Kate Allenton (4 page)

remaining effects of whatever they’d injected her with. She stepped up behind him, lifted the gun to
his head, and guided him into the room using him as shield.

    
“Well played, Ms. Fleming. But I’m afraid they’ll still attack.”

    
She leaned in and whispered, “I’m counting
on it.”

    
And she was counting on it. She’d need
whatever
strength she could pull from these assholes to
get Jonah and herself out of this predicament.

    
“Ethan sent us.” Edward’s words were whispered back.

    
No…not likely. He had to be telling her that
just to
throw her off. He couldn’t possibly be
serious. What would Ethan be doing with people
like
this? People who thought it was okay to

subdue her with freakin’ tranquilizer darts. He just wouldn’t. Would he?

    
“I don’t believe you.”

    
Cathy shoved the barrel of the gun deeper into Edward’s temple and moved inside the room.
The room was identical to the one she’d been held
in.
Jonah lay on a couch identical to the one
she’d woken up on. He had an IV trailing out of
his arm
to a plastic bag with clear liquid.

    
A growl reverberated through the room. She
turned,
unable to move Edward so that he
blocked her from the growl. She had only a second
to
register what she was seeing. A second to
realize that a damn wolf was
in the room with them. “Nice Cujo…”

    
“He’s not a dog, Ms. Fleming.”

    
Another growl sounded from the other side of her. She had barely started to turn her head
when she felt the air shift on her right. She saw the black wolf with his sharp incisors bared, his
body crouched, ready to pounce…and then he did. He lunged right toward her.

    
Cathy ducked, raised the syringe and plunged it into the side of the wolf’s body. His out-
stretched claws sliced a hole in her coat that went through to her skin. The burn was worse than just
a scratch. The claws had sliced her open. She didn’t even need to look to know that she was

bleeding. She winced at the searing pain as the wolf whined and fell to the floor. She moved in front
of Jonah to keep everyone else at the other end of the barrel.

    
“Enough!” Edward’s voice boomed throughout the room.

    
The other wolf in the room lowered his head and bared his throat. “I told you she’s not to be
harmed, and I can smell her blood from here.”

    
Surprise bloomed through Cathy, but she refused to show her relief. His demands she not be
harmed had already resulted in her being shot up with tranquilizers and now she had an arm wound
sending searing pain through her body. He wasn’t very good at keeping his pack under control. “I’ve

been drugged, kidnapped, and now cut open. If what you said was true, you’re failing miserably at
keeping me safe, Ed.”

    
Edward gave one last glare at the pup on the floor before turning to Cathy. “My apologies, Ms.
Fleming. No one here will cause you any more
harm.”

    
A bubble of nervous laughter escaped
her lips. “Yeah,
right, and I should believe you, why?”

“Leave us!” he shouted to the others in the
room
without breaking eye contact with Cathy.

    
There were sounds of movement, and then
the door
closed with a click. Alone. Well, not
technically alone since Jonah was passed out on
a couch.
Cathy still wouldn’t lower her gun. She
gripped it tighter. It was the last defense she had
to fight
off another wolf attack, well, the gun and
the last tranquilizer in her pocket.

    
Edward let out a sigh. “Cathy, I’m on your
side.
Ethan Jacobs and I grew up together. It was his
request that I bring you here.”

    
That can’t be right. Why would Ethan care
one way
or the other? “Now I know you’re lying.
Ethan Jacobs didn’t even have the decency to tell
me
good-bye, and you expect me to believe he
wanted me here? Why?”

    
“To keep you off Black’s radar.”

    
“Why?”

    
“To keep you safe.”

    
“I was safe in North Carolina, near the compound…until you showed up.”

    
Edward gave a slight nod. “Not for long. As easy as it was for me to get to you and bring you
here, you wouldn’t have even seen Black coming. And my sources tell me that he was already on the
way.”

    
“Touché.” Damn Ethan, his good looks and his leaving without saying goodbye. If she hadn’t
been consumed with finding him, maybe she would have seen Edward coming. Her radar hadn’t
gone off yet. He was telling the truth. She would know if he wasn’t. “Let’s say for a second I believe
you. Why?”

    
“Why what?”

    
“He wasn’t even decent enough to tell me he was leaving. Why would he care what happens to
me now?”

    
Edward lowered his head and clasped his hands in front of him. He looked as though he was
measuring his answer. Good thing she could sense a liar if need be.

    
“Ethan will need to explain that, when he gets here.”

    
No prickle in senses, no hair raising…. He was telling the truth. As far as Edward was
concerned, he believed that Ethan would be making an appearance. It seemed he was coming to her
and she wouldn’t have to find him after all. She held back her smile. “When are you expecting him?”

    
“Tomorrow morning.” Edward gestured to
the door.
“Until then, let’s get you settled. I
brought your bag that you originally packed,
and it’s in the
other room where you woke up.”

