Frostbitten (33 page)

I stopped struggling. But as hard as that voice screamed, I wouldn’t retreat into my safe place. I wouldn’t look away. Travis Tesler might have won the battle for physical domination, but that was all he was getting. I promised myself that any satisfaction he gained from the next few minutes would be short lived. He would die for this. And I would be the one to kill him.

He grabbed my breasts. Grabbed, rubbed, squeezed until it hurt. I wouldn’t look away. When he ground his hips against mine… there was nothing to grind. He was limp. He forced my hand down and made me rub him. Nothing happened.

“It’s too cold,” Eddie said. “Get her inside.”

Tesler ignored him. He ground against me, pawed me, hurt me. I kept staring at him, and that was all it took.

He smacked my face. Once, twice. My nose bled into the snow, but still I turned back to him and met his gaze.

“Come on, Travis,” Eddie said. “It’s fucking freezing out here. Get her inside and you can—”

“Shut up.”

He hit me again. Consciousness threatened another holiday, but I blinked it back and kept staring.

Eddie stepped toward us, hands out as if to pull his brother off me. Tesler swung at him, catching him in the thigh, making his leg buckle.

“I said back off,” Tesler snarled.

“Or what? You’ll choke me, too? Christ, Travis. It’s a girl. Just a fucking girl. She’s not worth this.”

Tesler paused, then slowly nodded. “You’re right. She’s not.” He turned to me, lip curled, teeth bared. “You think you’re too good for me, bitch? You think I’m the worst thing that can happen to you? My brother’s right. You’ve taken up too much of my time already. Eddie? Grab me some rope.”

I fought again, but it was too late. Even with the specter of a lynching dangling before me, I didn’t have what it took to escape. I cursed my weakness. I hated myself for not finding some hidden well of strength. But I just didn’t have anything left.

As I quickly discovered, lynching wasn’t what he had in mind. He bound my ankles, then tied my wrists behind my back, as Eddie held me still. Once I was secured, Tesler ordered Eddie back inside. Eddie went—I was no danger to his brother now, and that was all that mattered.

Tesler started pulling me by the long end of the rope. He dragged me over every buried limb and rock, through every bush. Very satisfying, I’m sure, but he wasn’t in the best of shape himself, and apparently my stifled yelps weren’t worth the effort of dragging me over and through obstacles. So he threw me over his shoulder, and settled for verbal bullying.

“Do you know what’s out here?” he said. “Something a lot worse than me. You’ve been running around these woods, you and your hubby. Have you seen our beast? I bet you have. It’s curious, always sniffing around. It doesn’t give us any trouble though. Know why? Because I figured out what it likes. The same thing I do.”

“The missing girls,” I whispered before I could stop myself.

“You saw the posters? Bet you figured I was responsible, didn’t you?”

“You were.”

“Just for taking them up on their offer. No one made them have a drink with me. No one forced them into my truck. They came along willingly. But as you may have guessed, I don’t much like willing women.”

“Where are they?”

“Here and there. Bits of them anyway. When I was done, I left then for our beast friend. You know how some werewolves have a reputation for eating after fucking? Well, they’ve got nothing on this bastard. I swear he was chowing down before he finished. Should have heard those girls scream.”

I gritted my teeth and tried to block his words, to visualize something else. I managed to miss whatever he said next, then he dumped me onto the ground, jarring me back to the present.

I tried to stand up, but I could only twist and writhe. He grabbed the rope dangling from my hands and dragged me to a tree. I fought harder then, but it was no good. Even if I managed to get a limb free, he’d only truss me up again. So I waited as he tied the rope to the tree.

Then he stepped back and smiled. “Scared now?”

I said nothing. Did nothing. Just stood there and stared at him. He lifted a hand to cuff me, then pulled back, pasting on that smile again.

