Pride Unleashed (a Wolf's Pride novel, book 2) (4 page)

Without averting my gaze
in a show of submission
like I’m supposed to
,
I
continue to glare at Lawrence
.
After all, the handler wouldn’t expect anything less from me.
The cold metal collar sends chills scurrying down my spine as
I
secure
the restraint
around my neck
and snap it in place
,
my compliance
answering his question.

When metal grinds metal, the lock
sliding home
,
Lawrence visibly relaxes because he knows once I’m leashed, shifting is impossible
.
N
ot unless I
want to put breaking my neck at the top of my to-do list.
And r
ight now those
top
spots are reserved for a select few.

Lawrence steps
away from the vehicle
and I can’t help but bare my teeth as he hooks a
heavy
chain
to my collar and gives it a good hard tug.
I jerk forward,
my neck nearly snapping like a
dry
twig,
and
I
can feel Logan’s tension
spreading like an unleashed virus.

Before it infects Lawrence and causes him to react,
I want to tell
Logan
to
back down
.
We can’t break cover, or
let the handlers or
anyone else
in the compound
know what we mean to each other.
In this prison our feelings for
one an
other w
ill
simply be used against us.

I slant my head to see
my mate
but no matter how hard I try I still can’t speak
to him
telepathically
when in hum
an form.
Using my eyes, I telegraph a message, a
nd
h
e correctly interprets
the meaning.
When he lowers his head in
submission
, I
turn back to Lawrence
and
see
the suspicion darkening his eyes.

“Should we get this over with?” I ask
in an effort to take his focus off Logan
.

There is a dangerous edge to Lawrence’s voice, one I’ve never heard before when he
focuses back in on me and
says, “Over with?
Oh no
,
Pride, this is far from over.”
The
malicious
look on his face tells me he knows something I don’t and ribbons of fear trickle along
the back of my
neck
when he adds, “For you
,
kitty cat, this is just the beginning.”

I fight to steady the pulse thrumming in my throat as
La
w
rence punches a code into the number pad
behind us.
W
hen t
he
metal
gate
clangs
shut
,
the loud sound
resonates
in my ears
and
I can’t help but feel a certain amount of unease
.

As the security system engages, the
fence
emits a low frequency hum, a
warning that
the power has been
restored
.
And of course we all
know what that means.
Any
attempt to
sca
l
e the
barrier
will result in death
.
A familiar shudder moves through me
when
I
steal a quick
look
at the
key
pad
and
strategize
the best way to short
-
circuit
the wires
should our plan veer off course.
 

Once Lawrence has us both
chain
ed
and under his control
, he gives us a g
ood hard tug
to
set us into motion
.
Purposely
keep
ing
two
measured
steps ahead of us
,
h
e
ushers
us up the long twisting driveway
and I suddenly feel like cattle being led to
the
slaughter
house
.

Understanding the
magnitude
of
our actions,
and
that we’re about to walk into the lion’s den,
I
gulp down
my
discomfort
and
deliberately
keep my focus off Logan
, unable to let my emotions get the best of me
.
Instead,
I
draw on my
rage
and
glare at Lawrence
as he
hurries
forward.
While
there is an air of
bravado
about
the handler
, I know he’s afraid.
But he isn’t just afraid of me and what I can do to him.

He’s also afraid of the master.

In the master’s house
, the handlers and staff
have a
bout as much
freedom as the wolves
do
.
The master’s
employees
are
made up of i
llegal
immigrants
, ones
who either follow the master’s command or risk deportation.
I wonder briefly if
Lawrence
would
take his freedom if offered.
That thought
raises another one.
Many of the wolves have been broken
, so who in the compound is
truly
my all
y
?

Who can I trust?

Behind us the vehicle is left abandoned, the
steroid-induced
guards
tight on our heels
.
They’re both
breathing heavy
and
my wolf
can’t help but
take pleasure in the sound of their
hearts
pumping hard,
can’t help but bask in
the
delicious
scent of
their warm blood
as it
rush
es
through their veins at breakneck speed
.
It
makes her hungry
, feral, and
edgy and since it
helps
keep her o
n
the
top of her game
I let her
inhale
the enticing aroma
s
, let her pull them
deep into her lungs
so she can
savor
them
later
—when she
just might have to fee
d of
f
them for
basic
animal
survival
.

As our footfalls
slice
the quiet, I
scan my surroundings and
sort through the different smells clogging the air,
all the while looking for signs of danger.
For the millionth time since awakening,
I
carefully run through our
dangerous
plan
and calculate the
risks
, the
threats I accounted for and the ones I have
no control over
.

When we reach the front door, Lawrence
punches
in
another code
.
After the lock
inches
open, he turns the knob
, uses his shoulder to
shove
the door open
and hauls us inside.
T
he second I enter the grand entranceway
I
widen my eyes
and
commit the foyer to memory
.
I
nstincts dictate
that
I
look for any type of change, anything that could hinder my escape plan.

That’s when
I take note of the
new security system.
The one Stone warned me about
when
he met up with me in the
n
ational
p
ark.

Surprised
at finding
the little white box s
o easily
,
m
y pulse leaps
,
but
I draw a calming breath to
slow the
blood
sprinting through
my veins
.
The last thing I want to do is show a
ny sort of
reaction and raise suspicion.
But it does make me wonder why the master never
bothered to
conceal
the
monitor
.
Perhaps he has n
o fear
s
that
his wolves
can break the code
and escape
.
Then I remember what Stone told me.
T
h
e security system
wasn’t
installed to keep us in, b
ut
rather,
to keep something or some
one
out.

Who
or what
could the master possibly be afraid
of?

As I consider that longer, I wonder
how
Logan play
s
in
to
all of this.
The master was, after all, desperate to capture
the rogue wolf
alive
.
So desperate
, in fact,
that he risked sending
out
his best tracker
when
there was a high possibility
that
I’d run
.
Was the master worried that Logan could lead a team of wolves back
if he made it to his pack
in the Canadian mountains
?

O
r
was
he worried about something else entirely
?

The
hairs along my arm prickle
and
I turn back to
face
Lawrence
,
fully
expecting
him
to lead
both Logan and
me into the
e
ast wing, to the
master’s office at the far end of the mansion
.
B
ut when he
separates us, handing Logan off to one of the guards
,
I try to appear unaffected
by th
is surprise
parting.

I watch
Logan go
,
catching one last glimpse of him before he disappears from my line of vision
.
Once he’s gone,
I
push down my anxiety and
work to convince myself that
this wolf—
this
teenage
boy
who’s come to mean so much to me
—c
an
handle whatever punishment the master is about to inflict upon him
. B
ecause the alternative is much
too difficult for me to consider
.

Lawrence herds me
past the small security office just inside the main entrance.
I peruse the guard manning his station, then switch my focus to the
vast
array of
monitors
in time to catch fleeting images
just beyond
the perimeter.
I narrow my focus, and my gut recoils when I realize s
omething is
out there
.