    
Cathy glanced over her shoulder at Jonah before meeting Edward’s gaze. “I’ll be staying in here
with Jonah, and you can tell your goons that if they
harm
one more hair on his head, then they’ll be
pumped full of lead bullets.”

    
Edward grinned and bowed. “Ethan will not
like
this.”

Cathy finally lowered her gun. “I don’t give
a rat’s
ass what Ethan likes. I’ll be staying in this
room.”

    
Edward nodded. “So be it. I’ll personally bring
in
your things and have dinner served.” Edward
pulled out a folded piece of paper and a phone from
his
pocket. He held them up to show her

before laying them on the table. “These are yours,
Ms.
Fleming. You are my guest. You are not a
prisoner here.”

     
Edward walked out and turned around at
the last
minute. “I’ll be sending in Tessa, our doctor,
to tend to your wound. Please
don’t shoot her; she’s a valuable member of my
pack.”

    
Edward pulled the door closed. She breathed her first sigh of relief to be alone with Jonah. The
tension in her body immediately subsided as relief suffused through her.

    
Pack…had he said pack…as in wild animals and wolves and alphas. She’d read books of alphas.
She’d even fantasized about an alpha being interested in her, but if this were any indication of how
they treated outsiders, she didn’t want any part of it. All women everywhere should be warned not
to fantasize about these creeps.

    
Cathy winced, cupping her wound, as she picked up and opened the folded paper. It was the
note that Lydia had handed her.
Trust no one but Edward. He is your only ally.

    
The message was in Lydia’s handwriting, but she wouldn’t put it past Eddie to forge and change
what the note had originally said. Cathy powered on her phone. She had fifteen missed messages.
She scrolled through the list. Messages and calls from Gracie and Tara filled her voicemail; all of
them apologizing and asking that she call them back. Cathy ignored the calls and scrolled through
until she found the number she was looking for.

    
She pressed Send and waited for the other line to be answered.

     
“It’s about time. I was about to send in the cavalry,” Lydia said, foregoing the normal greeting
of hello.

     
“What did your note say?”

     
“Edward is on your side. You can trust him.”

     
“Was that all?”

     
“Don’t trust anyone else. Why, is something
wrong?
I haven’t gotten any more visions changing
the course or the outcome.”

     
Cathy bridged her nose and clenched her eyes closed. “Everything is fine. Well, it will be. Let
the General know that Jonah is here with me.”

     
Lydia’s quick inhale had the hair on Cathy’s
arms
now standing on end.

     
“What?” Cathy questioned.

     
“He wasn’t in my vision. He shouldn’t be there.”

     
Cathy set the gun down on the table and collapsed into the chair. “Well, he is, and there is
nothing I can do about it…not yet.”

     
“Cathy, please be careful. Your quest is more important than you think. You have a life-altering
decision to make, and your answer affects more
than just
you.”

     
Before Cathy could reply,
or even ask what Lydia meant, Lydia
disconnected the phone;
another person who hadn’t said bye. Imagine that.

                                                    
Chapter 3

       
A knock sounded on the door. Cathy raised
the gun
and pointed it in that direction. “Who is
it?”

       
“Tessa. Edward sent me to bandage you up.”

       
Cathy shoved the gun in the back of her pants
and
moved to the door. She opened it. A petite
brunette stood outside. She lifted the medical bag
and
first aid kit so Cathy could see them. Cathy
stepped back and let the woman in, always keeping herself between the woman and Jonah.

       
Tessa set her medical supplies on the dining
room
table and gestured Cathy to sit in one of the
chairs.

       
“Do you know what
you’re doing? You look a little young to be a doctor.”

       
Tessa shrugged. “I was a child prodigy. I graduated early and went straight into med school.”

       
“If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”

       
“Twenty-five.”

       
Tessa eased to her knees and gestured to Cathy’s shirt. “Can you hold it up for me?”

       
Cathy lifted her blood-soaked shirt, exposing the open gash. The tangy smell of copper filled
the air. Tessa clicked her tongue. “Looks like Marcus sliced you good.” Tessa glanced up. “But I
hear you knocked him on his ass.”

       
Cathy shrugged and then immediately regretted it when it pulled on her side. “He attacked me
first.”

       
Tessa rooted around in her bag and pulled out a couple bottles, bandages, and a syringe. Cathy
leaned back. “Oh, I don’t think so.”

       
Tessa rested her hands in her lap. “It’s not a tranquilizer; it’s just a numbing agent to ease the
pain.”

       
Cathy shook her head. “Not happening, lady. I know how fond you guys are of sticking
people.”

    
Tessa raised and lowered her brows before she put the syringe back in the bag. Cathy couldn’t
withhold the hiss when Tessa started doctoring the wounds

    
“I bet Ethan was surprised when he found you, especially the fact that you’re so headstrong. It
serves him right.” Tessa chuckled.

    
Cathy lowered her shirt after the bandage
was applied.
“Excuse me?

    
Tessa paused stuffing the things back in her
bag. She
looked up. “He hasn’t told you?”