“Oh, you’re scared. And you’ll be a helluva lot more scared when you see what’s coming for you.” He surveyed me. “You know what we really need? A video camera. Now that would be a home movie to pass along, make every mutt on the continent forget those faded photos of your hubby’s work. Maybe I’ll send them as a package deal. See what happens when you piss off Clayton Danvers? Well, here’s what happens when you piss off Travis Tesler.” He strolled over and lowered his face to mine—as close as he could get and stay out of biting range. “Mine would be much more popular viewing, don’t you think? The Pack Beta’s mate raped and eaten by a wild beast. Werewolf snuff at its finest. Hell, forget cementing my reputation. I’ll sell copies and make a fortune.”

When I didn’t react, he pulled his gaze away and backed off, then cocked his head, as if thinking. “You know, I’m sure I saw a video camera in the cabin. I’ll go grab that. Don’t start without me, okay?”

I watched him saunter away. And I was left alone… in the Alaskan wilderness, dressed only in a shirt, jeans and socks, tied to a tree and reeking of blood. That’s when the panic began to seep in.

I pushed it back and concentrated on getting free. I didn’t have a hope in hell of breaking the rope or the tree—both were too sturdy even for werewolf strength. As for undoing the knot, a smart captor—one with some experience at this—knows how to tie his victim’s hands so she can’t undo them. Tesler had bound my wrists with the backs of my hands together, meaning I couldn’t get to the knots. Even if I could, my fingers were too numb to work properly.

I peered into the night. It was as dark and still as ever. When the panic flared again, I berated myself for it. Whatever Tesler had done with the girls, it hadn’t been this. That much I knew. Animals have different sexual wiring than us, and while some humans may have an unhealthy interest in them, they don’t return it.

Yes, if I died out here, there were plenty of things that would eat my corpse and scatter the parts, and I suspected that was exactly what had happened to those girls. Tesler killed them, then let something—maybe even our mystery beast—do the rest.

If he’d really staked me out to be raped and eaten alive, he’d have stayed to watch. No, he expected to saunter back in a half-hour and find of me huddled against the tree, gibbering with terror, begging him to rescue me. Instead, he’d come back and find empty ropes.

I tried rubbing the rope against the tree, but the bark was too smooth. So I whistled as loudly as I could, hoping Noah was close by. Of course, he wasn’t. Long gone, I was sure.

For the second time in one night, I’d sacrificed myself to let a Stillwell escape, and though I felt better about doing it for Noah, I was still kicking myself. Yet as foolish as it seemed right now, this was what it meant to be Alpha—the kind Jeremy was and the kind I expected myself to be. It meant being willing to sacrifice yourself for Pack brothers who’d jump in to do the same for you first. Unfortunately, that last part didn’t apply with Joey and Noah. So I was on my own.

I still had one trick up my sleeve—my biggest and best.

I took one long look around the forest, assuring myself I was indeed alone. Then I pressed closer to the tree, slackening the rope. I closed my eyes and concentrated on Changing. To do that, though, I had to shift my focus to my body. That’s when I realized how cold I was. I couldn’t feel my hands, couldn’t feel my feet, my ears, my nose, my chin. The wind whistled through my thin shirt and pants and I shivered until I couldn’t do anything
except
shiver, my teeth chattering, their clicking filling the silence.

A low whimper bubbled up from my gut. It was so cold, so damned cold. Frostbite was setting in, and if I didn’t get warm soon, if I couldn’t at least thaw my fingers under my armpits…

Then Change, damn it. Stop whining and Change.

I stumbled on my bound, stockinged feet, trying to inch behind the tree out of the wind, but the rope didn’t have enough slack, and an eight-inch-wide trunk was a piss-poor windbreak.

I focused on Changing, but it wouldn’t come. I couldn’t even relax. It was too cold, too goddamn cold.

And what if I Changed and couldn’t get free? Were my wrists bigger than my forelegs? What if I cut off my circulation, the ropes digging through fur and skin?

Stop thinking and Change. If the rope is too tight, you can gnaw through it.

