Pride Unleashed (a Wolf's Pride novel, book 2) (3 page)

“Well, well,” he says, as he swirls a metal collar around his
index
finger
.
I
t doesn’t go unnoticed by me that he’s using the
thick, steel plated
driver’s side door to shield his body.
That action speaks volumes
and reminds me that while I’m the one they keep caged, he’s the one who’s truly afraid
.
“
Would you lo
ok
at
what the cat dragged
in?
”

H
e exposes
ugly stained
teeth
as
h
is
spiteful
glance goes from me, to Logan, back to me again
.
I hold his gaze
unflinchingly
,
fully aware of the two guns pointed at my head
.
I
dart a quick
look
at
the
guards who are
wielding those
weapons
, evil men who’d love to
pump me full of silver
should I make one wrong move
.

As I
take a moment to
size them up
m
y wolf stirs,
but
I
calm her, warning
her
now is not the time
to attack
.
She’ll have her chance soon enough
, I remind her
.

Soon enough…

Lawrence clicks his tongue and makes a tsking sound
as
his
focus
settles
on our
bedraggled states.
Logan’s eyes inch up, but I shove
my
gun into his temple to stop him
before he can challenge the handler
.
His head jerks and he growls deep and I can’t quite tell whether he’s simply playing
along
or if we
’
re in
real
danger of him
shifting
and attacking
.

As a protective
wolf
,
and a boy who never goes down without a fight,
I understand it’s hard for
Logan
to let someone
mistreat
his mate
, but the last thing I want
him
to do is
defy
the handler.
It’s
much
too soon for that.

“Nice and easy, kitty cat,”
Lawrence
says
and I
hear
the slight
vibration
in his voice when he
crook
s
his finger.
“Drop the gun and kick it my way.”

I lower my weapon and
let it fall to the pavement.
I
t clangs on the ground
, the sound puncturing the silence of the night
.
Using the inside of my foot I kick it
toward him, giving a little more force than necessary
.
Despite having just
warned Logan to behave
, wh
en it comes
to
provoking
Lawrence
,
I can’t seem
to
help myself.
Perhaps it’s because of the hateful nickname
s
he calls me, or perhaps it’s because he
takes such pleasure in
bull
y
ing
the
elders—older wolves who’ve been beaten and broken
.
Either way,
antagonizing
him
is worth the wounds that come with disobedience.

The pistol
skids past him, and I can
feel the strain of Logan’s eyes on me
,
a silent
warning
.
But, just l
ike old times, t
hat little stunt earns me a scowl
from the handler
and
the familiarity of it
all
helps me
regain my focus and concentrate on
my
next move in this deadly game
of cat and mouse
.

T
he
b
odyguards
watch the tense exchange
between handler and wolf,
and
their heads bob back and forth like they’re wai
ting for some sort of signal
.
Lawrence nods toward the gun
and grits his teeth
.

“Get it,” he
orders
the
man
directly
behind him,
and when
the
burly
guard
bends
to retrieve the weapon,
Lawrence
hurls
the collar at me
, much harder than necessary.

I know he’s hoping to catch me off guard, but when I snatch it out of the air with practiced ease, h
is
beady
eyes narrow and his lips tighten
in annoyance
.

Glaring at me, h
e j
uts his c
hin toward Logan.
“Leash him up,
pet
,
”
he says
evenly
,
not wanting me to know
how much
I’ve rattled him,
but his words belie his emotions.
I can
smell
his anger
:
hot, gurgling rage
bubbling to the surface like a cauldron
brimming with
decomposing flesh
.

The primal side of me
howls
at the putrid scent
and my skin itches
in response
,
my thin flesh
burn
ing
like a thousand angry bee stings as
my wolf
cries to break free
and go for
Lawrence’s
throat
.
 

Working diligently to f
ight off the change
in the face of my enemy
,
I turn to Logan
.
My
fingers brush along his neck
as I snap the collar around his throat
.
When his g
aze
flickers to mine t
here is nothing I can do to
ignore the
si
ck
feeling mushrooming in the pit of my
gut
.

This boy has
come to mean
so much to me—e
verything to
me
—a
nd I can’t stomach the thoughts of the abuse he’s
bound
to endure
at the hands of my
brutal
master
.
Our eyes meet and I can
feel
him reaching out to me, wrapping himself around my soul in a gesture meant to soothe,
calm
.
Reassure.
 

“
No.
Run!
”
A
hard, angry v
oice
thunder
s
inside
my head
,
only
I quickly realize
it’s not my voice
frantically yelling at
me
to flee
.

Caught by
surprise
I g
asp
out loud, my stomach
cramp
ing
so
hard
I stagger
forward
.
I clamp my hands over my ears
to block
the
piercing noise
,
completely unprepared for the violent intrusion.

The sound
s
of guns cocking quickly pull me back
and I struggle to compose myself
.
Dy
ing now would simply interfere
with
my mission
.
And I refuse to let that
happen
.
I take a deep f
ortifying
breath, d
esperate
not to blow our plan.

Knowing what I need to do to regain my focus, I
think of my mother,
my father,
the elders, the puppies,
and all the others who were killed
or tortured
by
the master’s hands.
Anger erupts inside me and I use it to smother the confusion rattling my brain.

Unaware of the voice in my head, Lawrence challenges,
“Are we going to do this the hard way or the easy way?”

As Lawrence’s question hovers like a loaded bullet,
the voice
barks
again
, although this time it’s louder and
much
more insistent
.
“
Run, Pride!
It’s not safe for you here.
”

Violent
, chaotic
images flash through my mind and
I swallow the
saliva coating my tongue
, suddenly uncertain as alarm bells jangle, urging me to heed the warning.

“
Stone, don’t
!” I bark back.
“
I
t’s okay
,”
I hurry to explain.
“It’s not what you think.
I
’ve come with
a plan.
”

Feeling disoriented, I widen my stance and from my peripheral vision
I
catch the way Logan is watching me
, his blue eyes darkening
in distress
as they lock on mine
.
That’s when i
t occurs to me
that he knows
.

He knows Stone is in my head
.
C
onnecting with me in a way
my own mate
can’t.

I shake the buzz from my
brain
to clear it and that’s when I
realize what this
all
means.
Stone is alive!
He hadn’t been
killed by the master because I ran away and he failed to bring me back.
I’d spent the last three weeks agonizing over
his
safety,
knowing I
couldn’t bear
it if
anything happen
ed
to him
because of me
.
I
exhale a
relieved breath and inside my
wolf wail
s
with joy
at that small, unexpected surprise
.
Not only am I
ecstatic to learn that
Stone is alive
, we can use all the help we can get to pull off our risky plan.

As I focus in on Logan
and take in the dark
, troubled
shadows beneath his eyes
I can’t help but feel an odd sense of betrayal
for allowing another alpha into my thoughts
.
But it’s not my fault that Stone and I defy nature and can
mentally communicate
when in human form.
I realize it’s
not something
the others
wolves
can do, and
I
can’t explain why
the two of us are an exception
to the rule
.
All I know is
that
we are.

“Well,”
Lawrence
probes
as he tosses me another leash
, the air
b
etween us crackling
with volatile electricity
as he waits for my answer
.
“Is it the hard way or the easy way, kitten?” he asks again.

With no choice but to b
lock Stone from my
thoughts
so I can
fully
concentrate on
this current crisis
,
I catch
the collar
with a hand that bears
deep purple
scars
—whip wounds received
from doing
thing
s
the hard way
.
B
ut
lessons learned have taught me
when to push and when to back off.