes where someone, Lance he guessed, had been whipping her. Viciously striking her.

Ford had to tear his glance away from Tasha, his heart bleeding at the sight and at the whimpering sounds she was making. He had a job to do first, and he needed to ascertain the whereabouts of the pack. When they got her free he would let his emotions take over.

Max had indicated there were eleven including Lance. Well, it was easy to pick out Lance as he was standing immediately behind Tasha. He had four men behind him and to the side in a semi-circle around the girl. That made five. Another two were on the other side of Natasha.

Ford’s lips tightened as he saw the two in front were cruelly twisting her nipples as they jerked their cocks hanging out of their trousers with their hands. He closed his fingers into his palms making fists. He so wanted to leap over and attack those men. But that was not his way. He was better than that. They would get their just desserts very soon, but he needed to make sure of victory first.

Breathing deeply to calm himself, he took count.

Okay, so that makes seven. Where are the other four?

Tilting his head to the side, he could see two by the door through which Griff had silently entered unseen by the opposition so far as they had their backs to the door and were watching the action within the room.

Well, they’d soon find out. So two more remained, and Ford guessed they were on the balcony above him, if the footsteps he heard over his head were anything to go by. Unless that was Max.

“Hey, Lance, lash her again. I want to hear her scream some more.” Ford snarled softly as this jeer came from one of those above him, and was followed by an accompanying encouragement. Oh, they were definitely the tenth and eleventh men, and they were shortly to be dead men.

Movement caught his eye. Lance held up the whip in his hand. Ford could see it was a three-tailed whip made of leather. The ends glinted as he waved it around, and Ford swore silently, suddenly aware that it had steel tips. Even in The Haunt such an implement was forbidden. It was too easy to get carried away and permanently damage someone, even if a wolf had thicker skin than a human.

As he watched, he saw Lance grab Tasha’s long hair tightly in one hand, jerking her head back, as he held the implement up to show her. Ford could hear her cries as she fruitlessly struggled to get away.

“No, I’m not going to whip you anymore.”

Thank God.

But Lance had not finished. “Instead I’m going to use the handle.” He waggled it in her face.

Ford frowned.
What the hell is he going to do?

“Omegas and humans are not worthy of the seed of an alpha—or even the pack of an alpha. There’s only one place we will utilize. Such a pity you are so tight. But I’ll soon loosen you up.”

Christ. He meant to sodomize her!
Ford had nothing against anal sex. In fact, it was terrific, and he and the guys had experienced a couple of foursomes before, utilizing pussy, anus, and mouth, but in each case the girl had been totally up for it and had enjoyed every minute. However, he was quite sure that Lance did not intend to make this a delightful experience for Tasha and she would surely be traumatized. Ford felt sick as he realized Lance probably intended for all of his pack to take her that way.

“Bastard!” Tasha turned her head and spat at him.

Good girl.
Ford was glad to see she still had some fighting spirit, although he nearly growled loudly when Lance returned the favor with a blow to her face, forcing her head to whip round. His claws bit into his palms as he held himself back. He had to force himself to open his fists. He couldn’t risk breaking the skin and the smell of blood alerting the pack.

“Bitch! Try that again and I won’t prepare you. I’ll just bend you over the table and ram you. Over and over and over. And then I’ll pass you onto Darren, my first beta. Understand,
human
?”

Ford felt a command come from Griff.

Hold your places.

It was hard. They all desperately wanted to kill this vile being who was a sorry excuse for a werewolf. Forget that. He would be the dregs of any species.

He nearly lost it though and had to grit his teeth to avoid shouting out, his nails clawing the wood of the wall, as one of those in front of Tasha suddenly sprayed his semen over her.

She screamed and turned her head away as some of the liquid hit her face. It was a cry of disgust, and of hopelessness, and it went through him like a knife. She thought she was alone, and her loneliness killed him.

Well, no longer.
Go, go, go!

Ford suddenly felt the imperative from Griff and instantly changed into wolf with a silent cry of “at last.” When he heard Griff yowling as he charged into the room, Ford knew he could finally attack those hurting his woman and cried his own battle howl.

The plan was working. When Griff came into the room, Ford heard Lance call to those by the door to stay back as they went to charge forward, that Griff was “his.” Ford shivered. He was glad that Griff was taking on Lance, alpha to alpha, as he knew he could never do it himself. Not only was he not strong enough, he didn’t have the element within him that set an alpha aside, gave him the aggression to be top dog—or wolf.