I concentrated, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get started. I was battered, bruised and exhausted. I desperately needed to Change, and that very pressure made it impossible to relax enough to launch the process.

I tried retreating into a mental sanctuary and thought I’d managed it when the distant crack of a branch sent me flailing, too aware that there were things out there, winter-hungry things, and I was defenseless and reeking of blood.

But as hard as I strained to look and listen, I could detect nothing. I settled into my inner place again. Then the tree vibrated against my back and my eyes flew open.

The tree shuddered again. I’m sure the ground did, too—I just couldn’t feel it through my numb feet.

Something was walking through the forest. Something big.

As I gulped air, I remembered Tesler’s words:
it’s curious, always sniffing around
. I already knew that—whatever was in these woods, it
was
curious and it
was
dangerous, and if it found another predator—one that had attacked it before—staked to a tree and helpless…

When I inhaled, I caught the faintest stink of wild animal. Then a huge form reared up in the distance. Its massive head swayed. A wet snuffling cut through the silence as it sampled the air before dropping to all fours with a shudder even my frozen feet could feel.

The beast disappeared behind a barrier of bushes. The vibrations began again as it continued forward, slow and steady.

Change, damn it! Change!

But there wasn’t time for that. If the beast came upon me mid-Change, I’d be even more defenseless than I was now.

Well,
do something then. Just
—

The creature reared, so close now I could see the brown fur, the rounded ears, the tiny eyes and the snub snout.

I was staring into the face of a bear. An ordinary, hibernation-groggy bear.

The first whoosh of relief didn’t even make it past my lips before my brain screeched into reverse.

Just a bear? Just an eight-foot-tall, thousand-pound bear?

The bear snuffled, its piggy eyes straining to see me better. It dropped back to all fours with another earth-shuddering
whoomph
. Then it lumbered toward me, its massive bulk swaying.

“Go!” I yelled. “Shoo! Scat!”

Scat?

I whistled, and that got its attention. It reared up and grunted, breath streaming into the cold night air. Even from twenty feet away, the stink was enough to make my stomach flip-flop.

“Go! Scram! Shoo!”

I yelled and whistled, but it only peered at me through half-lidded eyes, part drowsy curiosity, part disdain, as if amused by this puny thing making so much racket. I’d always heard that if confronted by a bear, you should make as much noise as possible. It worked just fine on the little black bears I’d encountered in northern Ontario. But I was sure this guy was laughing at me. He sure as hell wasn’t turning tail and running.

The bear lumbered forward, rocking like a boat on rough water, its nose working furiously. Every few steps it would pause, head tilted, as if trying to figure out the mystery of my scent.

When I growled, it grunted in surprise. I snarled and bared my teeth. That gave it pause, but only for a moment, before it kept coming until it was close enough to warm my face with its rank breath. Then it reared up, all eight feet of it, towering over me, and if my knees weren’t frozen solid, I’m sure they would have given way.

The bear stared nearsightedly at me, its head swaying as if a better angle would tell it what I was. Its face lowered to mine, the smell of its breath making me breathe through my mouth.

I was trying to meet its gaze when a sledgehammer blow to my shoulder sent me sailing off my feet. I hit the end of the rope, arms jerking hard, feet tangling, trying to find purchase. Another blow knocked me off them again. I fell to my knees, bound arms raised, joints screaming.

The bear reared up, its roar thundering through my head. It raised a paw to hit me again and I tried to scramble out of the way, but there was no place to go, and it hit me in the side, claws raking through my shirt.

As I fell, arms jerking over my head again, my scalp started to prickle. A patch of skin between my shoulders itched. I looked up at my bound hands to see hair sprouting.

Oh, no. Oh, God, no. Not now.

But there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was in mortal danger and my body was determined to meet the threat with its best defense.

The bear kept batting me, testing my reaction, realizing I was weak, and it was very, very hungry.